After clearing the level, the fairies were reborn!

"Teacher?" the little girl repeated softly, inexplicably letting out a sigh of relief.

Mu Qinghe didn't know why she cared about this.

She just felt a sudden tightness in her heart when she saw Xu Ze and the woman make eye contact, as if something was gripping her.

Thank goodness.

Just teachers and students...?

But the next second, her heart jumped again.

Xu Ze took out an exquisite jade box from his storage bag, which he had bought at an auction in Donghua City.

Inside the box was a complete set of jewelry: a crystal-clear jade ring, a necklace inlaid with an ice-blue gemstone, and a jade hairpin carved with snowflake patterns.

The set is named 'Frosty Jade Heart'.

These cost Xu Ze a full ten thousand spirit stones, which he bought after fierce competition with Song Yubai and Fairy Qing Shuang.

Mu Qinghe remembered it clearly.

“I remember that the teacher really liked jewelry, and it was also an ice-attribute sword intent, so I thought... this would suit you very well.”

Xu Ze handed over the jade box.

All three pieces of jewelry exuded a faint chill, but the chill was not biting; instead, it had a warm and gentle feel to it.

Ding Wan looked at the jewelry in the jade box and was slightly taken aback.

She subconsciously touched her hair, where the priceless jade hairpin was still pinned.

This was a gift from Xu Ze to himself when he was at the nameless peak.

At the time, she refused to let Xu Ze put it on her.

"...Thank you for your thoughtfulness."

She reached out her slender hand, picked up the cold jade ring, and put it on the ring finger of her left hand.

The ring fit perfectly. After putting it on, a cool sensation flowed down her arm and into her heart, instantly dispelling most of the irritability she had been experiencing due to family affairs.

For some reason, a sense of sorrow rose in Ding Wan's heart once again.

Having used his cultivation to come here, he will probably have no reason to leave the family again.

Even if one reaches the peak of the Nascent Soul stage and perfects one's sword intent, can one still not sever this cause and effect?

I'm so unwilling to accept this.

"Teacher, is something on your mind?"

Xu Ze saw the hesitation and struggle on the woman's beautiful face, and he couldn't help but ask.

Ding Wan snapped out of her daze and looked at the young man in front of her again.

If I tell this kid, he'll definitely drag me away, right?

It sounds a bit like eloping...

Ding Wan was amused by her own thought.

But she also became serious.

No.

I will not run away.

If I were to run away, I would not be Ding Wan.

Right and wrong, cause and effect, I will cut them all down with my sword.

"It's alright."

Ding Wan composed herself, and a lazy smile returned to her lips: "We've been apart for a long time, so let's not talk about those unpleasant things."

She reached out and grasped the Azure Cloud Sword.

With the sword in hand, her aura surged once more, as if a peerless sword, sealed away for many years, had finally been unsheathed.

She turned her head and looked at the ten fully awakened Corpse Kings in the distance, who were walking towards her.

Each of those corpse kings towered into the clouds, their bodies shrouded in a deathly aura that solidified into a tangible black mist. With each step they took, the icy plain trembled.

Ten Void Refinement Realm experts, placed anywhere, would be a terrifying force capable of destroying an entire sect or nation.

However, Ding Wan's exquisite face remained completely unmoved.

Her gaze was eerily calm, as if she were looking at a bunch of chickens and dogs.

"Let me help you get rid of this horde of zombies first, then we can catch up properly."

As soon as she finished speaking, Ding Wan moved.

There was no earth-shattering burst of energy, no world-destroying fluctuations of spiritual power.

She simply raised the Azure Cloud Sword, its tip pointing towards the heavens.

Then, he whispered four words:

"The sword cleaves through the clouds."

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Space seemed to freeze at that moment.

Ding Wan's figure disappeared from the spot.

It's not teleportation, it's not a stealth technique.

Rather, it is a more mysterious and difficult-to-understand method.

She merged into the wind, dissolved into the light, and became an invisible "force" between heaven and earth.

The next instant, she appeared in the very center of the ten Void Refinement Corpse Kings.

The Azure Cloud Sword was drawn.

The sword's edge sliced ​​through the air, tracing a perfect arc.

Where the arc passed, a fine black crack appeared in the space, which spread rapidly, like ink spreading on rice paper.

The ten Void Refinement Corpse Kings froze simultaneously.

Their movements froze at the moment of waving their arms or roaring, and the eerie green soul fire flickered wildly in their eye sockets, as the remaining souls let out their final lament.

"laugh--"

A sound so faint it's almost inaudible.

Ten Void Refinement Corpse Kings, each ten feet tall, appeared with a straight streak of light starting from the very center.

A streak of light ran from top to bottom, traversing the body.

There was no explosion, no roar, only silent annihilation.

Like a painting being erased by an eraser, like a sand sculpture being scattered by ocean waves.

Ten Void Refinement Corpse Kings vanished into thin air under Ding Wan's sword strike.

Not a single crumb was left.

It was as if they had never existed.

Sheath the sword.

Ding Wan reappeared beside Xu Ze, and the Qingyun Sword was returned to its sheath.

She didn't even pant, as if she had just casually brushed a fallen leaf off her shoulder.

The entire process, from drawing the sword to sheathing it, took less than a single breath.

"A corpse is just a corpse; it's nothing compared to a real cultivator."

The frost-like sword intent caused the surrounding temperature to drop several degrees, but Ding Wan still seemed somewhat unsatisfied.

However, remembering that Xu Ze was still by her side, she waved her hand again to dispel the cold sword intent and the gloom on her face, and smiled again.

"Did you see the sixth move of this sword technique clearly?"

……

In the distance, dozens of miles away, is the viewing area.

Dead silence.

The silence was even more complete than when Xu Ze had slain four Nascent Soul cultivators with a single sword strike.

All the monks stood there like statues, frozen in place.

Their eyes were wide open to the limit, their mouths agape, yet they couldn't utter a sound.

After an unknown amount of time, Song Tianqing was the first to react.

His voice trembled with extreme terror, becoming shrill as if someone were strangling him:

"Isn't that the female sword immortal from the Ding family?!"

"Ding Zhaoxue?" The old man's face turned ashen. He stared intently at Ding Wan's figure, his lips trembling. "She still has ties with this boy?!"

"No, no, no, more importantly, what exactly is her strength now!?"

One sword strike slays ten Void Refinement Corpse Kings?!

Does that mean that this woman, at only thirty years old, is already capable of reaching the pinnacle of Beiju Luzhou?

"We're both at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, so why is there such a huge gap between her and us?!"

Ice Soul Master looked completely bewildered and muttered to himself.

at the same time.

In Xu Ze's mind.

The system notification sounded—

[Congratulations, host! The first stage of the dungeon, Beiju Luzhou, has been completed.]

[Reward: 1000 points! +1 chance to inherit cultivation level, +1 anchor point.]