The Forbidden Path to Immortality

Chapter 280

By now, the crystal-palace-like waterway had long since ended. They were deeper at the bottom of the lake, where the light was even dimmer. Only a few night-luminescent pearls set into the stone walls on either side gave off a faint, ghostly blue glow.

Li Xun realized that it was far colder here than outside. And the deeper they went, the colder it became. A faint chill seeped through his skin and stabbed to the bone. It was intense.

As if she had picked up on his thoughts, Gu Yin explained casually, “About another hundred zhang down is one of the spring eyes of the North Sea. Down here the water thins out while the cold keeps building. Around the spring itself there’s ten-thousand-year dark ice that never melts. This kind of cold seals the blood and cuts into the marrow. Makes excellent material for refining magical artifacts.”

She came to an abrupt stop.

Li Xun reacted instantly and halted as well, lifting his gaze. Something seemed to be blocking the way ahead.

Once his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he saw it clearly. It was an iron gate, as wide as the passage itself, sealing the corridor completely.

Strange patterns were carved into its surface, clearly some kind of restraining talismans. A heavy, oppressive cold leaked through from behind the gate, so thick it made his throat tighten.

“This is…”

“A prison.”

The two words popped out of Gu Yin’s lips like pellets of ice, ringing sharp with cold. The chill in them made Li Xun tense all over.

He frowned. “Sect Master Gu, you didn’t invite me here to put me in prison, did you?”

“Of course not,” she said. “Didn’t I tell you already? I asked you to come see a new sight beneath Luoyu Lake. When this prison was built, it blocked the spring and ruined one of the views on the lake. But if losing that view gives us this new one, I think it’s worth it.”

Smiling, Gu Yin stepped forward and laid her slender hand against the icy iron door. As her true breath shifted several times, the patterns carved into the metal flickered faintly. With a teeth-grating squeal of metal, the door slid slowly to the side.

A surging wave of cold poured out. It was like a starving beast finally unleashed, roaring as it charged forward, instantly flooding the corridor. The temperature plunged in a heartbeat.

Facing that blast of freezing air head-on, Gu Yin, her serious injuries not yet healed, coughed twice despite herself. She quickly caught her breath, then stepped aside and let Li Xun see the scene beyond the iron door.

"Cold iron chains lock tight, icy hooks snare a jade beauty. How's the view... satisfied yet?"

She got no answer, because Li Xun was already frozen in place.

Beyond the iron door was an ice chamber.

Calling it a chamber was generous. It was really just a space about five feet across carved out of solid black ice. Created for one purpose only: to hold the woman in blue inside.

Even with the luminous pearls outside casting their light inside, Li Xun could not make out her face. She knelt with her head bowed, long hair spilling down to hide her features.

And above each of her shoulders, two pitch-black iron chains, each no thicker than a finger, hung down from the translucent ice wall. At the end of each chain was embedded a jade hook, and the sharp tips of those hooks had pierced straight through the woman's snow-white wrists, pulling her arms up and out to the sides. This forced the woman in pale blue robes to keep her arms raised and spread, forever suspended in that agonizing, dangling torment.

The freezing current howled through the cramped space, setting the fine chains swaying. With each movement, her arms were tugged back and forth, rocking her helplessly in the bitter cold.

The bone-piercing cold had already frozen the jade hooks to the flesh of her wrists. At a glance, it was impossible to tell where pale skin ended and where the jade began.

If not for the faint warmth of breath still drifting from her nose and mouth, Li Xun would've taken her for a frozen corpse. That tiny sign of life slowly brought feeling back to his stiffened body.

Gu Yin’s soft voice murmured at his ear. “This ice chamber was opened sixty-one years ago, and she was moved in then. She has never come out since. But as you can see, she seems to be doing rather well.”

Li Xun said nothing. His eyes remained locked on the woman in blue. Gu Yin glanced at him, at the fist he had clenched without realizing it, trembling, and at his face, turned even paler by the cold. A small smile touched her lips.

“Aren’t you surprised to see her?” she asked. “A senior of your sect who claimed to have entered a life-ending seclusion, yet here she is, chained above the spring of the North Sea, enduring this endless freezing tide. Isn’t that more shocking than the news of Uncle’s death?”

Li Xun’s face drained of color, going just as pale as Gu Yin's. Her low voice still echoed in his ears. “So it’s true... I don’t know how you figured out the scheme behind all this, but now that we’ve come this far, every cover has finally been torn away. Do you hate us?”

“...No.”

Even Li Xun himself did not know what that “no” truly meant. After the word slipped from his lips, he had to steady his breathing for a moment before he could go on. When he did speak again, it was sparing, almost a mutter. “How did it ever come to this?”

Even Li Xun didn’t quite understand what that “No” meant. After saying it, he paused to catch his breath before he could go on. “How did it come to this?” he murmured so quietly that his words barely carried.

Gu Yin's exquisite eyes flicked back and forth between the two faces before she smiled. "You don't get it? Uncle's already in that state, and this woman who's dead set on becoming my aunt isn't going to let it go easily. The only option was to lock her up in here and let the freezing cold clear her head a bit."

She paused for a moment, then added in a subtle, probing tone: “What is it. Do you feel sorry for her?”

“No. I mean… Perfect.”

Li Xun’s voice sharpened, stretching into a strange, drawn-out note.. It was as if he were forcing the emphasis. Or as if some madness had taken hold. His head and neck jerked around unconsciously, but his eyes... those never wavered once. From start to finish, they were glued to the woman in pale blue robes, impossible to tear away.

“This method... it's fucking genius... How the hell did I never think of it?”

Those few words were torn apart almost instantly by the howling cold, shattered before they could even become sound. It was as if that single sentence had drained every last bit of strength from him. When any breath finally forced its way out of his lungs again, it could only scrape against his vocal cords, coming out as a rough, rasping wheeze.

Gu Yin stepped closer, wanting to check on him. But Li Xun swung an arm back and blocked her, then turned half his face to the side.

With just a sidelong glance from the corner of his eye, Gu Yin felt her breath catch. She recovered quickly, though, and let out a soft sigh. “This is exactly what I was afraid of. Feelings are the most irrational thing in the world. If this is the case, can we even keep talking?”

“Talk? Why the hell wouldn't we talk?” The muscles in Li Xun’s cheek twitched slightly, but his voice was surprisingly steady. “I remember very clearly what you just said. Persuasion, negotiation, compensation. Is that right?”

Gu Yin froze for a moment, then understanding dawned on her. “If it’s only for this person, compensation doesn’t really come into it. Just as you think, just as you wish. As for anything else, we can discuss it later.”

Li Xun let out a short laugh, almost a snort, though his voice was hoarse. He glanced at Gu Yin once more, drew in a deep breath, and stepped into the ice chamber. The small space, barely five feet across, immediately felt cramped. Without looking back, he said quietly, “Close the door.”

Behind him, Gu Yin frowned, but did as he asked, gently pressing the iron door so it began to swing shut.

When it was halfway closed, she stopped it again. “Even now,” she said leisurely. “I still want to remind you of one thing. Don’t forget what you’ve relied on to survive all these years.”

Li Xun did not respond at all. Gu Yin paused, then suddenly chuckled under her breath and nodded. With a creak, the iron door closed completely.

The room fell into darkness.

But beyond the ice wall, a layer of pale blue light shimmered, gradually filling the entire ice chamber.

With a single step, Li Xun came to stand in front of the woman in blue. She did not react.

Li Xun lowered his gaze. His fingers gently brushed over the woman’s unusually silken hair. Through it, he could feel the faint yet steady pulse of life flowing from within her.

So he smiled.

He gently gathered the strands, brushing aside the veil of hair on one side and tucking it behind her slender shoulder.

Blue light poured joyfully through the newly opened gap, then spread across the chamber. Li Xun squinted, then slowly lowered himself to one knee, positioning his gaze straight through the half-drawn silk curtain, greedily absorbing the aura radiating from her delicate, beautiful face.

He hesitated for just a moment. In the end, he leaned forward anyway, carefully resting his forehead against hers.

The half curtain of dark hair brushed against both their skin, swaying between them.

A cool, pristine sensation seeped through his skull, sinking deep into his brain.

It only made him feel as if his head were flooded with boiling magma. And that heat then flowed outward, carried straight into her.

At last, she seemed to feel the pressure from outside. Her long lashes fluttered twice, then slowly lifted. In that instant, the hazy, flickering starlight in her eyes lit up the entire stone chamber.

The corner of Li Xun’s mouth curved up. In a hoarse whisper, he called out, “Qing Yin. Qing Yin.”

Their eyes met at a distance so close it couldn't get any closer. All either of them could see was the blur of emotion reflected in the other’s gaze. What it truly meant, neither could say.

But in moments like this, words spoken aloud were far more direct.

A long-unheard voice brushed past Li Xun’s ear, faint, weak, brief, and unmistakably clear.

“Get lost.”

The single word landed, and the room fell utterly silent.

Li Xun’s eyes widened. After a long pause, a laugh finally scraped out of his throat. “So,” he said, “was that the first honest thing you’ve ever said to me?”