Chapter 724: Xuesang Tribe

The biting wind and snow sweep between heaven and earth, leaving a trail of footprints in the snow where three people tread.

The elderly man walks at the front, leaning on his cane and moving slowly. He is long accustomed to traveling through snowy landscapes, and while he shouldn’t be moving this slow, it seems he does so to allow the frail young man behind him to keep up.

Yet the young man appears not so young. Snow has accumulated on his hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows, giving him the semblance of an aged man with white streaks throughout. Coupled with his trembling posture and the peculiar object resting on his nose to shield his eyes, the young man inscrutably evokes a sense of weariness.

The girl seems much more lively, leading the snow deer she acquired with a brisk pace, sometimes quick, sometimes slow, orbiting around the young man before she can’t contain her curiosity and asks:

“Great Master, where do you come from?”

Her tone carries a slightly strong accent, typical of Beiao Continent natives.

You Su silently muses, grateful that the Five Immortal Ancestors unified script and language, or else being swept here might have left him unable to comprehend the speech of Beiao Continent’s people.

“I come from the mountains,” You Su responds.

His voice is hoarse and deep, akin to a ghost’s.

Indeed, he hails from Lotus Peak, but to the girl, You Su seemed to refer to the sprawling snowy mountains they just encountered.

He has trudged through the snow for over three days now, his Fire-Burning Talisman long depleted, with water gone faster than food, leaving him to swallow ice and snow, his limbs numbed nearly beyond feeling. If not for his robust flesh, You Su felt his heart might have frozen solid long ago.

The climb up the snow mountain came when, at last, he discerned other colors against the whiteness—a blood-red malevolent creature atop the peak, resembling a resplendent mandala flower.

He approached slowly; You Su couldn’t recall its name, but discerned it belonged to the Dream Master clan of spirits, ironically the least feared type for him.

Dream-eating Ghosts, hidden lands… These experiences granted You Su spiritual strength far beyond the norm, easing the task ahead. Such spirits emphasize mental corruption, their physical forms weak. Once he disrupted its deceit, it attempted to trigger an avalanche to escape, yet fell to You Su’s sword, split in two.

Perhaps the spirit wondered till death why it suffered human retribution despite hiding long in the deserted Extreme North Snowfield?

Pitiful it was, unaware that You Su had merely stumbled by, seeking to revive his numbed will over these three days.

“From the mountains, are you a god?” the girl asks, admiration in her voice.

She was to be a sacrifice to the ‘Great God’, yet a new deity saved her. Looking upon this new deity… it seemed he didn’t intend to devour her?

“I am human,” You Su replies, succinctly but powerfully.

“How can humans kill gods?” The snow deer expresses disbelief.

This time, You Su doesn’t answer the girl’s query immediately, falling into reverie as if lost in boundless memories:

“It isn’t a god, merely a spirit capable of heart deception.”

You Su doesn’t directly answer the girl’s question, yet seems to have done so nonetheless.

The so-called Evil Gods are merely stronger spirits. Alas, such thoughts aren’t held by many in this world.

The girl, of course, doesn’t decipher the mystery in You Su’s words, nor shows fear towards the amazing and strange things:

“Aren’t spirits gods?”

Her tone exudes complete certainty, as though familiarity with the word ‘spirit’.

You Su is bewildered by her words, glancing at the girl wrapped in heavy clothes. Just as she’s watching him, her large eyes blink, embodying innocence like snow.

“Spirits aren’t gods, they are…”

“Little deer, stop bothering Immortal Master,”

The silent elderly man finally speaks, interrupting You Su’s unfinished sentence.

The little deer obediently nods, no longer daring to look at You Su, just quietly murmuring with admiration: “Truly an immortal, then…”

Perhaps, in the eyes of this northern mortal girl, immortals and gods bear no difference at all.

You Su absorbs their behavior, saying nothing, merely following along.

Neither of them carry evil auras, nor seem bewitched by demons, yet despite acknowledging the spirits, they worship them as gods. They are mortals accustomed to spirits’ existence.

Such lifestyle baffles You Su, who has traveled Zhongyuan Continent to purge many spirits, and witnessed all who shun spirits like venomous creatures—an innate human fear.

You Su feels peculiar, suddenly recalling a question while submerged in the loss of past happiness—

On the shore where he landed, it lacked Divine Radiance Stone coverage.

This is an immense issue concerning the Five Continents’ survival!

Since the stone’s discovery a thousand years ago, the stones have continuously fortified coastal defenses against demons on behalf of the Five Divine Mountains. Countless adventured into deep seas to mine the rare stones, their sacrifices securing the continents’ invincibility and millennia of peace.

These stones should be along the Five Continents’ coasts, yet here lay a critical failure!

Judging by these people’s nonchalance towards spirits, there’s surely more than just one around. These spirits aren’t ancient demons from millennia underground but newborns sneaking ashore via the breached coast. Were they Chuyun City monsters, You Su could never have dispatched them so easily.