Above the Glacier.

After searching the glacier for over a month without finding a single Stone Giant, Nie Xiu’s brow was creased in permanent frustration. He flew low on his sword, weaving between glaciers.

“No wonder no one wants to come here. Besides the harsh climate and scarce spiritual materials, these obstructive ice mountains are everywhere.” Nie Xiu complained.

According to his disciple, most Stone Giants disguised themselves as ordinary stone hills, only rising to fight when people approached. This forced Nie Xiu to navigate between mountains constantly. If not for fear of attracting other cultivators’ attention, he would have loved to slice through every ice mountain in the field!

Nie Xiu suppressed his rage and continued forward, cursing: “How can this glacier be so enormous!”

What he didn’t realize was that ahead of his flight path, countless ice mountains rose instantly, creating layer upon layer of obstacles to block his route while leaving slightly lower passages for him to continue. Nie Xiu suspected nothing, circling round and round in this wasteland.

He should have continued this endless circling until the local authority grew bored and granted him an exit route. But NieXiu wasn’t a patient man. He laughed coldly and suddenly drew his sword.

“So be it. Since it’s come to this, I won’t worry about others competing with me. Finding a Stone Giant comes first!” With that, he sent sword energy in all directions.

“RUMBLE!” The sound continued endlessly as ice mountains toppled and snow crashed down like avalanches.

The mirror spirit possessing the landscape watched his rampage impassively, transforming into a bird to land beside its master.

“We can no longer obstruct him.” the golden bird reported.

Echo was currently cutting a path through the spiritually luminous mountain interior and nodded. “Understood. Thank you for your hard work. I’ll go deal with him.”

The golden bird took flight, becoming a phantom that flew into the mountain to continue monitoring the surface intruder.

Having neatly cut the spirit stones, Echo suddenly asked Seraphine: “Don’t you need any of these other spirit stones?”

Seraphine, lounging on Error’s back reading a novel, didn’t even lift her eyebrows. She calmly turned a page. “This is already your cave dwelling. Why should I bother with such effort? Besides, do I look like I’m short on spirit stones?”

Ah, that makes sense.

Echo produced a little working-hard bubble above her head while saying, “It’s your cave dwelling.” She didn’t need cave dwellings—she was just keeping it safe for Seraphine.

Seraphine snorted softly. “How about we call it our secret realm?”

“Perfect!” Echo laughed heartily.

Just then, a spiritual light flew from Seraphine’s sleeve and landed on Echo’s shoulder—a diamond-shaped stone.

“Hurry up and dig. It’s hungry.” Seraphine said lazily.

Echo held the spirit heart in her hand. Her thought bubble showed an expression of “I really can’t do anything about you.” She raised Nine Heavens and thrust the translucent sword into the spirit ore before her, then stepped back.

The spirit heart she held in her palm stood upright.

Nine Heavens emanated a gentle glow that complemented the brilliant luminescence of the surrounding spirit stones. It rang with a clear sword song, then under Echo’s spiritual energy’s control, thrust forward sharply.

The blue-white spirit stone ore instantly became like a massive block of tofu, offering no resistance as the sword passed through its body.

Seraphine closed her novel and asked in surprise: “Why didn’t you use this method from the beginning?”

Echo said gently: “Because Seraphine said you didn’t lack spirit stones.”

Nine Heavens carved a tunnel exactly matching its blade width. The surrounding spirit stones crumbled to powder under its edge as concentrated spiritual energy surged. The spirit heart in Echo’s palm trembled, then suddenly flew forward into the tunnel.

Here it comes!

Watching its retreating figure that never looked back, both Seraphine and Echo simultaneously said: “Stone eat stone—how poetic.”

“Huh?” Echo turned to look at Seraphine, then placed her hand on her stomach and laughed heartily. But now that they’d solved the “spirit heart feeding” problem, it was time to address the flying nuisance above.

Echo clapped her hands and looked up at the sky.

Walking with her hands behind her back, she swayed her head and recited the poem she’d composed called “Upon Seeing Nie Xiu’s Anger”:

“Nine Heavens already seems close at hand,

Golden fragments suddenly arrive underfoot.”

Autumn was nearly over, winter fast approaching. The free-range pig was ready for slaughter, and Nine Heavens should draw near.

Echo smiled and snapped her fingers behind her back.

Nine Heavens, which had been traveling through the spirit ore, suddenly flew upward, piercing through rock to break free of the mountain. It leaped from darkness into the sky, ringing once in the vast heavens before releasing a blade of cold, sharp white light.

Nie Xiu, who had been flying on his sword, suddenly stopped as ice walls rose with thunderous rumbles ahead of him. An ominous feeling crept over him.

In the depths beneath the glacier, Seraphine raised an eyebrow and smiled brilliantly at Echo. Echo cleared her throat and declared:

“This wall was built by me, this path was made by me. If you want to pass through here, leave your golden fragments behind.”

Nie Xiu retreated rapidly, but faster than his retreat was Nine Heavens’ sword energy. Ice wall after ice wall rose, carrying sword intent that made his blood run cold.

“You again!” Nie Xiu raged. “Xi Lingren! Seraphine Velka!”

Echo’s voice came from all directions, seeming to carry the Northern Plain’s wind—cold as the eternally unmelting ice.

“Hello there,” she said. “Will you leave or stay? Please decide quickly.”

Nie Xiu ground his teeth, trembling with fury. “All I wanted was to seek justice from Seraphine that day, and you’ve bullied me to this extent!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Nine Heavens moved in the air, raising another ice wall beside the existing ones. Someone had used the ice walls as paper and Nine Heavens as a brush to crudely carve the words “Jade Cauldron Sect Disciple Nie Xiu’s Thick Face” into the wall.

Enraged, Nie Xiu swung his sword, sending sword energy toward the ice wall. Nine Heavens, hovering nearby, didn’t interfere—it even moved aside helpfully.

However, despite such courtesy, when the sword energy struck the ice wall, it failed to damage even a fraction of the surface. Nie Xiu’s volcanic rage instantly plummeted to an icy abyss as he gasped in shock: “Your…… your cultivation level……”

Last time Xi Lingren had obstructed him, her cultivation was only one minor stage above his. The Twin Dragon Secret Realm’s trial wasn’t over yet, but this person had already reached early Soul Transformation stage! Advancing one minor stage and one major stage in less than a year—how could such a thing happen in this world!

“Were you hiding your cultivation from the beginning?” Nie Xiu was horrified. Aside from deliberate deception, he could think of no other explanation. He absolutely refused to believe anyone in this world possessed talent strong enough to cross the massive barrier from mid-Nascent Soul to early Soul Transformation stage as easily as drinking water!

“Please hand over all the Golden dragon fragments you possess.” Echo said calmly.

Fear and rage warred in Nie Xiu’s heart. He knew he hadn’t been Echo’s match before, and now he had even less hope of resistance. But how could he willingly surrender his chance to enter the Insight Academy Palace!

“Gulp.” Nie Xiu swallowed hard and bowed apologetically. “My previous behavior was indeed inappropriate. I apologize to both daoists and Palace Lord Velka. After the second trial ends, I will personally bring generous gifts to make amends to you both! Please spare me this once—I’ll be eternally grateful!”

Ahead of him, only a sword floated in the air. Yet Nie Xiu felt as though a pair of clear, cold eyes watched him from somewhere unseen, leaving him helpless and drenched in cold sweat.

Nie Xiu continued: “Only three months remain until the secret realm ends. The final opportunity of the second trial lies before us. There are many Stone Giants outside waiting for you to defeat. Rather than waste time on me, wouldn’t it be better to claim fragments from Stone Giants?”

He lowered his head, eyes flashing with cunning light. If he could just escape this place, he would definitely avoid these two for the remainder of the trial. Once the second trial ended and the no-harm rules were lifted, with the Jade Cauldron Sect backing him, what would he have to fear from them?

Echo didn’t know or care about Nie Xiu’s thoughts. She asked curiously: “How many fragments do you have?”

Nie Xiu’s eyes shifted as he said quietly: “I have three hundred and forty fragments.”

“Ah, that’s rather few.” Echo said suddenly. “Three months ago, I saw the rankings list. The hundredth-place cultivator had four hundred fragments. Now that three months have passed, with Stone Giants providing bonuses, this number will be much higher. I estimate the five-hundredth-place cultivator now has four hundred fragments. You’re far behind. You might as well give up directly.”

Hearing this, Nie Xiu’s face contorted involuntarily. Why had he fallen so far behind? Didn’t these two know exactly why?

But he didn’t dare say it, forcing a smile: “If I work hard these next three months, I’ll have a chance!”

“No, you won’t,” Echo said calmly. “I won’t give you that chance. Please hand over your fragments.”

Echo’s cold words stabbed into Nie Xiu’s heart like knives. He could no longer maintain his expression as veins bulged on his forehead. “Are you planning to waste the next three months here with me in mutual destruction? Aren’t you afraid others will surpass you and all three of us will be eliminated together?”

“Huh? Why would you think that?” Echo asked curiously. “You don’t seem very intelligent.”

After speaking, she suddenly looked surprised, turning toward Seraphine and silently mouthed: “Good thing he’s male.”

Seraphine: “……”

Idiot!

Who could be more idiotic than you!

Ice settled in Nie Xiu’s heart. Seeing that soft and hard approaches were useless, that they insisted on forcing him to this point, rage surged to his head and transformed into maniacal laughter.

“Ha! So what if I don’t enter the Insight Academy Palace! But I absolutely will not hand over my Golden Dragon fragments! If you want to use my fragments to surpass others, you’re dreaming!”

He suddenly produced a Golden Dragon fragment, his lips curling in a cold, disdainful smile. The next moment, he crushed the fragment without hesitation.

“I’ll drag you down with me!”

In the Twin Dragon Secret Realm, crushing a Golden Dragon fragment meant voluntarily withdrawing from the trial. After Nie Xiu’s fragment shattered, a door tore open in midair.

Nie Xiu grinned with satisfaction, laughing wildly as he prepared to leave the secret realm with all his remaining fragments. However, the next moment, Golden Dragon fragments flew from his storage ring and landed on the ground before his disbelieving eyes.

The ground’s rocks rolled, swallowing the fragments. A Stone Giant was born—

“CLANG!”

Sword light flashed, instantly slaying the newborn Stone Giant. Golden Dragon fragments scattered on the ground once more. The entire process took less than five breaths, and Nie Xiu hadn’t even left the secret realm yet.

“Huh?”

That voice that had never shown itself sounded surprised, then said warmly: “I didn’t expect that method would work. Thank you. Have a safe journey.”

Nie Xiu nearly fainted with rage and was instantly pulled from the secret realm.

He stood in the empty venue where remaining cultivators exclaimed in surprise, pointing at him while discussing “someone actually voluntarily withdrew from the trial.”

“Isn’t that Nie Xiu from Jade Cauldron Sect?”

“What? Isn’t he a Nascent Soul cultivator? Even Foundation Establishment cultivators haven’t withdrawn—why did he quit?”

The surrounding voices cut deeper than Northern Glacier. Nie Xiu burned with shame and rage, clenched his fists, and left through gritted teeth.

Xi Lingren, if you have the guts, never leave the Twin Dragon Secret Realm!

⁂

Secret Realm, Beneath the Glacier.

Echo rubbed her hands together and hugged Error’s head, looking up at Seraphine with a smile. Seraphine smiled back gently and patted Echo’s head.

Not bad. Today was another productive day.

[Author’s Note]:

Work Log…

A bountiful harvest today.

You know, I thought having a body would limit my mischief, but it turns out it just makes it more fun. Wondering what kind of havoc I can wreak now? Join us at Pxtreon➡️LoveisLove520 to find out, 20 chapters ahead.