Chapter 66

Chapter 66: Shen Sang Ruo Takes Action and Triggers an Avalanche

Luo Chu broke down and shouted: “That awful Lu Shi Qing said he’d plant a Seven Emotions Gu on you, but the two Gu insects he gave me were both broken.”

Shen Sang Ruo had already seen through it as she looked at Luo Chu, her eyes turning more amused by the second. Lu Shi Qing had also realized she wasn’t throwing a tantrum to get attention. [So you wanted to use a Seven Emotions Gu to test me, to see if I still care. How laughable.]

[Sometimes she really could not tell whether her Third Senior Brother cared about her or not.] [If she still had feelings, she would be forced to endure the Gu gnawing at her again.] [Hurting her just to prove something and cover up his panic.] [Truly laughable.]

She tilted up the corner of her mouth and asked with open mockery: “So this is what Fourth Senior Brother meant by making me show my true self?”

Her gaze cooled as she added: “I’m afraid I’ll disappoint you. The Seven Emotions Gu will never work on me again.”

Luo Chu stared straight at her and demanded: “What do you mean?”

He could not connect “no feelings for us” with Shen Sang Ruo at all. She did not answer him. Instead, she glanced at the slope. The snowpack there was thick.

His voice suddenly turned heated as he insisted: “It was Third Senior Brother who gave me two faulty Gu insects, letting you slip by. Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking!”

He sounded like he was explaining it to her and to himself. As long as she felt even a little for them, the Seven Emotions Gu would flare at once. How could Shen Sang Ruo have no feelings for them at all? What a joke.

Bai Mu Mu watched in silence. She was not as dumb as Luo Chu and guessed Shen Sang Ruo was telling the truth. Her look turned odd. Shen Sang Ruo had actually given up that part of herself?

Shen Sang Ruo’s face turned cold as she scolded him: “To use the Seven Emotions Gu on your own Junior Sister right to her face, Luo Chu, do you feel no shame?”

Lu Shi Qing had at least hidden it from others. Luo Chu was not even trying to hide it.

He reached for her anyway and barked: “Come with me! We’ll go back to the sect and have Third Senior Brother refine proper Seven Emotions Gu. I must expose your true nature!”

But she was no longer the Shen Sang Ruo who let him push her around. She yanked her arm free, her eyes as icy as the surrounding snow.

In the confusion, she slashed a cut through the thick drift she had eyed earlier with a sweep of spiritual power. Then she pulled a Sunflare Charge refined by Daoist Wu Wei from her pouch. Blinding light exploded at once.

Caught off guard, Luo Chu and Bai Mu Mu flinched and threw up their hands, eyes squeezed shut against the glare.

Shen Sang Ruo’s arc of spiritual power carved a horizontal gap into the snow. Gravity did the rest. The cut triggered a chain reaction. Huge sheets of snow sheared loose and slid down, swelling into the start of an avalanche.

By the time Luo Chu and Bai Mu Mu blinked their eyes open, a roaring wall of collapsing white was already sweeping toward them.

Shen Sang Ruo had long since activated a Fleetstep Talisman and sped far away.

Luo Chu gasped in horror: “An avalanche?!”

Under a slide this size, he and Bai Mu Mu were like two tiny insects. The falling snow opened like a white maw that could swallow them whole in an instant. This was snow from the upper and middle reaches of the Slanting Mountain Icefield, colder than normal flakes. If they were buried in it, there would be no way out but death.

Bai Mu Mu hated Luo Chu to the core. If she had known, she would never have run out here with him. But he was her target to win over, and until his favor meter was full, she had to keep him alive, so she grabbed him and urged: “Move, Fourth Senior Brother!”

Luo Chu seized her hand and promised: “Junior Sister, hold on to me. I’ll get you out!”

They poured all their spiritual power into their steps and sprinted for their lives. But the avalanche was too fast. It was less than ten meters behind.

Luo Chu could only hate that he was not a sword cultivator and could not take to the skies by sword flight. Bai Mu Mu tried to keep him focused as she shouted: “You can do it, Fourth Senior Brother! Don’t get distracted. We can make it!”

But Luo Chu always had a stubborn streak. The more she said “don’t,” the more he wanted to do it.

He suddenly cried out: “Oh no, Shen Sang Ruo!”

He had been so intent on guiding Bai Mu Mu that he forgot Shen Sang Ruo was with them too. He pictured her buried under the snow, her eyes full of despair and blame. For once he remembered the little shadow who trailed after him as a child. One time they snuck out to play and he left her outside the sect by accident. He could still see her pouty, teary face. He had wiped her cheeks and told her he would never forget her again.

His expression twisted. He and Shen Sang Ruo were enemies now, but he did not want to break his promise.

He never realized this avalanche was the “gift” Shen Sang Ruo sent him.

He cursed under his breath: “Darn it!”

A bad feeling rose in Bai Mu Mu’s chest. She warned him: “Fourth Senior Brother, don’t do anything stu—”

Before “stupid” left her lips, Luo Chu had already wheeled around and charged straight into the tumbling snow. He yelled at the storm: “Shen Sang Ruo, hiding in the snow doesn’t prove anything! If you have guts, come back to the sect and face Third Senior Brother with me!”

Bai Mu Mu’s face went dark. If he wanted to die, why did he have to drag her with him? Luo Chu was still clamping her hand in a death grip as he ran toward the falling mass.

The avalanche crashed over them and swallowed them in a breath.

Bai Mu Mu shrieked as the world went white: “Aaaaaaah!”

[Ugh! A bunch of lunatics!] There was not a single normal person in this sect. [Are all of them out of their minds?] She was about to explode. She had never met such a ridiculous capture target. Every one of them lost their minds at the worst moment.

Her scream was smothered by endless snow.

At first Luo Chu tried to fight the torrent, forcing his way uphill against the flow. But his strength was tiny before the avalanche. In moments the snow seized him and rolled him end over end. It felt like he was drowning in it. The cold pushed under his robes and even packed his nose. Every breath pulled in only thin, chilly air from the gaps between flakes. His body heat bled away. He began to suffocate.

His thoughts blurred, and regret crept in. [Too bad. I still didn’t find Shen Sang Ruo.] At least he had held tight to Junior Sister. [Junior Sister stayed with me the whole time.]

Right then, dragged into a forced two-person tumble with Luo Chu, Bai Mu Mu could only think: [You absolute idiot.]