Chapter 1175: Qiankun Five Jade Pill
Yun Che ascended rapidly and soon broke through the water's surface. He instinctively looked up and saw Mu Xuanyin's figure floating quietly high above, her icy eyes radiating a cold, intimidating aura.
Although he was prepared, Yun Che's heart still tightened: "Mas...ter."
"Kneel!"
A cold shout filled with deep anger. Yun Che's entire body stiffened, and he immediately knelt down, saying with shame: "Master, this disciple... knows his wrongs."
"Knows his wrongs?" Mu Xuanyin snorted coldly, a wave of oppressive force carrying her anger, like an icy sea overturning, causing the entire Minghan Heavenly Lake region to fall into silence. "You know your wrongs time after time, and yet you keep making mistakes. What use is knowing your wrongs? Have you ever truly taken my words to heart?"
"Master, I..."
"Don't make excuses!" Mu Xuanyin was clearly genuinely enraged. "Everything you did in the Zhou Tian Realm, Bingyun has already informed me completely through sound transmission! When you left Yin Xue, I repeatedly warned you never to act on your own, to minimize your presence as much as possible. And you... not only did you not listen, you did the complete opposite, exposing yourself entirely before others. Now I'm afraid there's no one in the entire Eastern Divine Region who doesn't know your great name, Yun Che... You've become quite famous, haven't you!"
"If I had known it would come to this, I might as well have... forcibly imprisoned you in the Ice Phoenix Hall, rather than letting you go to your death!"
Yun Che wanted to speak, but under Mu Xuanyin's anger and oppressive force, he couldn't breathe, couldn't even lift his head.
Mu Xuanyin's words and gaze were like countless icy needles, piercing straight into Yun Che's heart and soul: "Is that person who abandoned you back then really so important to you?!"
"..." Yun Che bit his lip and said softly, "She... was once my master. She guided my path of Xuan, saved my life, changed my destiny... In my most painful, loneliest, most confused, most helpless, most despairing moments... it was always her, staying by my side..."
"The kindness she showed me... is like the kindness Master has shown me... I can never... in all my lifetimes... betray it..."
"..." Mu Xuanyin was stunned for a moment.
The world suddenly fell silent.
Yun Che knelt heavily, his head deeply bowed, not daring to lift it. Although Mu Xuanyin was stern and strict, respected and feared by all in Yin Xue Realm, as for him... how could Yun Che not know just how good she was to him?
He had made many mistakes, even unforgivable ones, and she had been furious, but in the end, she had always forgiven him. Especially in the last two years, she had even completely neglected sect affairs, guiding his cultivation day and night at his side... He was absolutely certain that in the perception of the Ice Phoenix God Sect, this was absolutely inconceivable and incomprehensible.
And he had never been able to repay her in the slightest, instead repeatedly angering and disappointing her.
At this moment, facing Mu Xuanyin, his heart was filled with endless shame... He felt he was no longer worthy of being her disciple, no longer worthy of all the kindness she had shown him.
Above the lake surface, the ice spirits that had been frozen for a long time began to gently dance. The cold seemed to dissipate slightly.
"But unfortunately, she doesn't even want to see you!" Mu Xuanyin said coldly. "Since you're back, stay obediently in the holy temple. Without my permission, you are not to take a single step outside! Wait until a few years have passed and the Eastern Divine Region has forgotten your existence, then roll back to your Lan Ji Star!"
"...Master," Yun Che said, head still bowed, "this disciple came back this time to seek power that can become strong in a short time. Then, this disciple must return to... the Feng Shen Battle."
Yun Che spoke softly and slowly, every word carrying guilt, but also an extraordinary firmness.
"Oh... is that so?" Mu Xuanyin's icy brows slightly furrowed. "You really are still unwilling to give up on seeing her."
"No," Yun Che shook his head. "I don't just want to see her. There are some words I must tell her face to face. I want her to know... no matter what she encounters, I will face it together with her."
"With... you?!" Mu Xuanyin's voice was cold and contemptuous.
"As I am now, of course I cannot, I don't even have the qualifications. If I were to force my way to her side, I would only be a burden. But I want her to know that I will become strong for her sake. She used the Feng Shen Battle to drive me away, and I... will use the Feng Shen Battle to prove my resolve to her!"
Mu Xuanyin: "..."
"Master," Yun Che continued softly, "I only realized last night that I have been wrong all along, wrong from the very beginning."
"From the first day I came to Yin Xue Realm, I kept telling myself that my purpose in coming to the God Realm was to find her. I worked hard to become strong for the same reason. And throughout this process, I kept telling myself that finding her was my only goal here, that I never truly belonged here, that Lan Ji Star was my only destination... Perhaps this is because, in the face of the vast God Realm, I have always harbored a sense of inferiority, thinking only of fulfilling my wish and then never setting foot here again."
"Under this self-suggestion, I never truly thought about standing tall in the God Realm, let alone reaching the heights that would make all beings look up to me, as I had on Lan Ji Star."
"But I always forgot that the reason she had to leave me was precisely because I was too insignificant."
"If I could become powerful enough, strong enough to have the qualifications to protect her, to fight alongside her, to shield her from wind and rain... at least, to make her stop worrying about me, how could anyone have forcibly taken her from my side? How could even meeting be so difficult?"
"What hindered me, what hindered her, was never the distance between the lower realm and the king realm... it was my insignificance." Yun Che closed his eyes, his voice as ethereal as mist.
Mu Xuanyin listened quietly. Every word seemed to be a confession from Yun Che's soul, but her gaze remained unchanged. "So then? You plan to use this Xuan God Assembly to prove it to her? To let her know how persistent you are for her, to move her to tears?!"
"No... and for myself as well," Yun Che said. "If I, having only been in the God Realm for three years, can already look down on others in this Feng Shen Battle, then what reason do I have not to continue growing stronger!"
Mu Xuanyin: "..."
"Evil God's Mysterious Vein, Desolate God's Power, Dragon God's Body, Heavenly Poison Pearl... In the God Realm, I have always regarded them as hidden dangers buried within my body that must not be discovered by others. But... they are more than that—they are enormous advantages bestowed upon me by the heavens!"
Mu Xuanyin remained unmoved, snorting coldly: "What a 'magnificent' realization. Unfortunately... I remember that your stay in the God Realm will not exceed five years. Three years have already passed, leaving only two. Even if you had ten times the advantage, what could you possibly achieve!"
"Within two years, I will definitely return."
Mu Xuanyin: "..."
"But that doesn't mean I won't come back." At this moment, Yun Che lifted his head and looked straight into Mu Xuanyin's icy eyes. "Because Lan Ji Star is no longer my only homeland and destination. Because of Master, I have already become a person of the God Realm... at least, I already belong to Yin Xue Realm."
Mu Xuanyin: "..."
"Master and she are both reasons for me to stay in the God Realm. It has been this way for a long time, I just didn't realize it myself. So... I will return from the God Realm to Lan Ji Star, and I will also return from Lan Ji Star to the God Realm. When I am not strong enough, I want to stay by Master's side, enjoying the shelter of Master's wings. If one day I can become sufficiently powerful as I wish, I want to protect Master for all my life, protect Yin Xue. Anyone who dares to harm Master will be my lifelong enemy."
"…………"
Their gazes met, but Mu Xuanyin suddenly averted her eyes and directly turned around, speaking coldly: "Your cultivation is only at the mere Divine Tribulation Realm, and you keep acting foolishly. All you do is spout grand words."
"You'd better think more about how to protect your own life. I haven't yet fallen to the point where I need your protection!"
Yun Che: "..."
Mu Xuanyin raised her head and suddenly let out a soft sigh: "How did I, Mu Xuanyin... end up with a disciple like you?"
As her words fell, she suddenly raised her jade arm and flung her snow-white sleeve back: "Eat this!"
Before Yun Che's eyes, five different-colored strange lights suddenly bloomed.
The source of these lights was a small, exquisite orb. The orb was crystal clear, resembling glass, yet releasing a luster and aura completely different from glass.
Red, cyan, white, blue, green—the five lights overlapped and separated, shining alternately. The aura also changed constantly—sometimes turbid, sometimes fresh, sometimes scorching, sometimes freezing... but none was intense, yet miraculously, none was completely overwhelmed by the extreme cold of Minghan Heavenly Lake.
Yun Che slowly opened his eyes: "Could this be..."
"Qiankun Five Jade Pill!" Mu Xuanyin turned around at this moment, her face as beautiful as a celestial illusion and as cold as eternal snow, now restored to an expression of indifference. "Your Heavenly Poison Pearl does possess a powerful refining force that can easily concoct countless pills, but the Qiankun Five Jade Pill requires powerful Xuan force to guide and fuse five kinds of power, something your Heavenly Poison Pearl cannot do! I also took a full year to fuse it."
One of the things Yun Che sought upon his return was the Qiankun Five Jade Pill.
Back then, he had already gathered all five materials for refining the Qiankun Five Jade Pill, but Mu Xuanyin had taken them all away, insisting that he achieve the Divine Tribulation Realm naturally through his own cultivation. Now that he was back, he had planned to ask Mu Xuanyin to return those materials and obtain the refining method, so he could use the Heavenly Poison Pearl to refine the Qiankun Five Jade Pill.
Only at this moment did he realize that the Qiankun Five Jade Pill could not be refined like an ordinary pill; instead, it required powerful Xuan force to guide the fusion...
And even someone as strong as Mu Xuanyin had taken a whole year to fuse it.
Perhaps this was the real reason Mu Xuanyin had taken all the materials back then.
She had expended a great deal of Xuan force and energy to fuse it, and now at this moment, she was directly presenting it—clearly meaning... that it had been prepared for him all along.
His heart was touched by something soft, and an involuntary bitterness gathered between his brows: "Master..."
"Enough with the nonsense. Sit properly!" Mu Xuanyin gave him no chance to speak, chiding coldly as her snow-white figure flickered, arriving before Yun Che. "Take out the 'Time Wheel Pearl' you obtained in Zhou Tian Realm!"
"Ah... yes."
Yun Che quickly adjusted to a sitting posture, calming his mind and breath, then took out the "Time Wheel Pearl" and placed it in Mu Xuanyin's jade-snow-like palm.
Mu Xuanyin's palm gently released a wisp of Xuan force, shattering the Time Wheel Pearl. An invisible barrier immediately expanded, enveloping the two of them and separating them into a different world.
The Time Wheel Barrier would last for one month.
And during this one month, outside the Time Wheel Barrier, only a single hour would pass.