Who Let Him Cultivate?! (WX)

“Ah?” Xue Shilou thought he had misheard and repeated cautiously. “What did you just say?”

He had raced against time to create his technique, all so that he could implore the Snow Emperor to save Lu Yang.

“I’m just a half-immortal. I can’t defeat an immortal,” the Snow Emperor replied seriously, seeing nothing wrong with his statement. In fact, it’d be strange if I could defeat an immortal.

The Extreme North had always been sparsely populated, with far fewer people than in the Central Continent, the Buddhist Kingdom, the Demon Region, and the East Sea. In a hundred thousand years, producing even a half-immortal was rare, and immortals had never appeared.

“Choose a different wish. I can make you a half-immortal, grant you boundless wealth, or teach you every cultivation spell and technique from ancient times to the present.”

Xue Shilou gritted his teeth and kowtowed repeatedly. “Save Fellow Daoist Lu—this is my only wish!”

The Snow Emperor looked troubled. This was the first time his expression had shifted. According to custom, he was obligated to grant the person who passed the trials one wish.

But the problem is that I truly can’t defeat an immortal.

“If you really wish to save him, there is one way.”

Xue Shilou looked up in surprise. As I thought, the Snow Emperor has a solution.

“According to custom, the Snow Emperor must grant the trial-taker one wish. If you have no objection, I will pass the title of Snow Emperor to you right now, and you can fulfill your own wish.”

Xue Shilou. “...”

Seeing Xue Shilou’s disappointment, the Snow Emperor said earnestly, “We of the Snow Emperor Lineage are destined to become half-immortals, with a lifespan of a hundred thousand years. In that time, you will make countless friends and watch countless old ones depart. Your friend’s demise is merely the destined fate of all friends of the Snow Emperor Lineage. You must learn to accept it.”

The Snow Emperor added silently in his heart, “Unless that ancient immortal who bestowed the Incipient Dao Fruit upon me intervenes.”

At that thought, he instinctively touched the blank white jade tablet at his chest.

But that’s impossible.

Another resounding self-detonation echoed from the sky, drawing the Snow Emperor’s attention.

Lu Yang had been pinned in place by the ribs, but he self-detonated and broke free once more. Even the Fate Arbiter was taken aback, no longer able to remain composed.

A junior has escaped right under my nose using the same trick multiple times. If he truly had fled, I could’ve accepted that. But the thing is, he simply stood nearby after breaking free, showing not the slightest intention of running!

He’s not taking me seriously at all!

“Myriad Ghosts Erosion.”

Black smoke billowed from the bone staff, each wisp an avatar of a Ghost King. Myriad ghosts rampaged across the sky, blotting out the sun and moon, devouring even the spirit qi in their path.

The Great Qian Dynasty practiced human sacrifice—offering people to gods, to the nation, and to heaven. The Great Qian cultivators never lacked ghosts and evil entities. If they didn’t have any, they simply created them.

The Snow Emperor shook his head. What a pity for this junior. Even if I go up there myself, I’ll end up either dead or wounded.

The blank white jade tablet at his chest swayed, asking the Snow Emperor what was happening outside.

The Snow Emperor faithfully relayed everything he had witnessed to the supreme being dwelling within the white jade tablet.

To his surprise, the supreme being reacted far more intensely than expected after hearing his account.

“Everlasting, that’s Everlasting technique! What is that young man’s relationship to Everlasting?!

“This is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. That young man must be connected to Everlasting. Nothing must happen to him here!

“But leaving here will invite disaster...

“What’s there to be afraid of?!”

Before the Snow Emperor could respond, a beam of immortal light shot from the jade tablet and soared into the sky, leaving him dumbfounded.

“H-how can this be? He hasn’t acted in three hundred thousand years!”

An immortal suddenly appeared before Lu Yang, moving so fast that it was indistinguishable from teleportation.

Facing the ferocious, ghostly onslaught of ten thousand Ghost Kings, the immortal stepped onto a Taiji diagram. Supreme yang power surged forth, incinerating everything in the world. Even the sun seemed to dim in comparison at this moment.

“Get lost, all of you!”

Regardless of the cultivation the Ghost Kings had possessed in life or the devouring intent the Fate Arbiter had imbued them with, before the world’s supreme yang energy, they all burst into flames and were reduced to ashes in an instant.

Clad in coarse hemp clothes, the immortal was unkempt and rugged, like a wild man who had crawled out of some ancient cave. There was a feral, untamed air about him.

The moment the Fate Arbiter laid eyes on this immortal, he regarded him as a formidable foe and slowly uttered his name.

“Nine-Layers Immortal!”

The crowd in Muxue City below burst into an uproar.

“Nine-Layers Immortal?! The legendary first immortal?!”

“Who else would dare claim this title?!”

“Heavens, even the Nine-Layers Immortal has appeared!”

The Nine-Layers Immortal glanced at the Fate Arbiter. “Great Qian’s Fate Arbiter? You scram too! I’m in no mood to deal with you!

“Kid, where did you learn this self-detonation technique? What’s your relationship with Everlasting?!”

“Nine-Layers?” The Everlasting Immortal Fairy hadn’t expected the Nine-Layers Immortal to appear here.

The Nine-Layers Immortal froze, staring at the Everlasting Immortal Fairy in shock. “That tone... You’re Everlasting! How did you get resurrected?

“No, this isn’t the time for that. I can’t stay in the outside world too long. Silent Annihilation will come looking—”

“Are you talking about the Silent Annihilation Immortal? She’s already dead?”

“Wut?” The Nine-Layers Immortal struggled to process all the good news. First Everlasting’s resurrection, and then Silent Annihilation’s demise.

“Deity Devil Seven Slaughters!” The Fate Arbiter tossed out seven tokens. This was a Soul-Immobilizing Technique, capable of locking down a target’s three ethereal souls and seven corporeal souls, rendering them immobile and leaving them to the mercy of others.

“Tch, you’re so annoying. Everlasting, wait till I’ve dealt with him, then we’ll talk!” The Nine-Layers Immortal turned back impatiently, focusing his attention on the Fate Arbiter.

He flipped his hands. In his left palm was a miniature sun representing supreme yang, and in his right was a blood-stained full moon radiating supreme yin energy. Wielding the sun and moon, he hurled them directly at the Fate Arbiter.

The Fate Arbiter didn’t react right away. Only after realizing what the Nine-Layers Immortal was doing did he raise his bone staff to block the sun and moon.

The ancient texts never described the Nine-Layers Immortal’s fighting style as close-quarters combat.

As the Snow Emperor watched the Nine-Layers Immortal battling in the sky, his eyes contained nothing but astonishment.

“This is impossible!”

“May I ask what’s wrong?” Xue Shilou was bewildered.

Only then did the Snow Emperor remember that Xue Shilou was here. “Since you’ve passed the three trials, there’s no harm in telling you these things.

“Our Snow Emperor Lineage has produced six Snow Emperors, and you will be the seventh.

“Although the Extreme North treats the Snow Emperor as its faith, the truth is that the Snow Emperor is actually the Nine-Layers Immortal’s envoy.”

“The Nine-Layers Immortal’s envoy?”

“Yes. This was an agreement between the Nine-Layers Immortal and the first Snow Emperor. The Nine-Layers Immortal resides within this blank white jade tablet, while the Snow Emperor wears it around the Extreme North, gathering information from the outside world.

“In return, the Nine-Layers Immortal bestows the Yin-Yang Incipient Dao Fruit upon each generation’s Snow Emperor successor, helping them become half-immortals. I’m no exception.

“According to accounts from previous Snow Emperors, the Nine-Layers Immortal has never left the jade tablet for three hundred thousand years. Yet today, for some unknown reason, he has left it and come to the outside world!”

The Snow Emperor had thought that Xue Shilou’s wish to save Lu Yang was already absurd. He never imagined that the Nine-Layers Immortal had actually gone to rescue Lu Yang.

“Immortal Fairy, what are you thinking about?” After regaining control of his body, Lu Yang noticed the Everlasting Immortal Fairy deep in thought.

“The Nine-Layers Immortal’s personality seems to be different from before. He wasn’t this bold and uninhibited in battle back then.”