Wu Dao was somewhat surprised. He had not expected this iron masked man to be so sensible, to kneel so readily, and to submit so cleanly and decisively.
Old Master Wu, however, did not seem surprised at all. In his eyes, these people truly seemed like mere ants, as if they were truly meant to crawl at his feet. Looking down, he asked, “Why should I spare you?”
The prostrated iron masked man immediately raised his head and said, “The old gentleman will eventually leave this place. I know the secrets of certain prominent figures outside. I can play a huge role for you, old gentleman. I beg you to give me a chance to serve you.”
Hearing this, Old Master Wu was quite tempted. He lifted his blue halberd from the ground and nodded. The sharp edge of the single blade was lowered to the iron masked man’s face. The blade tip moved down, sliding along the metal mask to his neck, lingering there.
The iron masked man’s Adam’s apple moved with difficulty. He was nervous, extremely nervous, yet remained submissive, not daring to move a muscle, gambling with his life.
Finally, the blade tip flicked upward, knocking the iron mask off his face and revealing a rather imposing man’s face.
Clang, the iron mask fell not far away.
The blade tip also stopped at the forehead of the kneeling man. The blade tip suddenly moved, and the man instinctively wanted to tilt his head back to dodge, but he was a step too slow. His forehead ached as a cut was made.
Fortunately, the blade tip did not continue its attack.
The man forced himself to remain still, but he felt blood sliding down from his forehead over the bridge of his nose. Then he saw drops of blood dripping onto the ground.
He looked at the wrinkled old man before him with uncertainty, not knowing what this old thing was up to.
Old Master Wu withdrew the sharp blade, which had pierced the tip of his own index finger, yet no blood flowed.
Thump! The blue halberd struck the ground again.
Old Master Wu held the halberd and closed his eyes. He suddenly took a deep breath, as if drawing something up from his abdomen to his chest. His whole body trembled slightly, and his expression seemed to show a hint of suffering. It was obvious he was casting some kind of spell.
His bulging chest slowly levelled out. However, a tiny bead of blood began to slowly emerge from the wound on his raised index finger. It was a dark red blood bead, surrounded by evil energy, with occasional faint flashes of dark red light. The blood bead grew larger, and the surrounding evil energy became more intense.
Once the blood bead reached the size of a soybean, Old Master Wu’s bulging chest slowly flattened. He slowly opened his eyes, stepped forward, and moved the evil energy shrouded blood drop on his index finger towards the kneeling man’s forehead.
The iron masked man realised what was happening. His eyes filled with terror, and he could not help but ask, “Old gentleman, what are you doing?”
Old Master Wu did not speak or respond in any way.
The iron masked man was truly terrified. His head instinctively tilted back. He wanted to escape. The choice before him was simply to accept it or flee.
However, the consequences of fleeing were obvious. The gap in their strength was immense, and he could not escape. The consequence of fleeing would likely be instant death!
Die now, or die later?
Weighing the pros and cons, he chose the latter. He stopped dodging and closed his eyes with great difficulty, regretting that his greed had led him to take a wrong step.
The tiny red light on Old Master Wu’s fingertip suddenly pressed into the wound on the iron masked man’s forehead with lightning speed and stayed there. A stream of air flowed from Old Master Wu’s fingertip, enveloping the iron masked man’s entire body, causing his clothes to flutter.
When his finger left the forehead, the wound on the iron masked man’s forehead had already healed without leaving the slightest scar.
The iron masked man, however, appeared to be in even more pain. He dropped to both knees, his face turning red and white alternately. His whole body trembled as he struggled to speak, “Old gentleman, I feel terrible. What have you done to me, ugh…” A bout of dry retching followed. He propped himself up with his hands on the ground, retching continuously, looking like a dog on all fours.
Wu Dao, standing to the side, looked sympathetic, as if he had remembered something.
Old Master Wu said, “What have I done? I call it a ‘sacrificial follower’. To become my ‘sacrificial follower’ is my recognition of you, allowing you to serve me. If anything happens to me, you will not survive either. No matter where you are, I can find you. To serve me means wearing shackles!”
The iron masked man shook his head in agony and finally collapsed to the ground. Green earthworm like patterns appeared on the surface of his skin. He curled up and let out muffled roars, seemingly enduring unimaginable pain…
In the bone-chilling ice, unable to move at all, Yu Qing continued to cast spells to resist the cold.
As long as one is a normal person, no one is willing to easily give up their own life.
Despair was inevitable. His thoughts let go of grievances and returned to Linglong Temple. The mountains and water there were beautiful, with lush green hills.
When he was young, he would sit at the desk by the window, his short legs swinging. He held a brush to practise calligraphy, but his eyes would occasionally steal glances at the squirrels on the trees outside. Two squirrels chased each other, sometimes jumping onto the roof, and sometimes jumping back into the trees.
The wild fruits he had picked were probably stolen by those two guys. At that time, his mind was pondering how he could catch those two squirrels later.
Back then, his master was still alive, stroking his beard with one hand and holding a ruler for spanking with the other. The sunlight outside was just right.
The sunlight was very warm. He would sometimes stare at the sun, holding his open palm in front of his eyes, looking through the gaps between his fingers. It was a bit glaring.
Suddenly, he felt it was not just glaring, but stinging.
The burning pain from his left hand brought him back to his senses. It hurt so much that he instinctively wanted to pull his hand back.
This instinctive retraction startled him. The hand that felt the burning pain could actually move.
He could not see what was happening. The burning sensation remained, but his hand moved and brushed against water. It was boiling hot water.
His blinded eyes seemed to detect a red glow. He instantly realised what it was, and his heart filled with great joy.
The scalding temperature grew higher and higher. It was so hot that he had to channel his energy to resist it, otherwise that hand would be boiled. On one hand, he had to resist the freezing cold, and on the other, the boiling hot water. It was truly an intense experience.
The area of boiling water expanded. First, his palm could move, then his forearm, then his entire arm, and finally half of his body.
Once half of his body was freed from restraint, he immediately used his spells to break free the other half, placing his entire body in the warmth.
He opened his eyes and looked at the fiery red light source emitting the warmth. That was right, it was that guy, Datou!
Datou was also encased in ice and was obviously trying to save himself!
However, why did his hand only feel the scalding heat after Datou had already melted such a large space?
He realised that Datou must have tried to abandon him, his master, and run away earlier, but failed and got frozen as well.
This treacherous little creature, Yu Qing cursed in his heart, but he still looked at him with immense joy.
Previously, he thought that at such a deep seabed, under such immense pressure, Datou probably could not withstand it and had already died.
Now it seemed he had truly underestimated Datou.
Come to think of it, a hammer might be able to smash Datou to death with one blow, but the pressure of this deep sea might not necessarily do anything to him.
The original Datou mostly hid deep beneath the underground magma. The pressure of the underground magma he endured was probably not light. Being able to survive in such an environment meant Datou’s body structure should be like that of a deep sea fish, capable of withstanding a certain amount of pressure in the deep sea.
Datou was exerting his power, resisting the freezing ice. His entire body emitted a powerful red glow and intense heat, constantly moving upward.
Yu Qing looked around and saw two points of fluorescent stone light in the ice layer. He knew that was the location of Old Seven and Old Nine, who had escaped with him.
Without a word, he immediately drew his sword and redirected the upward pushing Datou, telling him not to just run upward and care only about his own escape. Saving people was the priority, otherwise, who knew how long Old Seven and Old Nine could hold on.
Getting closer bit by bit, he finally approached Nan Zhu first and freed one of Nan Zhu’s hands. He immediately saw Nan Zhu’s hand open its five fingers and then clench in the boiling hot water, twitching wildly, obviously startled by the unexpected event.
Being able to move meant he was still alive. Yu Qing felt much more relieved.
In a short while, the hot water melted Nan Zhu out of the ice.
The freed Nan Zhu was obviously overjoyed, pointing at Datou and gesturing wildly.
Yu Qing had no time to pay attention to his hand and foot signals. He continued to drive Datou towards Mu Aotie.
Datou seemed to have gained a certain level of intelligence. He probably understood what Yu Qing was doing and was quite cooperative. Later, there was no need to chase him with a sword. Wherever Yu Qing pointed, Datou would swim over.
The three martial brothers had escaped together and were not far apart. Before long, they rescued Mu Aotie as well.
The three martial brothers reunited. Mu Aotie occasionally pointed at Datou, obviously feeling somewhat excited for him.
Under Yu Qing’s command, Datou immediately released his upward movement to boil the water.
Heat easily rises, so the speed of melting the ice upwards immediately became much faster.
The three martial brothers stayed a bit further away from Datou. Being too close was too hot. Just think about boiling tea normally. If Datou was thrown into a pot of cold water, he could boil it. The power was imaginable.
The three of them preferred to stay in the position where cold and hot water mixed. It was more comfortable. They did not need to resist the cold or the heat, which saved their cultivation energy consumption, and they slowly moved upward together with Datou.
The power of ice assimilation seemed quite significant. The three of them could feel that the place where they had escaped was slowly freezing over again.
Time passed bit by bit.
The darkness was gradually left behind beneath their feet. The ice layer above became brighter and brighter.
Later, the light was able to mask the red glow on Datou and overshadow the light from the fluorescent stones on their hands.
When the red glow on Datou extinguished, Datou suddenly vanished, leaving a hole through which daylight shone down.
Yu Qing, in the comfortable water temperature, immediately floated up. He reached out and touched it. That was right, the ice layer had opened an eye. Datou had burned a hole and run away first.
An ungrateful white-eyed wolf, always thinking of running away first, Yu Qing cursed in his heart. He then struck upward with his palm. Bang, he opened a large gap in the ice surface.
Soon, the three martial brothers jumped out of the water one after another, landing on the thick ice surface.
Having held their breath for a long time, the three of them immediately gasped for air, greedily breathing in the cold air, while looking around at the vast whiteness. It was truly a frosty ice plain.
Looking at the setting sun, good heavens, it was already mid-afternoon. They must have been crawling in the sea for two or three hours to escape.
The three of them quickly channelled their energy to shake off the water vapour on their bodies, restoring their dryness first.
Flying around in all directions, seeing there was nowhere to land, Datou buzzed and flew back. Nan Zhu quickly reached out to welcome him.
The descending Datou actually stumbled and did a somersault in his palm. When he stood up again, he seemed a bit weak in the legs. It was obvious this was the result of excessive energy consumption.
“Oh my.” Nan Zhu stamped his foot, holding him with both hands, and exclaimed loudly, “My little lifesaving ancestor is exhausted. Quick, spiritual rice, where is the spiritual rice I carry? Bring it quickly to replenish him.”