The height of summer in June was originally a hot and rainy season. Dark clouds gathered in the mountains to the north of the Western Region , and the water fog pervaded the fields while the cultivators who traveled here wore rain hats or oil-paper umbrellas.
However, after crossing the mountain range and continuing to travel toward the north for a few days, the rain clouds that originally covered the sky gradually dissipated, replaced by plummeting temperatures as well as the amazing June flying snow.
Dark snow clouds hung over the vast white fields in the southwest of the Northern Region as a flying boat carrying two people and a bird glided over the path in the snow forest close to the ground like a phantom. Before the monsters waiting for prey in the forest could see anything clearly, the boat was already out of their sight.
On the flying boat, Ye Anping, dressed in a black fleece coat and carrying the Snow Jade Spirit Sword wrapped in gauze on his back, stared ahead, concentrating on steering the boat.
The Snow Jade Spirit Sword was originally a spiritual sword forged from the thousand-year-old black ice of the Northern Region , so coming here was like returning home.
Ye Anping didn't put it in the storage bag. He carried it on his back instead, letting it feast on the cold air of the frozen land. Absorbing the cold also helped Li Longling feel better.
Li Longling was born on top of the Hot Spiritual Vein in the Dragon House and had never even seen snow before.
After arriving in the Northern Region , she had more and more clothes on her body. Now, more than ten pieces of heavy clothes had been transferred from her bag to her body.
Wrapped up like a snowman, she hugged her Fire Phoenix and couldn't help complaining, "Ye... Master Ye, the North Region is so cold... Ha-ha-choo--"
After a cute little sneeze, the contact with the cold air instantly formed an icicle stuck to the tip of her nose.
Ye Anping glanced back, and seeing her like this made him want to laugh.
After thinking for a while, he walked up to her and picked her up. Then, he sat cross-legged, placed her on his lap, and used his spiritual energy to shield her from the snow and cold.
?!
Normally, when doing this, that Fire Phoenix of hers would have directly come to gouge his eyes out, but now the bird seemed to be too cold to care.
"Miss Li, some tens of thousands of years ago, a Black Ice Tiger died here, and the shell it left behind condensed into a spiritual vein under the Northern Region , which continuously emits cold air, causing the entire region to be frozen all year round within a thousand miles. If you don't use spiritual energy to protect your body, adding clothes will be useless."
"Spiritual energy... Is it possible to maintain protection all the time with spiritual energy?"
"Yes."
Li Longling had never heard of this before and was a little surprised. "What about the newborns? They won't..."
"They are kept indoors until they learn how to protect their body with spiritual energy, then they can go out of the house."
Saying this, Ye Anping inexplicably felt nostalgic. The cultivation method that he and Pei Lianxue used to endure the cold when they were young was learned from the cultivators in the Northern Region .
He added, "Although their childhood is not comfortable, as the saying goes, people are shaped by the land and water from where they are living. If we compare regions, the energy reserve of the cultivators in the Northern Region is generally larger and fuller than that of cultivators in other Immortal lands, and their tolerance to cold spiritual energy is also quite strong."
"What about the ordinary people? Wouldn't they be..."
"There are no ordinary people in the Northern Region . This place is deadly for them. As for those who are born without spiritual roots..."
Ye Anping slightly shook his head, wordlessly suggesting what was the fate of people without spiritual roots.
"Is that so..."
Li Longling also felt powerless about this, but she was somewhat amazed in her heart that the Empress of the Cold Country could actually establish a country in such a place.
She had heard her father say before that Sun Juehu, the Empress of the Cold Country , was a powerful cultivator, second only to the Immortal Matriarch.
It seemed that she, as the Lady of the Dragon House , still had a long way to go.
Li Longling sighed and suddenly regretted that she wrapped herself in so many clothes.
Ye Anping was holding her now, but with so many clothes on, even with her sharp senses, she couldn't feel his body temperature and heartbeat at all...
"Miss Li."
"Ah... yes?"
"We will arrive at Frozen River Immortal City in a while, and I will need you to do a few things. We will also have to change our identities."
"Well, Master Ye, please tell me in detail, and..." Li Longling pursed her lips, then continued, "Longling is fine. Miss Li is too distant."
Ye Anping looked down at her, exhaling. "Longling, I need to use your identity as the head of the Dragon House , is that okay?..."
"Yes. Anything you need from me, Master Ye, you can just take it directly. There is no need to ask for permission."
Li Longling paused and jokingly added, "Even if Master Ye wants my body, it's still okay."
?
Shouldn't this be something that only Yunluo would say?
Ye Anping was stunned for a moment, then smiled. "Really? I'll consider it."
Li Longling immediately froze. She learned this from a book that Xiao Yunluo gave her. In the book, when the woman said this, the man was embarrassed, then gradually fell in love...
Why is it different from what is written in the book...
"..."
"Just kidding." Ye Anping shook his head. "Let's get back to the point. We'll be going to go to a few 'shops' in Frozen River City in a while. When you enter the shop, tell the shopkeeper this..."
... ...
On the vast snowy plains, a magnificent city stood on top of the mountains like a land beacon, guiding the way of the caravans.
Frozen River Immortal City was a place that cultivators from the Western Region had to pass through when they came to the Northern Region . Many cultivators who did business in the two regions stopped here to rest and recuperate, and for this reason, the underworld in this Immortal city was extremely complex.
West side of the city, in a shop selling fire stone pills.
The shopkeeper, a man in his fifties, held a jade slip in his hand and read the contents with his spiritual sense.
This jade slip was the black market's "bill of goods".
In other words, it was a list of goods from the black markets of other Immortal Regions.
He operated a black market shop in the Northern Region . Sometimes, when he wanted to buy some precious items that were not available locally, he would send people across the region to get the goods and sell them according to the addresses recorded on the list.
However, when he saw one line on the list, the shopkeeper suddenly seemed to wither and murmured to himself. "The second-grade golden pills of a cultivator in the Deification stage?! Is the black market in the Western Region so fierce? You can even get the second-grade golden pills of a cultivator in the Deification stage..."
Just as he was wondering, two figures walked into the shop.
The shopkeeper looked up and saw a girl wearing a fur coat walking into the store. The girl had her eyes closed and was carrying a Fire Phoenix. Seeing this, he muttered in confusion, "A blind girl with a bird?"
However, as soon as he uttered the words, he sensed the full spiritual power of the man standing beside the blind girl, who was wearing a bamboo hat and a mask covering his face. Startled, he hurriedly greeted them. "Excuse me, are you two here to buy flint? This way please..."
The masked man narrowed his eyes slightly, touched the hilt of the sword wrapped in bandages on his back, and asked, "What did you just say about my Lady?"
Li Longling hurriedly stopped him. "Xiaoliu, stand down."
"Yes, Miss."
Ye Anping cupped his hands to apologize and stepped aside.
Then, Li Longling nodded slightly. "Four glaciers shine in all directions?"
Hearing this, the shopkeeper hid his shock. He spread his hands and invited the two to the inner room, saying, "Cold Heavenly Snow in the north brought a distinguished guest. Please, come in."
After entering the inner room, the shopkeeper politely brought Li Longling a cup of hot tea, then sealed the room with soundproofing talismans, closed the doors and windows, and bowed to apologize for his previous rudeness again. "Just now, I was rude, I hope you won't take offense. I just don't know who told you about this place?"
"It doesn't matter who told us. I heard that your Seven Slayers Sect takes any job?" Li Longling asked calmly.
The shopkeeper replied with a bitter smile. "Ahahaha... not every job is accepted. Since the group of idiots from the Seven Slayers Sect in the Western Region destroyed themselves six or seven years ago, the Seven Slayers in the Northern Region have become more restrained. We can accept it as long as it is not related to the big sects."
Li Longling nodded, then picked up the tea, sniffing it. "So, can you kill three people?"
"It depends on who you want to kill and what price you offer."
"Two mid-stage Core Formation and one early-stage Core Formation cultivators." Li Longling raised her right hand and spread her fingers. "I'm willing to pay this much?"
The shopkeeper frowned. "...Five hundred thousand? For three Core Formation stage cultivators?"
Smiling, Li Longling replied, "Five hundred thousand spirit stones for each person. I'll pay you as many as you kill."
That's a big job!
The shopkeeper was interested, but the price of a Core Formation stage cultivator on the market was generally between three to four hundred thousand spirit stones, and he hesitated.
"Miss, please tell me in detail about the three people you want to kill."
"The first person has black hair and blood-red eyes. She is a demonic Sword cultivator. Her name is Gu Mingxin, and she is in the middle stage of Core Formation ."
As she spoke, Li Longling took out a portrait from her storage bag and sent it to the shopkeeper with her spiritual energy.
This portrait was drawn by Ye Anping himself on the way. He used to practice when he was bored in his childhood, and the fine brushwork was much better than Xiao Yunluo's " Immortal Palace Erotic Pictures ". It was more like the real thing. As long as one didn't have eye problems, one could basically recognize what it was.
"The second person is also a female cultivator in the middle stage of Core Formation , a Dharma cultivator, with a round body and buttocks like a round peach, and her name is Lu Meimei. As for the third person, he is a Physical cultivator in the early stage of Core Formation , named Wu Tianci."
Li Longling took out two more portraits and sent them to the shopkeeper.
Seeing that all three portraits were well drawn, the shopkeeper did not inquire about the looks of the three. After a moment of silence, he asked, "Do the three of them have any magical weapons or spiritual treasures?"
"I don't know about that, but the price I just mentioned is a guaranteed minimum price." Li Longling smiled. "Five hundred thousand, no upper limit. As long as you bring the head, you can ask for a million."
The shopkeeper was silent for a while, propping his chin for a good assessment. After sizing up Li Longling, and seeing that she had no expensive jewelry, he said, "Since you were directed to my place, you should know the rules here. If it was a small business, it was fine, but you want us to kill three Core Formation stage cultivators..."
He stopped talking here, meaning: she needed to pay a deposit or leave the spirit stones with him in case she won't be able to pay after the matter is done.
Li Longling naturally heard the unspoken meaning in his words, and only then did she understand what Ye Anping meant by "using her identity as the Master of the Dragon House ".
She shook her head, and with a gesture, she took out a fiery red jade seal from the storage bag and placed it on the table.
"I wonder, can this be taken as a deposit?"
"This is..."
The shopkeeper squinted and observed for a moment, then suddenly widened his eyes and looked up at Li Longling's closed eyes, the Fire Phoenix on her shoulder, and her mid-stage Foundation Building cultivation.
All of this matched the story of the Young Lady of the Dragon House that he had heard of a few years ago.
"You... are you Miss Li of the Dragon House ?"
"Do you need to ask?" Li Longling smiled, turned around, and pointed at Ye Anping who was standing beside her and watching the shopkeeper's every move. "This is my guard."
"I see... But this is the Seven Slayers Sect of the Northern Region . It's okay if you are going to buy something, but if you want to kill someone, we don't kill cultivators in the Western Region ."
"These three people are at the moment in the Northern Region , but as for where exactly, I do not know. I only know that they are here."
"In that case..."
Since it was a job entrusted by the Master of the Dragon House , she would definitely not fail to give the five hundred thousand spirit stones.
Although the Dragon House made honest deals, the Chamber of Commerce under it more or less relied on the black market.
If she lost her credibility in the black market, the black market could also prevent the Chamber of Commerce in her Dragon House from doing business.
Since she had revealed her identity, it was enough to show her sincerity.
The shopkeeper stood up and cupped his hands. "Then, we will take over this matter. After it is done, we will..."
"Bring their heads or their storage bags, and come to the Dragon House to get your spirit stones. A trip to the Western Region for some hundreds of thousands of spirit stones is not too far, right?"
"Understood."
"Then, that's it. I won't stay longer. Farewell."
Li Longling put the jade seal on the table back into the storage bag and tapped the table lightly. Ye Anping stepped forward, helped her up, and then led her out of the house.
After watching the two leave, the shopkeeper looked at the three portraits left on the table. If this succeeded, it would be 1.5 million spirit stones.
According to the rules of his Seven Slayers Sect, he could take 10%. That was one hundred fifty thousand.
He only needed to send these three portraits to the Seven Slayers Sect headquarters, wait for a few months, and then he would receive one hundred fifty thousand spirit stones. That was almost like getting it for free.
"Hehe... hahaha..."
The shopkeeper laughed happily, picked up the three portraits, and ran out of the backyard to find the cultivators who were in contact with the headquarters to deliver the letter.
Walking out of the shop, Li Longling seemed a little weary. She suddenly breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Ye Anping through the Fire Phoenix's eyes. "Master Ye..."
"Hmm?" Ye Anping asked gently, "What's wrong? First time dealing with a gangster?"
Li Longling nodded. She was a good girl who had never been to a gambling house. She felt strange to be dealing with shady cultivators.
Her father had taught her not to deal with black market cultivators or she would compromise herself.
"Yeah."
Ye Anping suddenly felt a sense of guilt for corrupting a good disciple, and he shook his head with a wry smile. "You'll get used to it."
Then, he took out a list from the storage bag and crossed out the first line.
"The Northern Region Seven Slayers Sect is done. We still have to go to six more places to place bounties."
Li Longling let out a long breath before asking, "Master Ye, do you often deal with these people in the black market?"
Ye Anping smiled. "It's my first time too."
"...I don't believe you."
"Really."
"I don't believe it!" Li Longling pouted and bumped him with her shoulder. "Master Ye, your image of a righteous scholar in my mind has been completely ruined."
"Stop making trouble. Let's go to the next one and try to finish before nightfall today. Let me think, the shop of Seven Mysteries Sect should be... the rouge shop on the west street of Frozen River Immortal City ..."