"Why don't we wait a while until the snow stops before we make another attempt?"
After a brief discussion, the two of them got up to look for a place to take shelter.
Along the way, they occasionally saw some sinful immortals covered in snow. Judging from their clothes, they were clearly from the northern region.
This place was about a thousand miles away from the northern village. Seeing these sinful immortals dead here, Yaohua couldn't help but feel a sense of unease.
Who would come all the way to such a remote place for no reason?
"Yaohua, look! Doesn't that person look like Egret?"
The voice of Immortal Muyang caught Yaohua's attention. She followed Muyang's gaze and saw a figure leaning against a rock. The person was biting one corner of a cloth strip and struggling to bandage the wound on their wrist. It was none other than Egret, whom they had been searching for without any clue.
"Egret!"
As soon as Yaohua called out, Egret, who had been sitting on the ground, suddenly leaped up. With both arms, Egret firmly grabbed the neck of a person who had just popped their head out from behind the rock and snapped it backward. After a chilling sound, the person went limp and fell to the ground.
Immortal Muyang gasped.
Egret looked in the direction of the sound. The fierce look in their eyes froze for a moment when they saw Yaohua. "Yaohua?"
"It's me." Yaohua walked over. "Qing Shi has been looking for you for a long time but couldn't find any trace of you. What are you doing here?"
"After I returned to the village, I found it completely deserted. I overheard those sinful immortals talking about large - scale ore mining on the ice field. I had no idea what they were up to, so I decided to follow them and find out."
"Large - scale ore mining?" A look of suspicion flashed across Yaohua's eyes. There were so many things that could be done with ore, and she didn't have the time to think too much about it.
"Yes. They seem to have discovered an extraordinary ore deposit. They've been lingering around there recently." Egret motioned for them to hide and then pointed in a certain direction. "It's that way."
Looking in the direction Egret had pointed from their hiding place, Yaohua indeed saw many sinful immortals moving around.
Then, among the crowd, she spotted a familiar small figure.
Yaohua stared at the person, her body going rigid, her expression filled with shock and uncertainty.
The last time she saw him was several years ago in Henan Prefecture.
She had thought she was mistaken at that time. Stone was supposed to be a living dead. After Xie Ling's death, he should have turned to dust long ago. How could he appear in Henan Prefecture?
Now, she saw Stone again on this ice field!
Yaohua withdrew her gaze absent - mindedly. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she couldn't calm down no matter what.
Her distracted appearance caught Egret's attention.
"What did you see? Why do you look so pale?"
"I saw an old acquaintance who should have been dead." Yaohua bit her lower lip and slowly tightened her grip on the sword at her waist.
No matter who this "Stone" was, his appearance here meant that it was no coincidence.
Since Stone was already dead, she would never allow this person who was wearing his shell to leave the ice field smoothly.
"Is he your enemy?" Egret hesitated. "Calm down. If we make a move now, we won't gain anything."
Yaohua nodded silently. Egret had been hiding here and hadn't shown up in front of them for so long. Presumably, it was to create an intimidating situation.
"By the way, what are you doing here?"
"We're here to collect ore." Yaohua explained. "Immortal Muyang is going to help me forge a sword. We're short of a material that can only be found here."
"Did you bring explosives?"
After getting Yaohua's confirmation, Egret's eyes immediately lit up. "That's perfect. They're going to set off explosives to blast the mountain when the snow clears tomorrow. We can take action then and send them all to hell! By then, you can take as much ore as you want."
That wasn't necessary. Forging a sword didn't require that much ore.
However, would explosives be effective against the living dead?
"Although we don't know what they're using the ore for, they must have bad intentions. Egret, can you shoot arrows?"
Hearing Immortal Muyang's words, Yaohua knew that he also wanted to blow up these sinful immortals.
"I have something to tell you."
It wasn't difficult to explain about Stone. Yaohua told them everything from his appearance to his disappearance, as well as the matter about the Heavenly Demon.
By the time she finished speaking, night had fallen.
The wind and snow howled. Yaohua shivered.
This place was at a very high altitude, so the temperature was extremely low. The sinful immortals had set up camp near the ore deposit and started a fire. The smell of roasted meat wafted over on the wind, and Yaohua suddenly felt hungry.
It was really strange.
She had been here for so long and had hardly felt such a strong sense of hunger. Why was she so craving meat just because she smelled it tonight?
Yaohua swallowed her saliva and deliberately ignored this feeling, focusing all her attention on the ore.
There was a tree branch wrapped with a red cloth strip stuck in the flat ground. Presumably, it was the mark they had made.
Shifting her gaze to the right, Yaohua saw Stone standing beside the tree branch. Under the reflection of the snow, he looked as cold as an ice sculpture.
Just one look at him was enough to send a chill down one's spine.
Just as Yaohua was about to withdraw her gaze, a sinful immortal shouted something. Stone turned around. They seemed to be arguing, and the sinful immortal, looking angry, raised his fist and was about to punch Stone in the face.
Stone raised his small hand and placed his palm against the sinful immortal's fist. Then, with a sudden twist, there was a tooth - aching creaking sound. The sinful immortal's entire arm was torn off by Stone.
The scream echoed through the sky and naturally alerted the other sinful immortals.
When they looked over, blood was flowing all over the ground. The severed arm was casually discarded by Stone. Stone slowly walked up to the sinful immortal. Somehow, a knife appeared in his hand.
Crack -
The sinful immortal's head rolled like a ripe watermelon to the side of the fire. His wide - open eyes stared directly in Yaohua's direction.
Yaohua's heart almost stopped beating.
It seemed as if the smell of blood was lingering around her nose.
After a brief moment of silence, the sinful immortals gradually withdrew their gazes. They pretended not to have seen this scene and continued chatting and laughing.
"Sure enough, he's not one of us."
Immortal Muyang averted his gaze and slowly shook his head.
Yaohua's gaze met his. "Can the living dead be killed by explosives?"
"We need to discuss this with Ziying. This child is no ordinary living dead anymore."
Immortal Muyang didn't hold out much hope. "We must have the ore for forging the sword. We need to come up with a good plan, but there's no need to try to blow them up."
Yaohua thought the same way. The two of them both looked at Egret.
Although Egret was a bit disappointed, they still nodded.
"By the way, will the dead sinful immortals expose us?"
Suddenly remembering this question, Yaohua was a bit worried.
"Don't worry." Egret was very experienced. "They'll just think it was the child who did it."
The next day, before the sinful immortals were about to blast the mountain, the three of them hid themselves early.
Boom -
After a loud explosion, the snow on the mountain roared down. Almost the entire world was filled with flying snow.