Cultivation through Skin Making

If he lost his stubbornness, he would still like other things.

Seeing that Song Yan hadn't answered, An Li continued, "If you are looking for a Dao companion, Sect Leader Yu is much more suitable than I am.

I'm not beautiful, and I'm already one hundred thirty-two years old, plus I suffer from erysipelas.

I don't have much longevity left, sir... what do you hope to get from me?"

Song Yan was silent for a long time and then said, "Make a bowl of noodles."

Seeing a flash of anger in An Li's eyes, not knowing what nonsense she was going to say, he added, "For the last time."

An Li bowed respectfully and said, "Yes, my lord."

She turned and went into the kitchen, carefully making a bowl of noodles.

But even with care, her culinary skills were still very average.

Song Yan took the bowl of noodles, grabbed the chopsticks, and lowered his head, slurping as he ate.

He closed his eyes, eating the noodles seriously, as if for a moment, time had turned back, and he was once again in the small bamboo house on Warm Water Island a hundred years ago. The reflection on the lake, Celestial Cloud falling into the sea, a life as tranquil as a frog in a well, days filled with nothing but alchemy and them going out together, the simplicity of it all was slow yet unforgettable.

He wanted to play tricks, but he understood that "tricks cannot earn goodwill." Having reached this point in his cultivation, he needed to genuinely put his heart into it rather than face things with cunning as before.

He reminisced, eating every strand of noodle, finished the soup, licked the bowl, and then put it down, saying, "Delicious."

An Li stared at him blankly.

At that moment, she saw a familiar shadow on the youth before her.

The way he ate noodles was so familiar.

She closed her eyes, controlling herself not to think too much, and then said lightly, "I hope you keep your word."

Then she hurriedly took the bowl and walked toward a water jar.

...

...

After a night, the snow rarely stopped, and the sky was full of sunshine falling on the ice and snow. The reflected mountains and rivers were all white, as if emitting light.

Today, An Li didn't perform alchemy because she was missing an important medicine.

Once, a fellow sect member ventured into a dangerous place to get the medicine for her, but that dangerous place was in the Ice Realm Wilderness and never returned...

Now that she was in the Fire Worship Demon Sect, she naturally could see if the sect could exchange for such medicine.

As for the method of exchange, of course, it was Contribution Points.

The token from Zhengyang Peak had already been made, and the sect could convert items into Contribution Points; she brought many elixirs she made, which should be enough.

In the morning, she went out and busied herself for a day. Upon returning at dusk, she found the figure of that Ancient Race youth again appearing in the alchemy room.

An Li frowned slightly.

However, the youth ran to the kitchen and started making noodles.

He made two bowls and said, "From now on, I'll do it."

An Li was taken aback, her small hands clenched into fists, yet she forcibly suppressed her anger.

After a moment, the two sat facing each other.

Song Yan cleaned his bowl of noodles, while An Li sat motionlessly.

But... the way the young man ate noodles before her began to awaken some of her memories more and more.

If it was something she occasionally saw, she wouldn't think much of it, but clearly, he was an Ancient Race person, so why was he treating her, such a low-status young female cultivator, this way?

After Song Yan left, An Li sat for a long time before picking up the chopsticks, catching a strand of cold, almost frozen noodles and putting it in her mouth. A strange familiar taste came from her taste buds.

Senior Brother Bai... would also make noodles and they were very delicious.

But how could it be?

An Li's eyes reddened, her nose twitching, yet she didn't eat any more nor did she go to perform alchemy. Instead, she sat stiffly in the same place, staring blankly at the snow stained red by the sunset until darkness fell.

...

Time flew by, and a year passed.

Half a year later, Song Yan's longevity stably changed from "[Longevity: 143/8623]" to "[Longevity: 143/16523]." Princess Xi had also successfully collected three of the Nine Bloods of the Dragon Elephant.

Song Yan secretly took Princess Xi to see An Li and made only one request: to use all her power to detoxify An Li, help her elevate her realm, and enable her to reach the False Mansion Realm before her final limit arrives.

Princess Xi couldn't agree.

Because An Li's erysipelas could potentially be cured, but breaking through to the False Mansion Realm before the limit arrived was absolutely impossible.

A female cultivator at the Early Stage of the Crimson Palace, tormented by erysipelas, her body was already frail. Even without the erysipelas, her longevity would last at most thirty more years, so how could she possibly break through to the False Mansion Realm in the remaining time?

Song Yan himself had no way; if it were in the past, he could use the power of "Changwang Hu" to turn people into wandering spirits, but now... his Divine Soul World was entirely like a gray melting furnace, and anything drawn into his Divine Soul World would be refined by his furnace. Even if he were extra cautious and controlled, any divine soul couldn't escape his control, couldn't... reincarnate again, and couldn't possess ordinary people anymore.

With gains come losses.

He had grown stronger, yet he had also lost the basic power of the Changwang Tiger Blood, so he could no longer turn An Li into a wandering spirit.

Because from the depths of his divine soul, he was a demon who was skilled in devouring, skilled in destruction.

...

One year finally made An Li reluctantly accept this youth who insisted on cooking noodles.

It wasn't just noodles; the youth would start bringing other delicacies, even elixirs.

There were some elixirs she could recognize and some she couldn't, but undoubtedly... they were quite expensive.

Their effects were either detoxifying or enhancing cultivation.

An Li refused to eat them, but the youth would force her to.

Today, the two had finished eating noodles once more.

As usual, Song Yan prepared to leave.

An Li looked at his back and suddenly said, "I don't quite understand."

Song Yan stopped, turning his head sideways.

An Li said, "You clearly can't be Senior Brother Bai."

Song Yan lowered his eyes.

An Li continued, "But you, everywhere, are just like him, except... appearance."

Song Yan turned, looked at the snow-covered courtyard, and smiled, "Want to come?"

An Li paused, and then she followed him to the courtyard in confusion.

Very soon, she saw the youth pinch a snowball, throwing it in a distant arc, "pop," and it lightly hit her right cheek.

The youth was smiling.

An Li mumbled, "Impossible..."

As she said "impossible," her eyes reddened, tears welling up but still saying "impossible, it's impossible."

Pop!

Her left cheek also got hit.

Instinctively, she closed her eyes, and the tears that were held back slid down her cheeks instantly.

When she opened her eyes again, the youth was already standing in front of her, looking at her worriedly.

An Li stared at him, a thoughtful expression in her eyes, softly uttering a sentence, "Take me to possess; I want to choose a big bad person."

She had reached the Early Stage of the Crimson Palace, naturally having an opportunity to possess an ordinary person, even ordinary cultivators, and now she wanted to take this opportunity while her limit hadn't been reached.

Not for anything else, because she understood who the person in front of her was.

Possession is risky, but she had already gathered the courage to do it once for the person before her.

She understood she absolutely couldn't say the name of the person in front of her.

Senior Brother Bai possessed a Formless Race person, and if people found out, Senior Brother Bai would surely be hunted to the ends of the earth by the Ancient Race and then have his soul vanish.

Thinking of this, the young female cultivator suddenly became frightened; she hurriedly reached out to push Song Yan, saying while pushing, "You're acting too strangely, you can't keep doing this; those elixirs of yours were all brought by Princess Xi, right?"

She became more and more angry as she spoke, and then said crossly, "How could you do this?!"

Song Yan grabbed her hand, pulled her into his arms, and said, "No problem."

...

That night, Song Yan returned to his own room and continued studying the "Ice Coffin Profound Killing Array."

Suddenly, his panel lit up, and new information floated up.

However, the name that appeared was not "Array Dao: Ice Coffin Profound Killing Array."

But rather... "Array Dao: Demon Infant Ice Profound Sacrificial Array."

Song Yan's pupils shrank tightly, staring steadily at the words "Demon Infant" and "Sacrifice."

A long-nurtured intuition at the edge of danger made him feel something was wrong, and he immediately deduced: Someone had set a scheme in this land, whether it's the "Ghost Infant Scripture," the fire of the Fire Worship Demon Sect, or whatever this "Ice Coffin Profound Killing Array" is, they might all be parts of the scheme.

This scheme is huge, starting thousands of years ago...

Otherwise, Zhang Han wouldn't have obtained the "Ghost Infant Scripture."

He turned his head to look out the window.

The snow fell white; on the land of the Snow Country, the eerie red flames still burned silently, providing warmth to the people, driving the shadow puppets to madness, giving power to the cultivators, but in essence... it was just a sacrifice, a sacrifice to that demon infant!

What is the demon infant?

Song Yan happened to know.

He didn't stay in the Ancestral Vein Secret Realm of the Formless Ancient Race for nothing; he naturally saw a lot of information during that time.

The demon infant was one of them.

This being was similar to the demon monk, both belonging to the Sea of Suffering, but it was not a novice monk formed by Buddhist obsessions; instead, it harbored hidden outer realm evil thoughts, belonging to... the Celestial Demon Lineage.