Chapter 270: For the Sake of Being Worthy of the Teacher

“You want a reward?” Ye Tinglan’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. Her hand, which had been adjusting her collar, moved to his face, making as if to caress it. “How about a good slap across the face?”

Lu Xingzhou blinked.

Ye Tinglan’s expression turned odd. She suddenly remembered that this man was unlike normal people; he was a pervert. Before, when she’d stepped on his chest, he’d seemed to enjoy it. So, would he also enjoy a slap across the face?

This pervert also loved having his hand touched. Would that truly count as a reward for him?

Considering this, what was originally intended as a clear threat—her hand gently touching his face—suddenly took on a different meaning, turning into a flirtatious gesture.

Ye Tinglan quickly withdrew her hand and hid it behind her back.

Seeing her hide her hand and glare at him, Lu Xingzhou couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“What are you laughing at?!” Ye Tinglan fumed.

“Nothing…” Lu Xingzhou chuckled. “You’re much livelier now than you were with your previous distant, indifferent demeanor.”

Ye Tinglan remained expressionless.

She herself could barely remember what she was like on a normal day... Being with him, her emotions were growing more abundant, a gradual change she hadn’t noticed until now.

Even before she completed her cultivation, she rarely acted this way; back then, she was famously aloof and cold.

So, all she really needed was a persistent, shameless man?

But if any other man acted like this, he would have been killed long ago. Who else would dare?

While Ye Tinglan was still pondering, Lu Xingzhou naturally took her hand and started walking south. “Let’s go. If we’re going to see Si Han, we should go as soon as possible.”

Ye Tinglan looked down at her hand, which he was holding. “Are you asking for trouble again?”

“If we want to get to Si Han quickly, you’ll have to fly me there,” Lu Xingzhou said. “You don’t expect me to leisurely travel in my old wheelchair, do you?”

Ye Tinglan finally said nothing.

They had already hugged, and he had even kissed her bare shoulder. At this point, merely holding hands felt like nothing. Flying him along was a minor matter.

“You want a reward? Well, this is it,” Ye Tinglan said, unwilling to be outdone. With that, she pulled Lu Xingzhou, and they sped like the wind towards the south.

The rushing wind scattered Lu Xingzhou’s reply, making it unclear: “This little reward isn’t even as good as the spatial rift.”

Ye Tinglan heard him but kept a straight face, pretending she hadn’t.

What was the spatial rift like? They were tightly embracing.

You want that again?

In your dreams.

The Heavenfrost Kingdom was named as such not merely because it bordered the Frozen Moon River to the north, but because its entire territory had a consistently cold climate.

Even traveling south, the landscape only changed from ice and snow to a widespread frost. Yet it was high summer; in the Great Qian Dynasty, the sun would be so scorching that one could barely open their eyes, but here, it felt like winter.

“From a latitude perspective, it shouldn’t be like this,” Lu Xingzhou mused, stroking his chin. “How did this climate form...”

Ye Tinglan remained expressionless. “What latitude?”

“Oh, nothing. It’s just that we’re far from the Frozen Moon River now, so why is the climate still like this?”

“It’s still related to the Frozen Moon River,” Ye Tinglan explained. “It’s caused by ancient secrets buried beneath, but no one has unraveled the mystery yet.”

Lu Xingzhou nodded. The secret realm they had entered previously was clearly untouched by others, showing that many secrets in the Frozen Moon River remained undiscovered over the years. Climate changes caused by shifts in ley lines were common in this world; their own Xia Prefecture was an example, having revived after a secret realm was opened.

If the secrets of the Frozen Moon River were uncovered, the Heavenfrost Kingdom would naturally change as well.

Currently, however, the entire Heavenfrost Kingdom was not very suitable for ordinary people to live in. This resulted in vast, sparsely populated lands and widespread wilderness, with its development level akin to the poorest, most remote areas of the Great Qian Dynasty.

Conversely, it had become a place closer to the world of cultivation, with various immortal sects and schools standing proudly on famous mountains and rivers, each vying for supremacy.

They had already seen several duels between cultivators along the way, a colorful and captivating sight.

The two flew south for a long time. The towns they saw were all desolate, but they passed several seemingly powerful immortal sects, with cranes soaring and sword energies rising. The slightly more prosperous towns were those backed by strong sects and major powers. People rarely traveled, as the sparse population meant a doubled likelihood of encountering exotic beasts and demons in the wilderness, making the environment quite perilous.

“No wonder the Great Qian Dynasty didn’t value this place and had no intention of conquering it,” Lu Xingzhou remarked. “Conquering such a place would only add a bunch of hard-to-control immortal sects to the Great Qian, without much other benefit. Its greatest value lies in forming an alliance to resist the demon race. Because of this, the Great Qian would not want the Heavenfrost Kingdom to be unified into a strong, cohesive nation; otherwise, it would pose a threat no less than that of the demons.”

Ye Tinglan did not reply.

“You should introduce it to me,” Lu Xingzhou said. “Am I just supposed to get a superficial glimpse from the sky like this?”

Ye Tinglan sighed. “Actually, Gu Zhanting did consider conquering Heavenfrost and incorporating it into his territory.”

Lu Xingzhou was momentarily stunned. “Was he out of his mind?”

“Low development doesn’t mean low spiritual energy,” Ye Tinglan whispered. “Many famous mountains and rivers here are places of immortal aura, rich in spirit stones and various high-grade minerals. It also means that many natural treasures have yet to be discovered. Furthermore, if he could conquer these immortal sects, it would mean acquiring a large number of powerful enforcers.”

Lu Xingzhou scoffed. “What’s he thinking? He’s out of his depth. The Great Qian only has so many first-rank cultivators; he doesn’t have that kind of dominance. Unless...”

“Unless what?”

“Unless your Heavenly Jade Holy Land completely submits to him. Then he could truly command the winds and rains. Forget conquering the Heavenfrost Kingdom; conquering the demon race wouldn’t even be out of the question.”

Ye Tinglan smiled, seeming to tacitly agree with Lu Xingzhou’s statement. She then added, “His desire to conquer the Heavenfrost Kingdom shows that for years, Gu Zhanting’s focus has rarely been on conventional national governance; otherwise, he wouldn’t even consider Heavenfrost. He now views things more like a cultivator, spending more thought on cultivation resources and improving his strength.”

“Because his worldly rule has reached its peak?” Lu Xingzhou asked. “And also because his injuries have made him restless, especially as he increasingly loses ground to the Heavenly Jade Holy Land. An emperor finds such constraints difficult to bear.”

Ye Tinglan remained silent for a moment before answering from a different perspective: “In the world of cultivation, individual strength can determine many things. The reason one builds up power is simply because their personal strength isn’t overwhelming enough. Conversely, if the development of power reaches a bottleneck, then individual breakthroughs become crucial.”

This essentially meant she agreed that Gu Zhanting’s desire to conquer the Heavenfrost Kingdom was strongly linked to his wish to increase his strength and suppress the Heavenly Jade Holy Land.

Lu Xingzhou nodded. “So Gu Zhanting ultimately didn’t make a move on the Heavenfrost Kingdom because of the Heavenly Jade Holy Land’s restraint? The Imperial Advisor opposed it?”

“Yes,” Ye Tinglan replied. “My… senior sister strongly opposed sending troops into Heavenfrost. Without the support of the Heavenly Jade Holy Land, Gu Zhanting had no choice but to give up.”

Lu Xingzhou let out a bewildered laugh.

Ye Tinglan’s face flushed. She turned her head and said, “Furthermore...”

Lu Xingzhou was intrigued. “What else?”

“What is the most fundamental goal of your cultivation?”

“Revenge.”

“Nothing else?”

“Haven’t I told you about my great ambitions and ideals before, Teacher?”

Ye Tinglan shook her head. “Not that. I mean… power and longevity.”

Lu Xingzhou paused, then after a long thought, said, “Currently, I haven’t reached that level of yearning for longevity… but power, yes, with power, one can achieve their ideals.”

“The higher one cultivates, the more direct their pursuit in this regard becomes, because many worldly desires have faded,” Ye Tinglan explained. “Just as you once deliberately tried to provoke my appetite, and to this day I haven’t thought much about food—that’s a microcosm. When you no longer care about worldly desires, your focus is solely on increasing power and achieving endless life.”

“When you bring this up, do you mean that Gu Zhanting’s shift in focus to cultivation isn’t entirely from the perspective of power dynamics, but also because of his personal pursuit of longevity?” Lu Xingzhou asked.

Ye Tinglan nodded. “Yes.”

Lu Xingzhou thought for a moment. “Then is it possible that the increase in power and endless life are merely to more conveniently retain power and enjoy desires for a longer time? Otherwise, what’s the point of longevity? No interest in fine clothes and rich food, no interest in supreme authority, no desire for beautiful women, no desire for enjoyment – just to pursue eternal solitude?”

Ye Tinglan was taken aback by his words and did not reply.

“In my understanding, for an emperor, if he seeks longevity, it’s because he can’t bear to part with his power,” Lu Xingzhou continued. “If he seeks strength, it’s because there are still things he hasn’t conquered... like Gu Zhanting and the Heavenly Jade Holy Land.” As Lu Xingzhou spoke, his expression suddenly turned a bit odd. “Hey, Gu Zhanting doesn’t happen to like your… senior sister, does he?”

Ye Tinglan remained expressionless.

She naturally saw that Gu Zhanting harbored desires for her. However, since he never directly expressed them, she simply pretended they didn’t exist.

After all, many men had ideas about her; that was normal. Ye Tinglan knew the fatal allure of her beauty to men. No one could stop others from secretly liking you, right?… But who would dare express it? Even Gu Zhanting didn’t dare. She simply couldn’t fathom how Lu Xingzhou dared.

But then again, the men she encountered usually only had possessive desires for her beauty and a desire to conquer her status. Someone who would say “my heart aches for you,” hope to “share your burden,” hope “you can relax a bit,” or hope “you can smile more”—Lu Xingzhou was indeed unique in that regard.

Moreover, Ye Tinglan didn’t quite agree with Lu Xingzhou’s words.

If Gu Zhanting’s personal pursuit of cultivation was to better maintain his desire for dominance and conquest, then what was Ye Tinglan’s pursuit of cultivation for?

Was it to find a better man?

What preposterous nonsense.

However, everyone has their own ambitions, and the meaning of cultivation differs for everyone; otherwise, there would be no distinction between righteous and demonic paths. Ye Tinglan truly couldn’t say what Gu Zhanting was thinking. Perhaps a man understands men better, and Lu Xingzhou’s judgment of Gu Zhanting was more accurate?

After her mind wandered for a while, Ye Tinglan still hadn’t answered Lu Xingzhou’s question. Finally, she countered with her own: “So what about you? What is the power you pursue for? Don’t tell me it’s to fulfill your ideals.”

Lu Xingzhou coughed twice. “To be worthy of Teacher.”

“Thud!” Lu Xingzhou shrieked, flying far away.

Ye Tinglan angrily pursued him and grabbed him. “Still going to be glib?”

“You were the one who asked me that,” Lu Xingzhou said. “Am I wrong for telling the truth?”

“Truth my foot!”

“But it is true, at least it’s one of the meanings,” Lu Xingzhou insisted. “I told you, I don’t freeload.”

Ye Tinglan tightened her face and said nothing, secretly cursing herself for asking him such questions out of idleness when they were discussing the proper topic. She quickly corrected her mistake, forcing the conversation back. “We should be discussing Si Han. How did we end up talking all about Gu Zhanting?”

“There’s not much worth discussing about Si Han,” Lu Xingzhou replied. “The reason we came to find him is essentially a game of chess with Gu Zhanting. Once we understand the essence, even if Si Han dies, can’t we just support another faction to counter Gu Zhanting?”

Ye Tinglan finally nodded.

As they spoke, sword light flashed in the distance, and killing intent soared into the sky.

Lu Xingzhou gazed into the distance. “Which sect is dueling now?”

Ye Tinglan’s expression turned serious. “That’s Si Han’s mountain gate, the Shadow Moon Sect.”