Chapter 2150: Chapter 2098: Inner Demon

“What?!” Zu An exclaimed. Even though he'd already been somewhat mentally prepared, he still felt incredibly awful. He asked, “How did she go missing?”

“Follow me,” Yan Xuehen said. Her foot tapped against the ground, and she flew toward the highest peak. This time, Zu An didn’t hold her hand, and quickly followed behind her instead.

There were many cultivators who bowed respectfully to Yan Xuehen along the way, and many of them were curious who the man at their sect master’s side was. But right now, Yan Xuehen wasn’t in the mood to attend to such things at all.

They quickly arrived at the highest peak. After passing through several strictly guarded checkpoints, the two of them arrived at an elevated platform with a mirror-like spatial rift atop it.

Zu An was quite familiar with such rifts. He could tell that it was an entrance into a secret dungeon from a single glance. But right now, the spatial element around the entrance was extremely wild and chaotic, and anything that passed through could be instantly ripped to shreds.

“This is a secret dungeon that our White Jade Sect owns. The natural ki inside is much more abundant than in the outside world, so cultivating inside is far more efficient. Normally, only a few of the most outstanding disciples have the right to cultivate inside. When Chuyan returned from the daoists' secret dungeon last time, she gained a lot of new insights. That was why the sect gave her special permission to cultivate inside the secret dungeon in seclusion," Yan Xuehen explained, her expression full of worry. “But for some reason, a few days ago, there was suddenly an issue with the secret dungeon. At the time, those with the highest cultivation in the sect sensed that something was strange, so several elders and I entered to look for Chuyan. However, the secret dungeon had already undergone a huge transformation, and Chuyan wasn't where she should have been.

“This secret dungeon isn’t that large, so our group quickly searched every corner of it, and yet we didn’t find any trace of her. Soon after, the spatial elements in the secret dungeon became more and more violent, and even the inside began to collapse. We were forced to leave.

“A while after that, the spatial elements inside became extremely chaotic. Even heaven-grade weapons would be blasted to pieces instantly by this kind of chaos, let alone human flesh. Thus, we could no longer enter to investigate her whereabouts.”

Zu An asked expectantly, “If even you and the elders couldn't find her after searching the entire place, could it be that Chuyan already escaped before the strange developments took place?”

Yan Xuehen shook her head and said, “That’s not likely. Our secret dungeon is special in that, because it's extremely precious, the peaks all watch this place carefully. We even set up some restrictions in the surroundings, so someone would immediately notice if anyone came out.

“Furthermore, the strangest thing was that Chuyan wasn’t inside, nor did she come out. It’s almost as if she vanished into thin air. I really don’t know what happened.”

Her expression became a bit lost. She was also quite knowledgeable and experienced, but she had never encountered anything like this in her entire life.

“I have an idea where she might have gone…” Zu An said with a sigh. Under her confused gaze, he then shared his experience with the Snow Lady with her.

“How could the Snow Lady possibly be Chuyan?” Yan Xuehen wondered, continuously shaking her head as she listened.

Chu Chuyan had clearly vanished from her secluded cultivation in their sect’s secret dungeon, so how could she possibly appear in the distant Great Snowy Mountain, and become the Snow Lady at that?!

“I know this is really hard to believe, but that's precisely the truth. I could sense that the Snow Lady was none other than Chuyan,” Zu An said. The way Chuyan had looked at him before she disappeared appeared in his mind. He felt as if his heart was being stabbed by a blade.

“I still can’t believe it. We clearly met the Snow Lady before, and she even tried to kill us. That was why we…” Yan Xuehen felt her face heat up. Even though all this time had already passed, she would still feel her heartbeat quicken whenever she recalled what happened back there.

“At that time, she lost her memory and didn’t recognize us,” Zu An said. When he thought about how Chuyan had experienced that endless amount of time all alone, to the point that even her memories were eroded away, he felt incredibly broken-hearted; how lonely and painful that must have been! He continued, “Unless she entered another timeline, how could Chuyan possibly vanish without any reason in your own sect’s secret dungeon?”

As she listened to his reasoning, Yan Xuehen’s face gradually grew paler and paler. She muttered to herself, “How could this be…”

She had always felt as if there was a sword hanging over her neck because of what she'd done with Zu An. What she'd been most scared of was that Chuyan would find out, so she couldn't even look her disciple in the eye.

However, even though that had already happened between the two of them, what she was most worried about right now was still Chuyan’s safety. After all, whether it was Chuyan turning into the Snow Lady, how she had spent that endless amount of time all alone, or how she had disappeared, every single one of those things was a kind of unimaginable suffering.

Yan Xuehen was completely beside herself, saying, “It’s all my fault. It must be the heavens punishing us for committing that taboo act… but even if someone ought to be punished, it should be me! What does it have to do with Chuyan?!”

As she spoke, she coughed out a mouthful of blood. Then, her eyes closed, and she fell straight to the ground.

“Xuehen!” Zu An cried out as he quickly supported her. He discovered that she had fainted, and even her breathing was extremely weak.

He was shocked. He had studied the Unshakable Daoist Manual before and knew how strict the conditions were. Once one cultivated to the level of the emotionless state, one could kill an enemy without them ever detecting the slightest bit of killing intent. However, if the cultivator experienced an intense surge of emotions, they could easily experience a rebound from the technique.

Of course, normally, that was something that would almost never happen. After all, once one's cultivation reached that point, one's mental fortitude and willpower would already be far above everyone else's. There wouldn’t be any huge swings in one's emotions.

And yet, Yan Xuehen just had to have met the eccentric that was Zu An. On one hand, she loved him, and yet on the other hand, she was really terrified because he was her disciple’s man. As time went on, this inner demon had gradually grown in her originally untainted heart.

Of course, with Yan Xuehen’s cultivation, normally such an inner demon wouldn’t affect her too much. But when she suddenly learned of Chuyan’s tragic fate, she was not only extremely heartbroken, she also felt an incredible sense of guilt and self-blame. When those negative emotions suddenly broke out all at the same time, they'd ended up triggering the latent inner demon. All of her meridians were thrown into chaos, and all sorts of energies flowed in reverse, clashing with each other.

“Sect master!” Several figures flew over. This was an important location of the White Jade Sect, so it was guarded with strict security.

The sect master had brought the regent here, so they couldn't come closer, but they had always been watching from afar. At first, they were curious as to what the usually cold and indifferent sect master would talk about with him, and they had even worried that the sect master’s coldness would offend the regent. After all, he was now someone with tremendous authority and cultivation.

And yet, a moment later, the sect master had actually vomited blood and fainted!

“You rat bastard, let go of our sect master right this moment!” Even though they had still been worried about the sect master offending Zu An a moment before, now they weren't even thinking of that at all.

Over the years, Yan Xuehen had accumulated a lot of prestige. Between that and her stunning, transcendent appearance, whether it was the young, middle-aged, or elderly, she'd become the goddess of all their dreams. When they saw that she was suddenly injured, and they couldn't even tell if she was still alive... and that she was in the arms of another man, at that, they couldn't care less whether he was a regent or not.

…

Even though Zu An was receiving a large amount of Rage points all at once, he couldn't bring himself to feel happy at all. Instead, he firmly pressed his fingers against Yan Xuehen’s pulse point to examine her condition.

By then, the elder-level figures of the various peaks had also hurried over after receiving news of what happened. When they saw the situation, they drew their weapons and aimed them at Zu An. The situation immediately became extremely tense.

“I didn’t do anything to her. She's most likely experiencing cultivation deviation right now,” Zu An said. He naturally didn’t fear these people, but if there was conflict, the treatment process would become tricky.

“Nonsense! Senior sister Yan’s heart cultivation has always been publicly acknowledged to be number one among the past three generations. She even reached the absolute emotionless state. How could she possibly experience cultivation deviation?!” an elder with a goatee loudly cried. Many other members of the sect also spoke up in agreement.

Zu An gave that short elder a look. He hadn’t expected Yan Xuehen to actually be this elder's senior sister! He couldn't help but feel strange about that. He said, “I didn’t attack her at all, so how could I have injured her? If you all don’t believe me, you can examine her yourselves. Hurry and see if you have a way of saving her.”

The elders turned to several middle-aged disciples, who had been the ones watching from a distance before, and said, “Report.”

Those individuals shook their heads and replied.

“We indeed didn’t see him attack.”

“Even so, it's hard to say for certain that he didn’t use some strange methods to attack the sect master without needing to move.”

“For instance, he seemed to have been looking at the sect master the entire time.”

…

“Enough!” A white-robed elder who had an elegant bearing shouted at them to stop. If the glorious White Jade Sect Master could be injured to this extent from just a look from another, wouldn’t they become a laughingstock to the rest of the world? The elder said, “Elder Qi, please go and take a look.”

A middle-aged daoist nun nodded. She arrived at Yan Xuehen’s side. Her facial features were quite good, and it seemed that in her youth, she'd been a beauty as well. But when compared to Yan Xuehen, even though the latter was seriously injured and unconscious, she still paled in comparison. She placed her fingers on Yan Xuehen’s wrist. A while later, her expression changed and she cried out in alarm, “How could this be?!”

“What is it?” the white-robed elder asked nervously.

“Sect master, she… she…” The middle-aged daoist nun tried to speak several times, but she couldn't speak properly.

The white-robed elder couldn't wait any longer. He extended three threads from his sleeves and placed them on Yan Xuehen’s wrist. At their level, using threads to check one’s pulse was something that couldn't be simpler. His expression also changed drastically. “Her condition is actually this critical? Even if we manage to save her, she might end up losing all of her cultivation as a result.”

“What?!” Everyone present was stunned. Yan Xuehen was White Jade Sect’s pride, the most outstanding disciple in centuries. And yet now, she was suddenly going to end up like this?

As soon as he heard that, Zu An cut off the threads and said, “So even after all of that, you're all unable to do a thing. An absolute waste of my time! I'll be the one to save her, then.”

After saying that, he prepared to carry her to her nearby personal dwelling.

The White Jade Sect’s people were horrified and tried to stop him, exclaiming, “What are you trying to do?”

“Save her, of course. Do you even need to ask?” Zu An snapped impatiently.

“But… Men and women should not touch hands when they give or receive things!” Someone finally found a pretext, and the others nodded in agreement.

Apart from being their sect master, Yan Xuehen was also an extraordinary beauty. How could she be carried into a room by a man? Who knew what he would do!

“Do you all understand what kind of situation we're currently in? Are you just going to watch as she either dies or turns into a cripple?” Zu An shouted furiously.

Everyone present choked up, none of them daring to bear that responsibility. In the end, it was the white-robed elder who said, “In that case, let junior sister Qi enter with you. It’ll be good to at least have some extra help.”

He said that it was to help, but it was more for monitoring. None of them felt at ease leaving Yan Xuehen with a man while she didn’t have any ability to resist.

“No, my treatment process can't be seen by any bystanders,” Zu An said coldly.

Are you kidding me? If they found out how I’m going to treat her, wouldn’t that start a huge scandal?!