Chapter 64: Chapter 63: The Tragic Fate of the "Ice Mountain Peach Blossom Little Sword Immortal

Seeing Li Xiang and Jiang Jianguo’s good attitudes, Teacher Huang offered a few more earnest words before leaving, satisfied.

Still, Teacher Huang was truly kind-hearted and quite responsible. Otherwise, who would bother with this sort of mess? It hadn’t even happened at school.

"I’m sorry, Uncle Jiang. I’m sorry, Cai’Er," Li Xiang apologized.

Jiang Jianguo waved a hand dismissively. He didn’t actually see it that way. Although he wasn’t a well-read man, his heart ached for his daughter. She had studied diligently at school for a month, waking up just after five in the morning and going to sleep past eleven at night. It was incredibly hard work.

He’d heard from his daughter that after the classroom lights were turned off, some students would take out emergency lamps, while others would light candles, continuing to burn the midnight oil until eleven o’clock before heading back to their dorms.

After a month of exhaustion, she was mentally and physically drained. It was perfectly understandable for her to want a little rest and entertainment upon returning home for break. It was a matter of balancing work and rest, after all.

Of course, he couldn’t possibly argue with the teacher.

Jiang Cai’Er, however, just shrugged and playfully stuck out her tongue. She wasn’t about to blame Li Xiang. With a giggle, she grabbed her father and Li Xiang by the hand and started running toward the school exit.

Li Xiang was still carrying his luggage on his back, but it didn’t affect his speed at all.

Thanks to the efforts of the entire school, a walkable path had been cleared through the snow on the main road. However, all the snow was now piled on the roadsides in banks taller than a person. There was no way to transport it, so they could only wait for it to melt naturally.

The story behind the snow-clearing was that many teachers had complained their students were cold. The principal’s response was, "If they’re cold, then get them moving! Everyone outside to shovel snow. A little exercise and you won’t be cold anymore."

And so, they mobilized en masse. Many hands make light work.

When they ran out of shovels, they simply used their hands. Everyone knows how to roll a snowball, right? It turned into an opportunity to play in the snow as well.

The principal led the charge, and everyone enjoyed this "gluttonous feast" of snow, having an absolute blast.

A trip to the Northeast Snow Village would cost money, but this was free!

Some mischievous students even built snowmen on the athletic field. Others attempted to sculpt figures from anime and video games, like Optimus Prime, Diaochan, Lu Bu, Chang’e, the Monkey King, the Boonie Bears, and so on. They were strikingly lifelike—a perfect display of youthful energy.

Since it was already noon, Jiang Jianguo took Jiang Cai’Er and Li Xiang to a noodle shop. Each of them had a simple, large bowl of beef noodles drizzled with chili oil. Warmed from the meal, they finally started the tractor for the journey home.

On the way back, the snow started falling heavily again. Li Xiang secretly circulated his Breathing Technique. Warm streams of Spiritual Power flowed from the Spiritual Power Vortex in the mysterious acupoint between his brows. The energy traveled along his meridians throughout his body before returning to the vortex, completing a Great Cycle.

His body was still like a small furnace, just as it had been on the way there. Jiang Cai’Er felt the warmth and glanced over. She was secretly amazed to see Li Xiang’s face still flushed and healthy in the middle of the blizzard. She wanted to press her ice-cold hands against him to warm them up, but with her father right there, she didn’t dare.

Her own lips blue with cold, Jiang Cai’Er snuck several glances at Li Xiang during the ride. It was just so strange. ’With snowflakes filling the sky and the north wind cutting like a knife, how can his complexion be as rosy as a peach blossom? It’s just too handsome, isn’t it?’

Li Xiang, immersed in his Cultivation, was completely oblivious. He could feel his body brimming with Spiritual Power and sensed that he was on the verge of opening another Spiritual Power Vortex. However, he felt he was missing some crucial trigger and was unable to break through.

If he could open one more, he would be able to advance to Tier Two Extraordinary.

Yes, that’s right. The Extraordinary System of his previous life was quite simple. From the beginning of the Apocalypse when the Mysterious Particles emerged, to the year he died, only four years had passed.

Humanity had to figure everything out on their own. As a result, the Extraordinary System was divided in a simple and crude manner.

Tier One meant opening one Spiritual Power Vortex, Tier Two meant two... and Tier Eighteen meant opening eighteen Spiritual Power Vortexes.

These eighteen Spiritual Power Vortexes were located between the eyebrows, in the torso, and in the four limbs. To be precise, there was one between the eyebrows, one for each of the five major organs—heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys—and then three in each limb: thigh, calf, and sole of the foot, and upper arm, forearm, and palm of the hand, making twelve in the limbs.

The location of a person’s first Spiritual Power Vortex wasn’t fixed; it appeared to be random.

Then, the eighteen Spiritual Power Vortexes would merge into one, forming a Liquid Pool, also called a Spirit Pool—a pool of liquid Spiritual Power—allowing one to achieve the Saint Tier.

As for how one cultivated at the Saint Tier and what its divisions were... well, Li Xiang hadn’t lived long enough to find out, so he’d never heard anything about it.

In his past life, he was merely a Tier Five Extraordinary. He was considered one of the best among Low Tier Extraordinary Beings, but he was still at the bottom of the ladder.

He had only heard of a few Saint Tier individuals, but had never seen one in person.

Even so, he had actually been quite impressive. Extraordinary Beings were a one-in-a-hundred existence. You might not even find one Extraordinary Being in a hundred people. It all depended on one’s innate constitution and talent.

For him to have reached Tier Five Extraordinary in just four short years, he could truly be called a "genius."

But geniuses also have different levels. Imagine this: you’re born accompanied by celestial phenomena, Golden Lotuses sprouting from the earth, and dragons and phoenixes singing in unison. You have an innate Magical Treasure comparable to a Nine Refinement Divine Soldier. After coming of age, you encounter countless opportunities, cultivate diligently without a single day of rest, and finally overcome the eighty-one tribulations to ascend amidst rosy clouds, becoming the envy of the world. And then... you become just one of the hundred thousand celestial soldiers sent to besiege the Great Saint.

Countless geniuses just like you were killed or injured, but they still couldn’t stop the Great Saint.

Could you say those soldiers weren’t geniuses?

They simply couldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as the Great Saint. The difference was like that between the heavens and the earth.

And in his past life, there truly were experts of such breathtaking talent.

The one who left the deepest impression on Li Xiang was a girl named Luo Feifei. She had her debut at just fourteen years old—in acting, that is, not Cultivation—and was hailed as the "Little Celestial Immortal."

This was because her looks were strikingly similar to the "Liu Celestial Immortal" of that era. Liu Celestial Immortal also debuted at fourteen, playing Bai Xiuzhu, the young socialite in "Golden Powder Family." Afterward, with roles in "Eight Books of the Celestial Dragon," "The Return of the Condor Heroes," "Chinese Paladin," and more, she became a massive star and remains a goddess in the hearts of many to this day.

Luo Feifei should be fifteen this year, making her a bit younger than Jiang Cai’Er, but she was already famous. Just like Liu Yifei back in the day, she had become a top young starlet at fifteen, with over a hundred million fans.

Li Xiang only had 170,000 fans. She also had a TikTok account, which Li Xiang had followed, but she clearly hadn’t acknowledged him. A follow-back was out of the question.

However, Li Xiang knew this girl’s future achievements would far surpass Liu Yifei’s, because during the Apocalypse, she became incredibly famous—not for her acting career, but for her power!

Luo Feifei’s natural talent was extraordinary. When the Apocalypse arrived, her power skyrocketed. It took her only two years to reach High Stage Extraordinary, hitting Peak Tier Eighteen. People called her the "Ice Mountain Peach Blossom Little Sword Immortal."

This was because the "Ice Crystal Peach Blossom Spell" she cultivated was breathtakingly beautiful. When she attacked, the air would fill with dancing peach blossoms. But these "blossoms," so "tender and brilliant," were actually formed from minuscule shards of Ice Crystal Sword Qi. Their Sharpness was astounding, their cold oppressive. A mere graze would wound; a direct touch meant death.

During the Apocalypse, in the dark and frigid "Eternal Night," most of the planet’s surface was permanently covered in ice and snow. For someone cultivating Ice Attribute Spiritual Power like her, it was like being a fish in water.

Li Xiang’s inherited technique, however, was of a gentler nature and seemed rather unremarkable. Limited by his own aptitude, it was no wonder his progress had been slow.

To everyone’s shock and regret, however, Luo Feifei’s Cultivation Technique turned out to have a "flaw," or rather, a "backdoor." It was a version spread by "someone with ulterior motives," designed to be "reaped" like a crop. In the third year of the Apocalypse, just as Luo Feifei was attempting to break through to the Saint Tier, she was ruthlessly "harvested." All of her astonishing Ice Crystal Spiritual Power was stolen to benefit another, and Luo Feifei herself tragically perished.

This was massive news at the time, spreading across all the radio waves. It was the headline of all headlines, the top trending topic of all trending topics, and became an eternal "sore spot" in the hearts of many young people.

But that "arch-villain" was incredibly powerful, and no one dared to try and avenge Luo Feifei.

After that, no one ever dared to practice the Ice Crystal Peach Blossom Spell again.

Li Xiang suspected that the "arch-villain" must have let the news slip out by accident, allowing it to become common knowledge in every survivor base. Logically, such a person should have harvested their victims in secret, continuing to "reap the leeks" indefinitely.

Perhaps that villain had enemies of their own.

Luo Feifei was a beauty fated for tragedy, dying a year earlier than Li Xiang had in his past life. But his talent was nothing compared to hers. In the third year of the Apocalypse, Li Xiang had only just reached Tier Five. By the time he fell in the fourth year, he still hadn’t broken through to Tier Six.

Though they both died young, her life had been far more "dazzling" than his.