From Jing's vantage point, and due to how narrow the path was, he was unable to see the disciples' expression as the only thing he could see was the rear end of a Shardfiend before him and the back of the female disciple on top of it.

'That's too fast!' He thought. 'People are already killing and rising in the ranks and yet here I am still walking.' But as displeased and inconvenienced as he was, there was nothing he could do. 'Wait, Wait,' He told himself.

Now that he had straightened his back up, he noticed something very interesting that quickly caught his attention. The mountain wall to his left was riddled with holes not bigger than a man's palm, but the insides held an interesting surprise.

Nestled in that tight corner were small pearly white birds with a black feather crown. Their reddish beak and black legs quivered in fright whenever their eyes met.

Suddenly, a cry was heard in the front of the group, and like a powder keg, every single bird resting on those hundreds of holes emerged with a swift charge forward.

Most of the disciples seemed prepared as they had noticed the same thing as he did, and so they ducked. Unfortunately, the girl in front of him was unaware, and the abruptness of the birds startled her and she reflexively put too much force to the right.

Her Shardfiend lost its balance and weakly fell to the side, but its claws were quick and sharp enough to grab into the ledge before falling, a chance the person on top of it didn't have.

A terrified scream echoed as the girl fell into the misty abyss below under the flock of white birds that were flying in a circle with a cacophony of angry bird calls.

However, as abrupt as her fall was, so was her halt. Suspended in mid-air, still screaming, the girl was hung upside down before a gentle force helped her to the Shardfiends that had already climbed into the narrow mountain path.

Jing's mouth was open wide, but compared to the astonishing scenes he had witnessed thus far it didn't amount to much. The sect master who he was sure was the culprit didn't even turn around, her giant Shardfiends still miraculously and easily treading on a path that should have been impossible for its sizeable form.

The group had already left the duo behind as they followed after the sect leader. Jing was stuck waiting for the girl to calm herself down. He noticed her chest violently heaving up and down as she stuffed a cry of shock. Still, he was understanding enough to not say anything and just let her calm down without much pressure.

The birds, however, understood they did not. As if they were previously terrified by some great danger that now had already left, they eyed the two disciples with vengeance in their eyes.

Jing was still waiting for the girl to continue after the group, hands clasped around his torso as he shivered in the cold. At the periphery of his vision, he noticed how the flock's flight pattern had changed. Originally, they were flying in a circular pattern above the misty abyss, but now they had spread out and each seemed to be following its own rhythm sending the group into a chaotic mess. That was when he noticed how several of them were dashing through the air in their direction, their sharp wings whooshed as the air was spliced in two.

"Shit," He yelled. "Move movee."

Awoken by his sudden shouts, the girl finally glanced to the side, and her mouth widened in sheer terror. The remaining of the group had also noticed what happened by then and began turning around to look.

Though the birds were small, Jing felt a great sense of danger from them, and so when they were but mere seconds away and the girl was still frozen, he could only shield his head between his arms and hope for the best.

That was when their Shardfiend's dormant strong Qi moved, conjuring a light green shield of energy around them.

Booming sounds echoed through the mountains as the angry birds collided with the barrier before bouncing off. That also seemed to pull the girl from her frozen state, and she stirred the Shardfiend to move forward.

Following after her, Jing was barely able to see anything as the birds were relentless, obscuring his vision from beyond the barrier. Fortunately, the closer they were to the group, the less incentivized the birds seemed to attack them. When they finally caught up to them, the birds remained behind doing one last flight before they returned to their homes on the mountain walls.

The girl seemed to feel slightly guilty because she was the one who had caused that to happen, and so she turned around and gave a wry apologetic smile. "Sorry for that, I was caught by surprise."

"It's fine," Jing waved his hand nonchalantly. But he was very pleased to finally find an entrance and get closer to the disciples. He had understood how his survival would be in many ways dependent on them as they'd be a team, and being shunned by your team wouldn't bode well for him. "It happens, they surprised me too."

Nodding with a faint smile, the girl was about to turn around when he said, "Wait."

Noticing her curious expression, he smiled and said, "Sorry about what happened in that room. You know the reason I acted as such was because I was slightly sleep deprived, and so when I woke up again I thought I was still dreaming, hence why I acted in such a strange manner."

The girl's eyebrows shot up in surprise before she lightly chuckled and said, "Ah I see. I thought it was strange because you were shy at first and then you turned the complete opposite, so that's why."

"Yes," Jing smiled, and though he wanted to speak even more, he knew how uncomfortable it was to turn around on this path.

As the group continued their journey forward, the freezing cold also had its journey as it reached new heights. Most of them had their arms around their Shardfiends in order to feel some warmth from it, but even that was a bit too much for them. The narrow mountain path was already left behind, and what replaced it was but a white world filled with nothing but snow.

They journeyed forward in that whole world that was devoid of anything else for hours. The sky overhead gradually turned from its misty grey to dark. The advent of darkness pushed the temperature in the mountain peak even lower.

Not one of them spoke as they walked in the same straight line the narrow path had conditioned into them, and the spearhead of the group was as cold and indifferent as that mountain. She continued her steps unbothered and unfazed by the sharp drop in temperature.

Jing's knees were weak from how much they had been shivering this whole day, and all he wanted was warmth and a short rest. Yet, both of those things were as elusive as a patch of green grass in the mountain peaks.

With every passing hour, he would think that the sect leader was about to stop, she was only looking for a good shelter for them. But when several had already passed, and they just continued moving forward he realized that rest wasn't on the menu.

Several of them had approached Xu Yun in the hope of him going to talk with the sect leader, but he vehemently rejected their requests. "The sect leader knows what's best." He would curtly say.

Jing heard some of them briefly mentioning how if they were at the Qi Condensation this would have been easier because they could just move their Qi around them which would slightly increase their warmth. But Alas, as Body Tempering disciples, Qi was something outside of their body, and in this climate, the Qi was colder than the wind, trying to handle it would be tantamount to suicide.

Curious, he tried to feel it out and he was shocked by what he had experienced. It was a sensation that he had never experienced in his life. It felt as if his soul was burned, but instead of it being heat, it was cold. He abruptly stopped and calibrated his breath to recover from it.

In such a brutal and unforgiving manner, the night was spent before the sky was finally turning lighter. Something all of them had been dying for, because as obstructed as the sky was with all of those thick clouds and everything in between, it always managed to make the situation slightly easier. Except for this time.

The sect leader as if reading their minds, took another path, not forward, not backward, but upward. Heading even closer to the very source of this cold spell that threatened to freeze the blood inside of their bodies.

The disciple who was the least clothed out of everyone involved was without a doubt the one most affected. Jing's mind was screaming for him to just let go of the beast, and huddle up in some corner until his heartbeat stopped moving. But he soldiered on and followed after them.

Before his reincarnation, his biggest desire was to die, but after it, he realized that that decision was purely a practical matter. He wasn't depressed, nihilistic, or suicidal in the very sense of the word. He just didn't want to continue living the life he had, but now that new opportunities blossomed in front of him, opportunities that would allow him to bring life to all of his hopes and crushed dreams, then his biggest desire for death had begun to subtly shift from death to survival.

More than that, he had been humiliated enough by this group of disciples. He would be damned to fall down like a little bitch, and watch them feel better about themselves because they had survived better than him.

As they continued their climb upward, the cold winds howled at them, and even vision became a challenge. All they could see before them was a world filled with light spots where barely anything could pass through.

Until a change occurred.

A disciple in front of Jing fell down to the side. His eyes closed, and subtle minute movements could be hardly noticed from his chest. All of the disciples halted their steps as they looked at him, and they just continued standing there, awaiting something.

Standing with them, Jing was waiting as well, waiting for the savior who had always intervened at the last moment to save. Yet, as he gazed at the rear end of the giant Shardfiend that continued moving forward, he had a bad feeling in his heart. He remembered how solemn all of the Peak Masters were before their departure, and how Peak Master Li Yan said that he had faith in the both of them surviving. The other disciples and Xu Yun as well all had the same expression as they realized the same thing.

The sect leader wasn't going to help!

This realization terrified them, and what made the situation even more scary was that the sect leader's figure was gradually disappearing amongst the millions of fast-flying snowflakes.

"Ruunn, follow the sect leader." Xu Yun sobered up and shouted with everything that he had.

Jing only heard faint indiscernible sounds, but as he looked at the disciple's frantic moving hands from his squinted eyes, he knew what he was saying.

All of the disciples kicked their Shardfiends to run after the sect leader, and Jing followed as well. However, his Shardfiends swiftly stopped once again, following his orders.

He noticed how one disciple had climbed down from his Shardfiend and approached the still-dying disciple, removing his clothes.

Jing's eyes lit up, 'How did I not think of that?' He exclaimed. Being the one with the fewer articles of clothing, he knew how important they were. When he noticed how the disciple that had climbed down was none other than Gue Zen, his mortal enemy for the past few days, his eyes widened. He was the only one who had a scarf tightly around his waist.

"Now, how about that?" He mumbled through quivering lips, and his lips formed a poor excuse of a grin as he could hardly control the frozen muscles in his face.