Hitting the Shardfiends with the sides of his stirrups, it gently moved forward, and when it was but a few steps from the kneeling down Guo Zen it stopped.

 

Thanks to the wailing winds, Jing's landing on the snowy ground was unnoticed by the disciple, and he stealthily crept up behind him.

 

'Wise was he who said that revenge was a dish best-served cold,' He thought with a smile as he continued his advance. 'And this one will be served frigidly cold.'

 

Just as Guo Zen stood up after removing the disciple's clothes, his mouth and eyes widened in sheer terror and pain. A swift leg had made its way between his legs and ruthlessly hammered his testicles up his pelvic bone. Breath escaped his lungs, as he weakly fell to the ground with bulging eyes.

 

Jing maniacally laughed on top of him shouting, "How do you like that?!"

 

Still laughing, he stole all of the clothes from the fallen disciple's gripped fists as he was being hatefully stared down by him before he climbed his Shardfiends and ran after the group. However, as calm and collected as he looked from the outside, internally he was terrified.

 

Although he wouldn't admit it to anyone, Guo Zen indeed scared him a lot. The guy was ruthless, was a good fighter, and liked to bully. How severe and violent his revenge would be afterward, Jing didn't know, but he was prepared for it.

 

His Shardfiend sprinted forward, though with the snow reaching above her knees, the sprint was rather humble. After running for a few seconds, the traces he had been following on the ground suddenly disappeared.

 

'What?' He shouted in his mind, terrified of the implications of that thought. The Shardfiend's steps paused, and she turned her head, looking at him with a confused expression.

 

His eyes regained a bit of glimmer as he remembered something. "Follow them," He shouted looking at her, but all he got in response was a confused growl.

 

"Shit," He cursed, remembering that these monsters understood a very particular language that he was ignorant about. "We will die," He screamed at her, "Follow the others..."

 

Suddenly-

 

Jing's eyes widened, 'Kenneth? Personal announcement? That's me!'

 

Aukhman suddenly appeared with a wide grin on his demonic face, "Congratulations," He said. "That's quite the lucky opportunity you got. It seems like the person you attacked before was also a player."

 

"Impossible..." Jing's mumbled, unable to believe that. Guo Zen acted too smoothly, he was close to the others, and seemed well grounded in his identity, unlike him.

 

Understanding what he was thinking, Aukhman joyfully played with his staff behind his back, "He was really intelligent." He commented. "He adapted way too quickly and it seems like his strategy was to bully you so that he'd seem well established in the world so that the other players if there were any won't suspect him." His eyes were full of praise as he continued, "Just like you, wasn't he the last one you had suspected?"

 

Jing still unable to process it, weakly nodded.

 

"You are lucky," The demon said. "If it were not for this short window of opportunity I doubt you'd have survived against him, you're still too green."

 

"I wasn't even trying to kill him," Xue Jing defended.

 

"Well," Aukhman smiled as he shook his head. "That's what I am talking about, you don't even think ahead. All of you were on the brink of death, barely surviving, and you hit him in a very sensitive area. What did you expect was going to happen to him? His body was too fatigued and cold to recover quickly, and in that time, the cold caught up to him and he died. But this doesn't matter anymore because if you don't move Player Ice will get the third blood."

 

"Player Ice?" Jing asked puzzled, but he quickly connected the dots. "Is there anything I can do with these Game Coins to help me locate them? And what are those Roots?" He asked. The bonus +10% Soul Purity was well understood, so there wasn't much need to ask about it.

 

"No," Aukhman said. "Your access level is too low for that. As for the roots, don't think about them for now. Your survival now is only a matter of chance. Pick a direction and continue moving, you'll either find them, or you'll die." His face morphed into an ironic smile as he said, "I can see them and I can easily tell you where they are, but I can't."

 

"What if I don't find them?" Jing asked, his tone hopeful. "Can I forfeit the game and ask you for their location?"

 

Shaking his head, Aukhman simply said, "By forfeiting the game, you forfeit your life. Your life is now held by the game, and cannot exist outside of it. You are either the champion or a dead player."

 

Jing gave him one last glare as he hatefully gritted his teeth before he randomly chose a direction for his Shardfiend to walk in. He had already wasted enough time, but it wasn't completely pointless. His Shardfiend had rested for a while, and so as they picked up their journey her speed was better than how it previously was.

 

At the peak of the mountain, the wailing of the cold wind sang a song that was only interrupted by the Shardfiends's claws plunging deep into the snow.

 

Jing had already thrown over his white robe a dark brown thick sweater and a grey robe. Yet, the warmth they provided seemed inconsequential to the severity of the cold at the peak.

 

His gaze was glued to the ground, praying to find some trace, any trace. But the only thing that his eyes found was more and more snow, even plants seemed extinct from this place.

 

Despair had all but completely invaded his heart, and his eyes teared up even against his protests. Though he prided himself on his strong will compared to the other disciples, it was getting chipped away with every wave of racing snow that ruthlessly enveloped his face in a colder blanket.

 

The Shardfiend who was glancing at him from time to time seemed to understand what was happening, but even she was helpless against the extreme environment they found themselves in. In a bid to make a final attempt, her head stretched upward before she gave a loud cry that thundered through the empty mountain peak, startling Jing who was gradually sinking deeper into the hopelessness of the situation.

 

In another corner of the mountain, the giant Shardfiend underneath the sect leader's ears twitched. Its head innocently turned to glance at the person above it, and a wordless connection seemed to transpire between the two.

 

The sect leader's cold eyes glanced to her right before her cool emotionless face finally showed a hesitant reaction. Seconds ticked by before a helpless sigh escaped her mouth and she nodded.

 

The giant monster gave a booming call that made the following ones pause in shock, and even the snow above certain rocks shifted as it fell to the sides due to the loud vibrations emitted by its cry.

 

Jing's Shardfiend's ears perked up, and her eyes shone with a joyful glint before running in a particular direction to the left. Just like her, he also became tense as he squinted his eyes and looked ahead.

 

Step after step, faint dark figures finally began to appear amidst the misty white world.

 

When the others noticed his emergence, all of them had different expressions, and Xu Yun moved to his Shardfiend to intercept his approach.

 

"Where is Guo Zen?" He yelled against the loud howls of the wind. Composing himself after such a nerve-wracking incident, Jing yelled back, "I do not know."

 

The other disciple merely gave him a long hard look before he gestured with his head to follow.

 

Jing nestled amidst the circle of disciples, which they graciously allowed him to do. However, after a while, he was pushed away as they seemed to take turns who would go there.

 

'That was a close call.' He thought with some trepidation in his heart. If he hadn't found the group right then and there, freezing to death would have been a certain matter.

 

As they continued their arduous frigid journey across the mountain peak, one disciple after the other began to fall, their Shardfiends would briefly glance at them before they'd follow after the rest of the group.

 

With every fall, Jing would feel a shockwave spreading through his heart. Not that he was attached to these disciples, but it was simply because he was shocked by how brutal the sect leader was, and how seemingly unfazed the remaining disciples were.

 

Unlike him, the people that were falling like flies were their friends. Throughout the journey, he had been observing how close some of them were, how they joked with one another, and how seemingly affectionate they were. He was expecting a bigger reaction. He was expecting them to go beg the sect leader to help them, or even resent her, yet none of that took place. All of these elements took a toll on his heart, his silence deepened, and his expression mirrored the coldness of their environment.

 

When they finally began climbing down, leaving behind the mists surrounding the peak, and a tinge of green began to make an appearance on the horizon only six disciples of the original thirteen remained. The leader of the group, Xu Yun, Shen Yun, One of the Zho Twins, The girl who fell out of the narrow path previously, another male disciple, and Jing. By then a whole other night had already passed, and the lack of food, sleep, and rest was apparent on all of their faces.

 

Their hair was dirty and each strand of hair closely stuck to one another due to the cold as they hung low over their faces, and their clothes were wet from the melted ice that stuck to their closely to their bodies. Although the wind was no longer as loud as it was in their journey through the peaks, none of them spoke, and they all seemed lost in their particular thoughts.

 

The warm beautiful sun rays enveloped their cheeks, necks, and hair in a warm affectionate embrace. Some of the disciples even teared up, realizing they had indeed made it.

 

The breeze was warm and carried with it the smell of the rich ground their Shardfiends was stepping on, and the singing of the birds sounded especially melodious in their ears.

 

Jing was also relieved, and with the advent of the sun, some of the joys he had lost through the brutal cold journey began to blossom in his frigid heart. His eyes darted from one side to the next as they climbed down, appreciating the beauty and the greenness of the trees, and the small animals that scurried on top of them as the group moved past.

 

The sect leader seemed to have a direction in mind as she navigated through a winding path amidst the trees once they reached the foot of the mountain. After a few minutes, they found themselves intruding on a camp surrounded by beautiful big horses of various colors.

 

In the center was a big fire pit that was equally surrounded by four giant brown tents. The sect leader came to a scratching halt before it, and so did the disciples behind her. Her legs moved, and she gently kicked the giant monster with her stirrups. Understanding the signal, it let out a loud guttural growl that terrified the nearby birds and animals as they all fled in different directions.