Han Lian swept her divine sense across the fallen cultivator and found she belonged to Jihan Gate. Her condition was dire, one breath from death. Han Lian flicked a strand of spiritual power into the woman's body to hold that breath in place.
Ran Xi and the other two arrived a step later. Exchanging a glance, they flashed to the woman's side. Han Lian had already pressed a pill between the woman's lips and was guiding the medicine along.
When the pill took effect, the female cultivator slowly opened her eyes. She seemed not to see clearly, her whole being dazed. She tried to rise, but Han Lian pressed a hand to her shoulder.
"I am Han Lian. How were you wounded so badly? Who did this to you?"
The four were veterans. One look, and they could distinguish wounds from the Polar Extreme Wind Zone and wounds from a blade. There was reason to ask.
At last the woman's gaze focused. Seeing that it was Han Lian Zūnzhě before her, her voice trembled.
"Zūnzhě, save my senior brother. Someone… is using the polar wind to hunt… cultivators. They are…"
The last few words never came. She pitched forward and died on the spot. A breath later, her flesh dissolved into motes that vanished in midair. Han Lian's supporting hand closed on emptiness.
"Amitabha. She must have used a secret method to escape the Polar Extreme Wind Zone. She came to deliver a warning."
Yun Chen Fózǐ pressed his palms together.
Ran Xi nodded. "Han Lian, can you be certain she was from Jihan Gate?"
Not that she was overly suspicious, but what if it was another trap.
Han Lian nodded. "I am certain. While I guided the pill, I checked her meridians. Jihan Gate's cultivation method cannot be copied. She also used the sect secret art Snowmelt Dissolution.
That technique is used only to send out vital news, at the price of dissolving one's cultivation, body, and soul to flee. No one of Jihan Gate uses it unless there is no other choice."
Ran Xi accepted that the message wrested from death was genuine. Still, she frowned. "Han Lian, she was only late Golden Core. Why would she be training in the Polar Extreme Wind Zone?"
Han Lian shook her head. "I do not know. The zone is excellent for tempering the body. With late Golden Core cultivation, one might barely use the outer winds to temper themselves."
Xun Kun reminded them, "If someone is hunting in the zone, the evil cultivators may already have begun."
"Amitabha. Highly likely. From what Ran Xi learned by soul-searching, if the evil cultivators set their sights on the Misty Snow Domain, fewer cultivators entering benefits them."
Ran Xi added, "Yun Chen Fózǐ is right. They may also be using this chance to seize bodies."
Han Lian decided at once. "I will notify the sect to hold people back from the Polar Extreme Wind Zone. We go in to see for ourselves."
She sent out three flying-sword messages, then waved her sleeve and cast a warning red lotus into the sky. The lotus hovered above the entrance to the Polar Extreme Wind Zone.
"Let us go in."
"Amitabha. One moment."
Yun Chen lifted his sleeve and sent out three prayer beads. Warm golden light drifted down, one bead into each of their palms.
"Please keep these on you. Even if we are scattered, I can find you."
Ran Xi set her bead into her storage bracelet. Catching Xun Kun in the corner of her eye, she thought for a beat, then took out two red cords she had used before. She handed one to Han Lian, and looped the other around Xun Kun's wrist and her own.
"So long as the person on the other end lives, the cord will guide you to them. We would better not split up. None of us knows what the evil cultivators will attempt for the Misty Snow Domain."
The other three agreed. None felt she was exaggerating. Ten years in the sealed land of the Shanhe Scroll were proof enough.
Xun Kun coughed lightly in support. "Ran Xi is thorough. The cords have a range. We will move in pairs and cover one another. Inside, we face not only evil cultivators but the polar winds themselves."
He knew perfectly well Ran Xi feared he might lose his way in the winds.
After a few mutual nods, the four flashed into the Polar Extreme Wind Zone, leaving only the vast crimson ice-lotus floating in the air.
Many northern-region cultivators saw the lotus and murmured:
"That is Jihan Gate's warning red lotus. What happened?"
"Eight or nine chances it is evil cultivators again."
"That direction looks like our Northern Region's Polar Extreme Wind Zone. That is one of the five deadly grounds. Who goes there to die?"
"Have you just left seclusion? The Misty Snow Domain is about to open. I heard the entrance is inside the wind zone."
"Really?"
"Would I lie? Have you not noticed crowds of cultivators heading there lately?"
"Tsk tsk. You need at least Nascent Soul to enter. With their cultivation, what danger could they face?"
"How would I know?"
"Come on, let us go see."
"No thanks. I am not courting trouble. You should not either."
"Eh, that is Jihan Gate's flying boat. They are sending people to check the wind zone?"
"Looks like it. Jihan Gate is the Northern Region's top sect. Of course they go first."
Hidden among the crowd, Xiao He gazed up at the crimson lotus, a flash of understanding in his eyes.
A day earlier he had received an urgent note from the evil cultivators to leave his hideout at once. Only then did he learn Hao Miaoling's mission had failed and she had fallen. To avoid their agents in the north being rounded up, the order was to scatter and hide.
Xiao He smiled faintly. He did not know how Hao Miaoling died, but he was certain it involved Ran Xi. It only hardened his resolve to cooperate with her. A teammate like that is how you achieve great things.
Now that Jihan Gate was sweeping for infiltrators, he would likely escape thanks to Ran Xi's help. Since he had met Hao Miaoling once, to avoid suspicion from the evil cultivators he decided to find a safe place and take the potion Ran Xi gave him, push his cultivation up quickly, and use an external-seclusion pretext to explain how he survived. As his cultivation rose, the evil cultivators would be even less willing to discard this chess piece.
Decision made, Xiao He slipped away with the stream of gossiping cultivators, left Jihan City, and hurried to a secluded cave residence he had already picked out, perfect for seclusion.
On Jihan Gate's flying boat, Han Yan Zūnzhě was getting briefed by Han Ying on what had happened at the sect. He had only just left closed-door cultivation when the Ancestor sent him on this mission, with no idea of its ins and outs.