Chapter 280 - Master After a year of traveling, Wang Lin picked a small city. Although he didn’t like this city, the ice sculpture technique had really caught his attention. Wang Lin made wood carvings, so if he could learn this technique and use it on wood carvings, he would have another weapon. In addition to this, there was another important reason that made Wang Lin not want to leave this place. The mortals here had no life in them, which was a very strange thing. Wang Lin believed that he would gain a better understanding of death here. Wang Lin settled down in a small city near the northern border of Xue Yu. There weren’t many people in this city and the cultivator controlling it was at the late stage of Core Formation. This cultivator disappeared without a trace two nights after Wang Lin arrived. However, no one but Wang Lin knew of his disappearance. On the third day, Wang Lin, disguised himself as this person and walked out of the ice tower that only had 11 floors. Wang Lin had already used his power as a soul devourer to steal all the memories of this late stage Core Formation cultivator. Instead of killing him, he took control of him and locked him inside a formation, in case he becomes useful later on. Originally, with this cultivator’s cultivation level, he wouldn’t have the right to own an ice tower, but his uncle had some power in Xue Yu, so he was assigned this small town and an ice tower. Through this person’s memories, Wang Lin learned that the genius of Xue Yu was named Red Butterfly and that she had left with a cultivator of Suzaku a few years ago. Along with the seven grand elders that left, 13 more cultivators who were even older than the grand elders had gone as well. They went to Suzaku to accept the empowerment ceremony… The request Red Butterfly had for joining Suzaku was to make Xue Yu a rank 5 cultivation country and to give them a new home. The second request had been completed. Now there was only the first one remaining. All of the cultivators in Xue Yu knew a bit about this, but because of this cultivator’s uncle, he knew even more than usual. For a rank 4 cultivation country to rise up to rank 5, a cultivator in that country would have to reach the Soul Transformation stage. The empowerment ceremony was a very powerful and heaven defying technique. Everyone only had one shot at it with a very high chance to fail. However, if it succeeded, then that person would reach the Soul Transformation stage. The only downside was that no matter how much life that person had, they would only have 100 years left to live. Also, that person’s cultivation level will be forever stuck at the early stage of Soul Transformation. There was no way to change this. They will only have 100 years to live, and once that passes, they will die. As a result, this was also a chance for those who were stuck at late stage of Soul Formation. After all, they didn’t have much life left, so it was worth a shot. As long as one of the 13 people were successful, Suzaku would give Xue Yu the privileges of a rank 5 cultivation country for 100 years. During those 100 years, one of the seven grand elders that followed Red Butterfly will reach the Soul Transformation stage, thus solidifying their position as a rank 5 cultivation country. This was something Suzaku had promised Red Butterfly. The four surrounding rank 4 cultivation countries had all accepted their fates and were ready to become subjects of Xue Yu. These were rules left by the cultivation union rather than Suzaku. Any country can rebel, but they can’t change anything as the price of rebellion is to be wiped out. Wang Lin walked out of the ice tower and saw two Foundation Establishment cultivators outside. One was male and the other female. The moment they saw Wang Lin, they knelt down and paid their respects to their teacher. Wang Lin silently nodded. Wang Lin knew that this person has three disciples and that this small beauty was the youngest. She was also the most spoiled and had a secret relationship with the cultivator Wang Lin was disguised as. This type of thing was very rare between masters and disciples in other cultivation countries. Even if it were to happen, it would be a well kept secret. But in this incredible country, it was a very common thing. According to this cultivator’s memories, there were many other cultivators in Xue Yu who had relationships with their disciples. These types of thing had become so common that no one looked down on people who did it. This cultivator had once even complained that if Red Butterfly wasn’t so blessed by the heavens, she would’ve had to serve her master as well. Wang Lin could only bitterly smile at this matter. It caused his opinion of to Xue Yu become even worse. As for the the male disciple, although he looked old, he was the second oldest. He showed respect to his master on the surface, but he really hated his master’s relationship with his junior apprentice sister. Wang Lin obtained all of this information from the Core Formation cultivator, who originally planned to send this male disciple away so he won’t be such an eyesore. With a hand behind his back and a very neutral voice, Wang Lin slowly asked, “Have any new ice embryos arrived?” Ice embryos were what the Xue Yu cultivators called the ice sculptures. The second disciple quickly answered, “Master, two of them just arrived.” Wang Lin gently nodded and said, “Take them out and let me see if the two of you have improved your technique.” Wang Lin obtained a very detailed description of the method from the cultivator’s memories. From his point of view, this technique was related to the core of Xue Yu cultivators and was very intricate. In addition to spiritual energy, Xue Ye cultivators also absorb cold energy from the snow when they cultivate. This cold energy is something they must absorb because it allows them to leave their bodies to form ice giants when they reach the Nascent Soul stage. However, this technique has levels and is not easy to obtain. The cultivator Wang Lin captured only had the first four levels, and that’s only because he had learned it secretly. The second disciple quickly nodded and took out two three feet tall ice sculptures from his bag of holding. The two sculptures were of a creature with the body of a bird and head of a human. It looked very ferocious. After a year of traveling, Wang Lin knew that this was an ice sculpture of one of Xue Yu’s guardian creatures, the snow fairy. The second disciple focused his gaze and cultivated for a bit. Then his left hand formed multiple seals until a ball of black blood formed. He pointed at the ball of blood and broke off a sliver of it. He then pushed the sliver into the ice sculpture. Suddenly, black smoke spewed from his finger and entered the ice sculpture, creating a mark that looked like a vein. The second disciple’s forehead was covered in sweat. He took a deep breath, picked out another sliver of blood, and pushed it into the ice sculpture. Suddenly, a second vein appeared in the ice sculpture. At this point, the ball of blood on the second disciple’s hand silently disappeared. His face was pale as he quickly sat down to cultivate. Wang Lin’s expression was calm, but he secretly managed to find out a bit more about the technique. According to the memories of the cultivator, the requirement to complete the first step was to put nine blood veins in the snow fairy. Just as he was thinking this, the female disciple walked up to him. She looked at him with her pretty eyes and whispered, “Master, you haven’t answered my question from a few days ago, so disciple’s cultivation is having problems. Please come and instruct me tonight.” Wang Lin was still considering the blood vein, so he casually nodded and said, “Speak, what issue?” The female disciple was suddenly startled and looked around. Her face became red as she charmingly asked, “Talk about it here?” Wang Lin nodded, but he suddenly remembered something from the cultivators memories: there was another meaning to this disciple’s question. Thinking about this, Wang Lin was about to speak, but the female disciple’s face became even more red and her clothes suddenly fell off, revealing half of her body. Wang Lin brows furrowed. He waved his sleeves and the woman’s clothes went back on her body. He then looked at her with a very cold gaze. The female disciple felt a cold pressure around her. Her expression immediately changed and she knelt on the ground in fear. After a long time, she carefully stood up. She was very afraid because she didn’t know what she had done to anger her master. At this moment, the second disciple finished cultivating. He looked at the female disciple but didn’t say anything. His hand moved again to form another ball of blood and began forming the blood veins once more. The second disciple had taken several hours to barely complete nine blood veins. Most of this time was spent cultivating to adjust his body. It was clear that producing this ice sculpture took a toll on him. When the ice sculpture was finished, the second disciple took a deep breath, knelt down before the ice sculpture, and began to mutter a prayer. Then he stood up, clenched his teeth, and pointed at the gathering point of the nine blood veins. After a bang, the second disciple coughed out blood and was sent flying more than ten feet away. As for the ice sculpture, the nine blood veins moved like snakes. Then two of the blood veins touched and the ice sculpture exploded into pieces of ice. The second disciple’s face was pale and he shamefully said, “Disciple has failed again…” Wang Lin didn’t bother with the disciple but stared at the ice sculpture. He searched the cultivator’s memories for the key part of producing the ice sculptures. Just at this moment, Wang Lin noticed something. He looked up and saw a sword quickly flying toward this direction.