"Let's go north-west for now before even more people enter, I would like to avoid teaming up with anyone." Meng said as he started walking forward with Hengjun next to him, slightly shivering.
'Heh' Meng glanced behind over his shoulder to look at the visible footprints in the snow before he released a cold smile.
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"Eh? Looks like they don't intend to form a team with anyone..." Someone from Xiao Sect muttered once everyone entered and saw Meng's and Hengjun's blurred silhouettes.
"..." Chu Yueli glanced in the direction Meng went before looking at her older sister.
Chu Yuechan nodded her head before glancing at Fen Moli who was discreetly discussing something with his disciples.
Xia Qingyue decided to split up from her senior sisters and she went to explore the secret realm alone despite some people wanting to team up with her.
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"Brother Hengjun stop for a second and turn your back to me please." Meng said and Hengjun nodded his head before stopping. Meng placed his palm against his back and gave him a portion of his Yang energy.
"This is? My body feels warm and I no longer need to use my profound energy to protect myself from the snow...?" Hengjun muttered while looking at his hands with wide-open eyes.
"It should last for the whole 48 hours but in case you start to feel cold again, just tell me." Meng said with a faint smile before slapping Hengjun's back.
"Ow! Did you seriously use profound energy in that slap?!" Hengjun almost lost balance and fall down to the snow face first but he was able to regain his balance thanks to his spear.
"Just trying if that Dragonscale Armor is actually working, haha" Meng laughed a bit after seeing his response.
"You are just bullying me now...Still, thank you for whatever you did. Now I don't have to be constantly focused on keeping the cold away from my body." Hengjun shook his head with a helpless expression but a smile quickly appeared on his face once again.
"Bullying you? Aren't you the older one here?" Meng whistled as if he had no idea what Hengjun is talking about.
Those two were chatting along looking around, Meng was constantly using his Spiritual Sense to avoid any possible traps or to avoid missing out on any herbs buried under the snow. As they were exploring, Meng suddenly stopped walking and turned around, while staring at the sky in front of him.
"Please, if you have something to discuss with me, just approach me but don't follow me like that...I am not a fan of this secrecy." Meng said aloud.
"It's a surprise that you can sense us in such a cold mist. This should be our ideal environment." Chu Yueli and Chu Yuechan revealed themselves, descending to the ground, using a profound floating technique.
"Fairy Chu Yueli, Fairy Chu Yuechan, it is nice to actually meet you here but weren't we warned to not mix the younger generation with the older generation while inside the secret realm?" Meng cupped his fists and Hengjun followed his example.
"Aren't you even aware of in what kind of danger you are right now?" Chu Yueli frowned and asked, she was aware that Meng was strong and had a variety of techniques to use against his opponents but she still didn't believe in his ability to fight half-step emperor profound realm.
"I am well aware of dangers around me but I have yet to detect anything dangerous to my or brother Hengjun's life" Meng said with a hidden meaning in his words.
When Chu Yueli opened her mouth to speak again, Chu Yuechan raised her hand to stop her younger sister from saying anything more before she looked deeply into Meng's eyes.
"Are you entirely sure that you aren't in any danger?"
"Of course." Meng replied decisively.
"Alright, we are leaving..." She nodded her head before he turned around to leave.
"Su Meng thank you for your kind intentions." Meng said with a grateful smile as Chu Yuechan probably understood the hidden meaning in his words.
Chu Yueli was surprised by this sudden development but she just took the last look at Meng before turning around to follow her elder sister.
"...*sigh* For real...brother Meng, what is your relationship with the Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace?" Hengjun sighed in relief even though he acquired new powers recently, it was far off from fighting someone of Emperor Profound Realm so he felt kinda tense around them.
"It's really nothing serious, at least we aren't enemies." Meng replied before they resumed their exploration of the secret realm.
The herbs Meng found there were truly on a different level as some of them must have been perhaps even a hundred in not a thousand years old. And as they were buried under so much snow, most of them were Yin oriented ones. The ones that Meng was lacking the most inside his Sacred Garden. They also encountered a few Sky Profound Beasts that were literally pummeled by Meng's Physique. He used this chance to train his Hell Suppressing Physique as the most effective way for him how to train it was simply to use it and battle with heavy and large opponents head-on. He also got a chance to try out his Void Imperfection Physique when a few of those Ice Sky Profound Beasts tried to use their ice poisons as last resort, however, he was never affected by any poison.
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"Looks like there is a rat snooping around and following us..." Meng said aloud when he finally felt someone's presence and he immediately recognized that person's aura.
"Junior, I must commend you for your ability to find me out but you could have just ignored me and keep on living for a few more hours or try to find others. This time around, there won't be anyone to save you like the last time." Fen Moli revealed himself, flying in the air with folded arms and an ugly expression as he just heard Meng disrespect him again.
"I see...then how about we pretend I have never sensed Great Elder Fen Moli and I will enjoy a few more hours of my precious life? I have no idea why would Great Elder want to kill me and my senior brother when we have no grievances between us...?" Meng asked with an amused tone while confidently staring up at the Fen Moli.
He already warned Hengjun about this so even though Hengjun was reluctant to step back, he let Meng handle this. If he had to blindly trust someone it would be either his father or Meng. To Hengjun, those 2 people had his full faith.
"No grievances?! You have crippled the second son of our clan master! Even dying a thousand times over wouldn't be enough to repent for your crimes! No one will get to know what has happened to you two inside this secret realm, such a pity that Young Spear Saint will have to die young!" Fen Moli shouted with an enraged expression before diving down at Meng, throwing at him regular flames.
'It's a good time to try Void Imperfection Physique.' Meng thought and as flames got near him, he just smacked them away without getting any burns. Although his flesh wasn't burnt despite not using any profound energy to protect himself, he still felt the impact from the profound energy of half-step Emperor Profound Realm. Fortunately, that impact was fully absorbed by his Hell Suppressing Physique.
"?! Don't act too arrogant, junior!!!" Fen Moli was surprised how Meng got rid of his attack but that didn't stop him from taking his large saber from the spatial ring, attacking him with it being enveloped in purple flames. To Fen Moli, using his weapon along with purple flames on Spirit Profound Realm practitioner was completely humiliating but at least he had insurance that nothing would remain from Meng as his flames were capable of instantly burning anyone under his profound strength.
"How would one of my friends say...Less talking, more fighting!!!" Meng draw his arm back before he sent the right fist straight against the saber enveloped in purple flames with a wide smile.
"?! Haha" Fen Moli could only coldly laugh as he saw that instead of running away, Meng intends to block his attack with his bare hands. Even Hengjun's eyes widened in shock but he quickly remembered the time when Meng barely received any injuries during their spars despite him not being able to react to Hengjun's attacks.
*boom* *CRACK!* Upon the impact of two attacks, the knee-deep snow all around them got blown away in the radius of hundreds of meters while the ground ruptured and big pieces of the ground started flying here and there through the air.
Fen Moli was looking forward with a smile but that smile quickly disappeared as he saw Meng standing completely unscathed. That truly gave him a real scare and goosebumps but the next thing that Meng did completely confused him.
Meng actually smiled at him brightly while motioning with his index finger for him to look down.
'-wait, why can't I feel my right arm?' Fen Moli suddenly realized that he didn't feel one of his limbs so he looked down and what he saw was his arm bent in a horrifying angle and his hand stuck incapable of releasing his grasp on his half-broken weapon. That's right, his weapon was destroyed by Meng's fist!
"-?!! W-What kind of devil spawn are you, Su Meng?!!!" Fen Moli shouted with all his hatred. He couldn't even feel pain as all nerves in his right arm were torn apart.
Even Hengjun had a shocked expression, hardly believing that Meng destroyed such a weapon of good quality with only his fist alone. And who wouldn't be...Spirit Profound Realm practitioner destroying Sky Profound weapon with his bare hands...if such information were to spread out, no one would believe it.
"Oi...that's a bit rude, even for you. If I were to describe the path I am walking, it would definitely not be the path of the Devil. I would rather say the path of the Immortal" Meng said with a humorous tone but he still felt a bit offended by being called Devil spawn as that didn't make any sense to him.
'?! I can't die here! If I were to die under this devil's hands, no one would inform others of his monstrosity and our Burning Heaven Clan might face annihilation! But if I won't kill him now that he is still just at Spirit Profound Realm, who would be capable of stopping him from destroying our clan in the future...?!' Fen Moli thought with both his emotions and thoughts in disarray before he found the solution.
"Hm?" Meng's eyebrows raised as he watched Fen Moli suddenly use the Floating Profound Technique to get high up at the sky.
"Haha, you have no chance of killing me while I am at the sky! This is the difference between our Profound Strength! Maybe you can fight me on equal footing but can your friend say the same?! HA!" Fen Moli started laughing before sending the purple flame dragons straight at Hengjun with his left hand.
Meng was just watching his act with his right eyebrow raised while looking at him like an idiot.
"Tempest" The wind gathered around Hengjun as the flame dragons were about to hit him and he instantly disappeared from his original place before appearing a few tens meters away while smiling at Fen Moli as if to say "Too slow"
'These two-!!! They are both monsters! How can True Profound Realm practitioner have speed comparable to Emperor Profound Realm?!!!' Fen Moli clenched his teeth, thinking what to do now but he wasn't panicking as they couldn't do anything to him.
'Now that I think about it...My cloud steps are only 1 level away from complete mastery...Well, they are named "Cloud" steps so it ought to work unless its name is just for a show...' Meng thought with a curious expression before he jumped up, attacking Fen Moli.
"Hmph!" Fen Moli snorted and quickly evaded Meng's attack by maneuvering at the sky and as Meng started falling down, Fen Moli looked at him with a mocking smile but his smile quickly disappeared when Meng sent him a cold smile.
An illusionary small cloud suddenly appeared under Meng's foot and he suddenly disappeared, reappearing right above Fen Moli.
[Cloud Steps(Lv. 8) -> Cloud Steps(Lv. Max)]
'Movement technique used in the air?! Impossible!!' Fen Moli widened his eyes as he tried to protect himself from Meng's incoming fist but his left hand had no chance at stopping Meng.
*BANG!* Fen Moli's body was blown back to the earth where he created a small crater.
"Hop...That wasn't so bad for the first try." Meng muttered as he got back to the ground before walking towards the small crater where he found Fen Moli lying on the back without moving but his eyes were still open and he was faintly breathing.
"You know...if you hadn't come after me, I wouldn't bother myself to find you or anyone from your clan to "vent" out about what has happened during the tournament. But I guess you just acted upon how regular people think in this world." Meng crouched down and said with a disinterested expression while inspecting Fen Moli's wounds and found out that most of his organs and bones were already beyond the repair, at least, by normal means.
'This is a good chance, Meng! Try to use your Yin energy to get a portion of his soul's memories. I will lead you so don't worry about anything and in case you mess up...he is already an almost dead person so you don't need to worry about him becoming retarded' Su Zhu's voice resounded in Meng's head
'It is possible for him to become an even bigger retard?!' Meng asked with an astonished expression.