Saving the White Moonlight Chapter 17

The peak of Zhouxue Peak was covered in snow all year. From the middle of the mountain upward, layers of white mist gathered, curling with immortal air and half hiding everything. Seen from far away, it was absolutely beautiful.
However, for someone standing inside it, it might not be so wonderful.
Yun Mixue cultivated the Dao of ice and snow. Although she was gentle, the spiritual energy in her body was cold enough to cut bone. Half of Zhouxue Peak’s grand scenery came from the mountain itself, and the other half was created by her power of ice and snow.
The environment of Zhouxue Peak suited Yun Mixue’s cultivation perfectly. On Zhouxue Peak, she was like a fish in water. But for others, Zhouxue Peak was a truly bitter and cold place.
Especially for those without enough strength.
For example, the little girl currently walking through the wind and snow now deeply understood Zhouxue Peak’s cold and cruelty.
She wore only a thin white dress and white shoes. The howling cold wind blew her hem until it snapped and fluttered, as if her whole body might be blown into the sky at any moment.
The ribbon tying her hair seemed to have been blown away. Her black hair danced wildly in the air, almost hiding her appearance completely. Only her lips, frozen purple, could still be seen.
She tucked both hands tightly into her arms. As she walked, she sometimes hopped a few times, looking a little funny.
But through the messy hair, her faintly visible eyes slowly moved left and right, as if searching for something.
“Host, stop looking. Hurry back.”
The system felt heartbroken watching her. Senior Sister’s Zhouxue Peak was not that little dirt hill in the servant disciples’ area of Yimiao Sect, where one could go up and down as one pleased. The ice and snow aura contained here was not something Yan Zhuguang, a cultivator only at the first level of Qi Refining, could resist.
How could Host find food in a place like this?
On such a cold peak, ordinary animals could not survive at all. Even if there were any, they probably were not something Yan Zhuguang could handle.
Even Yan Zhuguang, whose will was firm, could not fully stop her voice from trembling at this moment. “Starving to death or freezing to death. Which do you choose?”
The system struggled for a moment. “How about I issue a side quest, Host does it casually, and I give Host fasting pills?”
“I do not like eating that thing.” Yan Zhuguang refused.
The system was conflicted. Host, now was really not the time to be willful.
“Since I have already come out, it is too late to go back. Instead of struggling with this, you might as well check where there is something edible.”
Yan Zhuguang knew the system could explore the surroundings, so she decided to use everything fully and ordered the system without the slightest politeness.
The system was helpless, but it still obediently made things convenient for Yan Zhuguang. “I marked everything with signs of life on the mini-map. Host, look.”
The mini-map had been available when Yan Zhuguang bound with the system. But Yan Zhuguang disliked having a small icon blocking her field of vision, and she had not urgently needed it, so she had never used it.
Now was exactly the time for it to be useful.
A round mini-map appeared in the upper right of her vision. In the center of the mini-map was a green dot, representing Yan Zhuguang’s position. There were also scattered red dots distributed in every direction. Those were living things with signs of life, but they barely moved.
Yan Zhuguang tried moving toward the closest red dot. She walked a few steps, but the green dot on the mini-map almost did not move. She was advancing at a crawl.
Yan Zhuguang gritted her teeth and kept walking.
The system watched from the side, frightened and nervous, afraid that Host might fall forward if she was even a little careless. What would it do then? It was only a powerless system and could not ask others for help.
Fortunately, the system’s worry was unnecessary. Even though Yan Zhuguang was numbed by the wind and snow, her steps did not hesitate at all, and her figure did not sway in the slightest.
The system admired her greatly.
Sometimes it wondered what kind of person Host had been before. She was so powerful. How exactly had she become a lonely soul in her last life?
With previous hosts, the system would always investigate first before choosing a candidate.
But this host had only been a lonely soul it happened to discover in the cracks between several worlds. Because it was dazzled by beauty, it had muddleheadedly grabbed her and made her its host.
The system did not even know which world Yan Zhuguang had once belonged to. With only a name that might not even be real, where could it begin investigating?
In truth, aside from the original world, there was a more direct method: scan Yan Zhuguang’s memories. But the system did not dare. It was cowardly. If it did that, Host would absolutely kill it.
That was real. It was not a joke.
Do not ask why it came to that conclusion. It simply had that instinct.
Unable to learn Host’s exact background, the system could only feel curious while silently holding it in. It felt it must be the most aggrieved system in all worlds.
The system was feeling sorry for itself in its little world.
Then a wave of fragrance pulled its attention back. It was meat mixed with the scent of herbs, somewhat different from the fragrances the system had smelled before.
The system returned to itself. At some point, its host had found a hollow in the mountain sheltered from the wind and had built a small fire.
Host was turning a wooden stick. On the stick was a half-cooked piece of meat. She was sprinkling crushed grass leaves over it. The fragrance came from that.
Considering Host’s usual great ability, the system did not find it strange that Host, who had lost her fire spiritual root and whose strength was still very low, had somehow started a fire.
The system inhaled hard. “Host, what spice is that?”
Yan Zhuguang patted her hands. “My spices were destroyed in the lightning tribulation. This is a common poisonous grass. It cannot be eaten, but it smells good.”
The system stiffened. “Host is going to eat this?”
Was she not afraid of poison?
“Why can I not eat it?” She had a poison spiritual root. To her, these poisonous things were actually great supplements. It was only that in this life, her poison spiritual root still had to be slowly nourished, so she could only touch these mildly poisonous grasses.
The system thought about it and did not know how to answer. Its host was so powerful. Eating poisonous grass seemed like nothing special.
Before long, the meat was cooked. Yan Zhuguang was not afraid of the heat. She tore off a small piece and asked the system, “Dare to eat?”
“I do!”
It did not truly digest food anyway. These toxins aimed at flesh and blood were useless against a system. What was there not to eat?
The roasted meat in Yan Zhuguang’s hand vanished.
The taste of the roasted meat was so good the system almost flew. It ate with great pleasure on the side, narrowing the eyes it had imagined for itself. In its heart, it happily thought that it must be the happiest system.
Yan Zhuguang did not know the system was slapping its own face. She swallowed the roasted meat in a few bites. Immediately, warmth spread from her stomach and flowed through her limbs and bones.
Yan Zhuguang sat cross-legged and recalled the Greenwood Rejuvenation Art she had seen earlier. She began circulating the mental method according to its contents.
The system was still slowly savoring that piece of roasted meat. Seeing that Yan Zhuguang had actually started cultivating in such a harsh place, it quickly turned off its voice and did not dare disturb her. Then, while it was at it, it scanned Yan Zhuguang’s current condition.
What! Host was already at the second level of Qi Refining?
It had only zoned out for a moment. What had happened just now?
The system quickly pulled up the earlier record.
It saw Yan Zhuguang slowly move close to her target. That place was only a wide field of white, and nothing could be seen on the surface. But the system guessed that the thing should be hidden under the snow.
Yan Zhuguang did not rashly approach. She only slowly and gently reached her hands into the snow. Even when her palms were frozen red, she did not stop. Only after most of her arms had sunk into the snow did she seem to touch the earth at the bottom.
Whoosh.
No one knew what she did, but the snowy ground not far ahead suddenly burst in a small explosion. White snow scattered, and something rushed out.
The snow fell across the ground. What had rushed out was a long-legged rabbit with snow-white fur. Its red eyes flashed with fierce light. With a kick of its legs, it charged toward Yan Zhuguang.
However, just as it jumped, its whole body fell flat onto the snow, smashing out a small pit.
Its hind legs had, at some unknown time, been tangled by several dry vines. The rabbit struggled hard a few times, then raised its head and spat several ice blades at Yan Zhuguang. Yan Zhuguang dodged them.
When it still wanted to continue acting fierce, the dry vines gradually climbed upward and wrapped around the entire rabbit, making it unable to move again.
Yan Zhuguang shivered, walked to the rabbit, and neatly twisted its neck. Then she said, “Stupid rabbit.”
Was it not stupid? Since it could use ice blades, how did it not know to use them to cut the dry vines around its legs?
After that, Yan Zhuguang threw the rabbit aside, meditated to recover the spiritual energy she had just used, and then broke through to the second level of Qi Refining.
The system: …
Heavenly spiritual roots were amazing.
Yan Zhuguang’s breakthrough to the second level of Qi Refining was that simple. By the time the system finished reviewing what had happened earlier and returned to the present, Yan Zhuguang, who had eaten and started meditating, had already broken through to the third level of Qi Refining.
Host was amazing.
Since Host’s cultivation speed was this fast, how wronged had she been before, when her five spiritual roots left her at only the first level of Qi Refining after more than half a year?
Yan Zhuguang did not continue after breaking through to the third level of Qi Refining. She stopped the momentum and circulated the spiritual energy in her body around her whole body.
In truth, breaking through this quickly also borrowed the advantage of reincarnating and cultivating again. Earlier, she had stayed at the first level of Qi Refining because she had not put her heart into cultivation at all. Now that her spiritual roots were better, there was no need to keep hiding.
After the system finished sighing over its host’s cultivation speed, it suddenly said, “Host, Host, someone is coming.”
Yan Zhuguang opened her eyes. Quickly, she pressed the firewood pile’s flames smaller, scattered the protective spiritual energy around her body, made herself look much more wretched, then curled into a ball and roasted herself by the fire while biting her lip and shivering.
The system watched in a daze.
Not long after, a voice sounded above her head.
“Looks like you do not need anyone to care for you after all.”