The Frosted Immortal’s Descent: A Mad Quest for Love - Chapter 1

The bustling streets were alive with people coming and going, and the taverns lining the road were packed to the brim.

If anyone passing by happened to glance up at a certain inn, they would see a straight-backed woman in blue robes sitting by the window on the second floor.

Her aura was transcendent, her jet-black hair adorned with a white jade hairpin. Her serene and refined features carried an unmistakable air of nobility, though her complexion seemed somewhat pale.

She cast her gaze downward, taking in the flow of pedestrians below as if searching for something.

“Miss, here’s the white tea and Yun Chuan cakes you ordered,” the waiter said as he carefully set down the tray of tea and pastries, unable to resist stealing a glance at the ethereal guest and the silver longsword resting on the table.

This was a cultivator, a sword cultivator, no less.

Their town occasionally hosted wandering immortals who stopped by during their travels, so such visitors weren’t entirely uncommon. However, someone with such an otherworldly presence was rare, and it was no wonder the waiter couldn’t help but look twice.

“Thank you,” Yun Jinghe replied with a slight nod, her voice polite yet distant.

Once the waiter left, she picked up the teapot and poured herself a cup. Steam curled upward from the pale golden liquid.

The tea tasted slightly bitter. After just one sip, she set it aside, though the warmth brought a faint flush to her otherwise pallid lips.

To attract customers, the tavern had hired a storyteller in his fifties to entertain guests on the first floor with tales of cultivators and mountain spirits, stories that never failed to captivate the masses.

At the moment, he was recounting the legend of a rare spirit born between heaven and earth, the Dream Eater.

Ordinary folk, who might never encounter a cultivator in their lifetime, were naturally brimming with curiosity about such distant wonders.

“Dream Eaters are few and far between in this world. It might take centuries for even one to emerge. They feed on human dreams, learning human nature from them to blend into society and hunt more easily. Over a hundred years ago, one such Dream Eater appeared. It deceived countless people with sweet words, only to be slain by a righteous cultivator’s sword!”

But beyond tales of vanquishing demons, what truly stirred the crowd’s interest were stories of romance.

Just as the storyteller was about to launch into a tale of star-crossed love between cultivators, a listener interrupted, “Can cultivators marry?”

The storyteller chuckled. “Cultivators are still human, of course they can marry freely.”

Then a young child piped up curiously, “Then can cultivators and monsters be together?”

This sparked a lively discussion among the crowd, with everyone voicing their opinions.

The storyteller leisurely raised his wooden gavel and tapped the table, silencing the chatter.

“Between cultivators and demons, there is only hostility. Love between them is forbidden by the heavens themselves. Take, for example, the foremost immortal sect, Tai Cang Mountain, which accepts only female disciples. Their rules explicitly forbid any romantic involvement with demons. Violators face severe punishment, some even have their cultivation stripped away and are expelled from the mountain…”

At these words, Yun Jinghe’s fingers tightened slightly around her teacup. Her long lashes lowered, veiling the emotions in her eyes.

“Hey! Where did this little beast come from?”

Amidst the scolding, the sound of a stall being knocked over echoed through the street. A stray cat, darting out from nowhere, weaved chaotically through the crowd as if fleeing from someone’s pursuit.

“Stop!” A woman in white robes with a red sash brandished her sword as she gave chase. Noticing the many ordinary bystanders around, she quickly sheathed her blade and instead formed a golden seal with her hands, which landed precisely on the fleeing cat.

The cat moved swiftly, but the golden light still ensnared its tail, rendering it momentarily unable to break free.

“White robes with a red sash, that’s an inner disciple of Taicang Mountain,” someone in the crowd whispered.

The woman thought the matter settled, but the cat demon proved cunning enough to sever its own tail to escape. Just as it was about to break free from the seal and pounce on the bystanders, she realized her next incantation would come too late.

“Move aside!” she shouted in desperation.

Yun Jinghe glanced down at the commotion below, immediately recognizing the stray cat as a demon. A familiar flash of crimson flickered briefly around its neck.

The teacup clinked softly as she set it down on the table. Rising abruptly, her white sleeves brushed the surface, leaving behind ample silver coins.

In a flutter of robes, Yun Jinghe landed gracefully on the street, the cat demon now firmly restrained in her grasp.

“Immortal Venerable?!” The disciple’s eyes lit up with surprise and delight at the sight of the woman before her.

Yun Jinghe acknowledged her with a quiet hum, recognizing her as Wen Yi, an inner disciple of Taicang Mountain.

She turned her attention to the cat demon in her hand. Its limbs were bound by her spell, leaving it only able to bare its fangs and glare at her in defiance.

Yun Jinghe hooked a finger around the crimson thread around its neck, a freshly tied knot, it seemed. Her usually calm eyes flickered with a hint of emotion.

Their brief confrontation had drawn a crowd of onlookers. Preferring to avoid further attention, Yun Jinghe prepared to leave.

Wen Yi, however, was visibly excited and trailed after her eagerly. “Where have you been all this time? The sect leader and the other elders have been worried sick. If not for your intact life token, my master and the others would have gone mad with concern.”

“Some matters delayed me,” Yun Jinghe replied without a trace of impatience despite the younger disciple’s incessant questioning. “Why are you here?”

As she spoke, the gray-white fur of the cat demon bristled, and it let out a low, threatening growl, only to quiet under Yun Jinghe’s sharp glance.

“My senior sisters and I came down the mountain for training. We had just parted ways in the alley up ahead when I spotted this cat demon about to attack someone. I chased it all the way here,” Wen Yi explained.

Subduing demons during their descent was an important part of the disciples’ evaluation, testing their cultivation and abilities. Yet, upon learning the details, Yun Jinghe showed no intention of returning the cat demon to Wen Yi.

Fortunately, Wen Yi didn’t seem particularly bothered. Instead, she asked, “Immortal Venerable, are you returning to Taicang Mountain now?”

“I have urgent matters to attend to and won’t be returning for now,” Yun Jinghe said.

Most would have stopped there, but Wen Yi was far from ordinary.

“What matters do you have?”

Yun Jinghe paused briefly. “I’m searching for someone.”

She mentioned this partly to have Wen Yi relay the message back to the mountain.

“Searching for someone? A friend of yours, perhaps? Do you need my help?” Wen Yi’s excitement was palpable.

“No,” Yun Jinghe lowered her eyes, her dark pupils beneath her brows fixed intently on the red string dangling from her fingers. “She’s a liar.”

The words that followed were spoken so softly they were instantly drowned out by the clamor of the surrounding crowd.

After bidding farewell to Wen Yi, Yun Jinghe led the cat demon to a secluded spot. She removed the string from around its neck and locked eyes with it.

“Where is the person who gave this to you?”

On the official road to the capital, the pitch-black night concealed the current devastation, but it couldn’t mask the pungent scent of blood that hung thick in the air.

A group of burly men armed with knives moved ceaselessly among the merchant convoy they had just ambushed and slaughtered, checking for any survivors.

Beneath a large carriage, two figures, one big, one small huddled tightly together, flinching at the sounds of destruction around them.

“Mother, when can we leave? I’m scared,” the little girl whispered timidly, shrinking into her mother’s embrace.

The mother could only hold her child tighter, soothing her in a hoarse voice, “Shh, don’t be afraid, my dear, don’t be afraid.”

Before long, the little girl’s eyes widened. From her vantage point, she could see a young girl perched on the broken front beam of a nearby carriage.

Unlike the exhausted and terrified mother and daughter, the girl’s delicate face showed no trace of fear. Her dangling feet swung back and forth as she hummed a soft tune.

The beam beneath her creaked ominously with each sway, as if it might snap at any moment, yet she remained utterly unperturbed.

Her slender fingers danced swiftly in the darkness, as though weaving something unseen.

The commotion soon caught the attention of one of the nearby bandits.

The knife-wielding man approached cautiously, raising his blade instinctively upon spotting a living soul.

Even as the blade descended, the girl showed no intention of dodging.

At the last moment, the bandit’s grip faltered. The sharp edge stopped just inches from her neck before veering sideways, slicing off a lock of her jet-black hair stirred by the breeze.

“Pretty little thing, and brave too. Why not come with me and be my woman?” The burly man chuckled, his face lined with rough features.

Finally, the girl slowly lifted her head. “You cut my hair. What are you going to do about that?” Her voice was sweet, laced with the playful innocence unique to young maidens, like candy dusted with frost.

The bandit roared with laughter. “Just a bit of hair! I’ll compensate you however you want!”

The girl’s tender lips curved into a smile, as innocent as a child’s. “Really?”

At last, she raised her hands, revealing a crisscrossing web of red threads between her fingers.

A gentle breeze swept through, and the dark clouds veiling the moon began to disperse, allowing its silvery glow to emerge.

The red threads at her fingertips faintly pulsed with an eerie crimson light, yet her smile remained sweet and inviting.

“Do not take lives recklessly!”

The girl’s expression froze at the sound of the voice. She snapped her palms shut and made to leap down, but the bandit moved to block her.

Furious, she kicked him, only to hurt her own foot in the process. She tried to summon her strength but realized she had reverted to being an ordinary person. Of all times for her powers to fail her now, when she needed them most.

It was this delay that prevented her from leaving.

Just as the burly man was about to seize her, an immense force from nowhere pushed him several meters away.

The man’s accomplices gradually gathered around and, under his orders, moved forward to capture the young girl.

Yet before they could get close, a silver-white sword still in its sheath blocked their path. The sheer power of it stirred a fierce gale, forcing them to retreat repeatedly until they stumbled and fell heavily to their knees.

Only when a slender hand grasped the hilt of the sword did the surrounding chaos slowly subside.

The newcomer stood holding the sword beneath the night sky, moonlight slanting across her figure, revealing a face half-lit and half-shadowed.

“Who the hell are you? Let go of me!”

“Blind fool, which gang do you belong to? You’re dead for ruining our plans!”

The band of murderous robbers were all restrained, forced to kneel before the dead. No matter how hard they struggled, they couldn’t move an inch.

Yun Jinghe paid no heed to the curses behind her. Instead, she walked slowly toward the carriage.

“Yingying, come out.”

Hearing her name, Shi Ying pressed herself close to the mother and daughter inside the carriage, placing a finger to her lips in a silent plea for them to pretend she wasn’t there.

But the carriage suddenly lifted into the air, gradually revealing Yun Jinghe’s figure.

Shi Ying immediately tried to flee again but was stopped once more.

“Are you here to kill me?” Under the moonlight, Shi Ying bit her lip as she asked, her earlier playful demeanor entirely gone.

She had no strength left now, reduced to nothing more than a lamb awaiting slaughter.

Yun Jinghe stared at her intently. “Come back with me.”

“Back for what?” Shi Ying frowned. After everything that had happened between them, she was certain nothing good awaited her.

Yun Jinghe lifted her gaze slightly and uttered two words: “To marry.”

“I won’t!” Before Shi Ying could finish, Yun Jinghe covered her mouth.

Lowering her eyes, Yun Jinghe studied her with an inscrutable gaze, the usually gentle face now tinged with an emotion Shi Ying couldn’t decipher.

“Yingying,” Yun Jinghe murmured her name softly, her eyes filled with a sickly obsession. “This isn’t up for debate. Do you remember what you once said?”

“I’ve long forgotten!” Shi Ying turned her face away, glaring as she struggled against the restraints, but to no avail.

Under the hazy moonlight, Yun Jinghe’s dark lashes veiled the emotions in her eyes.

She lifted her eyelids slightly, her expression unreadable, and then, after a moment, she smiled slowly.

“It doesn’t matter.”

It was you who said you wanted to come to my side. It was you who vowed to spend your life with me.

If you’ve forgotten, then I’ll simply remind you of it all, from the very beginning.

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