"What a handsome young man, don't waste your time with those smelly men at the True Yang Sect, come let your Granny dote on you!" Granny Jiu's eyes glittered as she snatched at Sirene.

Granny Jiu’s five fingers were pitch black, her joints shriveled like dry reeds, and her sharp, dark nails were a full three inches long. As she struck out, five threads of cold, white light shot forth from her nails, falling upon Sirene’s head like a vast net.

The lust-maddened Granny Jiu, eager and impatient, knew that General Yan Shen was powerless to stop her, and that this grab was a sure thing. Yet, in her intense desire, after launching her attack, she even hurriedly leaped forward, throwing her entire body towards Sirene with a smile, focused entirely on grabbing Sirene first to press a few kisses upon him.

A sharp, cold glint flashed in Sirene's eyes; he was just about to give Granny Jiu a proper taste of his power when Gu Xiechen swiftly transmitted a mental message, stopping his impulsive action. Gu Xiechen casually pointed a finger towards Granny Jiu. As the finger moved, a stream of chilling energy, ten times finer than a strand of hair and bone-chillingly cold, silently pierced out, gently touching Granny Jiu's lumbar spine.

Under the scan of a Saint-level divine sense, Granny Jiu held no secrets. Gu Xiechen discovered an old, chronic injury on her lumbar vertebrae—an injury so severe it had never healed, and one exacerbated by extreme cold.

Thus, he went with the flow, sending a wisp of purest Yin energy into Granny Jiu’s lumbar spine. It was like dropping a spark into an oil barrel, immediately igniting the old wound in her vertebrae, causing it to erupt in the most violent fashion.

General Yan Shen unleashed a wall of searing flames, barely blocking the casual claw strike Granny Jiu had made. However, facing Granny Jiu as she lunged forward, Yan Shen felt utterly unprepared to handle her. While continuously blasting thick fire walls in front of him, he shouted sternly, "Granny Jiu, what is your status? Must you truly bully the young when you are so old?"

Although he managed to block Granny Jiu's initial grab, the fire walls unleashed by General Yan Shen were shattered, and he himself began to tremble uncontrollably.

General Yan Shen's shouting still echoed in everyone's ears when Granny Jiu suddenly let out a piercing wail. Like a shriveled old toad whose tendons had been cut, she flailed wildly, dropping from the sky directly towards the ground.

Everyone watched as a large patch of brilliant, shimmering ice shards erupted near the lumbar vertebrae on Granny Jiu’s back, and rolling cold air surged out like smoke from burning wolf dung—conspicuous and visible. With cracking sounds as the ice shattered, half of Granny Jiu’s body was instantly frozen by the continuously emerging cold air, and her lower torso was rapidly encased in a block of profound ice.

The female cultivators of the Hidden Yin Sect hadn't even rushed down to catch Granny Jiu before she slammed into a nearby mountain rock, shattering it instantly. Then, as if driven mad, she began rolling repeatedly on the ground. "Quick, quick, quick! Take Granny back to the Ancient Sect! Get the Sect Master to give me the Triple Sun Restoration Pill! Save me! Quick!"

Granny Jiu wildly thrashed her hands, tearing at the surrounding rocks and dirt, screaming hysterically. The sudden relapse of her old injury was like a mountain torrent bursting forth; completely unprepared, she was thrown into chaos.

Moreover, this recurrence of the old injury felt entirely different from the previous times. The cold energy spewing from within her was exceptionally biting and sharp this time. Even with her peak Soul Transformation cultivation, a physical body and magical power comparable to an Immortal King, she could not suppress it.

Especially since one wisp of extremely malevolent and venomous sharpness in this cold energy traveled along Granny Jiu's major meridians. Wherever it passed, dozens of her vital acupuncture points and essential organs were instantly frozen. It even devoured her magic power along the way, converting it into terrifying cold qi that dissipated everywhere.

After just a few shouts demanding her disciples take her back to the Sect Master for the miraculous elixir, Granny Jiu’s entire body was sealed within a block of deep blue ice. Thick white cold mist continuously jetted from the ice block, quickly spreading out and freezing the mountainside for several li around her into a massive sheet of ice several zhang thick.

The disciples of the Hidden Yin Sect were utterly dumbfounded, staring blankly at Granny Jiu frozen inside the ice, not knowing what to do for a moment.

Guo Hua kindly reminded the female cultivators, "Hurry up and save her! This old woman is ancient; if she stays frozen too long, her old life will be lost!"

Gu Xiechen merely sneered from the side. Even if Granny Jiu were rescued now, the better part of her life was already gone. How could the cold energy personally issued by Gu Xiechen be so easily dispelled? Granny Jiu’s bone marrow had been frozen into icy dregs. Unless someone used immense magical power and divine abilities to perform a marrow wash and cleanse her tendons, and then used heavenly treasures with pure Yang attributes to replenish her depleted vitality, she would never recover in this lifetime.

Of course, if Granny Jiu possessed supreme comprehension and fortune, and suddenly achieved the Saint realm in two or three days, understanding the Source Yin Law of the other universe Gu Xiechen came from, she could heal her injuries herself.

Shaking his head, Gu Xiechen sighed softly, "So old already, and still so full of hot desires. Alas, this cold energy is just right to put out your fire!"

The female cultivators of the Hidden Yin Sect rushed down in a panic to treat Granny Jiu, while General Yan Shen burst into loud laughter and quickly led the disciples of the True Yang Sect in fleeing towards Pure Yang Mountain. A few female cultivators whose cultivation matched Yan Shen’s tried to intercept him, but after glancing at Granny Jiu, immobile in the profound ice, and the disciples rushing down to rescue her, they hastily drew their sword lights and flew down as well.

These Nascent Soul stage female cultivators of the Hidden Yin Sect had no choice but to go assist; the Golden Core stage female cultivators were utterly incapable of dealing with the profound ice surrounding Granny Jiu.

Granny Jiu's old injury, accumulated over hundreds of years, contained enough cold energy to freeze an entire mountain. Now triggered by Gu Xiechen’s supreme Yin energy, the resulting profound ice was incomparably hard. The Golden Core cultivators used every method they knew, striking the ice until it rang with booming sounds, yet the profound ice remained completely unmarked.

Seeing that if Granny Jiu wasn't rescued, she would be frozen to death alive in the ice block, how could the female cultivators of the Hidden Yin Sect possibly still have the mood to rob Sirene?

Several female cultivators hurriedly ran back to the Hidden Yin Sect to call for reinforcements, while the others frantically used all their strength to blast and smash the profound ice haphazardly. Sword lights rose and fell incessantly, bolts of lightning and fireballs rained down, the thunderous noise shaking the surrounding forests and sending birds and beasts scattering in fright. The cultivators of the True Yang Sect, however, had long since gone far away, accompanied by General Yan Shen’s rough and cheerful singing.

When they were about a hundred li from Pure Yang Mountain, cultivators from the True Yang Sect came out to meet them, including three Deification Stage cultivators whose cultivation levels were equivalent to Granny Jiu’s. General Yan Shen quickly explained everything they had encountered on their journey. After roughly examining the cultivation aptitude of Gu Xiechen and the other three, the three Deification Stage cultivators’ faces changed drastically. The three shouted in unison, "Kneel down, kowtow, and call us master!"

These three elders of the True Yang Sect feared that someone might snatch away these four disciples with extraordinary aptitude, so without waiting for Gu Xiechen and the others to enter the sect, they hastily prepared to accept them as disciples right outside the mountain gate.

Guo Hua and the other two were troubled. Infiltrating the True Yang Sect was indeed their goal, but kowtowing? The dignified status of a Saint bowing to three minor cultivators at the Deification Stage? The three looked towards Gu Xiechen with embarrassment. Gu Xiechen, however, gave a faint smile, completely unconcerned, and stepped forward two paces. Heavens! Even Pig Head would be speechless. To think that one day, Pig Head would become a... L-party member!