Chapter 124: Sharp Tongue, Stern Brow

“Since you are one of the formidable women of the Wuhansnow Clan, then the name ‘Xiaomei’ must be fake, right?” Chu Feng asked.

Chu Feng did not know the actual names of the four great women of the Wuhansnow Clan, but it was easy to guess that ‘Xiaomei’ was certainly not her real name.

“That’s right. My real name is Hengmei! The four great women of the Wuhansnow Clan are: Hengmei, the great woman known as ‘Knife Mouth’; Yu Zui, the second great woman, nicknamed ‘Tofu Heart’; Jin Sheng, the third, called ‘Gold Eyes’; and Qing Ying, the fourth, famed for risking her life in battle,” Hengmei said, unusually talkative, then shook her head and said coldly, “Chu Feng, since you’ve come to our Wuhansnow Clan on business, it’s rather disrespectful of you not to have made inquiries about us four great women beforehand!”

“Heh, so you know who I am now!” Chu Feng was slightly taken aback. “Bai Naizhao of the Nine Profound Sect, who came with me, is a man of few words and never mentioned your names. I didn’t ask either; my apologies. But just now, I saved you out of kindness, and you deliberately tested me with the snow mountain fighting apes. How do you explain that?”

Chu Feng now understood: those two snow mountain fighting apes were indeed terrifying, but Hengmei had her own beast-taming skills. When she opened her mouth and made that clanging sound, she could frighten those beasts into fleeing without even laying a hand on them.

Many seemingly powerful wild beasts are extremely afraid of certain strange sounds. Like the diamond war rhinoceros, which can be controlled by unusual noises, those two apes were no exception.

Clearly, Hengmei was testing Chu Feng just now.

If at that critical moment Chu Feng had only cared about saving himself and fled immediately, who knew what might have happened next. As for her earlier claim that she could only walk and could not fight the snow beasts—obviously, that was a lie.

“It’s only right to test you! You came to the Wuhansnow Clan to manufacture the Ice Shell Gold Pearls—not for fun. You will face many hardships and dangers! If you had abandoned me just now, you wouldn’t even be entering the clan, and we wouldn’t have any expectations of you, Chu Feng!” Hengmei said calmly, no longer cold.

Her words made sense, so Chu Feng didn’t dwell on it. “Alright then, can we now proceed to the Wuhansnow Clan? Also, what is the current situation with the Ice Shell Gold Pearls? Do you have any on you? By the way, how did you end up here in this snowfield, frozen into an ice sculpture?”

Now that he knew the cold beauty standing before him was the ‘Knife Mouth’ Hengmei, Chu Feng had many questions to clarify.

“Currently, the women of the Wuhansnow Clan have no Ice Shell Gold Pearls, only the men do, but they won’t lend them out for manufacturing!” Hengmei shook her head. “As for how I ended up like that, I’m afraid the blame falls entirely on you, Chu Feng.”

“Oh? How so?” Chu Feng asked in surprise.

“To tell you the truth, I was frostbitten by the ancient cold air released during the snowstorm’s outbreak! And speaking of the snowstorm, wasn’t that caused by you?” Hengmei asked coldly.

“You mean the snowstorm that broke out several hours ago in the distant snowy mountain region? How did you come to be there?” Chu Feng asked again.

“Hmph!” Hengmei snorted coldly. “I heard the Nine Profound Sect had recently invited the rising star Chu Feng, famous across the Nine Mountains and Eighteen Valleys, to our Wuhansnow Clan to manufacture Ice Shell Gold Pearls. Fearing something might happen to you in the snow mountains, I rode a snow crane to greet you there. Unexpectedly, you and your companions were tangled by the snow mountain serpent hawks, and the fighting triggered an avalanche, which in turn caused the snowstorm!”

“Oh? You were nearby and saw all this?”

“Yes! When I saw you through the clouds, the avalanche had already started. I wanted to fly down on my crane to rescue you, but the avalanche triggered the snowstorm. You escaped swiftly on that millstone-sized flying object, but I was too slow and was struck by the ancient cold air from the storm! The snow crane I rode flew back a few hundred miles before freezing to death, and I too became stiff with cold, soon frozen into an ice sculpture!” Hengmei said bitterly, clearly displeased with Chu Feng.

Recalling the moment, Hengmei had only caught a vague glimpse of Chu Feng and his party, not a clear view of his appearance. Otherwise, she would have recognized him immediately when they first met, not halfway through the journey.

“So, it was a misunderstanding after all!” Chu Feng smiled wryly. “If I’d known you, Hengmei, had come all the way to greet me, I’d have waited safely outside the snow mountains! And since you came to greet me, surely you had some way to protect yourself? Now, you didn’t manage to meet me but were instead injured by the cold. If I hadn’t happened upon you, wouldn’t you have died unjustly and miserably?”

At this, Hengmei’s temper flared. “Chu Feng, I came to greet you kindly on my snow crane and was harmed by the cold because of you. You don’t thank me, and you even dare to mock me?”

“Heh, by your logic, I have something to say too—yes, you came to greet me, but I didn’t ask you to! And you were injured by the cold because your luck was bad! I hope you’re not angry with me for saying that,” Chu Feng said with a smile, brushing it off.

Hengmei’s eyebrows lifted sharply, her face flushing with anger. “Fine! So you’re just trying to provoke me!”

“Exactly. Your sharp tongue can get on my nerves, and my sharp words can do the same to you! So, if you don’t want to get angry, let’s just talk nicely. Who knows, I might even praise you a bit. Wouldn’t that be better?” Chu Feng laughed.

“Hmph!” Hengmei snorted coldly. Here before Chu Feng, the aloof and proud snow clan great woman was like a little sister who hadn’t gotten her way.

“Enough. Lead me to the Wuhansnow Clan. I want to see the Ice Shell Gold Pearls soon and gauge how likely I am to produce them!” Chu Feng said.

“I’ve already sent our people out to capture the Ice Cold Mother Shells. Not sure if they’ve succeeded yet,” Hengmei said, her gaze fixed on the snow at their feet.

“What is it?” Chu Feng asked.

“Someone passed through here not long ago! Looks like four men and two women—three of the men are male clan members of the Wuhansnow Clan, and the two women are probably warriors from the Nine Mountains and Eighteen Valleys!” Hengmei examined the snow and gleaned all this information.

“Really? If I’m not mistaken, those two women might be my junior sisters from the Nine Profound Sect who came with me! Hengmei, please lead the way—I want to catch up to them!” Chu Feng said immediately.

To Chu Feng, this snowy ground showed no sign of passage, but Hengmei’s skills in reading snow tracks were exceptional.

Hengmei nodded and began leading Chu Feng, carefully tracking the footprints.

Braving the swirling snow and wind, they followed the trail for more than ten miles, and the footprints gradually became clearer. Chu Feng admired Hengmei’s talent.

After a few more miles, Chu Feng saw a small group ahead—six people, just as Hengmei had said: four men and two women.

“As I thought, it’s Bai Naizhao with Ayan and Aying... Wait, why are they...” Chu Feng was shocked.

Among the six, Bai Naizhao and the two women were present, but they were being escorted by three other men.

Those three men wore snow-white battle vests and were broad-shouldered, clearly strong warriors. Bai Naizhao and the two women had their hands tied behind their backs, obviously bound.

“Hengmei, those one man and two women are my companions from the Nine Profound Sect. Who are those three men in battle vests?” Chu Feng asked before approaching.

“They are male warriors of the Wuhansnow Clan. The three Nine Profound Sect warriors are bound with Ice Cold Silkworm threads,” Hengmei said.

“By the way, I’ve heard that the male and female divisions of your Wuhansnow Clan don’t get along well and aren’t harmonious like a family?” Chu Feng asked casually.

“You could say that,” Hengmei nodded but seemed unwilling to elaborate.

“If I want to take them back from these three male warriors, would that offend you?”

“Not at all. It depends on your ability,” Hengmei said.

“Good.” Chu Feng nodded and shouted loudly, “Friends up ahead, stop right there!”

Chu Feng and Hengmei hurried forward.

At Chu Feng’s call, the six ahead stopped and turned around.

“Chu… Young Master Chu? Is it really you?”

“Young Master Chu, please save us! We’ve been captured by these Wuhansnow warriors!”

Seeing Chu Feng rush over, Ayan and Aying were overjoyed and immediately begged for help.

Bai Naizhao’s eyes widened in astonishment.

Chu Feng’s sudden appearance was unexpected, but what surprised Bai Naizhao even more was the cold beauty standing beside Chu Feng—Hengmei!

Bai Naizhao was well aware of who Hengmei was: stunning as a peach blossom, cold as ice. Now, Chu Feng was standing shoulder to shoulder with this cold beauty, and they seemed quite familiar. What was going on?

Bai Naizhao stared at Chu Feng in disbelief, momentarily forgetting their predicament.

Chu Feng did not show such surprise. Seeing Bai Naizhao, Ayan, and Aying slightly injured and bound with extremely fine Ice Cold Silkworm threads, unable to do anything but walk, he said,

“You there! Who are you, shouting so loudly?”

The broad-shouldered Wuhansnow male warrior, apparently the leader of the three, strode up to Chu Feng and barked sternly.