Chapter 175 - The Old Man's Hut

"...."

Li Ming stared at the old man who looked like he was about to kill someone.

"Huh?" 

The questioning and confused look on her face made the old man's anger rise even higher.

"How dare you to set the blood cherry plant on fire? Little girl, don't you have any other important things in your life to do than setting plants on fire?" The old man shouted at her.

Li Ming folded her hands in front of her chest as she replied to the old man with her usual icy tone, "If not for setting that plant on fire, would you have come to open the ward for me?"

Her question left the old man shocked for a few moments but how could he be outdone by a little girl, therefore he started again.

"Even if I would have not come to open the ward, that doesn't mean you can go around setting plants on fire. And what do you even want to do here in the Snow Fields?"

Li Ming scoffed at the old man's overreaction. "Whatever! I don't have time to waste here talking to you. I have things to do. Now, if you would please excuse me." 

She could barely have taken a few steps forward when the old man stopped her.

"Where do you think you are going? I'm asking you something. What are you even doing here in the Snow Fields?" The old man asked as he finally took the time to analyze the girl.

"What's your problem, old man? I'm here for some personal businesses and even if I'm here to roam around that's none of your business. Now, leave me alone." 

She needed to get away from the old man as soon as possible.

"I dare you to roam in my Snow Fields. Not anyone can just enter and invade my Snow Fields!" The old man was not going to give up that easily.

Before Li Ming could reply, a large golden ball of spiritual energy bombarded into the snow that was piled in front of them, making it scattered around.

"What the-?" 

Li Ming shouted as she tried to get the snow out of her hair and eyes.

"This little devil. How dare he?" The old man shouted as he stomped his foot on the snow-covered ground.

The snow that had covered Li Ming suddenly returned to its original position.

"Why do I have to take care of two idiots at the same time?" The old man shouted in anger.

Before Li Ming could give the old nan a reply to his question, she was grabbed by her arm, and the next thing she knew she found herself flying high in the air.

She was too shocked to let our a single word. Did she mention before that she was afraid of heights?

Her experiences with flying and heights had not gone too good and she absolutely hated these two terms.

That's why currently her heart was about to pop out of her chest as they both flew over the fields after fields of snow.

Who knew how long it took before they finally landed in front of a two-storey hut. It was completely covered in snow but it looked so beautifful.

Without giving her any chance to speak, the old man threw open the door and pulled her inside the house.

If the outside looked beautiful then the inside was as horrible as possible. Not a single space was left clean and tidy. 

Li Ming noticed some kind of weird smell in the room which was probably a living room but due to its current situation, it was hard to find out.

"What kind of hell is this place?" Li Ming couldn't stop herself from asking.

She didn't exactly have OCD but such a horrible place was just too much for her to stay there for even a single minute.

"You know what, maybe we should talk outside. I'm not really that comfort..." 

Before she could complete her sentence she was pushed into a chair that looked like it was about to give up on its life any second.

She looked around and found the old man muttering something under his breath as he discarded items after items from a closet that was placed near the window.

He was probably trying to find something and was failing miserably.

Li Ming had had enough. She tried to stand up and leave the house instantly but found that she couldn't.

The old man chuckled as he neared her. She saw that he was carrying a rope in his hands.

"Little girl, no need to be scared. There's someone else too waiting outside the wards. Though he didn't set any plant on fire but he sure is getting impatient now. Just give me a few minutes and I'll be back soon. I need to know why suddenly out of nowhere I've two guests who want to visit the Snow Fields."

The man said as he started tying her with the rope.

"..."

Li Ming just stared at him with her cold eyes. Did he seriously think that a rope will stop her?

She got her answer when after tying the rope, the old man brought out a sliver of his spiritual qi and transferred it into the rope.

The rope was glowing bright green and even though he used only a small part of his qi, which was not even near to one percent, Li Ming could tell that it won't be easy for her to untie it.

"It won't hurt you. Just wait here, I'll be back soon." 

With these words, the old man rushed out of the house and in the next blink, Li Ming saw his silhouette flying into the sky.

Li Ming tried to wriggle her hands which were now bound behind the chair.

She didn't have much time. Who knew when the old man would be back. He almost appeared to her as a lunatic and she had no plans of dealing with someone like him.

She was here to find the thing that had been calling her towards it and to find out what was the reason for which she needed to stay here for months.

The banshee had told her that she would feel it when she would find the answers to both of her questions. That something inside her would know that she was here in the Snow Fields for that particular reason. 

Well, other than trusting Banshee's words there was nothing that Li Ming could do.

But there was a new problem. The moment she entered the Snow Fields, the slight pull that she had been feeling all this time suddenly disappeared.

Now, she was completely clueless about what she was supposed to do? Should she roam around the entire Snow Fields to find out where that thing was hiding?

She definitely didn't like the sound of this idea. Roaming around a huge Snow Field won't be a good idea, right?

But again she had her magical space with her. She won't have too many problems roaming around the Snow Fields as long as she had her magical space.

After trying for some time, she still wasn't able to figure out the knot of the rope. She became still and closed her eyes, relaxing her body.

As she let out her spiritual qi to resurface and it reached her bound hands, an image of the knot started appearing in front of her closed eyes.

Li Ming pulled out a ball of magical power combined with her spiritual qi and started chanting the unbinding spell.

The problem was that her hands were bound and it won't be easier for her to use her power ball, therefore she needed to use her powers from inside her body than the outside, which was actually difficult.

After a few moments, her power ball finally landed on the knot. She faced the instant resistance from the rope.

The old man was actually powerful but the good thing was that he probably underestimated her.

It took her around four minutes but Li Ming finally completed the spell and with that, the rope that was binding her hands came undone.

"Thank God!" Li Ming whispered with a sigh of relief. 

She rubbed her wrist lightly as she looked out of the window to see if the old man was returning yet or not.

As far as her eyes could see there was no one coming towards the hut.

The sour smell inside the hut was getting heavier and she wanted to get out as soon as possible.

Who knew exactly what that old man was doing that made the hut filled with such kind of foul smell.

Li Ming rushed towards the door but before she could touch the door handle, a sharp electric shock pushed her back, making her yelp due to the sudden attack of electricity.

"What the heck?" 

Li Ming looked at the door closely, though she made sure to keep enough distance between herself and the door to not get electrocuted once again.

After not finding anything with her naked eyes she took out a small ball of her spiritual power and let it land on the door.

Immediately, green sparks flew out of the door landing all over the place and one even landed on the stack of parchments that was lying on the floor near the window.

Shit!