Within Hawk's Sorrow Ravine, the wind and snow gradually subsided.
The Green-Scaled Hawk King's massive demonic body lay collapsed in a pool of blood, all signs of life extinguished.
Gu Chengming stood with his sword sheathed, his chest heaving violently.
That single strike had slain a fourth-realm Demon King, but the toll it took on him had been enormous.
The Red Dust Art "Reverse the Effect to the Cause" was no ordinary technique. It required the caster to use himself as a medium to commune with the lingering obsessions of the dead, and the karmic backlash was something even he could scarcely bear in full.
"Fellow Daoist Gu!"
Xu Huayi staggered forward, wanting to steady the swaying Gu Chengming, only to find that her own legs had gone weak as well.
Channeling Luo Jinyao's sword talisman just now had drained every last drop of true essence from her body; that she could still stand at all was sheer force of will.
The two of them lost their balance almost simultaneously. Gu Chengming instinctively reached out to support Xu Huayi, and the result was that both of them tumbled and sat down together on the ground.
The fall actually loosened the taut atmosphere somewhat.
Xu Huayi blinked, then couldn't help letting out a soft laugh.
"If anyone saw us like this, they'd surely laugh that the two of us prodigies on the Hidden Dragon Ranking can't even stand up straight."
Gu Chengming laughed too. He fished two Qi-Restoring Pills from his storage pouch and handed one to Xu Huayi. "Fellow Daoist Xu jests. If anyone saw us slaying demons above our realm, they'd probably be too stunned to speak at all."
Xu Huayi accepted the pill but did not immediately swallow it. Instead, gazing at the warm, smooth pellet in her hand, she suddenly spoke. "Fellow Daoist Gu, that strike just now..."
She paused, seeming to weigh her words. "Was that a technique of the Harmonious Joy Sect?"
Gu Chengming's heart gave a lurch, but he admitted it openly all the same.
To his surprise, Xu Huayi merely stared blankly for a long moment before smiling and saying, "Fellow Daoist Gu is so handsome; I suppose it's not surprising."
[Yin-Yang Creation Strategy, baffled: What is that supposed to mean?]
"Fellow Daoist Xu overpraises me."
Gu Chengming, at a loss for how to respond, changed the subject.
After the two took their pills and rested briefly, they began dealing with the Green-Scaled Hawk King's corpse.
[Hundred Bones Resonance cheered: Oooh, oooh, more spoils to collect!]
Gu Chengming carefully extracted the demon core that radiated a green luster. It was warm to the touch, and the sheer purity of the demonic power contained within was staggering.
"You should keep this demon core, Fellow Daoist Gu," Xu Huayi offered of her own accord. "If not for your final strike today, we'd both have perished here. This merit rightfully belongs to you."
[Hearing this, Hundred Bones Resonance was quite satisfied, thinking to itself: this is a fine beauty who can help fight monsters AND volunteers to split the spoils—provisionally rated 3.5 Yu.]
Since when was "3.5 Yu" invented as a unit of measurement, Hundred Emperor?
Gu Chengming grumbled inwardly, but on the surface he made no show of refusal, generously accepting the goodwill.
The two carefully stowed away the demon core and also stripped some precious materials from the Green-Scaled Hawk King's body.
"We should head back to Snowfall Pass." Gu Chengming rose to his feet and looked toward the mouth of the ravine. "I don't know how things are faring over there. Let's hope Vice-General Liang and the others can hold out."
The two dallied no longer, unleashing their movement techniques and racing toward Snowfall Pass.
Yet before they'd gone even ten li out of Hawk's Sorrow Ravine, Gu Chengming's expression shifted.
"What is it?" Xu Huayi sensed something was wrong.
"A message just came through the Myriad Wonders Assembly..." Gu Chengming's voice was heavy. "The situation at Snowfall Pass is far worse than we imagined."
In his perception, the Myriad Wonders Assembly had descended into utter chaos.
Countless reports came flying in like snowflakes, each one radiating urgency and peril.
[The northern wall is in crisis—third-realm demon beasts have breached the first line of defense.]
[The east gate garrison has suffered over half its number in casualties. Requesting reinforcements.]
[A large number of flying demon beasts have appeared to the west, attacking the array nodes atop the walls.]
[Vice-General Liang is battling two fourth-realm Demon Sovereigns; the situation is not optimistic.]
Two fourth-realm Demon Sovereigns.
One against two—no matter how strong Vice-General Liang was, he absolutely could not hold out for long.
"Hurry!"
Meanwhile, at Snowfall Pass.
Vice-General Liang Si stood at the highest point of the wall, staring down at the dark, teeming tide of beasts below.
"Vice-General, the third line of defense on the western wall can't hold!" A commandant came stumbling up to report.
Liang Si said nothing, only staring fixedly at the two colossal figures beyond the walls.
"Damn it." Liang Si clenched his teeth. He had already crushed who knew how many message talismans in his hand.
"BOOM—!!!" Another thunderous crash.
Amid the deafening roar, this fourth-realm Demon King had actually entered the fray in person.
Its massive body suddenly leapt up and came crashing down toward the wall like a small mountain.
"This is bad!" Liang Si's pupils abruptly contracted.
The energy of the great city-protecting array had already been drained to its limit, and there was simply no time to activate the backup array nodes.
Just as that "mountain of flesh" was about to smash down—
"Clairvoyant Eye—condense!" A crisp female voice suddenly rang out atop the wall.
Immediately after, a beam of pale golden light descended from the heavens, enveloping the plunging Mountain-Moving Ape King. In that instant, time itself seemed to freeze.
As if he had not anticipated this turn of events, Liang Si stared somewhat dumbfounded at the figure that had suddenly appeared.
Yu Wenqiu looked rather bedraggled at that moment, yet her eyes remained bright.
She was gasping for breath, the sweat on her forehead sliding down mingled with blood. She had just forcibly deployed the Clairvoyant Eye to seal the Mountain-Moving Ape King within a hastily carved-out pocket dimension.
A technique of this caliber was already beyond her capacity as a third-realm cultivator.
"I'll handle that Ape King. Vice-General Liang, go help the others." Yu Wenqiu gritted her teeth and drew a plain, antique jade talisman from her storage pouch.
It was the life-saving talisman Senior Sister Luo had left her, which she'd meant to keep for a truly critical moment...
In the next instant, a resplendent sword light burst forth from the jade talisman, soaring into the sky and transforming in a flash into a giant sword a hundred zhang long, hewing straight down at the Ape King with the might of splitting heaven and earth.
It tried to dodge, only to find that the sword light had already locked onto its aura.
"BOOM—!!!"
The sword light cleaved into the Ape King, carving a wound into its massive body so deep the bone was visible. Blood cascaded down like a waterfall, staining the snow below crimson.
Yet though this strike gravely wounded the Ape King, it was not enough to slay it.
"Damn it..." Yu Wenqiu's face grew even paler.
The drain on her soul had already reached its limit. If she forced another spatial technique, she risked injuring her very foundation.
But as she watched the soldiers still fighting desperately below the wall, watched the cultivators throwing themselves forward one after another to protect the common folk behind them, an indescribable emotion suddenly surged in her heart.
"That idiot Little Gu—I wonder how he's doing right now..."
Yu Wenqiu murmured to herself, a flicker of worry crossing her eyes. Then she drew a deep breath and once more mobilized the meager true essence remaining in her body.
——With Senior Sister Luo and Little Gu both gone, it was her turn to make a difference.
However, just as Snowfall Pass fell into dire straits and Yu Wenqiu prepared to use an essence-blood secret text to invoke the Clairvoyant Eye and slay the Ape King—
A resplendent sword light suddenly appeared on the distant horizon. When it first emerged it was but a single point, yet in the blink of an eye it stretched across dozens of li, like a single downward stroke traced by a writing brush, tearing apart the sky full of wind and snow.
"That's..."
Liang Si raised his head, a flicker of disbelieving joy in his eyes.
"It's General Luo! General Luo has returned!" The soldiers atop the wall let out a unanimous cheer.
The sword light circled once above Snowfall Pass, then transformed into a white-robed figure that landed steadily atop the wall.
It was none other than the seventh on the Heaven Ranking—Luo Jinyao.
"Senior Sister?!"
The moment Yu Wenqiu saw Luo Jinyao, that sense of security—"the sky was falling and finally someone is holding it up"—left her whole body limp with relief.
Luo Jinyao was quick of eye and hand, catching her in a single motion.
"You've worked hard, Little Yu." Luo Jinyao's voice was gentle.
She could see that Yu Wenqiu had given her all to hold Snowfall Pass.
Soon her gaze fell upon the area beyond the city gate. She slowly raised her right hand, and countless visible whirlpools of spiritual energy gathered around her, then transformed into illusory sword shadows one after another.
One blade, ten blades, a hundred blades, a thousand blades... In the blink of an eye, the entire sky was blanketed with sword shadows.
In the next instant, that sky-filling array of sword shadows trembled as one and poured down upon the beast tide beyond the walls.
Those demon beasts that had been frenziedly assaulting the walls were like paper before this sky-filling rain of swords, instantly ground into a bloody mist. And the trapped Ape King bore the very brunt of it.
It tried to flee, only to find that at some point it had been trapped within a cage forged from condensed sword qi.
In the span of mere breaths, this fourth-realm Demon Sovereign was riddled with wounds.
"It's over." Luo Jinyao said indifferently, her fingers closing gently.
The sword qi piercing the Demon Sovereign's body erupted in an instant, and the Ape King's massive body burst apart completely in that moment, scattering into a sky of bloody rain.
And so a fourth-realm Demon Sovereign fell.
Meanwhile, the other fourth-realm Demon Sovereign, watching its companion's grisly end, felt a flicker of terror in its eyes.
It wanted to flee, but Luo Jinyao would not grant it the chance. The fleeing fourth-realm Demon Sovereign had not flown even a hundred zhang before a white sword beam caught up to it.
The sword beam pierced in through the back of its neck and out through the center of its brow. The Demon Sovereign's massive body froze in midair, then crashed thunderously to the ground, kicking up a sky of snow and dust.
Two fourth-realm Demon Kings—fallen.
In that instant, the beast tide outside the walls completely collapsed, scattering in every direction.
The wind and snow gradually ceased.
Snowfall Pass had held.
Earth-shaking cheers erupted atop the walls. The soldiers who had fought in blood for hours finally let out a breath of relief.
"General Luo!"
Liang Si strode over quickly, anxious to inform Luo Jinyao of Gu Chengming's situation, which he had learned of through the Myriad Wonders Assembly.
But before he could finish speaking, two figures suddenly appeared on the distant horizon.
A man and a woman—none other than Gu Chengming and Xu Huayi.
Only, at this moment, both of them looked utterly disheveled. Gu Chengming was supporting a barely-standing Xu Huayi, and they made their way step by step toward Snowfall Pass.
At this moment, Gu Chengming also let out a long breath of turbid air.
Even from far away, he could feel that familiar and terrifying ripple of sword intent atop the wall. Watching the beast tide that had besieged Snowfall Pass recede like an ebbing tide, watching that white-robed figure standing tall atop the wall, he finally relaxed completely.
This crisis, dire enough to overturn the entire Northern Territory's defensive line, had after all been resolved at the last hair's breadth of a moment.
In truth, Luo Jinyao's return was no coincidence. Though Zhou Qingmu, far away in the Capital, was gravely wounded, after slaying two Demon Kings she had keenly perceived that the demon race's all-out assault this time was no mere retaliation—it was aimed at exploiting the opening to seize Snowfall Pass.
So the moment she received word of the disturbances in the Northern Territory, Zhou Qingmu took the risk of ordering Luo Jinyao to abandon her escort duty and return directly to Snowfall Pass. It was precisely this foresight, combined with the desperate life-or-death struggle of Gu Chengming and the others in Hawk's Sorrow Ravine, that forcibly turned around this doomed gambit aimed at Snowfall Pass.
"Little Gu!"
Yu Wenqiu's eyes lit up, and she instinctively tried to stand.
But her gaze lingered for a moment on the hand Gu Chengming had resting at Xu Huayi's waist, then shifted to Xu Huayi's face—pale, yet unable to hide its delicate beauty—currently leaning halfway against Gu Chengming's shoulder.
Her cheeks visibly puffed out.
She was the one who'd overdrawn her soul first to protect everyone—so why was all the limelight now being stolen by these two latecomers?
And that aura of tacit understanding these two shared after their brush with death, the more she looked at it, the more it set her teeth on edge.
She wanted to give a snort to voice her displeasure, but in the end she chickened out and could only silently bury her face into the soft collar of her fox-fur cloak.
Amid the sky-filling wind and snow, she ultimately swallowed those small, indefinable feelings back down into her belly.
The wind and snow finally ceased entirely before dawn, and Snowfall Pass, after the great battle, fell into a flurry of activity.
The wounded were carried down from the walls in orderly fashion; the shattered array nodes flickered back to faint life under the repairs of craftsmen and cultivators; and the mountains of demon beast corpses were swiftly dismembered and processed, becoming the resources and merit that would carry this frontier city through the rest of the winter.
Gu Chengming and Xu Huayi, the meritorious heroes who had slain the Demon Sovereigns, were sent to the Northern Garrison Manor to recuperate upon returning within the pass. As for Yu Wenqiu, who had been forced to overdraw her soul, after drinking a bowl of soothing medicine that her senior sister personally fed her, she guiltlessly commandeered the warmest room right next to Gu Chengming's.
Over the next few days, the Northern Garrison Manor grew rare and quiet.
Gu Chengming's injuries recovered faster than expected. Though the backlash of the Red Dust Art was perilous, with the aid of spiritual medicines Luo Jinyao personally concocted, the disordered true essence within his body soon stabilized.
It was only that faint sense of weariness deep within his soul that lingered and refused to disperse, keeping him in meditation and breath-regulation for most of these days.
Yu Wenqiu's condition was rather more troublesome. The hidden injury left from forcibly overdrawing her soul to deploy the Clairvoyant Eye required a longer period of quiet recuperation. Luo Jinyao sternly forbade Little Yu from using any technique during this time, so she began wandering all over the Northern Garrison Manor, grandly calling it "strolling to clear the mind aids recovery."
Only, this mind-clearing route always happened to pass right by Gu Chengming's door.
Sometimes she carried a freshly stewed bowl of soup, claiming Senior Sister had asked her to bring it. Sometimes she cradled a stack of storybooks, saying she was passing by and thought to ask Little Gu if he wanted to borrow one to pass the time. Once she even hauled over a chair and sat in the corridor sunning herself, on the grounds that the sunlight was best there.
Xu Huayi was diligent as well. Her injuries had been lighter than Gu Chengming's to begin with, so naturally she recovered faster, and from time to time she too would find reasons to come see Gu Chengming.
Whenever Luo Jinyao happened to pass by and see this scene, she would always shake her head helplessly.
As the senior sister, she could of course see through Yu Wenqiu's little schemes, and she could sense that faint, elusive affection from Xu Huayi as well... thinking to herself, oh Little Yu, Little Yu, if you don't make a move soon, you won't even get any soup to drink.
A few days later, in a side hall of the Northern Garrison Manor.
Sunlight streamed through the window lattice, spilling across the desk piled high with case files.
Nuo Tao stared blankly at the rosewood box placed before her, and at the bronze medal that represented Great Qian's official commendation.
It had been sent over by Vice-General Liang Si himself, with perfectly ample justification: assisting the Myriad Wonders Assembly in coordinating supplies during the beast tide, helping to defend Snowfall Pass, and the prior reconnaissance, and so on...
But for a thief-cultivator born of the Myriad-Theft Gate, raised from childhood on the teaching that pocketing other people's things was the only true skill, this was all a touch too surreal.
She reached out, her fingertips trembling slightly as they brushed the medal. There was no thrill of sneaking and stealing, none of that heart-pounding wariness of being discovered at any moment. In their place was a solidness she had never felt before.
Nuo Tao instinctively wanted to do as she'd always done—tuck the thing into the most hidden compartment of her sleeve, or immediately calculate how many spirit stones this trinket could fetch.
But when she drew her hand back, she inexplicably picked the medal up and tilted it toward the sunlight.
The craftsmanship wasn't particularly fine—there were even a few rough polishing marks on it. Through the sunlight, she thought of that Little Brother Gu who was always squeezing her labor dry, thought of those strangers—wandering cultivators—who had posted in the Myriad Wonders Assembly thanking her that "the timely intelligence saved my life," and thought too of that soldier's sincere respect on his face when the usually stern, humorless Vice-General Liang sent someone to deliver the gift.
Nuo Tao pursed her lips, wanting to put on an expression of "as if this girl even cares," but the upward curl at the corners of her mouth betrayed her.
She carefully placed the medal back into the box, then set the box squarely in the most conspicuous spot on the desk. Then, like a guilty thief, she glanced left and right, and only after confirming that no one had witnessed her foolish grin just now did she let out a breath of relief.
This upheaval in the Northern Territory, which had lasted for months, ultimately came to a close in a manner bordering on the absurd.
The Demon Domain fell utterly silent, and naturally the Great Qian court would not pass up this chance to thoroughly beat a drowning dog.
Riding this favorable wind of great victory, the Night-Watch Bureau joined forces with the border army. Not only did they swiftly reclaim several strongholds that had been harassed by demon beasts, but they even pushed the defensive line a full three hundred li northward, reestablishing absolute control over that buffer zone.
The Northern Territory welcomed its most peaceful winter in nearly a decade.
A few days later, at the Northern Garrison Manor.
Gu Chengming gazed at the letter that had just been delivered by courier.
[To Chengming, for your eyes:
This one already knows of the matters in the Northern Territory. Well done. Originally this one worried you might have trouble adjusting upon first entering the Northern Territory, but it seems now that this one worried needlessly. Rest and recover well at Snowfall Pass.]
[This one's injuries are no longer of concern; do not fret. When you return to the Capital, there will be no shortage of celebratory wine.]
[——Zhou Qingmu]
Gu Chengming folded the letter, the corners of his mouth curving slightly upward.
"What are you looking at? Smiling so happily?"
A gentle voice interrupted his thoughts.
Luo Jinyao walked in carrying a jade tray, upon which sat several peeled snow-spirit fruits.
Today she wore no fearsome sword robe, but had changed into casual house attire, her long hair loosely gathered up, her whole person exuding an air of gentleness.
"Senior Luo."
Gu Chengming hurriedly rose to pay his respects, only for Luo Jinyao to chidingly press him back down into his chair.
"How many times have I told you—in private, there's no need for all these formalities."
Luo Jinyao set the jade tray on the desk and, with utter naturalness, reached out toward Gu Chengming's wrist. A thread of gentle, mellow spiritual power slowly probed along his meridians. After a careful, thorough examination, she withdrew her hand as if relieved.
"Good—the earlier hidden injuries have mostly recovered, and your soul has stabilized as well."
She looked at Gu Chengming, her gaze extraordinarily complex. There was the gratification of watching one's own child come into their own, and also a lingering fear of "how can this child be so worrisome."
"You..."
Luo Jinyao sighed and sat down beside him, her tone plaintive. "Back then Little Yu told me you were a well-behaved, law-abiding good child, and I actually believed it—and then what happened?"
"That was a fourth-realm Demon King. What if your Red Dust Art hadn't worked? What if that Hawk King had lashed back in its dying moments?"
"If something had happened to you, how was I supposed to answer to Zhou Qingmu? How was I supposed to answer to the sect?"
Listening to this nagging scolding, Gu Chengming not only felt no annoyance but could only honestly bow his head and take the lecture, from time to time nodding along in agreement: "Senior is right," "I'll definitely be more careful next time."
Once the scolding was done, Luo Jinyao's anger seemed to dissipate as well.
Looking at Gu Chengming's "obedient" manner, the severity in her eyes faded, melting into a soft trace of a smile.
"That said, scolding aside, you really did do well this time."
Luo Jinyao reached out to straighten his collar, her tone softening. "Even I, back when I was at the third realm, wouldn't have dared claim I could have done better than you."
"As an elder, I ought to show my appreciation somehow."
She straightened her posture and asked earnestly, "What does Little Gu want?"
Gu Chengming raised his head, looking at Luo Jinyao full of anticipation. "Senior, do you truly mean it?"
"Of course I mean it." Luo Jinyao nodded with a smile.
Gu Chengming drew a deep breath and, with an utterly sincere face, put forth his request:
"Then could I trouble Senior to catch some demon beasts for me to kill?"
The air suddenly fell silent.
In those beautiful eyes of Luo Jinyao's, there was first earnestness, then contemplation, and finally bewilderment.
"...?"
She suddenly recalled Little Gu's nickname.
—The Murder-Fiend of Snowfall Pass.
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