The secret passage door opened wider and wider, with faint water sounds coming through – apparently they would need to swim across. Everyone’s gaze flashed, and Xiao Jue looked at Qin Chang Ge with some concern, worried her broken arm would be affected.

But Qin Chang Ge was looking back at Shui Linghuai from the passage entrance, feeling something was off about her tone.

Raising an eyebrow, she walked toward Shui Linghuai, looking at her hand that remained in the bronze basin. Shui Linghuai’s gaze was distant as she looked at her, then suddenly lowered her head and blew out the lamp beneath her palm that connected to the mechanism.

Then she said angrily, “The mechanism can only stay open for one incense stick’s time and can only be opened once from here. If you dawdle, do you want to get everyone killed?”

Su Xuan immediately reached to pull Qin Chang Ge, but Xiao Jue stopped him. “I’ll take her.”

His gaze swept over to Shui Linghuai, signaling Su Xuan to pay attention. All of them were exceptionally intelligent – how could they not see Shui Linghuai’s strange behavior? They all feared this child might do something foolish in her heartbreak. Su Xuan nodded slightly, indicating he understood.

Shui Linghuai didn’t look at their actions, only saying indifferently, “Before entering the waterway, remember to collect some blood lotus juice from a stone frog’s mouth that flows liquid along the passage and apply it to your foreheads. That will keep you safe.”

Xiao Jue nodded and first led Qin Chang Ge into the secret passage, followed unhurriedly by Ban Yan, and finally Su Xuan stood at the passage entrance, looking back at Shui Linghuai.

Shui Linghuai said softly, “Go on.”

Her hands and face were behind the rust-spotted bronze lamp, in flickering dim yellow light. Su Xuan couldn’t see her expression clearly but said firmly, “Miss Shui, let’s go together.”

Her body trembled slightly, as if these words had stirred some long-waiting desire deep in her heart. Tears appeared in Shui Linghuai’s eyes. She bit her lips and hesitated for a long while before finally extending her free hand to Su Xuan, but the other hand didn’t release the mechanism.

Meeting Su Xuan’s questioning gaze, she said in a low voice, “We must wait until the last moment before leaving, or they’ll encounter danger…”

“What danger?”

“There are Yilan snow beasts in the secret passage. These animals love eating fresh flesh and blood. Only our Shui family descendants’ blood they don’t like to touch.”

Su Xuan looked back at her in the darkness, his gaze sharp as sunlight penetrating her eyes. “Miss Shui… you just said the blood lotus juice would keep them safe.”

“Yes,” Shui Linghuai smiled miserably, looking at the gradually closing dark door and quickly withdrawing her hand. “Let’s go!”

Without allowing argument, she pulled Su Xuan and threw herself into the secret passage in the last moment before the dark door closed.

Su Xuan had originally worried she wouldn’t come with him, so seeing her enter the passage first, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief. After going down several steps, they saw a flat section of hemp stone road with uniform blue stone roofing. In the cleanliness, it faintly emanated the stale breath of ages past. Footsteps echoing within only heightened the eerie silence.

Shui Linghuai’s footsteps were heavy, echoing continuously in the deep, empty passage. Su Xuan looked at her strangely, thinking privately that girls were still girls after all – no matter how bold, in such places that had slept for years with their cold, forest-like atmosphere, they inevitably felt panicked.

So he gripped her hand more tightly, feeling faint pity in his heart… She was still a child. To be abandoned by her family in a single day was enough suffering for her…

Feeling the delicate small hand in his palm first shrink slightly, then grip him even tighter, Su Xuan smiled slightly in the darkness, tolerantly accepting her closeness.

There was faint breathing beside him, light and slightly hurried. The woman’s lotus-like body fragrance drifted over faintly. Su Xuan felt somewhat uneasy and shifted his body aside.

After walking several steps, they saw a stone frog with an open mouth by the roadside as expected. Su Xuan went over and collected several drops of “blood lotus juice” in his palm. He first wanted to apply it to Shui Linghuai, but she avoided it, saying softly, “I’m a Shui family member – I don’t need this.”

Su Xuan made an “oh” sound of understanding and smiled self-mockingly as he applied it to himself, but suddenly frowned. “This is blood lotus? This smell…”

Shui Linghuai said quietly, “This is Yilan’s unique blood lotus, different from elsewhere. The bloody smell is especially intense.”

She pressed close to Su Xuan, moving forward under his guidance. The man beside her emanated a clear, distant fragrance like turmeric as he walked – the scent of wind that had passed through cloud seas above distant mountains, carrying the verdant green of leaves and the blue-gray of rocks, or perhaps the cool fluff of clouds from wild geese’s wingtips in the vast sky, or the crystal clarity of the first dewdrop born on green pines atop absolute peaks. It surrounded her boundlessly, making her so intoxicated she wished she could drown in it.

At this moment… he held her hand… he was beside her… he said, together… The closest distance in a lifetime, the most heartmoving words, the warmest temperature.

Shui Linghuai smiled, kept smiling, but crystal tears gradually gathered in her eyes. That single tear trembled at the bottom of her eyes, about to fall yet not falling – a curve that could never be complete.

This was a deep secret passage emanating stale odors, with black shadows reflected and stretched on all four walls, far and near filled with empty, distant footsteps. Yet at this moment in her eyes, this was an early spring path of deep emerald green, fragrant flowers permeating everywhere, a man in white robes turning back from distant mountain peaks, with the long, clear sound of pigeon whistles behind him.

The darkest yet brightest road of a lifetime… could they walk a little slower, just a little slower?

That short distance of a few steps measured out someone’s entire life…

Ahead, the waterway was in sight.

Shui Linghuai closed her eyes. That trembling teardrop was finally gently squeezed out, leaving a bright trail on her snow-white cheek.

Su Xuan only looked at the waterway ahead, watching Xiao Jue and Qin Chang Ge’s safety in the water, and casually asked Shui Linghuai, “Miss Shui, can you swim?”

Shui Linghuai nodded. Su Xuan smiled. “Then be careful.” He pulled her and leaped into the waterway.

He still gripped her hand – the boneless soft hand in his palm was so delicate it made him mistakenly think it was a child’s hand. Before these difficulties and dangers, he dared not let go, afraid that with one oversight that delicate child would be swept away by the current.

The water was very cold, making the hand in his palm equally ice-cold. Feeling Shui Linghuai’s movements were somewhat slow, Su Xuan turned to look at her and asked, “Are you cold?”

Shui Linghuai only shook her head, her gaze fixed unblinkingly on him.

Su Xuan felt somewhat embarrassed under her stare and awkwardly turned his head away.

The water flowed silently. In the silent flow, some moist liquid also dropped soundlessly.

“Does it hurt?”

“It’s alright.”

“I thought you’d say it doesn’t hurt,” Xiao Jue smiled lightly, swimming with one hand while gently supporting Qin Chang Ge with the other. Looking up, he saw the waterway sides were gradually no longer neat giant stones but had changed to natural, jagged cliff walls. Some short, fat white shadows darted quickly back and forth, occasionally jumping above the water surface and rushing toward the two, but retreating the moment they approached. From their shapes, they vaguely resembled the “animal version of Xiao Rong” they’d encountered that night.

“So these are the Yilan snow beasts,” Xiao Jue smiled and said with relief, “Looking at their behavior, they really avoid this blood lotus juice like the plague… but this blood lotus…”

“You noticed too.” Qin Chang Ge’s eyes showed worry. “It’s not like we haven’t seen blood lotus before. No matter what variety, none had such intense bloody smell.”

“You mean…” Xiao Jue suddenly turned to look at her. “Animal blood? Human blood?”

“If it were animal blood, Miss Shui wouldn’t need to deceive us,” Qin Chang Ge sighed softly. “I’m a bit worried…”

“You mean that’s her blood?” Xiao Jue was startled and turned back to see if Shui Linghuai had kept up, only to face Ban Yan directly. That woman maliciously lifted her face-covering long hair, and in the dark, deep waterway, smiled at Xiao Jue with her half-ghost face.

A snow beast that had rushed toward her immediately shrieked and fled.

Ban Yan waited smugly to see Xiao Jue scared into turning back, but instead, bold Emperor Xiao brightly and heartily smiled back at her.

His expression was as if he’d seen a world-stunning beauty.

Ban Yan continued swimming somewhat resentfully…

Qin Chang Ge watched this scene with amusement, then frowned again. After thinking, she said, “I suspect that mechanism requires blood sacrifice. She absolutely refused to withdraw her hand at the time, probably… Though normally for us martial artists, losing some blood wouldn’t cost our lives. But that child’s expression always makes me worry.”

“She’s heartbroken,” Xiao Jue didn’t look at her, gazing at the invisible ceiling above. “The taste of heartbreak over love is naturally one of complete despair…”

His expression was somewhat distant, his gaze seeming to penetrate the deep black rock walls to see those past years deeply buried with waiting and desperate memories. Back then, whenever he thought of that incomplete handful of ashes in Changle Palace, he too had truly become ash, drifting scattered between heaven and earth, floating without foundation. Everything looked blurred, everything seemed separated by vast distances. Though his flesh still existed, his spirit had long become a wandering soul burned to accompany her…

Seeing his expression, Qin Chang Ge felt dejected and after a long while, sighed deeply.

Behind them, monotonous swimming sounds, quiet enough that only their breathing could be heard. Qin Chang Ge vaguely saw Su Xuan and Shui Linghuai catching up and felt slightly more at ease, whispering, “I hope I’m overthinking… I hope nothing happens…”

Water sounds flowed on, he was beside her.

That white robe like snow, flying long brows, just like back then, that night.

…That night, the mist-shrouded Yilan Valley rarely had clear skies and bright moon. After the clouds dispersed, that crescent moon was thin and cool as jade, hanging on the treetops like a woman’s delicate eyebrows.

…What was she doing then? She seemed to be climbing trees to look at the moon, with two snow beasts circling around her, desperately competing for favor.

When she heard the loud laughter, even that crescent moon seemed to tremble. The snow beasts shrieked as they turned around – such clear, bright laughter, like wind blowing from snowy mountains, instantly bringing snow foam from the peaks, swirling over crystal clear.

Hitting one’s face, even the chest felt refreshingly bright.

She turned back in amazement – Yilan Valley truly hadn’t had anyone enter for many, many years, let alone appearing suddenly at midnight.

How had he crossed the Taotie Forest ahead, avoided Yilan’s sixteen secret checkpoint guards, found Yilan’s hidden doorway concealed in the mountain walls, and appeared in the valley?

Questioning voices arose ahead, followed by answering voices, then the howling of palm winds and clashing weapons…

She lazily lay down, listening to the wind sounds – the Shui family guards had mobilized. If Shui family guards traveled the martial world, they’d be at least first-rate masters at minimum. The Shui family’s Kanli Formation was something ordinary people could enter but not leave.

This person naturally couldn’t leave either.

But immediately she heard the guards’ cries of alarm. She suddenly turned to see dozens of the Shui family’s unique flying silver blades like rotating moonlight shooting out in all directions. In the black night, a brilliant silver flower bloomed.

Then she heard Uncle Shui Yingshen’s angry shout as a green shadow swept over like flowing light.

She became somewhat interested, turned over, and propped her chin to wait and watch Uncle teach that arrogant youngster a lesson.

In the distance under silver radiance, she only saw the green shadow heavy and strong while the white shadow was elegant, rotating and turning like flowing light, resembling a cold shooting star in heaven and earth, or flowing rainbow clouds born above immortal mountains. Though clearly just ordinary moves, they were vast as the might of four seas, bright as the collapse of jade mountains.

Without realizing it, she became mesmerized watching, grabbing a snow beast and unconsciously plucking its fur. Every time she saw something exciting, she’d yank once. That unlucky snow beast that had successfully won favor kept squeaking and crying.

Within several moves, her own second uncle, supposedly one of Yilan Valley’s three great masters and particularly renowned for his deep power, was staggering backward. That white shadow spun once, and under moonlight he gestured with his hand and laughed heartily, “Fought enjoyably – impressive!”

That gesture seemed to draw out all the starlight under the firmament, brilliant as it entered her eyes.

Her heart felt struck by thunder. Her hand loosened and the snow beast fled with wails.

When Great Uncle’s palm wind attacked him like toppling mountains and overturning seas, she had already involuntarily jumped down from the tree. In the distance amid fierce palm winds, that light, elegant figure advancing and retreating, turning freely seemed to have magic power attracting all her attention.

Step by step, she walked toward the battlefield.

In the howling strong winds, the man with his back to her suddenly turned around.

His black hair flew up, his eyes bright and clear as moonlight…

Ripples rose and swayed endlessly in her heart. Flowers bloomed in the ripples, clear and beautiful with scattered fragrance. Yet her face remained indifferent and cold as frost pears as she drew out her bell chain with a clear shout:

“Who comes here? Quickly submit to death!”

…Who comes? Who? Who?

Coming thus, treading clouds and wearing moonlight, so unavoidably crashing into her heart, raising a thousand hectares of blue waves that even now, even at this moment, had not ceased.

She was shattered – sixteen years of glass-like brilliant, gorgeous years cherished and protected in peaceful times. Those memories of carefree, sorrowless life howled away from then on. She soared up, struggling to chase after them, then watched helplessly as she fell into eternal deep water.

In the deep water, she gradually lost strength to struggle and no longer wanted to struggle… For sixteen years, she had enjoyed treasures her other siblings never had. Perhaps she had been greedy for too much, so fate punished her to lose everything in one day, to return it all at once.

…Sixteen years ago, she had given the Shui family’s final cry of joyful birth, but received Grandfather’s long sigh in return.

…Ill-fated daughter…

…Do not change back to women’s clothing before sixteen, do not leave the valley before sixteen, and perhaps a lifetime of peace can be preserved…

She was raised as a son, eating strange, bitter medicine from childhood. She would bleed from time to time – once bleeding began, it was fierce and terrible, never stopping. Her joints often swelled from congestion. She had once been desperately ill and barely rescued.

Everyone protected her, not letting her tire, grieve, be injured, or bleed. Everyone waited for that sixteenth year, carefully carrying dark shadows as they passed.

…Then at fifteen, she saw him.

…She rushed out of the valley regardless of everything, using the excuse of Snow White Golden Orchid’s disappearance. To find her, Third Brother, the family’s most important figure, personally traveled to enemy countries and brought her back.

…The moment he met her and saw her women’s clothing, Third Brother, usually so calm and composed, finally changed expression… He sighed and said, “Karma.”

Karma, was it?

She had no regrets.

Those past glass-like fifteen years weren’t lived by her true self. What she truly lived was this final year.

To be able to live this period so wholeheartedly without reservations, to be able to love someone so completely with infinite hope.

How wonderful.

…The water is so heavy…

Yet… so warm.

She used her last bit of strength to gently lean toward him beside her.

He didn’t avoid her but considerately pulled her closer to his side. She smiled with satisfaction… The embrace she’d dreamed of day and night in this life, the final embrace, was finally fulfilled in this way… How wonderful.

Her hand was in his hand, her entire being in his arms.

To walk hand in hand, unable to grow old together.

But it didn’t matter…

She smiled and closed her eyes.

Su Xuan… I’m grateful to have met you in this life.

…

Water flowed on, sparkling with tiny glimmers in the darkness. Faint vibrations still came from above, extending to these depths with gentler tremors. The water surface rippled layer upon layer, spreading in strange, bizarre patterns like an endless, ever-living dream.

Su Xuan felt the woman beside him growing colder, her movements gradually slowing. She seemed somewhat cold, leaning toward him.

In this cold water, no matter how close they were, there could be no temperature transfer. Su Xuan still pitifully pulled her closer, bearing all her weight. The woman lay comfortably in his arms, needing to exert no strength at all.

This girl… was still quite lovely… All along, he had looked at her like a younger sister. In the Blazing Flame gang, all that entanglement and joy belonged to her while he only felt mild helplessness, tolerating this child’s willfulness.

…Today, he had probably broken her heart… Fortunately, though this child was domineering, her nature wasn’t bad. Back at Blazing Flame headquarters, when she clung too tightly and made him angry, she would cry fiercely but turn around and laugh immediately afterward.

Su Xuan thought quietly, not even noticing a gentle smile appearing at the corners of his mouth.

Ahead, the water grew shallower with stairs faintly visible.

Su Xuan’s eyes showed joy. “Miss Shui, look—”

He suddenly stopped speaking.

Why had the girl in his arms suddenly become much heavier?

This weight normally wouldn’t be noticed by a master like him, but as he emerged from his thoughts and looked ahead, the head resting against his neck didn’t lift accordingly.

Thunder crashed in Su Xuan’s heart.

He almost frantically turned up her head.

Before him, the young woman’s wet face had eyebrows and hair all blackened by water immersion. Her long lashes were tightly closed, and beneath them, both cheeks showed an ominous, ghastly pallor.

Even her lips were frost-white.

Yet at the corner of those lips was a trace of smile, like a withering flower about to drift away, faintly adorning.

Su Xuan stared at that smile. His hands, steady as constants throughout his life, suddenly began trembling.

With shaking hands, he gently felt for her breath.

!!!

“Linghuai!”

A great shout startled Xiao Jue and the others who had already left the waterway and climbed the stairs. Qin Chang Ge, still half-submerged in water, suddenly turned back to see several zhang behind them, Su Xuan standing in the water holding a young woman. The girl’s black hair was scattered, her hands hanging limply in a completely lifeless posture.

Qin Chang Ge felt her whole body go cold and suddenly her legs gave way, knocking against the steps.

Xiao Jue hurried to support her, but Qin Chang Ge pushed him away and suddenly turned back to wade through water toward Su Xuan, struggling forward while desperately searching her clothes for waterproof flint.

Su Xuan stood motionless in the water.

“Crack!”

Ban Yan lit the flint.

Qin Chang Ge stopped in the water before Su Xuan.

In the flickering firelight, the man and woman in water were illuminated, showing the woman’s hanging hands. Her right index finger was gone – at the severed finger, the water-whitened wound still continuously dripped pale red blood into the water, spreading faint blood threads before instantly disappearing.

Qin Chang Ge stared at that maimed hand still bleeding, feeling her hands and feet turn ice-cold. She softly called, “Su Xuan… Su Xuan…”

Su Xuan slowly raised his head.

His face was ghastly pale, inhuman.

His voice echoed in the hollow secret passage, sounding as distant as if separated from the mortal world, “…Why didn’t I notice?”

Qin Chang Ge remained silent… In water, one couldn’t feel temperature or blood loss. She had probably been bleeding all along… Mixed into the water, silent as quietly falling tears, no one could know.

Su Xuan was such a casual person. When she didn’t move, he thought she wanted to be lazy. He protected her in his arms, not wanting her to exert effort swimming. He traveled forward all the way, watching the figures ahead, not knowing the woman beside him was losing her life drop by drop with the water.

Looking at Shui Linghuai’s completely lifeless face, Qin Chang Ge knew there was no hope of rescue. That child – what was she thinking in the moment before death?

Su Xuan was still asking in a daze, “Why didn’t I notice?”

Qin Chang Ge suddenly felt stomach pain, her internal organs churning together as if grasped by a giant hand. She bent deeply at the waist as large drops of cold sweat broke out.

This was a… question that would never have an answer, a question that could never be answered.

Because the answer was too cruel.

Xiao Jue’s worried inquiries sounded in her ears, yet they seemed muddled as if she couldn’t hear anything clearly. Surrounding them was strange quiet yet chaotic clamor as scenes flashed by… a girl with laughter crisp as silver bells… strange insects crawling out of bells under moonlight… a child about to cry shaking off caterpillars desperately… a woman carrying Chu Feihuan and desperately fleeing across rooftops… Yilan Palace… throwing herself down crying on the cliff… hesitation and pressure before the stone mountain… heavy, strange expression in the secret room… she reached to operate the mechanism… her hand always in the bronze basin… she wouldn’t let her approach… the “blood lotus juice” flowing from the stone frog’s mouth that looked like human blood…

All those past events surged forward, changing and undulating like waves rushing endlessly through her mind, finally leaving only that bright, spirited young master laughing proudly at the peak, “Don’t you believe I can tear his pants off, sister?”

…

Linghuai.

I once promised to watch Su Xuan get his pants torn off with you. Now I stand in water watching Su Xuan hold your corpse in bewildered questioning.

I once gave you women’s clothing to change into, hoping you could show charm before your beloved. Now I used my sharp words to pressure you toward a dead end.

Throughout my life I’ve killed without mercy, harmed others without frowning. I’ve boldly met enemies throughout my life, never fearing bitter hardships. I’ve never feared meeting violence with violence, using blood to wash blood, gaining iron-blooded order and rebirth. Throughout my life I’ve manipulated clouds and rain, toyed with human hearts, used every stratagem, calculated every mechanism.

Yet this time, I finally miscalculated.