Xie Zhuo touched his yin-yang fish; he must have been communicating with Lao Qin.

I couldn’t hear Lao Qin’s response, and neither could Xiaxia, who was connected with me from afar. She jumped angrily: “This dog is still pretending! Who is he talking to?”

“Don’t put on an act for me!” I also cursed at Xie Zhuo, “Don’t try to shift the blame to others. I’m asking you! Who did you fancy at Cui Lake Pavilion? Who have you been cheating with for five hundred years?”

Xie Zhuo seemed to be suppressing great emotion. He took a deep breath, and the small square on his ear flashed with spell light. Suddenly, the cave brightened as a beam of light shot from the small square on Xie Zhuo’s ear, projecting a faintly glowing figure between us—it was Lao Qin.

Lao Qin held his folded fan against his lips, with a fox-like expression, eyes narrowed in a smile: “Oh my, what’s going on here?”

“Why are you projecting Lao Qin’s image?!” I glared at Xie Zhuo.

Xie Zhuo was now being unexpectedly obedient, explaining: “I’m not putting on an act for you. I’ve manifested Qin Shuyan’s current image from the yin-yang fish. You can see whatever I ask and whatever he answers.”

After a moment of silence, I decided that, given Xie Zhuo’s rare cooperation, I could restrain my emotions a bit.

I asked: “Have him tell us who the fox demoness is?”

Xie Zhuo looked at Lao Qin, his gaze cold: “Speak…”

Lao Qin, however, was in no hurry to respond. His fan snapped open, and he fanned himself nonchalantly: “I just left a short while ago, and what drama is this between you two? What fox demoness? I know nothing about that.”

I immediately glared at Xie Zhuo.

Xiaxia also cursed in my ear: “It’s the fox demoness that this dog Xie found!”

Xie Zhuo gritted his teeth slightly, his face darker than charcoal, his voice containing a warning: “Qin Shuyan…”

With that call, Lao Qin seemed to shrink back a bit.

“Fine,” he closed his fan, adopting a pacifying attitude. “I know, the fox demoness was indeed found by me. But wasn’t it you who came to ask for my help? On the tenth day of the second month, you arrived with snow all over you, and as soon as you entered, you asked me to rescue someone on the twelfth.”

The tenth of the second month?

I counted on my fingers. I had arrived in this timeline on the eleventh of the second month. Xie Zhuo had stepped out of the timeline before me, arriving earlier, so it made sense that he would seek out Lao Qin on the tenth to arrange the rescue.

By this calculation, he went to Lao Qin on the tenth, gained Lao Qin’s trust, and asked Lao Qin to rescue Xie Xuanqing on the twelfth. Then on the eleventh, Xie Zhuo also sent a secret message to Wu Cheng, telling Wu Cheng to intercept Xiaxia in the Snow Bamboo Forest on the twelfth.

And on the twelfth, Xie Xuanqing was rescued by “someone else,” while Xiaxia was detained by Wu Cheng in the Snow Bamboo Forest.

Only the “fake” Xiaxia and the “counterfeit” Xie Xuanqing met at the right place, at the right time, but wrongly.

Xie Zhuo’s plan had succeeded; Xiaxia and Xie Xuanqing still hadn’t met. If he could take me back five hundred years, our blood oath might already be dissolved.

I marveled at Xie Zhuo’s meticulous planning, yet also felt relieved that he was now seriously injured. But amidst these mixed emotions, a vague uneasiness seeped from my heart.

I couldn’t help thinking of a question—Xie Zhuo, a person who came back from the future, why was he injured in such a terrible state?

Logically, there was another solution to our meeting problem. Xie Zhuo could have strategically helped Xie Xuanqing overcome his difficulties. Then Xie Xuanqing would not have been seriously injured, would not have stayed in Kunlun, and would not have been saved by “me.”

As long as Xie Zhuo helped Xie Xuanqing resolve the crisis, none of our predestined relationship would have existed.

Unless there was only one possibility, Xie Xuanqing’s crisis was fundamentally unsolvable.

Even with the addition of Xie Zhuo, who knew the future, Xie Xuanqing had to pay a painful price to achieve victory.

So, what kind of enemy was it, exactly…

As I pondered this, I was suddenly called back from my wandering thoughts by Xie Zhuo’s angry rebuke.

“I told you to rescue someone!” Xie Zhuo, with a black face, emphasized to Lao Qin word by word, “Told. You. To. Go.”

Lao Qin smiled, a smile just like the last time when I went to Cui Lake Pavilion and told him I wanted to drive Xie Xuanqing away.

Lao Qin said, “I know, but don’t I also know your true request? You want to sever your predestined relationship. The best way to break a marriage bond isn’t to avoid meeting that person, but to meet another, better person.”

I knew it!

This old fox’s thinking was always so incisive.

Hearing this, Xie Zhuo pursed his lips: “I don’t need that.”

Xiaxia, on the other side of my yin-yang fish, heard this and grew even more furious: “What does he mean? What does this fox demon mean? Huh? What ‘better person? Does he not want to do business in Kunlun anymore? Pushing me into an ice river—what kind of ‘better person’ is that?!”

Only after hearing Xiaxia’s words did I realize how wrong Lao Qin’s statement was, but by now I had emerged from the emotional shock of being “cheated on.”

I knew this was most likely a misunderstanding. Regardless of how Xie Zhuo had gained Lao Qin’s trust, the exchange between them truly didn’t resemble that between a client and a brothel keeper.

I temporarily set my mind at ease, reassuring myself that it was impossible to be cheated on for five hundred years without noticing.

With my mind at ease, I began to plan for my future.

“You stay quiet for now.”

I turned my head slightly, using my hair to partially hide my mouth, trying to arrange Xiaxia’s next steps while Xie Zhuo wasn’t paying attention to me.

In a very small voice, I told Xiaxia, “After you’ve bandaged your wound, find your way back quickly. Now that you’re prepared, that fox demoness is, after all, just a fox demoness from Cui Lake Pavilion. She can’t defeat you in a confrontation. Find that place, drive her away, and before Xie Xuanqing opens his eyes, you must stay by his side. You must, must make sure that the first person he sees when he opens his eyes is you!”

After I finished my instructions, Xiaxia immediately understood my intentions.

“I know! This battle isn’t lost yet. I’ll go back now and tear that fox demoness apart!”

Xiaxia set off at once, following the ice river to find her way back.

As she moved, Xie Zhuo’s eyes swept over to me.

Lao Qin also spoke with a smile: “General Jiu Xia, the cave is this small. No matter how quietly you speak, I can still hear you, not to mention the one sharing this space with you.”

Xie Zhuo collected his previous emotions, his expression returning to what it was before. He recalled the projected image of Lao Qin.

The light in the cave disappeared, returning to its dim state, with only Xie Zhuo’s instructions to Lao Qin sounding out.

“Qin Shuyan, go back and stop her.”

I also resumed my confrontational stance toward Xie Zhuo: “So it turns out you can talk to people, Xie Zhuo. You’ve told Lao Qin quite a lot.”

After sarcastically mocking Xie Zhuo, I turned to urge Xiaxia on the other end of the yin-yang fish: “You heard that.”

No longer avoiding Xie Zhuo, I simply spoke out loudly, “The situation is urgent, hurry.”

Xiaxia didn’t hesitate and immediately deployed her martial arts technique, flying up the steep rocks.

Across from me, Xie Zhuo also “remotely controlled” Lao Qin: “Qin Shuyan, be quick.”

Watching the changing scenes through Xiaxia’s eyes in my mind, I wished I could take her place: “Embrace unity, adjust your inner breath, guide your breathing to settle in your dantian.” I began teaching on the spot right in front of Xie Zhuo.

After five hundred years, watching the “me” of the past, “my” flaws and shortcomings in using spiritual power and techniques couldn’t be more obvious.

I constantly reminded Xiaxia to mind her breathing. Xiaxia didn’t disappoint me; in this critical moment, she held her ground admirably. She learned quickly, and I could see her wind-riding speed increasing.

Xiaxia leapt up, jumping from the ice river into an ice cave in the mountainside.

The ice cave was covered with a thin pink barrier, clearly a fox demon’s spell.

Through Xiaxia’s eyes, I saw inside the barrier the startled female fox demon and behind her, Xie Xuanqing, who was unconscious against the ice cave wall!

Finally!

Finally seeing you!

Xie Xuanqing!

“Xiaxia,” I commanded with a solemn voice, “break through this fox demon’s barrier and kick her out of this ice cave!”

Looking at Xie Xuanqing through the mental image while directly gazing at Xie Zhuo in the dim cave here.

“Today, the only woman who can stay by this snow wolf demon’s side is either me or you.”

My prey, no one else can touch!