A thousand layers of snow across a thousand mountains, a thousand-storied tower; this heart returns and this life ends.
Ten thousand miles of icy skies and ten thousand miles of frost; a hundred twists and turns, a hundred things come to nothing.
—— Prologue
By the time Alin rushed to the legendary sacred lake, the sky was completely dark. Ancient trees of unknown species stood along the shore, and under their gloomy shadows lay a woman in white, her clothes soaked through with blood. Sensing someone's approach, the man who had been guarding Muyin dissolved into a speck of spiritual light and vanished.
Alin had never imagined that Muyin could be heavily injured. As a Blood Spirit, it was usually easy enough for her to injure others. Seeing Muyin covered in blood, Alin could not believe her eyes, and naturally she failed to examine Muyin's wounds closely enough to notice that someone had already carefully tended to them.
For Muyin to be grievously wounded, bathing in her own blood and hanging on by a thread—how was that even possible? It was simply mind-boggling. A sudden chill gripped Alin, and she shivered involuntarily. Yet the blood-stained clothes were real, and Muyin's spiritual energy was steadily draining away.
Alin had never panicked like this before. Holding Muyin, her hands grew ice-cold to the extreme. "You must not be alright! If anything happens to you, I will never forgive you!"
"Is anyone there? Anyone at all, come out and tell me what on earth is going on! How did Muyin end up like this? What should I do, how can I save her?" Frantic with anxiety, Alin looked around, but all she saw was pitch blackness. Apart from the faint ripples on the surface of the lake, there wasn't a ghost in sight.
In her desperation, Alin suddenly remembered a special healing technique Feng Ling had taught her—using spiritual energy to heal wounds was far more effective than ordinary medicinal herbs. In a situation like Muyin's, bandaging and applying medicine probably wouldn't do much good.
However, without someone to protect them, channeling spiritual energy was a terribly risky method. If anything went wrong halfway through, both of them would be affected; at best, they would lose all their spiritual energy, and at worst, their lives would be in jeopardy. Yet this was the only viable option right now, and Muyin's injuries could not afford any delay.
Gritting her teeth, Alin propped Muyin up, quickly summoned a barrier, and nodded at the little fox. "Rongrong, keep watch around us. Make sure no one interrupts."
"Don't worry, Muyin, I won't let anything happen to you!" Alin bit her finger as she spoke, used her fingertip blood to draw a spell seal on Muyin's forehead, closed her eyes to steady her mind and gather her focus, and began to chant the incantation.
As her chanting sped up, a glowing blue light enveloped Alin. Her spiritual aura seemed to materialize, visibly converging like a stream of air toward her fingertips and flowing through the spell seal into Muyin's body. A blue light began to emanate from Muyin as well, making her face look even paler by contrast.
With the drain on her spiritual energy, fine beads of sweat broke out on Alin's forehead. Cold sweat streamed down her cheeks, and the pale blue light illuminated a haggard, pretty face. Even though she could already feel her spiritual energy failing, she clenched her teeth and stubbornly held on. Muyin's spiritual energy was far too tyrannical; it imperceptibly began to suppress Alin's own energy, resisting the absorption.
By this time, Muyin had regained a sliver of consciousness. Realizing the person beside her was Alin, she murmured in a thread-thin voice, "Stop, you fool... If you keep going like this, not only will you fail to save me, but you'll die too." With that, she tried to cut off the flow of spiritual energy.
To her dismay, the moment she tried to use her own energy, Alin swayed violently and coughed up a mouthful of blood, staining her pale lips a brilliant crimson.
"Muyin, don't move. I'll protect Liner." Feng Ling's anxious voice rang out from the darkness. Muyin's heart settled instantly; she let out a long breath and relaxed. The man in black, who had arrived just in time, had no time to catch his breath before quickly summoning a barrier to enclose both Alin and Muyin within it, while simultaneously channeling his own spiritual energy to heal them.
As Alin hovered between sleep and wakefulness, she felt herself nestled in a familiar embrace. She paused for a moment before murmuring, "Why did you only just get now?" After uttering her complaint, she closed her eyes again and buried herself entirely in the man's arms, not moving an inch. For as long as she could remember, as long as he was there, her heart was at peace.
When the sky was just turning pale, Alin reluctantly opened her eyes, still feeling exhausted—likely due to the excessive depletion of her spiritual energy. Swaying unsteadily, she stood up with Feng Ling's support. "Muyin? How is she? Where is she?" she struggled, trying to go look for her.
"She's fine, don't worry. She's over there in the barrier, regulating her breath and recuperating to recover as quickly as possible." Feng Ling pulled Alin back, drawing her into his arms as he spoke with a trace of displeasure. "She is a Blood Spirit, after all. But you—you always do things without regard for the consequences! How many times have I told you not to go running off alone? You just won't listen. Do you think you're an immortal who can solve everything? If I had arrived even a step later this time, you would have exhausted all your spiritual energy and met with utter destruction! Do you have any idea? Look at you, when will you ever let me worry a little less?" He tightened his embrace and scolded her at length, but his eyes were completely filled with care and worry.
The mere thought of it filled him with lingering fear. Alin's bleeding mouth and fragile, collapsing appearance felt like an inescapable shadow and curse branded into his mind. When he sealed Alin's memories, he had sworn to never let her suffer even the slightest harm again. If she didn't remember, so be it—he would stay by her side forever. It was his fault for not being good enough, for not being able to accompany her every moment. Whenever she fell into danger, he always arrived fashionably late; if he had been even a moment later, he would have hated himself to death.
Liner... she was simply the kind of fool who would throw caution to the wind for the sake of others, which was why his heart was always strung taut on her account. Yet this kind-heartedness of hers also filled him with deep admiration, leaving him utterly unable to let her go.
He could never let her go again. After she regained her memories, upon learning that she still held him in her heart, that she still loved him and bore no resentment toward him for sealing her memories with his own hands, Feng Ling—usually a man who showed neither joy nor anger—had almost wept tears of joy. He was the wind, and he was willing to forever be the wind beneath her wings, accompanying her by her side for as long as she needed him.
"When did you become such a nag?" Alin muttered. She raised her head and stared fixedly into those deep, pool-like eyes, then reached out to gently stroke the corners of his eyes and brows, weathered by frost and wind. *I dare to act like this because I knew you would definitely come to save me, didn't I? It's because of you—because of your protection and your devotion—that I can let go and do what I must!*
When Muyin opened her eyes, Feng Ling had already left. As the foremost of the Four Great Elemental Spirits, he always had an endless stream of matters to handle; once he confirmed that Alin was safe, he had hurried away.
And so, the moment Muyin woke up, she found herself face-to-face with Alin's magnified, contemplative, and still somewhat pale pretty face. "What on earth are you playing at? Is there something on my face?" Muyin wiped her face, slowly sat up, and ended up nose-to-nose with Alin, the two of them staring at each other in mutual bewilderment.
"N-no, nothing. I-I was just... trying to make sure you were okay, weren't I?" Alin, usually so glib, stammered with a guilty conscience.
"What is this place?" Muyin looked around. They were still by the lake, though they had moved to a spot sheltered from the wind.
The sky was now fully bright. The little fox had run off somewhere to play, and a gentle breeze blew by, softening everyone's mood. On the island in the center of the lake, the leaves rustled softly, and the lake water had returned to its tranquil azure, as if nothing had happened at all.
"You scared me half to death, you know! A dignified Blood Spirit, actually getting knocked out and lying cold on the ground—tsk tsk, what an unprecedented spectacle. Don't you feel embarrassed at all?" Alin rolled her eyes, finally finding her tongue and trying to casually change the subject.
"Alin, you... your complexion doesn't look too good..." Muyin had no intention of letting her off the hook. *Clearly, it was she who had bled herself, so why did Alin's complexion look just as pale as someone who had suffered massive blood loss?*
"I... aren't I just scared half to death by you? Let me tell you, this young lady's poor little heart almost went on strike because of that blood-soaked outfit of yours!" As she spoke, she reached out to touch Muyin's forehead, only to have her hand swatted away by a single slap from Muyin.
Muyin didn't believe a word of Alin's nonsense. Scared? Alin certainly wasn't raised on fright; even if she had been worried, her face wouldn't have looked ashen and devoid of blood. For her to wake up this quickly was most likely thanks to this dead girl. Don't tell her this dead girl did something foolish to save her, driving herself to such a state...
Muyin closed her eyes with a heavy head. *Oh well. If it were her, she would have done the exact same thing for Alin—damn this sisterly bond!*
"How are you feeling? Can you hold yourself together? If you can walk, we might as well change places and chat elsewhere. This young lady traveled thousands of miles to save you, braving the wind and sleeping in the open, forgetting to eat and sleep! I haven't had a single full night's sleep or a proper meal in days!" Alin rubbed her stomach as she spoke. "Seriously, I'm about to starve to death. How are you going to compensate me?"
Muyin let out a long sigh and stood up, though a bout of dizziness forced her to grab onto Alin to keep from sinking back down. She had never imagined losing so much blood all at once in her entire life, but her spiritual energy had recovered quite a bit, and she seemed to be in no major trouble.
Catching Alin's outstretched hand, Muyin managed a smile. Indeed, it was about time she ate something to replenish her blood and vitality.
Spinning around on the spot, the two of them changed locations together.
Alin's fingertips were not as warm as usual, and Muyin couldn't help pressing her own lips—also cold and pale from blood loss—against Alin's hand to breathe warm air onto them.
Alin sat in a crude wooden bench, gazing dazedly into Muyin's eyes. The warmth spreading through her hands flowed straight into her heart, and she felt as though she could revive at full health right then and there!
Muyin grew a bit uncomfortable under Alin's steady stare, thinking to herself: *We're old acquaintances, what's there to look at?*
Yet Alin kept her gaze fixed on her until the waiter walked over with tea and pastries, casting a rather strange look at their clasped hands. Only then did the two of them hastily pull their hands apart, exchanged awkward laughs, and began eating and drinking with complete disregard for their manners.
With the quest for the Nine-Eyed Heavenly Stone coming to a close, and after seeing Xue Yin and her companions off, the two of them—along with the little fox Rongrong and Abu—returned to the treehouse. To her surprise, Muyin suddenly found herself becoming an absolute magnet for bugs!
Though she couldn't control these flying insects with spiritual energy the way Alin could, she somehow attracted them to hover all around her. This only made her even more certain that Alin musters her own spiritual energy to save her. The dead girl still refused to admit it out loud—simply outrageous!