However, as soon as she turned around, she suddenly froze.
Is it a dream? In the heavy snow, a person stands silently on the frozen lake. Wearing a long coat, he turns sideways and looks down at the water. From afar, that familiar silhouette seems as if someone who has been sleeping under the ice for many years has suddenly awakened and quietly returned to the world of the living in the snowy night.
"Xuehuai?" she called softly, afraid of disturbing the dream, and tiptoed closer to the lake.
On a moonless night, snow falls endlessly, blurring the face I long for day and night.
"Xuehuai!" She could no longer contain herself and ran joyfully toward the snow-covered lake. "Wait for me!"
"Xiao Ye..." The person standing on the ice turned around and saw the lantern-bearing woman rushing towards him. He suddenly sighed, slowly extended his hand to her, and whispered, "Is it you?"
She ran and threw herself into his arms, which were so firm and warm, like a dream, unreal.
When did he grow so tall? He could easily wrap his arms around her with one hand.
"It really is you..." the person murmured, hugging her tightly as if she would melt away like snow if he let go. "Is this a dream? How... how could more than ten years have passed in the blink of an eye?"
However, the vaguely familiar voice made her freeze in shock.
No—no! This, this voice is…
"I feel like I had a dream. When I woke up, everyone was dead... Xuehuai, the clan leader, Hu... they were all dead..." The voice above her sighed deeply, like a whistling wind. "Only you are still here... only you are still here. Sister Xiaoye, it feels like I had a dream."
"Meiji!" She finally looked up, saw the person's face, and exclaimed in surprise.
The light from the snow illuminated his face, making him appear pale yet handsome, with delicate features and a profile strikingly similar to Xue Huai's—a typical appearance of the Moga clan. However, his eyes were a melancholy pale blue, like bottomless lakes.
"Meiji?" She looked at him in disbelief. "You...you've already..."
“Yes, I remember everything…” He raised his head, took a deep breath, and looked at the snow-covered night. “Sister Xiaoye, I remember everything… I have forced the golden needles out.”
"That's wonderful!" She gazed at the gold needle he was holding between his fingers, overjoyed. "That's wonderful... Meisuke!"
She reached out and touched the Baihui acupoint on the top of his head, and found that there were no longer any gold needles there: "That's great!"
"Xuehuai, did he die when he was helping you escape?" He leaned down, looking at the boy frozen beneath the ice—the boy still looked like he was fifteen or sixteen, his features vaguely similar to his own, his eyes murmuring, "That night, those people stormed in. I only saw the two of you holding hands and running away, running on the frozen river... I called out to you, but you suddenly fell in..."
He gazed at his best childhood friend through the thick ice, his eyes turning a sorrowful blue.
“Sister Xiaoye…I couldn’t remember you anymore after that…” he murmured blankly, his eyes revealing a dangerous purple glint. “I think I had a very long dream…I killed countless people.”
“Mingjie.” The past had suddenly returned to her. Xue Ziye couldn’t express the excitement in her heart at this moment. She just held the other’s hand tightly and suddenly noticed that his arm was covered with scars. She wondered how much suffering he had endured.
"Who?" she asked through gritted teeth, her usually calm eyes instantly filled with rage. "Who killed them? Who wiped out the village? Who turned you into this!"
Tong turned her head to the side in the wind, gazing at the face beneath the ice for a moment, countless colors flashing through her eyes.
“They’re bandits from the Blackwater…” he said coldly, “those damned robbers.”
The wind comes from outside the valley, and the snow falls from the night.
Half of the lake was frozen solid, while the other half was steaming, like hundreds of white veils rising slowly.
They stood silently facing each other on the ice, and no one knew how much time had passed.
“Back then, those bandits sent men to massacre the village in order to seize a dragon blood pearl that was preserved in the village.” Tong kept staring at the face under the ice. “They burned down the houses, killed everyone… I was kidnapped by them, sold to the Great Bright Palace, had my memories sealed, and sent to the Shura Field to be an assassin.”
She gazed at Xue Huai's face, frozen twelve years in the past, and recalled that bloody night. The piercing pain made her cough violently—all for a dragon blood bead, all for a dragon blood bead.
Those people destroyed a village, took countless lives, and ruined the lives of those three people!
“Meijie… Meijie…” she grasped her childhood friend’s hand, her voice trembling, “What, you’ve been sent to the Great Bright Palace?”
He didn't say anything, but nodded slightly.
She had heard of the assassins trained in the Great Bright Palace of Kunlun Mountain, who had been a deterrent to the Western Regions and the Central Plains for centuries—but she could never imagine how harsh the training of those children in the Shura Field was.
“I was ordered to duel with my training comrades. I killed all of them to survive.” He looked up at the falling snow, expressionless. “For more than ten years, I have had no past, no relatives or friends, and no connection to this world—I have only survived as a dog kept by the Pope.”
He narrated calmly, his voice as still as a river flowing beneath the ice.
However, the undercurrents within made Xue Ziye's heart tremble, and her hands gradually shook: "So this time, this time your duel with Huo Zhanbai was also because... you received the King's order?"
"Hmm." A faint purple hue appeared in Tong's eyes. After a pause, she said, "Qilian has discovered another Dragon Blood Pearl, and the King has ordered me to come and retrieve it."
Xue Ziye shuddered: "If we can't get it back, will we be killed?"
"Heh." He chuckled. "Being killed? That's the lightest punishment."
"The wind is getting stronger, let's go back." He looked at the snow falling more and more heavily, took off his long coat and covered her thin shoulders. "I heard you fainted today... Don't stand in the wind and snow in the middle of the night."
That warmth enveloped her instantly.
Xue Ziye clutched the hem of her long robe, but her body was slowly trembling.
"Let's go back to Summer Garden." Tong turned around and picked up the glass lamp to lead the way for her.
However, she suddenly grabbed his hand: "Meiji!"
"Hmm?" He responded to the unfamiliar address, feeling the hand so cold and trembling, its force so intense it hurt. He lowered his eyes, concealing the cold glint that flashed within them.
A blood-red bead was placed in his palm, carrying a kind of overwhelming spiritual energy that almost froze the flying snow.
Ten Thousand Years of Dragon Blood Crimson Cold Pearl!
He gasped, and blurted out, "This—"
"Take it!" Xue Ziye placed the bead in his palm, raised her head, and looked at him with the impulsiveness of making a major decision. "But don't tell Huo Zhanbai. Don't blame him... He fought you to the death because he had to save the people he needed to save."