"Huh?" He was in the middle of a tirade when he suddenly paused, "What?"
“You said he would definitely kill me—” Xue Ziye murmured, touching the bandage, “but he didn’t… he didn’t.”
Huo Zhanbai was stunned for a moment, unsure how to answer—yes, that guy could have clearly taken Xue Ziye's life, but at the last moment he turned his sword to the side, only using the blade to knock her unconscious. This was indeed a rare exception for the number one assassin of the Shura Field, who never left anyone alive.
“He is Mingjie…my younger brother.” Xue Ziye lowered her head, her shoulders trembling slightly. “Deep down, he still believes in me!”
"Foolish! How can you still not understand?" Huo Zhanbai stamped his foot and exclaimed.
Xue Ziye looked at him.
“Whether he believes it or not is no longer important to him,” he said, grabbing her shoulders and crouching down to look her straight in the eye. “Zi Ye, you don’t understand what the martial world is at all—even if Tong believes it, what good will it do? For an assassin like him, these past memories will only be a burden. He would rather not believe it… If he does believe it, his death is not far off.”
Xue Ziye gazed at the western sky, remained silent for a moment, and then suddenly buried her face in her hands.
“I just don’t want him to be locked up in the dark anymore,” she said in a soft voice. “He’s already been locked up for so long.”
“He’s gone,” Huo Zhanbai gently patted her back, comforting her. “It’s alright, don’t think about it anymore… He’s gone, that was the path he chose. There’s nothing you can do for him.”
Yes, that person chose to return to the Kunlun Great Bright Palace, to continue being Tong in the Shura Field, to continue fighting in the bloody storms of the martial world, instead of choosing to stay in this isolated snow valley and try to believe in his past.
Xue Ziye gradually calmed down and gazed at the night outside.
Yes, Hitomi is gone. And her younger brother, Meisuke, has never returned—that Meisuke disappeared after the great calamity twelve years ago. What made him disappear was not the three golden needles sealing his brain, but the gradual erosion of his humanity by years of relentless, dark lives of slaughter.
Xuehuai died in an instant, yet he was still able to smile; while Mingjie, on the other hand, died slowly over more than a decade.
She was hailed as a national-level medical expert, yet she repeatedly witnessed the deaths of her closest loved ones and was powerless to do anything about it.
The snow was very heavy that night, and the wind blew from the north of Mohe, lingering and howling over Yaoshi Valley.
In the valley where the four seasons are distinct, everything is peaceful. The medicine being prepared for Huo Zhanbai in the pharmacy is almost finished, and the young girls are all asleep in the rich aroma of the medicine—no one knows that their valley master has come to the lake alone again and has been talking to the person under the ice for half the night.
The difference this time was that Huo Zhanbai silently stayed by her side, holding an umbrella to shield her from the wind and snow.
In the wind and snow, someone was heading west to Kunlun overnight.
He stood with her until late at night, seeing for the first time this usually strong woman reveal a vulnerable side that she had hidden even when drunk; her thin shoulders trembled in the wind. He simply bent down silently, turning the umbrella in his hand to shield her from the dense swirling snow.
For eight years, she had been by his side through thick and thin, waiting for him at the end of every bloody path to save him; so let him accompany her on this last night!
When the sky turned slightly blue, her complexion was already extremely poor. He finally couldn't bear to look at her anymore and tried to pull her up.
Xue Ziye angrily pushed his arm away, but the cold of the night had made her body stiff. She lost her balance and fell heavily. The ice cracked open with a loud crack, as if a huge black mouth was swallowing her up.
In that instant, the fear from years ago returned, and she screamed and closed her eyes.
"Watch out!" Suddenly, a hand reached out from the side, scooped her up around the waist, and landed her steadily on the shore. The other hand, still holding the umbrella, shielded her in front of the person and whispered, "Go back, it's too cold, and it's almost dawn."
She trembled slightly in his arms from the cold and fear: she didn't fall... this time, she didn't fall!
The hand that led her away from the ice cellar and darkness was real, and the embrace was warm and firm.
Huo Zhanbai didn't put her down, who was frozen stiff, but walked straight towards Xia Zhiyuan. She tried to push him away several times but couldn't break free, so she had no choice but to stay quiet. The only sound along the way was the soft rustling of snowflakes falling on the umbrella. In the pre-dawn darkness, she turned her head and suddenly realized that he was holding the umbrella for her, while most of his body was covered in thick snow.
She reached out and gently brushed the snow off his shoulders, and suddenly felt a long-lost warmth in her heart.
For many years, they have cherished and relied on each other, and in every moment of loneliness and pain, they always think of each other for warmth—such a confidant is enough to accompany one for a lifetime, isn't he?
"Mo'er's medicine will be ready by tomorrow, right?" he asked at this moment.
In an instant, she suddenly felt as if she had just woken up from a dream, stopped her fingers, and nodded.
"Thank you," he said, looking down at her and smiling. "Once Mo'er is better, I'll invite you to come to Lin'an so he can meet his savior."
“Oh, no need.” She chuckled. “His savior wasn’t me. It was you, and… his mother.”
She paused at the end. For some reason, she avoided mentioning Qiu Shuiyin's name.
"Moreover," she looked up at the sky—they had arrived at the Summer Garden, hot springs were gushing from the ground, the snow was melting quietly as it fell into the air, and there seemed to be a wisp of rain in the air, "when I was fourteen, I suffered from an extremely cold that had penetrated deep into my lungs. My master said that I could never leave this place in my lifetime—because the cold outside the valley was unbearable for me."
She smiled and looked at the person who had extended the invitation: "I will die of the cold before I can even cross that snowfield."
Huo Zhanbai was shocked and remained silent for a long time.
In the summer garden late at night, there are no snowflakes, but countless streams of light dance among the trees, like a dream – that is the glow-in-the-dark butterflies startled from the water's edge, dancing gracefully in the garden, displaying the most beautiful moment in their short lives.
“Actually, I don’t want to go to Jiangnan,” Xue Ziye murmured dreamily as she looked north. “I want to go to the far north of Mohe… Xue Huai said that there is a sea of ice there, and the sky changes seven colors, just like a dream.”
A smile played on her lips as she murmured, "Xue Huai... he's right there under that sky, waiting for me."
Hearing that name again, Huo Zhanbai suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of irritation. He abruptly released her, throwing her to the ground, and angrily shouted, "How foolish! He's already dead! Why won't you wake up? He died twelve years ago, yet you're still dreaming! You'll never wake up until you bury him—"
He didn't finish his sentence because he saw the woman in purple raise her hand, pointing directly at the door, her eyes cold.
"Get out," she said in a low voice, her tone resolute.
He gazed at her silently for a moment, then turned and left.
She watched him turn his head, and suddenly said calmly, "How foolish. That woman never truly belonged to you. From beginning to end, you were just an irrelevant outsider. If you don't give up on that idea, you'll never be able to live a good life."
He stopped and turned to look at her. She glared back at him defiantly.
The two faced each other in silence for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter.
"Is this a parting message?" Huo Zhanbai laughed and turned around. "We're all foolish."
He quickly disappeared into the snowstorm. Xue Ziye stood amidst the fluttering luminous butterflies in the Summer Garden, gazing silently for a long time, as if she had suddenly made a decision. She took the purple jade hairpin from her hair and gently gripped it.