"Open the door! Help! Open the door!!"
"Uncle Lin, Feng Zi, please open the door quickly!!"
Xuezhi's voice echoed above the door for a long time, but the person inside couldn't hear it at all. After an unknown amount of time, someone seemed to hear the calls, slowly opening the door and frowning, saying, "Young lady, if you have something to do, please come again tomorrow morning. I've never heard of someone coming to pick this time..."
"I need to see Master Lin. I have urgent business. Tell him that Chong Xuezhi from Chonghuo Palace is looking for him."
"So it's Palace Master Xue." The man bowed. "But our Master is already asleep. Can't we talk about it tomorrow?"
Xuezhi panicked and grabbed his throat with one hand: "I said now, and that's it! Go find him!"
Xuezhi waited in the hall for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before Lin Xuanfeng finally arrived. Lin Xuanfeng had her hair down and was only wearing a coat, which she hadn't even fully put on yet.
"Xuezhi, what happened?"
"Shangguan Tou has been poisoned by Man Feiyue and only has one day left to live. But he is still at Hongling Temple. Please, Uncle Lin, help save him!" Xuezhi bowed deeply.
Lin Xuanfeng's answer was quite straightforward: "I won't save this person."
Please!
"Uncle Lin can promise you anything, but this is the only thing that's absolutely non-negotiable. You can go back now."
"Xuezhi will not ask Uncle Lin for anything again. As long as you need Chonghuo Palace to do anything, just say the word, and Xuezhi will do anything, even if it means being torn to pieces." Xuezhi was still bowing. "For the sake of my two fathers, please, Uncle Lin, do me this favor."
Lin Xuanfeng paced back and forth several times, then suddenly her face turned angry:
"If it weren't for your two fathers, I would have gone to save Shangguan Tou!"
"I know what he did; he owes Feng Zi." Xue Zhi gripped the hem of her clothes tightly, her fingers trembling. "But Xue Zhi also owes him. If he's gone like this, I'll regret it for the rest of my life!"
"No matter what you say, I will not agree."
Xuezhi suddenly knelt down on the ground.
"Uncle Lin, please! Shangguan Tou can't die!"
"Xuezhi, you..."
Xuezhi kowtowed deeply.
"How could you... fall for someone who defiled your sister? I'm asking you, is this man more important, or your sister?"
"I don't want to be with him, I just want him to live." Xuezhi's eyes were slightly red. "If Uncle Lin doesn't agree, I will kneel at the gate of Lingjian Manor for the rest of my life."
"Then you may kneel here." Lin Xuanfeng turned and left.
"Uncle Lin!!"
After calling out a few times, Lin Xuanfeng had already left the main hall.
Xuezhi held back her tears and rushed out of Lingjian Manor in one breath. She had nowhere else to go. The only way to keep Shangguan Tou alive was to return to Xuantian Hongling Temple, have Man Feiyue temporarily alleviate Shangguan Tou's poisoning, and then go back to Lin Yuhuang to ask for the secret manual in exchange.
But if she did that, how much would she have wronged Chonglian?
She didn't know what she was doing; she just ran towards the forest where Hongling Temple was located.
However, not long after entering the forest, she collapsed due to exhaustion.
The autumn wind chills the bones.
The fallen leaves rustled for miles, like torn and tattered silk, dancing wildly in the wind.
It was the same forest, and the same moment when someone was about to leave. She remembered the day Chonglian passed away.
She has to choose between betraying Chonglian and repeating the tragedy.
Xuezhi clutched her injured leg, struggled to her feet, and fell again. This time she twisted her ankle, and excruciating pain instantly spread throughout her body. But she knew she couldn't cry anymore. Crying couldn't bring the dead back to life.
She grabbed onto a small tree to stand up, and despite the excruciating pain, stumbled and ran through the forest.
But she hadn't walked far when a pair of hands took her arm.
Xuezhi turned around.
The sky was just beginning to lighten. Thick clouds hung high in the sky. In the damp, gloomy air, the rustling of fallen leaves sounded like the mournful cry of a gray sparrow.
"You're thinking of doing something stupid again, aren't you?"
As always, Shangguan Tou had a faint smile on his lips.
Behind him, sparse autumn leaves, pale yellow and maple red, and a hazy gray smoke blended into one.
The first rays of sunlight in the morning penetrate the earth.
Shangguan Tou's right neck and right cheek had turned blue.
104
"You... why did you come out?" Xuezhi looked at the bluish color on his face and couldn't quite describe her feelings.
"You've forgotten, Man Feiyue wants me dead, but she herself is terrified of death. If I'm willing to risk everything, she absolutely can't do anything to me."
"You hit her?"
I guess so.
"But... what about the antidote? Didn't you ask her for the antidote?"
Shangguan Tou lowered his head slightly, and after a long while, took two steps closer: "Don't ask so many questions." Then he took her arm, "Did you hurt yourself? Can you walk?"
The moment he touched her arm, she recoiled sensitively. He was slightly surprised, then touched his face and quickly laughed, "Is it already on my face?"
"No, don't think like that," Xuezhi said urgently. "Don't worry about me, hurry up and think of a way to cure the poison first, then we can talk about other things later."
"This poison? If I want to find Immortal Xingchuan, it will take at least three days; if I want to find Bai Qiongyin, it will probably take a year."
How much time do we have left?
"You mean it spreads throughout the whole body?" Shangguan Tou counted on his fingers, "About six hours."
“Then we can go back and find Manyeyue.”
"Man Feiyue wants the Samadhi Flame Phoenix Blade."
"I don't care." Xuezhi shook her head vigorously, grabbed Shangguan Tou and rushed back, "Even if it means fighting her head-on, we have to find the antidote."
"Don't go. She won't leave any survivors when she decides to kill someone."
"But what about you? Don't you value your own life at all?"
Shangguan Tou stopped and ceased moving forward. Xuezhi also stopped and turned to look at him.
The wind was cold and bleak, and withered leaves fell in abundance. His white robes were stained with dust from the abyss, and his right cheek was distorted and terrifying from the deadly poison. But never before had Xuezhi felt such an urgent desire to embrace him.
“I always thought Zhi’er was a very stubborn person.” Shangguan Tou’s smile faded considerably. “You have your own things to do and you know what you’re doing. But you’ve forgotten everything today, haven’t you?”
Xuezhi was speechless for a moment. She knew what he was implying.
"No matter what you do, there will be a price to pay. You need to know how to weigh the pros and cons and choose the path where the benefits outweigh the risks. Think it through: if you go to Hongling Temple today and die inside, or if you hand over the Samadhi Flame Phoenix Blade, what will happen?"
"But what if you die?"
"I am not important to you."
"important."
"Okay, it's important. But compared to what you have to do, it's not important."
"No, it's very important!"
Shangguan Tou was taken aback for a moment, then moved closer to her and smiled, "I'm very satisfied that you think that way."
Will the bluish hue of this poison spread further?
"Man Feiyue said that when someone is about to die, their color will completely fade, so others won't be able to tell what the cause of death is."
"It seems you're in good health and can hold on for a while longer. Let's not say anything more now and hurry up to find Immortal Xingchuan."
"Alright."
So the two of them hurried out of the forest together.
Daylight broke quickly, and the morning sun gradually tinged the earth with gold. In less than half an hour, the golden sun bathed the world, and the red building appeared faintly in the silvery mist. The stream meandered through the town like a pale golden path.
Walking north along the stream, they soon passed through another grove of trees. Shangguan Tou said he wasn't feeling well and wanted to sit down and rest for a while. So the two sat down on a large rock by the stream. Xuezhi straightened his collar, and seeing that he looked terrible, she wanted to take off her own clothes and give them to him. Shangguan Tou refused, saying that it wouldn't look right. Xuezhi could only hold his hands and keep asking him how he was feeling.
Shangguan Tou moved closer to her, his voice already very weak:
"Zhi'er, I think we don't need to go."
Xuezhi felt a chill in her heart, immediately stood up, grabbed his hand and pulled him up: "Hurry up and leave after you've rested."
"I know my body best." Shangguan Tou waved his hand. "I also know best whether there is any hope for me."
"Get up, stop slacking off."
Shangguan Tou slowly slid down until he finally sat on the ground, all his strength slumped onto the large rock: "I think this poison only lasts for one or two hours. I think we shouldn't waste any more time. I have a question for you."
"you say."
"We've known each other for over three years, have you ever liked me?" As he said this, the bluish tinge on his face had faded to his neck. Xuezhi's heart grew heavier, and she managed to utter only a few words with difficulty:
"I used to like him."
"If I hadn't had so many women in my life, hadn't done anything to wrong Feng Zi, and you weren't Chong Lian's daughter, or the master of Chong Huo Palace, would you be willing to be with me?"
"meeting."
"If I survive, will you stay with me?"
"Won't."
"Why?"
"Because of Feng Zi."
"As expected." Shangguan Tou smiled helplessly. "Even at a time like this, you're not willing to lie to me?"
“I don’t want to lie to people.” Xuezhi sat down next to him.
Seeing his increasingly pale face and colorless lips, she couldn't hold back any longer and gently leaned into his arms, wrapping her arms around his waist.
"I can't be with you... but I can't fall in love with anyone else either."