Wounds, large and small, covered his entire body. The blood had frozen in place, and the exposed skin had turned a deep bluish-purple from the cold.
This man… was he still alive?
“Barely. His pulse is still there,” the valley master said after a long moment, removing her fingers from his neck.
The bloodied man lifted his eyes slightly, seeming to recognize the figure before him. A faint smile crossed his lips as he weakly moved them to utter a quiet sigh, “Ah… it’s… it’s you?”
With the last of his strength, he placed his left hand into hers, and immediately after, his eyes closed as he fell unconscious.
“He sure knows how to take it easy,” she muttered softly, her gaze shifting to the tightly clenched hand of the injured man. Frowning, she pried it open, and her face suddenly changed— a deep red pearl rolled into her palm, emanating a chilling aura.
This… this is… the Ten-Thousand-Year Dragon Blood Scarlet Cold Pearl?!
So that’s what this is about! He really did it… he actually went and snatched the Ten-Thousand-Year Dragon Blood Pearl!
But… even so, what good would it do?
She stood frozen for a moment before pocketing the life-risking prize. After a brief cough, she raised her hand and called to the four maids, “Help me get him into the sedan—be very careful. His organs could rupture at any moment.”
“Yes!” Clearly used to handling such situations, the four maids nodded. With a light touch of their toes, they gracefully lifted Huo Zhan Bai, frozen and battered, supporting his limbs and back with delicate care.
“Cough… cough... Take him back to the valley, to the Winter Pavilion,” the valley master said, covering her mouth with a handkerchief as she coughed and gave the order.
“Yes.” The maids gently laid the injured man inside the warm sedan. With a swift motion, they lifted the sedan, their steps as light as swallows as they quickly returned.
The wind and snow finally began to ease, leaving the vast plain covered in a suffocating, cold whiteness.
“Cough, cough.” She held the pearl in her hand, looking at it again and again, coughing violently, her gaze growing sad.
That fool… he really has no regard for his life.
But even so… what good would it do?
“Miss, why did you let him take the sedan? Are we walking back ourselves?” Lü-er, still indignant, kicked up a cloud of snow and grumbled, “What a troublesome man. He’s only holding a Returning Heaven Order, yet he’s been coming for eight years straight, always owing medical fees. Why haven’t you gotten rid of this plague yet?”
“Cough, cough, all right, all right, I’m fine. At least I don’t have a dozen holes stabbed into me,” the valley master chuckled, hiding her laughter behind her hand warmer, wrapped in a lynx-fur cloak. “It’s a rare chance to leave the valley—enjoying the snow scenery isn’t so bad.”
“But…” Lü-er cast a worried glance at her. “Miss, your health can’t take—”
“I’m fine.” She waved her hand, cutting off her maid’s nagging. “I’ll walk back slowly.”
Then she turned, trudging through the knee-deep snow.
Snowflakes fell gently onto her face, and the world around her was vast, blanketed in white. In the far distance, the faint outlines of the forest, like threads of smoke, could still be seen. Breathing in the piercingly cold air, she continued coughing as her gaze wandered across the snowy landscape. How many years had it been? Since she had been stranded in the Medicine Master's Valley, how many years had passed without stepping foot beyond its borders?
“How ridiculous… To be called a ‘divine healer,’ yet too frail to even breathe freely.”
“Miss!” Lü-er called out worriedly from behind, hastily removing her cloak and rushing up to catch up with her. “Here, wear this!”
However, she suddenly noticed her mistress had stopped in her tracks, raising a hand to gesture for silence. In that instant, her eyes gleamed sharply.
“Do you hear that? What’s that sound?” she murmured, tilting her head as if listening to something hidden in the wind and snow. Abruptly, she turned and pointed, “Over there!”
With a “whoosh,” Lü-er had already darted forward like a streak of white, her sword aimed directly at the snow.
“Who’s there?” she shouted sternly.
The snow suddenly exploded, revealing a figure hidden beneath! The person moved, catching Lü-er’s sword with their bare hand!
However, clearly at the end of their strength, after barely avoiding the strike, the figure collapsed heavily back into the snow, completely motionless. Lü-er, now calm, stepped back, pointing her sword at the person's back, confirming that they truly couldn’t move.
“Did they come from the forest…?” the valley master mused, her gaze shifting toward the distant woods.
There, a deep trail could be seen in the snow, stretching from the fir forest, marked by a scattering of blood, winding all the way to where they stood. Clearly, this person had followed Huo Zhan Bai, crawling here until they finally collapsed from exhaustion.
“Miss, he’s dying!” Lü-er cried, alarmed at the sight of the hole piercing through the person’s back.
“Hmm…” The valley master responded nonchalantly, “Search him. Does he have a Returning Heaven Order?”
“No,” Lü-er quickly checked and reported back, disappointed.
So, this person hadn’t come specifically seeking treatment. Instead, they must have been caught up in that bloody battle over the Dragon Blood Pearl. These martial world vendettas—how annoying that they’d even reached the Medicine Master’s Valley in the barren wilderness of Mount Huang! Such disturbances to her peace.
“Then let’s go.” She turned away without hesitation, still cradling her gilded handwarmer. “No profit in charity work.”
The martial world was never at peace. Righteous and demonic factions constantly clashed, sects fought over the smallest of matters, leaving many bloody and dead. How many martial artists died each year? If she were to save every one of them, how could she possibly keep up? Besides, even if she did save them, not everyone could afford the steep medical fees charged by the Medicine Master’s Valley.
“But…” Surprisingly, Lü-er didn’t follow her mistress’s instructions and hesitated.
“But what?” The valley master, growing impatient, stopped and turned, urging her on. “The valley only treats those with a Returning Heaven Order—that’s the rule. Have you forgotten?”
“Lü-er dares not forget,” the maid replied, wringing her hands, a sly smile on her lips. “But… but this man is so handsome!”
After all those years with the valley master, she knew her mistress well.
Aside from being stingy about money, the valley master had an eye for appearance—whenever several patients came for treatment, she would always, without hesitation, prioritize the young and handsome. And although she charged an exorbitant fee for her services, if a patient couldn’t afford it but happened to be pleasing to the eye, the money-loving valley master might just let them off.
—Like Huo Zhan Bai.
“Handsome, is he?” Sure enough, the valley master stopped, raising an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Mm-hmm.” Lü-er tapped the unconscious man’s shoulder with her sword. “Much better looking than that debt-ridden Huo Zhan Bai by ten times!”
“Is that so?” Xue Zi Ye finally turned back, intrigued. “That’s quite rare.”
She walked over to the unconscious man, bending down to lift his chin. His face was smeared with blood, clinging to a piece of shattered white jade. Her expression changed instantly, her grip tightening around the shard. This man… something about him seemed out of the ordinary.
She removed the shard and wiped away the blood covering his face. Gazing intently at him.
The face revealed beneath the broken mask was astonishingly young.
Indeed, he was very handsome, but there was a deep loneliness in his features. His eyes were tightly shut, his pale cheeks as cold and still as ice, yet there was an indescribable darkness about him. Just one glance made her heart jolt, as if awakening some long-buried fear.
“Ah…” Without knowing why, she let out a low gasp, feeling a wave of pressure wash over her.
“So, how about it? Isn’t he quite good-looking?” Lü-er teased, still prattling on. “Are we saving him or not?”
Xue Zi Ye’s expression grew serious. She reached out and gently placed her hand over the man’s closed eyes.
—Here, right here.
The pressure… it was emanating from these closed eyes!
What kind of power could possibly make even her feel so unsettled?
“He’s not dead yet.” She murmured thoughtfully, sensing the faint movement of his eyes beneath her fingertips. This man was more gravely injured than Huo Zhan Bai, yet he had somehow managed to crawl all the way here.
What kind of vitality was this?
A vague sense of fear crept up inside her. Instinctively, she withdrew her hand and took a step back.
But in that very instant, the dying man suddenly opened his eyes!
His glassy eyes gleamed with an eerie light, momentarily illuminating her own gaze. It was as if he had gathered all the strength left in his body into those eyes, fixing his gaze on her, his pale lips moving faintly as he whispered two words: “Save… me…”
In that brief moment, her mind wavered, as if some foreign power had suddenly invaded her thoughts.
Demonic Eyes? Soul Enchantment?! She realized it in an instant.
Without thinking, she swiftly pulled her hand from her sleeve, placing it between them.
“Ah.” The man in the snow let out a short, low cry as his body abruptly collapsed, becoming still once again.
She stood there in the wind, cold sweat covering her entire body, a chill running through her.
In her hand was a small, intricately carved mirror—a common accessory for women.
In that split second when his eyes opened, she had reflexively used the mirror to block the gaze, reflecting the eye technique back at him.
—It was the only way to counter such a demonic technique.
However, even after escaping the danger, she was left in a state of bewilderment. It was as if, in that moment when he opened his eyes, she had glimpsed something. Those eyes… they were so familiar, as if they belonged to someone from over a decade ago…
“Miss, are you all right?” Lü-er, finally recovering from the shock, rushed over, worried.
“That was close… cough, cough.” Xue Zi Ye tucked her cold hands back into her sleeves, coughing softly. “I almost fell for it.”
Lü-er, now fully enraged, shouted, “How dare he! To try and deceive you like that? That ungrateful wretch!”
“Let it go,” Xue Zi Ye stopped Lü-er’s sword from striking, shaking her head slightly. “Take him with us.”
“What?” Lü-er’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Save him? This kind of person? Handsome or not, he was like a venomous snake—once revived, he would surely bite back.
“Let’s go.” Her coughing grew worse, the cold air searing her lungs. “Hurry back.”
“Okay…” Lü-er dared not disobey, dragging the unconscious man by his feet as she followed closely behind.
As they walked across the snowy plains, the wind whistled past.
The cold seeped in, layer by layer, as if freezing the very blood in her veins, just like that night twelve years ago.
Yet, when would the warmth from the past ever return?
“Xue Huai…” She whispered softly as she gazed at the snowflakes falling from the sky, coughing. “Was it just an illusion? Just now, in that man’s eyes… I thought I saw you.”
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