Lao Duan had returned with the firewood.
On the cleared ground, Duie was laid down, his head resting in Su Nian's lap.
Su Nian's breath was stuck in his throat, fear gnawing at him...would Duie be all right?
Lao Duan stacked the wood, and the Fire Fox, with a single breath, spat out a jet of flame. The wood caught instantly, the flames crackling to life.
Even as the warmth spread, Wey Xiong's gaze kept flicking back toward those distant green banners.
Mo Yan and Yu Sui had gone ahead to investigate the place where those banners fluttered.
What they found there… changed everything.
It was as if fate itself had spun the wheel of life in the opposite direction.
Hidden behind the thick trunk of a snow-covered tree, they peered out at the scene before them....
....and Mo Yan's blood turned cold.
Two young people...a boy and a girl...were bound by sealing spells. Their mouths were gagged with cloth inscribed with glowing Chwen-script incantations. They were forced to kneel in the snow, the icy wind biting at them mercilessly.
And before them… lay two corpses.
Not just any corpses...
.....but the lifeless, mutilated bodies of Master Fijion and Lady Zhiyu.
The white snow around them was soaked scarlet. Their limbs were hacked apart, strewn without dignity, as if the blizzard itself wept in red.
Standing nearby were several officials.....identifiable at a glance as those from the Fuzi Xiong Clan, the Linyan Clan, the Meilan Clan, the Yanlog Clan, and the Xuemo Sect.
But the men beneath the green banners… they were strangers. Their allegiance, unknown.
Mo Yan's knees buckled, and he collapsed silently into the snow. His mind was a chaos he could not name.....
Should he feel rage?
Sorrow?
Relief?
Or the hollow ache of regret?
Yu Sui caught him before he fell completely, his own eyes struggling to believe what they were seeing.
This....this scene....was too vivid, too cruel to be an illusion.
And yet… it felt unreal.
Then it happened.
Something Yu Sui could never have imagined.
Mo Yan began vomiting blood.
His emotions surged so violently they were tearing through his body, burning him from the inside out. Yu Sui's heart lurched...Mo Yan's condition was like a tree suddenly engulfed in a ring of fire.
There was no time to waste.
Yu Sui made the only choice he could...
....to get Mo Yan away from this tragedy before it destroyed him.
They withdrew, keeping low.
In their minds, the same unanswered question rang again and again:
What in the heavens happened here?
Yu Sui brought Mo Yan back to their group.
Every face turned sharply toward them as they emerged from the snow.
He lowered Mo Yan against a tree, steadying him, while the others looked on with wide eyes.
---
Moments later…
Everything seemed to dissolve into a void.
The weight of what they had seen hung heavier than the falling snow.
Then.....
the sky broke.
One drop of water fell… then another… until the snow was swallowed by a sudden, cold rain.
The icy torrents washed through the valley, melting the whiteness into streams that ran red where blood had spilled.
The downpour jolted Duie back to consciousness.
But still....no one moved.
It was as though they were all carved from stone, trapped in the moment.
Duie could not understand what had happened while he was unconscious, but the air was thick with unspoken grief and fear.
Yu Sui rose to his feet at last, and instantly, every gaze turned to him.
The Fire Fox was still beside Wuzu, steam curling off its fur as raindrops struck it....yet even the storm could not smother its flame.
Yu Sui gave Wey Xiong a sharp signal.
The latter hurried over, leaning in to receive a whispered order.
Without hesitation, Wey Xiong obeyed...mounting his horse and vanishing into the rain.
Yu Sui then helped Mo Yan onto a horse, his motions brisk but careful, and extended a hand to Duie, pulling him up.
Wuzu was given his own orders.
He knew the road ahead could hold not one but many dangers.
He was to ride at the very front, to act as the shield in case trouble found them again.
But there was one more instruction....delivered not in words, but in a subtle, coded gesture.
Wuzu's eyes sharpened.
He looked around, then picked up a smooth white stone from the ground.
With a flicker of magic, it shifted in his palm, becoming a white jade seal.
He passed it to Yu Sui without a word.
Su Nian and Lao Duan mounted their horses alongside Duie.
The journey resumed.
Yet… there was something about this road.....
something that felt as though fate itself was placing obstacles in their way.
Whether it was to warn them, or to test them, none could tell.
But one thing was certain....
this was the path destiny had chosen for them, and there was no turning back.