The wind and snow tore at the night like a wild beast, visibility less than ten paces. Chu Hongying supported Shen Yuzhu as the two figures trudged with difficulty through the knee-deep snow, each step a tremendous effort. Shen Yuzhu leaned almost all his weight on her, his breathing faint, his lips bluish, only his eyes, fixed intently ahead, shone startlingly bright amidst the storm.
Guided by the vague markings on the map fragment and Shen Yuzhu's intermittent directions, they avoided the patrols and detoured to a remote cliff base at the outskirts of Snow Wolf Valley.
"There... right there," Shen Yuzhu raised a trembling hand, pointing towards a narrow fissure at the cliff base, almost completely obscured by thick icicles and accumulated snow. At a casual glance, it looked like a natural fold in the rockface.
Chu Hongying brushed away the snow. Her palm touched the rock beneath the ice, her fingertips detecting the rough marks of artificial chiseling. Channeling energy into her palm, she gave a sharp shake. The ice and snow fell away, revealing a dark, gaping hole just large enough for one person to enter bent over. A blast of stale, frigid air, smelling of ancient dust and something rotten, rushed out from within. Above the entrance, barely visible, was a wolf's head carving, eroded by wind and frost into blurred obscurity, yet the position of the wolf's eyes eerily aligned with the location of the brand on Shen Yuzhu's neck.
A chill ran down Chu Hongying's spine. Without a word, she bent down and entered first. Shen Yuzhu took a deep breath, suppressing the metallic taste in his throat, and followed closely behind.
The interior was not as cramped as expected. After a very narrow initial section, it opened up after a dozen or so steps into a vast, natural ice cavern. Chu Hongying lit a small torch she carried with a flint striker. The dancing flame dispelled a small patch of darkness, but made the depths of the cavern seem even more profound and mysterious.
The sight illuminated by the torchlight was horrifying. The icy walls were covered in dense, bizarre, twisted sigils, interspersed with wolf head brands identical to the one on Shen Yuzhu's neck. Even more shocking were the countless skeletons and shattered armor and weapons scattered underfoot, most frozen solid into the ice layer, their style faintly recognizable as that of the Chu army from years past.
"These sigils... are the sacrificial texts of the Wolfclaw Battalion's death warriors, swearing their souls to the Wolf God. Those who enter this path... advance without retreat," Shen Yuzhu's voice echoed weakly in the cavern's emptiness. "This was never an escape route. It is... a path of sacrifice."
Chu Hongying crouched down, brushed the dust from a patch of ice, and picked up a broken sword. The blurred "Chu" character on the hilt made her fingertips tremble. She continued searching near a skeleton mostly encased in ice, her hand touching something hard. Digging through the ice and snow, she unearthed a tiger tally cast in bronze, broken in half, leaving only one part. On it was clearly inscribed a "Lu" character, its edges stained with blackened blood. But what froze the blood in Chu Hongying's veins even more was that on the reverse side of the tally was engraved a tiny, yet clear and distinct, unique fire-seal mark representing the Ministry of War in the capital!
"This is my elder brother's... the tally he commanded with..." she murmured, her voice hoarse. An unprecedented icy cold shot up from her heart, instantly spreading to her limbs. The last shred of loyalty and perhaps illusion she had held towards the court, towards the Emperor, over the past ten-plus years, was severed at this moment by the cold Ministry of War seal as if by a sharp knife, turning into a despair more piercing than the cavern's chill. "Why... the Ministry of War... how is it connected to this place?!"
Just as her mind reeled, almost unable to maintain composure, a soft, derisive snort came from the depths of the cavern, followed by a deep, magnetic voice that shattered the deathly silence:
"Finally arrived, the last scion... of the Chu family."
The torchlight flickered violently. Chu Hongying snapped her head up, thrusting the torch forward. From the shadows deep within the cave, a tall, straight-backed figure stepped out slowly. The man wore an immense black wolf-fur cloak, his face stern and sharp as if carved by a blade. A pair of ice-blue eyes reflected the torchlight, gleaming with a cruel, intrigued light like the hungriest wolf on the snowy plains. A fearsome-looking double-edged long sword hung at his waist, the wolf teeth inlaid on its hilt glowing with a sinister white sheen.
Helian Sha, the Second Prince of the Northern Di.
"To think the sole survivor of Snow Wolf Valley all those years ago... was a girl," Helian Sha's gaze swept over Chu Hongying, bold and assessing, his tone mixing mockery and curiosity. "And even more unthinkable, you dared to return to this place that buried your entire family." His tone shifted, a flicker of something akin to admiration passing through his ice-blue eyes: "However, Chu Hongying, your courage and this fierce spear intent... I have never seen their like in any man of the Central Plains. Had fate not played its tricks, you and I might have ridden side by side across these endless snowfields."
Chu Hongying gripped her Gale-Splitter spear tightly, rage and hatred churning in her chest, threatening to overwhelm reason. "Helian Sha!" Her voice was icy, brimming with killing intent. "Today, I will use your blood to appease the souls of my Chu army!"
"Heh," Helian Sha chuckled, though no trace of laughter reached his blue eyes. "General Chu, why the haste? Don't you wish to know why Snow Wolf Valley, once called an impregnable fortress, fell so easily? Why, of the ten thousand Chu troops, only you alone... survived?"
His words struck like poisoned needles, piercing the deepest doubts and pains in Chu Hongying's heart. Her breath caught, the spear tip trembled.
"General!" Shen Yuzhu suddenly spoke, his voice weak yet urgent and undeniable. "He's stalling! The acoustics in this cavern are unusual, sound carries far... he's waiting for reinforcements to surround us!"
Helian Sha's gaze finally settled on Shen Yuzhu, his ice-blue pupils contracting slightly. "Oh? So this is the strategist Shen, sent by the new Emperor? Indeed... interesting. Pity his constitution is too weak, likely unable to withstand the winds and snow of Snow Wolf Valley."
Before his words faded, he suddenly raised a hand and gestured. From the shadows behind him, several agile Wolfclaw Battalion death warriors materialized silently.
"Chu Hongying," Helian Sha slowly drew his long sword, its tip pointing at her, and at the broken tiger tally in her hand, "the debt of Snow Wolf Valley is due. But before you die, this Prince might as well tell you one more secret—"
He paused, a cruel curve lifting the corner of his mouth. "All these years you've held the Northern Frontier, killing Di people, protecting the border... you were merely helping the true masterminds who caused your father and brother's deaths erase the final evidence. You are nothing but the sharpest, and most pitiful, blade in their hands."
"Nonsense!" Chu Hongying refuted sharply, but her mind was roiling with terrifying logic implied by his words.
"Whether it's nonsense, you'll soon find out." Helian Sha said no more, his blade vibrating. "Kill them. Retrieve the tally!"
Just as the death warriors were about to pounce, from outside the ice cavern, carried on the distant wind and snow, came the sound of a low, eerie horn blast! The sound lacked the depth of a Di buffalo horn; instead, it was sharply penetrating, its melody strange, resembling a wolf's howl yet hinting at a rhythmic pattern.
Shen Yuzhu, already pale, shuddered violently upon hearing the horn! He struggled to push himself upright, but it triggered a fit of harsh coughing. The cold poison and the unstable energy from his recent healing rebelled fiercely. The veins on his straining hands stood out blue-white, yet his eyes remained locked on the direction of the horn sound, blazing with utter shock and disbelief. He gasped out, his voice barely a whisper, "...That melody... it's... the emergency summons of the Imperial Secret Guard from the capital?! How can that be... why would they be here... now?!"
Chu Hongying felt as if a massive rock had struck her heart! The Imperial Secret Guard?! The secret police organization directly under the Emperor, wielding immense power?! Could the "masterminds" Helian Sha spoke of be connected to...?
Hearing the horn, a knowing, cold smile appeared on Helian Sha's face. His ice-blue wolf-like eyes swept over the shaken Chu Hongying and the drastically altered Shen Yuzhu.
"It seems we are not the only 'guests'," he said, his tone inscrutable. "General Chu, the real show is just beginning."
Chu Hongying tightened her grip on the half of the blood-stained "Lu" tally. The cold bronze seemed to bite into her palm, her seeping blood mingling unnoticed with the dark metal. She held the Gale-Splitter spear horizontally before her, shielding the unsteady Shen Yuzhu. Her gaze was like a torch, staring directly at Helian Sha, as if trying to pierce through the ice cave and see clearly the layers of mist behind the storm.
The vengeful spirits of her father and brother, the mysterious strategist, the menacing Di prince, and that strange horn from the capital... all the clues twisted together into an overwhelming net of blood. Her lips pressed into a tight line. She vowed, her voice low and firm, like a stone sinking into an icy abyss:
"Father, brothers—if your spirits truly watch from heaven, lend my Gale-Splitter spear the strength to shatter this bloody web!"