The blizzard roared like a wild beast, but deep within the Snow Wolf Valley's secret passage, a silence colder than eternal ice descended. The air was thick with the smell of ancient dust and a musty, decaying stench, mingling with the biting chill seeping in from outside to create a suffocating pressure.
Chu Hongying's torch sputtered and crackled, its flickering light casting dancing, ghostly shadows from the dense, twisted sigils carved into the icy walls. These patterns, deeply etched into the ice, intertwined with snarling wolf-head brands identical to the one on Shen Yuzhu's neck, seeming to watch the intruders with a malevolent life of their own in the shifting light.
She stood firm, her armor coated in a frost that glittered coldly in the firelight. Her Wind-Splitter Spear was held ready, its tip slightly lowered in a stance poised for both attack and defense. Behind her, Shen Yuzhu leaned against an ice pillar, his face as pale as paper. Even the heavy fox fur robe couldn't conceal his frail frame. Only his eyes, hazy with fever, flashed with a sharp, fleeting intelligence when they met Helian Sha's gaze.
Helian Sha stood about ten feet away, his black wolfskin cloak stirring slightly in the subterranean draft. His face was cold and sharp as if carved from stone, and his ice-blue pupils, reflecting the torchlight, gleamed with the cruel curiosity of the hungriest wolf on the steppe.
"Little General Chu," his voice was low, carrying the distinctive, guttural accent of the Northern Di, each word seeming dredged from an ice cellar, "this strategist you protect so fiercely, the brand on his neck is the mark reserved only for the Wolf Talon Camp's core death guards. The Wolf Talon Camp's century-old iron rule: only death guards and corpses, no traitors." He paused, the corner of his mouth curling into a cruel arc. "Trusting him is nothing but nurturing a tiger only to invite calamity."
His words echoed in the cavernous ice chamber, bouncing off the walls and creating an eerie resonance, each syllable an ice pick stabbing into Chu Hongying's eardrums. She could feel Shen Yuzhu's breath catch behind her.
Her fingers tightened convulsively on the spear shaft, knuckles whitening. Unbidden images flooded her mind: the raging inferno of Snow Wolf Valley, her father pushing her into a hiding place with that final, resolute look, Shen Yuzhu's blood-tinged whisper of "behind..." in the medical tent the night he lay unconscious, and the vicious wolf-head brand on the back of his neck... Trust and suspicion writhed like two venomous snakes, tearing viciously at the walls of reason she had built over more than a decade.
"General..." Shen Yuzhu coughed weakly, his voice so faint it seemed it might break on the wind, yet carrying an undeniable firmness, "Trust me... this once."
That plea was like a fine needle, piercing the chaotic turmoil in Chu Hongying's mind. She took a deep breath, forcing her nearly trembling wrist to steady itself.
The cold light in Helian Sha's ice-blue eyes intensified, clearly dissatisfied with merely shaking her resolve. He took a step forward, his boot crunching crisply on the broken ice underfoot, the sound unnaturally loud in the silence.
"Heh," he chuckled lightly, the mockery in his tone thickening, "Chu Hongying, do you truly believe your father, Lu Heng, died an honorable death in battle, slain by the blades and arrows of my Northern Di warriors?" His gaze hooked into her abruptly constricted pupils. "He took three arrows, the last piercing his heart—but did you know, the fire oil soaking the fletching of that arrow wasn't the wolf fat we Di commonly use, but naphtha, a substance specially supplied by your Central Plains' Ministry of War armory!"
Boom—
It was like a thunderclap exploding in her head. Chu Hongying felt a surge of blood rush to her temples, her vision spotting black. Naphtha! A military supply strictly controlled by the court, reserved for the Imperial Guards and key border garrisons! For over a decade, she had attributed this blood debt to the Northern Di, steadfastly guarding the northern border, never suspecting that the arrow which struck her father in the back might have come from...
Just as her breath hitched and her mind was on the verge of collapsing—
Woooooooo——
A sharp, strange, utterly un-Di-like horn blast pierced through the layers of wind, snow, and ice, clearly transmitting into the cave!
The sound had a peculiar penetrating quality, its melody bizarre, like a wolf's howl yet subtly mixed with a rhythmic pattern. More alarming was that as the sound waves vibrated, the previously dormant, eerie sigils on the ice walls began to visibly glow with a faint blue light! The light swirled, as if some ancient forbidden art had been awakened by this specific sound, the pressure in the cavern skyrocketing, the air turning viscous.
"The sigils... they're alive?" Chu Hongying thought, horrified.
Almost simultaneously, several black figures, utilizing the sigils' faint light, slipped silently into the cave from the entrance they had come through! Their movements were swift and unified, clad in uniform black attire, faces hidden behind expressionless silver masks, narrow regulation swords at their waists, emanating a cold, pure killing intent.
The leader, tall and straight, scanned the area with hawk-like eyes before finally fixing his gaze on Chu Hongying. His voice was as cold as the deepest winter, devoid of any human warmth:
"Daughter of the traitorous Lu clan! Conspiring with the Northern Di, plotting treason! By imperial decree—surrender now!"
The four words "Daughter of the traitorous Lu clan" stabbed into Chu Hongying's heart like the sharpest dagger, laden with over a decade of grievance and fury! Blood instantly rose in her eyes; all hesitation and wavering burned away by boundless rage.
She took a fierce step forward, the tip of her Wind-Splitter Spear slicing through the stagnant air with a sharp whistle, its cold gleam flashing directly at the newcomer's throat:
"This Chu was born a general, will die a ghost! I protect the flesh and blood of the borderlands' common people behind me, not the cold characters on your power chessboard!"
Her voice was iron-willed, tempered with the iron and blood of the battlefield, rumbling through the cavern, momentarily drowning out the blizzard's roar.
The Imperial City Directorate leader, intimidated by her fierce aura, instinctively retreated half a step. However, he didn't look at Chu Hongying; instead, his gaze quickly met that of Helian Sha not far away.
Just for an instant!
So fast it was almost imperceptible.
But Chu Hongying caught it! She saw clearly the flicker of a barely perceptible, yet knowing, sinister sneer that passed through both Helian Sha's and the Imperial City Directorate leader's eyes!
An unprecedented chill, colder than the chill poison in Shen Yuzhu's body, shot up her spine from the soles of her feet, spreading to her limbs!
The Central Plains and the Northern Di... the Imperial Court and the Wolf Talon Camp... They, perhaps, had long been in collusion! Her father, the Chu army, the tens of thousands of wronged souls at Snow Wolf Valley... From start to finish, it might all have been the sacrificial pawns in a dirty deal!
This thought burned through her like poison fire, scorching her internal organs.
She hesitated no longer. Whirling around, she grabbed Shen Yuzhu's icy wrist, its coldness piercing to the bone. Her voice was hoarse with extreme fury and resolve:
"Let's go!"
Shen Yuzhu forced down the sweet, metallic taste rising in his throat. His other hand flashed into his sleeve, emerging with three slender golden needles that glinted coldly in the sigils' eerie light. Without even looking, his wrist flicked, and the needles precisely struck three glowing indentations on the ice wall!
Bzzzt—
A dull, mechanical sound of turning gears came from deep within the ice, as if a slumbering beast had been startled. The seemingly solid ice wall to the side slid inward, revealing a narrow hidden door just large enough for one person to bend and pass through! Inside was pitch black, emitting an even colder, a more musty, decaying stench
Without a second thought, Chu Hongying supported Shen Yuzhu and sidled through the opening.
"Stop them!" the Imperial City Directorate leader shouted sharply, several agents lunging forward!
Just as the first one was about to reach the door—
Clang!
The hidden door slammed shut with thunderous force! The heavy impact of ice and stone was deafening, completely sealing inside from out, cutting off the pursuing agents' furious roars and Helian Sha's inscrutable cold laughter.