The blizzard in the Northern Frontier roared, as if countless vengeful spirits pounded against the carriage walls. Chu Hongying tightened her reins and looked back. Inside, Lu Wanning met her gaze and gave a grave shake of her head.
Shen Yuzhu's breathing was as fragile as gossamer.
"He won't last..." Lu Wanning's voice was torn by the wind. "His vitality is fading. I fear he won't hold on until Listening Snow Cliff!"
Chu Hongying's heart constricted violently. At that moment, a black shadow swept over a snowy ridge! Accompanied by a bone-chilling wolf's howl, several massive wolves, dragging a simple sled, charged to the front of the group! The leader dismounted, ripped off his animal skin face covering, revealing a face marked by a scar yet burning with intensity—it was the Northern Di Prince, Helian Sha, who should have been gravely injured and unconscious!
"Get on the sled!" His tone brooked no argument. His gaze swept over Chu Hongying and the unconscious figure in the carriage behind her, a flicker of something suppressed and intense passing deep in his eyes, like a dark fire burning beneath the frozen plains. "The wolves know the way, three times faster than horses. If you want him to live, don't waste time!"
Chu Hongying pointed her spear directly at Helian Sha's throat. "Why are you here?"
"Some don't want him to live, and don't want you gaining the Medicine Master's aid either," Helian Sha sneered. "And this prince prefers to disappoint them. If he dies, the balance in the Northern Frontier collapses. What good is that to me? Decide now—kill me, or save him?"
Time seemed to freeze. Chu Hongying's eyes swept over the barely breathing Shen Yuzhu, then back to the complex figure of Helian Sha before her. Gritting her teeth, she made the call: "Zhao Dashan, take the men and escort Miss Lu along the original route, create a diversion for any watching eyes. I'll go with him!"
The wolf pack raced through the storm, their speed astonishing. On the sled, Chu Hongying held Shen Yuzhu tightly. Helian Sha sat opposite, his gaze sharp.
"Do you know," Helian Sha began abruptly, "the mark on his neck isn't the ordinary brand of a Wolf Fury death warrior. It's a 'Wolf-Soul Oath,' connected to the bronze door beneath the Snow Wolf Valley. The one who placed it can seize his soul from miles away with a bone flute, or sense his life and death."
As if on cue, an eerie, ethereal bone flute melody, seeming to come from the depths of his soul, faintly pierced through the storm! The mark on Shen Yuzhu's neck flared with a fierce red light, his body convulsing violently as if an invisible force were tearing his spirit apart!
"They're activating the mark! Trying to kill him before he reaches the Medicine Master!" Helian Sha said urgently.
Without hesitation, Chu Hongying bent her head again, pressing her forehead against Shen Yuzhu's burning mark, pouring her own pure, vital energy into him without reserve, forcefully resisting the distant curse! A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth, but she didn't flinch.
They finally reached the edge of the mist surrounding Listening Snow Cliff. Helian Sha reined in the wolves. "This is as far as I go. The mist recognizes its master; none may enter uninvited." He looked deeply at Chu Hongying. "Remember, the Medicine Master is eccentric. The prices she demands often defy all imagination."
Chu Hongying hoisted Shen Yuzhu onto her back and stepped into the mist without a backward glance.
Illusions surged forth, stronger than before. Her father's furious roar, the accusing fingers of her soldiers, Shen Yuzhu's cold, stiff body... Her mind teetered on the brink of collapse. At the critical moment, the person on her back seemed to muster his last strength, his fingers gently tangling in a strand of her hair. That faint touch was like clear water dousing her head, pulling her back from the abyss of inner demons!
"I... am here," he breathed, barely audible, yet perfectly clear.
The mist cleared, revealing the simple thatched hut. On the fence, the white fox lazily licked its paw.
The wooden door opened. The one who emerged was a girl who appeared twelve or thirteen, clad in plain white robes, her ink-black hair falling to her waist, yet her eyes carried the sediment of centuries.
"Daughter of Lu Heng," the girl spoke, her voice youthful yet hoarse, "and... the pitiful one bound by the 'Wolf-Soul Oath'." Her gaze fell on Shen Yuzhu, carrying a hint of interest. "That he lasted this far is rather unexpected."
"Medicine Master, I beg you, save him!" Chu Hongying carefully laid Shen Yuzhu down.
The girl Medicine Master tilted her head, her gaze seeming to sweep casually over the Wind-Splitter Spear never far from Chu Hongying's grip, as if she had long seen the bond between the weapon and its owner's soul. A mysterious smile, ill-suited to her youthful face, appeared. "Save him? Not difficult." She pointed a delicate finger. "But you must agree to three conditions."
"Name them."
"First, I want three years of your life span as a catalyst."
"Agreed," Chu Hongying said without hesitation.
"Second, I want a single drop of blood from your heart to fuse into my new elixir."
"Agreed."
"Third..." The girl's smile widened as she pointed at Chu Hongying's Wind-Splitter Spear, "I want you to break this relic of your father with your own hands, and never use a spear again."
Chu Hongying felt as if struck by lightning! The Wind-Splitter wasn't just a weapon; it was her father's legacy, the symbol of her identity as a general, the pillar of belief that had supported her through countless desperate situations!
She looked at Shen Yuzhu, lying weak on the ground, then at the silver spear that had accompanied her through years of battle. Her fingers trembled, her knuckles white.
The girl Medicine Master watched her calmly, her expression detached, as if this trial, betting one's core belief, was far more interesting than the act of saving a life itself.
Just as Chu Hongying's hands slowly moved to the spear shaft, resolve and agony warring in her eyes, preparing to apply force—
"No... Don't..." Shen Yuzhu's eyes flew open! With all his remaining strength, he grabbed her wrist! In his eyes was a desperation and pain she had never seen before, "That spear… it is you… If you shatter it… then I'd rather—"
Before he could finish, blood gushed from his mouth, his eyes glazing over once more, but the hand clutching her wrist held on with a death grip.
The girl Medicine Master suddenly let out a light laugh, sounding satisfied. "Interesting, truly interesting. One willing to trade everything for a life, the other valuing the other's belief over their own life."
She turned and walked into the hut, her voice floating back. "Bring him in. This third condition... I'll note it for now."
Chu Hongying stood holding Shen Yuzhu. In this moment, she realized with absolute clarity that the world for her was no longer just about 'defending the frontier' and 'clearing the family name'—the weight of the person on her back had, at some point, become heavier than the spear representing all her past convictions.
Inside the hut lay survival—and yet, a deeper, unfathomable whirlpool.
Outside, the storm raged on, threats lurking everywhere.
And on a distant snowy slope, Helian Sha stood before his wolf pack, gazing toward the hut, his eyes glimmered, inscrutable as a wolf biding its time in the storm.
And between her and him, that invisible thread, woven through life-and-death choices, had become ever more tightly bound, impossible to sever.