Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
The two men were both familiar figures to me, and I recognized them at a glance.
They wore light-colored garments, bathed in a faint blue hue under the moonlight. Standing opposite each other, they gazed intently into one another's eyes. If I didn't already know they were sworn enemies, I might have mistaken this scene for a beautifully crafted painting.
One of them was my lover, Nie Qiuyuan, while the other was my complex and peculiar adversary, the Mirror Gate enemy, Azure Dragon Envoy Ren Pingsheng.
Though they faced off against each other, neither held a weapon. Instead, I noticed their lips moving as if they were engaged in conversation.
Could it be that their battle had turned into a war of words? Were they actually hurling insults at each other?
Yet their expressions remained calm, resembling two good friends discussing matters rather than foes ready to clash.
Seeing them together, with no one else around, I felt surprisingly relaxed. I turned to Luo Dachun and signaled for him to join me in rushing over. However, when I glanced back, I found Luo Dachun frowning deeply, his expression unusually serious.
After practicing internal energy for some time, I had developed an instinctive sensitivity when others around me were channeling their energy. I sensed that Luo Dachun was indeed concentrating his energy; he seemed to be listening intently to the conversation between the two men.
After a moment, Luo Dachun suddenly exclaimed, "Not good!" and pulled me toward the direction of the two men.
Startled, I looked up toward Qiu and saw both Qiu and Ren Pingsheng turning to face me simultaneously.
We were quite far apart, only able to connect through our consciousness without any real exchange of glances. I saw Qiu open his mouth as if saying something to Ren Pingsheng. Then, unexpectedly and without warning, he struck a palm toward Ren Pingsheng's Baihui point on top of his head.
I was taken aback. How did it escalate to a fight so suddenly?
Ren Pingsheng would not fall for such a trick; he sidestepped Qiu's attack and countered with a palm strike aimed at Nie Qiuyuan.
Qiu seemed to be using all his strength; even from this distance, I could feel the heat generated by his internal energy. Moreover, his movements were oddly fluid—not just aimed at overpowering his opponent but flowing like a water snake. Each strike carried an unusual "sticky" quality.
The two of them exchanged only a few moves when Nie Qiuyuan executed a technique called "Entangle," causing their bodies to intertwine.
For a moment, their bodies pressed closely together, and time seemed to freeze. Nie Qiuyuan whispered something into Ren Pingsheng's ear.
In that instant, I clearly sensed Ren Pingsheng's hesitation.
This fleeting moment is something I will never forget for the rest of my life. No matter how many ups and downs I would experience on the long road ahead, the pain and despair that this moment brought me are things I would never wish to touch or mention again in this life or the next.
I felt a sudden surge of immense energy erupt from within Nie Qiuyuan, raising the temperature around us significantly. Ren Pingsheng instinctively drew upon his inner strength to protect himself, coiling like flowing clouds.
Our hurried steps came to an abrupt halt. Somehow, I felt as if a vivid scene unfolded before my eyes—a blazing fire against a clear spring.
With Ren Pingsheng's strength, he could have fought back. How I wished he had resisted at that moment, even if it meant mutual destruction. But for some reason, he merely released his inner energy, putting on a show without truly fighting back.
Thus, the two figures intertwined, soaring high into the air with the force of the explosion. Under my and the full moon's horrified gaze, they drifted down like two kites severed from their strings, floating gently into the depths of the valley.
I stood there like a statue for half a minute before slowly turning my head to Luo Dachun and asking, "What happened? What’s going on?"
Where the two had stood moments ago, nothing remained—only silence and moonlight cascading down from above.
For an instant, I thought I had been dreaming. How could I have such a nightmare? Was I cursing my husband to death?
But Luo Dachun's reaction was unusual; he suddenly hugged me tightly as if fearing that if he let go, I would run forward and plunge into the bottomless abyss.
"What are you doing..." I stammered. Please don’t act like this! Are you trying to remind me of something? Are you telling me what I just saw was real?!
Is it my autumn that has fallen from this sheer cliff...?
I suddenly heard myself let out a heart-wrenching wail. I struggled desperately, trying to reach the spot where Qiu had just stood.
But Luo Dachun held me tightly; I couldn't break free from his grip. Yet, while controlling me, he slowly moved toward the edge of the cliff.
Thinking back now, he must have been anxious at that moment too.
Looking down, I could see nothing but an expanse of seemingly endless darkness.
I began to cry uncontrollably, calling out his name with all my might. The valley echoed my cries of "Nie Qiuyuan," stretching them into infinity, with the rocks and trees joining in my lament, but there was no response from him.
I grabbed Luo Dachun's sleeve tightly.
"You! You! With your skills, if you fall down there, you won't get hurt, right?" I shook him with all my strength, as if shaking him could bring forth the answer I desperately wanted.
But Luo Dachun didn't answer my question directly. "When it gets light, we'll go down and look for him."
A chill ran through my heart. This meant that even someone as skilled as he was might not survive a fall from this height?
Could it be that Qiu would die?
"Zhenzhen, calm down." From his tone, I sensed that Luo Dachun needed to calm down just as much as I did. "We won't know the outcome until we've searched thoroughly. There's no use in panicking now; we can't search if we go down right away."
"But what if he's injured? What if he's trapped? What if we could save his life if we acted sooner?"
Luo Dachun cut me off.
"You haven't explored this mountainous area, but I know it well. What's below is more complicated than you can imagine. With just the two of us, finding him would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Zhenzhen, if Qiu Yuan has fallen and is dead, then he's already gone. If he's alive, he will find a way!"
I could only hear his voice buzzing in my ear, but I couldn't quite grasp what he was saying.
In my heart, three words began to echo: What to do! What to do! What to do...
“Zhenzhen, let’s go back to the camp. We need manpower. We need a lot of people to search below. As soon as it gets light, we’ll start looking until we find Qiu Yuan…”
“Enough!” I interrupted him sharply. “I don’t want to find him. I want him to come find me!”
How could we “find” him? Wasn’t that treating him like a corpse? I couldn’t even bear to think about it!
Luo Dachun’s voice suddenly softened. “Zhenzhen, you have to understand. We can’t find him, but we still have to do our best, right? Otherwise, what else can we do?”
I didn’t know where this fierce strength had come from within me. Suddenly, I seemed calm and clear-headed. “Let’s go to the Disaster Gate; we need to close the Disaster Gate!”
Luo Dachun shook his head sadly. “It’s no longer necessary. It’s over.”
That statement should have truly shattered my will.
What I feared most was that the key to opening the Disaster Gate lay with Ren Pingsheng. If that were the case, my Qiu might abandon our promise and sacrifice his life for a fate that would take us both down together.
Otherwise, how could my Qiu leave me behind? He hadn’t fulfilled his promise yet!
I suddenly broke down and cried out loud once more.
This time, I cried until all my strength left me, until my head felt light from lack of oxygen, nearly causing me to faint. Luo Dachun picked me up and slowly retraced our steps, but I was completely unaware of what he was doing.
All I felt was an endless despair; living seemed utterly meaningless, and I felt as if my life had shattered into pieces.
I don't know how long I cried; everything was shrouded in darkness. I also couldn't tell how long Luo Dachun carried me, but when he approached the flickering campfire, his steps suddenly halted.
Within him, surprise, anger, and despair erupted just as they had in me.
I was startled by the cold aura that unconsciously emanated from him. I looked up sharply, and through my tears, I realized we had returned to the camp of Snowfall Villa.
The camp, which had just been relocated, still bore the signs of people organizing their surroundings. However, every single one of the remaining dozens from Snowfall Villa had been killed within the camp; the air was thick with the stench of blood.
Among the dead in the camp were also some members of Mirror Gate.
It was Mirror Gate! They had launched a sudden night raid while Snowfall Villa was still recovering from the poison and in a weakened state.
This attack seemed to have just occurred, as the blood of the deceased had not yet cooled. Was it because their plans had been thwarted that Rong Fu unleashed the full might of Mirror Gate to vent their anger on this team from Snowfall Villa? But how could they have found and attacked this newly relocated camp so quickly?
We two desperate souls embraced each other tightly, staring in shock at this heart-wrenching scene.
A sharp sound slicing through the air jolted us awake; it seemed to be a signal from Snowfall Villa. We stood there for a moment before realizing that it might be the return of those sent to gather troops from Luoyang.
But it was all too late. Later, a large number of soldiers from Luoyang surrounded Baiyun Mountain, scouring every inch of land, yet they failed to capture a single disciple of Mirror Gate.
As the first light of dawn illuminated the horizon, we had already descended into the deep valley beneath the main peak of Baiyun Mountain, beginning our search for Nie Qiuyuan.
Nearly a hundred soldiers conducted a thorough search of the valley, leaving no stone unturned; they didn’t even find a rabbit. In the end, they found neither Nie Qiuyuan nor Ren Pingsheng.
At the bottom of the valley, we discovered the glass ball that Luo Dachun had given to Nie Qiuyuan. Not far from it lay an enormous pool of blood.
For a normal person, losing this much blood would surely mean death.
However, near the pool of blood, there were no signs of human remains, not even small fragments of bones.
I knelt beside the bloodstain, dazed for a long time, then suddenly lifted my head and said to Luo Dachun, "No way, he’s not dead. He will come back soon!"
There was no body found, right?
From all the TV shows I’ve watched, the male lead has a 0% chance of dying after falling off a cliff, right? Since I have already determined that Nie Qiuyuan is the male lead in my life, he cannot die. Isn’t that how it works?
If he’s not dead, he will come back to find me soon, even if he has to crawl back!
So I began to wait with hope—one day, two days, five days, seven days—time passed and half a month went by, yet Nie Qiuyuan still hadn’t returned.
My heart began to waver. Even though Luo Dachun had called Melan and Lin Jiu to Luoyang to watch over me, they could only witness my intermittent episodes of mental breakdown. At times I was clear-headed, at times confused; sometimes filled with confidence, other times overwhelmed with grief. It was thanks to their constant vigilance that I avoided irreversible consequences like suicide or self-harm.
When I regained some clarity, I started to firmly believe that I was pregnant because my period hadn’t come for a long time, filling me with hope. I thought that perhaps this would give me the courage to wait for him to return, even if it took longer. But two months after Qiu's disappearance, on a stormy night filled with thunder and lightning, my long-overdue period arrived suddenly, causing me excruciating pain and completely shattering my last glimmer of hope. (To be continued)
Comment 0 Comment Count