Lonely travelers on the ends of the earth, embracing each other
The ripping sensation of the turbulent spacetime was like a thousand dull knives cutting into her body, every inch of skin and every bone groaning under the unbearable strain. Her consciousness swirled wildly in a bizarre, dark vortex, as if it were about to be completely shredded. Mo Xiaoyu felt as if her internal organs had been displaced, the intense pain almost causing her to faint. The only thing she could clearly see was Xie Yunzhi's resolute and profound eyes as he pushed her away, reflecting her image, and the tip of the sword on his chest, dripping warm blood.
"Clouds stop—!"
She screamed silently, her tears evaporating instantly in the distorted space as she was detached from reality, leaving only her burning eye sockets.
She didn't know how much time had passed; it felt like only a moment, yet also like drifting in endless chaos for a hundred years. The terrifying tearing force suddenly vanished, and a feeling of weightlessness washed over her. Like a kite with a broken string, she crashed heavily onto the ground, tumbling over a dozen times until she hit a hard rock and came to a stop. The excruciating pain made her vision blur, and she almost fainted.
Two muffled impacts followed by suppressed groans. The Li brothers fell to the side like broken sacks, looking utterly disheveled. Cracks appeared on the shield in Li Yan's hand, and Zhang Yuan's double hooks were twisted and deformed.
"Cough cough... Pfft..." Mo Xiaoyu struggled to prop herself up with her elbows, her throat filled with the sweet and metallic taste of blood, and she couldn't help but cough up a mouthful of stagnant blood. She didn't bother to check her almost broken body and the empty meridians in her body, and immediately looked around frantically and almost frantically.
This appeared to be an extremely remote valley, surrounded by steep, moss-covered cliffs. The vegetation was exceptionally lush, almost completely obscuring the sky, and the distant roar of a waterfall could be faintly heard. The light was dim, dappled through the dense canopy, making it difficult to distinguish between dawn and dusk. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and decaying leaves. Most importantly, as far as the eye could see, there was no one else besides the three of them! Xie Yunzhi was not there!
"Where is Senior Brother Xie?" Li Yan also staggered to his feet, one of his arms twisted unnaturally, clearly broken, but he was oblivious to it at the moment, anxiously scanning this unfamiliar area again and again, his voice slightly distorted with fear.
Zhang Yuan was slightly better, but his face was still as pale as paper. He suppressed the churning blood and qi in his internal organs and quickly surveyed his surroundings. He even risked releasing a wisp of his divine sense to investigate. Finally, he shook his head with an extremely solemn expression, his voice dry: "The spatial turbulence randomly teleported us here. Senior Brother Xie... he was left over there. I'm afraid... his chances of survival are slim." He said the last four words with great difficulty.
"No! He won't die! He promised me!" Mo Xiaoyu shook her head violently, tears streaming down her face again, mingling with the blood and dust, leaving a disheveled look. She struggled to get up, but her legs were too weak to obey her commands. A sharp, stabbing pain shot through her empty meridians, causing her to fall heavily back to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. She pounded the ground with her fists in frustration until her knuckles bled.
Despite the excruciating pain in his arm, Li Yan stepped forward and pressed his uninjured hand against her trembling shoulder. His voice was heavy and carried an undeniable authority: "Junior Sister Mo! Calm down! Look at yourself! Senior Brother Xie risked his life to detonate his magic weapon (they thought it was the Dream-Tracing Jade), creating chaos and opening a sliver of hope for us! If we fall here or rush back to our deaths, we will truly have let him down! You are severely injured and your spiritual energy is exhausted. The most urgent thing is to find a completely safe place to heal and save your life so that we can plan for the future!"
Mo Xiaoyu knew he was right; reason told her she had to survive. But the thought of Xie Yunzhi, covered in blood, facing numerous ferocious enemies alone, perhaps even... made her heart feel as if it were being gripped and crushed mercilessly by an icy hand, the pain almost unbearable. Xie Yunzhi, who had shown her a moment of confusion and searching under the moonlight in the bamboo forest; Xie Yunzhi, who had unhesitatingly shielded her from the Soul-Locking Talisman outside the alchemy room; Xie Yunzhi, who had promised to protect her for life by the campfire... Was their fate really so short, ending so tragically?
She bit her already broken lower lip hard, the strong taste of blood spreading in her mouth. She forced herself to stop crying out because of the pain, but her thin shoulders still trembled violently, like the most fragile fallen leaf in the autumn wind.
The Li brothers exchanged a glance, both seeing a bottomless heaviness and a barely perceptible fear in each other's eyes. They had risked their lives to help, firstly out of genuine gratitude for Xie Yunzhi's past kindness and patient guidance, and secondly because deep down they didn't entirely believe the sect's seemingly irrefutable evidence, which was riddled with suspicious points. Now, Xie Yunzhi's fate was uncertain after saving them, and they were carrying the critically injured and vital "accomplice," Mo Xiaoyu, while they themselves were also seriously injured. Their path ahead was shrouded in darkness, fraught with danger at every turn.
Zhang Yuanqiang braced himself, keeping watch over the surroundings. His divine sense, like a taut bowstring, meticulously probed every corner of the valley, confirming that there was no immediate danger or trace of pursuers. Li Yan, enduring excruciating pain, used his uninjured hand and teeth to quickly stabilize his fractured arm. He then swiftly found a secluded cave with a narrow entrance but a dry and spacious interior, hidden behind dense vines and rocks. He carefully carried the nearly exhausted Mo Xiaoyu inside, half-supporting and half-carrying her.
Then, gritting his teeth, cold sweat beaded on his forehead, Li Yan carefully cleaned up all traces they might have left from their fall from mid-air and their entry into the cave, covering them with withered branches and fallen leaves. He even went so far as to use his remaining spiritual energy to disrupt the faint aura near the cave entrance. Only after doing all this did he drag his tired and injured body to a mountain stream and retrieve a full container of clean water.
The cave was dimly lit, with only a few rays of light filtering through the cracks. Mo Xiaoyu huddled in the innermost corner, her arms tightly wrapped around her knees, her face buried in her arms. Her body trembled uncontrollably from extreme fear, profound grief, and excruciating pain. The blood and tear stains on her face had dried and hardened, making her exposed skin appear even paler and more fragile, like a porcelain doll that could shatter at any moment. Li Yan handed her the water pouch, which she mechanically took, clutching it tightly in her hand, but didn't drink, as if she had lost all desire.
"Junior Sister Mo, please drink some water. We need to regain our strength as soon as possible. We can't stay here any longer," Li Yan said in a hoarse voice, pleading.
Mo Xiaoyu slowly raised her head, her eyes brimming with tears, staring blankly at him, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible: "Senior Brother Li, Senior Brother Zhang... thank you... we... have dragged you into this..."
Li Yan shook his head, a forced, comforting smile on his honest face, now covered in weariness and dust, though his eyes were unusually resolute: "Don't say that. We know Senior Brother Xie's character. He's not as bad as the sect claims. There must be a huge injustice involved! The sect... perhaps they really are wrong." He paused, his voice lowering further, tinged with bitterness and helplessness, "It's just that my brother and I are of low cultivation, and even in the outer sect, we have little influence, and now... there's really only so much we can do. Once you're feeling better, we'll try to escort you to a relatively safe place, and then... we'll have to find a chance to leave. If the sect's enforcement hall investigates, we're afraid..."
Mo Xiaoyu understood their predicament. They had risked their lives to save them in that critical moment; it was already an immense favor. How could she possibly expect them to accompany her down this hopeless path? She nodded forcefully, tears streaming down her face again, her voice choked yet clear: "I understand. I will never forget the life-saving grace of my two senior brothers! If there is an opportunity someday…" But she couldn't finish her sentence. What was that future? What was the opportunity?
For the next two days, the three of them spent the longest and most difficult time of their lives in this dark and damp cave. Like wounded beasts, they licked their wounds and struggled to recover. Mo Xiaoyu relied on the faint, cool aura continuously emitted by the Soul-Stabilizing Pearl to stabilize her mind, and she also took the last few precious healing and rejuvenation pills that Xie Yunzhi had given her earlier. Her injuries finally stabilized and stopped worsening. However, her meridians were severely damaged, and her spiritual power recovered extremely slowly, like a tortoise crawling. What tormented her even more was the mental anguish. Whenever she closed her eyes, the image of Xie Yunzhi, covered in blood, yelling "Go!" at her would clearly appear, waking her from nightmares time and time again, drenched in cold sweat.
Li Yan and Zhang Yuan were both seriously injured. Li Yan's arm bone needed time to heal, and Zhang Yuan's internal organ tremors also required treatment. They took turns keeping watch, their nerves constantly on edge, listening to the howling wind outside the cave, their expressions growing increasingly grave. The Qingyun Sect's wanted poster had probably spread like wildfire throughout the surrounding area, and this temporary hideout was definitely not a place to stay for long.
On the morning of the third day, just as dawn was breaking, Li Yan and Zhang Yuan, after much difficult deliberation, prepared to leave. They needed to risk venturing to the nearest town, where news might travel more quickly, to gather intelligence, confirm the direction and strength of their pursuers, and simultaneously find a more secluded and suitable place for Mo Xiaoyu to hide and heal. More importantly, they had to split up with Mo Xiaoyu. The three of them together were too conspicuous; if discovered, they would all be wiped out.
After leaving most of their remaining rations and water to Mo Xiaoyu and carefully instructing her on the key points of hiding, the Li brothers solemnly clasped their hands in a salute to her, then resolutely turned around and their figures quickly disappeared behind the dense vines at the cave entrance.
Inside the cave, only Mo Xiaoyu remained.
A deathly silence descended, the only sounds being her own heartbeat and breathing. She hugged her knees, curled up against the cold stone wall, gazing at the faint sliver of light filtering through the cracks in the cave entrance. An endless emptiness and loneliness filled her heart. The world was so vast, yet her sect wouldn't tolerate her, she was hunted by the entire world; now it seemed there was nowhere left for her to stand. And the only person who had given her warmth, security, and support, the one she was willing to give everything for, had vanished without a trace, his fate unknown… An immense sense of loneliness and chilling fear, like countless fine vines, sprouted from the darkness, slowly coiling around her heart, almost suffocating her.
She instinctively raised her trembling hand and tightly grasped the Soul-Stabilizing Bead on her chest. The bead was icy to the touch, yet strangely, it emitted a faint but undeniable, almost imperceptible warmth, as if responding to something. This faint sensation was like a single candle flame lit in endless darkness.
In his mind, Xie Yunzhi's incredibly earnest eyes, illuminated by the campfire, reappeared, and his deep and firm voice seemed to be right beside him: "Protecting you in this life is Xie Yunzhi's heart's desire... To walk side by side with you and live on."
"You said you'd walk alongside me...you said we'd live together..." she murmured repeatedly, as if questioning, or perhaps drawing strength from the silence. A stubborn, unyielding light gradually gathered in her empty eyes. "You can't break your promise...you can't just die like this...I will find you...no matter what, I will search the heavens and the underworld, I will find you!"
She couldn't fall! She absolutely couldn't give up here! If he were still alive, he would be holding on somewhere, waiting for their reunion. If... if he were gone, then she had to live on even more, for his sake, to complete their unfinished mission, to uncover the whole truth!
The will to survive and the obsession with finding him, like wild grass struggling to survive in a crack in the rock, broke through the despair and fear in her heart. She moved her body with difficulty, sat cross-legged, abandoned all distracting thoughts, and began to fully circulate the most basic, yet most reliable, Qingyun Technique, like a thirsty traveler greedily absorbing the thin but pure spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the valley. The Soul-Stabilizing Pearl was pressed tightly against her chest, continuously emitting a soft yet resilient halo, not only firmly protecting her mind on the verge of collapse and driving away her inner demons, but also seemingly maintaining a faint, unbreakable connection with some distant being in the dark.
A lone journey across the world, the future uncertain, danger lurking everywhere. But the bond forged in blood and fire, transcending life and death, and the heavy responsibility they shared for the common good, became the only belief that sustained her through this desperate situation. She clutched the Soul-Stabilizing Pearl tightly, as if holding onto her last hope.
She believed that as long as the bead was still shining, as long as the connection was not severed, he must still be alive somewhere in this world.
The distant mountains, like dark eyebrows, are hidden behind a thick fog. The girl sits alone in the dim cave, her figure so thin that she seems about to be swallowed by the shadows at any moment, yet her back is straight, like a lone pine tree that stubbornly takes root on the cliff face even in a raging storm. In the soil of despair, she silently and steadfastly accumulates every bit of strength, waiting for the moment when she will confront fate again and reunite with that person.
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