The memory unfolded through Thanh Nhi's eyes, fragments stained with blood and blanketed in white snow.
She saw the figure of a young man kneeling in the midst of wind and snow, clutching a motionless body that felt like ashes slipping through his fingers.
At that time, Bach Lan had been gravely injured during the backlash and punished by The Celestial General. Her spiritual energy had been completely drained, her primordial soul shattered, fragile as willow threads in the cold air.
Thanh Nhi, now a fugitive herself, with no refuge anywhere, could only stand within the thick mist, silently witnessing everything from afar, a shadow of helpless pain.
Dong Ha, his body torn and battered, his wolf armor soaked in blood, refused to let her go, even as his strength wavered and he nearly collapsed.
Bach Lan's parents rushed forward, faces pale with horror, eyes fixed on their daughter's slowly cooling body. They trembled, reaching out to touch her, but all they could feel was helplessness and agony.
"Dong Ha, what... what happened?"
"Weren't you two following Master Van Huyen to learn cultivation? How did it come to this?"
The icy wind bit into his skin, snow piling on his shoulders. He did not answer. Dong Ha's gaze was fixed only on her pale face, eyes closed, as if she might vanish from the world at any moment.
He screamed in a frenzy.
"Save her! I beg you... someone please save her!"
The elders of the fox clan stood silently, faces grave. One shook his head slowly:
"Her primordial soul is damaged. The spirit platform is about to collapse. The fox clan... can no longer protect her."
Bach Lan's mother felt her legs give way the moment she heard that, collapsing to the ground. Her face was a mask of anguish and despair. Bach Lan's father froze in place, struck by the unbearable pain, yet forcing himself to stay upright, as if the act alone could hold back the grief.
Dong Ha stood motionless for a moment, his heart plunging into a bottomless abyss.
He gripped Bach Lan tightly, holding her cooling body as if by sharing his warmth he could hold on to what was already slipping away.
An elder's aged, solemn voice cut through the silence: "Only... the Spirit Water of the Celestial Realm can save her primordial body."
At those words, Dong Ha sprang into action. Without another word, he lifted her, taking flight through the mist.
Then, a trembling hand grabbed his arm.
"Dong Ha." – her father's voice was hoarse, choked with breath. – "Take Bach Lan... save her!"
Her mother sobbed, tears mingling with blood: "I entrust my daughter to you... please, I beg you, save her."
In their eyes burned an incomparable pain. They were fox spirits, yet they knew they could not set foot in the Celestial Realm, could not call upon the Spirit Water to save their child. That helplessness was like countless knives twisting in their hearts, tearing at their very souls.
In this moment of utter despair, the only hope they could place was in Dong Ha: the bloodline of the Ancient Divine Wolf, the true disciple of Master Van Huyen. Only he possessed the authority, the power, and the path to breach the Celestial Realm and seek a fragile chance to save Bach Lan.
After those words of entrustment, he wrapped Bach Lan in his warmest fur coat, holding her close as he stepped into the thick falling snow. Each step left a trail stained with blood, his own blood, from wounds yet to fully heal.
Father, mother, I have so many apologies unspoken.
A daughter so unfilial... causing such heartache to those who loved her.
Bach Lan's heart trembled. Each fragment of memory cut through her like a blade. She wanted to scream, to run into her parents' arms, yet all she could do was witness illusions, hazy fragments of memories she could not touch, could not embrace.
A hot tear fell, mingling with the fading veil of memory. The weight of sorrow choked her breath. She did not know this was the final time she would ever see the faces of her father and mother.
Dong Ha carried her onward, straight toward the Celestial Realm.
The Celestial Realm was blanketed in a thick white snow, its light weaving through the silent clouds like a shroud over the fate of the figure kneeling at the Nam Thien Gate square.
Dong Ha, tall and broad-shouldered, his robe tattered, blood still trickling at the corner of his mouth, knelt on one knee, cradling a nearly lifeless fox spirit in his arms.
Bach Lan's original spirit had begun to fracture, her breathing fragile, her spiritual energy almost completely drained.
Around them, deities gathered, murmuring in awe and disbelief at a fox spirit daring to defy the heavens. And yet here stood a wolf heir of ancient lineage, pleading for one who had broken the laws of the sky.
From the highest clouds, a voice rang out steady, authoritative, commanding. It was the Divine Arbiter, keeper of the cycles of reincarnation and master of the primal seals across the Three Realms.
"That fox spirit has crossed forbidden bounds. Her body nears dissolution, her original soul shattering. If you wish to preserve her form..."
"There is only one way." – He continued, his gaze unflinching.
Dong Ha lifted his head, voice firm: "Please, Great Divinity, tell me what must be done."
"You, heir of the ancient wolf bloodline, bear within you a formidable protective spiritual force. Only that power can sustain the seal over the demonic energy in the Void at this moment. In exchange, you will lose everything. You will no longer be a divine beast, no longer wield magic, only remaining as an ordinary wolf."
A long silence hung over the scene, every gaze fixed on Dong Ha, kneeling in the thick snow, his robe soaked with blood.
Without hesitation, he bowed his head deeply.
"I pledge all my spiritual energy. Just... let her live."
A blinding aura descended from the high god's hand.
The wind whipped violently, snow swept aside as if yielding to the sacred power.
The ancient wolf's spiritual energy, pale silver, drew out from Dong Ha strand by strand, flowing toward the Void, where the demonic aura of the Three Realms was sealed.
The deity dripped a drop of radiant Spirit Water onto Bach Lan. The light enveloped her, wrapping around her fracturing original soul, slowly sealing the cracks in the demonic energy, preserving the fox spirit's essence.
On her lips, a slight tremor whispered a name, then dissolved into the glow.
But at that very moment, Dong Ha's body shuddered violently, veins bulging, his golden eyes dimming. Moments later, his form collapsed onto the icy stone floor.
"From now on." – The deity announced. – "You, Dong Ha, lose all status as a divine beast. Both of you shall endure the Frozen Bone Punishment for ten thousand years under the Frozen Lake. Your bodies will not decay, and your souls shall be locked."
At the Frozen Lake, at the very edge of all light, ten thousand years passed like a long, quiet sigh.
Bach Lan remained there, buried within the icy depths, her body preserved by the seal, yet never once awakening. Dong Ha, now only a small, frail wolf, powerless and diminished, stayed silently by her side. Every day he brushed off the snow, guarding the warmth of a world that seemed long gone.
Until one day.
A strange deity appeared.
The air above the lake shivered; the ice cracked in a fine line like silk. A figure descended, clad in white robes, gray eyes cold as winter clouds. It was The God of Reincarnation, the god who had lived countless millennia without ever understanding love, never believing in that elusive feeling.
He walked toward Dong Ha. A being who had given up all his spiritual energy, living like a shadow for millennia just to watch over a sleeping fox spirit.
"You are foolish!" – He said, a cold, mocking smile curling his lips.
"You really think a girl like her... would be moved by that? She will never love you. In her heart, there will always be only the one named Trach Hien."
He continued: "Love? It's nothing but your own delusion, your one-sided fantasy."
Dong Ha lifted his gaze to him; eyes calm as early winter snow.
"Love... is not to possess. Not to make her repay me, not to make her choose me. I only want that when she opens her eyes, the first face she sees... is mine."
"Even if she doesn't remember, even if she doesn't choose me. I only need her alive. I only need... to be by her side, quietly, if that's all I can have."
The god paused for a moment.
For the first time in countless millennia, he witnessed a mortal soul, fragile, weak, yet unwaveringly strong and steadfast.
He frowned, then slowly asked:
"If you were given a chance... to reincarnate as a human in the mortal world, so she could live again... would you dare to risk it once more?"
"If after all, she still doesn't choose you... then both of you will vanish forever. Think of it as a release."
Dong Ha did not hesitate.
"I agree."
The God of Reincarnation nodded, and a soft blue light stirred at his feet. The frozen lake trembled, ice melting in slow streams as if time itself were being reversed.
"I will arrange it for all three of you. Bach Lan, Trach Hien, and you will descend to the mortal world, becoming flesh and blood. No memories, no magic, no one will know another. If in the end, her heart turns to you... then I will accept that love is real."
The light flared, and Bach Lan's spirit began to dissolve into a glowing stream of white energy. Dong Ha closed his eyes, accepting a new human life with a fragile body and a quiet heart.
Far away, unknown to anyone, Trach Hien's undissolved soul was also drawn into the cycle of reincarnation, becoming an indispensable piece in the game of fate.
And then they met again.
No magic, no divine power, no memories of love or hatred.
Only hearts that could feel, doubt, and be wounded.
A new love began, born from the first glance, or perhaps from a chance encounter in a cold autumn corridor.
But it was also the tolling of a bell awakening a truth long dormant: as feelings, schemes, and memories slowly stirred back to life.
Love is not possession. It is waiting. It is the faith that, even after a thousand years, she will turn back to the light that has waited for her since a past life.
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