The night had fell in the Snow Province. Everything remained still, calm and silent except for the chaos in Li Feng mind. He can't rest or sleep. His mind was continuously thinking who was that boy? How does he know about the poison? And most of all..why does he have it too? Did Xie Wuchen has something to do with this too? No it can't be..Xie Wuchen doesn't do anything which won't benefit him.
His mind was in total chaos. While Xie Lian and Shen Yun were sleeping in the main hall. A rare sight of both of them together. There was a stack of hay. Both of their back resting against it sleeping covered in old torn blankets they found in the store room.
Li Feng looked at them and just sighed looking at their peaceful faces. His gaze particularly fixed on Shen Yun..this wasn't the plan..Li Feng should be heartless right? Yet then why does he care about him? No answer came..not yet or perhaps he feared to acknowledge it. But now it wasn't the time to think about this. The moment is serious. He should look for clues and other things to solve the problem here.
Behind him Elder Xun who also tagged along with them spoke "Sect leader..are you okay?"
"Yes..just some things on my mind nothing much" Li Feng replied
Elder Xun nodded not pressing the issue further. "Get some rest early..we will look for the clues tomorrow" He said
Li Feng let out a final sigh before closing his eyes resting his back against wall. Without realising he drifted to sleep as the exhaustion took over him.
Elder Xun put some logs in the fire which they had lit earlier. The flames becoming the only source in the hall. It provide warmth in the cold night which was eloping within the sect.
Later, Elder Xun also drifted to sleep.
After some hours before the dawn his slurred up from is sleep he saw Shen Yun curled up..and without thinking he took off his robe gently putting it on Shen Yun.
His hand slowly reached to Shen Yun face. Softly, gently he started caressing his cheek.
He sighed..
"You know..this wasn't the plan..I was just supposed to use you to..open the vessel..but now..I don't want to let you go..and i can't understand this feeling..." Li Feng said
He kept conflicting his inner thoughts but eventually again..his eyes slowly fluttered taking him into deep slumber again..
That night Li Feng slept beside Shen Yun maintaining a quite distance, his back on the hay stack resting.. peacefully.
The next morning
There was no trace of sun the fog still linger in the air rather it was now snowing too.
Li Feng eyes fluttered opened as he rose up from his slumber. Calm and confident as always.
One by one everyone else woke up.
Shen Yun stirred up seeing Li Feng robe on his to keep him warm. A soft smile spread on his lips. Perhaps he really cared now right?
On the other hand someone was well not too happy about it...Wei Lan he looked at Shen Yun with stoic face no expression..why? Because he was Jealous..jealous that Li Feng cared more about Shen Yun then anyone now. Ever since Shen Yun has come Li Feng..has changed..a lot.
Wei Lan was his maim disciple before, centre of attention but now he wasn't as if in a matter of seconds everything has slipped off from his life..
Shen Yun looked at Wei Lan face..
"What are you looking at?" Shen Yun asked
"Nothing" Wei Lan replied coldly with no warmth in his voice..
"You're..weird" Shen Yun said
Wei Lan just looked away trying to ignore the feeling in his chest..the jealousy.
On the other hand the whole commotion didn't went unnoticed by Li Feng. He noticed it..every single word..
"So what are we gonna do now?" Shen Yun enquired as wanted to break the awkwardness and the tension.
"We will search this temple first for clues..there must be something here that's why that monk was living here. We need to look for it carefully'' Li Feng replied.
All of them nodded.
Elder Xun spoke then "Sect leader should I look for something to eat first? We can't go by empty stomach.."
"Elder Xun we can't possibly find anything to eat here it's just all snow here" Shen Yun replied.
Just then Wei Lan pointed at something outside
"I saw there is an apple tree there" Wei Lan said though his voice still held the coldness.
"Don't be absurd how can there be one at this temp—" Shen Yun said but was cut off by Li Feng
"There is but..we can't be sure that's it's not a trap or hallucination" He said his voice calm and collected
"Let's go and check it out" Shen Yun spoke
Li Feng nodded heading towards the tree at a distance he stopped looking up and down at the tree then suddenly when all of them was there..
SUDDENLY a bunch of arrows started to come in there way
"Just as i thought" Li Feng muttered
He pulled out his sword in one smooth motion. His body moved quickly, slicing through the air as arrows flew toward him. With sharp, fast strikes, he blocked them all. When he stopped, the arrows were scattered around him on the ground—none had touched him.
They looked around seeing arrows scattered and..the tree it was long gone..there was nothing.
"So it was a trap after all" Shen Yun said
"You all need to be more careful..now let's go and check out the temple for any clues" Li Feng said
They all nodded walking back towards the temple, after sometime they reached the temple.
"Let's start looking around carefully we need to find clues first" Li Feng said to which everyone agreed.
They started searching the temple main hall..the other rooms until Shen Yun spoke "Li Feng look" he pointed at a weird looking wall
"It's a bit weird this..design is weird i have never seen something like this" Shen Yun spoke
Elder Xun and Wei Lan also came to look at it..
"It might be a secret passage or something else..let's check it out" Li Feng said
They all started to look how will it open until Wei Lan accidentally pushed a Flower pot on a table from there to another side.
The wall / now door started opening.
They had their paper lanterns on them. They slowly lit it and entered the passage which was completely dark. They started walking inside. After walking for a quite sometime Wei Lan spoke "There's nothing i think we are going wrong way it's nothing here"
"Wei Lan don't be impatient" Li feng said to which Wei Lan just nodded
After a quite while they all finally reached to a place...which turned out to be a huge Archive..The Archive of the Snow Province..
End of Chapter 19