"Fear is natural. But remember this: fear keeps you alive. Recklessness does not."
He swallowed hard, looking at her slim frame silhouetted against the mist. She had felled monsters of shadow with strokes like falling stars. Yet, her shoulders sagged. Just barely.
Lin Feng's eyes narrowed. "You're hurt."
A pause. The Guardian said nothing.
Then... blood. Dark and thin, it trickled from beneath her sleeve, staining the hem of her cloak. She swayed ever so slightly, catching herself against the railing of the raft.
Lin Feng rushed forward. "You are hurt!"
"Stay back," she snapped, though her voice was weaker than before.
He froze, torn between obedience and instinct. "…It's the poison, isn't it? From the Black Mist Sect."
The Guardian's silence was answer enough.
Her breathing was uneven now, shallow. The elegance of her duel had hidden the truth. Every movement had been tearing at wounds laced with venom.
Lin Feng clenched his fists, helpless anger welling in his chest. "You shouldn't be protecting me like this. If it kills you, then what?"
Finally, she turned toward him. Her mask caught the dim starlight, and though he couldn't see her eyes, he felt their weight.
"Boy," she said softly, "this path is not about should or should not. I swore to guard the Celestial Void Manual. You carry it now. That makes your life… heavier than mine."
Lin Feng's throat tightened. "But..."
She cut him off, a wry, bitter edge in her voice. "Do not mistake this for kindness. My oath is to the Manual, not to you."
The words stung, but Lin Feng saw her sway again, her hand clutching her side. The poison was spreading, he realized. Each heartbeat dragged her closer to collapse.
He stepped forward anyway, defiance flashing in his eyes.
"Then let me guard you, for once. Even if I can't fight like you… I won't just stand here while you bleed."
The Guardian was silent for a long moment. Then.barely audible through the mask came the faintest sound. Almost a laugh, almost a sigh.
"You are stubborn," she murmured. "Good. You'll need that."
But even as she spoke, her knees buckled.
Lin Feng caught her before she hit the raft, the weight of her frail but unyielding body pressing against him. For the first time, the Guardian seemed… human. Vulnerable.
Lin Feng lowered her carefully onto the raft, the boards groaning under their combined weight. Her cloak fell open slightly, revealing veins of inky black spreading like cracks of midnight across her pale skin.
The sight made his stomach twist.
"Stay awake," he begged, fumbling with his dagger to cut strips of cloth from his own tunic. "Please.don't close your eyes."
Her breath came ragged, shallow. "The poison… runs deeper than bandages, boy. Save your strength."
"No." His voice broke, sharp and desperate. "If I can fight, if I can bleed, then I can do something. I won't let you die here, not like this."
He wrapped the cloth tightly around her wound, though he knew it was useless against poison. His hands shook, but he forced them steady. "Just… just hold on."
The Guardian stirred faintly, a whisper escaping her lips. "Stubborn."
The raft creaked as the mist parted ahead, revealing faint lantern-light glimmering across the water. Lin Feng squinted, hope surging. A silhouette appeared, an island rising from the Mist Sea, small but alive, dotted with huts carved into cliffs and rope-bridges swaying in the wind.
He almost wept with relief.
He rowed frantically, muscles screaming, every splash of the oar an act of defiance against despair. "Just a little further," he whispered, again and again. "Stay with me."
By the time the raft scraped against the rocky shore, his arms were numb. He staggered onto the beach with the Guardian slung across his back. Villagers gasped at the sight of her masked form, but when they saw the dark veins of poison crawling across her skin, whispers rose in alarm.
An elderly woman, her back bent but her eyes sharp as knives, stepped forward. Her robe was simple, yet embroidered with faint talismanic threads.
"Black Shadow Mist Poison," she muttered, touching the Guardian's wrist with care. "Few dare bring such darkness here." Her eyes flicked to Lin Feng. "Boy, do you know what you've carried into my sanctuary?"
Lin Feng bowed his head, trembling but resolute. "I know. And I don't care. Save her. Please."
The woman's lips pressed thin, but something in his tone, his raw desperation, stirred her. She gestured sharply, and several attendants lifted the Guardian onto a bamboo stretcher.
"She walks the border between worlds," the elder warned. "If she wakes, it will be by will alone. If she falls…" She shook her head. "No art can bring her back."
Lin Feng clenched his fists, fire burning in his chest. He looked up at the night sky, stars faint behind the veil of mist.
The Guardian was carried away into the heart of the cliffside village.
The village clung to the cliffs like a nest of swallows, huts carved directly into the stone and joined by swaying rope bridges. Lanterns swayed in the mist, their light dim and golden, as though even fire here dared not burn too brightly.
Lin Feng followed the healer elder through narrow passages. Every step echoed faintly, the sea's endless sigh below. He glanced at the villagers they passed, weather-worn faces, quiet eyes, movements precise but subdued. None met his gaze for long.
It was as though they all carried a secret.
The Guardian had been carried deeper, into a hollow chamber glowing faintly with herbal smoke. There she lay now.
The healer elder's hands moved with care, loosening the ties of the Guardian's silver mask. The metal clinked softly as it was lifted away, and for the first time, Lin Feng saw the face of the woman who had saved him countless times.
His breath caught.
Her beauty was not of this world. Sharp cheekbones framed eyes closed in pain, lashes long enough to brush her pale skin. Her lips were soft, almost fragile, like petals that had never known the dust of the jianghu. A faint glow seemed to cling to her skin, as though moonlight had chosen her as its vessel.
Yet even in stillness, there was strength. Her brows arched with quiet defiance, her face neither cruel nor kind, but carrying the weight of countless battles. She was a warrior sculpted by heaven's hand yet broken now by poison.
Lin Feng felt his chest tighten. She looked less like the untouchable Guardian of legend and more like a fallen star, beautiful but burning out. The black veins that marred her neck and shoulder seemed all the crueler against her delicate skin, spreading like ink across silk.
The elder murmured, "Now you see… why many call her the Moonblade of the Jianghu."
Moonblade. The name fit. Even wounded, even near death, she was luminous cold and distant as the moon, yet impossible to look away from.
Lin Feng lowered his gaze, afraid of his own thoughts. She was his savior, his protector… and something else he dared not name.
The elder laid talismans around her body, their ink shining faintly. "We will keep her alive for a time. But the poison will not relent. It feeds on spirit energy draws strength from every breath she takes…"
"The Black Shadow Mist Poison spreads faster than I feared. Even the strongest warriors cannot withstand it for long."
Lin Feng's heart pounded. "There must be a cure!"
The healer elder's hands trembled slightly as she withdrew the last of her needles from the Guardian's arm. Her eyes clouded with age but still sharp, narrowed at the black veins spreading across the warrior's skin.
Her lips pressed into a thin line before she finally spoke. "A cure exists. The Starfall Lotus, a blossom that grows only in the Valley of Falling Stars. Its petals draw out corruption from flesh and spirit alike. But…" She let the word hang heavy. "That valley lies deep within the jianghu, where sects clash for dominance. Outsiders are slaughtered before they even glimpse the flower."
Lin Feng looked down at the Guardian. Without her silver mask, she seemed less like the Moonblade and more like a wounded mortal, her beauty fragile against the creeping dark veins. His hands curled into fists.
"I'll go," he said, each word striking like iron.
The elder's eyes widened. "Child, do you even hear yourself? You've barely touched cultivation, and you would walk into lands drenched in blood? Wolves and worse will tear you apart before you reach the valley."
Lin Feng's hand brushed the satchel at his side. The Celestial Void Manual pulsed faintly, as if in answer. "If I stay here, she dies. If I go… there's a chance."
The elder studied him for a long time, her gaze piercing. At last, her features softened. "You're a fool," she murmured, but her voice trembled with pride. "A fool with courage. The jianghu will eat you alive… but sometimes, Heaven favors fools."
That night, she pressed a small pouch of herbs and dried food into his hands. "This is all I can give you. The night is dangerous, leave at dawn, Lin Feng."