Subtitle: Three Locks, One Gate, One Game of Trust
In the quiet after the storm, truths are spoken not in shouts, but in shared silence and the gentle pulse of a bonded fate.
The night wind had quieted, but the silence inside the dilapidated mountain temple carried a new kind of tension, thick with unspoken words and the echo of a shared heartbeat.
Chu Hongying carefully settled Shen Yuzhu in a corner piled with dry grass, then knelt on one knee before him. Placing her palm against his icy back, she channeled a steady stream of inner energy, driving away the bone-deep cold and the pain of the Gu poison.
As the energy circulated, the Life-Sigils on her arm and his back seemed to resonate subtly. The eerie light was no longer wild, but pulsed gently like breathing, alternating between bright and dim. Life force and spiritual energy merged silently between them.
Within the soft glow, a flicker of trance passed through Shen Yuzhu's eyes. He seemed to see a fragmented image—himself standing amidst endless shards of bronze mirrors, an identical blue sigil carved into his palm, facing a woman whose features were obscured by thick mist. Her voice, cold yet tender, seemed to come from a great distance: "Remember, when the Gate opens again, you will forget me." [Memory Fragment Clue]
He snapped back to reality, heart pounding.
Some time later, Shen Yuzhu's lashes fluttered, and he slowly opened his eyes. The faint gray of dawn seeped through the temple's cracks. In that dim light, the first thing he saw was Chu Hongying's face, close to his, and the still faintly pulsing, reddened blue sigil on her exposed forearm.
He lifted his weak hand, his cold fingertips gently touching the heated skin.
"Does it hurt?" he asked, his voice hoarse.
Chu Hongying met his gaze, shook her head, her voice flat from the battle but carrying something barely perceptible: "Not as much as your coughing up blood hurts."
He chuckled, breathless. "Then... you should keep scolding me like that. It almost sounds like concern."
Her fingers paused for half a heartbeat where they rested on his sleeve, a silence heavier than words. "Don't make me repeat it," she said, but the corner of her lips moved — just slightly.
Shen Yuzhu was taken aback for a moment, then let out a low, soft laugh. The laughter tugged at his wounds, causing a stifled cough, but couldn't hide the long-absent, genuine warmth in his smile. "So the great General Chu can talk like a normal person after all."
A brief silence fell in the temple, broken only by the occasional crackle of the campfire. The blue light of the Life-Sigils reflected in each other's eyes, like the only starlight in the dark night.
After a long while, Shen Yuzhu, gazing at the dancing flames, spoke softly, his tone more serious than ever before: "If this mark... is a chain imposed by fate..."
He paused, turned his gaze back, looking deeply into her eyes. "Then let me be chained with you."
Chu Hongying looked back at him. She feared never being bound by fate, but rather—if even love became a predetermined program, she would lose the freedom to choose to love.
Her voice was clear and calm, carrying her unique, unwavering power to cut through all hesitation:
"But it cannot lock me."
Her words were both a declaration of war against fate and a response to his pledge—she accepted this bond, but her will would never yield to any shackles.
A faint tremor shook the wooden beams overhead.
The next heartbeat brought a muffled clang—the sound of a blade meeting stone outside.
Gu Changfeng spun toward the door, hand already on his sword. "Seems the wolves didn't give up that easily."
Before Chu Hongying could rise, the door shuddered under a heavy strike. Splinters flew. Through the widening crack, a flash of steel glinted in the dim firelight.
Gu Changfeng moved like a streak of light. "Stand back."
His sword—Fei Xia—sang as it left the sheath, carving a clean arc through the narrow doorway.
A strangled cry followed; a black-clad figure fell limply against the frame before sliding to the ground outside.
He exhaled, flicking blood from the blade's edge with a small, infuriating grin.
"They call them Shadows, but really, they just make a mess."
Before the blood on his sword had even dried, Gu Changfeng turned and smirked.
"You were saying something about me dying early?"
Lu Wanning arched a brow, unhurriedly pulling a small dart from her sleeve and flicking it toward the half-open door.
A faint metallic clang echoed—another shadow dropped outside.
"Early," she said evenly, "but not before me."
He blinked, then grinned wider. "That's the most romantic thing you've ever said to me."
"Pity you'll never survive to hear a second."
Chu Hongying sighed under her breath. "Are you two flirting or competing for last words?"
Gu Changfeng answered without missing a beat: "Both, General. We multitask."
[END OF INTERLUDE]
The brief spark of levity dissolved into tension again as Lu Wanning's expression darkened.
"I found an old record stating the Gate has 'Three Locks'," she said, her voice low and serious. "The Life-Sigil resonance is only one. There are also the 'Heart's Vow' and the 'Blood Curse'—if all three are unlocked, the Gate will not merely lead to the spirit realm, but will devour the mortal world."[Three Locks Theory Clue]
Gu Changfeng's fingers stilled. When he spoke again, his tone had turned solemn: "Which means... someone is deliberately driving your resonance, aiming to open the entire 'world'." He then resumed his casual tone, wagging a finger: "Three locks, one door, one game of chess. Whoever trusts first, loses first."[Hidden Message Clue]
Meanwhile, on a distant, storm-wrapped mountain peak.
Helian Sha's cloak whipped in the bitter wind; his wolf-fur-patterned armor glinted with dull silver. His boots sank halfway into the snow. Behind him, a dozen or so "Wolf-Fang Shadow Guards" knelt on one knee, their helmet visors frosted, breath mist curling in the wind.
The bronze disc in his hand hummed, its surface displaying two intertwined patterns of light—identical in form to the Life-Sigils on Chu Hongying and Shen Yuzhu's arms in the mountain temple.
Helian Sha slightly raised a fingertip, a blood-red glove lightly tracing the edge of the disc. A drop of dark blood fell onto the bronze lines. The hum instantly changed pitch, becoming a low, bestial roar.
He reached into his robe and pulled out a piece of broken beast bone. On its surface, a similarly shimmering blue pattern appeared, though distorted, as if forcibly stripped. He gazed coldly at the pattern: "The second sigil... is still unstable. Her blood... can solidify it."[Bone Sigil Sample Clue]
"The Gate has awakened." He murmured, his voice icy yet carrying a trace of a tremor akin to tenderness. "She... still walked the path I laid for her."
Amidst the wind and snow, Helian Sha slowly raised his hand.
Ten shadow guards stood up simultaneously, unlocking the seals on their armor. The wolf patterns on their chests lit up with a dark glow one by one.
"Go." He commanded.
"Encircle the area starting three li below the temple—do not kill, only capture the Life-Sigils."
The wolf-like black shadows slid into the snowy mist.
Helian Sha watched the points of darkness recede. For a moment, something unreadable flickered behind his eyes—pride, or regret. His gaze turned again to the faint light on the horizon. Dawn broke through the snow, illuminating the frost marks between his brows.
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly, a low murmur escaping:
"She will eventually stand before the Gate—
only this time,
I will be there too."
He turned and left, his cloak whipping up a swirl of snow,
leaving only a line of deep boot prints,
pointing straight toward the abandoned mountain temple below.
The wind and snow erased all other traces.Only that single line of footprints remained unburied—marks carved by fate upon the frozen plain,pointing unerringly toward the place where she waited.