Subtitle: When fate sought to seal her path, she used her blood as the guide and her heart as the key, forcing open a gate to life.
Volume Transition
The fog rose from the mountains, sealing the heart. When fate becomes a lock, only blood may serve as the key.
The sound of the mountain temple's bell had not yet faded behind them when the thick fog surged forth, cutting off their descent.
Chu Hongying, Shen Yuzhu, Gu Changfeng, and Lu Wanning hurried along the western path. The shadows of the trees twisted in an eerie silence, like lurking ghosts. The last traces of insects and birds had vanished completely. The silence pressed down, heavy and penetrating, seeping into their very bones.
"This fog... it's wrong," Gu Changfeng murmured, his usual levity gone.
Chu Hongying didn't answer, merely shifting the Lie Feng spear in her grip. The Life-Sigil on her arm gave a faint, warning thrum of heat.
In the next moment, the very wind died.
Nine figures in deep purple emerged from the mist—
—The Wu Shang Wei had appeared.
The fog hung thick and unmoving.
In the western outskirts of the capital, the forest felt like a sealed world—dead, soundless, suffocating. Branches stretched like ghostly claws, shredding the already sparse moonlight. The air was thick with the smell of damp earth and something like corroded metal, pressing down, making it hard to breathe.
They carried no visible weapons, but with each step, the fallen leaves beneath their feet silently turned to dust.
"'Wu Shang Wei'," Gu Changfeng's voice was so low it was almost inaudible, the usual lazy smile gone from his face, replaced by utter wariness. "The darkest blade at the Emperor's side... He's finally moved."
There was no parley, no warning. The lead faceless figure raised a hand and pressed down, palm flat, into the empty air.
"Hum—"
The air solidified instantly! An invisible force, like a colossal mountain, slammed down. Accompanied by eerie, glowing blue sigils igniting on the ground, it instantly enveloped the four of them. An array formation!
Chu Hongying, at the forefront, felt her body grow heavy, as if trapped in quicksand. Every movement required several times the usual effort. The Life-Sigil on her arm flared with a sudden, piercing pain—not the warmth of resonance, but like being stabbed by countless icy needles, attempting to forcibly invade and freeze the connection between her and Shen Yuzhu.
"A Spirit-Locking Array..." Lu Wanning's face paled. Several silver needles shot from her fingertips, only to be deflected by a blue glow at the array's edge, the needles instantly frosting over. "They're trying to sever your Life-Sigil connection!"
Shen Yuzhu grunted, his already unstable internal energy churning violently under the array's pressure. A trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. He tried to move closer to Chu Hongying, but his feet felt leaden; the array's power was frantically blocking their connection.
Chu Hongying's eyes turned sharp. The Lie Feng spear let out a low hum, its tip bursting with golden-red light as she thrust fiercely towards the lead faceless figure. She didn't believe in arrays; she only believed in the spear in her hand, capable of shattering all illusions.
"Boom!"
The spear's radiance collided with an invisible barrier. The shockwave rolled out, shearing nearby trees in half. Yet, the faceless figure only retreated half a step. The array's light swirled, dissipating the force of Chu Hongying's full-powered strike. More ethereal blue chains emerged from the void, coiling like venomous snakes around her limbs and the spear shaft.
"It's useless, General." The lead faceless figure finally spoke, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. "This array is designed specifically to counter Life-Sigils. Resistance only hastens its consumption."
Gu Changfeng's sword moved like the wind, trying to tear an opening from the flank, but his blade was always deflected at the critical moment, as if fighting the very space itself. Lu Wanning's medicinal powders and hidden weapons were likewise blocked by the array's barrier.
Hopelessness coiled through the air like cold vines.
Chu Hongying was pinned to the ground by several of the blue chains, the Lie Feng spear knocked from her grasp to land some distance away, its tassel still quivering. Excruciating pain, like breaking bone, shot through her shoulder. The icy power of the sigils, like thousands of fine needles, drilled relentlessly along the patterns of her Life-Sigil, trying to freeze the power source that pulsed in time with her heartbeat. Her consciousness began to blur at the edges under the assault of pain and invasion.
Just as her awareness was about to be completely crushed, the burning Life-Sigil on her arm did not scatter or dim as expected. Instead, it began to throb with a frantic, wild intensity—like a cornered beast, no longer defending passively, but暴躁ly, instinctively surging and pulling towards a specific direction!
The burning pull tore through pain and distance, anchoring itself to Shen Yuzhu like destiny made visible.
She suddenly understood. This wasn't a tactic requiring thought; it was an instinct born from the depths of their souls. Her Life-Sigil was autonomously seeking its other half. Only by becoming one could they resist this external force trying to strip and seal them.
All calculation and hesitation burned away in that moment. Trust, fate—in this extremity, there was only one choice left.
She lifted her head, her blood-streaked face etched with a near-feral determination under the glow of the blue sigils, her eyes like two unyielding points of cold starlight, piercing through the fray to lock onto Shen Yuzhu.
"Shen Yuzhu," her voice wasn't loud, but it carried a force that severed all hesitation, clear to everyone present, "come here."
Shen Yuzhu reacted before his mind could process it. Fighting the agony of the Gu poison and the array's dual assault in his meridians, he stumbled towards her, propelled by sheer will. The Wu Shang Wei moved to intercept, but Gu Changfeng's sword and a medicinal pouch thrown by Lu Wanning erupted simultaneously, buying him a fleeting gap.
The moment he stepped within her immediate reach, Chu Hongying summoned a final burst of strength from somewhere, breaking free from the chains' hold. Her bloodied hand shot out and clamped firmly around his icy wrist.
"BOOM—!"
A silent detonation occurred the instant their Life-Sigils made contact.
It wasn't the uncontrolled frenzy from before, nor the gentle call-and-response in the mountain temple. This was a complete, unreserved fusion and dominance. The golden-red light patterns on Chu Hongying's arm writhed like living magma, instantly engulfing the dissipating blue light from Shen Yuzhu's back, forcibly synchronizing it to her own pulsating rhythm.
A golden-red halo erupted outwards from them! Where the light passed, the blue Spirit-Locking sigils hissed and wailed like ice meeting the sun, shattering and dissolving piece by piece!
"Impossible!" The lead faceless figure's voice cracked for the first time, laced with stunned disbelief.
Chu Hongying felt her strength draining rapidly, even as she drew upon a deep, glacial resilience from Shen Yuzhu. She had no time to ponder it. Riding the wave of this explosive resonance, she released his wrist, her body shooting forward like lightning. She snatched the Lie Feng spear from the ground.
Spear in hand, the will of woman and weapon became one again.
No fancy moves, just the purest thrust. The golden-red spear light, condensed with the power of both their Life-Sigils, became a bolt of lightning tearing through the night, aimed straight at the array's core—the lead faceless figure.
Fast! Impossibly fast!
The figure brought both palms forward, blue light blazing, attempting to block head-on. But—
"Thud!"
The spear tip pierced through the blue glow without resistance, straight through his chest. He looked down, disbelief in his eyes at the spear tip burning with golden-red flame protruding from his back. His eyes widened behind the mask, vitality scattering, before he crumpled to the ground.
With the array's core destroyed, the remaining eight Wu Shang Wei shuddered in unison. The array's power backfired. The blue sigils flickered and shattered.
"Go!" Chu Hongying shouted, her voice hoarse from exertion.
Gu Changfeng and Lu Wanning understood immediately. Without a second glance at the enemy, they protected the weakened, barely-conscious Shen Yuzhu and followed Chu Hongying as she swiftly disappeared deeper into the forest. The remaining Wu Shang Wei, seemingly disoriented by their leader's death, failed to mount an immediate, organized pursuit.
The four of them ran for over ten li until they were sure no one was following, finally stopping in a hidden gully.
Chu Hongying carefully leaned Shen Yuzhu against the rocky wall, but could no longer support herself. Her legs gave way, and she knelt on one knee, using the spear to keep from collapsing completely. Her face was deathly pale, her breathing ragged. The light from the Life-Sigil on her arm had receded, but the burning ache remained sharp.
Shen Yuzhu was worse. The forced resonance had agitated his inherent cold poison, compounded by the array's corrosion. He curled in on himself, shivering violently, his teeth chattering, consciousness gone.
Lu Wanning rushed forward, first pressing a pill into Chu Hongying's mouth, then swiftly applying needles to stabilize Shen Yuzhu's heart meridian. She draped her own specially woven, heat-retaining cloak over him.
Gu Changfeng stood guard at the gully entrance, ears straining.
After catching her breath, Chu Hongying's gaze fell on Shen Yuzhu's profile, fragile as fine porcelain on the verge of shattering. She recalled the deep, glacial power she had sensed within him during the forced resonance—so different from her own blazing intensity. It wasn't weakness, but a kind of ruthless endurance and capacity to bear weight.
Silently, she shifted closer to him, sitting with her back against the rock face. Then, she reached out with her uninjured arm and pulled him gently, yet firmly, into her embrace. Her body temperature ran high, and now she served as a warm source of heat.
Shen Yuzhu, unconscious, instinctively leaned into the warmth.
Lu Wanning watched, seeming to want to say something, but ultimately remained silent, silently offering a water skin.
Chu Hongying took it but didn't drink. Instead, she dipped her fingers in the water and carefully wiped the blood from the corner of Shen Yuzhu's lips. The motion was still marked by a General's inherent awkwardness, yet held an indescribable focus.
Gu Changfeng glanced back at the scene, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes before his lazy demeanor returned. He looked out into the fog-shrouded depths of the forest and murmured,
"Well, we've gone and torn a hole in the sky this time."
Chu Hongying didn't turn. Her voice was soft, but carried an undeniable strength.
"Then let the sky shatter."
The night deepened; the mist remained. In that pocket of stillness, only their mingled heartbeats spoke—a quiet rhythm that refused to break.