A massive blaze, never to be seen again, erupted in a remote little village.
There was only one shadow silhouetted against those roaring flames.
People rushed out in a panic, but they could do nothing against the uncontrollable inferno. They could only stamp their feet in frustration while desperately trying to keep the fire from spreading to their own homes.
In the midst of the chaos, the shadow emerging from the burning site naturally melted into the night's darkness.
Wi Sowol took advantage of her small frame to hide swiftly and moved ahead without hesitation.
Her destination was a secluded corner behind the village, leading toward the back mountain.
There sat an old man who had held his post without budging, even amid the fire.
"Aso...!"
Shock and worry. And a hint of fear.
Wi Sowol sensed the gaze of a stranger from the old man who called her nickname.
And she probably looked the same to him.
There was simply too vast a gulf in time between them.
But Wi Sowol saw no need to dwell on it.
It would only make things awkward for him, and she had no desire to shatter that distance anyway.
"Where's Ban Brother?"
Wi Sowol searched for the Ban Clan Boy.
Before heading to the beasts' lair, she had entrusted the boy—who had rushed here to save her—to this place.
It was the village's only apothecary, and its owner was kinder to the beggar kids than anyone else around.
A fact she'd learned in her past life: after she burned all the beasts alive and fled like a vagabond, this old apothecary had personally buried each of the beggar kids' bodies.
She could safely leave the Ban Clan Boy with him.
"I did as you asked. Stitched up the gash on his back and applied some herbs, but..."
His trembling eyes spoke volumes.
Not sure he'll pull through.
Wi Sowol brushed past the old man and grasped the door.
"One moment."
"Ah... sure."
The old man's permission came a beat late.
As he froze in place, Wi Sowol carefully slid the door open and gazed at the boy lying prone inside.
'Ban Brother...'
Fortunately, the wound hadn't reached the bone, but it was still far too long.
He'd lost a lot of blood. In her past life, that was likely what killed him—exsanguination.
'His breathing's steady. Color's improving a bit.'
Wi Sowol took his wrist.
A faint pulse.
Yet it cried out fiercely that he was still alive.
'I need to drive out the turbid qi with the pure yin qi of Great White Light True Qi.'
Her Great White Light True Qi was little more than the first stone of a stupa.
It had a framework from the incantation, but it was crude beyond measure.
Its interior remained hollow, barely propped up by her innate senses and force of will.
She hadn't even refined a tenth of the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian's energy into it yet, so every speck of pure yin qi converted to inner power was precious to her.
And yet, Wi Sowol unhesitatingly channeled her Great White Light True Qi into the Ban Clan Boy's body.
The unconscious form offered no resistance to the flow of true qi, utterly dominated by her overwhelming will.
The pure yin qi coursed through his major meridians, devouring the turbid qi that had seeped into his wound.
Had he been able to breathe by heart method, it could have been expelled on the out-breath. Had he trained his body through external or internal arts, it might have vented through his pores or sweat glands. But none of that was possible for him now.
'I'll absorb it all.'
Wi Sowol resolved to take it into herself.
All the harmful qi accumulated in the boy's body dissolved into her Great White Light True Qi and flowed back into her own.
That gathered turbid qi then merged with the yin qi of her Nine Yin Absolute Meridian, chilling her body even further.
Ideally, she'd refine the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian's yin qi right there while monitoring his condition.
But she couldn't afford to simply wait and hope he recovered.
Wi Sowol rose—her body feeling a touch heavier—and stepped out of the room. Without pause, she spoke to the old man.
"We have to leave."
"...Where to? What do you mean, leave? And the Silver Sword Sect, really...?"
"Bang Old Man, you have to go too. Take Ban Brother to Baek Eun County. There's a Beggars' Sect branch there—they'll help."
Unfortunately, this backwater village had no such branch.
In fact, it was downright odd for Silver Sword Sect demonic martial artists to establish a sect in such a tiny mountain hamlet.
For whatever reason, the Silver Sword Sect had planted roots here. And they'd secured an upper sect as backing.
That was precisely why they'd killed the beggar kids.
A grand cleaning to welcome the upper sect's representatives for the sect-opening ceremony.
That was the pathetic excuse for slaughtering the beggar kids at the hands of those Silver Sword Sect thugs.
As pathetic as could be.
"We leave today. I'm counting on you for Ban Brother."
The old man had no horse, but he did have a mule.
It could handle one boy of barely thirteen.
On top of that, Wi Sowol pressed a silk money pouch into Bang Old Man's hands.
The dazed old man absentmindedly opened it and jolted in shock.
It brimmed with shattered silver fragments.
"Aso..."
"That should cover a skilled physician. Nanju's right beside Baek Eun County—you could fetch someone from there."
"And you? What will you do?"
Before Wi Sowol could reply, Bang Old Man rephrased.
"No—come with us. There's something going on, right? I'll do as you say. Just hold on a moment. You're in no shape either. I'll whip up some medicine quick. Drink it, and we'll go together."
"Old Man."
Wi Sowol shook her head.
Too late.
The Silver Sword Sect's black path backer was Rampaging Demon Heaven, Gansu's premier evil force.
The martial artist they'd dispatched was surely en route.
And in the past, Bang Old Man—who stayed behind to make graves for the beggar kids—had been murdered by that very man.
For an equally pathetic reason.
"Please."
How long had it been?
Wi Sowol offered the old man an awkward bow, her memory hazy on the formalities.
Bang Old Man had lived a long life. Reaching near sixty in this era proved he had real skill.
Having realized that arguing or stubbornly staying would be folly, he nodded silently.
"Then take this back."
He intended to return at least the pouch he'd received.
"I have money too. You should keep this."
Wi Sowol had lived a good long while herself.
She understood his intent and accepted the pouch, then withdrew the largest silver ingot.
"Please take this. It's not for Ban Brother's treatment—it's my thanks for indulging my unreasonable request."
"...Very well."
That ended their exchange.
As Wi Sowol made to depart, Bang Old Man posed one final question.
"Where are you headed? At least when this boy wakes, you'll let him know, right? You're all that's left of you two now."
All the village's beggar kids were dead.
Only six or seven of them, at most.
Orphans who came and went every year were used to farewells. Even so, they cherished one another. It was the only way to survive. And it had let her live a little longer too.
Wi Sowol pondered her answer for just a moment.
She had nowhere to go.
Wi Sowol was an orphan with no sect.
And with Rampaging Demon Heaven hunting her—a beast herself—staying with the Ban Clan Boy or Bang Old Man would only endanger them.
"...Not Gansu."
"...I see. Take care."
Wi Sowol dipped her chin wordlessly and turned away.
In that instant, a cold touch grazed her cheek.
Her fingertips, brushing her cheek, came away wet.
"Snow..."
The first snow was falling.
Had it snowed like this back then?
A scene unknown in her past life spread white before her eyes.
The day she returned to the past.
The first snow fell.
And into the swirling flakes Wi Sowol pressed on.
Into a world blanketed white.
Toward a future wiped clean, utterly transformed.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Gansu's terrain brimmed with mountains and hills.
To the north loomed the Mongolian Plateau, while the southwest stretched the world's mightiest Tibetan Plateau. With the Gobi Desert, Qilian Mountains, and Yellow River claiming its expanse, few lands rivaled Gansu's diversity.
This should have isolated it naturally, fostering self-contained ways of life. Yet surprisingly, it blended myriad cultures into a vibrant mosaic.
All thanks to the Hexi Corridor piercing through—a Silk Road artery.
This vital narrow plain sliced through Gansu's rugged mountains, deserts, and plateaus, linking west and east while serving as the primary route from Gansu into the central plains.
Wi Sowol traveled it as well.
In the murky night.
By a small campfire, she continued wrestling with her unresolved question: where to go next.
'From Dingxi straight to Pingliang.'
The Hexi Corridor fully met the plains at Xi'an, the old Chang'an.
Gansu to Chang'an offered two paths: Tianshui or Pingliang.
Wi Sowol chose Pingliang.
Simple reason: Pingliang lay at the doorstep of the Kongtong Sect, while Tianshui was Rampaging Demon Heaven's stronghold.
It was convenient too.
Nanju, farther west, fell under Huangbo family domain, so Silk Road routes favored Pingliang over Tianshui.
'Should I drop by Kongtong Sect?'
Her route had been mostly set since leaving the mountain village.
The real dilemma was whether to climb Kongtong Mountain.
'...What should I do?'
Until now, Wi Sowol had lived without ever harboring a goal.
Alive meant living.
Not dead meant living.
That had been her past life.
Like a common weed.
No purpose, no aim—just handling what lay before her, she'd survived.
For decades.
So even now, with a fresh start...
Crunch.
Pah!
Wi Sowol's slight frame sprang cat-like into the air.
Her hand was already on her sword hilt, and the freshly refined pure yin qi of Great White Light True Qi rimed her blade with frost from fingertip to edge.
The motion to draw was instantaneous—a response in less than half a breath. Instead, her approaching visitor flinched in surprise and raised a hand.
"My apologies. I'm a lone traveler too. I meant only to ask to borrow your fire and overstepped."
A remarkably calm voice, laced with urgency.
Wi Sowol silently berated herself for failing to notice his approach amid her reverie, but she quickly surmised this intruder harbored no ill intent. His footsteps had been far too loud for that.
Had he truly been a Rampaging Demon Heaven assassin as she'd feared, he could have run her through in that lapse.
Still, she couldn't drop her guard...
'Ah.'
Habitually checking feet and hands first, she finally looked at his face—and there, Wi Sowol saw an echo of someone from her past life.
She knew who this man was.
"A martial artist? Then allow me to introduce myself..."
"No."
She cut off the man as he moved to clasp fists and state his name.
Wi Sowol released the sword hilt entirely and sat back down on the ground as before.
"We'll part at dawn. Warm yourself by the fire."
"Then let's share some jerky at least."
The intruder—a man—produced cloth-wrapped dried meat from his bundle.
Wi Sowol hesitated briefly.
Should she accept?
As shadows of doubt cloaked her, she fell silent in inner turmoil while the man kept his arm extended.
He, too, had his thoughts.
'Just a child.'
Even pitched low, the voice was unmistakably a girl's unbroken timbre.
The hempen robe swallowed her frame, but it couldn't fool his eye. Wi Sowol's body was small even for her tender years.
'She knows martial arts.'
That reaction she'd shown moments ago.
It was a grade above the dime-a-dozen third- or second-rate riffraff of the jianghu.
At minimum, first-rate.
And yet, a girl barely past ten—ragged, wandering Gansu's wilds alone—was a first-rate master? Some rejuvenated eccentric?
Ridiculous. The man dismissed the fanciful notion.
About then, Wi Sowol cautiously reached out.
She withdrew her hand with the jerky, still staring at it as if undecided.
Unthinkingly, he spoke.
"Something troubling you?"
To prove no poison, he'd bitten into his first—but regretted it at once.
'That won't convince her.'
He'd offered it, after all. She might suspect only hers was tainted.
What now?
As he racked his brain to demonstrate his goodwill was mere gratitude for the fire,
Wi Sowol asked point-blank.
"What is goodness?"
"...You mean me?"
"Yes. Exactly."
She dropped the affected aged speech and lowered tone; her natural voice rang true.
That had truly been her quandary.
Realizing he'd fretted alone, the man's face heated. Hotter than usual for his feverish build.
"A difficult question."
"You don't know either?"
As if she'd trusted him to have the answer.
The man felt a strange familiarity.
But without voicing it, he replied.
"It's a journey of discovery."
"...I see."
A murmur thick with disappointment.
A sigh beaded at her parted lips, dispersing as white breath.
In the chill winter night, even mild letdown echoed lonely.
"If you're troubled, try Zenith Temple."
Misreading her silence for ignorance, the man added,
"Not that I know them personally—their monks' Buddhist scholarship is profound. The abbot especially grasps worldly matters; he'll surely help."
"The one above Xi'an?"
"Precisely."
Zenith Temple's history ran deep, but would a Gansu child know it?
The rejuvenation theory he'd discarded gained faint traction in his mind.
She'd planned to leave Gansu via the Silk Road anyway. Wi Sowol decided to visit Zenith Temple as suggested.
The night passed with a new destination set.
At dawn.
The nameless temporary companions turned to their paths.
Man west, Wi Sowol east.
"Farewell."
No need for elaborate parting words; it was brief.
Wi Sowol merely nodded.
The man stepped off first. She watched his retreating figure a moment.
'...Did we meet like this in my past life too?'
Impossible to say.
Back then, she'd been lost to Nine Yang Absolute Meridian mania.
And the man hadn't recited such trivial history.
This encounter would fade the same way.
A fleeting brush, soon forgotten by both.