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Join the ServerThat night, the young man couldn’t sleep. There were too many worries.
It was getting cold. He got up and noticed melting snow near the door. Someone had opened the wooden door recently.
He put on another coat, grabbed his axe, and opened the door. He saw golden light from the woodshed and heard the girl coughing.
He walked over. By the time he reached the woodshed, the golden light had vanished.
He opened the woodshed door and asked what she was doing.
She was a bit flustered and said she was practicing magic.
He didn’t suspect anything.
A few months passed. One day, the sky held a pale red half-moon. It hadn’t snowed.
The young man was chopping wood when the girl suddenly grabbed him and ran toward the woodshed.
She was panicking, constantly looking behind them.
Inside the woodshed, she tried to activate the teleportation array. But it wouldn’t work.
She quickly lifted him and flew. After two li, they hit an invisible wall. They couldn’t fly out.
They landed and tried to walk, but it was the same. An invisible barrier trapped them.
In all these years, the young man had never seen her so desperate.
He knew something terrible was about to happen.
“Listen, hide. Don’t come out until I call for you.”
She waved her hand, dug a pit in the ground, threw him in, covered him with a golden membrane, and buried him in snow.
He was buried alive before he could ask anything.
He wanted to dig his way out, but then came sounds from above. Something heavy crashed down, shaking the ground.
Then voices. The girl was talking to a man.
Then sounds of battle. Tremendous noise. The ground shook for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. Explosions roared around him.
It was a fight he couldn’t join.
Gradually, the shaking stopped. The explosions ceased. The battle was decided.
Suddenly, the young man felt his clothes tighten. Something pulled him out of the ground.
What he saw shocked and pained him.
Everything was wrecked. The snow had evaporated. Cracks covered the earth. Not long ago, this was the foot of a mountain. Now, half the mountain was gone.
A semi-transparent giant dome separated inside from outside. Outside, snowy forest. Inside, cliffs and ravines.
Only the spot where he lay still had snow, stained with golden blood. The girl had protected this place, making it stand out even more.
Now she lay in the mud, either dead or unconscious.
Above her floated a semi-transparent figure, similar to her, but missing a right hand and half its body.
A golden film protected her. She was still holding on.
Dark red lightning struck the girl’s phantom, making it scream in agony.
That was a soul. The pain was direct to the soul.
She was powerless as she watched him being dragged out.
The attacker was a blood-red figure, like a shadow, with no distinguishable features.
The young man floated beside it, unable to land.
“Is this the guardian you found?” the blood-red shadow laughed. “A beginner brat?”
The dark red lightning paused. She replied, “He is just a mortal. Not involved.”
The blood-red shadow asked, “Tell me, what probability did your Heavenly Mechanism technique give you?”
When she didn’t answer, he melted one of her soul’s legs. She screamed again.
“Eighty percent? Sixty? Fifty?” Seeing her expressionless soul, he guessed boldly, “Ten percent? Huh? Only ten percent?”
Her soul’s expression confirmed it.
“You searched for hundreds of years, found so many people, and ended up with a useless one with only ten percent chance?”
She squeezed out words, “Please… spare him.”
The blood-red shadow thought for a moment, then said seriously, “No. Even with ten percent chance, I won’t allow anyone to threaten me.”
In that moment of distraction, the floating young man moved. He raised his axe and swung at the blood-red shadow’s head.
The shadow sighed. Humans are such fragile creatures.
He raised his little finger and blocked the full-force strike. A weak shockwave burst. The axe shattered.
The shadow’s little finger was scraped.
“Huh?” He flicked his hand, sending the young man crashing to the ground. Then with a thought, invisible blades severed the young man’s hands.
He was annoyed. Was it because his finger had been scraped, or because he had underestimated the boy?
He hadn’t expected a waste who had just begun cultivation to break his skin with an ordinary axe. It didn’t bleed, but it irritated him.
“Alright, I’m bored.” The blood-red shadow began casting spells.
The sky changed color. Dark clouds covered the area. Countless dark red lightning bolts struck the girl’s soul. They quickly broke through her golden shield. Pure, direct lightning hit her soul.
The young man crawled up and charged at the shadow.
With just a glance, the shadow severed the young man’s legs. He fell into the cold mud.
He could only watch.
The girl’s soul mouthed some words.
She made a gesture. A faint golden light hit the young man and sank into his body.
The red shadow noticed.
In the next moment, the young man saw the world flip. The shadow had cut his neck. He didn’t spare his life.
In his last seconds, the young man watched as Ning Su’s soul was struck by countless dark red bolts. Her three souls and five spirits were torn apart and evaporated, vanishing from the world.
The young man died too, his eyes wide open.
The blood-red shadow didn’t leave. He tried to extract the young man’s soul, but couldn’t find it.
Strange. Where is the soul?
He used area detection. No living thing nearby. No soul.
He felt uneasy. He hadn’t destroyed the young man’s three souls and seven spirits himself.
He turned to the girl’s body. He tried to extract her soul. Nothing. She was completely dead.
He floated around searching the entire enclosed area. No living thing.
He felt a bit relieved. Maybe the boy was reincarnated by some spell. His activity time was up. His body gradually turned transparent and disappeared.
The barrier vanished.
It started to snow.
A wisp of soul, guided by golden light, slowly floated up from ten li underground, through dirt and rock.
A golden shield kept the soul from dispersing. Each time, the light pulled a tiny thread of soul, slowly entering the girl’s body.
The snow stopped. Day came.
Day passed. Night came.
Wind blew. Another day.
On the fourth day, light snow.
Fifth day, blizzard.
Sixth day, clear.
Seventh day…
Eighth day…
Autumn passed, winter came. Soon it was spring.
Even the snow forest at the mountain’s foot sprouted new shoots.
A small bud in the snow moved. A hand emerged from under the bud. The sudden movement scared away a roe deer.
A girl with white hair crawled out from underground. The last faint golden light on her faded. She spat out mud, shook off snow, and curled up, shivering.
The flimsy fantasy clothes she wore offered no warmth.
After a while, she touched her face, then her body.
She calmly wiped away tears.
She looked at the strands of hair by her cheeks. They were no longer black and shiny, but white, equally smooth and glossy.
She staggered uphill, falling and getting up.
The long white hair roots mingled with the snow, almost invisible.
Before she froze to death, she reached the wooden cabin from before the battle. It was now destroyed and buried in snow.
She picked up a piece of wood and dug through the snow. Lucky, she first uncovered a blanket. She wrapped it around herself.
After warming up a bit, she continued digging through the ruins.
Soon, she found more things and started a fire to warm herself.
She wiped her damp eyes again.
When she was warm, she dug in a familiar spot and found clothes from the ruins.
But they were too big for her current body.
She kept searching. Suddenly, she uncovered a bundle that Ning Su had hidden earlier.
She opened it. The bundle contained clothes and a piece of paper with writing.
“Little one, you peeked, didn’t you? These are all clothes, no treasures. Humans grow up too fast. Every time I blink, your clothes are too small. This time I bought extra. The light-colored one is for when you turn eighteen, the slightly darker one for nineteen, and the last one for twenty. Now you know. No treasures. Put everything back and don’t tell me. Next year I’ll give these to you as a surprise. And remember to act surprised.”
She stood there for a long time. Finally, she carefully folded the paper, folded the clothes, and put them back in the bundle.
The adventure continues! If you loved this chapter, Starting at Mount Wudang, I Obtained the Scholar System is a must-read. Click here to start!
Read : Starting at Mount Wudang, I Obtained the Scholar System
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