Chapter 3: The Long Trek Through the Snow

To survive this day, she built a simple shelter just big enough to lie down, then wrapped herself tightly.

She held a lock of white hair as a third layer of bedding.

Shivering, she fell into a light sleep.

She kept falling asleep, then half-waking, then sleeping again, then half-waking again.

Sometimes she woke from the cold, sometimes from pain, and sometimes from the unfamiliar sensation of her own body.

She could feel warmth, then cold, because two days had passed.

When she finally woke with a start, she struggled to her feet. Her body was weak, and she still stumbled as she walked.

She saw the thick snow on the roof of the coffin house and roughly judged that she had slept for a long time.

Even though her body still felt terrible, she forced herself to go down the mountain.

She returned to the battlefield and began digging in the snow with a tool.

She couldn’t find the other girl, because she didn’t exist.

Then she dug up her own corpse. It took a lot of effort to break through the frozen ground and find the bones.

It was very cold here; theoretically, the body could have been preserved for a long time, but it had unusually turned into a skeleton.

Looking at the familiar clothes beside the skeleton, no matter how much she wanted to deny it, it was useless.

That boy from before was dead. His limbs had been severed, and he had been beheaded. He was as dead as could be.

Before dying, Ning Su had used some technique to protect the boy’s soul. Even before using the technique, Ning Su knew that the blood-red shadow would completely destroy her remaining soul, making her forever unable to be reborn, erasing her completely from the world.

So, Ning Su protected the boy’s soul, hiding it deep underground, away from the blood-red shadow’s detection.

Finally, the technique left by Ning Su guided the boy into her body. The process was very slow, partly to avoid being detected by the blood-red shadow, so the guidance was deliberately slowed down. Everything happened in silence.

The boy lost his body, and Ning Su lost her soul.

Only one of them could live. Ning Su had no way to survive; her soul was the foundation of her existence. If her body died, her soul could still live. But if her soul was completely destroyed, she would truly die.

Although Ning Su was dead, and the boy was dead, they had survived in another way.

It was as if nothing had changed.

And yet everything was different.

Her body was numb with cold again. She curled into a ball and waited for it to warm up.

Then she smashed her own skeleton, removed bones that couldn’t easily be identified, and placed them where Ning Su had died. She cut off a few strands of hair and put them beside the bones. She also took off the clothes Ning Su had been wearing and placed them next to the bones.

With one skeleton, she created the illusion of two corpses, leaving marks that wild animals had gnawed on some of the bones.

Looking at the fabricated scene, she touched the yellow wood ring on her finger. It was a storage ring, but she couldn’t use it now.

After a moment of thought, she took it off and placed it next to Ning Su’s clothes.

She stood up and thought again, then picked up the yellow wood storage ring and put it back on.

Then she restored the dirt and snow on the ground.

She tried to make it look exactly as it had been before she dug.

She didn’t dig a grave to bury the bones, nor did she set up a cenotaph for Ning Su.

Now was not the time. She couldn’t let anyone discover the truth.

After restoring the scene, she staggered back up the mountain to the wooden house.

She buried some important things that she couldn’t take with her now.

In the end, she only took the necessities for survival, things to keep out the cold.

Before leaving, she pushed over the coffin house and poured snow over the ruins to cover her tracks.

Taking an axe from the firewood shed in the ruins and carrying a bundle on her back, she stepped out into the snow and left the place.

After walking a dozen steps, she stopped and looked back.

She paused for a moment, then continued down the mountain. She stopped again and looked back.

After another pause, she continued down the mountain without looking back again, leaving the place.

When she entered the snowy forest, trees draped in white snow surrounded her, blocking her view. Instead, she felt a sense of relief.

After walking a short distance, her body couldn’t take it anymore. She had to stop and rest, making a fire to warm herself.

This was the second time in over ten years she had entered the snow forest. She had suffered losses not long ago, and trying to leave the snow forest in one go was unrealistic. Her body simply couldn’t handle it.

After resting by the fire for half an hour, she put it out, covered the ashes with snow, and continued on her way.

She walked until dark. She found a small earthen slope to block the wind, and used branches and cloth to set up a shelter barely big enough to lie down.

It was too cold. She couldn’t rest well all night, constantly waking up from the cold.

When dawn came and the temperature rose, she continued traveling.

Again, she couldn’t leave the snow forest that day.

At night, she sat hugging her knees, holding the axe, staring blankly into the fire.

It had been so many days, and she still wasn’t hungry. She didn’t know what was keeping her going.

She remembered the last time she was in the snow forest. Her idea of leaving without adequate preparation was childish and ridiculous.

She rested for another night and continued traveling, resting and traveling again.

After four days in the snow forest, she finally saw signs of human activity. Trees had been cut down to create a passable path.

There were human footprints, animal footprints and droppings, and strange parallel marks.

She followed the path. She was very curious about this road; it was the first time she had seen traces made by other humans.

The marks in the snow were enough to hold her attention for a long time. Everything was novel to her.

After walking for an hour, she was tired. She noticed a strange simple shelter by the path, with chopped wood inside. She decided to rest there and make a fire.

She didn’t use the wood inside but went to cut her own. It wasn’t dry, but it could still burn.

After a difficult time starting a fire, she sat down and examined the shelter.

The shelter could probably hold seven or eight people. There were signs of a fire, but it was from a long time ago, maybe a few days.

She warmed herself by the fire and looked around, finding everything new.

After resting for half an hour, she heard a strange sound in her ears. Movement.

She turned her head and saw a dark object slowly approaching from a distance on the path, along with a human voice.

It was a man, not young, making strange but rhythmic sounds.

She was startled and quickly hid. Suddenly remembering the fire, she hurried back to extinguish it with snow, then hid again, hastily covering her tracks.

After a moment, the man arrived and stopped.

He came over, looked at the shelter for a while, then used the dry wood inside to start a fire.

“It’s really cold,” the middle-aged man muttered to himself.

After warming up a bit, he stood and walked behind the shelter, clearly noticing the freshly covered footprints.

He followed the footprints into the distance and saw a white circle behind a clump of snow-covered bushes. It looked like hair, and it was moving.

“I see you. Who’s there?” The man’s voice grew louder and harsher.

The white circle lowered a little, hiding in the bushes.

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