“There are many holes like that in this area. I still remember their general locations, so just stay close to me,” Hua Cheng stated. “Take your time and it’ll be fine; gege was walking too quickly.”
As it turned out, the mountain’s body was quite weak. There were holes everywhere beneath the snow, large and small—but how many and how deep was unknown. But as they climbed, it seemed Hua Cheng really did remember where all of them were.
Xie Lian puffed a breath. “All right. Let’s stick closer together,” he suggested. “In any event, we can’t yell or make loud noises on a snowy mountain like this, so it wouldn’t be easy to call for help if anything happened…”
He stopped when they heard angry roars coming from up ahead.
“Are you done? !”
“…”
Which good brother dared to yell like that on such a steep and perilous snowy mountain?!
Xie Lian was dumbfounded as he looked toward the source of the noise. Amidst the snow-covered landscape, he saw two little black dots engaged in a fight, their weapons clinking and clanking. One of them held a longbow and was shooting arrows nonstop. The other held a zhanmadao1 and swung with the vigor of a tiger; they struck down every single arrow. Both the blade and the arrows had a sheen of spiritual light, and both parties were shouting curses at each other.
“I already said I didn’t kill that little bastard; I’m looking for them too!” the man wielding the blade yelled.
It was Nan Feng and Fu Yao!
Without even trying to guess why they had come here too, Xie Lian very nearly let out a shout of “Shut up!” However, he caught himself in time and swallowed it before he added to the noise. If he started roaring the same way they were, and the three of them all began screaming at each other, could the snow on the mountain really remain still?
Hua Cheng hugged his arms and cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t they know that they’ll cause an avalanche if they yell like that?”
“They…can’t be that foolish?!” Xie Lian said. “Maybe they do know. But that’s just the way they are—they forget everything else when they’re angry!”
Nan Feng and Fu Yao were both furious and cursed at each other as they fought, but they were too far away from Xie Lian—he couldn’t tell what they were fighting over from their broken, muffled phrases, and for their part, they completely failed to notice that anyone else had arrived.
Xie Lian wanted to rush over and pull them apart, but there was no way he could make it there in time to stop them with the heavy snow dragging down his pace and the deep holes lurking beneath. He only managed to run two steps before he stumbled over another hole, and he came to a stop.
“We can’t just let them keep fighting like this! We have to stop them!”
As soon as he said so, a silver butterfly darted past like an arrow. Xie Lian was startled but relaxed a moment later.
Good idea! If neither of them could make it in time, why not just use a wraith butterfly to fly over and transmit communication?
As expected, the silver butterfly’s speed was miraculously fast—it made it over to the brawling duo after only three more shouts. But before Xie Lian could try to speak through it, he saw Hua Cheng’s expression turn cold.
Xie Lian noticed something was amiss. “What’s wrong?”
The smile on Hua Cheng’s lips had disappeared completely, replaced by a look that was as frigid as the snowy mountain upon which they stood.
“San Lang, what’s going on?” Xie Lian pressed.
Hua Cheng’s lips twitched, but he didn’t manage to answer before Xie Lian suddenly felt an inexplicable wave of panic. His head shot up to look at the top of the mountain, and his eyes widened.
Giant chunks of the snowy white bluffs were trembling. And then they collapsed.
Even engrossed in their heated fight, Nan Feng and Fu Yao also sensed that soundless pressure. Both looked up, and they finally realized what was about to happen.
The snowy mass was like an enormous embankment that stretched for a thousand miles. And when in the next second it broke, it carried a snow tsunami along with it. It rumbled, rolled, and pushed down toward them!
They had caused an avalanche!
Xie Lian grabbed Hua Cheng’s hand, turned, and ran. But after dashing a few steps, he remembered that the other two were much closer to the avalanche’s charge. He stopped abruptly, looking back. Sure enough, they had ceased their aggression to flee together. Fu Yao didn’t get very far before stumbling into a hole and sinking down more than halfway; he was buried up to his chest in snow. Although Nan Feng ran faster than him, he hesitated for a moment and looked back, seeming like he wanted to save him. But the wave of snow was already bearing down!
Xie Lian released Ruoye the moment before they were swallowed. The white silk bandage instantly stretched far into the distance, lassoed Fu Yao and Nan Feng with sharp precision, and yanked them up.
“Gege! Leave them—don’t bother!” Hua Cheng said darkly.
Xie Lian held Ruoye tightly, dragging the two as he ran. “I can’t! They might end up buried for a hundred years if this goes wrong!”
“Too late!” Hua Cheng said, his voice dire.
“What?!” Xie Lian cried.
He looked up, and the enveloping shadow bearing down overhead came crashing in.
Nan Feng and Fu Yao had stalled Xie Lian after all. The thick, icy wave of snow surged relentlessly and swallowed him whole, separating him from Hua Cheng. The force knocked Xie Lian everywhere, and he tumbled along with the coursing snow—although he somehow managed to keep struggling, there was just too much snow and the force was too powerful. Xie Lian was buried again and again, suffocating over and over each time his head went under.
In the end, Xie Lian couldn’t hang on. With a final shout of “San Lang!” he was devoured by the icy snow current.
***
An unknown amount of time passed before the snowy mountain finally calmed.
A long moment later, somewhere in the field, a pile of snow shifted a few times before a hand burst out from underneath!
The hand felt around randomly, then an arm poked out. Then a shoulder and then, finally, a head. Face covered in chunks of snow, he took a deep breath the instant he broke free, then let loose a flurry of coughing. Soon after and with some difficulty, the man crawled his way out, shaking his head as he sat down on the snow.
It was Xie Lian.
Digging himself out from beneath that heavy layer of snow was not unlike his prior experience digging himself free of a grave. Xie Lian’s face and hands were chapped red from frostbite and essentially numb, but he only bothered to rub his face a few times and huff some hot breaths on his hands before looking up with a lost expression.
There was not a trace of that captivating red in the sprawling blanket of white.
And Xie Lian couldn’t even call out for him—it would be all over if he caused another avalanche. He could only rise to his feet and wander aimlessly, all alone in that snowy world.
He called out in a small voice as he walked. “San Lang? San Lang? Nan Feng? Fu Yao?”
It was strange. Although he was walking the same path they had been hiking before, the air seemed so much colder than when he and Hua Cheng had been together. Ruoye was also gone from his hand. Xie Lian was puzzled, as Ruoye shouldn’t have slipped off—it would still wrap itself around him even if he let go of it, so what happened?
He knew something was wrong but couldn’t put his finger on what, so he continued to wander in confusion.
Suddenly, someone emerged from within the billowing snow ahead. His white robes and black hair flapped in the wind, and he kept his head down as he slowly approached.
Xie Lian was delighted at the sight of this traveler and pushed forward. “My friend! You…”
But just as he spoke, the man looked up. He was wearing a chilling white mask, half of it smiling, the other half crying.
