72 First Snow
As Wu Long’s group arrived at an inn not long after passing the Autumn Mountain Pass. They did not cultivate when they traveled as the stay at the inn was usually too short for them to both cultivate and sleep. But they did continue their morning training.
As they trained, a cold, tingling sensation came from Ye Ling’s hand holding her sword, as she instinctively looked at that spot, she found that there was a cold and moist feeling on her wrist, and something white almost instantly turned into a transparent drop.
And then small white petals, that turned out to be snowflakes slowly started falling all around them.
They both looked up and were taking in the magical feeling.
Wu Long felt tranquil and took in the feeling as he did with the rain. He felt the snowflakes melt on his skin and looked as his breath turned into white smoke that flung them in different directions. Different from rain that overshadowed the sounds of the world, snow brought a feeling of complete silence, as if the world was becoming still, with only snow falling down, drawing mysterious patterns in the air.
When he was an immortal, he was numb to all weather, but he did not like the first snow. He was usually in a sour mood on such days.
But it was different now, now that she was with him. He looked back down to see her excited and joyful look as she looked at the snow and a smile appeared on his face.
She turned to Wu Long with an excited expression but his face in her sight overlapped with a more mature, haggard one, then her vision blurred and she saw a vision of a young man attacking a squad of people in rage and frenzy, deep hatred and anguish in his eyes. All around the scene, snow was falling to the ground that was covered in autumn leaves, turning into water as the earth was still warm.
Then, his shoulder got pierced…
As Wu Long was standing across her and looked at her, wondering why she froze, an unbelievably sharp, powerful, and ancient aura rose from her, and a terrifying sword intent made every single person in the whole town feel a sharp sword pointing right between their eyebrows. The piercing sensation was vivid and intense.
“Ling’er!”
Wu Long’s hair stood on end from the feeling, but more than that, panic appeared in his eyes. There was enough power in this sword intent to wipe this town out of existence, but the problem he was concerned with was that Ye Ling’s nose started bleeding and her mouth had a string of blood run down to her chin from the corner. She was not strong enough to exert such powerful sword intent yet.
Her eyes rolled over and she fell unconscious right after, and he stepped, as snowflakes flung in furious dance from his position, turning into a blur, and almost instantly appeared beside her to hold her.
Wu Long ran with her to her room and quickly examined her condition. She hurt herself quite severely with that, but it was not to the point he could not handle it.
He gave her medicine and stripped her clothes, inserting different needles all over her body in specific spots.
His quick and precise motions did not stop even when there was a loud commotion outside the room as the whole town was terrified out of their wits.
He then placed one hand on her lower abdomen where the Dantian was located, and one of his hands was forming a complicated pattern of hand seals. He closed his eyes and stayed in this position with only one of his hands making movements.
Spiritual Qi was moving in profound patterns around them, as beads of sweat started to accumulate on his forehead.
Sometime later, he opened his eyes and exhaled a sigh of relief at last. He could not completely heal her, but most of the damage was mitigated and she stabilized. 𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘦𝑡
Wu Long removed the needles, clothed her, covered her with a blanket, and then went out to find Hua Ziyan and told her that they will be staying there for 2 days. He also asked her that no one disturb them.
After that, he returned to the room and pressed his hand on her abdomen, while closing his eyes.
“Nn”
A few hours passed, and she made a slight pained moan, as consciousness slowly returned to her.
She felt dizzy and disoriented, as her memories seemed to be shaken and hazy.
“Ling’er, lie down for now, you were quite seriously hurt”
He gently looked at her and held a hand on her shoulder, not letting her sit up yet.
His heart was beating like war drums right now. After he stabilized her condition, he finally had the piece of mind to think about the situation. It was undeniably part of her original sword intent, one that was immense and profound. His head was full of possibilities, and right now when she woke up he was looking at her with mixed feelings of anticipation and worry.
As her confusion gradually let up she calmed down.
“Wu Long, I…I think I saw something… but I cannot remember”
She finally said.
“Shh, don’t speak yet, you have quite serious internal injuries, I have performed some emergency aid, but I will need to heal you more now that you have woken up and can aid me. Don’t worry, everything will be fine. You will remember, I am sure”
He said, it was a lot harder to heal someone unconscious since their body instinctively rejected foreign energy even if it was benevolent.
‘So it was just a flashback huh’
He thought, as he placed a hand on her abdomen again and resumed helping her heal, this time with her willingness her body was fully accepting it and the process went much smoother.
He did not know why it took her a lot longer and was a lot harder to awaken than him. It may have to be that it was because she died, while he was reincarnated with an unknown method, possibly without actually dying at all.
This made him appreciate the whole situation even more. As with how unnoticeable the experience of reincarnation was for him, it almost looked too easy. This hard process of awakening she was going through showed just how serious of a violation of natural order this reincarnation with memories intact and appearance unchanged was. It also showed that it was dangerous to be too impatient.
But he did not linger on that for long since it was definite that she was slowly but definitely awakening. He only had more appreciation for the mysterious woman who gave him this precious gift.
As she made her recovery, she sat up and he was now sitting behind her, placing both of his palms on her back. She was looking out the window, as the snow fell peacefully as if covering the world in a light film of calm and silence.
“It’s the first snow… I have always liked the first snow…”
She said, and a flash of comprehension appeared in Wu Long’s eyes.
‘So it was the first snow…’
He thought a bit sentimentally.
He met her in the first snow. Amidst the crowd of enemies and frenzy of killing, a goddess with piercing blue eyes and an otherworldly appearance descended to save him, who did not want to be saved, instantly slaying all enemies he was struggling against with a simple wave of her hand.
Wu Long healed her a bit more over two days, and once she was in a good enough condition to move, they traveled at the fastest speed to the sect, arriving in two weeks instead of three.
She was in no condition to cultivate, and he was in no mood either as he was constantly watching her condition and trying to help her heal faster.
The extensive injuries she made were far more severe than what Wu Long did to himself when he released Sword Intent beyond the capabilities of his body.
By the time they reached the sect, he has helped her recover considerably, and to the limit of what could be healed at a fast pace with the means he currently had. The rest had to be healed slowly over time, so it would be months before she could cultivate with him again.
Though he would have to leave for the Wood Spirit Continent anyway, so he would not have cultivated with her even if not for that. But he still decided to stay in the sect for another week to look at her condition even if she was now completely safe.
—
On the top of the Peak of Unity, in the private part of the Yin Yang Unity Palace Master’s Mansion, a stunning woman with a sensual body, pale brown hair and orange-red eyes reclined on a fainting couch, as she was looking ahead at a small courtyard garden the room was facing.
Snow was falling in it covering the small tree, but the cold air could not penetrate the seemingly open air of the opened-up sliding doors separating the room from the porch and then the garden.
“Heh, Li…no…Ling’er finally found a man..”
She said, with a pondering expression on her beautiful face. She was greatly surprised when she saw Ye Ling return to the sect in her original appearance, but the reason quickly became apparent from the gaze she had when she spoke about Wu Long helping her heal from an internal injury and overall trip.
“…and already lost her maidenhood…haa…stinky little girl, why must she do so in the capital…”
She then had a lamenting face, as her hand started reaching for her crotch through her revealing robes.
After her hand moved for some time as she was lightly moaning with closed eyes, she abruptly stopped and released a frustrating sigh.
“Haaa…this won’t do, I’ll have to go there…”
She said as she stood up, and went out of the room, approaching a well-hidden room in her private part of the mansion that had a staircase leading down, descending into the darkness and eventually
disappearing.