Domain
Yingshi took the dry flatbread from him.
She felt an inexplicable sourness in her heart, in a daze feeling that Shuangjian was like a little dog hiding a bone in its kennel.
He said he had a habit of carrying dry flatbread with him. This definitely wasn't referring to the original male lead, because it was never written in the book.
So Shuangjian was referring to the person he was before transmigrating into the book—a young man who had never walked out of the mountains in his entire life, never attended a single day of school, and died of illness at a young age. It was likely he never had enough to eat or wear, and perhaps carrying dry rations without bearing to eat them was his norm...
Only when one has too little do they form such a habit.
Yingshi felt a mix of complex emotions for a moment. She didn't know if it was an illusion, but Shuangjian's face seemed two shades paler than just a moment ago.
"Thank you, Shuangjian. We'll each have half..."
She concealed the emotions in her eyes and forcefully broke the flatbread into two halves—yes, quite forcefully, because this dry flatbread was just too dry, hard, and tough. It was certainly easy to store, but it was also truly hard to swallow!
Yingshi stuffed one half back into Shuangjian's hand. After hesitating for two seconds, she put her own portion into her mouth and chewed once, twice...
"..."
Oh my god, the bland taste was secondary, wasn't this texture a bit too much?
Had she plunged headfirst into a desert?
After her teeth struggled for a couple of bites, Yingshi even felt a little out of breath. It felt like the crumbs of the flatbread were like dense hidden weapons frantically attacking her throat!
"Cough!" After a cough, she stiffly stopped eating. Holding the flatbread in her hand, she couldn't throw it away, nor could she eat it. She could only secretly look up at Shuangjian and say shyly, "I seem to be a bit full. It must be because the original owner fasted for too long and her stomach shrank into a bird's stomach..."
Actually, she wasn't completely lying. After those two bites, her stomach really stopped growling, and her hunger was mostly gone, as if she had drunk two cans of energy drinks.
Shuangjian stayed silent for half a second, calmly replied with an "Mm," and took back the half piece of flatbread from her hand. Then, under Yingshi's surprised gaze, he took a bite with his usual expression.
There was nothing special upon entering his mouth; it was a very ordinary dry flatbread, the exact taste from his memory.
So, it shouldn't be.
It was impossible for Yingshi to see through his illusion, yet her performance did not meet expectations. He originally suspected that there was an error in simulating the taste of the dry flatbread, but now that he tasted it himself, there was nothing unusual.
That could only mean... it was too coarse.
He thought secretly in his heart that Yingshi could not eat such coarse food.
That made sense. Whether it was the original Yingshi of this time or the her from the vast world before transmigration that he learned about through her words and deeds, they must have both lived comfortably and been pampered.
Logically speaking, the dry flatbread was nothing but a product of an illusion. He could actually create other foods that were easier to swallow.
But he wasn't confident.
The only food he was familiar with was this thing.
When he was poor and weak, he had no means. After becoming strong, he had long since practiced inedia and ceased eating mortal food.
Shuangjian quietly finished the entire dry flatbread in a few bites, realizing that there was no need to offer such troublesome kindness in the future.
...Kindness? How could it be kindness?
He just wanted to use Yingshi reasonably. Using spiritual energy to help her satisfy her hunger was just a part of the process. Why bother packaging it like a hypocrite in his subconscious?
An unprovoked trace of annoyance arose in Shuangjian's heart, shallow and elusive.
He didn't dwell on it too much and motioned for Yingshi to look at the broken part of the chain outside the cell she escaped from.
"These chains are a part of the restrictions in this place. Next, I need you to use your spiritual energy to cut every section of the chains here," he said. "Will this be difficult for you?"
Hearing Shuangjian say it so easily, plus the fact that she herself had broken a section of the chain when he rescued her earlier, it was evident that this operation did not require a high level of cultivation. Therefore, Yingshi did not feel much fear in her heart. After leaning in and observing for a moment, she considered, "Can I try it first? If I don't do it well, will it directly attract Mi Ruotian?"
"Of course," Shuangjian said softly. "Just go ahead and do it without worry. Our goal is to attract Mi Ruotian anyway; otherwise, how can we call it having him send us out?"
The topic finally returned to how to get Mi Ruotian to "send" them out.
A flash of inspiration hit Yingshi, and she hurriedly said, "Could the method you thought of be like the one in the book? We cause destruction first to provoke Mi Ruotian, drawing his interest to you instead of me. Then, just like in the original text, he tries to parasitize you but suffers a backlash from you, thereby finding it interesting and deciding to send us away to stir up trouble?"
Actually, this was quite a dangerous approach, but every plan that came out of Shuangjian's mouth made people feel it was feasible.
"Indeed," Shuangjian nodded.
In fact, not entirely.
Even if Mi Ruotian treated him no differently than in his previous two lives, he would not extend that favor to the "additional" Yingshi.
Not to mention that his seal in this life had not been broken and he had already entered demony, how could Mi Ruotian treat him the same?
The method he was considering was not to seek this demon lord's interest.
He wanted to make this clone of the demon king perish right here.
But there was no need for him to explain it clearly to Yingshi; that would only unnecessarily add to her psychological burden.
"Alright! Leave it to me." Yingshi held her breath and gathered her energy, guiding her spiritual energy to her fingertips. Using a hand seal as a blade, she slashed at the chain.
"Crack—"
The sound was like a firecracker, echoing against the entire stone wall.
The seemingly heavy black chain snapped instantly. A faint wisp of black energy seeped from the broken ends and dissipated into the air moments later.
The scene looked quite intimidating, but it really wasn't hard to destroy.
Yingshi got the hang of it. She continued along the line, cutting the chains in front of every cell. The sounds of explosions linked together in a string, and her movements became increasingly smooth and flowing.
When the last chain snapped, her spiritual energy had just reached the brink of exhaustion.
Yingshi hurriedly ran back to Shuangjian's side and claimed credit, "This should be..."
This should be good, right?
—Not good at all!
Before she could even finish her sentence, the solid ground beneath her feet actually began to tremble violently.
The ground first cracked open a seam, then transformed into a gaping maw. Without giving anyone time to react, it swallowed the two people standing on it...
"Ah!"
Yingshi screamed in terror. Wind poured into her ears from all directions, her hair was scattered by the air currents, and her clothes fluttered wildly. She and Shuangjian plummeted rapidly through the chaotic gravity.
Everything happened too suddenly. She subconsciously flailed her arms, vainly attempting to grab onto something, but only grasped empty air.
However, in the next instant, her waist tightened; it was Shuangjian's hand.
He pulled her into his embrace almost instinctively, bringing her toward himself.
A faint gray barrier, blending into the dark environment and hard to detect, protected the two of them within it.
"Hold on to me," Shuangjian's voice was torn apart by the wind.
Yingshi didn't even need this prompt. She had already spontaneously hugged Shuangjian tightly, burying her head in his chest. Under the extreme terror, she couldn't even make a sound. This was ten thousand times more terrifying than the most thrilling drop tower ride she had ever experienced!
The fall lasted for what seemed like an eternity, accompanied by a constant sense of weightlessness, until with a deafening crash, they finally slammed onto a flat surface—
They had fallen into an even deeper layer beneath the cave of the Repentance Cliff.
A cave within a cave!
An unknown place never once mentioned in the book!
Yingshi was dizzy and disoriented from the fall, her chest tight. It took her a long moment to force out a difficult breath, feeling that merely surviving was already an unexpected blessing.
She was still being protected in Shuangjian's arms. The surroundings were pitch black and incredibly quiet. The sound of tumbling rocks had vanished, replaced by the gentle sound of flowing water, which was quite distant—so distant that it sounded ethereal.
They had arrived in a world outside the plot...
All the sense of security Yingshi could rely on completely vanished because of this.
She gripped Shuangjian's arm tightly and called his name with a trembling voice, ...Shuangjian? Shuangjian, you didn't pass out, did you?!
No. His voice was still very steady, though it carried a faint, barely noticeable pant.
He had cushioned her when they fell, so he must have taken a heavier hit than she did. Yingshi grew increasingly panicked and hurriedly scrambled up to check on Shuangjian's condition.
How are you doing? Did it aggravate your old injuries?
It was too dark; an unnatural, abnormal darkness shrouded this place!
She couldn't even make out Shuangjian's silhouette and could only grope around with her hands. Suddenly, she touched the hand Shuangjian extended toward her and quickly grasped it.
However, she wanted to trace her hands further up his arms—at least to check Shuangjian's face and make sure there was no blood at the corners of his mouth!
But just as she tentatively reached out, her hand was accurately caught by Shuangjian, turning it into him holding her wrist instead.
Shuangjian's vision seemed to be much better than hers.
While Yingshi was still dazed, she heard him say, This is a Domain.
Jade?
...What jade?
Or a prison? Could it be Hell?
Shuangjian seemed to hear the shock and doubt in her heart and took the initiative to explain, It is the Domain of the Marrow-Cleansing Spring... You mentioned it to me before. The second time the seal on the original book's male lead was loosened, it was in the Domain of the Marrow-Cleansing Spring.
Huh? Yingshi was so shocked that she sat straight up. But isn't the Domain of the Marrow-Cleansing Spring beneath the altar of the Dao One Immortal Alliance? This is the Repentance Cliff of the Cloud Water Sect, thousands of miles away from the Dao One Immortal Alliance!
Just mentioning a Domain, she indeed wouldn't understand, but if it was the Domain of the Marrow-Cleansing Spring, she knew it well.
The Domain here could be understood as a field, a spatial form existing between heaven and earth but not entirely belonging to the Three Realms.
The world-building of I See Frost and Snow was designed quite differently from many conventional cultivation novels. First, it didn't have strict power levels like Foundation Establishment or Golden Core. Second, it introduced the concept of a Domain, which was neither an artificial secret realm nor a natural paradise, but rather a realm within a realm formed by the spontaneous gathering of heaven and earth's spiritual energy under certain extreme conditions.
A Domain could encompass a secret realm, but a secret realm could not define a Domain.
As for the Marrow-Cleansing Spring, it was the core of this Domain.
The spiritual energy contained within the Marrow-Cleansing Spring was enough to turn an ordinary person with no spiritual power into a cultivator.
It could purge impurities and reopen a person's meridians, allowing them to be reborn and completely transformed, like a phoenix rising from the ashes.
Despite such heaven-defying effects, it had circulated in the cultivation world merely as a legend for years; very few had actually experienced its benefits firsthand.
This was also related to the nature of the Domain itself. It could never be explored and developed like a secret realm, nor could it become a trial to temper the abilities of rising stars.
The opening and closing of a Domain had no pattern. Rather than people finding and entering a Domain, it was more like being invited by the Domain...
Now, the two of them, trapped beneath the Repentance Cliff, had become such chosen ones...
Yingshi was so overwhelmed by this information that she couldn't recover her senses, only to hear Shuangjian ask again, Did the original book ever mention that there is only one fixed location for the Domain of the Marrow-Cleansing Spring in the world?
...N-No! Yingshi's confusion turned into joy. So, does this mean a great fortune has fallen from the sky?
She groped to grab Shuangjian's arm and shook it, unable to hide her smile. I was just worrying about how to loosen your seal, and now hasn't this opportunity practically been spoon-fed to us?
In the book, the male lead fell into the Domain of the Marrow-Cleansing Spring beneath the altar of the Dao One Immortal Alliance, and the seal inside his body, which had merely been loosened, was directly undone by more than half.
Now, they could become stronger without having to nearly die first!
Yingshi was overjoyed. All the previous setbacks were completely forgotten, and she even entirely ignored the faint pain throbbing from her left ankle.
But at the crucial moment, she remembered a question: However, Shuangjian, how did you know this is the Domain of the Marrow-Cleansing Spring?
