I See the Domain of Frost and Snow
"I remember."
Yingshi felt strange as she spoke. She had a deep impression of every scene before parting with Changyi, but after their separation, it was as if a piece of her memory had been forcibly dug out.
Where was the problem?
She clutched her forehead, recalling seriously, "The book recorded that the Taiyu Traversing Technique is performed at a specific time, in a specific place, and on a specific person, and it cannot be initiated actively... Damn it, that sounds too ethereal and illusory. How on earth can it be put into practice?"
"..."
The silence made Yingshi feel something was wrong. She looked up and saw Shuangjian standing there like a statue, his expression dark and unreadable.
... Was she dragging him down too much?
To think she actually left behind such a special book.
Even someone as good-tempered as Shuangjian was left speechless by her losing such an important item.
"I'm sorry, Shuangjian..." Yingshi twisted her fingers together and said with difficulty, "I really don't know what happened to me. It's like I drank too much and blacked out. I have absolutely no idea what I did during that missing piece of memory. Under normal circumstances, even if I couldn't make it out myself, I definitely would have brought that book out..."
Her helpless words and guilty eyes were the most effective thunderbolt, striking Shuangjian awake from his chaotic state of perhaps having grasped some answers.
He absentmindedly grasped Yingshi's hands, which were constantly abusing each other, gently shook his head, and said, "It's not your fault... It was the wine."
Moreover, he suspected that the book hadn't been left behind by Yingshi, but rather... it had vanished.
His heart was pounding wildly now, and his muscles were faintly trembling, but his expression remained nonchalant as he tried to keep his voice steady to explain, "You might have drunk Intoxicated Life, Dreamy Death."
Breaking free from the special state brought on by his demon core, he recalled the question was that really normal wine?, and he could already find a clue or two.
In his past two lives, Changyi had never poured wine for him.
Either the wine, like that so-called book, was a variable specifically provided for Yingshi.
Or... it was a wine meant only to entertain Yingshi.
A wine not used to entertain a son who shared her bloodline, but to entertain another woman... what was it?
Shuangjian pursed his lips, a strange sense of awkwardness flashing across his heart.
It was Daughter's Intoxication.
Daughter's Intoxication was based on Intoxicated Life, Dreamy Death, mixed with other normal wines. This originally diluted the effects of Intoxicated Life, Dreamy Death, but if Yingshi drank an entire jar, it would be no different from drinking two cups of Intoxicated Life, Dreamy Death.
However... Daughter's Intoxication was a wedding wine.
The mother marrying off her daughter would drink it with her, and the mother-in-law welcoming the bride would drink it with the new wife.
His birth mother, perhaps sensing the blood pact linking Yingshi to him, had done something so superfluous.
Changyi had misunderstood his relationship with Yingshi.
"Intoxicated Life, Dreamy Death..." Yingshi froze for a moment.
This wine was mostly used to let people who had experienced severe pain escape reality. Drinking a few more cups would numb a person's nerves, leaving them only knowing how to pursue pleasure, and afterwards, they would forget everything they had experienced.
Her sluggish brain suddenly focused on the words pursue pleasure...
Help, how exactly did she pursue pleasure? Why was it terrifying the more she thought about it?
Shuangjian said he rescued her from the Gate of Rest, and then the two of them entered the Gate of Hiding together. Right now, her clothes were neat, she was full of energy, and she felt no discomfort anywhere on her body. Aside from a slight headache and dry mouth upon waking up after a night's sleep, her body felt incredibly comfortable. Yet Shuangjian was exceptionally disheveled, so disheveled that it was suspicious. Could it be... she was one of the main culprits who made him so disheveled?
Yingshi's heart skipped a beat. Just how far had she gone, for Shuangjian to look as if he had a death wish the moment she opened her eyes?
Was the last person with such a death wish... the Little Dragon Maiden after being violated by Yin Zhiping?
Yingshi's legs went a bit weak as she dazedly looked at Shuangjian's condition again.
He looked much better now than when she first woke up. His hair was neat again, and although his clothes still had a crease or two, they weren't as messy. But the wound on the corner of his mouth was still there, and the scattered red marks on his neck were still there. Could it be...
"...Ah!" Yingshi clutched her head and let out a short scream, as if she had suddenly been air-raided by someone.
"What's wrong?" Shuangjian frowned and approached, reaching a hand out to her. However, Yingshi took a few steps back, retreating into a state of facing the wall to ponder her mistakes, only showing him her back.
"Shuangjian..." Staring at the wall wasn't enough; she even closed her eyes. Yet, although her posture was evasive, her words were bitterly direct. "Did I... do something to bully you?"
Was she actually the biggest monster bug in the altar?
Did she take advantage of Shuangjian's demon core acting up and his inability to fight back to grope him all over?
If this was true, it would be simply unbearable, ahhh!
"..." Shuangjian's brow twitched. He had previously felt a bizarre sense of frustration because Yingshi couldn't remember anything, but now that she showed signs of remembering something, he couldn't help but feel guilty as well. After a moment of silence, he said, "You didn't. Why would you think that?"
"Then you... then what did you go through?" Yingshi asked softly. "The wound on your lip and the red marks on your neck... how did they get there?"
Shuangjian didn't even blink as he said, "Before meeting you, I entered the Gate of Harm. There were illusions and miasmas inside the Gate of Harm. I bit my lip to force myself awake so I could escape from the gate. As for the red marks on my neck... they are just from scratching."
"So it was that dangerous." Yingshi's shoulders visibly relaxed a little. She exhaled, turned around, and asked again, "Then when you saw me, do you remember what state I was in? I'm afraid I did something foolish when I wasn't in my right mind..."
"You just fell asleep," Shuangjian avoided Yingshi's gaze and said in a low voice.
Lying to her had become no different from breathing for him.
"Wow, thank goodness. My hobby of sleeping saved my life!" Yingshi sighed with genuine emotion.
As she spoke, she heard the rattling sound of some kind of iron chain falling to the ground. Immediately after, she saw the patterns of a door appear on an originally smooth and flat stone wall—the time was up, and the Gate of Hiding opened on its own.
"Since the demon core has already acted up, can we stay a bit longer now? Shuangjian, you haven't entered the Gate of Openness yet, right? At the very least, we have to go over there and let you get the sword intent from the plot." Yingshi pondered. "Once we get out, maybe we can ask Perfected Lord Dongming for help. In the book, he was able to help the male lead smooth over the destruction of the altar. If we just ask him to help find that book in the Gate of Rest... it should be fine, right?"
"..."
"...Shuangjian, what are you thinking about?" Seeing that she had already walked out first but the person behind her hadn't followed, Yingshi couldn't help but stop in her tracks.
Shuangjian met Yingshi's eyes, nodded subconsciously, and followed her pace, walking out of the Gate of Hiding.
What was he thinking about?
There were far too many things on his mind.
The answer set aside due to his conversation with Yingshi, with the opening of the Du Gate, seemed to strike his heart again and again, making him almost want to immediately head to the Death Gate to test it.
The experiences of entering the Domain of the Marrow-Cleansing Spring in his previous two lives happened within the Death Gate.
He wanted to test if, having already entered the Domain at the bottom of the Repentance Cliff, the same Domain would still exist beneath the altar at this moment.
He wanted to test whether the same Domain could be entered a second time, and if so, whether its state would be constant or reset.
He wanted to test what the exact conditions for being banished by the Domain were, and if there was any other way to forcefully break out of the Domain besides fully utilizing its core.
All of this was because of the description of the Great Cosmos Traversing Art written in the mysterious book that Yingshi mentioned: a specific person, at a specific time, in a specific place, unable to act on their own initiative, almost as if chosen, traveling through time and space.
His heart pounded wildly because, in that instant, a terrifying, wild thought was born in his mind.
This was the concept of a Domain.
A cultivator chosen by the Domain, becoming that specific person, would passively fall into the Domain at a specific time and in a specific place.
Take the Domain of the Marrow-Cleansing Spring as an example: he was once the chosen person, the Death Gate within the altar of the Dao One Immortal Alliance was that specific place, and the moment of near-death was that specific time...
This incredibly real world he lived in was, to Yingshi, nothing more than a novel she had read.
But what if this place was neither a book nor a world?
Or rather, what if it was both a book and a world, because it had already become a Domain?
The Domain of I See Frost and Snow.
And that so-called creator, the novel's author Jing Fengliu, what role did he play?
Was he powerful enough to create a Domain, or did the things he wrote, under the influence of the world's profound mysteries, turn into a Domain that even he could not fully control?
Shuangjian urgently wanted to verify his speculations.
At this moment, he felt as if he held the most important thread connecting to the truth; as long as he followed it all the way, he would never be lost again.
He would be able to control everything... including whether Yingshi stayed or left.
Besides this, amidst his chaotic and complex thoughts, another thread unexpectedly extended to ponder the effects of doing a joyful thing in the Intoxicated Dream of Death... To Yingshi, being intimate with him—was it a joyful thing?
...
Shuangjian? Why aren't you speaking... Yingshi's face overflowed with worry. Are you hurt somewhere and didn't tell me?
Shuangjian's condition was completely off. He had never appeared so absent-minded in front of her. He followed her expressionlessly, not saying a word, yet his eyes lit up like sparks. A moment later, his face flushed red, as if he had a lingering high fever.
What exactly was wrong?
Why did she feel like she had missed a very important plot point after waking up from her Intoxicated Dream of Death?
...
Shuangjian suddenly met Yingshi's concerned eyes. He sealed away and temporarily stored all his thoughts, gently shaking his head.
Before having a fully graspable method of execution to go with his theories, he would not tell Yingshi any of his deductions.
As for his heart, which was racing so fast it was about to leap out of his mouth due to the implications of that joyful thing, he certainly wouldn't mention it to her.
It's just that the air in the Du Gate was stifling. After experiencing the flare-up of the demon core, I felt a rare bout of dizziness. I feel much better after coming out, so there's no need to worry, he said. We do have plenty of time now, so next we can search for the traces of the Open Gate and the Life Gate to obtain their fortuitous encounters.
Not just the Open and Life Gates; the one he truly had to enter was the Death Gate.
I remember the book saying that the Open Gate is covered in sword marks and scars, while the Life Gate has a layer of emerald green moss on top. The features of these two good gates are quite obvious. After saying this, Yingshi sighed, a bit regretfully. The fortuitous encounter in the Rest Gate was actually very suitable for you too, but I got to it first. In the end, I went in but still came out empty-headed. I really wasted the opportunity.
This made her feel unavoidably embarrassed, extinguishing her initial covetousness toward the Life Gate.
But then she heard Shuangjian say softly, How could that be? You have already brought out the most important thing... We indeed have a chance to return to reality together. You don't need to worry about the disappearance of that book. Since you have memorized its contents, it will live on in your heart forever. By sharing it, you have benefited me as well. There is no need to feel ashamed or disappointed over it.
Yingshi noticed the special emphasis Shuangjian placed on the words we and together. She immediately nodded, her depressed mood softly swept away, leaving only longing and joy. As her gaze swept over the door at the very end of the path ahead, she grew even more excited. She hurriedly tugged at Shuangjian's arm, pulling him as she prepared to run over.
That looks like the Open Gate! Let's go in quickly. Once you get the sword intent, we'll be safe when the Demon Lord makes his appearance!
