Ji Zhaoxi sat quietly off to the side, rummaging through her dharma artifact pouch again. Inside were nothing but healing-type artifacts now—nothing that could safely get her down into the abyss.
She cautiously peered into the chasm below. She couldn't see the bottom at all.
Ji Zhaoxi clutched her bundle, staring at the pitch-black void beneath her. Her palms were drenched in cold sweat.
It's this deep—what's the difference between this and jumping off a building to kill myself?!
"It's fine. If I break my legs, the Senior Brother will heal me."
"If I die, the Senior Brother will protect me in the underworld..."
Ji Zhaoxi squeezed her eyes shut, took a deep breath, and leapt straight into the void.
In that moment, the world seemed to freeze. The sensation of weightlessness slammed into her, the wind screamed in her ears like it was trying to pierce her eardrums, and the frigid air clawed viciously at her face. She couldn't even let out a scream.
Just as Ji Zhaoxi thought she would be splattered into a bloody pulp—
The sword in the abyss suddenly let out a resonant hum. The moment she was swallowed by the darkness, the sword caught her plummeting body with pinpoint precision in midair.
Her eyes were squeezed shut, but the impact she expected never came. A gentle, soft force supported her waist, and the karmic flame radiating from her bonded sword formed a protective barrier, sealing off the cold and the wind completely.
Ji Zhaoxi sensed something was wrong. She carefully cracked her eyes open and looked around. She was still falling, but everything outside was sealed away from her.
"The Senior Brother's bonded sword..."
She lay sprawled on the blade, utterly dumbfounded. As she looked at the sword, her tears spilled over again.
The Senior Brother's sword is just as kind as he is—it loves saving people just as much!
After landing, Ji Zhaoxi rushed to Wen Shubai's side. The moment she saw his condition, her breath caught in her throat.
Most of his body had been frozen into a deathly, leaden hue by the cold poison. The wounds torn open by the dragon's claws were so deep she could see bone, and the blood that flowed out had frozen solid the instant it touched the air.
Ji Zhaoxi tried artifact after artifact on Wen Shubai, desperately pouring spiritual energy into each one, trying to get them to bake the ice off his body.
But the cold in the abyss had accumulated over ten thousand years. The artifacts were nothing before such power.
The miasma of the abyss thickened in the air around them, and Ji Zhaoxi didn't notice it at all.
"Flame-gathering Pearl..."
Ji Zhaoxi's face was deathly pale. She was so frozen now that she couldn't even cry anymore. All she felt was her entire body shaking uncontrollably.
Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier. A cloying, sweet-metallic smell drifted through the air. She clung tightly to Wen Shubai's sleeve, and her vision slowly blurred.
With the last of her strength, Ji Zhaoxi placed the artifact on Wen Shubai's body. She tried desperately to keep her eyes open, but her body went limp, collapsing onto him, and she fell into a deep, unconscious sleep.
Don't slip into a state of flow at a time like this...
Shattered pieces of artifacts lay scattered all around the two of them. The blood essence from Wen Shubai's left shoulder flowed slowly, seeping onto the artifact fragments on the ground.
Then, thread after thread of golden spiritual currents seeped out from the fragments. These currents swirled around Ji Zhaoxi before flowing continuously, through the skin where the two pressed together, into Wen Shubai's meridians in an endless stream.
The cold surge kept coming. The wind grated against their skin relentlessly. Footprints that were just stamped disappeared the next second. A few faint, ragged breaths were barely audible in the freezing gale.
"Is this even the right path? Do you even know how to read the way?" Triangular Eyes' face had already frozen a sickly blue, his lips trembling uncontrollably.
The disciple walking at the front was equally irritated. He glared at his compass: "How should I know if this is the right path? The compass is showing this."
Their ears were already stuffed full of roaring wind, the frost on their eyelashes was biting cold, and every breath they took felt like swallowing a knife.
They had been walking for a long time, but they still couldn't find their bearings. A few of the disciples were beginning to panic.
"We should have just saved the Senior Brother. Maybe if he were awake, he could lead us back."
"Without the Senior Brother, we'll never get out of here..."
Hearing the other disciples' self-defeating remarks, Triangular Eyes sneered: "Senior Brother, Senior Brother—who knows if the Senior Brother is even dead or alive right now! If you really think the Senior Brother can do anything, then go back and look for him!"
At the thought of the Ice Marrow Pill, Triangular Eyes grew even more irritated: "What a waste of a trip. No sign of the Ice Marrow Pill, and we're this badly injured to boot."
He frowned deeply, remembering the pouch of artifacts Ji Zhaoxi had. That pouch of hers—could those things actually work? After all, every single one of them was worth a fortune.
What if the Senior Brother actually wakes up and decides to keep the Ice Marrow Pill for himself...
At that thought, his expression darkened.
She only fell into the abyss—no one knows if she's dead or alive. I should have gone down to check.
Deep in the corner of the abyss, the sword let out a soft hum. The miasma surrounding the two slowly dispersed.
Wen Shubai slowly opened his eyes. His vision was a blur of dark red—blood had seeped straight into his eyes.
By now, he couldn't feel his body at all. Every breath he took made the bones in his chest grind against each other.
Feeling the weight on his chest, his voice came out hoarse and ragged.
"Little Junior Sister..."
Ji Zhaoxi lay in his arms, frozen solid like a block of ice. Her eyes were tightly shut, her fingers still clutching his robes, and frost clung to her eyelashes.
Wen Shubai knelt on one knee, letting her head rest in the crook of his arm. His right hand trembled as he gathered his sword essence and forcibly crushed the pill.
The Ice Marrow Pill had been clawed out of the throat of a flood dragon...
Wen Shubai was afraid of hurting her, but also afraid she wouldn't be able to swallow it. With his rough fingertips, he gently pressed against the gap of her teeth. His eyes lowered, he pushed past her teeth and probed deep inside.
The wounds on his body still throbbed with pain. He gasped for breath and fed the crushed pill to her bit by bit. He could feel the faint trace of warmth left in her mouth, wrapping around his fingertips.
With his other hand, he pressed lightly against her jaw and gently stroked down her throat, over and over again.
Finally, under the pressure of his fingertips, her throat moved. A faint, subtle swallowing sound escaped her lips.
Wen Shubai finally let out a breath of relief.
When he had fallen into the abyss, he'd never imagined someone would come to save him. He was wounded so badly—if anyone tried to save him, they'd only be dragged down with him.
Wen Shubai leaned against the stone wall, his arms tight around Ji Zhaoxi. He closed his eyes and forcibly drew upon his depleted dantian, sending a faint, trembling wisp of flame through his palm, slowly seeping into her body.
Ji Zhaoxi's body alternated between scorching hot and icy cold. She murmured restlessly, her hands grasping at nothing, fine beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
Wen Shubai soothed her in a low, gentle voice. His origin spirit energy transformed into countless thin red threads that wound through her meridians, tenderly guiding the spiritual energy inside her, until it finally settled into her dantian.
