allonlinenovel Chapter 571
Chapter 571
As dusk settled, the horse's hooves shattered the moonlight scattered on the ground. Yingyi, nestled in Dongfang Wan'er's arms, had long since fallen unconscious. Her blood-stained clothes fluttered in the night wind, warm blood dripping from the saddle, leaving winding, dark red trails on the cobblestones. She tightened the reins, her temples damp with cold sweat, her gaze fixed on the dim light emanating from the clinic ahead, her whip lashing sharply against the horse's rump.
The clinic was filled with a strong medicinal fragrance, which mingled with the putrid stench emanating from Ying Yi's wound, creating a nauseating odor. The old doctor, his fingers trembling, dipped into the black blood seeping from the wound. His Adam's apple bobbed twice before he spoke: "General, this poison is a mixture of Western Region snake venom and Southern Frontier Gu worm poison. I can only temporarily suppress it with Ice Soul Grass and Nine Deaths Resurrection Grass..." He spread out his yellowed medical book, his withered fingers pointing to a certain page, "Only Heavenly Mountain Snow Ginseng can cure this poison, but that snow ginseng grows on cliffs covered with snow all year round, and ordinary herb gatherers..." Before he could finish speaking, Dongfang Wan'er had already grabbed the Xuan Tie sword on the table, cold sweat beading on her palms from the icy hilt.
The water clock dripped softly, and suddenly hurried footsteps sounded outside the window. A soldier burst through the wooden door of the clinic, the brass buckles on his armor still jingling. "General! The patrol caught a man in black in a dark alley in the west of the city. He says..." the soldier lowered his voice, "...he knows the antidote, but insists on speaking to you alone." Dongfang Wan'er gazed at Ying Yi, whose face was bluish-purple on the bed. The boy's eyelashes trembled slightly, and the blood that had spilled from the corner of his mouth had congealed into a black scab. She clutched the jade pendant at her waist—a trophy Ying Yi had brought back from his first mission, now leaving a deep mark on her palm.
The dungeon was damp and bone-chilling, the torches casting distorted shadows of the men in black. Dongfang Wan'er gripped her sword hilt and slowly approached, only to see the man suddenly throw his head back and laugh, the chains rattling: "I've heard the general is loyal and righteous, but now, for the sake of a mere bodyguard, are you willing to let a tiger return to the mountain?" He tore off his mask, revealing a hideous scar on his face, "As long as you let our leader cross the border, I'll tell you—that snow ginseng has long been sprinkled with bone-corroding powder by us."
A chill ran down her spine and up to her head. Dongfang Wan'er drew her soft sword and pressed it against the man's throat, the blade trembling slightly. "If you dare to talk nonsense again, I will immediately..." "Kill me?" The man in black suddenly leaned closer, his rotten breath spraying her face. "You think the Tianshan Cliff is child's play? Even if he finds the snow ginseng, by the time you return, he'll probably be cold to the bone." The dungeon fell into a deathly silence, broken only by the faint cough of Ying Yi in the distance.
As Dongfang Wan'er emerged from the dungeon, the morning star had already climbed the city wall. She gazed at the pale dawn breaking in the east, her fingertips tracing the black iron mask Ying Yi always wore. Suddenly, the jade pendant at her waist stung her palm, and memories flooded back: that cold night, Ying Yi, too, had collapsed before her tent, covered in blood, yet smiling as he raised the jade pendant, saying, "The mission is complete."
The urgent hoofbeats of the messenger broke the tranquility of the post stations along the way. Dongfang Wan'er took the cool water bag handed to her by the postman, tilted her head back and drank it down, a metallic taste rising in her throat—the trace of blood left from coughing up during the all-night journey. The Western Regions Ice Box was tied tightly to her chest, the cold seeping into her skin through the soft armor, but it couldn't compare to the chill that rose in her heart when she thought of Ying Yi clutching her clothes tightly while unconscious.
At dawn on the seventh day, the perpetually snow-capped line stretched before them. Dongfang Wan'er reined in her horse and stopped, gazing at the knife-edged icicles on the cliff face, the climbing rope around her waist whistling in the wind. The old hunter at the foot of the mountain had repeatedly warned her: "This 'Soul-Severing Cliff' was closed off ten years ago; beneath the snow are hidden ice fissures, even snow leopards dare not set foot here." Yet she untied her cloak, wrapped it around the ice chest, and drove steel nails fiercely into the ice.
As they climbed halfway up the mountain, a sudden blizzard blurred their vision. Dongfang Wan'er's leather gloves were already torn by icicles, her fingers numb with cold, yet she clung tightly to the rock crevices. A memory flashed back to Ying Yi teaching her rock climbing; the boy always liked to deliberately loosen the ropes to scare her, and when she saw through him, he would laugh slyly: "If even the General is afraid of this height, how will he take me to Tianshan to pick snow ginseng in the future?"
The ice suddenly cracked, and Dongfang Wan'er slid down the ice wall. In the nick of time, she swung her grappling hook and caught a protruding rock, her back slamming heavily against the ice, causing the chilling air inside the ice box to leak out. In a daze, she seemed to hear Ying Yi chuckle softly in her ear: "General, it's my turn to save you."
Finally, at dusk, they arrived at the ice cave where the snow ginseng grew. Moonlight pierced through the domed ice cave, illuminating the scattered dark red powder on the stone platform—just as the man in black had said, all the snow ginseng had been destroyed. Dongfang Wan'er knelt on the ice, her fingertips tracing the charred remains of the stems, when she suddenly noticed a stubborn patch of green in a crevice. It was a snow ginseng seedling that hadn't been completely burned, its leaves still adorned with ice beads that refracted a faint light in the moonlight.
Trembling, she took out the ice box and carefully transplanted the seedling inside. On the way down the mountain, the blizzard raged even more fiercely, but Dongfang Wan'er held the box even tighter. As the dawn's light illuminated the earth once more, she stumbled into the clinic, her body covered in frost, yet she still used her bloodied fingertips to touch Ying Yi's burning forehead: "Don't be afraid... I've brought spring back to you."
A chilling, metallic scent wafted from the depths of the dungeon. A crimson spider shifted uneasily in the black-clad man's palm, its eerie abdominal patterns resembling burning flames. With a resounding crash of snapping chains echoing through the empty passageway, he flicked his finger, and the spider vanished swiftly along a crack in the wall. On the damp stone wall, dark patterns drawn with venom gleamed eerily in the moonlight—their agreed-upon signal—the final assault was about to begin.
The gong on the city wall sounded past midnight, and Lieutenant General Lin Xiao's hand, gripping the binoculars, suddenly froze. On the desolate northwest plains, countless torches flickered like ghostly eyes in the night, and amidst the dust whipped up by the cold wind, the iron armor of heavily armored cavalry could be vaguely seen gleaming in the moonlight. "Quickly! Pass on my order: all soldiers to go on high alert!" he roared, but his voice was completely drowned out by the sudden sound of war drums.
At this moment, Dongfang Wan'er was kneeling before Ying Yi's bed, gently wiping the cold sweat from the young man's forehead with her fingertips. Inside the Ice Box, the snow ginseng seedlings unfurled their tender green stems and leaves in a specially prepared medicinal solution, emitting a faint fragrance. Suddenly, a distant explosion rattled the windowpanes. She looked up sharply and saw the northwest night sky ablaze with fiery light.