The next morning, before the dawn had fully broken.
When Bai Qingxue pushed open her door, someone was already standing in the corridor.
Lu Xueqing had changed into frost-white martial attire, a sword hanging at her waist and her hair tied back neatly.
Lu Xueqing stood in the shadows of the corridor, her back very straight. Hearing the door, she turned her head.
The morning light leaked in from the window at the end of the corridor, illuminating her features brightly.
"Let's go," Lu Xueqing said, her tone as casual as if nothing had happened last night.
Bai Qingxue nodded.
The two of them walked out of the inn, one after the other.
The cold air rushed toward them. A thin layer of white frost had condensed on the flagstone road, crunching softly under their boots.
Passing through the town and stepping over the low wall, the frozen plain stretched out before them, the horizon as straight as a gray line.
Bai Qingxue walked in front, her pace neither fast nor slow.
Lu Xueqing followed behind her, two steps away.
After walking for about an hour, the ground ahead suddenly split open.
An ice fissure lay across their path, about ten feet wide, extending to the east and west until it disappeared from sight.
An eerie blue light emanated from the bottom of the fissure, as faint as a half-open eye, standing out starkly against the grayish-white ice field.
The ice lotus inside Bai Qingxue's body vibrated slightly.
It was exactly the same feeling as when she had approached that ice coffin in the Nanhuai ruins years ago.
"It should be down there," she said.
Lu Xueqing walked to her side and peered down. The eerie blue light reflected on her face, tinting her pupils a pale green.
"Shall we go down and see?"
Bai Qingxue nodded.
They descended along the ice wall. Layers of ice were stacked upon each other, forming natural steps.
Bai Qingxue led the way, her boots making a faint crunching sound on the ice. Lu Xueqing followed, placing each foot exactly where Bai Qingxue had stepped.
The deeper they went, the heavier the cold became.
Even with Lu Xueqing's protective spiritual power as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, it felt as thin as paper against this cold. Gradually, the circulation of her spiritual power began to stagnate, as if something were freezing within her dantian.
Lu Xueqing's fingers began to tremble.
First her fingertips, then her whole hand, until finally even the strength to clench her fist was draining away.
A thick layer of frost condensed on her eyelashes; with every blink, the frost flakes fell away.
But she didn't make a sound.
Bai Qingxue walked ahead of her, her silver-white hair blowing backward in the wind surging from the depths of the fissure. The cold that nearly suffocated Lu Xueqing had no effect on her.
Her Ice Spirit Physique made Bai Qingxue one with the extreme cold here; she even felt a hint of comfort, as if she had returned to a home of sorts.
However, Bai Qingxue's spiritual sense remained spread out, covering a radius of several meters. She immediately sensed Lu Xueqing's abnormality.
Bai Qingxue stopped and turned around.
Lu Xueqing stood two ice steps above her, head lowered, her fingers tightly clenched into fists.
By now, Lu Xueqing's lips were colorless, but her cheeks were flushed with a sickly red—a sign that the cold was invading her internal organs.
Bai Qingxue looked at Lu Xueqing. After a moment of thought, she reached out her hand.
"Give me your hand."
Bai Qingxue's voice was calm, no different from usual.
Yet the words she spoke left Lu Xueqing stunned.
However, Bai Qingxue had no intention of withdrawing her hand. She kept it suspended in mid-air, waiting.
Lu Xueqing looked up.
Bai Qingxue stood on the ice step below, her face tilted slightly up to look at her.
There was no extra expression in those light-colored eyes; they were quiet, like the surface of a frozen lake.
Her silver-white hair was scattered by the wind, revealing her cool features. Her hand remained extended, her fingers long and her knuckles well-defined.
Lu Xueqing unclenched her fist and placed her hand into that hand.
Bai Qingxue gripped her wrist.
The moment she took hold, something snapped in Lu Xueqing's mind, like a string that had been stretched too tight for too long, suddenly plucked by a finger, the sound dissolving into the air before it could even ring out.
This was the first time Junior Sister Bai had touched her of her own accord.
It wasn't like before, where Junior Sister Bai only slowly placed a hand on her back after she had already hugged her.
It wasn't like before, where Junior Sister Bai only leaned slightly into her palm after she had cradled her hand.
This was Junior Sister Bai reaching out her own hand and taking hold of her.
Bai Qingxue's fingers pressed against Lu Xueqing's wrist, bringing a slight chill, yet compared to the stinging cold of their surroundings, it felt like a piece of jade held for a long time—cool, but infused with body heat.
The pad of her finger pressed against the thin skin on the inside of the wrist, where the pulse throbbed beneath.
One.
Two.
Three.
It was beating too fast.
So fast that she felt Bai Qingxue must be able to feel it.
She hoped Bai Qingxue felt it, yet she hoped she didn't.
She wanted Bai Qingxue to know how this heart was pounding, yet she feared the pulse was so loud it would shake out all the words she hadn't yet decided whether to say.
However, before Lu Xueqing could sort out her thoughts, a surge of spiritual power was transferred from Bai Qingxue's fingertips. It traveled up the meridians of Lu Xueqing's wrist, inch by inch.
Bai Qingxue's spiritual power moved along her meridians, unhurried, like fingers groping in the dark, searching place by place.
When the power found the corners invaded by the cold, it stopped and gently enveloped them.
Lu Xueqing had never been touched by Bai Qingxue's spiritual power before.
That power wasn't as cold as she had imagined.
She had thought the spiritual power of the Ice Spirit Physique would be sharp, with the jagged edges of ice and snow.
But this power traveling along her meridians felt more like winter sunlight. Though its base was cool, after lingering on the body for a while, it actually emitted a thin layer of warmth.
Was it because Junior Sister Bai was protecting her in this way?
The cold was driven away bit by bit.
Sensation began to return to Lu Xueqing's fingers, and her clenched fist slowly relaxed.
But another tide welled up—warm and surging, spreading from her chest to her limbs.
Bai Qingxue was holding her wrist, but she only wanted to hold more.
Lu Xueqing lowered her head, looking at the hand holding her wrist.
Right now, that hand, which seemed so detached from the mortal world, was holding her firmly.
Lu Xueqing felt her heart being squeezed by that hand.
Bai Qingxue's voice came from above, calm as usual.
It was as if she were merely confirming an ordinary matter, as if reaching out to hold Lu Xueqing's wrist and transferring spiritual power to ward off the cold was simply something she should do.
Lu Xueqing looked up.
Bai Qingxue was looking at her. Her face was reflected in those light-colored eyes.
A face that looked slightly disheveled.
"It's not cold anymore," Lu Xueqing said.
As she spoke, Bai Qingxue's grip loosened slightly.
She was going to pull back.
The thought flashed through Lu Xueqing's mind, faster than thought, faster than reason.
Lu Xueqing's fingers slid down the back of Bai Qingxue's hand, brushing over the prominent knuckles, landing on her fingertips, and then gently taking hold.
Bai Qingxue lowered her head, looking at their joined hands.
Her eyelashes drooped, veiling her eyes, making her expression unreadable.
A moment passed.
Bai Qingxue turned her hand over, palm up, her fingers sliding between Lu Xueqing's, slowly tightening.
Ten fingers interlocked.
Lu Xueqing was stunned.
This was not any of the possibilities she had envisioned.
She had thought Bai Qingxue would pull her hand away, or that she would continue walking forward in silence as usual, or at most—at the very most—that Bai Qingxue would allow her to hold her hand without responding or refusing.
But now, Junior Sister Bai's fingers were hooked between hers, her fingertips pressing against the back of her hand, their knuckles intermeshed.
'So this is what it feels like...'
Lu Xueqing looked down at their joined hands.
Bai Qingxue's fingers were joined with hers, reflected in the eerie blue light, tinted a pale green.
Right now, their body heat was slowly merging through their joined palms, gradually becoming the same temperature.
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