Chapter 38: Frost in the Bones

This sudden din interrupted what Xie Yun had been planning to say, causing him to come to his senses. He swiftly extinguished those impulsive words which had nearly burst from his lips.

Looking at Zhou Fei, he decided that she was young and ignorant – not foolishly ignorant, but ignorant of pain and hardship. She was like a flower that had just budded, sprung from a sufficiently sturdy branch, growing alongside but untouched by the plant's thorns. Each drop of dew that formed on her quivered with vitality. She could withstand the wind and rain, and the deepest chill of winter. With a wild resilience that was part of her very nature, she strove to grow stronger each day, in anticipation of the time when she could finally pierce through the thick fog that shrouded her, becoming invincible.

She had yet to be worn down by the ravages of time, or awoken in the middle of the night by memories of things long past to which one could never return.

She had also never been seized with bitter cynicism – she still didn't know that so many things which she believed in implicitly and fully expected to happen were but illusions that could never come to fruition. When a mortal's time drew to an end, sentiments such as love or hate were but footnotes in their lives that had faded quickly. At the end of the day, everything was like sand; always slipping through your fingers, impossible to hold onto.

Xie Yun thought to himself morosely: how can a near-corpse like me bog her down?

For the briefest of moments, despite the noisy surroundings, an infinitely lonely silence rang in his ears. Xie Yun's lips quivered slightly as he swallowed all these unspoken words, eventually curving into a faint smile.

The massive coffin being carried down the street required a total of sixteen burly men to lift it. It was almost big enough to be a small house, broad and deep enough for an entire family to lie inside, and took up the entire width of this narrow alleyway. Anyone with functioning eyes on them couldn't help but stop and stare. Only Zhou Fei wasn't stirred in the slightest, her gaze still intently fixed on Xie Yun as she pressed: "I what?"

Xie Yun looked deeply at her.

Zhou Fei yelled: "Just say it!"

And then right before her eyes, she watched with dismay as Xie Yun blatantly plastered his most annoyingly smarmy look on his face, and say with a smirk: "I was about to tell you to look over there – have you ever heard of the Greenwood Coffin? That is the prized 'carriage' of the Black Turtle Lord Ding Kui, and the old fellow only trots it out on special occasions. Tsk, he's already making such a splash upon entering the city. It looks like the Mountain of the Living Dead is determined to stir up some trouble this time."

Zhou Fei: "…"

Xie Yun looked down at her with that impenetrable gaze of his, continuing to evade her question: "Don't tell me that you have no idea who the Black Turtle Lord is."

Xie Yun knew Zhou Fei well – he knew that while she was a fairly reasonable person, she also had quite the temper on her. She was definitely someone who would up and leave immediately if she knew that the person she was after didn't like her, no questions asked. So if Xie Yun laid on the oily charm thick, and kept avoiding a direct response, she would take the hint and stop pressing him for an answer. Sure enough, once he'd said all that the intense look on Zhou Fei's face slowly subsided, eventually fading into an expressionless mask. She replied through gritted teeth: "I know who he is. I've even slaughtered a few of his rabid dogs."

Xie Yun: "…"

He really had to hand it to her – while she didn't make enemies easily, when she did they were sure to be some of the most powerful ones out there.

Zhou Fei arched her brow at him, saying coldly: "What? If I could kill even Zheng Luosheng, why can't I slaughter a mere dog of the Black Turtle Lord's?"

Xie Yun looked back at her in exasperation. While keeping an eye on those coffin-carrying scoundrels, he started to chide her as per usual: "You…"

But before he could commence his lecture, he suddenly felt a sharp pain shoot up his arm, above the hand that was still holding Zhou Fei's. As Xie Yun's hands were far too cold, they were a little stiff as well, and by the time he realised this it was too late. He looked down at his hand in astonishment, to discover that a little drop of chilled blood had oozed from his pointer finger. The blood had a purplish tint to it, and froze over before it could trickle out – the culprit was a small sharp spike that Zhou Fei was holding between her fingers.

Xie Yun's vision started to blur and he subconsciously took a step back. Zhou Fei was calmly wrapping up that small spike in a satin cloth as she said: "'Omniscient' Young Master Xie, who 'knows all the strange secrets there are on this earth', perhaps you still remember what the Wayfarers' Union is best at?"

The Wayfarers' Union excelled at all kinds of illicit dealings, and the most proficient amongst them in this were the extortionists and protection racketeers of the Blue Bat, who were involved in all kinds of muggings and kidnappings. Of the ten most powerful substances there were to drug a person, eight had been invented by them.

Xie Yun found himself slowly losing control of his four limbs. Stumbling backwards, he swayed from side to side for a moment, his back hitting the wall. Zhou Fei didn't bother to steady him, since the way he'd been sparring with such verve just now probably meant that he wouldn't injure so easily. Clasping her hands behind her back, she said very reasonably: "Since you knocked me out in the 48 Zhai, I'm simply returning the favour. We're even now."

Xie Yun smiled ruefully, but his tongue had already gone numb, rendering speech impossible. He didn't know what those darned scoundrels from the Wayfarers' Union had given her – the more he tried to circulate the chi in his body to force out the poison, the more quickly that drug took effect. Eventually, he wasn't able to stay upright any longer, and everything went black. He went down at last after a valiant struggle.

Zhou Fei approached him cautiously. Only after she was sure that he was completely unconscious did she start trying to figure out how she was going to move this large 'object'. Using her hands to estimate how big he would be on her shoulders, she decided that it would be impossible to carry him on them, as there wouldn't be enough space on her narrow frame; then she considered dragging him along by the cloth belt at his waist, but found that Xie Yun's self-proclaimed 'five-foot long' legs would get in the way.

Tracing her sabre across his knees, Zhou Fei thought to herself: He's far too long for his own good, I should just take a few inches off his legs.

She stood there contemplating what she should do for a while. Then she finally hauled Xie Yun up by the collar, rummaging around in his pockets for several pieces of silver, and towed his body inch by inch towards a little roadside stall that was selling straw hats. She pointed at the stallholder's small wooden cart and asked: "Is that for sale?"

A few moments later, Zhou Fei had set down those pieces of silver before the stallholder's tremulous gaze, and heaved Xie Yun onto the cart like a sack of potatoes. She covered his face with one of the straw hats, leaving only a wisp of fake white hair visible. She wheeled this 'corpse' away, looking like a girl from an impoverished family carting her deceased father off for burial, unable to afford a proper coffin.

Just as she was doing this, those in the inn were steeling themselves for the arrival of the Black Turtle Lord.

When that large coffin passed by on the street outside, the Xing Nan Escort Agency and their companions fell completely silent. The Zhu siblings looking particularly dismayed. Only Yang Jin strode boldly to the window and peered out – from above, one could get a clear view of the interior of that coffin. There was in fact a large and grand-looking chair installed within, as well as several small tables wedged into the bottom of the coffin. The tables held a teapot and flasks of wine, which had been poured out into several cups. As the sixteen burly men marched forward steadily, not a single drop was spilled from those full cups.

A short goblin of a man was sprawled on that large chair, relaxing with a drink in his hand. He was so short that his head didn't even peek over the top of this extremely deep coffin.

Yang Jin folded his arms across his chest, sizing up this man who was one of the 'four great monsters' of the Mountain of the Living Dead. The man abruptly looked up, his gaze colliding with Yang Jin's. A wizened, weather-beaten face stared up at him expressionlessly for a second, before breaking into a toothy grin – he was missing half his teeth, the sparse few that were left insufficient to block the gaping black hole of his mouth, making him look unspeakably eerie.

Yang Jin felt a chill run down his spine. He instinctively stepped to the side, and as he did so, a series of soft whooshes were heard as several palm-length darts were fired from the Black Turtle Lord's coffin, narrowly missing Yang Jin. Some of them were lodged in the window frame, while the rest hurtled into the room and were swept aside by Li Sheng's dagger, thanks to his fast reflexes.

Nearly jumping out of her skin, Li Yan yelled: "Hey, Coalface Li, have you nothing better to do? Why did you have to catch his eye?"

Yang Jin's dark face grew even darker.

Putting his hands up in a placating gesture, Uncle Lin said: "Of the four monsters of the Mountain of the Living Dead, the Azure Dragon Lord Zheng Luosheng is deviously cunning, the Vermillion Bird Lord Mu Xiaoqiao is vicious and eccentric, the White Tiger Lord Feng Feihua is unpredictably temperamental, while the Black Turtle Lord Ding Kui does as he pleases – Ding Kui in particular is known for attacking others for no apparent reason. He might slaughter you and your entire family just for looking at him the wrong way. It really isn't your fault, young man." Sighing, Uncle Lin added: "Why else do you think these people are a plague on the martial arts world?"

Li Yan asked: "But doesn't anyone stand up to them then?"

"Who could?" said Uncle Lin as he shook his head. "The martial arts world is now leaderless, with no one able to command the same respect that the Sword of Mountains and Rivers did back in the day. No matter how grievously indignant any onlookers might be, who would dare to stick their necks out? Even the Li Clan has buried themselves deep in the mountains, shutting themselves in within the impenetrable defences of the 48 Zhai. These days, simply surviving is already a tall order in itself – who still has the wherewithal to attract such trouble?"

To avoid any unnecessary attention, Zhou Fei and company hadn't divulged exactly where they were from thus far, only saying vaguely that they were from 'the South'. Compared to the 'Successor of the Southern Blade', who many people had heard of but had never seen, Yang Jin's Lone Goose Sabre was much more recognisable. Uncle Lin and the Xing Nan escorts had easily identified this famously negligent Chief of the Cloud-Bracing Valley, who unlike his ancestors spent all his time fighting people rather than curing them, and had therefore assumed that all of them hailed from the southern frontiers. As Uncle Lin said this, he had no idea that two descendants of the Li Clan were present. Li Yan opened her mouth to say something, but was silenced by a swift kick to the shins from Li Sheng under the table.

Wu Chuchu suddenly said: "Where's Fei? Why isn't she back yet?"

At this question, even the heedless Li Yan started to feel nervous.

Zhou Fei had asked for her Five Bat Token just now and left in a hurry, without a word of explanation. No one knew what she might up to now. If a single glance at Ding Kui through an open window was enough to provoke a handful of flying darts, could that hot-headed girl end up exchanging blows with the Black Turtle Sect on the street?

Li Sheng's brow furrowed. He got to his feet and said: "I'm going out to take a look."

Zhu Chen immediately echoed: "Me too…"

Uncle Lin bellowed: "Young Master!"

Zhu Chen froze, then sat back down in resignation, his pale fingers fidgeting with the porcelain cup on the table before him. Li Sheng gave the boy's shoulder a sympathetic squeeze. But just as he turned to head downstairs, he heard Madame Cirrus exclaim in surprise and say: "Little Crimson Jade, what do you have there?"

'Crimson Jade' was the alias that Xie Yun had given Zhou Fei back in Shaoyang City. While Madame Cirrus was well aware that this wasn't the girl's real name, she had taken to calling her that as she thought it sounded quite nice.

With a forceful heave, Zhou Fei got the wheels of that little wooden cart over the inn's threshold as she replied: "I've gone and gotten myself an old 'father' – who writes odes for a living."

As all the pugilists in the inn were noisily discussing that coffin procession which had just passed them by, as well as whether Huo Liantao's so-called 'Conference of Heroes to Attack the North' would be able to proceed as planned, none of them really paid much attention to Zhou Fei's entrance. Only Madame Cirrus looked quite intrigued, walking up to the cart and removing the straw hat over Xie Yun's face: "Thousand Years of Anguish?"

Li Sheng hurried down the stairs: "Fei, why are you…"

Looking up at him, Zhou Fei heaved a huge sigh of relief: "Brother, get some people to help me with this."

Everyone quickly scrambled to get settled Xie Yun in a room, trying their best to suppress the many questions they had.

Zhou Fei grabbed an empty cup and downed three cupfuls of cold water at one go. After this helped to quell the anger raging inside her somewhat, she said: "It's a really long story, we can always talk about it later. Does anyone know where we can get a doctor?"

Li Yan asked tentatively: "Fei, have you crippled him?"

"Get lost," said Zhou Fei, glaring at her. Then she turned pleading eyes onto Yang Jin, the 'Chief of the Cloud-Bracing Valley': "Brother Yang, do you…"

This leader of the 'Little Medicine Valley' shook his head vigorously: "I'm not a doctor, I can barely tell a radish apart from a ginseng."

Zhou Fei: "…"

Madame Cirrus interjected: "Let me have a look at him."

As she said this, she parted the bunch of people crowding round Xie Yun's bed, and placed her hand on his. It was ice-cold to the touch, far more so than an actual corpse – only a corpse that was frozen solid would feel like this.

Madame Cirrus was secretly taken aback. Putting her finger on the pulse at his wrist, she channelled a gentle current of chi into him, but quickly let out a soft cry of surprise. The tips of those slender, greenish-blue fingers suddenly became red with cold, as if that chi had provoked a fierce countervailing reaction. Madame Cirrus quickly withdrew her hand, muttering: "How is that possible?"

Zhou Fei asked urgently: "Madame, what did you find?"

"I only know a little about medicine," said Madame Cirrus. "But this…"

She looked down at Xie Yun. Those wisps of white hair were still attached to his temples, while Zhou Fei had torn off one side of his whiskers, giving him a truly comical appearance.

"A poison like this," said Madame Cirrus, her voice getting softer and softer, "I've seen it before. But…isn't Alioth dead already?"

When Zhou Fei heard, this, her heart plummeted to the depths. Just as she'd feared, it was Bone-Deep Frost.

She looked towards Madame Cirrus, who also happened to look back at her.

As there were plenty of others around them, including a whole bunch of people from the Xing Nan Escort Agency who had stayed behind to help, the two of them simply exchanged a meaningful look. A tacit understanding didn't actually require two people to be extremely familiar with each other: as long as they both knew enough about the issue at hand, and just so happened to be thinking of the exact same thing, it was quite easy to discern what the other meant just from the subtle shifts in facial expressions.

In this case, Zhou Fei was thinking: Is that the same thing which Elder Yu was poisoned with back then?

While with a brief blink of her eyes in place of a nod, Madame Cirrus answered in the affirmative – that's absolutely right.

Taking a deep breath, Zhou Fei put her hands behind her back together with the Mountain of the Lost Springs. She stood there in silence for a while, gazing at Xie Yun.

This fellow was lanky and long of limb, such that when she'd roughly hauled him along and flung him onto the wooden cart just now, various parts of his him had been dragged across the floor, leaving dirt stains all over his coarse linen robe. If he were to go out onto the streets right now, he would probably be granted instant membership into the Beggars' Sect. There was a slight crease in his brow, which when combined with those prosthetic wrinkles on his face, made him look quite haggard indeed.

Zhou Fei said lowly: "Does Madame have any way to cure this?"

Madame Cirrus gave her a meaningful look, replying: "If I knew how, those two apes that fled from me just now probably wouldn't have come to Yongzhou."

To an outsider's ears, this didn't seem to answer Zhou Fei's question at all, nor did it make any sense. However, Zhou Fei's eyes gleamed, as she had discerned several important pieces of information from the Madame's words –

First, Sea Blends Into Sky was closely linked to the reasons for Elder Yu and the leader of Mingfeng Tower being cured of the poison back then.

Second, Madame Cirrus clearly had some inside information on Sea Blends Into Sky, but she wasn't the main holder of its secrets. It was therefore very likely that what she'd told them in Shaoyang City was true after all: she was merely a witness or guarantor of sorts.

Third, the Twin Simian Furies had indeed come here to pursue Sea Blends Into Sky, and many of those who were in Yongzhou City right now had been similarly attracted by that carving of rippling water.

Based on what Uncle Lin had said, while the Feathercloud Troupe wasn't very active in the martial arts world today, it had ranked amongst the four great assassins more than twenty years ago. As assassins were involved in the business of taking lives, what kind of secret would have required such people to be its guarantor?

But as Zhou Fei couldn't very well probe the Madame on such a sensitive secret openly, these musings merely stayed in her mind for a moment, before she turned her attention back to the task at hand.

Exhaling softly, Zhou Fei bowed towards Madame Cirrus and said: "Many thanks to you, Madame – ahem, there's one more thing that I would like your help with."

After sending everyone else away, Li Sheng helped her to move Xie Yun to a new room. He placed Xie Yun on the bed and asked Zhou Fei: "What should I fasten this to?"

Li Sheng was holding a strange-looking lock in his hand, which looked extremely complicated and hefty. It comprised a pair of cuffs linked by an iron chain, one of which was clamped onto Xie Yun's wrist.

This device was called the 'Lock of Heaven's Gate', and could only be unlocked using a grand total of nine keys, which had to be used in a particular order. This was courtesy of Madame Cirrus, and therefore guaranteed to be sturdy. Madame Cirrus had left it to her with the following words: "Even if Li Zheng himself were chained to one end of it, and Yin Wenlan to the other, as long as neither of them has the keys, they won't be able to break free."

Madame Cirrus' things were sure to be of excellent quality. The 'Mountain of Lost Springs' was the best proof of this, which didn't bear a single scratch on it even after all that Zhou Fei had put it through.

Zhou Fei hesitated when Li Sheng asked her this – chaining this fellow to his bed was not an option. Given that Xie Yun had managed to more than hold his own against two of the Big Dipper, a damp and rickety wooden bed certainly wouldn't hold him down.

Before she could come to a decision, Li Sheng quickly said: "There's no way you're chaining him to your hand. He's a male and you're a female – it's not appropriate."

Zhou Fei: "…"

She stood there stewing in annoyance for a good long while, before saying disgruntledly: "Li Sheng, are you looking for a fight?"

Li Sheng was still holding the iron lock in his hand, the solemn expression on his face that of a protective older brother. He evidently wasn't going to budge. Zhou Fei couldn't bring herself to argue with Li Sheng over something like this, since she would feel most embarrassed, so she vented her frustration on Xie Yun instead. A devious idea came to her. She said with a savage glint in her eye: "Lock it onto his ankle."

Li Sheng: "…Ah?"

Pushing her nonplussed cousin aside, Zhou Fei proceeded to do it herself. Arranging Xie Yun's body into a fetal position, she grabbed the lock from Li Sheng's hands, and cuffed the other end to one of Xie Yun's ankles. The chain connecting the two cuffs was only about a foot long. If Xie Yun wanted to run, even if he had the most amazing qinggong in the world he would still be reduced to one of two positions: rolling around on the ground in a curled-up ball; or doubling over and hopping away.

Li Shen winced, feeling for the first time that he should perhaps have been a little kinder to Zhou Fei when they were younger. Without even staying to ask her for the details of how she'd managed to seize Xie Yun, he quickly skedaddled out of there.

At last, only a still-annoyed Zhou Fei and the sorry-looking Xie Yun were left in the room.

Zhou Fei stalked up and down the length of the room amidst the sounds of Xie Yun's shallow breathing, but unfortunately that didn't help her one bit in coming up with a plan. It only had the effect of making her dizzy. So she stopped pacing back and forth, standing still for a moment. At her wit's end, she unfastened the flute that hung at Xie Yun's waist and fiddled with it, trying to blow on it as she'd seen him do before.

But the flute in her hand merely emitted several tuneless whooshes of air, refusing to produce any music no matter how hard she tried, as if it were mocking her. Nevertheless, Zhou Fei continued to blow mindlessly way, while pondering if she should pay a visit to Madame Cirrus and ask the lady to tell her again what 'Bone-Deep Frost' was.

Zhou Fei wasn't sure which random hole she'd pressed on the flute, but that uncooperative instrument abruptly emitted a single shrill note, short and sharp. Jumping with fright, Zhou Fei looked with bewilderment at that small wooden pipe, as if she hadn't a clue how it had managed to make that sound.

All of a sudden, she looked up sharply, her eyes narrowing as she fixed them on the doorway. She threw that flute back on Xie Yun's pillow, picked up her sabre and cautiously approached the door. She flung it open – sure enough, there was someone standing there. The visitor had just raised his hand to knock, which was now poised awkwardly in mid-air. He stared back at Zhou Fei for several moments, until the snakes on his back grew impatient and started to hiss – the man at the doorway was none other than Doctor Poison, Ying Hecong.

Zhou Fei glanced at the snakes that were peeking out from between the weave of his rattan basket. While she wasn't exactly afraid of them, she did feel her skin start to crawl. She hesitantly sized up this so-called 'Doctor Poison', saying: "And you are…"

This fellow had to be from some uncivilised rural backwater. He offered neither a greeting nor an introduction upon encountering a stranger, dumbly handing Zhou Fei a straw hat instead – it was the hat that she'd covered Xie Yun's head with, which must have lain neglected somewhere after being removed by Madame Cirrus.

Ying Hecong flipped the hat over, saying: "Somebody accidentally spilled some hot water on it, which immediately stopped steaming. When I touched it, I discovered that it was ice-cold – I want to see the person who has been poisoned with Bone-Deep Frost."

Zhou Fei: "…"

Who the hell did he think he was?

Zhou Fei furrowed her brow, refusing to let him in. She warily thrust her sabre on the ground beside her and feigned ignorance: "What's Bone-Deep Frost? And who are you, pray tell?"

With a dead serious look on his sallow yet handsome face, Ying Hecong replied her candidly: "My name is Ying Hecong, and I'm a breeder of snakes. Some people call me 'Doctor Poison' – but that's just nonsense because I'm not a doctor at all. I enjoy collecting all the marvellous poisons there are on this earth, but am completely incapable of treating the sick. The person you carried in here just now was definitely poisoned with 'Bone-Deep Frost', courtesy of the late Big Dipper Alioth. There's no way I'd be wrong about this."

While a poor afflicted man who didn't seem to have many days left to live was lying here comatose, this weirdo had the cheek to come running over and say: 'Wow, that poison in you is really rare, I'm sooo envious, could I examine it? What's that….you want me to cure you? Oh, I'm afraid I can't help you with that.'

Zhou Fei felt that perhaps all of her temper had been exhausted dealing with Xie Yun just now – she couldn't be bothered to blow her top. Surprisingly, she didn't throw this snake breeder and his vermin out. Instead she looked at him sceptically and said: "No way, you don't care about curing him anyway – why should I let you see him?"

Ying Hecong replied: "I can give you a snake of your choice."

Zhou Fei: "…"

This person had to be off his rocker!

As derision was probably written all over her face right now, Ying Hecong started to look a little vexed. Wracking his brains for a solution, he added: "Although I don't have the antidote, I can explain to you in detail what Bone-Deep Frost is."

Zhou Fei stared at him expressionlessly for a moment, before finally moving aside to let him in: "Come in."

An expression of pure glee spread across Ying Hecong's countenance, as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. He looked like a money-grubbing prospector who had just unearthed a mountain of gold. Upon entering the room, he carefully set his basket of snakes aside, before circling Xie Yun several times. He placed a finger beneath Xie Yun's nose, appearing to check his temperature, and then gave a firm nod, as if he'd managed to verify something.

Although Zhou Fei didn't have her hopes up, she couldn't help but ask: "Well?"

Ying Hecong said happily: "He doesn't have long to live."

Zhou Fei started to grit her teeth menacingly.

Ying Hecong didn't seem to have the slightest inkling that he was treading on dangerous ground right now, as he said enthusiastically: "Bone-Deep Frost will cause a man to freeze into a shrivelled corpse within three months. From the looks of him, he was probably poisoned about two months ago? But hasn't Alioth been dead for three years? Who else could be capable of using this poison?"

Two months ago…

Zhou Fei thought about this – two months ago, Xie Yun had still been accompanying her on the journey from Shaoyang back to the 48 Zhai. The only person who might conceivably have poisoned him then was Ma Jili.

But Zhou Fei recalled Gu Tianxuan's unfeigned exclamation of surprise when Xie Yun had suddenly parried his blow – if even 'Merak' hadn't known Xie Yun's identity, Ma Jili certainly wouldn't have either, so he really didn't have any reason to target Xie Yun in particular, who was but a stranger.

Just as she was feeling more and more perplexed, Ying Hecong, who had been taking Xie Yun's pulse, gave another abrupt cry of surprise.

Zhou Fei gave a little start, and looked at him again.

She heard Ying Hecong mutter to himself: "This person has such deep reserves of internal strength, how did he manage to cultivate it?"

Zhou Fei: "…"

She stroked her thumb forcefully against the grooves in the scabbard of the Mountain of Lost Springs, contemplating whether she should throw this strange young man out right there and then. But before she could do so, Ying Hecong suddenly sprang to his feet and started pacing in circles round the room, getting faster and faster, till his sleeves almost started fluttering. Then without warning, he halted in his tracks, exclaiming exultantly: "I've got it!"

Zhou Fei had already despaired of hearing anything enlightening from him, and simply looked at him impassively.

"I've got it!" Ying Hecong repeated, rushing forward and rolling up Xie Yun's sleeve. There were several obvious bruises on his arm – it looked like he had recently stabbed himself with several needles – spots of greenish-purple that looked at a glance like the mottled skin of a corpse.

"This seems a little like the 'Soul-Searching Needles'." That single sentence from Ying Hecong pinned Zhou Fei to the spot.

She felt a ringing in her ears, as something in her mind clicked devastatingly.

"…Those silver needles shouldn't leave any marks, and even if a novice removes them clumsily, the wounds should heal fully within one to two days at most. It's just that Bone-Deep Frost changes a person's physiology, such that whenever they get a bruise, the blood beneath their skin will freeze, resulting in visible bruises that don't fade for months." Ying Hecong said all that in a rush, his words almost tripping over each other in his excitement. "I've got it now, this person must have been poisoned a long time ago. However, someone channelled an extremely intense current of internal strength into him, in order to suppress the poison, and then used some kind of technique to seal off his meridians…"

In case Zhou Fei still didn't understand, Ying Hecong started to elaborate while gesticulating wildly: "Just imagine that his body is a jail cell, Bone-Deep Frost is the prisoner within, and the powerful internal strength is the prison guard. As long as the guard does not leave his post, Bone-Deep Frost will remain suppressed – although I don't know what this fellow was thinking, since he actually used a technique similar to the 'Soul-Searching Needles' to draw upon that internal strength…hey, do you get what I'm saying?"

Zhou Fei had long since suspected this, or else she wouldn't have stubbornly pursued Xie Yun for so long. But to hear Ying Hecong say it so plainly from start to finish, she still felt as if someone had just whacked her in the head with a stick. She wished she could grab Xie Yun by the throat and forcibly shake him awake, just so that she could yell at him some more.

I didn't ask you to save me!

I didn't ask you to intervene in something that shouldn't have been any of your business!

Even if the 48 Zhai had been razed to the ground, or looted clean, what was it to you?

And then after making the greatest sacrifice, he had simply turned on his heel and left, preparing to die without any fanfare in a faraway corner of this earth. Did this make him feel oh so great and noble? Or perhaps incredibly moved by his own dumb martyrdom?

Seeing no visible reaction from Zhou Fei, Ying Hecong said with disbelief: "Do you still not get it? Is it really that complicated?"

Zhou Fei looked up at him suddenly: "If we could find the Sun-Returning Pill that the Great Medicine Valley used to produce, it could cure him of the poison, right?"

"Mmhm," nodded Ying Hecong in affirmation. But before Zhou Fei could start to get excited, he promptly threw cold water on her: "For a person who has just been poisoned with Bone-Deep Frost, consuming that pill would allow him to live till he was seventy or even eighty, as long as he remained in a place with abundant humidity for the rest of his life. As for him however…"

Glancing at Xie Yun, Ying Hecong said indifferently: "He's spent many years of his life living with Bone-Deep Frost already. If that poison were a seedling, it would long since have taken root and entwined itself into his flesh and blood. Not even a grenade would be able to tear the two apart, much less a Sun-Returning Pill!"

Ying Hecong had been quite proud of that rather clever little analogy that he'd come up with, but his clever self was swiftly expelled from the room by Zhou Fei, snakes and all.

One lone green snake fell out of that rattan basket. It slithered madly forward, scaring several passers-by who squawked in fright. Ying Hecong frantically scrambled after it.