Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Wujiu Peak was a place for recuperation in name, but in reality, it was a snowy prison.

On the first night Feng Fulan was confined there, she managed to piece together a general idea of her situation from the previous owner’s fragmented memories. The original Feng Fulan and Ning Changye both hailed from the Qingheng Sect, and in their youth, they were hailed as the sect’s Twin Paragons. Later, Gui Zhishuang died at the edge of the Demon Abyss, and all evidence pointed toward Feng Fulan. From then on, she became a Condemned Woman despised by all, and Ning Changye personally escorted her back to the mountain gate, where she was imprisoned for three whole years.

Now, it was her turn to deal with this mess.

When the door pushed open, Ning Changye walked in alone.

Snow-white moonlight fell across the threshold. He stood at the boundary between light and shadow, looking like a sword that remained unsheathed yet still suppressed a murderous intent.

“Who are you?” He got straight to the point.

Feng Fulan sat by the bed, looking down at the faint red line on her wrist. She gave a short laugh. “You should ask who the person truly harming you is first.”

“Answer my question.”

“I am still Feng Fulan,” she said, looking up. “But I am not the Feng Fulan you think I am.”

Ning Changye clearly didn’t believe her. With a flick of his finger, a wisp of sword qi pressed against her throat. But Feng Fulan didn’t flinch; she simply looked at him and suddenly frowned. “Lately, at the hour of the rat, does your chest feel cold, your spiritual veins surge in reverse, and your right hand occasionally go numb when holding a sword?”

Ning Changye’s gaze darkened.

“Also, when you are angry, you feel a needle-like pain behind your ear. It’s not an injury; it’s a nail.”

Feng Fulan wasn’t saying this to play tricks. She had smelled a faint, charred bitterness when he approached-a scent that only appeared after meridians had been eroded by yin baleful energy for years. Furthermore, when he spat out blood earlier, the color was blackish, which was clearly abnormal.

Ning Changye stared at her for a long time, his voice cold. “How do you know these things?”

“I can see it,” Feng Fulan shrugged. “I’ve saved many people on the verge of death before.”

This statement was even stranger.

Just as Ning Changye was about to ask more, his expression suddenly changed, and he slammed his hand against his chest. Almost at the same instant, the sword qi around him spiraled out of control, and the teacups in the room shattered with a bang. Without thinking, Feng Fulan lunged forward and grabbed his wrist.

The pulse under her palm was shockingly chaotic, as if something sharp was burrowing through his veins toward his heart.

“Sit down!” she commanded sharply.

Ning Changye instinctively tried to pull away, but the moment their fingers touched, the violent pain in his chest was forcibly halved. As the Shared Fate Seal glowed, Feng Fulan let out a muffled groan, sweat instantly breaking out on her forehead.

Enduring the pain, she pulled a hairpin from her hair and pressed it into an acupoint three inches from his heart meridian. She then quickly tore a strip of cloth from the bed curtains to bind his right arm, suppressing the back-surging spiritual energy.

“Don’t circulate your power. Breathe slowly. Follow my lead.”

Ning Changye’s face was pale, but he actually managed to suppress the episode under her guidance.

A quarter of an hour later, his breathing stabilized, though the look in his eyes was even more complex than before.

Feng Fulan leaned against the bedpost, panting, her palms drenched in cold sweat. “Do you believe me now? The thing buried inside your body is far more dangerous than I am.”

Ning Changye remained silent for a moment before suddenly asking, “Did you save me because you’re afraid that if I die, you won’t survive either?”

Feng Fulan looked up at him. “Half of it is that. The other half is that I can’t stand to see someone I can save die in front of me.”

This answer was so blunt that it caught Ning Changye off guard for a second.

He turned to walk out, only dropping a low sentence as he reached the door: “Follow me down the mountain tomorrow.”

“To where?”

“Something happened at the Outer Gate Spirit Spring.” He didn’t look back. “Didn’t you say you could save people? I’m giving you a chance to prove it.”