Qingfeng was light, too light. His green robe was soaked and frozen, his body was shivering uncontrollably against Zhao Tie's chest. Zhao Tie kept his face cold and hard as iron, but his heart started betraying his face.
Holding this freezing, starving boy in the snow. His heart started beating loudly. This incident brought back a memory he had buried for decades.
He was from a small village in the southern region of Blue Star. It was not a cultivator village, just mortals. Winter had come early that year. Their hut had holes in the roof. There was no firewood, no rice, no food Just cold...
His mother had held him first, wrapping her thin arms around him, trying to give him her body heat. She hadn't eaten for three days, giving her last bowl of thin porridge to him. She smiled at him even as her lips turned blue. "Tie'er, don't be afraid. Mother is just sleeping."
His father sat by the broken door, blocking the wind with his own back all night. He was a mortal blacksmith with no cultivation. By morning, his back was covered in frost. He didn't wake up either.
Zhao Tie was only twelve. After his parents died, he didn't cry as if he lost all tears in his eyes. He just sat between their cold bodies, waiting for his own death. He was too poor, too hungry, too cold to move.
That was when one of the peak masters of the Eternal Sect, which back then was only a small 9th-tier sect, passed through the southern region. His name was Ba Tian. He took pity on the child. He performed the last rites for Zhao Tie's parents with his own hands, burned incense for them, and then took the silent boy with him to the sect.
That was the day Zhao Tie decided love was just a mere feeling. Feelings couldn't keep you warm. Feelings couldn't fill a stomach. Only the blade in his hand could.
And now, decades later, in the snow of Rainfrost City, he was holding another boy who was freezing to death for the same stupid reason — waiting for someone, trusting someone.
Unknown tears appeared on Zhao Tie's face. He didn't even feel them fall, hot against the cold wind.
Qingfeng, half-conscious in his arms, also noticed the tears. He somehow lifted his trembling, frozen hand to Zhao Tie's cheek and wiped the tears away with his fingertips. A small, foolish smile was on his face.
"Young master... don't cry... I'm not dead yet..."
Zhao Tie murmured, "Idiot!"
He looked away from him, his jaw tight. Then he took him inside the Heaven-grade room from the window. As a cultivator, it was really easy for him to reach the third floor by jumping with Qingfeng in his arms.
After reaching the room, he closed the window with a wave of his sleeve, blocking out the snowstorm. He helped Qingfeng lay down on the warm bed. He had already lost his consciousness by now. Zhao Tie checked his pulse. It was weak, too weak to even stay alive.
Zhao Tie immediately sat down and sent his own qi through Qingfeng's meridians. His Eternal Sutra qi was pure and warm, slowly melting the ice-attribute spiritual energy that had invaded Qingfeng's body and was freezing his internal organs.
Then he took out a holy-grade medicine that Sect Master Huai had given him before. He remembered his words clearly,
"This pill is called ' Holy Pill Of Life'. "
"Always carry these medicines with you. No matter which disease it is or what kind of wounds or curse someone got, this medicine alone can save your life fully on the verge of death... I'm giving you 100 each."
He took out one pill. The pill had 12 multicolor marks on its surface, and the aroma alone made the whole room feel fresh and full of life. He put the medicine in Qingfeng's mouth and the medicine melted the moment it touched his tongue.
Qingfeng's face became rosy again within seconds. His body started healing from the inside. His qi, which was almost dried up, started getting more and more refined, circulating on its own. His skin tone returned to normal, warm and alive...
Zhao Tie checked his pulse again. This time it was normal. Now he was just sleeping peacefully. He sighed a breath of relief. But the whole night, he waited at the side of the bed in case he needed anything. Qingfeng slept the whole night in peace.
In the morning, he woke up in the bed. He didn't remember anything of what happened after Zhao Tie took him in his arms. He groaned and rubbed his head, then looked at the room and saw a luxurious room.
The Heaven-grade room was huge. The floor was made of warm fire-jade that kept the whole room hot even in Rainfrost City. A soft beast-fur carpet covered the center. Incense burned in a golden burner, filling the air with a light pine scent. The bed he was on was carved from thousand-year spirit wood, with silk blankets that felt like clouds.
He immediately thought of Zhao Tie, but around himself he saw no one. Even the window was still closed. After the whole night of snowfall, the weather had cleared now. In the snow below, many vendors had already set up their stalls, while people were walking on the streets chattering with each other.
He got up from the bed and saw a space pouch resting beside him. He checked the inside and froze. There were millions of mid-grade spirit stones and even 100,000 high-grade spirit stones inside the space pouch.
He immediately thought of Zhao Tie. Maybe he was the one who forgot this space pouch here. He got up from the bed and went to the window. He opened it and looked below. There were many people, but he couldn't see the person he wanted to see at all.
He got freshened up and got out of the room and descended through the stairs. When he reached the front desk, the girl suddenly stopped him.
"Young master!"
He stopped, looked at the girl, and said quickly, "I'm sorry, it was not me. It was him who let me enter his room yesterday..."
The girl chuckled, covering her mouth. "You don't need to mention it, young master. This morning the real owner of that room informed us about you and even gave us a high-grade spirit stone for today. You can stay in that room for many days. That's the thing I wanted to inform you."
Qingfeng nodded at her, then left the inn to find Zhao Tie. But he didn't see anyone near at all. He walked left and right the snowy street, asking vendors, looking into shops.
He felt dejected. No matter how much he tried, he still couldn't find him at all.
Gu Qingfeng walked towards the mountain. He searched the whole summit where Zhao Tie had practiced his blade, but still couldn't find him. Then he descended the mountain through the same road they took yesterday, checking every rock and turn, but still didn't find any clue about Zhao Tie.
He finally slumped on a chair at the noodle shop where he had met Zhao Tie yesterday, but still couldn't find his whereabouts at all.
On the other side,
Zhao Tie came to a distant village. This village was not poor anymore. Now this whole planet was under the Eternal Sect, and due to the Eternal Academy, every human could cultivate and study there.
Zhao Tie came towards an abandoned house at the edge of the village. This place was still like he had left it decades ago. He entered the small garden of the house to see two tombs, dirty and covered in snow from yesterday night.
He knelt down. He cleared the snow from them with his own hands, placed the white flowers he had brought for them at the graves, then sat on the cold ground and talked to them.
"Mother, Father... I'm back."
His voice was quiet, not cold like usual.
"I've become strong now. Stronger than anyone on Blue Star. The sect you sent me to with your last breath helped me , they became my family...take care of me and even showed me the real meaning of 'home'..."
He placed his forehead gently against his mother's tombstone.
" I ...I met someone yesterday. He is actually quite like me, my old self. Stupid, stubborn, waiting to die in the cold for someone else."
He was silent for a long time, snow falling softly on his black robe from the trees above...
"I gave him spirit stones. I saved him from the snows, I don't know why....but he reminds me of you. He believed me like you believed me before..."
At the noodle shop, Qingfeng was just about to go search for Zhao Tie again, when many people masked in black clothes surrounded him in the shop. The normal customers knew that a fight would occur at any moment, so they all went inside the shops, looking from the open windows.
Qingfeng clenched the fan in his hand. The spirit pouch Zhao Tie gave him was swinging at his waist. He sighed and said, "I did everything you told me to do. You even tore open my master's tomb to find his things. Why don't you let me stay out of your politics?"
The guy in front sneered, his voice cold behind the mask. "It is our young master who gave us the order to kill you no matter what! You deserve to die, bastard !"
Gu Qingfeng felt a little bit sad in his heart. The young master they were talking about was his own brother... even a brother from his own father. Although their mothers were different, he still thought of him as his own brother.
He opened his fan slowly, the green qi starting to circulate around him.
"Then tell Gu Changfeng," he said quietly, "if he wants me dead, he should come himself. Sending dogs won't work."
The fight started in the noodle shop.
The first masked man rushed forward with a short blade aimed at Qingfeng's throat. Qingfeng didn't move back. He flicked his fan open with a snap.
A gust of sharp green wind shot out. The blade broke in half, and the wind cut straight through the man's neck. Blood sprayed on the snow outside the window. One down.
"Kill him together!" the leader shouted.
Three more jumped from the left, right, and above. Qingfeng spun on his shoes, his green robe fluttering. He tapped the ground lightly and jumped onto a table.
He closed his fan and used it like a dagger. He stabbed it into the first man's chest, qi exploding inside. The man's heart stopped instantly. He kicked the body into the second attacker, making him stumble.
The third one slashed from behind. Qingfeng bent backward impossibly low, the blade passing over his nose. He opened his fan under the man's chin and released his technique.
"Wind Severing Slash!"
A crescent of green light flew up. It cut the man from waist to shoulder cleanly. He fell in two pieces, screaming.
The people watching from the windows gasped. The noodle shop owner hid under his counter, shaking.
Two more tried to run. Qingfeng threw his fan. It spun like a wheel, cutting through both their legs at the knee. They fell, then he recalled the fan back to his hand and finished them with a single tap to the forehead each...