Chapter 8

The temperature was freezing, causing the flow of blood to slow, and the limbs to stiffen.

Yu Tao glanced at the increasingly weakened Zhu Mingyu and felt that they couldn’t continue like this. If things went on, they would freeze to death before help arrived.

She pushed aside the snow piled at the cave entrance, checked the surroundings, and after seeing that no demonic beasts were nearby, crawled out.

“Classmate Zhu, wait for me here.”

The entrance was blocked with snow again, and leaning against the stone wall, Zhu Mingyu stared at the faint light filtering through the snow layers. She bit her lip and tried hard to shake off the drowsiness.

Yu Tao went out to search for some twigs, dead wood, or something she could use to start a fire for warmth.

But the snow-covered land was entirely a vast, white expanse with no trees in sight. The dazzling sunlight reflected into her eyes, and after looking at it for a while, Yu Tao felt a slight soreness in her eyes and blinked.

Then she felt a tingling sensation in her nose.

She didn’t show how unsettled she really was.

On the contrary, her heart was in complete disarray.

She had only just embarked on the path of cultivation and had never imagined witnessing such a situation happening around her.

She wasn’t sure if that person had seen through her little trick, whether the message she left would be discovered, or if anyone would come to rescue them.

In her extreme panic, she inexplicably thought of Yu Li.

Two years ago, a pair of sea demons sought revenge for their daughter, who had been accidentally killed by a fishermen, and they wove an illusion of sea monsters over the entire Haicheng.

The people trapped in the illusion tightly closed their eyes and began picking up weapons, killing each other.

At the time, Yu Tao didn’t know why, but she hadn’t fallen into the illusion and had actually seen the sea demons casting their spell.

In a panic, she fled through the city, while the citizens, not aware, swung their harpoons at her.

In the end, exhausted from running and with an injured leg, she stumbled into a dead-end alley, where the blind-eyed citizens blocked her escape.

At the moment of crisis, a flash of sword light knocked the harpoon away. Her arm was grabbed, and in an instant, her body was lifted and transported safely to a rooftop.

The person let go of her, and as Yu Tao turned her head, she clearly saw his face and was momentarily stunned.

The young man stood with his sword, dressed in black, his demeanor cold and stern. His eyebrows and eyes were like a painting, but those light golden eyes, scanning his surroundings, carried an aloof, untouchable chill.

He was an exceptionally handsome young man.

Yu Tao had lived in Haicheng for over ten years but had never seen anyone so good-looking. For a moment, she asked absent-mindedly, “Are you a sea demon?”

The young man turned to glance at her, seemingly not expecting her to say something so silencing.

He paused for a moment and then spoke coolly, “If I were a sea demon, I probably wouldn’t eat someone like you.”

Yu Tao was taken aback and muttered, “So sea demons are picky eaters?”

She asked, “What kind of people do sea demons like to eat? I’ll try to go in the opposite direction.”

The young man: “……”

He had just opened his mouth to respond when, in the next moment, they heard the sound of something slicing through the air. The demonic sound of the sea demon attacked from midair, clearly sensing his presence.

Yu Li moved quickly, pushing Yu Tao into the attic and using spiritual power to create a protective shield. He then drew out his longsword and charged at the sea demon in the air, engaging in a fierce battle.

Yu Tao, an ordinary person, was completely ignored by both sides. She watched from the attic window, her eyes watering from the flashing sparks and spiritual light from the battle in the sky.

Although she didn’t understand cultivation, she could clearly see that the young man had the upper hand. The sea demon that attacked first was being steadily pushed back.

Yu Tao sighed in relief. If that was the case, the sea demons should be subdued soon.

Wait…

A pair of sea demons.

Yu Tao focused her gaze. From the beginning until now, only one male sea demon had been fighting the young man, the female sea demon had never appeared.

Yu Tao immediately sensed something was wrong. Why was one sea demon fighting while the other remained hidden?

It was obvious that the female sea demon had noticed the difference in strength between them and was…

Yu Tao’s eyes searched around, and she finally spotted a faint, bluish glow in a hidden corner by the wall.

That was the spiritual light of the sea demon preparing to cast a spell.

Yu Tao glanced again at the young man in mid-air. He seemed completely unaware of this, focused solely on fending off the continuous attacks from the male sea demon.

In her mind, Yu Tao quickly made a judgment: if the female sea demon succeeded in her plan, neither of them would survive.

The demonic sound was so loud that Yu Tao couldn’t verbally warn him. After thinking for a moment, she decided to run down from the attic and try to disrupt and stop the female sea demon.

Suddenly, a cold voice echoed in her mind.

“Don’t go.”

It was the young man’s voice. Yu Tao froze for a moment and looked toward the figure in the distance, hovering in the air.

His expression remained calm and unaffected, though he seemed to casually glance in her direction.

It seemed he knew about the situation but was pretending not to, probably having some backup plan.

Yu Tao felt reassured and continued watching him fight from the window.

As time passed, the female sea demon in the shadows seemed to have finished preparing her spell and signaled to the male sea demon in the open. The male sea demon suddenly became more aggressive in his attacks.

The young man, caught off guard, began to retreat step by step, struggling to keep up and unable to defend himself.

At that moment, a faint, bluish light shot toward his back from the shadows with incredible speed.

The young man, distracted by the attack in front of him, didn’t notice it at all.

Yu Tao’s heart twisted in anxiety.

Just as the bluish light was about to hit the young man’s back, a white halo suddenly intercepted it, dissolving the blue light into a milky sphere, as if the blue light was being absorbed by the white.

The young man suddenly chuckled lightly, moving his fingers to collect the white sphere of spiritual power.

In that moment, his earlier disarray vanished completely. His posture became clear and composed, and with a calm motion, he struck the male sea demon with a sword, piercing it straight through.

After dealing with both sea demons, Yu Li walked toward the attic and withdrew the protective spiritual shield.

The sea demons were dead, but the citizens in the city had yet to recover. The young man lowered his gaze, manipulating the white spiritual sphere in his hand for a moment before crushing it.

The bluish spiritual energy spread, brushing past them and enveloping the city.

At this moment, Yu Tao finally understood. He had been able to handle both sea demons easily from the start, deliberately pretending to be weak in order to deceive the sea demons and gain access to their spell.

His approach was calm and rational, almost perfect.

However, Yu Tao had a slight doubt: “Immortal, the sea demon’s illusion spell makes people fall into a dream. If you use it on them again, are you planning to fight poison with poison? A dream within a dream, and then wake them up with a scare?”

Yu Li’s tone remained flat: “The sea demon’s illusion is woven from the deepest desires of the heart. The more one desires something, the more one will fall into it.”

“The way to break the sea demon’s illusion is to enter the dream and save the trapped people. There are so many people in the city. If I were to save them one by one, I wouldn’t be able to leave for half a year.”

“The simplest method, of course, is to use one dream to counter another. When two completely different dreams appear at the same time, the person affected by the illusion will quickly realize that it’s a ‘false dream’ and thus wake up.”

Yu Tao nodded. “I understand.”

She hesitated for a moment and asked, “Immortal, I have one more small question. For those who didn’t fall into the illusion before, will they be affected by the spell now…?”

Yu Li looked at the gradually awakening citizens, his expression still calm. “None of the people in this city have been unaffected by the sea demon’s illusion…”

As he spoke, he suddenly realized something and abruptly stopped.

His light golden eyes quickly glanced at the girl, whose words had trailed off halfway.

She had lowered her lashes and closed her eyes, her breathing shallow.

The young man: “…”

—

Yu Tao searched for a while before finally finding some dry wood and gathering fallen leaves, then hurried back to the cave.

The snow layer was pushed aside, and light streamed in. Zhu Mingyu blinked, looking at Yu Tao’s busy figure, feeling a strange sense of bitterness in her heart.

She hadn’t come back for a long time, and she thought Yu Tao had run away.

“You seem to be very experienced.” Looking at the way Yu Tao skillfully started the fire, Zhu Mingyu remarked.

Yu Tao gave a soft “mm” sound. “Before I came to Wuchang Sect, I lived in ^[1]“Haicheng” or “Hai” (海) City would typically be translated as “Sea City” or “Ocean City”Haicheng. I had to make fire every day to cook, so I became proficient over time.”

“You lived alone before?”

Yu Tao carefully placed the fallen leaves on the small flame while replying, “Yes, I got used to it.”

“I live alone now too. My senior Brother asked if I wanted to live with the other disciples. I thought about it for a while but decided against it.”

“Why?”

The flame turned into a flickering tongue of fire, crackling as it jumped. Yu Tao thought for a moment before smiling and saying, “Because I snore and grind my teeth when I sleep, I’m afraid I’d disturb others.”

Zhu Mingyu: … Liar.

She remembered seeing Yu Tao sleep quietly at the desk after early class the other day. Her breathing was shallow, and she looked so well-behaved.

Just like the little rabbit she had raised before.

But Yu Tao didn’t mention the real reason, and Zhu Mingyu could more or less guess what it was.

With her average talent, being accepted as a disciple by Master Xuan Yu meant she would never make friends among the other disciples. Even if she did, they wouldn’t be genuine friends.

This point could be seen from the fact that she always traveled alone.

Yu Tao started the fire and sat beside it to warm herself, but she didn’t feel very warm. She had been outside for too long, and her hands and feet were already numb.

She glanced at Zhu Mingyu and noticed that her pale face had eased a bit, and Yu Tao breathed a sigh of relief.

It seemed to be working for her after all.

Time passed slowly. Exhausted, Yu Tao’s eyelids grew heavy, and she could hardly keep them open. She slapped her face and pinched her palm, trying hard to stay alert as she stared at the burning fire.

The flames flickered, sometimes turning into clouds, then into a cat, and eventually slowly shaped into Yu Li’s face.

Two years ago, she had still fallen into the sea demon’s illusion, though she couldn’t remember what the dream was. But when she woke up, the first thing she saw was Yu Li.

He had just opened his eyes at that moment, and they locked gazes. Yu Tao immediately realized that it was him who had saved her.

She hurriedly thanked him, “Thank you, Immortal, for saving me.”

… Although that illusion was his fault for forgetting there was an ordinary person like her by his side and accidentally creating it.

Yu Li didn’t look at her again, his voice a bit hoarse. “No need to thank me.”

Yu Tao took a moment to observe him and noticed that his ears were slightly red, and his face had a hint of warmth. She blinked and asked, “Immortal, is it difficult to break a dream?”

Yu Li replied calmly, “It’s not that hard.”

Yu Tao hesitated. “But you look like you’re really tired. Was my dream very strange? What did you see? Could you tell me…”

The young man interrupted her coldly. “No.”

There were probably some parts that needed to be kept secret.

Yu Tao obediently said, “Alright then. Immortal, do you know why I was fine the first time the sea demons used its spell, but I fell under its spell the second time?”

This puzzled her greatly. It didn’t make sense—surely the first sea demon spell wasn’t fake.

This time, Yu Li finally looked at her, but the emotions in his light golden eyes were unclear.

After a moment of silence, he turned his head and spoke, “I don’t know either.”

Yu Tao blinked. Before she could ask again, the young man naturally squatted down in front of her. “Alright, stop asking. I’ll take you home.”

Yu Tao: !!!

Although her leg was injured, she could still walk, and Yu Tao felt both surprised and honored.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, her face burning, slightly burying it in his slender shoulder, guiding him to her home, and was carried back by the young man.

After staring at the fire for too long, Yu Tao blinked, easing the dryness in her eyes.

After Yu Li carried her home that day, he left Haicheng, and for the next two years, Yu Tao never saw him again.

Yu Tao thought.

When they met again half a month ago, he had a calm expression and treated her like a stranger, clearly having forgotten her long ago, just as she had expected.

After all, he had saved so many people, and there were hundreds in Haicheng alone. It was perfectly normal for him not to remember her.

That experience was probably just another ordinary day in his life.

She didn’t know how long it had been when the snow suddenly parted.

As blinding light poured in, Hua Lian’s anxious voice rang in her ears. “Little Junior Sister!”

“Phew, finally found you.”

The standoff had lasted too long, and at this point, Yu Tao’s consciousness was becoming a bit hazy. She didn’t even know when the person had arrived.

After a moment of sluggishness, she turned her eyes and saw two figures against the light.

She was slightly stunned.

Senior Brother Hua Lian, and… Yu Li?

Hua Lian quickly checked the condition of the two girls and let out a sigh of relief. “Fortunately, the wounds were treated in time. Junior Brother, I’m leaving Junior Sister to you.”

After speaking, he picked up Zhu Mingyu and used a teleportation jade to teleport her back.

At least Classmate Zhu’s situation was fine.

Yu Tao shifted her gaze away from Zhu Mingyu, only to find the young man squatting in front of her. His beautiful light golden eyes were filled with concern.

For a moment, her consciousness was a bit disoriented, as if the timeline from two years ago was overlapping with this moment. Her nose suddenly tingled with a sharp feeling.

Yu Li stared at her calmly. “Can you move?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the girl suddenly raised her hand and tugged at his sleeve.

She slowly lifted her eyes, clouded with mist, looking both hopeful and cautious. “Senior Brother, I don’t have the strength anymore, and my leg hurts so much.”

“Could you… carry me?”

—

Word Count: 2,726