Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 94: Before the Snowfall

Soon, the blood-red sunset fell once again.

Guan He was reaching his limit.

He had never gone this long without sleep. The loop didn’t follow a strict timeline, and his biological clock was completely ruined. His neck had practically vanished, and his hunched back wouldn’t straighten. The surrounding text wasn’t just unreadable. It began to flash and flicker on signs, the strokes trembling like they were alive.

Light stabbed at his eyes, breaking into disorienting flares. The voices around him were as indecipherable as code. He could barely respond, his tongue and throat felt replaced by cold iron, shriveled tight, dry and rigid, reeking of metallic blood.

So tired. Too tired. Thinking was impossible.

His brain was like liquid lead, swaying slowly inside his skull, pulling his balance out of alignment. His distorted body wouldn’t move properly, and he couldn’t even muster the energy to bounce around to stay awake.

All he wanted was to collapse and sleep like the dead.

What future, what life and death—it was all too far away to think about. He didn’t want to. He couldn’t.

Just as he was about to fall over, Fang Xiu strode past him and opened the room’s window. The wintry wind swept in and cleared out the stuffy heat. Guan He shivered, suddenly a little more awake.

“Ejeo… you all… jzkxw… only need to do two things… don’t sleep. Trust me.”

Fang Xiu crouched in front of him, his face blurred by exhaustion.

Guan He nodded with great effort.

A strange surge of frustration welled up in him. This was the fifth ritual, and even after two months of training, he hadn’t managed to become Fang Xiu’s right-hand man like he’d imagined.

Maybe cultivators had the advantage. Yan Yan always looked on the verge of death from fatigue, yet his transformation was still slower. Guan He and Cheng Songyun were currently the fastest mutating of everyone, dead weight to Fang Xiu at this point.

This couldn’t go on.

Guan He summoned his child ghost with difficulty, trying to mentally communicate: if you see me or Cheng Songyun about to fall asleep, smack us awake. Hard hits are fine too.

The child ghost tilted its head in vague understanding, then slapped Guan He across the face with a loud smack.

His head snapped back, and his scattered vision sharpened a little.

…He could make out Fang Xiu’s smile.

Even through blurred eyes, Fang Xiu’s expression was clear. He looked like an unusually aged elder, gently patting Guan He’s shoulder.

“You staying awake is the best help you can give me.”

His voice cut through the haze like breaking water. “This is good training too. Don’t underestimate the power of will.”

But then you’ll be without support, Guan He thought. He swallowed but couldn’t remember how to speak and just let out two muffled sounds.

He watched as Fang Xiu’s figure disappeared through the doorway.

……

Zhuang Pengdao calmly took out a yellow talisman and slipped it into Hu Die’s usual areas of activity.

His movements were casual and his posture straight. He seemed entirely unaffected by the looping.

The flowerbeds in the residential complex, the elevator, office floors, corners of coffee shops… With each cycle, he’d mapped out her common haunts precisely.

Mei Lan followed him with his two disciples in tow.

Jiao Jiao was so exhausted her eyes wouldn’t stay open. Bent over, she and Yan Yan looked like a pair of shrimp. After the fourth cycle, Zhuang Pengdao had given up on them.

“Same method again,” she said.

“If a spell has been refined for decades, might as well use it.”

Zhuang Pengdao smiled at her. “No matter what you say, this technique was born from celestial magic.”

Mei Lan didn’t smile back, but he didn’t mind. “Your team’s quality is impressive. That Fang Xiu really doesn’t know metaphysics? Doesn’t seem like it.”

“He definitely doesn’t. Just quick-witted,” Mei Lan said.

“Quick-witted? Intelligence can’t explain this situation.”

Zhuang Pengdao pressed his chest, revealing the faint outline of a jade pendant. “You and I are using others’ souls to offset transformation, which is why we haven’t broken down. But that guy is enduring all this empty-handed… ha.”

Mei Lan instinctively touched her own pendant. She could feel the twisted, struggling souls within. By letting them bear the corruption, she’d even snuck in a few naps.

Zhuang Pengdao had surely killed more. He must’ve rested too.

Their understanding of this E came from one source…

The “Immortal E” behind this dreamscape had once circulated within their Guishan Sect. It was quickly sold to a wealthy buyer, but the sect kept a record.

Even just a few lines had been enough to reveal the truth.

This was a looping dream. The dreamscape was too vast and precise. Unless the one controlling the E was a ghost immortal, they too would be affected.

…For example, the controller also had to suffer the loop’s soul damage.

To avoid mutating, they would have to use the same method: substitute others’ souls. In a way, this had become a kind of “arms race” to see who had the most “disposable souls”.

Loop after loop, only Fang Xiu was the anomaly.

“The world’s a big place. Maybe ordinary people have their own paths,” Mei Lan said quietly.

Zhuang Pengdao inserted a talisman between two cement slabs. “Easy for you to say. A normal person enduring the ‘Yellow Millet* E’ shouldn’t exist.”

*[Huangliang] It’s an idiom that comes from a tale from the Tang dynasty where it tells of a scholar who stayed at an inn and met a Taoist. As the innkeeper cooks millet porridge, the scholar falls asleep and dreams of living out his entire life in fame, fortune, and power. However, when he wakes up from the dream, he finds that the millet hasn’t even finished cooking. The idiom is used to describe something as illusory, fleeting (aka a fantasy, fleeting dream).

“He has no substitute soul and hasn’t rested. If that kid is really taking the full damage, then his mental strength is on par with a monster.”

That would mean Fang Xiu had minimized the soul damage to an absurd degree. Aside from the loop’s built-in effects, his mind was rock-steady, untouched even by endless sleep deprivation.

But that was like a “perfectly frictionless surface”, a theoretical concept only.

Mei Lan’s tone was cold. “Fang Xiu doesn’t interfere with your plan. Why care what he does?”

Zhuang Pengdao paused, then said with interest, “What, don’t want me looking at him? …You like him, Xiao Mei?”

“No.”

“I’m not the jealous ex type.”

“Annoying.” Disgust crept into Mei Lan’s expression.

“Doesn’t matter if you deny it. When I kill him, I’ll make it gentle,” Zhuang Pengdao said with a smile.

After figuring out the solution, he’d planned to wait until everyone else was incapacitated. But Fang Xiu was lasting too long. Zhuang Pengdao’s soul reserves weren’t infinite. He couldn’t afford to waste them.

Mei Lan stared at the ground without reacting.

The sunset bathed the earth in light. The ground was still clean, not yet covered in snow. In a crack between stones, a wild sprout had forced its way through, stubbornly clinging to a hint of green.

But she already knew its fate.

……

Jiao Jiao and Yan Yan stood hunched at the school gates, waiting for Meng Xiaomeng to finish class. Fang Xiu said he needed to care for teammates and hadn’t joined them.

Their posture looked odd, but their ridiculous outfits helped balance it out.

“That Zhuang Pengdao definitely knows the solution.” Jiao Jiao forced herself awake. “I’ve done several divinations. It’s same answer every time. I have no idea why he’s dragging it out… Does he want us dead?”

Tiredness makes people cranky. In her eyes now, Zhuang Pengdao wasn’t some handsome man, but an obnoxious humanoid pest.

“My dad said the strongest human spell is called the ‘Heaven-Breaking Technique’. Passed down from the gods.”

Yan Yan, also bent over, was stomping his toes. “If he’s using that, yeah, it takes time to prepare…”

“Heaven-Breaking Technique?” Jiao Jiao perked up.

“Yeah… yawn… needs a long setup…” Yan Yan let out a huge yawn, his mouth nearly splitting to his ears. “Once the core’s found, it cuts off all magic indiscriminately… like how Samadhi Fire can destroy E wholesale.”

“They think Hu Die is controlling the E, so they’ll shut her down… Doesn’t matter what she’s doing. It’ll all be force-stopped.”

“Is that even possible?!”

“It’s not that magical… Hu Die’s not a ghost immortal bound to the E. The E is just a tool in her hands.”

Yan Yan gave another yawn and a furry fox tail popped out of his back, nearly ripping his pants.

“The Heaven-Breaking Technique is an extraordinary spell. If Zhuang Pengdao really knows it, it’s no wonder he’s cleared so many E’s…”

Jiao Jiao was speechless. She found it plausible.

The Underworld had dared to toss them in here, and Zhuang Pengdao had remained calm the entire time. Maybe he really was the destined protagonist, armed with divine secrets, practically a walking guarantee.

“Does Fang Xiu know about this?” she asked.

She slowly pulled out her tarot cards, preparing another divination.

“Mm? Nah, I was just guessing. I didn’t tell Fang Xiu…” Yan Yan rubbed his eyes. “Doesn’t matter. If it really is the Heaven-Breaking Technique, once Zhuang Pengdao acts, we just ride the win… ow!”

Jiao Jiao smacked him on the head. His furry fox ears popped out too.

“We’re on the sixth ritual and you’re still talking crap.” She propped her eyelids open and shuffled the cards quickly. “You can’t slack off on life-or-death matters. That’s the iron rule.”

“We’re already curled like shrimp…” Yan Yan grumbled.

She shot him a glare. For the first time, she tried divining Fang Xiu’s fate. He’d always been average in their investigations, so it wasn’t worth the effort.

But now something felt wrong.

If Zhuang Pengdao really had the Heaven-Breaking Technique and kept it secret, that was suspicious. Their target this time was an Immortal E, something incredibly valuable in the living world. It wasn’t hard for her to not overthink.

Fang Xiu was clever, yet seemingly harmless. If even he was in danger, they needed a backup plan.

The beautiful tarot cards spun above her palm.

“Will Fang Xiu survive this ritual?”

No response.

She bit her tongue. Maybe her distorted mind was mispronouncing the question.

“Will Fang Xiu survive this ritual?”

This time she slowed down, but the cards still gave no reaction.

They floated slowly, like she’d said something utterly meaningless.

“No divination? Seriously? You can read Zhuang Pengdao, but not this ‘normal guy’?”

Yan Yan pressed his ears down and leaned in curiously.

Jokes aside, Jiao Jiao was a terrifyingly powerful diviner. There shouldn’t be anyone she couldn’t read.

As far as he knew, her only blind spots were herself and him, since their fates were tightly linked.

Yan Yan thought hard through the brain fog. “Doesn’t he have a ghost attached? Maybe Fang Xiu’s ghost has serious weight?”

“No, I asked about Fang Xiu. Even the Jade Emperor couldn’t block it.”

Jiao Jiao frowned and put the cards away. “Something’s wrong. Even if he were a living corpse or a pure-blood monster, I should still get something.”

“Then?”

“I don’t know,” she murmured.

“I only know one thing. Whatever he is, he can’t possibly be just a ‘normal person’.”

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