The Voyage In The Blizzard - Chapter 74

“So the words of the spell are the map.”

“Yes, and it’s very cunning. Whoever came up with this combination of words must be very clever. He hid the real map right in the words. And no one noticed it!” starting to draw a map with his finger in the snow, Longwei continued, “You know what I mean, right?”

Sitting next to him, Yun Qi took the paper and read the spell out loud and said, “Three-headed, this means Three Mountains, then the Height, is this about that mountain?” Pointing forward to the solitary mountain, Yun Qi stood up and lifted her head to the sky. “The moon, this means that you need to go towards the moon. And the moon is always over that mountain at night. Although, we see it very rarely.”

“Yes. That’s right. We need to go towards that mountain.”

“Half, south rain. Three roads, turn.” Lei continued. “When we get to the mountain, we need to go south and there will be three roads and a turn.”

“We need to get to that mountain first. That’s far enough. We’ll have to go through this whole forest.” Longwei said.

Lei threw his backpack behind him and said, “Come on.”

Walking in front of them, Yun Qi put her hands in her pockets and thought deeply about something until Longwei asked, “What are you thinking?”

To which she replied, “I think of everyone. Now what will become of Xing Fu and Shidai. Sun will not let them live in peace.”

“They will be all right. And what about Sun, he will soon reach the bottom. People like him do not enjoy all the blessings of life for long.” Longwei answered.

“Are you saying that good always triumphs over evil?” Slowing down her pace, Yun Qi asked while looking at Longwei’s flushed face.

“Isn’t it? It always was and it always will be.”

“Don’t be so naive dad. Good, evil, we do not live in a fairy tale. There is no room for good and evil. There is only victory and failure.”

“Isn’t this the same thing as good and evil? Victory is good, but failure is evil.”

“Victory is a reward for the strongest, but failure is a punishment for weakness. And there is no good or evil here.” Yun Qi replied.

Smiling, Longwei looked at Lei who was walking silently. “You are the real philosopher. Your words should be written down as the precious quotes.”

Entering a narrow path that led to a beautiful grove filled with pine trees, Lei, changing the topic of conversation, said, “It’s all interesting. How everything is conceived and how everything is. I mean, for centuries, everyone continued to live like in this world there are no questions. They lived and fought and no one asked the question, “Why is this so?” And now, after so many centuries, it was we who found the book and Yun Qi was born.”

“Everyone did not think about the world because everyone was too busy surviving. Over time, man adapted to this ice world and therefore he did not see the need to change anything.” Yun Qi responded by running her fingers over the pine needles.

“This Jang Sun must have been a powerful magician to inflict such a powerful curse.”

“And all because of love.” Lei added ironically, catching Longwei’s strange look.

“Love. Dad, did you ever had this feeling?” Yun Qi suddenly asked.

Not knowing how to answer, Longwei looked down and nervously laughed and got confused in his answers.

Noticing his reaction, Yun Qi herself answered her own question, “So yes. Why is a person always embarrassed when it comes to love. Why is this so? Or is it something shameful?”

Pinching Longwei slightly, Lei replied, “When a person is asked about love, he behaves as discreetly as possible. Because he is afraid that his love might break if someone finds out about it.”

“Is love so fragile? Or is the person not loving enough?”

Intervening in the conversation, Longwei changed the subject again and started talking about the curse. “Lan Jun must have loved Li Hua very much that he took the curse upon himself. Li Hua must have waited for him for many years. But he never returned. His army was lost for decades. And with time, everyone’s memory was erased.”

“Because over time, the warriors of the kingdom died and left behind a new generation. The generation from the Spherical Stone. They were new people who did not know anything about the kingdom at all or that there were beautiful people outside this world. Such as Yun Qi.”

Stopping abruptly, Longwei took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The scent of pine trees and fresh air brightened his cheeks with a slight blush. Hearing the singing of distant birds, which was quickly replaced by strange sounds, he opened his eyes.

Sitting on a snowdrift, Yun Qi brushed off the snow from her head, exhaled steam and propped her face with her hand, and pensively asked, “Why haven’t we met a single beast yet?”

Looking around warily, Lei replied, “I thought about that too. It’s weird. We should have seen them. At least one of them.”

Falling into the snow, Longwei stretched out and stared at the gray sky. “Xiaoli is dead. I carried him on my back. He was so cold. Now his son is all alone.”

Plunging into a moment of silence, the three of them did not notice how everything around was plunged into a strong blizzard again.

“Did you hear that? It’s like someone’s crying.” Jumping up, Yun Qi grabbed her sword and wanted to go forward, but Lei stopped her.

“Probably these are beasts. Don’t pay attention. They can imitate any voices.”

“We’d better keep going.”