The Voyage In The Blizzard - Chapter 76
Leaving almost the entire forest behind, clinging to thorny branches and feeling the calluses on her hands were beginning to bleed, Yun Qi stopped and brought her breathing back to normal.
After a short nap right on a branch, she experienced neck pain. Massaging her shoulders, Yun Qi looked up at the sky and then forward.
“Are we going in the right direction?” she asked taking a sip of ice cold water.
“I think so. I think I can see white fields in the distance.” Lei answered.
“You can’t stop. You have to go until there are no beasts.” Longwei said, recalling last night when they had to fight two angry creatures right in the tree. Recalling this bloody battle, he touched his shoulder where there was a deep scratch that became even more painful over time..
“Are you okay? Maybe we should put some herbs on the wound?”
“No. It’s okay. It’s just a scratch.” Longwei said and thought, “Nothing can save me anyway.”
“Longwei?” Noticing something strange in his expression, Lei asked with excitement in his eyes.
“I can see the mountain!” Yun Qi exclaimed.
A lonely snow-white mountain existing in complete solitude, for all centuries of winds and blizzards has not changed a bit. Creating a feeling of peace and eternity, a lonely mountain towered over the world as if it were a caretaker, a guardian. But in reality, it was just a wall between different realities.
Jumping from the very last tree, Longwei almost fell and was able to stand on the ice covered with thin snow.
Stopping in front of the steppe, the three of them poetically reflected on the beauty and the severity of the emptiness that stretched before them.
The snow-white, flat steppe, which was like a perfectly drawn line, stretched forward into infinity and the longer they looked at it the more they thought they were standing on the edge of eternity, where there is no end.
The pale sky merging with the white steppe created the illusion of one large room. And only small snowflakes whirling interrupted this illusion.
Looking ahead with complete seriousness and a certain sadness, Yun Qi said, “Scary.”
“You know what’s even scarier?”
“What?”
“To live in a familiar place and not wanting to change anything.” answered Lei stepping forward.
“Careful. The ice may crack.”
After walking a few steps forward and jumping up and down, Lei looked at them and said, “It’s all right. Come on.”
Walking silently on a thin layer of snow, Longwei, looking around, suddenly felt a desire to sleep. The pale sky pressed on them, as if it began to sing a lullaby.
Slowing her pace and shaking in the cold wind, Yun Qi closed her eyes and folded her hands on her chest, thereby shielding herself from the cold.
The whistle of the wind, having a deafening effect, ran in all directions like the waves of the ocean.
“I want to eat.” Longwei said as he continued walking.
“We must go. This is the steppe, here we have nowhere to stop and rest.” Lei said, and taking out one potato he handed it to Yun Qi. “Eat. Or you’ll freeze even more.”
“Dad, you better eat.” Throwing potatoes to Longwei, Yun Qi ran and slipped across the ice.
“Yun Qi! You need to eat!”
Sitting on the ice, Longwei was in no hurry to get up. Staring at the sky, he said, “The sky is beautiful for some reason.”
“We have seen this pale sky for several years.” Lei replied holding out his hand.
“Dad!” shouted Yun Qi, pushing off the ice as if she was on skates.
Watching her wavy hair dance on the wind and her snow-white smile, Longwei felt a warmth in his heart. Sitting on the ice in the middle of the steppe, he quietly said, “Lei, why do you think it is so empty? What do you think there was before Lan Jun took the curse on himself?”
Sitting next to him and stretching his legs forward, Lei threw his head back and replied, “Surely there were yellow flowers and soft grass growing here. Surely it was sunny and warm.”
“I wonder if we can go all this way and bring Yun Qi to the kingdom? For some reason, sometimes it seems to me that life has chosen the wrong one who was supposed to create the one who can remove the curse.”
Patting him on the back, Lei lay down on the ice. Moving his arms and legs through the snow, he calmly said, “Your thoughts are sometimes so heavy.”
Falling on his back, Longwei turned his face to Lei and without saying anything, just poked him on the cheek.
“What are you doing?” he asked grabbing his finger.
“Nothing.”
Jumping up, Lei suddenly grabbed both of his hands and quickly ran back. Sliding on the ice, Longwei said, “Stop it.”
“It’s faster this way. We’ll take turns dragging each other.” Longwei answered laughing. “Yun Qi! Help me! Your father seems to be quite sluggish.”
“Enough! Both of you!” laughing, Longwei, forgetting about his worries, simply slid on his back on the ice.
“I want that too!” Yun Qi exclaimed stretching out her arms and squatting down.
Starting to pull her by both hands, they ran forward.
“How cool! Faster!”
Sliding on the ice, Yun Qi filled the void around with a loud laugh and fell on her back happily, “And why didn’t anyone know that you can use ice for fun.”
“They definitely know how to use it for fun.” Lei said with alarm in his voice, pointing in the direction where they came from.
A whole crowd of beasts walking right at them painted the steppe in black shades.
Yun Qi grabbed her sword and stood in front of Longwei.
“Let’s run! We can’t risk it!” Grabbing Longwei and Yun Qi by the arms, Lei ran forward.
Running away and hearing the rapid steps getting closer and closer, Longwei looked back and saw a long, clawed hand reaching for Yun Qi. Stopping and striking the monster with his sword, Longwei shouted, “Run!”
“Don’t stop! We must run!” ordered Lei grabbing his arm.
“There are more and more of them. We have nowhere to run! No! Dad!”
Rushing to help, Yun Qi thrust her sword into the beast and pushed Longwei away.
“We cannot fight! We must run!”
Leaping at each other, the beasts fixing their gaze on three targets, sliding on their long and curved claws, became closer.
“Hurry! I think I see a forest!” shouted Longwei and suddenly the ice under him quickly cracked and in the blink of an eye he disappeared from sight.
“Dad!”
“This is a cave! Quickly jump down!” ordered Lei throwing the knife towards the beast. “Quickly!”
Following Longwei down, Yun Qi landed on the ground with a crash and a thick layer of snow fell right on her.
“Yun Qi!”
“I’m fine.” said Yun Qi, brushing the snow off her head.
“Where is Lei?” Longwei asked and heard the growling of monsters. “We need to help him.” Trying to climb up, after several attempts, he fell to the cold ground.
Once underground, in a place like a tunnel made of ice through which a faint light passed from somewhere, they were completely alone.
“Lei!”
Trying to climb up again, Longwei shouted loudly, so loudly that several pieces of ice fell off.
“Yun Qi where are you going?”
Walking forward, she said, “We have to go. Lei went that way.”
Running after her, at the end of a strange ice corridor, Longwei noticed a small hole at the top. Stopping under this, he finally saw Lei.
“Lei! Over here!”
Stretching out his hand, the two of them quickly dragged him down.
“There’s a whole crowd of them. I also think I saw Sun’s soldiers.” Panting, Lei fell on his knees.
Suddenly feeling Yun Qi’s icy hand on his shoulder, Longwei turned to her and saw her face becoming paler.
And the next what he saw were the warriors.
Having died long ago, the warriors lay scattered with open white eyes. Ice and snow covered their bodies from head to toe. Having become part of the ice tunnel, they continued to hold their swords and all their heads were directed only in one direction, towards the entrance.
Yun Qi stepped forward and wanted to approach the young warrior, but Longwei stopped her.
“Don’t.”
Examining their faces, Lei knew who these unfortunate warriors were, so he said, “I’m sorry that you met your end this way.”
“How did they end up here? It doesn’t look like they were attacked by beasts.”
“They just froze from the cold. They wanted to hide here, but without a single way to get out, they froze to death here.”
“No! Yun Qi cannot die like that. No, Lei. She can’t.” Longwei began to climb up again in panic. But the slippery ice made this impossible. “No!”
“Dad stop it. It won’t help.” said Yun Qi.
“What do we do now? How do we get out of here?” Looking at the dead bodies, Longwei covered his face with his hands and then looked at them in horror. “Lei, help me get out. Come on. You will throw me to the surface and then I will pull you out.”
Doing as he said, Lei easily lifted Longwei and he stretching his hand up and feeling some kind of stone said, “A little more, come on.”
Grasping on the stone, Longwei wanted to push off the ice wall with his foot, but slipping, he fell down.
“It’s too slippery here.” Lei said.
Without giving up, Longwei threw all the contents of his backpack on the ground and said, “We need to get out.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Stone with dragon fire. This ice needs to melt.” said Longwei, taking out two hot stones.
Attaching them to the ice wall, Longwei, listening to the voices that were above, stood a little further from the entrance.
“They were definitely here. They couldn’t have gone that far. No one has ever gone beyond these steppes.” someone’s very hoarse voice was heard.
“They definitely ran away. Don’t you know that these steppes end over there.”
“But not everyone gets out of here alive. They say that if the beast did not kill you, then the steppe will kill you.”
“If only the girl was alive.” someone said and added, “The most important thing is to catch her. Let Longwei and Lei go away. Master is already tired of them.”
“Stop chatting, you’re on a mission. Go quickly and keep looking.” Ju Long’s voice was heard.
When the voices died down, Lei whispered, “The steppe has an end.”
“I think I can see something.” Yun Qi said and, walking up to the transparent wall opposite, she lightly hit it with her fist and cracked, the ice immediately split into small pieces. “This is a passage. It seems there is still a way out.”
“Careful. Let me go first.”