RIIDMDR chapter 62

 

The cold wind howled and soon turned both of their hair white with heavy snow. Nanxu’s face flushed red from the cold. He sniffed from time to time and stared longingly toward the land as if reaching it would ease the cold.

Tingchuan reached out and brushed the snow off Nanxu’s head. Nanxu shook his head, trying to shake off the remaining snow.

“It’s so cold!” Nanxu opened his mouth, and a puff of white smoke escaped.

Tingchuan hummed, “Can you still hold on?”

Nanxu nodded. He had simply been plunged from the scorching summer heat into the freezing winter, caught off guard and unable to adapt. Now that he had changed his clothes, even if his body hadn’t had time to warm up, he wouldn’t freeze to death. However, an ordinary person would likely catch a cold after such a cold shower. He just hoped that he had exercised regularly and wouldn’t falter at such a critical moment.

He prayed that if he fell ill now, the next few days would be even more difficult. Tingchuan, a demon, couldn’t use magic. In this situation, he was no different from an ordinary human and perhaps even less adaptable.

While Nan Xu’s body was gradually adapting to the cold weather, Tingchuan’s body had yet to learn how to cope with the biting cold wind. His lips were very pale.

“How are you?” Nan Xu asked with concern.

Tingchuan smiled, raising his pale, powerless lips in a kind of sickly beauty. “I’m fine.”

Nan Xu tucked his hands into his sleeves again and muttered, “You don’t look fine at all.”

Tingchuan didn’t argue. He touched the ice. The water they had brought with them had already frozen. He sat down and slowly said, “This formation has many entrances, but the underlying rule is that every demon entering must experience at least 50% of its extreme weather before reaching the exit. I wonder if this is true in the human world. If so, life for humans is not easy.”

“I really don’t know what the great demon who created this formation was thinking.” Nan Xu nodded. Feeling down in the cold wind, he said sarcastically, “The human world does indeed have inclement weather scattered everywhere. A person might not experience all of it in their lifetime, so there’s no need to force the demons entering the formation to experience it all.”

Nan Xu then realized he might be overgeneralizing. Just because most people live in a comfortable environment doesn’t mean that others live in inclement weather year-round. It’s like people living in a bustling city wondering if people in the mountains have to walk along cliffs for decades just to go shopping.

His previous thought was a classic case of easy talk.

After all, this formation was just a brief experience. It didn’t trap the explorers inside forever.

“I’m biased,” Nan Xu said.

Tingchuan gazed at the outline of the distant sea, unmoved by Nan Xu’s words. “I think the demon who created this formation didn’t mean to embarrass others. He simply longed for human life. We, the intruders, are the ones disturbing his peaceful dreams.”

Nan Xu pondered this, and indeed, it was as he said.

The floating ice finally reached a patch of ice. The ice near the shore was thick, so Nan Xu wasn’t worried about breaking through it. He slowly crawled over and found his footing on the thick ice. Then, he turned back and cautiously watched Tingchuan’s movements, fearing he might fall into the water.

Thankfully, Tingchuan still possessed the agility of a fox, even without his magical powers. His steps were steady and impeccable.

After crossing the thick ice, the two of them finally stepped onto solid ground. Nan Xu felt the urge to jump three times in a circle to express his excitement when he finally touched the solid snow, perhaps because he’d been drifting on the ice for too long.

But he couldn’t do it. Even if he wanted to move, it felt like his limbs took forever to react, they were numb from the cold.

The two of them continued walking forward. As Tingchuan had said, the range of a small formation was far smaller than that of a large one. No matter which direction they went in, as long as they set their sights on something, they could reach it.

Maybe it was an illusion, but the farther they walked, the heavier the snow seemed to fall. Nan Xu looked back; the sky, full of goose-feather snowflakes, nearly covered his entire field of vision. The coastline, once clear, was no longer visible. Between heaven and earth, there was nothing but a vast expanse of snow. It was so silent that no sound could be heard, as if they were the only two people in the world.

Somehow, Nan Xu’s hand had reconnected with Tingchuan’s. Their fingers were intertwined and curled up in the sleeve of his winter coat. They opened their mouths, breathing out mist and swallowing mouthfuls of cold air. With their heads slightly lowered, they walked forward in silence, stepping through the increasingly thick snow, sometimes deep, sometimes shallow.

Every function in Nan Xu’s brain was shut down. Having experienced the formation array last time, Nan Xu wasn’t particularly surprised. He simply sighed inwardly, realizing that relying on others was better than relying on oneself.

As the snow covered his shoes and shins, making it difficult to lift his feet, he lost count of how much time had passed. Nanxu looked up at the sky, but he could barely see it because of the heavy snow. He could vaguely make out that the sun had shifted slightly. He asked Tingchuan, “Did you encounter snow this heavy the last time you were here?”

Tingchuan hummed as if he knew what Nanxu was asking. “The snow won’t stop. It’s only going to get heavier.”

This wasn’t good news.

Nan Xu sighed heavily. When he left, he thought it was just a picnic, but a few hours later, he was already thinking about going back to the courtyard to play with the dog. The outside world wasn’t so fun.

“If Luo Yi’s magical weapon has transformed back into that palm-length hairpin, then searching for it in this snowy weather is like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Nan Xu said.

Tingchuan shook his head. “Magic weapons are spiritual, and this formation wouldn’t leave traces for others to find. If we get close, they should be able to detect us.”

Having said that, Nan Xu felt a little more relieved. He had come here to learn about the formation in the mountains and couldn’t abandon his mission.

“Maybe Luo Yi has come in, too. There’s no need for me to search deliberately. Let’s just go with the flow!” Nan Xu said.

After just a few words, the hot and cold air mingled, and his lips ached as they stretched. He reached for his backpack and pulled out the gourd filled with water. He would have bought a thermos, but this was the only water container available at the mall.

He brought the gourd to his lips and tilted his head back. He didn’t get a sip. He cradled the gourd in his hands, but it was still heavy. He tilted his head back again, but not a drop of water entered his mouth.

Dejected, Nan Xu said, “It’s frozen solid.”

Tingchuan’s gaze lingered on his chapped lips for a moment. Then, he rolled up a fluffy snowball and handed it to him. “Let’s wait until we get to the woods to see if we can start a fire.”

His deft movements suggested that he had done this before. With the water in his gourd frozen and undrinkable, he resorted to quenching his thirst with snow.

Nan Xu knew he had no other choice, but the mere sight of the snowball made him shiver.

“Well, I’ll hold it in for a bit,” Nan Xu said after a moment’s hesitation.

Ting Chuan tossed the snowball away and continued forward with him. In the vast world, their footprints were quickly covered by new snow, leaving no trace.

Nan Xu felt the warmth of the other person’s hand and thought that if he were alone in this place, he would surely feel powerless and lonely. The stark contrast between vastness and insignificance is likely to evoke negative emotions.

But what was Tingchuan thinking as he navigated over six hundred formations in this mountain? What was going through his mind as he wandered through the endless snow?

Nan Xu tilted his head to glance at the person beside him. Tingchuan’s complexion hadn’t improved, but his eyes were bright, and a faint smile played at the corners of his mouth.

Nan Xu was stunned. He was frozen like this, yet he was still happy.

The slight melancholy that had just welled up in his mind was quickly forgotten. He walked for hours before it grew dark. Each time he stepped down, his knees sank into the snow. Their pace slowed, and the effort increased.

“It’s getting dark. Let’s find a place to rest. My legs are almost giving out.” Nan Xu pulled his legs out of the snow and spoke breathlessly to Tingchuan.

Tingchuan’s breathing was a bit uneven. He looked into the distance and said, “There’s a steep slope ahead.”

Nanxu’s eyes had been staring at white all day, and he couldn’t see the high slope Tingchuan was talking about. “Okay, let’s go rest on the high slope first.”

The slope was just bare. Without firewood, lighting a fire was out of the question for the time being. After Nanxu found a place to sit, he realized his legs were aching terribly. He couldn’t tell if it was from walking or the cold.

He took out a pancake from his backpack and handed it to Tingchuan, who was sitting beside him. “Are you hungry?”

They hadn’t eaten lunch yet, and now it was dinnertime. Nanxu’s stomach had been rumbling for a while. It had been snowing heavily that day, and it would only make the journey more difficult if they waited any longer. They tacitly agreed not to rest. Tingchuan took the pancake and pinched it, his expression growing oddly serious. Before he could speak, Nanxu cried out in pain.

Nanxu was starving. With his numb hands, he took the pancake and bit down. His teeth clashed against the hard pancake, loosening slightly.

She dropped the pancake in the snow. Tears welled in her eyes as she slurred,
“Hard… hurts… ah… are my teeth still there?”

Feeling both amused and helpless, Tingchuan put away the pancake. He pried open Nan Xu’s mouth, looked inside, and touched Nan Xu’s tooth with his fingertips to soothe him. “It’s okay. Your tooth is still there.”

Nan Xu breathed a sigh of relief. He scooped up a handful of snow, formed a small ball, and stuffed it into his mouth. He hoped the cold would numb his pain and rehydrate him.

After several mouthfuls of snow, he felt better. Nan Xu picked up the pancake he had dropped on the snow and stuffed it back into his bag.

After resting for a dozen minutes, the heavy snow had lightened. The two decided to continue on before it got completely dark. Although it was possible to see through the snow at night, visibility wasn’t as good as during the day. If you weren’t familiar with the terrain, it was better not to take risks. Besides, you needed to find a suitable place to rest.

Just now, from the slope, they could vaguely see the undulations in the distance. After descending the slope and walking a little further, the contours became clearer. Nan Xu exclaimed, “It’s a mountain!”

Where there are mountains, there are trees. At the very least, you can find firewood there.

Ting Chuan’s brows furrowed slightly. He wasn’t as excited as Nan Xu. From a distance, the slope had also looked like mountain peaks, but up close, it had been bare.