The gorge they traveled to was called Longxia, due to the frozen blue river that curled and coiled between the mountains like a giant dragon. Legend said the last of the elemental beasts, the blue dragon, Long MeiShi was struck down from Heaven after the elemental wars between the three realms ended. The dragon split the mountain into two and was imprisoned within this gorge.
There was a mist that hung like an icy curtain, covering the area in hazy silver. While it was warm and sunny in the village, the closer the pair traveled to this gorge, the colder it became until their breaths became visible wispy vapor. The frozen ground crunched under their feet, the waft of crisp pines drifted within the mist. Soon the sounds of their steps ceased as the two found themselves walking upon the smooth, icy river.
"The gorge is long and vast. How could we find anything linked to Mo YunXing? It could take months in this mist. Whatever leftover presence there is from him is too weak to be picked up by our senses." ZhiYi said as he looked around, seeing only faint outlines of scarce trees and steep rock walls.
MingYu's grin grew smug. "That is not a problem, ZhiYi." He fished out the piece of bamboo from his robes and held it up for ZhiYi to see. "I happen to have some of Mo YunXing's blood. The bamboo scroll must have absorbed some of it to be activated. We can find his presence with this."
MingYu pulled out a talisman paper and drew up a seeking talisman. The talisman could detect Mo YunXing presence within a five-mile radius. MingYu sure hoped Mo YunXing hadn't wandered further than that. He wrapped the piece of bamboo within the talisman and released it. The bundle transformed into a bright light in a form of an arrow and shot through the fog like someone set it free from a strained bow. ZhiYi darted after it, a white shadow amidst the fog.
MingYu groaned, he had no such privilege of enjoying any heightened speed or martial art skills. Pulling his robes tighter around his body, he trotted through the mist like a regular man much to his dismay. Indeed, this was the worst of punishments. It was going to take a while for him to slide his way across the ice towards the faintly beaming light.
The silence was depressing. MingYu's steps made only a little thumping sounds as his straw shoes scraped across the ice. After a while of observing his breath adding vapors to the curtains of mist, he mumbled to himself,
"I wonder what the girls were trying."
"They were just trying to scare you." ZhiYi had appeared behind MingYu from within the mist and nearly scared him half-dead.
"Well, you just did!" MingYu complained, his heart thumping in his ears. "Care to tell me why?"
"They were just worried."
MingYu's eyes twitched. ZhiYi said it as if it was no big deal the girls had shoved a handful of heartbreak grass down his lunges. "That's a good way to justify manslaughter, it will hold up in court, no problem."
ZhiYi chuckled, his voice a soft, deep timbre. MingYu found himself smiling. "I'm happy for you, ZhiYi. You finally got yourself a family. Did you kowtow three times to thank them for marrying a brat like you?"
ZhiYi looked amazed as he turned to MingYu. "You still remember that?"
"Of course." MingYu remembered it like yesterday. During their time in the army ranks, ZhiYi and PingZe had the bad habit of sneaking both women and booze into their camps. He and PingZe were the worst. No matter what punishments were thrown at the two, they suffered through them all without a complaint - then went right back to their old ways the moment they were let out of sight. LongHai had started greying at the age of 25 because of the two. On one of those occasions, MingYu had said, "How can you ever marry with that attitude. Truly, you should kowtow the poor girl three times for even considering you!"
"Who wants to marry if I can just live like this with you guys." ZhiYi had pouted.
"Who said I want to live with you? Don't think too highly of yourself, brat."
"If I kowtow you three times, will you change your mind?"
MingYu had thrown a woodblock at him, which ZhiYi had barely avoided.
Good old times, MingYu mused. ZhiYi was not a brat anymore, he was more calm and composed. Only his looks remained the same.
" I didn't." ZhiYi said with an air of sadness. "But if there is a next time, I definitely will."
Next time? MingYu looked at ZhiYi with scrutinizing eyes. "You..."
The white robes, the girls – it all made sense.
"I'm sorry." MingYu cursed himself silently. He had acted unreasonably jealous of ZhiYi's romantic life before. ZhiYi was mourning his late wife.
"Me too." ZhiYi said as he stopped. The arrow made of light was now floating in the air, its tip pointing straight down at the ice. As the two got closer, the light died out and the talisman disappeared with it, dropping the piece of bamboo on a raised rock in the middle of the deep blue ice.
MingYu frowned, leaning closer, he realised the rock was actually a round stone slap, with carvings he had never seen before. It partly looked like heavenly incantations, but other parts were unrecognizable. It was the lone stone on top of the solid river.
"What is it?" ZhiYi asked, closely inspecting the raised rock. MingYu clasped his hands behind his back as he slid back and forth on the ice. Heaven never worked with any other party. They liked to do everything by themselves, they were up their own asses that way. In any case, the only other force they could work with was Hell.
"A seal, forged by Heaven and Hell." MingYu finally said. ZhiYi straightened his back, the bottles on his sash clicking against each other.
"A prison?" ZhiYi now looked at the ice beneath their feet with attention.
"Yes." MingYu said gravely. "It's better not to touch the seal. There's no way to know what might happen."
"But why would Mo YunXing be here?"
MingYu barely parted his lips to answer as the deafening sound of ice cracking echoed against the rock walls of the gorge, growing louder as it made its way towards the two. MingYu gaped on in horror as the mist surrounding them was suddenly cut open with hundreds of white, sharp objects that fell from the murky sky, moving in the speed of light.
ZhiYi pulled MingYu out of the way in time as ice picks the size of swords rained over them, crashing into the icy stream, sending shards of ice everywhere. ZhiYi's pull was too abrupt, the ice too slick as MingYu tumbled forward. His feet gave out from beneath him, his hand slipped away from ZhiYi's hold, and MingYu collapsed over the seal.
The roars of death died out the moment the stone slap dug itself into MingYu's side. MingYu had prepared to scream out from excruciating pain, attain some broken ribs, or at least a few bruises. In fact, a high pitched squeal had escaped from between his lips before he realised that the fall hadn't hurt one bit.
"MingYu? Can you hear me? MingYu!" ZhiYi's voice sounded far away, echoing in the gorge. MingYu straightened to a seating position and strained his ears. Looking around, the never-ending mist seemed undisturbed, the ice beneath him was still the same hue of blue, but any signs of the previous rain of ice were gone. The gorge seemed colder than before as his breath came out in short, abrupt sessions. The air was too frigid to be inhaled deeply. His skin tingled as if millions of tiny needles were scraped over it.
"ZhiYi? Where are you?" MingYu called out then tensed as he spotted a figure amidst the veils of mist. Crawling over the cold surface, he could soon make out the outlines of a person seated on the ice like a Buddha statue. As he stopped in front of the figure, MingYu realised it was a man, sitting in a lotus position, encapsulated within the ice. A very faint heavenly presence radiated from him. MingYu gaped at the ice prison in surprise.
This must be Mo YunXing. So he was trapped here all these years, frozen in time. MingYu crawled back over to the seal and looked it over once more.
"ZhiYi?" MingYu called out as he leaned over the seal and trailed the carvings with his fingers. Something was off, MingYu frowned. The seal looked different from before.
"MingYu, are you alright?" ZhiYi's voice sounded closer now.
"ZhiYi, where are you?" MingYu yelled, looking around in a frenzy. The eternal mist and the frozen Mo YunXing were making him feel uneasy.
"Next to the seal. Where are you? I can hear you but your voice sounds muffled!"
What the – MingYu's frown deepened as he leaned closer to the ice. "ZhiYi?"
"Yes?"
"Get on your knees."
There was an awkward pause before ZhiYi said, "I'm sorry, what did you just say?"
"Get on your knees!" MingYu repeated more forcefully. His face was almost pressed into the ice.
"I'm on my knees." ZhiYi sounded somewhat uncomfortable, but much closer now.
MingYu sighed of relief and hurried to say, "ZhiYi, you are beneath the ice. No, I mean from your side, I'm beneath the ice. No, I mean, the ice is a barrier between us!"
"…"
"It's the seal. It must have pulled me through the barrier." MingYu continued, his hands turning numb over the ice. "No matter what, don't touch the -"
Right at that moment, the mist split before MingYu, and ZhiYi appeared out of thin air. He was on his knees, his fingers over the seal, and smiling. "Here you are."
MingYu had the sudden urge to strangle ZhiYi but his fingers were too frozen for the task. Instead, MingYu scrambled back on his knees, reddened from both the cold and irritation. "I told you not to touch it! Now we are both trapped in here. How are we supposed to get out?"
"We will figure it out, together." ZhiYi said, studying his surroundings with keen eyes. His brow raised slightly as he spotted Mo YunXing's frozen stature.
"It would have been easier with you on the other side!" MingYu grumbled as he struggled to stand up, his knees almost locked in place.
ZhiYi jumped up with ease and reached out to hold MingYu steady. "MingYu, are you hurt? You fell pretty hard."
"I'm fine. But the seal on this side is different." MingYu said, brushing ZhiYi aside to have a better look at the stone slap. There seemed to be no way out. The seal was inverted. Before, the heavenly incantations were the majority of the carvings atop the stone, but here the heavenly symbols came secondary and now Hell's incantations covered most of the stone's surface. A wave of uncertainty crashed over MingYu and he grimaced. He had never come across anything Hell related. How were they getting out of this mess now?
ZhiYi's questioning gaze pulled MingYu out of his thoughts. With a defeated sigh, MingYu said,
"I think we need to wake up Mo YunXing from his hibernation."