"Jing Ling," announced a regal figure positioned upon a throne that oozed white and gold tendrils of Qi. "At last, your treasonous antics end here." Although a glamour of white mist concealed their face, the tone of their decree was absolute and deep.
Surrounded by other figures in a majestic hall that radiated bright light, Jing Ling lifted his head to meet the glaring gaze of the supreme one who looked down on him. But there was a straining sensation around his neck for they had collared him with chains like the hound he was.
With several chains extending from the spikes embedded into his body, there was no space or chance of him moving. His body was riddled with black and yellow talisman seals that restricted the flow of Qi in his body.
"Execution should be the final degree," one of the present figures whose face had been obscured by a white mist had suggested. "His crimes against the Celestial realm are too severe for exile."
"He must… " The last of the regal figure's words went unheard as Jing Ling's consciousness faded into slumber.
Wincing against the sharp sting he felt in his shoulder, Chi Cheng closed his eyes tightly as his consciousness resurfaced. His forehead creased tensely as he groaned when he attempted to shift around.
'Another memory…' He mentally noted the events of the scene that just unfolded in his dream. 'This is the second time since I've come here…'
"Don't move," someone said, their voice close but almost cold.
Chi Cheng's eyes fluttered open, trying to adjust to the darkness in the space around him where minimal moonlight filtered in from above. He found himself safely secured in the embrace of a strong figure, their arms carefully holding him.
The person's face was barely visible in the darkness, but Chi Cheng didn't doubt the voice he had heard. He knew it too well.
"Han… Yijun… " Chi Cheng managed to say weakly, his body still stunned as if metal chains were holding him down.
"Don't speak," Han Yijun told him, tightening his arms around Chi Cheng gently.
Chi Cheng didn't have the strength or courage to argue with his current situation, but his pain didn't settle or distract the discomfort he felt from being in his ex-lover's arms. It also seemed that his stubbornness was more in control, urging him to kick his feet away at the ground to escape Han Yijun's arms.
However, his quick movement sent a nerving pain through his left leg where his pants felt damp at the bottom. Wincing from his actions, he clutched onto his ex-lover's arm.
"I told you not to move!" Han Yijun hissed in a whisper, moving his head to look down at the shorter male. "You hurt your leg when you fell."
Chi Cheng ceased his struggles, noticing that there were two broken branches on either side of his leg tied together around his leg by a strip of the long-sleeved robe that covered him.
"I know you don't want to be here with me but you don't have a choice, Chi Cheng."
"Is it broken?" Chi Cheng questioned, urging his head up to get a better view and sense of his leg's condition.
"Don't look," Han Yijun said quickly, covering Chi Cheng's eyes with his other hand. "You'll be fine."
Chi Cheng swatted his hand away, paying attention to the eerie sound of the night winds and howling beasts in the distance. From his surroundings, he could vaguely recognize that they were within a deep pit where moonlight had been miles above, briefly shadowing the pit entrance.
However, his ear twitched as barely audible sounds from incoherent mumblings reached him. From this distance, he couldn't clearly see any unusual movement along the edges of the pit nor where the source of the mumblings came from.
Yet the unsettling feeling that started to brew within him made him tense anxiously. For there was a familiar foul scent in the ice breeze, one that he recalled all too well but he sighed as he shook his head lightly.
'It's just two memories... I'm overthinking it...' Chi Cheng decided, brushing it off as mere speculations due to his mind's current exhausted state.
"Why… did you come… after me?" Chi Cheng directed his attention back to Han Yijun as he asked softly, sinking into the warmth of the robe but he felt his face against Han Yijun's bare chest. It reminded him that he had never shared this intimacy with his ex-lover before.
"The path was too narrow and unstable to pursue you by horse so I jumped after you," Han Yijun informed him. "And as one of the assessors I'm responsible for ensuring the participants are taken care of."
'So it was purely out of duty…' Chi Cheng noted and he didn't understand why he expected something more or why he even yearned for someone who was never his to begin with.
'They should have executed me that day…' Chi Cheng's mind flashed back to the second memory he saw in his dream moments ago. 'Why do I have to be stuck with this bastard...'
However, he quickly snapped out of the past gloom. It was faint, but Chi Cheng could hear the uneven breaths coming from Han Yijun as if he had been panting heavily from earlier.
'I can't even bring myself to hate him in this situation.' Chi Cheng mentally sighed. 'He must be hurt somewhere too.'
"I broke off half of the arrow but if I remove the arrowhead from your shoulder, you will bleed too much so try not to move until they find us." Han Yijun warned him, resting his head against the rocky wall of the pit.
Faint snowflakes began to descend into the pit, chilling the air more than before. With his body aching from enervation and untreated injuries, Chi Cheng could only find temporary peace in sleep.
His eyes fluttered a few times, briefly catching sight of a stream of glowing blue reaching over the edge into the pit before he submitted to the pull of sleep.
*********
Sitting cross-legged on the bare snow ground, Han Xuelian closed his eyes to engage in his deep meditation. With his upper body completely exposed to the frigid night air as snowflakes settled on his hair, he inhaled a deep breath.
Seated in the middle of the frost forest, he channelled the Qi in his body to connect with the land. Streams of blue Qi poured out of him, spanning out over the ground's surface like roots from a tree expanding into the soil.
However, his impenetrable concentration was subtly disturbed by an impatient youngster who kept pacing around behind him, stomping his boots into the snow.
"Be quiet, child," Han Xuelian ordered, his eyes still closed as he continued channelling Qi into the ground. "I cannot find your brother if you are noisy and disrupt the stillness of the land."
Chi Weiran plopped down on the snow with a huff, massaging out the crease lines forming on his forehead. With anxiety and worry constantly knocking at his mind, he couldn't help but envision the worst-case scenario happening to his older brother.
The Grandmaster inhaled another breath, exhaling deeply as frosty air seeped from his mouth. The Qi emitting from his body ran out like streams of water following different pathways that flowed through the forest for miles.
Han Xuelian's brows furrowed as he deepened his focus, feeling the harmony and anguish of the land connecting with his body and soul. The cold tugged at his body but to him, it only fed his core's hunger.
Standing beside him, completely silent, was Han Yongrui. His nephew's expression tensed with worry, reaching out a hand to touch the Grandmaster's shoulder but pulled back quickly. He gritted his teeth, closing his eyes and stiffly keeping his hands at his sides.
Han Xuelian heard the ethereal whispers of the land fill his ears, muttering incoherent things into his mind as his Qi searched through the Xue Ling Ridge tirelessly.
The voices that entered his head when his Qi traversed the forbidden places within Xue Ling Ridge, defied his call and plea for assistance. They mocked his attempts, cackling eerily as they cowered away from his Qi.
'He's here…' The hoarse, screechy voices whispered. 'The celestial realm's defiler is here!'
'Foolish ramblings…' The Grandmaster ignored their mutterings.
Han Xuelian directed his Qi away from them, moving onto the much further areas away from the Frost forest. A bead of sweat broke out along his forehead but he maintained his stance and flow of Qi into the land.
Finally, a tendril of Qi reached into the darkness of a pit where the sound of two heartbeats reached his mind faintly.
"I've found him." Han Xuelian declared, his eyes quickly opening as an intense icy blue hue filled them.