At the moment when even despair had become numb.
A warm, large hand, without any warning, slipped under Lu Qiancha’s arm, gently lifting her up from the cold, damp grass.
“Mm…?”
Lu Qiancha dazedly raised her small face, streaked with dirt and tears.
Through the blurred mist of her tears, her gaze struggled to focus, only to meet a figure cloaked in familiar deep blue—the very culprit who had shattered her life: the Wolf King, Xun Xue.
Lu Qiancha’s heart was a turmoil of mixed emotions.
“Living alone out here must have been tough, hasn’t it?”
Xun Xue’s voice was low and gentle, carrying a resonance that seemed to pierce straight through the soul.
Lu Qiancha pressed her lips tightly together. She wanted to question, to curse, to struggle. Yet for some reason, it was as if something had lodged itself fiercely in her throat.
She couldn’t summon the slightest strength to push the other away.
What terrified Lu Qiancha even more was that, deep inside, there wasn’t the overwhelming rage she had imagined.
Instead, there was only an empty stillness—a deathly quiet, mixed with a sliver of weakness she dared not admit, craving that warmth…
“From now on, Mama will take care of you….”
Xun Xue’s arms tightened, gently wrapping that frail, cold, bruised, and dirt-streaked little body into her embrace.
“Mama…?”
Lu Qiancha unconsciously repeated those two unfamiliar syllables, her gaze vacant and lost like a traveler who’s lost their way, staring at Xun Xue.
She clearly should have hated her—so why…
“Mm, from now on, I’ll be your Mama.”
Xun Xue nodded. In her once proud eyes, there was now only a clumsy, almost awkward gentleness.
“Uu…”
A faint, choked sob escaped uncontrollably from deep within Lu Qiancha’s throat.
It was as if the last of her strength had been drawn away; her small head gently rested on Xun Xue’s warm shoulder.
“Hey, hey, don’t cry.”
Xun Xue fumbled, clearly at a loss. She had never experienced such a scene before, her voice carrying a hint of panic: “Mama will take you to eat something delicious.”
…Mama.
Lu Qiancha responded vaguely, her voice as soft as a wisp of thread. The tension built up over so long, her hunger, and the tidal wave of sudden emotion all crashed down over her at once.
Just like that, she curled up in Xun Xue’s warm yet unfamiliar arms and drifted into a deep sleep.
When she regained consciousness, the first thing Lu Qiancha felt was the embrace of warm water surrounding her.
And a pair of gentle hands, carefully washing the long hair trailing down her back.
“Good, don’t move around.”
Xun Xue’s voice came from above, carrying a helpless smile. “Your hair is all tangled up…
Water streamed down her hair. Lu Qiancha blinked open her eyes, and through the rising steam, she caught a glimpse of the dazzling spring sunlight…
“Mm…”
Lu Qiancha’s cheeks flushed crimson, shame prickling her skin. Instinctively, she wanted to leap from the warmth of the bath.
“Splash!” Water flew everywhere as she propped herself up on the rim, trying to lift her damp body.
***
In the next instant—a strong hand gently pressed her shoulder, easing her back into the warm water.
“Only if you bathe properly can you become even cuter.”
Xun Xue’s voice was as soft as the breeze, her fingertips gently massaging Lu Qiancha’s damp little head.
Lu Qiancha’s body stiffened, like a kitten being soothed.
The urge to resist slowly faded beneath that awkward yet genuine tenderness.
Bit by bit, she relaxed her taut muscles.
She allowed herself to sink back into the warm water that embraced her.
She could feel Xun Xue’s hand moving with the flow, smoothing over her tail, her ears, and her body, washing away all the dust.
She changed into soft, clean new clothes.
Lu Qiancha sat on a wooden stool padded with animal hide, looking at her freshly trimmed nails.
Her claws had been filed round and neat, the paw pads glowed pink, and the skin of her arms, moistened by the hot water, now showed a healthy, rosy sheen she hadn’t seen in ages.
Compared to her days of wandering, all of this felt almost too wonderful.
Like a fragile, fleeting dream.
Lu Qiancha instinctively looked up, her eyes searching, a little lost.
“Hmm?”
Perhaps sensing that anxious gaze,
Xun Xue turned slightly, her hands pausing as she offered a gentle smile. “What is it?”
Lu Qiancha stared at her quietly for a long moment,
And finally, just shook her head softly.
She said nothing.
Under Xun Xue’s wing, five years passed in peace. No longer struggling for her next meal, Lu Qiancha was able to devote herself to cultivation.
The shattered foundation of her cultivation was now reforged into Jindan Daoji.
On this day, she could no longer suppress the surging longing in her heart. Clutching a dust-covered Sect Token, she slipped quietly through the undulating barrier that protected the mountain.
Her figure was like mist, gliding through familiar yet foreign mountain paths, until she crouched atop a broken cliff on Tianquan Peak, holding her breath and gazing out.
In the distance, a slender yet upright figure sat cross-legged in the falling snow, cultivating.
It was her little junior sister, Gantang.
During the years Lu Qiancha was gone, Gantang had changed entirely.
The once naive and charming smile was long gone, her brows now locked in unmelting frost. Spiritual energy surged around her like an abyss, her cultivation already reaching the Void Refining stage.
In just five years, she had progressed from Nascent Soul to Void Refining.
Such advancement—it was almost unbelievable.
A complex trace of comfort flashed through Lu Qiancha’s heart.
This way, Gantang could stand on her own.
Lu Qiancha’s gaze drifted past that figure.
Finally, her eyes settled on two small, jarringly bright graves nearby.
Her heart plummeted into an icy abyss.
All the complex comfort from earlier instantly froze, turning to cold lead that sank into the depths.
Step by step, she approached, her trembling fingertips tracing the icy carvings on the simple stone markers:
The slightly larger one on the left—“Master Xuanya’s Tomb”
The smaller one on the right—“Senior Brother Lu Qiancha’s Tomb”
Lu Qiancha was still standing here, alive, but she was no longer that senior brother from the past…
And Master..
Her sob caught in her throat, and the burning tears she could no longer hold back spilled from her eyes.
“Boom!”
A sudden thunderclap ripped across the sky.
At the same time, a bone-chilling cold erupted behind her.
Lu Qiancha whipped around—
A figure clad in blue and pink, ghostly and ominous, stood less than three steps behind her.
On Gantang’s face was a darkness Lu Qiancha had never seen before, those once clear eyes now churning with icy killing intent.
“Wolf demon, what are you doing before my Master and Senior Brother’s graves?”
Gantang’s voice was laced with icy shards. The Frost Sword, which once danced so lightly in her hand, was now covered in a fierce, bitter frost.
Before the words had faded, the sword’s light flashed into a deadly star, aimed straight for Lu Qiancha’s heart.
“Ah!”
Pain pierced through her in an instant; Lu Qiancha didn’t even have time to react. The Life-preserving Talisman Xun Xue had given her at her waist burst forth with a dazzling light.
In that desperate instant, her figure transformed into a streak of light and vanished within Tianquan Peak.