The bell rang a few times, then stopped abruptly.
Ning Qinghan looked down at the bronze bell at her waist, but did not touch it.
After waiting for a moment, Ning Qinghan looked up, her small canine tooth showing as she smiled at Bai Qingxue.
"Let's go."
Ning Qinghan turned and walked deeper into the ice cave. Her pace was neither fast nor slow, the bell swaying gently with her steps. The bell, which should have been ringing, was now like a muted copper coin, swaying in total silence.
Bai Qingxue watched Ning Qinghan's back but did not move.
Ning Qinghan had a slender frame, the old grayish-blue Daoist robe draped over her, appearing slightly loose at the shoulders.
Countless figures were sealed in the ice on either side. Ning Qinghan walked between them without the slightest hesitation, as if passing through an ordinary corridor.
She did not look back or urge them on; she simply walked at a leisurely pace, so certain of herself it bordered on being reckless.
The sound of her footsteps gradually grew distant.
Lu Xueqing looked at Bai Qingxue.
Bai Qingxue's expression betrayed nothing. But Lu Xueqing had known her for too long; she knew Bai Qingxue was certainly thinking about something, and likely the same thing she was: the timing of Ning Qinghan's appearance was too strange, making it impossible not to be wary.
As if noticing the lack of footsteps behind her, Ning Qinghan walked a few more steps and then stopped.
Ning Qinghan turned her head, her profile catching the eerie blue light from the ice wall, half-illuminated and half-shrouded in shadow.
"Weren't you looking for something?" Ning Qinghan's voice wasn't loud, yet it traveled far in the hollow ice cave, hitting the ice walls and bouncing back in layers of echoes.
"Perhaps I know where it is?"
Bai Qingxue did not answer.
Ning Qinghan tilted her head, the corners of her mouth curling upward.
Then her gaze shifted from Bai Qingxue's face to the bell at her waist.
She reached out, her fingers well-defined and tipped with a faint red from the cold, and flicked the clapper.
The clapper struck the body of the bell, letting out a very soft, crisp ring.
Ning Qinghan withdrew her hand and looked up at Bai Qingxue.
The eerie blue light of the ice cave was reflected in those deep black eyes, yet they did not seem cold.
The light flowed in the depths of her gaze, like a fish occasionally darting through a deep pond.
Ning Qinghan's tone suddenly softened, becoming so quiet it sounded like a secret intended for no one else.
"Even if you don't trust me..."
Ning Qinghan paused.
The pause was very brief, almost imperceptible, but it made the words that followed carry more weight.
"...then how about trusting the bell?"
The sentence was a bit cryptic, yet Ning Qinghan spoke it as if it were a matter of course.
Lu Xueqing looked at Bai Qingxue.
Bai Qingxue remained silent for a moment—only a moment.
Then she began to walk.
Bai Qingxue was gambling.
But she wasn't gambling on whether Ning Qinghan was trustworthy.
She knew nothing about this so-called Ning Qinghan and had no way to judge her.
She was gambling on the runes she had just seen on the ice wall.
Those runes shared the same origin as the Soul Control Formation, and the aura of that formation was too similar to the faint resonance that had emanated from the bell when it rang on its own.
The patterns carved into the bell at Ning Qinghan's waist had been inscribed by the same hand as those on the ice walls.
She needed to know why.
Lu Xueqing naturally followed Bai Qingxue, though her hand never strayed far from her sword hilt.
She didn't know why Bai Qingxue had suddenly decided to follow, but she knew Bai Qingxue never took pointless risks.
If she chose to follow, there must be a reason she had to.
And in the duties Lu Xueqing had set for herself, questioning those reasons was not included.
Her duty was to ensure that regardless of the reason, she could be the first to stand in front of Junior Sister Bai to protect her.
She had never spoken this thought to Bai Qingxue, nor did she need to.
The three of them moved through the ice cave.
The ice walls on either side gradually narrowed, shrinking from about ten feet wide to only enough for two people to walk side by side, then further until only one person could pass sideways. The figures in the ice grew denser; at first, there was one every few steps, but later they were packed together like lost souls queuing for passage to the afterlife.
Their features were blurred by the refraction of the ice, yet their postures were strikingly consistent.
All of them faced deep into the ice cave, as if staring toward the same direction.
Ning Qinghan led the way, seemingly familiar with every fork in the path.
She never hesitated at a junction, and her pace didn't even slow for a second.
They turned several corners, passed through an ice fissure only wide enough to shuffle through sideways, and ducked under a low-hanging ice eave.
Every one of Ning Qinghan's movements was so fluid they required no thought, as if she had walked through this ice cave countless times before.
Bai Qingxue followed behind, taking it all in.
Clearly, these details combined to point to a simple conclusion.
Ning Qinghan's familiarity with this place suggested she had indeed been here many times.
Finally, the ice walls receded, revealing a stone room.
The four walls were built of grayish-blue stone bricks, which were covered in runes even more complete than those on the ice walls.
The patterns spread from the floor to the walls, then climbed to the ceiling, converging in a circular groove at the center of the dome.
A bead the size of a fist was embedded in the groove; it was dull and lifeless, having been extinguished for who knew how long.
In the center of the stone room, a jade slip floated.
The jade slip had no support; it simply hovered in mid-air about three feet off the ground, surrounded by a very faint halo that looked like a thin veil woven from moonlight.
The jade slip itself was pale green with fine patterns on its surface. Content seemed faintly discernible, but when scanned with spiritual sense, nothing could be seen clearly, as if separated by a fog that could never be cleared away.
Within this stone room, the cold reached its absolute peak.
Ning Qinghan stopped at the entrance of the stone room, her feet landing exactly on the line where the stone room met the ice path.
"We're here," she said, her tone casual, yet her gaze swept over the jade slip before landing on Bai Qingxue's face.
"This should be what you're looking for."
Ning Qinghan's voice was very soft when she said this.
But her gaze remained fixed on Bai Qingxue, never wavering.
Bai Qingxue looked at the jade slip.
She had found it.
The object of her journey was right before her eyes, within reach.
She only needed to walk over and reach out, and the jade slip would fall into her palm.
Yet Bai Qingxue felt none of the joy she should have felt. Instead, she was met with another, colder thought: it was too smooth.
From entering the ice fissure until now, besides the figures in the ice and the runes on the walls, they had encountered no substantial obstacles.
Ning Qinghan had led them through the maze-like ice paths without hesitation, heading straight for the core.
Being too smooth made it feel wrong.
Bai Qingxue did not walk toward the jade slip.
She stood where she was, her gaze shifting from the jade slip back to Ning Qinghan.
"Why exactly are you here?"
Bai Qingxue's voice was calm, but the coldness within it would be obvious even to the most foolish person.
Ning Qinghan met Bai Qingxue's gaze without flinching.
"I already told you." Ning Qinghan smiled, her canine tooth flashing in the eerie blue light. Her tone remained airy as she said, "I'm waiting for someone."
She paused and glanced down at the bell at her waist.
Then Ning Qinghan looked up again.
She looked at Bai Qingxue, the light in her eyes beginning to flow again, brighter and calmer than before.
"And that person is you."
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