Ling City was buried under the snow.
It was no wonder then that since earlier, Bai Fanlu had a feeling that they were climbing uphill. It turned out that an entire city made up the slope.
After Yun Zhan and he crossed the wind and snow belt in the original book, they saw Ling City at once. It was the only city surrounded by wind and snow that had a perennial breeze and sunshine as if it was the only piece of tranquillity in the eye of a hurricane.
This peculiarity stemmed from the geothermal heat emitted by an extinct volcano sleeping beneath Ling City. Because of that extinct volcano, Yun Zhan and the original owner discovered the demonic qi rift and the ancient underground palace buried deep under the city. As well as Xun Huang.
But now, Ling City had become a vast expanse of snow, and neither the crater of the volcano nor the underground palace could be found.
The point was, if thick snow was a regular occurrence, how many years did it take to form this scene? But according to the herders of Erji Mountain, they had been to Ling City last month, so this snow could not simply be due to the weather.
Xiao Liu also got off his horse and walked behind Bai Fanlu.
"We should not stay here for long. Let's leave quickly." Bai Fanlu spoke solemnly.
Yun Zhan's bluebird did not send a reply. In this situation, Bai Fanlu did not dare to act rashly, especially with Xiao Liu by his side.
"…Alright."
Xiao Liu seemed to hesitate before agreeing with him. Just as Bai Fanlu turned his head to glance at him in doubt, he saw that the other party raised his eyes, frowned and fixed his gaze in one direction.
Zhizhi stuck its head out from under his wolf fur, twitched his nose and sniffed the air. Suddenly, it jumped down and scuttled in that direction, leaving behind a series of small paw prints in its wake.
Xiao Liu looked at Bai Fanlu, the two of them locked gazes with each other briefly, and, without speaking, they immediately followed.
Zhizhi darted extremely fast at first and then gradually slowed down. He stopped and turned around at a snowy area, shrieking and jumping around, appearing rather anxious.
Bai Fanlu stepped on that snowy ground and tapped on it with his foot. He noticed that it sounded quite different from elsewhere. Bai Fanlu lightly trod on it again, removed his sword but did not pull it out of the scabbard. He carefully drove it into the snow and hit an end after he inserted it halfway.
Then, he vaguely heard three soft clanging noises coming from below.
With these three dangs, the snow accumulated a few metres high slightly loosened, and a corner of it collapsed, revealing something that was in bluish-grey. Xiao Liu peered over and cried to Bai Fanlu, "It seems to be a roof."
As if hearing him speak, there was a clanging sound from the ground immediately, which was louder than before.
"Someone's down there!"
Bai Fanlu was shocked, as Ling City was now entirely buried by snow, yet there were still survivors!
The two immediately commenced with the rescue. Although this particular layer of snow was thinner than elsewhere, it was still too slow to dig. However, they also feared using their spiritual power to push it away as the roof might collapse and hit the people below.
Hence, activating a spiritual fire to melt away snow was the most efficient and safe method. Still, the snow which will melt into water may also put a lot of pressure on the building. Moreover, the temperature here was extremely low, and if the snow was not disposed of immediately, it would freeze back into ice in the blink of an eye.
Bai Fanlu shared his plan, and Xiao Liu replied, "Have you forgotten? I, too, can use spells now. Leave this to me. I will melt the snow, and you shall handle the rest."
The duo cooperated seamlessly, and very quickly, all the snow was cleared away, exposing the entire glazed tiled roof.
There were holes on this piece of roof, which may be the reason why the air could still get in and out.
Xiao Liu called out, "Is anyone there?"
This time there was a clear response, "Yes, there is...help...please help..." This was the voice of an older woman, and her sentence seemed broken up and spoken with a hint of agony.
Upon carefully listening once more, a child's faint and weak cry could also be heard.
Bai Fanlu's heart twitched when he heard it, but he didn't know what was going on. He could only break and remove the tiles with his bare hands to create a more considerable passage for him to descend and search.
Seeing that the child didn't utter another word, Xiao Liu took action at once and attempted to comfort him, saying, "Don't be afraid. We are here to save you."
At this, Bai Fanlu removed more tiles from the roof.
Finally, the two created an opening that could accommodate one man. Xiao Liu stopped Bai Fanlu's impatient and rushed movements, saying, "I'll go first."
Then, the youth jumped down.
Very soon, Xiao Liu's shouts came, "Gege, you can come down now."
Bai Fanlu leapt down, and Xiao Liu supported him as he landed.
The place was initially dim. Only a little light managed to creep into the hole they had just dug, but more light bounced off the bright white snow, allowing the tiny space to be illuminated.
A few figures were curled up in one corner. Upon closer look, they were three adults and four children.
Two adults had grey hair, and one had all white hair. The youngest child was still an infant, while the oldest child was a girl and seemed to be only seven or eight years old.
Only one adult was still awake. She was holding a small metal shovel in her right hand, and it was probably her who conveyed the distress signals just now. She embraced the youngest infant in her left arm while another little boy stuck close to her in a shiver.
Under the dim light, the child's eyes opened into a slit, and after a few low whimpers, he fell silent.
The old woman did not expect anyone to hear their cries for help and had already exhausted all her strength doing so. She got so agitated when she saw them that her entire body trembled and could not utter a single word.
Bai Fanlu and Xiao Liu immediately approached her and took some food and water from their bag. Their water had long been frozen, so Bai Fanlu melted it with a spell. Then, he cast a barrier around this small space to resist the intrusion of cold air before he proceeded to use healing spells to treat their wounds.
The older man and another child who was gradually falling asleep woke up at this, and Xiao Liu hurriedly handed them food and water, except for the infant.
He kept crying and neither wanted to eat nor drink. Nonetheless, infants were expected to be fed with milk or liquid food.
Bai Fanlu thought for a while and raised his hand.
"…Gege?" Xiao Liu was busy tending the other three older children, letting them eat, coaxing them to slow down in case they choked but noticed and was baffled by Bai Fanlu's actions.
Bai Fanlu lowered his head and activated Cang Jin, which glimmered on his wrist. Next, a drop of blood slid out from the index finger of his left hand, and he promptly placed his finger into the baby's mouth.
The baby stopped crying immediately and suckled on Bai Fanlu's finger while holding onto him.
"Young...young master." The older woman's eyes reddened, her cracked lips trembled, and she didn't know what to say.
"It's alright," Bai Fanlu spoke and saw that baby was still grasping on his hand and desperately trying to lean towards him with half of his tiny body exposed outside the old woman's torn coat. Bai Fanlu smiled gently at her, "Let me carry him."
Xiao Liu watched as Bai Fanlu took the baby into his arms and covered him with wolf fur.
The baby pouted his lips, and even though the sound of him desperately suckling was overpowered by noises of the others gorging on food, Xiao Liu still heard it very clearly.
Gradually, the baby's cheeks became rosy, and Bai Fanlu's face, which was pale from exposure to the cold wind, became even more translucent.
"Let me do it." Xiao Liu sat down next to Bai Fanlu, whispered to him, and stretched out his hand to receive the child.
Bai Fanlu looked back and smiled, "My blood has immortal qi. Does yours?"
His kindness was turned down straight away, but Xiao Liu already knew that Bai Fanlu had deliberately said this, yet he couldn't refute this. After the food they brought was distributed, Xiao Liu had nothing else to do but to settle down by Bai Fanlu's side.
Bai Fanlu watched the baby in his arms intently and suddenly felt another hand extended under his wolf fur, holding his hand and supporting the baby.
Earlier, when he was peeling off the roof tiles, he suffered some cuts due to the sharp ice pieces. Although those wounds were quickly healed due to his spiritual energy, not long had passed since then, and some scars were still visible.
Xiao Liu's hand brushed across Bai Fanlu's to examine those healed wounds. Once he touched one, he would stop and rub it, causing Bai Fanlu's heart to pound rapidly and become unstable. His only thought was to retract his hand.
However, he didn't dare to make any big actions while holding onto the child. He could only glance around and make sure no one noticed them.
Under the wolf fur, that hand became even bolder and held onto his directly.
"Xiao Liu…"
"Hmm?"
As if nothing happened, Xiao Liu stretched out his other hand to caress the baby's tiny face with a dream-like smile that was even sweeter and more gratified than the baby who just had his fill.
Bai Fanlu was at a loss of what to do, so he could only let him be. When he finally returned the child to the older woman, Bai Fanlu inadvertently noticed that all the wounds on his hands were gone.
Was it his own spiritual energy that had healed them? Or perhaps…
Bai Fanlu could not be sure. Could it be that Xiao Liu's cultivation skills had improved considerably of late?
The baby had eaten enough and finally fell asleep peacefully. The group who survived the catastrophe were trapped underground due to the snow for an unknown period. At this point, they regained some energy, recovered from their shock, and were finally able to recount what happened in Ling City.
It was about a month ago when Ling City, which enjoyed clear weather all year-round, was hit with a sudden and harsh blizzard for some reason. Because of that disaster, houses were buried under the snow, and many died.
The snow kept falling throughout many days and nights, freezing crops and livestock to death and leaving people hungry and cold. Those who were young, strong and capable began to flee the city, leaving behind the elderly, weak women, children, and the sick to suffer the wind and snow. They were prepared for the worst in the city.
"Where did they go?" Bai Fanlu asked.
If one headed south, one should pass by Erji Mountain. Nomads were living in the northern foothills of that Mountain. They had not seen people escaping Ling City. If someone were to pass by, the news of this disaster befalling the city would surely have spread.
Sure enough, the old woman replied, "They headed west."
"Why not the south?"
If Bai Fanlu was not wrong, he remembered that all that lies in the west was the Gobi desert. It was clear that the south had more human traffic and was more ideal for taking refuge.
"The wind and snow in the south are too unbearable, so they couldn't go there. Many people got lost in the south, with only a handful who escaped telling of their encounter with a ‘ghost hit the wall' phenomenon. They were seemingly trapped in an invisible maze and couldn't get through."
"Ghost hit the wall?" Bai Fanlu pondered for a moment. They had just come from the south. Although the wind and snow was more vigorous, it was still possible to pass through.
There were two explanations. It was either because they had a stronger body constitution than these civilians or someone deliberately prevented them from sending letters to the south. This would have stopped the news regarding Ling City from spreading.
Bai Fanlu intuitively felt that the latter was more likely.
"You mentioned the blizzard began out of the blue a month ago?" Bai Fanlu wanted to confirm.
"That's right." The older woman answered.
"Do you remember the specific day it started?"
The old woman frowned and thought for a while, "Just two days after the Qingming FestivalAlso known as Ching Ming, the Remembrance of Ancestors Day, Tomb-sweeping Festival or Grave-Sweeping Day, it takes place on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox....Yes, it was the second day of April."
Of course, Bai Fanlu couldn't figure out any association to that date because he never paid attention to any date in this world ever since he transmigrated. He turned to Xiao Liu and wanted to consult with him but found that the youth was furrowing his eyebrows solemnly and deep in thought.
"Can you think of anything?"
Xiao Liu looked up at Bai Fanlu, "It was the day we first arrived in Ying City."
"..."
Bai Fanlu speculated that particular day was related to that date but did not expect Xiao Liu to guess his thoughts.
Wow, that’s what we call ‘a winter of century’ ∑(ﾟﾛﾟ〃) Who would made something like that? Can’t wait for the new chapter!
Thank You for the update ♥(ˆ⌣ˆԅ)