When Leng An woke up it was already 10:30 in the morning. He dragged his tired body to the bathroom, groggily did his morning routine and looked outside. It was all white; no wonder it had been so quiet last night, it was snowing.

    Wait a minute . . .  He wouldn’t forget the day even if he was sleepy. It was summer. Why would it snow?

    He looked at himself in the mirror. For a second, his pupils were red. When he double-checked, they were back to black.

    He was used to this happening.

    He just needed to remind himself.

    He ambled into the living room. It was an average-sized room with a glass table and a long sofa right across from a wooden table cluttered with various snacks. The floor has a bamboo mat where he could sit and play games while snacking. His landlord, who owned the restaurant downstairs, not only rented him this room, but also provided him with meals. He didn’t need to pay anything other than rent as long as he tutored his landlord’s son.

    He was on his seventh day of winter break from school. He had already completely reversed his usual schedule.

    “Brother Leng An, your noodles are here!” His landlord’s son walked over and plopped a big bowl of noodles next to his computer. His landlord knew he woke up after ten a.m. every day.

    It was nice to have hot food whenever he felt hungry, especially since he liked to eat, although he usually went downstairs himself. Today, his landlord’s son was really helpful by bringing the food, which was odd. He smirked at the kid. “Hey, you need a favor or something?”

    “Nah, Brother Leng An, I’m not like that. A hot girl gave me one hundred Yuan to bring you the food.” The kid smiled, but Leng An’s heart dropped. He lived like a slacker on break. Usually, he was a good student at school; however, he had a secret that no one could know. He tried to ignore it, but it was not working.

    Every cell in Leng An’s body was rebelling; he looked calm but things were happening fast. He wanted to run, but it was too late.

    Leng An’s body was out of his control as he stood up, and ignoring the kid’s confused look, he said, “I need to go out.” He walked downstairs, fully conscious, to a black and red Bugetta.

    The passenger side door was unlocked, so Leng An opened the door and got in. The driver wore a suit and black glasses. Leng An couldn’t move his body, but wanted to show his shock. Why was the man dressed like a hit man? Well, they were obviously kidnapping him, so they weren’t being discreet about it.

    “Let’s go,” came a cold voice from the backseat. Leng An knew the voice, and if he could have moved, he would have started crying.

    The car drove into the snowstorm.

    So the snow was here to stay.

    It was taking too long. Leng An knew the noodles were weird, but he had already eaten them. He hadn't realized they had these methods, and could do things to the food. He was not in control of his body anymore. This wasn’t a fantasy novel—it was happening to him, and even worse, he knew exactly what they wanted to do.

    He had to get away. No matter what he had to do, he had to run, or he was going to die.

    It was the only thought in Leng An’s mind.

    The fact was, Leng An couldn’t even move his limbs the way he wanted. No matter how beautiful the girl is, you have to watch out for ulterior motives. You have a lot to learn, kid. Don’t be tempted by money and women, he wanted to tell the landlord’s son, not that the kid would listen to him.

    The money was tempting.

    Leng An did more than complain in his mind. He remembered the car’s route. He didn’t realize they could find out where he lived, which was not in town, but a village outside. It was not an urban area nor expensive, and the environment was not bad. He knew they wouldn’t let him go after he had seen what he had.

    The car entered downtown Yunshan City, toward the rich area. Leng An tried to move his eyes, which felt dry, but he couldn’t, so he gave up trying to control his body. It was futile anyway.

    Leng An thought of how much he suffered growing up and all of his struggles: six years of elementary school, three years of middle school, three years of high school, and surviving the college entrance exams. He was just waiting for his results now. When things were finally looking up, he somehow met those people and had that happen, and now he was going to die because of what he had seen. He was frustrated and desperate. He knew he wasn’t lucky, but he wasn’t this unlucky, either.

    He didn’t want to die. He wanted to keep living.

    Leng An didn’t know the car was headed toward the rich neighborhood. He thought they were going to kill him and bury him somewhere in the wilderness. He had also said he needed to go out earlier, so that was a sign that he wasn’t coming back.

    There was a girl who sat behind him in class. She was about his age. Cloud Xuanyuan. Her name alone was special; the first of the five major emperors of China was named Xuanyuan. She was a descendant of the gods, not to mention that she was stunning and considered the beauty at school. Many people wanted to be her friend, and Leng An, being class president, was rumored to be involved with her. He never realized she was that different from her exterior image

    Girls like that were terrifying.

    Leng An knew why she had picked on him. It had all started with the graduation party a few days ago. The school hadn't organized an official graduation party this year, but instead the students had their own dinners at restaurants. Leng An was never interested in things like this, but the teacher insisted that he go and kept nagging him, so he finally agreed to go.

    It wasn’t that late that night. The party was a mess. Leng An was fed many shots by his friends. He didn’t like to drink and rarely drank, but he didn’t get drunk. Alcohol didn’t really work on him, so he told the teacher he would find taxis for everyone. He had to; everyone was so out of it that letting them walk home wasn’t an option.

    Cloud wasn’t at the party, which did not really concern Leng An. People just kept saying that it was a shame the most beautiful girl was absent that night. Leng An thought it was not a surprise girls like Cloud didn’t show; the guys who wanted to pursue her had no chance.

    After three years of studying together, Leng An felt attached to the group. He was still emotional when he left the restaurant. He felt lucky he got out when people were hugging and crying or he felt like he was going to cry, too. Who knew when they’d see each other again, and he was even feeling sorry Cloud was absent. He was actually a marshmallow in spite of his cool demeanor.

    “Don’t speak of goodbye, even after three thousand dinners.” As Leng An had comforted himself with an old poem, he noticed someone walking by in the shadows, or more accurately, a monster with scales all over its body. He knew the face, though, and it was Cloud.

    He knew he wasn’t drunk, but he also told himself it was an illusion. Growing up, he always had all sorts of illusions. Some people never looked human to him, and he saw things others didn’t. He even saw a doctor to treat the problem.

    Drugs didn’t help him, so he stopped taking them. He understood never to talk about what he saw, but just to stay silent—until that day.

    That monster had to be Cloud. He had followed it without hesitation.

    She moved so fast that he almost lost her as he chased along. He was impressed. Who knew this quiet girl would be this strong? Why didn’t she contribute her talent at the sports meet at school? It was a waste of her skills.

    Leng An complained as he ran as fast he could. Luckily Cloud finally stopped.

    If he could do it over again, he would have never chased after Cloud for two blocks and see what he had, something that had brought him so much trouble.

    The night was cold.

    While it was summer, the temperature wasn’t so high it was insufferable. At night, it was quite cool. As rainbow-colored lights refracted in the air, even with dust, there was an element of fantasy, making it hard to judge what was real and what was not.

    Leng An kept following Cloud mostly because they went to the same school. It was scary for a girl to walk around late at night, and it was odd that she didn’t go to the class party even though she was in the area.

    But now that he saw what he had, he regretted his decision.

    He wasn’t sure when it happened, but everything on the street seemed to have disappeared. The street, people, traffic lights, cars, buildings . . . everything. Leng An always thought he was quick on his feet, but this time, when he realized the change, everything was already gone, or more accurately, everything on Earth disappeared, leaving just the sky and the surprisingly bright stars.

    When Leng An was standing alone in the new world, looking helpless, Cloud noticed him.

    “How did you get in here?” Cloud took just one step to reach him. She hadn’t planned on an intruder. The boundaries she set were for the prey she wanted; she didn’t realize Leng An would end up inside as well.

    Before she could question him further, he pointed to something behind her.

    Leng An could only use “thing” to describe what he saw. In fact, Leng An thought maybe he was hallucinating because he’d stopped taking his medications and treatment. He didn’t know if Cloud saw what he saw, so he wanted to check. The way Cloud interrogated him didn’t make sense, either. It was quite remarkable that Leng An could analyze so much within such a short time‒it was as if his brain was a computer screen with many open tabs.

    What is that thing with a human-head and snake-body? Is it a hallucination? It’s a monster, right? Cloud, you see it, too, right? Wait, what are you doing? Where did you get that sword? How did you make a fire in your hand? Doesn’t it feel hot?

    Leng An appeared calm but his brain was exploding as it processed everything that was going on; there was more activity in there than fireworks during Chinese New Year.

    Cloud didn’t want Leng An to hang around, but she was too busy to deal with him. She was in trouble herself. It had taken her blocks of chasing to get the monster inside the boundaries she had set, and now that it’d gotten away, she had to fight and hope for the best.

    The angry-looking, human-faced snake monster opened its blood-red mouth, leaping toward Cloud. As it roared, its powerful tail swept toward her. The sword seemed to have materialized out of her hand and the fire in her hand didn’t burn her. One swipe of the sword sent out a burst of fiery flame. Watching the battle, Leng An felt increasingly surreal.

    Swinging the sword didn’t affect Cloud too much; she was bounced back and slid forward on the ground, but it was another story for Leng An. He wasn’t so much calm but frozen in shock as he watched the monster fall toward him and topple him over.

    If it had been a beautiful woman giving him a bear hug, he would have been quite happy, but the monster doing so just made Leng An annoyed. Was it male or female? It couldn’t just launch at him like that!

    Leng An thought of moving the monster off his body, but it wasn’t letting go. Its tail wrapped around him like a python around an ox, locking Leng An in place. His face started to lose color; he was almost out of breath.

    Cloud touched her brow, wondering how on Earth this guy had ended up here. She rolled her eyes and yelled, “Animal, let him go!” As Leng An looked to Cloud for help, he saw the same scales on her body from earlier, but this time, he got a better look. They weren’t scales so much as pieces of armor glinting with a silvery light. The armor pieces clung so close to her body that they looked like she grew them herself. He had to admit, her outfit looked amazing.

    The human-faced snake monster wrapped itself tighter around Leng An when Cloud shouted. Leng An felt as if he was about to be shredded apart. Since he couldn’t free himself and couldn’t breathe, he could only hope that Cloud would save him. It was in that moment he realized that wasn’t a surreal scene at all.

    When almost of all his energy was gone and he couldn’t struggle anymore, Leng An gave up. He didn’t know why, but he believed that Cloud could save him. Perhaps it was an illusion, or maybe he was drunk or having a nightmare. They were classmates after all; she would save him, right?

    “It’s snowing.”

    Why would it snow in the summer?

    That was what Leng An said before he passed out. Cloud clearly heard him. After hesitating for half a minute, the sword left her hand, turned into thousands of smaller swords, and they all rained down.

    The monster was surprised by Cloud. It yelled, “You don’t want to save him? Argh!” It wouldn’t be able to wait for the answer, for as the many smaller swords fell, it couldn’t escape anymore. With its dying breath, it said, “How did‒?”

    How was this possible? That ordinary human wasn’t hurt by all of these falling swords. As the monster died, its wounded body relaxed and let Leng An go, still puzzled over how Cloud knew the human wouldn’t die.

    If Leng An was an ordinary human, he wouldn’t have ended up inside her boundaries.

    Cloud knew her power. She hadn’t made juvenile mistakes even in kindergarten, but now she was confused as to who Leng An could be. They had been classmates for three years and she’d never noticed he was extraordinary.

    Leng An opened his eyes suddenly and gulped in air. It took him a while to come to. What happened was insane, and he had actually survived? Wait, he was back at the restaurant.

    “Hey, are you okay? I told you not to drink if you can’t handle your liquor,” the teacher’s voice barked out. “If Cloud hadn’t called us, we wouldn’t even know you’d passed out on the street. It’s so dangerous this late at night. You said you were getting us a taxi, but even as the class leader, you didn’t need to . . .” The teacher was in lecture-mode and kept talking, while Leng An only heard one keyword: Cloud.

    Where was she?

    He looked around, and finally spotted her in the corner. When he looked over, he could tell she was staring at him in a cold and inscrutable way, giving him a shiver. He could tell what happened was a memory and not a dream.

    Those feelings of almost dying and being frozen in place by the monster were real. He wasn’t a coward, he was objective, so he kept denying his hallucinations, even though at first he thought he was fantasizing.

    Leng An had seen scarier monsters than the human-faced snake creature before, but he’d always told himself it was just a fantasy, and as long as he wasn’t afraid, it was okay. But now, someone else had seen the monster, too, and worse, this person was his classmate, and even worse, his classmate looked like she wanted to kill him.

    So his hallucinations were real, which meant he had been incredibly lucky before, since he’d made it this far without getting killed by one.

    He needed to thank her.

    Maybe she’d reconsider killing him after his show of gratitude.

    Leng An really want to say thanks, but he didn’t get a chance. Now his body was out of control again. He would cry if he could.

    After about half an hour, Leng An felt less freaked out. The car he was in had entered a less populated area, but he wasn’t in some kind of body-disposing wilderness; more like a rich neighborhood. The buildings looked more upscale here than in downtown Yunshan City. It seemed like a show of wealth to Leng An, knowing how many people in the world had no place to live.

    The initial fear changed to disgust.

    The car stopped in front of a big metal gate. He thought it was the destination, but once the gate opened, however, the car continued forward. Rich people really lived differently. Leng An didn’t want to overthink the situation; at least now he was in control of his thoughts and he shouldn’t let the ability go to waste.

    The car finally stopped.

    Leng An’s body exited the car as if he was a programmed robot. He was half a step behind Cloud, no more, no less, as they went inside the house.

    It was dark inside. The house wasn’t dark, but he had somehow closed his eyes, so he saw nothing. He heard Cloud saying to someone, “I brought him here.”

    Wait, was he just sold off by his classmate? Was Cloud a human trafficker?

    Coldness moved from Leng’s wrist to the rest of his body the way a tree’s roots sought water. But eventually the roots gave up. Not having found what they needed, the coldness quickly left Leng’s body.

    The feeling was uncomfortable, extremely so.

    Even though Leng couldn’t control his body, he could feel someone gripping his wrist. He had the sensation it was a man’s hand, who let his wrist go, and then came a deep voice. “Cloud, you made a mistake this time.”

    “No way!” Cloud stood right next to Leng; as soon she heard the man’s words, she retorted, “I didn’t make a mistake. How could someone slip past my boundaries so easily? And he saw the human-faced snake monster, too.”

    “You were his classmate for three years. Has this ever happened before? Was there anything weird about him?” the man asked.

    It was apparent this man had a higher status than Cloud. He may be Cloud’s father. Why had Cloud kidnapped Leng and make things so complicated? So Leng saw something he shouldn’t have, but he’d never tell anyone—besides, would anyone believe him?

    “Even if I made an error, I couldn’t have misheard him,” Cloud insisted; she sounded upset at having been doubted. She told the man, “When I confronted the snake monster that time, before Leng passed out, he said ‘It snowed.’ I would’ve never brought him to you otherwise. I wanted you to test his power.”

    “It snowed?” the man replied, pondering. “Cloud, I don’t want to lie to you. I did test him just now; he had nothing but human power. It was simplly that and nothing else. He’s human. But you’re saying he saw snow. . .  Cloud, let him talk.”

    Cloud snapped her fingers. As Leng listened to the back-and-forth, he figured he could finally talk. He had a lot to say: Please let him go. He’d never tell anyone that Cloud wasn’t human. He’d always been good at keeping secrets, etc., but the only thing he was able to say was, “Let me go.”

    The man chortled. “Not bad. You can still be even-tempered after dealing with my Cloud. You’re no coward.”

    Is he kidding? Leng was about to break into tears; if he could’ve run, he would’ve.

    “I could let you go. Just tell me, did you really see snow that night?” The man kept interrogating Leng after seeing his mood.

    “No,” Leng denied.

    Cloud sounded stressed. “You’re lying. You did say it was snowing that night.” As she panicked, she released the holds she had on Leng, who tumbled to the floor upon being freed. Pain followed. But Leng realized he could control his body now; he could open his eyes and move his hands, but being able to see also scared him.

    “What the . . . ?” he mumbled. His words echoed in the space, which was shaped like a circular concert hall. Leng had seen many monsters, but he couldn’t be calm after seeing this monster, who had a human body with a dragon face. Its dragon whiskers floated in the air, as did its feet. The male voice Leng heard earlier came from this dragon-faced monster. The three of them were the only ones here.

    Leng’s reaction made the monster laugh and turn to say to Cloud, “You’re telling me this isn’t your mistake?”

    Cloud was startled. She hadn’t counted on Leng’s holds being freed; she did lose control earlier, but it was odd he got loose so easily. There was more to it, but she couldn’t figure out why.

    “You’re lying! You said it snowed, and now you’re denying it.”

    “I said I was scared, not that it snowed.” Leng’s expression didn’t seem like he was faking. For a minute, Cloud doubted herself. Even the calmest people would be a little flustered in moments like those, and Leng wasn’t like them. Being the class leader, Leng had to have contact with the rest of the class, but he was known as a loner. He had few friends and was always by himself. His grades were great and he was well-liked by teachers. He just seemed like a regular student.

    The dragon monster said, “Well, Cloud, just erase this part of his memory. If we caused trouble, we’d have to explain to our family elder.”

    “I understand, Second Uncle.” As Cloud replied, she raised her right hand, shooting out flames. She walked toward Leng, who was terrified into saying, “Wait.”

    Cloud raised her eyebrow. “Why, you want to tell the truth now?”

    Leng had to admit that he was wrong to think Cloud was a goody-two-shoes kind of girl. His political science teacher had once said it was important to see past the exterior to the truth.

    “I did see the way you were and that monster,” said Leng. “But I’ll stay quiet.” He didn’t want these people to do anything to his brain, since he knew Cloud had the power to erase his memories. If she did, he’d start to think everything he saw was a hallucination. He didn’t want to go back living like that, seeing weird things every day, having a ton of pills to take, but afraid to do so, since they didn’t work. He would have to keep telling himself those were hallucinations and not real.

    He had only followed Cloud beause he was worried about her; he hadn’t realized his hallucinations were real. This was a relief to him.

    “Why should we believe you?” Cloud looked at Leng in a suspicious way.

    Leng stared back at her. “Have I ever not done something I promised the class?” His sincerity and gaze did seem trustworthy, making Cloud a little hesitant.

    The dragon monster said, “Cloud, let him go. But, kid, you’ve gotta remember what you said and have no regrets. If you go to the police after leaving here, I can make you stay at the police station for the rest of your life.”

    “I know. I walked here to see a friend,” replied Leng. In fact, he had walked here. There were witnesses who saw him get in and out of the car. If he said he was controlled by someone and that he saw a dragon-faced monster, would anyone believe him? Leng didn’t think he was that stupid.

    Having received Leng’s promise, Cloud politely sent him back, only telling him that she’d find out who Leng was eventually, playing with the flames in her hand the whole time.

    It was quite a threat.

    “Cloud, please put away the fire, okay? I also want to know why I keep seeing terrifying things!” Leng turned away with a slight smile. “I’ll wait.”

    After he got out of the car, Cloud gritted her teeth and yelled at the driver, “Go!”

    Leng thought Cloud may have misunderstood him. He just wanted to say that he also wanted to learn the truth, but he’d only made her angrier. Maybe because he had lied earlier. He lied when he said he didn’t see the snow.

    Traffic flowed endlessly down the street.

    Leng stood on the side of the road, reaching out his hand. The big snow storm dropped one snowflake into his hand, which didn’t melt. In this world, snow was on everything: houses, streets, parked cars, and pedestrians’ shoulders. But no one noticed, because it was a hot summer day.

    It has been snowing for days.

    But now Leng knew he wasn’t the only one who saw this summer snow.

    “Leng, you’re back? Want to eat?” The landlord didn’t ask where Leng has been, making him feel relieved. It was good not having to explain. Maybe the landlord thought he was just out. He shook his head; he was too excited to eat.

    I’m not crazy, I don’t have hallucinations, I don’t need treatment!

    He was chanting in his mind as he hopped his way upstairs, until a zombie-like face almost made him fall back down the stairs. It was good Leng only froze when got scared. He asked, “Who are you?”

    “Muyi Xiu. I used to be a Soul Cultivator and a Soul Fixer.”

    The dead face revealed his status to Leng right away. But the problem was not who he was but why he was here. Just what was a Soul Cultivator and a Soul Fixer? Leng was confused. Before he could react, the dead face looked even paler, his body leaning over onto Leng.

    What is going on?

    Leng was at a loss at what to do.

    When Cloud went back to her place, she didn’t want to argue with her Second Uncle, but heard him telling his confidante.

    “It’s all here.”

    After a while, another man’s voice said, “There’s quite a few interesting things here!”

    Leng probably didn’t know that, while a Dead Face had invaded his home and was now passed out in front of him so that he had to take care of him, Cloud’s family had already found out everything they could about him. Everything that could be collected was found. They learned everything that had happened to him, some of which Leng had forgotten. It was as if the investigators were trained by a spy agency.

    Although, even if Leng had known what was happening, he couldn’t do anything anyway. He was very busy at the moment, as this strange Dead Face was on his bed. And Leng had had to carry him there.

    None of this mattered as much as what Leng should do with this Dead Face. He couldn’t let his landlord know, or find a doctor, or go to the police—they’d think he was involved in the mafia or something. Plus, the way this Dead Face had introduced himself made Leng think no one should know he was here.

    And the Dead Face refused to wake up.

    Crickets chirped outside the window, mixed with the noise of some other insects. Inside the window, all was quiet as the fan rotated left and right. Leng sat on the sofa, his hands propping up his chin, lost in thought.

    A deep pool of calm.

    His thoughts drifted far away, as if they were caught in an abyss. A powerful force pulled Leng’s soul. By the time he came to, he was already in another realm. Leng couldn’t enjoy his life in the few days after the college-entrance exams, and he was used to it, so he was not panicking as he realized he had come to a dark and mysterious place.

    Even if he panicked, there was no way out.

    Leng looked around the same way he had examined Cloud’s home earlier. The space seemed virtual but also real. It was different from last time as he was pulled inside and didn’t stumble in. He felt uncomfortable, like he was car-sick. He had to stand still for a while before he recovered.

    Suddenly a stream of light came in as a stone door opened, and it was a stone door; it was heavy and made a noise he seemed to have heard before.

    Leng turned around to see a tall woman dressed all in red. Red hair, red eyeshadow, red lipstick, a red and tight dress, and red heels. She was dressed like a flame. This was the second flame-like woman Leng had seen, thinking of the way Cloud had looked. But Cloud was more gentle than this woman; her hand-fire was pale gold and not blood-red.

    The woman stared at Leng in a stern way, walking toward him. Leng froze until the woman passed through his body. He looked at her and then himself, wondering what happened.

    He looked around again, realizing this world wasn’t empty. Twelve tall beams stood around him, each inscribed with strange animal patterns. In front of the woman was a young woman with white hair. Kneeling on the ground, her hands and feet were bound by chains, which were connected to the beams. She had a young face.

    She was obviously kidnapped and being abused!

    Leng wanted to help her, but before he took a step, a hand fell on his shoulder. He turned, only to see that Dead Face again.

    “It’s no use,” the Dead Face told Leng. The face was still pale, and he spoke without much life.

    Leng was scared, but the Dead Face did look on the verge of dying. He backed up a step, holding up the Dead Face, asking, ”Are you okay? What is going on here?”

    The Dead Face stopped exerting himself and leaned on Leng. “Zhongyan, the daughter of Zhu Rong. Baize, the god of prophecy.” He sounded as if he had no energy to talk, and his face looked even worse. Leng let him stay silent, guessing that the Dead Face had pulled him into some realm in order to see this.

    The woman in red was probably Zhongyan. The young woman in chains was likely Baize. Leng also saw more than other people. The young woman had another layer of image over her, which was a white-scaled beast with two horns, tiger-like limbs, and a pair of wings that looked a bit like a unicorn’s.

    Leng looked over as Zhongyan kneeled, using one hand to clutch Baize’s chin, forcing her to look at her. “Tell me where he is.” Her cold tone was very different from her fiery exterior. Leng was afraid the woman would crush Baize’s chin any second.

    Baize’s eyes looked dim, having lived in the dark for too long. She also seemed weak from being enchained. Baize raised her hands, shaking her chains; when Zhongyan waved, the chains disappeared. Zhongyan said, “Why are you telling me where he is now? You wouldn’t before.”

    Baize hesitated. “There’s no point in hiding it anymore. It’s fated. I can’t stop you anymore.” Her voice was bitter, and there was something else, too.

    Without the chains on her, Baize’s hands waved in the air. Soon, a streak of silver light froze along her hand motions. Leng stared at the symbols, which he didn’t recognize, but he somehow knew the words.

    “Changes and cycles. Harmony in relationships. Change is inevitable. Peak brings demise. Family first. Almost achieved. Everything outside is empty. Work toward change.” Leng didn’t understand what this meant as he watched Baize draw more symbols. After a moment, a map of constellations appeared overhead, with each of the stars moving.

    His head hurt.

    Baize’s eyes closed as if she had lost her energy. Her hands dropped like there was no gravity. Her feet left the ground, almost as if she was flying toward the map of stars, but the chains still on her feet kept her down.

    “There is a way back among the clouds. The new mountain snow adds glamour to the night.” This was said in an ancient language which Leng shouldn’t know, and he knew he didn’t understand it, but his brain somehow translated the words as if it was a machine, and in the form of a poem, too. It was too bizarre.

    Yunshan City (City of Clouds). Summer snow. Since he understood these keywords, Leng knew he was in danger. He was Zhongyan’s target, but why? He’d never seen this woman in his life.

    After Baize made her prediction, the light dimmed. She fell from the air, having lost all support. Seeing this, Zhongyan raised her left hand to prop up Baize. As Baize fell to the ground, the chains reappearing on her hands.

    Leng was enraged; the young woman was still being hurt after the revelation.

    Baize’s face was expressionless. She seemed to be used to this kind of treatment.

    Having received the desired information, Zhongyan quickly turned to leave, with one comment for Baize. “Remember, you’re the last Baize, and the last god of prophecy. Don’t doom yourself.”

    How could she end herself, with her hands and feet bound? Would she have to bite off her tongue? But she was a heavenly beast, so would that even work? Leng couldn’t help rolling his eyes. He dragged Dead Face to Baize, crouched down, and sighed. He didn’t even know where he was, so he couldn’t touch anything and save her.

    “You’re here,” Baize whispered.

    Leng was startled. Was she talking to him? A moment later, he knew she wasn’t. It was another Dead Face who stood not too far away. Muyi Xiu looked different now, not weak, and quite strong, actually. But his face still looked dead.

    “This Heavenly Realm was very hard to get inside. If Little You didn’t insist, I’d not have bothered,” said Muyi Xiu. He didn’t seem sympathetic to Baize, nor was he ready to save her. He just stood there, looking down at her.

    Baize had just finished prophesying for Zhongyan and was still weak, yet she managed a smile. “Little You is hard to please. She’s spoiled being Gongyang Hanze’s daughter.”

    “Now that I’m here, what do you want me to do? You don’t want me to save you. So what should I do?” Muyi’s words made Leng realize he was mistaken; Dead Face did want to save Baize, but was turned down.

    “Take this and find a young man in Yunshan City.” Baize slowly raised her hand toward Muyi, holding a string of bright stones, which would be hard to see unless one paid attention.

    Muyi’s expression changed as he saw the stones. “What do you want?”