The north wind howled like a blade, sweeping frozen pellets of snow through the bones scattered around the ruined grass shelter.
Inside, he sat alone with his legs crossed. The golden patterns on his ink-black python robe were long since sullied with blood and dirt. Several places were torn open, exposing mangled flesh and wounds crusted with dark purple blood.
The Xiuchun Saber, once gleaming with a chilling light, now leaned against a post. Its edge was chipped and curled, its surface coated in dust like scrap iron, reflecting not so much as a glimmer of daylight.
He slowly removed his black gauze hat and placed it on the cold, muddy ground before him. A long sigh mingled with the stench of blood and boundless weariness. “In the end, I still couldn’t protect a thing.”
“Then…” A cool voice cut through the howling wind and snow, carrying a strange power that brought calm.
A figure in white stood by the shelter post, though no one knew when he had appeared. The young man held his hands behind his back, his presence seeming distant, as if he stood beyond the clouds.
The man in the flying-fish uniform raised his head. His eyes were webbed with blood vessels, yet a faint glimmer remained, like embers still glowing beneath a sheer cliff.
He said nothing more. With difficulty, he opened his bloodied palm. A ball of lightning floated above it, electric snakes thrashing wildly within and crackling with a dull sound.
The young man in white nodded. With the slightest movement of his fingertip, a streak of silver light wound around the restless sphere of lightning.
In an instant, the phantom of an immense silver clock face appeared behind him. Its gears meshed soundlessly, and its enormous hour and minute hands abruptly stopped, then began spinning violently in reverse!
In an instant, the raging sphere of lightning seemed to be erased by an invisible giant hand. It became a streak of light and vanished without a trace.
Even the wind seemed to pause.
The man in the flying-fish uniform stared blankly. His Adam’s apple bobbed, but in the end, he could only remain silent.
I only hope… this time, something really can be turned back.
Just so-so! ! ! !