Awakening

Time passed, and after an unknown amount of time, Lin Xin Tong, who was sleeping in the hot spring, had her eyelids twitching slightly.

In her dream, Lin Xin Tong experienced a completely different scenario...

She walked on in the biting cold wind. Ahead of her, the stubborn figure held her hand. As the chill within Lin Xin Tong could no longer be suppressed, she tried to slowly loosen her fingers, not wanting to be a burden to the figure anymore... Suddenly, a warm current flowed from the figure's palm. This warmth made her body tremble and caused her great pain.

She felt as if she were being burned alive by the heat, and just then, the figure suddenly turned around and embraced her.

His arms were strong and powerful, holding Lin Xin Tong tightly, as if he wanted to meld her body into his very being.

Lin Xin Tong was at a loss for words. She had never been hugged like this by a man before.

Just as he embraced her, the warmth suddenly became very gentle, flowing into Lin Xin Tong's body, spreading along her meridians and throughout her entire being...

This warmth flowed through her meridians, like a gentle spring breeze, slowly reviving her frozen body...

And so, little by little, her vitality returned, and the Life Fire was rekindled...

It seemed even the surrounding wind and snow were being blown away, and it was getting warmer and warmer...

Lin Xin Tong struggled to open her eyes. This time, she wanted to see the figure's Lin Xin Tong clearly, and to her astonishment, his appearance gradually became clearer in her vision...

She finally saw it clearly...

Her eyelashes trembled slightly, and Lin Xin Tong slowly opened her eyes.

The figure of a Youth in Green gradually became clearer...

That familiar feeling, that familiar figure...

Yi Yun...

A myriad of thoughts surged through Lin Xin Tong. Upon waking, she realized that the scene of being pulled along by a figure on the icy plain was merely a hallucination she had experienced while near death...

In her dream, the figure who had always been with her and never abandoned her until the very end, as well as the figure she saw before she fell unconscious, burning with crimson -Golden Flames and slashing with a sword, all overlapped with Yi Yun before her eyes.

The endless icy plains and howling snow continued, but she was nestled in a warm spring pond, held tightly in Yi Yun's arms.

She had never been so close to a man before, especially seeing her disheveled clothes, soaked and now transparent, making her perfect body appear and disappear...

Even though Lin Xin Tong is usually calm and collected, at this moment, a blush rose on her face, and her heart and blood flow accelerated.

She found it hard to accept such intimacy at first.

She instinctively wanted to push Yi Yun away, but the jade arm she had just raised was gently lowered again. She knew that Yi Yun had pulled her back from the brink of death twice.

Her life force, which had been severed, was restored thanks to Yi Yun transferring his vital energy into her withered and frozen meridians in this way.

Held in Yi Yun's arms and feeling his presence, Lin Xin Tong felt inexplicably at Yi Yun. In particular, the Pure Yang Energy continuously emanating from Lin Xin Tong Yi Yun's body held an irresistible attraction for her.

Lin Xin Tong didn't speak, not uttering a single word, but silently enjoying the warmth and peace of this moment amidst the endless wind and snow.

She looked at Yi Yun and couldn't help but smile faintly. In that smile, her pretty face was still flushed, like spring water, beautiful and ethereal.

But... as she smiled, a single, glistening tear silently slid down the corner of her eye, veiled in the misty steam.

She didn't know why she was crying; in her memory, it had been a very, very long time since she had felt the urge to cry...

Before Yi Yun appeared, dreams and reality were always intertwined; she couldn't even distinguish which scene was an illusion and which was real.

However, the figure that shielded her from the wind and snow remained steadfast, never leaving her even as she faced death.

And there was that warm hand that pulled her up little by little from the ever-falling, icy abyss.

For an unknown period of time, she walked her own path of martial arts alone.

Born with a rare Fatal Meridian, she was ostracized and neglected from a young age, yet she never gave up searching for a chance to reverse her fate, even though the hope was infinitely slim.

She held fast to her inner pride and a strength that belied her outward appearance, and almost never truly accepted help from others.

She had always been alone; no one had ever truly entered her inner world. But now, in Yi Yun's arms, she inexplicably felt that having someone accompany her and help her in her despair was such a blessing.

"You're awake..."

Yi Yun had been hoping for Lin Xin Tong to wake up, but when she actually did, Yi Yun felt extremely embarrassed. He didn't know how to explain such a steamy scene.

Seeing Yi Yun's reaction, Lin Xin Tong smiled gently.

She sensed that the Pure Yang Energy emanating from Yi Yun subtly resonated with the Pure Yin Energy within her, showing a tendency to merge, which made her feel reluctant to part with Yi Yun.

Pure Yin and pure Yang are inherently mutually generative and complementary in the Heaven and Earth Laws.

Yin alone cannot produce life, and Yang alone cannot grow; the fusion of Yin and Yang is the way of Heaven.

This also creates an innate attraction between Yi Yun and Lin Xin Tong. If they could unite and communicate with each other's yin and yang energies, it would bring them immense benefits.

Even Dual Cultivation, just the brief moment their skin pressed together in an embrace allowed them both to feel the nourishment of each other's vital energy. A warm current flowed through Lin Xin Tong Innate Yin Meridian, and much of the icy coldness within her body dissipated. Yi Yun, felt his Radiant Sun True Qi become even more refined, and a faint, ethereal golden crow even appeared behind him.

As their eyes met, Lin Xin Tong's gaze softened even more.

Looking back on her experiences with Yi Yun, she was filled with mixed emotions.

Who could have imagined that the young man from Yunhuang back then would walk step by step back to this scene today?

From their first meeting in Yunhuang, their reunion at the Lin family, to the Savage Heaven Technique Tea Party, and then to that banquet and the Medicine Trial Assembly...

Finally, there's this trip to the Empress Trial.

Lin Xin Tong discovered that her feelings for Yi Yun had actually been subtly changing for some time...

This change initially startled Lin Xin Tong, but she gradually calmed down.

She is a very opinionated and persistent woman. Although she has a calm personality, once she has made up her mind, she can face her true self with equanimity.

She never regrets what she's made up her mind.

Neither of them spoke much, but in this desolate and cold world, they embraced tightly, warming each other.

The path of martial arts is inherently solitary; to find a true friend is an immense blessing.

[These two chapters were completely rewritten; I'm sorry for the late writing. I'm finally satisfied with the finished product.]

...(To be continued~^~)