Qing Li's blood splashed across Chu Ning's face, carrying the ice-crystal fragments unique to snow foxes. He froze, his chest seeming to have been hollowed out alive.
The rotting hand slowly withdrew from the blood pool, and blood gushed from the puncture like a spring. The nine-tailed halo flickered violently before beginning to dim in an instant.
"Qing Li!!"
Chu Ning burst through the snow cocoon like a madman, but all that remained in his hands was a wisp of gradually fading light.
Her silver hair visibly lost its luster, turning gray and lifeless. The nine-tailed halo shattered inch by inch, transforming into ice dust in the air.
"Don't—don't do this. We just agreed..." Chu Ning trembled as he caught her slowly falling body.
She could no longer speak. Her lips had gone pale, yet her gaze remained extraordinarily gentle. She struggled to raise her hand and condensed the last of her frost power into an Ice Crystal Necklace, gently tying it around his neck.
At that moment, her fingertips touched his Adam's apple, and Chu Ning felt some blazing light explode through his blood.
Her breathing was faint, yet she still insisted on pushing him toward Li Jing'an. "Chu Ning..."
Her fingertips lightly brushed the lightning mark between his brows. The Ice Crystal Necklace shimmered like ripples on water. "Don't let hatred... freeze your eyes."
Her voice had already become like snow-whispers in the wind, yet it carved itself into his heart more deeply than ever before.
A faint smile still curved her lips, as if she had not realized death had quietly arrived. But those eyes that should have been as clear as the sea held, in their final moment, the slightest trace of reluctance... as they quietly gazed at Chu Ning.
The final wisp of azure light