``` [You waited in Xi City for half a month.]
[Xi City lay in the Far North, where people were already scarce, and the Soul Masters passing through could be counted on your fingers. Half a month flowed leisurely by, and the entire city remained as peaceful as ever, steeped in silence. The wind swept up flying snow without stirring so much as a ripple.]
[Just as you thought your plan had fallen through-]
[On the morning of the sixteenth day.]
[Dawn had just broken. The wind and snow had eased slightly compared with the previous days, and a thin layer of faint light seeped through the lead-gray sky.]
[As usual, you sat cross-legged in the inn's rear courtyard to cultivate. Blue Silver Grass quietly unfurled in your palm, spreading your perception silently in every direction along the roots underground.]
[Suddenly, two distinctly different presences entered the range of your perception.]
[One was bitterly cold. Wherever it passed, even the moisture in the air condensed into tiny ice crystals that fell in a soft patter.]
[The other was cold and aloof, without the slightest impurity, like the first wisp of cold condensed in the depths of a glacier ten thousand years old. Seemingly tranquil, it held a vast, heart-quaking pressure within.]
[They did not seek an inn to stay at like ordinary Soul Masters, nor did they linger in the city's shops. Instead, they crossed the main street directly and roamed the crisscrossing lanes. Sometimes they stopped, and sometimes they turned their heads, as though distinguishing a certain presence, or searching for a particular person.]
[You took a deep breath, suppressed the faint tremor in your heart, and slowly opened your eyes. Rising, you pushed open the courtyard gate and walked out.]
[The snow outside the courtyard covered your ankles.