Bowing His Head

Xiao Yan did not hit the ground. The instant he fell, a silver figure charged out from behind Luo Feng and caught him. It was Luo Xiao. His silver armor was covered in blood and grime, and a ring of dark bruised finger marks remained on his throat. Yet the hands holding Xiao Yan were remarkably steady. He looked down at the pale face in his arms, then at those bloodied, mangled hands. His lips trembled several times, but in the end, he said nothing.

Xiao Yan remained unconscious for two hours. When he woke, he found himself lying in the ice cavern camp, with several folded outer robes beneath him. Someone had carefully wrapped both his hands in strips of cloth. Beneath the bandages was a layer of cool medicinal paste containing Abyss Dew Grass roots, along with a faint herbal scent he recognized.

Luo Zhi knelt beside him, her head lowered as she ground something in a small bowl. When she saw him open his eyes, her hand jerked, and the pestle nearly fell into the bowl. "Xiao... Young Master Xiao, you're awake!"

Xiao Yan moved his fingers. The pain pierced straight to his heart, but amid it, a trace of coolness slowly seeped in. He looked at the bowl of medicinal paste, then at Luo Zhi. "Did you mix this medicine?"

"Mm..." Luo Zhi said softly. "I used the hemostatic herbs from your cloth bundle and some Abyss Dew Grass roots. I... I don't know if I mixed it right..."

"You did very well," Xiao Yan said earnestly. Luo Zhi blushed and lowered her head to resume grinding the medicine, but the corners of her mouth quietly curved upward. Xiao Yan pushed himself upright and looked around the camp. It was a mess, but the atmosphere was entirely different from before he had descended into the abyss. Some of the Luo God Clan youths were bandaging wounds, some were tending to their weapons, and others sat in small groups, speaking in low voices. When they saw him sit up, nearly all of them stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him in unison.

Xiao Yan knew those looks well. On the Dou Qi Continent, in the places he had traveled through along the way, he had seen them far too many times. They were looks of awe.

"Big Brother Xiao!" Luo Lan came running from the other end of the camp and plopped down beside him. His eyes and the tip of his nose were red; he had clearly been crying. "You... you scared me to death! Do you know, when you fell, Big Brother Luo Feng's face went white, and that fellow Luo Xiao..."

He suddenly stopped and stole a glance to the side. Xiao Yan followed his gaze. At the edge of the camp, Luo Xiao stood alone against the ice wall, clutching his spear. When he saw Xiao Yan looking over, his body stiffened, and he quickly turned his head away. Xiao Yan raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Instead, he turned to Luo Feng, who was walking toward him. "What were the casualties?"

Luo Feng's steps faltered, and his expression darkened. "The two who stood guard beneath the fissure are dead," he said gravely. "One was Luo Shi, nineteen years old. The other was Luo Wen, twenty-one. Both were children from branch families. Seven were gravely injured, but they all survived."

Xiao Yan fell silent for a moment, then nodded. Two lives. If not for that strike of his ruler, if not for that Fire Lotus, the number would have been ten times higher. But two lives were still two lives.

"I've put their bodies away," Luo Feng said quietly. "Once we leave the abyss, we'll take them home."

"Mm."

Xue Shi had been trussed up and thrown into a corner of the ice cavern, with two Luo God Clan youths standing guard on either side, weapons in hand. His entire body was charred black, most of his hair had been burned away, and the blood mark on his left cheek had faded until it was almost invisible. Yet a venomous light still flickered in his dark red eyes. When he saw Xiao Yan approach, he grinned, showing a mouthful of bloodstained teeth. "Brat from a Lower Plane... you're not going to kill me?"

"If I killed you, who would speak before Luo Tianshen?" Xiao Yan squatted down in front of him.

Xue Shi's pupils contracted slightly. Xiao Yan continued at an unhurried pace, "A member of the Blood God Clan used the blood of the Luo God Clan in a blood sacrifice to infiltrate the Luo God Clan's ancestral secret realm, woke its guardian spirit beast, and ambushed the Luo God Clan's younger generation. Two died and seven were injured. Tell me, what do you think Luo Tianshen will do when he learns of this?"

Xue Shi said nothing, but the muscles in his charred face twitched.

"You don't have to talk," Xiao Yan said. "I've already put away that piece of blood jade you had. It bears the marks of your clan's elders. One belongs to Xue Li, and the other belongs to someone much stronger than him."

He took a dark red jade token from his robes and waved it before Xue Shi's eyes. At last, Xue Shi's expression changed. It was the blood jade he had intended to crush before he died, both to send a message to his clan and to detonate the blood fiend Qi remaining in his body. But when he had just regained consciousness and reached for it, the blood jade was already gone.

"You..."

Xiao Yan stood and looked down at him. His gaze was calm, without anger or satisfaction. "You can also try to self-detonate. I left a wisp of fire on your dantian."

Xue Shi shuddered and instinctively reached out with his senses toward his dantian. His face went pale inch by inch. A wisp of pale golden flame lay quietly coiled outside his dantian, like a little snake. At the slightest unusual movement of the blood fiend Qi in his body, the flame would detect it immediately.

Xiao Yan turned and walked away. Behind him came Xue Shi's hoarse, stifled laughter. "Good... well played... But brat from a Lower Plane, do you think... Elder Xue Li sent only me?"

Xiao Yan did not stop walking, but his eyes narrowed slightly.

That night, no one in the ice cavern could sleep. Xiao Yan leaned against the ice wall with his eyes closed, using the Soul Power of his Emperor Realm Soul to mend the ruptured meridians in his hands. Though the Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus had been only thirty percent of its full size, the cost of forcibly suppressing the three flames with Spirit Marks had been greater than he had expected. His hands would need at least five or six days to recover before he could grip the Heavy Xuan Ruler again.

Footsteps stopped in front of him. Xiao Yan opened his eyes. Luo Xiao stood before him, his silver armor removed, wearing only a thin set of inner robes. The ring of bruised finger marks on his throat stood out starkly in the cold light. He stood there without a word for a long time. The youths who were awake in the camp quietly raised their heads to look over. Luo Lan's mouth fell open, and Luo Zhi covered hers. Luo Feng sat nearby, his grip on his sword tightening slightly, but he did not move.

Then Luo Xiao bent at the waist. He did not salute with a cupped fist or clasped hands. Instead, he bowed deeply, until his forehead nearly touched his knees. Silence filled the ice cavern.

"That day at Jade Abyss, I called you an outsider from a Lower Plane." Luo Xiao's muffled voice came from below, trembling slightly. "At the cold pool, I picked the spiritual fruit without permission and nearly got Luo Lan killed. Today in the ice cavern, you saved my life. What happened to my grandfather... I always thought it was your fault. But today, that bastard Xue Shi said the blood letter my grandfather held back was a great help to the Blood God Clan..."

He straightened up. His usually proud face was now flushed red, and his eyes were red too. But he did not look away from Xiao Yan. He met his gaze directly and gritted his teeth. "Xiao... Brother Xiao, I was wrong."

Xiao Yan looked at him for a long while. "Your grandfather is your grandfather, and you are you. Today in the ice cavern, with the Blood Sacrifice Array bearing down on you, you protected three people on your own without retreating a single step. I saw it."

Luo Xiao's lips began to tremble violently. Xiao Yan smiled. "Hehe, I take back what I said. You're not stupid."

Luo Xiao stood there in a daze. After a long while, he abruptly turned his head away, wiped his eyes hard with the back of his hand, and strode off. After a dozen or so steps, he stopped. With his back to Xiao Yan, he said in a muffled voice, "...I owe you my life."

With that, he walked away without looking back. Xiao Yan watched him go, shook his head with a helpless smile, and closed his eyes again. The Luo God Clan youths who had been quietly watching exchanged glances, then lowered their heads. No one spoke. But from that night onward, among those proud sons and daughters of heaven of the Luo God Clan, no one ever used the words "that fellow from a Lower Plane" again.

For the next three days, nothing else happened in the Cold Abyss. Everyone remained in the ice cavern to recover from their injuries. Luo Feng took several of the less seriously injured youths and cut open the Abyss Scale Flood Dragon's corpse. They removed a fist-sized Flood Dragon core, a deep blue throughout, and brought it to Xiao Yan. "You killed it."

Xiao Yan did not refuse. He accepted it with a smile, then cut a large, undamaged scale from the Flood Dragon's corpse and tossed it to Luo Zhi. "This is for you. Grind it into powder and mix it into the medicinal paste. It's best for treating frostbite."

Luo Zhi held the scale, which was wider than she was, and stood there in a daze, at a loss. Luo Lan stared from the side, then muttered sourly, "Big Brother Xiao, what about me?"

"Hehe, you ate the Ice Soul Spiritual Fruit," Xiao Yan said with a smile.

"...Oh."

A ripple of quiet laughter went through the camp. Under the gentle nourishment of the medicinal paste and Soul Power, Xiao Yan's hands improved day by day. By the evening of the third day, he could just barely clench his fists. Leaning against the ice wall, he took out the four pieces of Soul Jade and examined them one by one: Gu Yuan, northwest, steady; Zhu Kun, far north, still very active; Xun'er, far east, the dull-ache-like trembling seemed a little stronger than before; Cai Lin, south, flickering bright and dim like a candle flame in the wind. Xiao Yan held that jade token for a long time without letting go.

In the corner, Xue Shi was bound fast, his eyes closed, yet a faint, elusive sneer lingered on his lips. "Do you think Elder Xue Li sent only me?" Xiao Yan put away the Soul Jade and looked up at the dark ice dome overhead.

Tomorrow would be the seventh day.