The member of the Embroidered Guard who had been captured was Su Huailing in masculine attire. She and Emperor Jingren were this world’s golden children. What did Huyan Xi want with them!

When Emperor Jingren had just left, the still not fully healed Xiao Jinyi had looked everywhere for signs of Huyan Xi’s whereabouts. Until news reached him that Emperor Jingren had been kidnapped by Huyan Xi, Xiao Jinyi had still held out hope that the doctor was alive; after all, the doctor had made this world. He was its creator, an individual even more special than Emperor Jingren and Su Huailing. How could Huyan Xi just kill him? But the moment he heard the news, Xiao Jinyi felt a profound awareness of Huyan Xi’s hatred toward this world.

Perhaps Huyan Xi had led the herding tribes in an attack on Mobei not because he was acting in accordance with the plot but in order to lure Emperor Jingren and Su Huailing to him.

Why would he kill the doctor? Why would he capture the children of fortune?

Xiao Jinyi had wondered whether Huyan Xi might be a spy sent by an opposing power, or perhaps someone from another country who wanted to kill the doctor. But now he couldn’t be sure.

Because while changing the plot wouldn’t throw the system into chaos, it was certain that nothing could happen to the children of fortune. All this world’s core data had been constructed around Su Huailing and Emperor Jingren. Even a peddler by the road who had no name in the novel would selectively overlook Su Huailing’s crossdressing, would feel Emperor Jingren’s imperial might when facing him.

The basic definitions of each and every character’s data bore hidden traces of the children of fortune’s data. If anything happened to the two of them, all the characters’ data would be impacted. Such a massive change to the data was sure to cause a systemic collapse. If the world collapsed, those who had entered it would be done for.

He couldn’t let anything happen to the two of them!

Moreover, it was his young emperor who had been captured! Xiao Jinyi put a hand to his chest. When he thought of what might be happening to the young emperor, he couldn’t breathe from the ache in his heart.

He was especially glad now that he had returned the pendant to the young emperor. This was an extremely important item, and to keep him from carelessly losing it, the pendant had been equipped with a locating function. If he concentrated, he could sense its location. When he had been searching for Huyan Xi beyond the border, before news of the kidnapping had reached him, as he was missing Emperor Jingren, he had sensed the pendant taking a turn back toward the border.

At the time, Xiao Jinyi had thought that the young emperor had some reason to return to Mobei, so he had turned his horse around to go back to the city. But on the way back, he received word from the city itself. When he traced the pendant again, he found that it had gone beyond the city and was heading for Mount Qilian, the tallest mountain beyond the border.

This was the coldest place in the world, snow-capped year round, with no thaw for years and years. The most magical item in this world grew there: the Ephemeral Snow Lotus. This was a magical plant that bloomed only once in a thousand years. In the novel, Su Huailing was poisoned in the process of saving Emperor Jingren’s life, and only the Ephemeral Snow Lotus could cure her; for Su Huailing’s sake, Emperor Jingren abandoned his throne and went to Mount Qilian himself with the Embroidered Guard, bringing Su Huailing. In the end, carrying Su Huailing on his back, Emperor Jingren found the flowering Ephemeral Snow Lotus just on the point of freezing to death in the mountains.

Legend said that the Ephemeral Snow Lotus could cause a mortal to rise to the heavens and bring the dead back to life. On Mount Qilian, Su Huailing had in fact stopped breathing, and when Emperor Jingren chewed the petals of the Ephemeral Snow Lotus and fed it to her mouth to mouth, she came back to life and was cured of the poison. As for ascending to heaven… Because Emperor Jingren had accidentally swallowed a portion of the petals, because the flower’s effects had all gone to bringing Su Huailing back to life, it no longer had the power to make her ascend to heaven as well. At any rate, eating the Snow Lotus had given Su Huailing no benefits apart from curing her of poisoning. She was in no way spared from future illness.

If Huyan Xi had gone to Mount Qilian, then he must be after the Ephemeral Snow Lotus. But the question was, what did he want it for?

Xiao Jinyi couldn’t work out what Huyan Xi was thinking, and he didn’t want to guess. It was enough to know that Huyan Xi’s target was the Ephemeral Snow Lotus. This was a magical item. No one but the world’s golden children would be able to find it. In other words, until the lotus was found, Emperor Jingren and Su Huailing would be safe.

“Are you certain Huyan Xi came this way, General Xiao?” asked Jing Xixian.

After Emperor Jingren was kidnapped, Jing Xixian had gone in pursuit of Xiao Jinyi at once with his men. They had met up beyond the border. Xiao Jinyi was certain that Huyan Xi had come to Mount Qilian. The Embroidered Guard’s skilled trackers couldn’t find a trace of Huyan Xi’s movements, so they had no choice but to follow Xiao Jinyi. When they reached the foothills of Mount Qilian, Xiao Jinyi had told the others to wait there while he went up the mountain alone. Huyan Xi was too strong; if those less skilled accompanied him, they would only hold him back.

But Jing Xixian had still gone with him; his martial skills were considerably superior to the ordinary person’s. As long as Huyan Xi didn’t attack him directly, he would be fully capable of protecting himself. And Xiao Jinyi was planning to rescue two people at once; he would do well to have a helper.

“Right here.” Xiao Jinyi concentrated on the location of the pendant and found that it wasn’t far from them. He made a gesture telling Jing Xixian to conceal his breathing as the two of them crept in the right direction.

Jing Xixian was skilled in concealing his breathing. Though his internal force wasn’t very powerful, once he activated this skill, as long as he didn’t make any sudden moves, Xiao Jinyi hardly noticed he was there. Xiao Jinyi had told Jing Xixian not to show himself thoughtfully, so Huyan Xi would think he was only dealing with one person. This way, even though Jing Xixian’s martial skills weren’t a match for theirs, he could still be an asset.

Holding his breath, Xiao Jinyi carefully went on ahead, but he didn’t find the three people they were looking for. There was only a spot of red in the snow. Xiao Jinyi bent down and picked up the red item: it was the pendant, stained with blood. His heart missed several beats.

Whose blood was this?

Jing Xixian came after him. When he saw the pendant, he also looked grim. As a member of the Embroidered Guard, he was naturally well aware that Emperor Jingren had a prized pendant given to him by the empress, so important that he didn’t even take it off to bathe. Now, the pendant Emperor Jingren always kept with him was here. At best, it meant that His Majesty really was here, and they hadn’t gone the wrong way. But at worst, it meant that the worst might already have happened to His Majesty.

Amid the unbroken white of Mount Qilian, the frozen blood on the pendant seemed especially glaring.

“General Xiao, this…” Jing Xixian looked quite wretched.

“He’s all right.” Xiao Jinyi shook his head. “I’m sure of it.”

Perhaps he was injured, but at least he was alive. If Emperor Jingren were dead, this world couldn’t still be so calm.

As Xiao Jinyi and Jing Xixian searched for Emperor Jingren, Su Huailing, supporting Emperor Jingren, had reached the summit of the mountain, compelled by Huyan Xi.

“We can’t keep walking!” Su Huailing’s tears left icy trails down her cheeks. “His Majesty is already cold. He’ll die if we go on like this!”

Emperor Jingren’s increasingly chilly body filled Su Huailing with terror. She was no longer the clueless girl she had been at the start. She knew how important Emperor Jingren was to this country. No emperor could do as much for the land as Emperor Jingren.

“That’s precisely what I want.” Huyan Xi’s smile was hideous to Su Huailing’s eyes. “I have pursued the Ephemeral Snow Lotus countless times, but it has no fixed location. It can move through these mountains! It has its own awareness now, just like me, yet it insists on being nothing but a flower that will ultimately be eaten. It refused me.”

As a member of the Embroidered Guard, Su Huailing had naturally heard of this magical object. Her teeth were chattering from the cold, but she still faced the wind despairingly and called to Huyan Xi, “We won’t find the Ephemeral Snow Lotus even if we die! With your great martial skills, wouldn’t you have a better chance of finding it on your own? Why bring along the two of us to slow you down?”

“I want you two to die!” Huyan Xi said loudly. “The Ephemeral Snow Lotus exists for the sake of this world’s golden children. Its fate is to save your lives. Since it is willing to be a prop, I want to see whether it will appear if the children of fortune die right in front of it”

As Huyan Xi spoke, Emperor Jingren’s eyelashes trembled slightly.

He was awake now. It would have been warmer in fact to stand up and walk on his own; if he went on being carried without moving, he would freeze to death sooner or later. In fact, he was already so frozen that he had lost all sensation. Even though he was awake, he still wouldn’t have been able to walk. But when he heard Huyan Xi, he decided to keep feigning unconsciousness. Su Huailing seemed more capable of extracting information from Huyan Xi on her own.

Four days had passed since they were kidnapped by Huyan Xi. His lightness skill was superb; he could travel no slower than a fast horse carrying the two of them. But it had still taken three days to reach Mount Qilian. During these four days, Huyan Xi had given them neither a morsel of food nor a drop of water. Had Su Huailing not somehow turned up half a mantou to split with Emperor Jingren, they might well be dead by now.

At first Emperor Jingren hadn’t understood Huyan Xi’s intentions. If he really wanted to kill him, Huyan Xi could easily have killed him when he attacked their traveling party; if he wanted to hold him and demand a ransom from Xia, he would have kept him well fed. But judging by Huyan Xi’s actions, what he wanted was for him to die, but not too soon.

Considering Huyan Xi’s background, Emperor Jingren thought that he would probably be incapable of understanding what he wanted.

Huyan Xi had absolutely no interest in speaking to the two of them. He had only watched them grow weaker and weaker along the way, waiting for them to die. When they reached Mount Qilian, after a day’s aimless wandering, Huyan Xi had begun to lose his patience. He had struck Emperor Jingren and ordered Su Huailing to drag him as they continued walking without any direction; he seemed to be simply waiting for Emperor Jingren to die.

Though Emperor Jingren had lost all sensation in his body, his mind was still moving rapidly—

Huyan Xi wanted to find the Ephemeral Snow Lotus, which was a spiritual being with its own consciousness and did not wish to take part in Huyan Xi’s plans. The single flower of the Ephemeral Snow Lotus had its own mission, and that mission was to save the life of a child of fortune…

Xiao Jinyi had said that all the people who had come here wanted to make him forsake the world for their sake. Then could it be that he himself was a child of fortune?

So Huyan Xi wanted to use his death to find the Ephemeral Snow Lotus. What kind of god was this person?

Emperor Jingren’s awareness grew dimmer and dimmer. He couldn’t move. He knew that even if he was rescued now, there would probably be no saving his frozen limbs.

Was he about to die?

The pendant—he seemed to recall it falling to the ground when Huyan Xi struck him…