Bai Xi lay on the bed, feeling surrounded by darkness.
Soon, she fell into an endless dark space.
In that space, countless ice shards spread towards her at a visible speed, constantly approaching her. The icy aura, like a monstrous flood, condensed everything it touched into blocks of frost, still encroaching upon her.
She reacted and ran at her fastest speed, yet she could not escape the chilling presence that was like a shadow, unknowingly reaching her feet, freezing them, and then beginning to spread towards her body.
The piercing sensation was not pain, but a cold despair.
What place was this? Was this her new mission? Why couldn't she recall anything? What should she do now? Her speed was clearly fast, so why could she still not escape? What was going on?
A moment later, she gradually calmed down, a hint of self-mockery flashing in her eyes.
Today, would she die here? Frozen into a sculpture?
But just then, a beam of light suddenly shone down from above. Simultaneously, a gentle power flowed into her body, originating from her heart and slowly spreading to her limbs.
The ice shards that had been incessantly entangling her actually receded on their own, and her feet returned to normal. The frost beneath her feet gradually dispersed, slowly retreating, revealing a large expanse of land. Under the sunlight, the land beneath her feet slowly sprouted new buds, grew grass, and bloomed flowers, a scene of warmth and serenity.
Bai Xi looked around and suddenly saw a person standing in the distance.
Judging by the silhouette, it should be a man.
She thought to walk a few steps towards him, but as the man saw her approaching, he retreated a few steps.
Bai Xi frowned directly and shouted at the man, "What place is this?"
The man heard her speak but made no reply, merely lifting his head slightly.
As he lifted his head, Bai Xi saw his face – a face with sharp features, but his face was unclear because he wore a pair of metal-rimmed glasses. The sunlight at that moment glinted off his glasses, creating a dazzling reflection.
Seeing the man before her, Bai Xi felt an unusual familiarity, yet she couldn't recall his name, and her head also ached with a dull pain. Seeing that the man remained silent, she persistently asked again, "Who are you?"
To her surprise, the man still did not answer, even turning to leave.
But the moment he turned, he instantly transformed into a young man in a long robe, his long hair tied up with a hairpin, gradually disappearing from Bai Xi's sight.
This unbelievable scene, yet Bai Xi suddenly felt no strangeness. She watched the receding back, the fear that welled up in her heart completely overshadowing her initial confusion: "Hey, don't go!"
But the man did not stop, instead walking faster and faster, further and further away.
Bai Xi became anxious and quickly chased after him. For some reason, she had an inexplicable conviction that she couldn't let this man disappear from her sight, so she ran swiftly.
But despite her high speed, she felt the man before her growing farther away. Finally, he just shouted, "I told you to stay, do you hear me?"
The man finally stopped, and Bai Xi seized the opportunity to catch up. Just when they were only an arm's length apart, Bai Xi reached out her hand, wanting to grab the peculiar man before her. But the moment her fingers were about to touch him, he dissolved without any warning, transforming into countless red butterflies.
Bai Xi's eyes widened as she watched the countless red butterflies flutter their wings, flying towards the light, and finally disappearing completely into the curtain of light.
Watching the butterflies disappear like that in the sunlight, Bai Xi inexplicably felt a surge of fear, followed by waves of tightening pain, as if a large hand was fiercely gripping her heart, slowly exerting force, gradually constricting. This feeling was something she hadn't experienced even when forced by the Sun family and leaping into the abyss.
She didn't know why, but she just felt that she didn't want those butterflies to disappear like that, so she stretched out her hand and shouted, "Don't..."
With such a hoarse cry, everything around suddenly collapsed, and everything before her eyes blurred from clarity to vagueness, then from vagueness back to clarity. She even felt a trace of clarity return to her mind, and at the same time, she seemed to hear someone speaking outside.
Tong Yao: "Xi'er, Xi'er! Brother Bai Han, what happened to Xi'er!"
Han Rui: "Little Xi'er, War God! Xuan Feng, what exactly happened inside!"
Xuan Feng's voice was slightly cold: "Liu Yue, you cannot enter. Leave immediately and seal all information. Do not let anything that happened here leak out!"
Liu Yue: "Ha, Xuan Feng, we are equals. Are you ordering me now? But... I won't argue with you about today's events. I believe in the War God, she will be fine. But if anything happens to her, I will make you pay for it."
Further away, there were also voices...
Lin Yun, with a slight sob in her voice: "Xi'er, my child, what happened to her..."
Lin Xin: "Auntie, don't be sad. Cousin will be fine. Brother Bai Han said we shouldn't go in, she'll be alright. We have to believe in Brother Bai Han."
She could recognize all these voices, but she felt as if one voice was missing.
But... who was missing, she couldn't recall at all.
She wanted to struggle to open her eyes and tell those who were worried about her not to worry, that she was fine.
Unfortunately, she was completely unable to move.
This feeling was as if she had fallen into a swamp; the more she struggled to get up, the deeper she sank.
She seemed to feel that she had woken up, yet she also seemed not to have woken up at all. Vaguely, she felt as if she had lost something very important, but she couldn't recall what she had lost at all. In this hazy state, listening to the sounds around her, she couldn't move an inch, couldn't utter a word, and finally slowly drifted back into slumber.
Her heart ached so much, so much, but... why was it?
Three days later, Bai Family Villa.
Bai Xi felt a severe headache, and there was an indescribable stuffiness in her chest. She wanted to take deep breaths of air to relieve it. So, she did just that and also tried to move her arm.
As she moved slightly, she seemed to bump into something. Looking closely, it was none other than Tong Yao.
At that moment, Tong Yao was asleep, leaning by her bedside.
What was going on? Why did she feel like she had slept for quite a while, and why was Tong Yao asleep beside her?