After leaving the hot spring cavern, Cai Zhao followed a long, winding stone corridor. Gradually she began to catch the fresh scent of ice and snow, seeping in through tiny holes in the walls. It meant they were close to the outside.
On the way, Cai Zhao asked the woman in white what she should call her. "Snow Maiden," she said. It was obviously not a real name, but if someone plainly doesn't want to tell you, there is nothing you can do about it.
The Snow Maiden had unusually pale skin and eyes of a very light color. At first glance she seemed to be in her early twenties, but up close Cai Zhao could tell she was nearly thirty. Her speech was halting at first, and only after Cai Zhao had asked a few more questions did it grow fluent.
Someone who has lived alone for many years, Cai Zhao thought.
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the woman in white led Mu Qingyan and Cai Zhao into a stone chamber. Like the hot spring cavern and the corridor before it, the whole chamber was built from blocks of smooth, white hot-spring stone. Outside lay a world of ice and snow, yet the chamber was quite warm, probably because of the hot springs behind its walls.
The furnishings were as plain as could be: two rows of stone shelves, a bed, a table and a chair. One shelf held a few coarse clay bowls and dishes. The other held several ancient scrolls tied into bundles with coarse hemp cord. On the stone table, to Cai Zhao's surprise, stood the jade goddess statue they had not seen before.
A familiar figure lay flat on the stone bed. The moment he heard Cai Zhao and the others come in, he turned onto his side, facing the wall.
Cai Zhao took one look at him and flared up. She planted her hands on her hips. "Qian Xueshen, you're not dead! Good, because I've got accounts to settle with you. Get up!"
Qian Xueshen buried his head in the fur blankets like a quail and refused to come out, no matter what.
Cai Zhao didn't know whether to laugh or be angry. Mu Qingyan lifted the fur bundle in his hand as a threat. "Keep playing dead and I'll squeeze these four little cubs to death!"
"Why bother squeezing them? Just roast them and eat them. Cub meat is tender!" Cai Zhao said fiercely.
Qian Xueshen couldn't keep up the act any longer. He scrambled up and lunged toward them.
Four white-furred cubs poked their round little heads out of the bundle, noses twitching. The moment they saw Qian Xueshen, they leapt out one after another as if their lives didn't matter and threw themselves into his arms.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Snow Wind, Snow Pearl..." Qian Xueshen held them tightly. The four cubs rubbed against his cheeks without stopping, sniffing the scent on him that was so like their parents'. One man and four beasts clung to each other affectionately.
A sour feeling rose in Mu Qingyan's chest. He turned his head away with a huff. "This is why we'll have to have our own children. Ones you raise halfway along can't be relied on at all. These four furballs, their consciences have been eaten by dogs!"
"Why are you telling me this!" Cai Zhao felt her face grow hot for no reason. She hurriedly asked Qian Xueshen a question to change the subject. "You were taken away more than a year ago, weren't you? These four can't have been born long ago. How do they know you?"
Qian Xueshen kept his head down. "...On the first night at the hunters' lodge on the snow mountain, I used the excuse of needing to relieve myself and went into the snow pine forest to whistle. Snow Wind and Snow Pearl knew I had come, and they happily brought their cubs to see me."
Mu Qingyan rubbed salt into the wound. "That couple were living peacefully on the snow mountain, and had just had four rather charming cubs, a happy family of six. It was all because they wanted to avenge you that these little ones lost their father and mother so young."
Big tears rolled down Qian Xueshen's face. He hugged the four little beasts closer, choking back sobs.
"All right, all right, stop crying and lie down first. Your injuries are serious." Cai Zhao couldn't bear it.
The Snow Maiden suddenly said, "After soaking so long in the ten-thousand-year hot spring, all your injuries have healed. Haven't you noticed?"
Cai Zhao froze. Only then did she realize that the aching in her muscles and bones and the torn feeling in her flesh had stopped hurting.
Mu Qingyan lowered his long lashes and said nothing.
The Snow Maiden added, "Those two, the two big white-furred hou, were saved by him in the first place. You could call it repaying a kindness."
Qian Xueshen's head shot up. "How do you know that?"
"That year, when you and your brother rescued the two white-furred hou from under the ice, I happened to see it. I used a crystal telescope." The Snow Maiden pointed to a long, dark tube on the stone shelf.
Mu Qingyan smiled slightly and cupped his hands in salute. "We haven't yet thanked you for saving our lives, miss. I have a few questions, and I hope you will clear them up."
But the Snow Maiden shook her head. "I didn't save you. It was the warm spring inside the mountain that washed the three of you up here. But my master's orders are that we are not to concern ourselves with outsiders. If anyone is washed up, we throw them back outside."
As she spoke, she went to open a stone window. A blast of bitter, bone-piercing wind swept into the chamber. "This is already the summit."
"Then why didn't you throw us out?" Mu Qingyan asked.
The Snow Maiden pointed at Cai Zhao. "Because of her. I wanted to save her, so I left you two in the hot spring pool."
A glint flashed in Mu Qingyan's eyes. "You know who she is."
The Snow Maiden nodded. "She is from Falling Blossom Valley." Then she turned, pushed open a stone door, and carried out of it a dazzling, golden-red blade.
Cai Zhao was overjoyed. "My blade! Thank you, Miss Snow, thank you so much! But how did you know..."
The Snow Maiden went on. "Twenty years ago, not long after my master brought me up the mountain, I saw this blade. The woman who carried it said her name was Cai Pingshu."
"Aunt?!" Cai Zhao was stunned.
The Snow Maiden said, "So she was your aunt? Your faces are different, but your eyes are very much like hers."
Cai Zhao was somewhat flustered. "Aunt... my aunt, what was she doing here?"
"She came looking for the saliva of the snow scale dragon beast," the Snow Maiden said.
Cai Zhao was dumbstruck. She looked first at Qian Xueshen, then at Mu Qingyan.
Mu Qingyan understood what her eyes were asking. As far as anyone knew, the saliva of the snow scale dragon beast had only two uses: breaking the Body Exchange Art, and cultivating the first level of the Ziwei Heart Sutra. Was there some other use?
"And did Heroine Cai find it?" Mu Qingyan asked, giving nothing away.
"She did," said the Snow Maiden. "She was lucky. She arrived only a few days before the snow scale dragon beast breathed its last. My master recognized that she was from Falling Blossom Valley, but no..."
She shook her head. "Actually, it was the snow scale dragon beast that smelled the blood on your aunt, and that's how my master guessed who she was."
Mu Qingyan caught the unspoken meaning in the Snow Maiden's words, and something stirred in him. "Miss Snow has mentioned Falling Blossom Valley several times. Is there some connection between you and the valley?"
"Of course there is." The Snow Maiden pointed at the jade statue on the stone table. "My master's great-grand-master came from Falling Blossom Valley. A hundred and sixty years ago she led the last pair of snow scale dragon beasts in the world here, alone, to live in seclusion."
Cai Zhao was astonished. She looked at the soft whip at the waist of the jade goddess statue, then touched the silver chain on her own wrist. "Of course, of course. My chain was actually adapted from a whip technique."
Mu Qingyan sighed. "So it was Senior Cai."
But the Snow Maiden denied it at once. "Our ancestor was not surnamed Cai. Her name was Gu Qingkong."
Mu Qingyan paused, then looked at Cai Zhao.
Cai Zhao gave an awkward laugh. "In my family, well, Falling Blossom Valley was first surnamed Niu, then Gu, in between it was Luo for a while, and only last did it become Cai." Don't ask why. The answer is always: sons-in-law marrying into the family, sons-in-law are the best.
According to the diaries of the successive valley masters of Falling Blossom Valley, Gu Qingkong had excellent aptitude and showed remarkable talent from a young age. Unfortunately, she had none of Cai Pingshu's fiery spirit. She was born with a solitary, austere temperament.
As a child she disliked playing with her brothers and sisters. As she grew older she disliked sparring with young heroes of her own generation, and even her ties to her parents were faint. She did not like to socialize, never involved herself in the disputes of the jianghu, and in the end could not bear to be around anyone at all. When she had nothing to do, she either galloped alone on horseback or drifted aimlessly in a boat.
Yet this very person, the least likely to cause trouble, was the one who made the name of the Demon Woman of Falling Blossom Valley famous.
"My master said that in those days the spiritual energy between heaven and earth had dried up, so cultivators turned their attention to the spirit beasts. Our ancestor couldn't stand it, and fell out with the entire jianghu," the Snow Maiden said.
She said it lightly, but Mu Qingyan recalled that he had come across the name Gu Qingkong in the collection of the Nine Provinces Treasure Scroll Pavilion. A hundred and sixty years ago, this woman had turned the jianghu completely upside down.
Gu Qingkong could not understand it. Only a few decades earlier, those same spirit beasts had fought to the death to wipe out demons and monsters. It was one thing for people not to remember the beasts' kindness, but how could they slaughter them so cruelly, so recklessly, and take their livers, gallbladders, scales and horns for their own use with such self-righteous confidence?
So she came to despise people even more.
Strictly speaking, Gu Qingkong's "perverse deeds" could not be called betraying her master or the righteous path, because she made an enemy of nearly every martial cultivator in the world at once. Many people from famous and orthodox sects were beaten by her until they ate dirt, and she showed the people of the Demon Cult no courtesy either.
But however extraordinary her talent, she could not stand against the greed of all humankind. In the end she could only take the surviving spirit beasts into seclusion on the snow mountain, and vanish without a trace.
Cai Zhao sighed. "Ah, human greed knows no end. What a pity for those spirit beasts. So our ancestor did all this because..."
"Not at all." The Snow Maiden cut her off. "Our ancestor never thought of saving living things. She was simply disgusted by those hypocrites who spoke so righteously. She left word that these strange beasts should live on if they could, and when they grew old and died, a grave should be piled up for them. Nothing should be forced."
"Our ancestor also said that people are so greedy that one day they will slaughter one another past the point of repair. When people have killed themselves off, this land will belong to those rare and wondrous beasts again."
Mu Qingyan laughed aloud. "Well said. Senior Gu's views were extraordinary."
Qian Xueshen said softly, "My master said something similar. All things in the world appear when they are meant to appear, and there is no need to hold on when they are meant to fade. He came to the snow mountain again and again only to find the bones of those strange beasts, weep over them, and bury them in one place."
Cai Zhao felt a pang of sorrow. "So now the last snow scale dragon beast has died too?"
"It has. Twenty years ago, the pair of them wasted away and died, one after the other." The Snow Maiden pointed below the window.
Mu Qingyan and Cai Zhao looked down from the window. Below the endless cliff lay a thick sheet of ice. Several huge, thick white bones jutted out of it. Presumably the remains of all kinds of spirit beasts were buried beneath.
The Snow Maiden continued, "When your aunt Cai Pingshu came, the last snow scale dragon beast still had a breath left, so she took the very last of its saliva. My master and your aunt got along very well and talked for many days, until a man came looking for your aunt... Well, I didn't see him, but he called your aunt 'Xiao Shu.'"
Cai Zhao said, "Mm. The people who call my aunt that are either my father or Uncle Zhou."
Mu Qingyan suddenly asked, "Miss Snow, your master is a woman, I take it?"
The Snow Maiden found this odd. "Of course she's a woman. Everyone in our sect is a woman."
Mu Qingyan said, "Oh."
Qian Xueshen abruptly raised his head. "You and your master had a crystal telescope. So when my family met with disaster sixteen years ago, you knew about it?!"
Cai Zhao's heart tightened.
For the first time, the Snow Maiden showed a cold, startled look. She sighed lightly. "As it happened, when your family met with disaster sixteen years ago, my master and I had gone down the mountain on business."
"Aren't you in seclusion? What business was so important that you had to go down!" Qian Xueshen grew agitated.
"It was indeed very important. My master said that if it weren't done, my inner demon could never be removed and I could never live in seclusion in peace," the Snow Maiden said. "So she took me down the mountain and had me kill a man with my own hands."
"Who?" Mu Qingyan asked warily.
"My own father."
Cai Zhao was stunned. Qian Xueshen sat frozen where he was.
The Snow Maiden said, "My father loved drink and gambling. When he got drunk he beat my mother, and when he lost everything he sold his children. He had already sold my three older brothers and sisters. For enough money he would sell us to any filthy place. He lost money too fast, so he forced my mother to work the half-open door, where for a few coppers any lowlife could abuse her. My mother couldn't endure it and hanged herself. Then my father turned his eyes on me..."
Cai Zhao was shocked and furious. "He's worse than a beast!"
"Beasts are actually quite honest. They stop once they've eaten their fill, and they know to protect their own young," the Snow Maiden said calmly. "I ran into my master when she came down the mountain to buy salt, tea and grain. I begged her, and she saved me."
"Sixteen years ago, my master took me down the mountain to take revenge. I pulled out my father's spinal tendon and hung him from a tree. I let him scream for three days and three nights until the pain killed him. Everyone in the village who had abused me and my mother, every last one, I cut off their hands and feet. When my master and I returned to the mountain, we found that the Tao hunters' house halfway up the slope had burned to the ground."
The stone chamber fell silent.
Qian Xueshen slowly sat back down on the stone bed. He had thought his own fate was cruel enough, and had not expected the Snow Maiden's past to be worse still. Although the Tao family had been slaughtered to the last person, while they lived they had been happy and harmonious, lively and cheerful. Whenever he thought of his family, his heart felt warm.
Someone like the Snow Maiden was the one whose heart was truly dead water, without a trace of attachment to the mortal world.
Suddenly everyone felt a jolt. The stone chamber trembled and shook, and the ground swayed.
The Snow Maiden stood calmly. "Don't worry, everyone. This isn't an earthquake."
"Then what is it?" Cai Zhao braced herself against the stone table.
"It's the giant green-eyed python," the Snow Maiden said. "It hates heat by nature. After being blasted by the hot spring water for so long, it must be furious. It's throwing a tantrum underground."
Mu Qingyan pressed a hand against the stone wall and frowned. "Why do I feel the tremors getting closer?"
"You feel correctly," said the Snow Maiden. "The python loves the cold. The colder the place, the more comfortable it is. The coldest place on this mountain is the summit. It never dared come up before because the snow scale dragon beasts, its natural enemy, kept it down. But now they have all died out, and over these twenty years it has climbed higher and higher."
Cai Zhao gave a bitter laugh. "I thought we'd gotten rid of that stinking snake. I never imagined it's now the boss of the mountain."
"In that case, let's go down the mountain quickly," Mu Qingyan said coolly.
"Right, right," said Cai Zhao. "Qian Xueshen, and Miss Snow, let's all go together."
The Snow Maiden shook her head. "You go. I will certainly not go down the mountain."
"If you don't leave, the python will eat you sooner or later!" Cai Zhao grabbed her arm.
The Snow Maiden was mildly surprised. "People eat snakes. Why shouldn't a snake eat people? Dying here is fine. My master taught me a saying: you are not the fish, so how do you know the fish's joy? Miss Cai, you had better not meddle."
Cai Zhao was at a loss.
Mu Qingyan took her by the hand and moved to leave.
"Oh, that's right." The Snow Maiden suddenly turned around. After a moment she came back from the inner room carrying an egg the size of a pumpkin. Its milky white shell was mottled with darker and lighter patches. "Take this down the mountain with you."
"What is it?" Cai Zhao asked.
"An egg of the snow scale dragon beast," said the Snow Maiden. "It was laid many years ago, but it simply won't hatch. My master and I tried every method we could think of. We soaked it in hot spring water, set it over a fire, buried it in the snow, even held it while we slept... I don't know whether it's a dead egg. There's not the slightest movement."
"The snow scale dragon beasts and our sect were bound by some fate after all. Rather than let the python eat it, Miss Cai, you might as well take it back to Falling Blossom Valley as an ornament." Without waiting for an answer, the Snow Maiden set the egg in Cai Zhao's hands.
Cai Zhao stood holding the big egg, dazed.
The Snow Maiden then brought over the Blazing Sun Blade and laid it flat on top of the egg. "There. Off you go. Be careful going down, and don't drop anything."
Cai Zhao's eyes were blank with bewilderment.