To avoid human capture, Snow Deer only appeared in the harsh winter, and their numbers were very few—like a fleeting glimpse of a flower.
“In this sweltering heat, where could we possibly find a live Snow Deer?” The old Steward stamped his feet in anxious frustration.
A heart-stopping silence descended upon the bedchamber.
After a moment, Huo Jingzhao stood up and said in a low voice, “Stop crying. I’ll go find it.”
“But…” The other two were exceptionally taken aback.
“Within three days, I will bring back a Snow Deer.” Huo Jingzhao walked to the table and casually grabbed a handful of peach blossoms from the basket. “The Little Young Master should focus on recovering from his injury.”
Hearing this, Pei Lianyi outside the door opened his lips helplessly. He looked towards the moonlight, the unique, tender feelings in his heart growing ever stronger.
There was someone. He wasn’t by his side right now, and in the future, he wouldn’t be able to accompany him. But whenever he thought of him, even just hearing his name, he felt reassured.
Shortly after, Huo Jingzhao walked out.
“Are you really going to find a Snow Deer?” Pei Lianyi bit his lip, looking at him.
Huo Jingzhao braced one fist against the door panel, his voice low and hoarse.
“What else can I do? He is, after all, the treasure you bore.”
Pei Lianyi blushed. “Be careful.”
“Give me a little encouragement, hm?” Huo Jingzhao leaned in closer.
Smelling his refreshing, bright, youthful scent, a wild torrent erupted within Pei Lianyi.
“Don’t. Ziying and Cao Xian are still inside.” He reminded hoarsely, hastily avoiding him.
If they were discovered, he would truly die…
“…” Staring at his trembling form, Huo Jingzhao’s dark eyes darkened.
This father and son were truly going to be the death of him.
“I’ll go change my clothes and set off immediately,” he pulled back and said.
Pei Lianyi could no longer produce a sound, only nodding rapidly.
Huo Jingzhao lingered no longer. He returned to his room, changed into a smart, simple white outfit, strapped on his crossbow, and left Pei Manor astride his Ferghana Horse.
He sped along the entire way out of the city. Reaching an uninhabited mountain wilderness, Huo Jingzhao wasn’t in a hurry. He tied up his horse and found a tree shaped like a mulberry.
Standing before the tree, he slightly raised his right hand. Sharp Palm Wind was poised to burst forth. With a deafening boom, a deep crack appeared in the thick trunk.
Silver frost spread at his feet. A trickle of viscous white sap flowed from the split trunk, instantly filling the air with a sweet fragrance.
White Tree: resembling a mulberry, but with blood-red veins. When smelled, it emitted a strange aroma, capable of attracting Snow Deer.
This was something Huo Jingzhao had accidentally discovered after a severe injury and rampage.
That day, he was completely unconscious. Only after tearing apart an entire forest with his bare hands, his eyes blood-red, did he collapse from exhaustion.
As his internal temperature alternated between cold and hot, a snow-white deer came from somewhere.
The deer lay beside him and licked his hand incessantly.
Upon regaining consciousness, Huo Jingzhao discovered that besides blood, there was also white tree sap on his hands.
Wherever there was a White Tree, a Snow Deer would surely appear.
So Huo Jingzhao dug out a bit more sap, then leaped up onto a tree branch and began to rest with his eyes closed.
Just as dawn was breaking, the sound of rustling indeed came from the empty forest.
Looking down and seeing the Snow Deer crossing the thicket, heading straight for the tree trunk, Huo Jingzhao slowly drew his crossbow.
The arrow was on the string; one release would pierce the Snow Deer’s foot and capture it alive. But at that very moment, the Snow Deer suddenly rammed its head against the tree trunk and howled madly on the spot.
Smelling something unusual in the air, Huo Jingzhao immediately flew down from the tree, landing before the Snow Deer.
Wheeze— Wheeze!! The Snow Deer’s eyes were bloodshot as it continuously rammed the tree, seeking death. It was clear that something was controlling it.
Huo Jingzhao acted decisively. His lean, powerful arm lifted, and he flicked out his floral whip, cleanly and sharply wrapping it around the Snow Deer’s neck to stop it from committing suicide.
The Snow Deer struggled wildly. It rolled on the ground in defiance, its front hooves gouging deep pits into the earth.
Huo Jingzhao watched it and laughed hoarsely. “Today, I’m capturing you alive, little fellow.”
In the lingering moonlight, his white clothes were as pristine as snow, his bearing graceful. Yet the demonic, sharply pointed red whip around his wrist, and the sly, strange smile on his lips, made him look like a blood-soaked Asura.
No amount of pure radiance could dissolve the darkness upon him.
Under his terrifying strength, the robust Snow Deer quickly lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground with a weak hiss.
Huo Jingzhao was just about to go over and finish up when a voice sounded from behind the tree.
“Your skills are still as agile as ever.”
“…It’s you.” Seeing Shi Wuya walk out, Huo Jingzhao sneered. “Haven’t you had enough fun at the auction gala yet?”
“What fun was I having?” Shi Wuya glanced at him with mock reproach. “Clearly, it was you who was having fun.”
He crouched down and stroked the Snow Deer, which was barely clinging to life.
“Don’t you think its maddened state resembles you quite a bit?”
Hearing himself compared to an animal, Huo Jingzhao’s expression remained unchanged. He merely said, “Then you’d better stay far away from it, lest you get bitten to death.”
“I’d like to see how it bites me to death!” Shi Wuya abruptly drew a knife from his sleeve.
“Stop—! Argh!” Seeing the man about to kill the deer, Huo Jingzhao mobilized his Inner Strength. He was just about to pounce when a stabbing pain, alternating between hot and cold, shot through his back and abdomen.
Looking down, he saw a few streaks of blood seeping through his pristine white robes below.
Seeing him bleed, Shi Wuya’s breathing grew increasingly erratic. “I told you not to recklessly use your internal energy.”
He stood up and walked before Huo Jingzhao, saying in a low voice, “It’s excruciating when the twelve Soul-Devouring Nails flare up, isn’t it?”
On the day he brought the boy back from the frozen lake to the Nine Blossoms Sect, Shi Wuya had thought it would take great effort to teach him Internal Cultivation. Who knew the child was so gifted? In just a few years, he had mastered all of his lifetime’s learning.
He knew full well that both hatred and love could make a genius increasingly uncontrollable.
He implanted twelve Soul-Devouring Nails into the boy’s body precisely for this day.
Huo Jingzhao looked at him coldly, veins bulging on his forehead.
Shi Wuya pressed on his bleeding chest and sighed. “Only I know your true self, my Young Sect Master.”
Huo Jingzhao scoffed. “You chased all the way out of the city in the dead of night, just to pledge your loyalty before me, or… to act cheap?”
“Ah, I do have proper business to discuss.” Shi Wuya thought for a moment, then laughed lightly. “I’ve already leaked news of the Lizhou shipyard to the Leng family. Leng Yuechuan won’t just sit back and watch Pei Manor monopolize this juicy piece of meat. Let them fight amongst themselves first.”
“Also, you must take control of the Pei family as soon as possible. I’m afraid if you act too long, even you might get sick of it.”
“Farewell, Adoptive Father.” Huo Jingzhao glanced at him icily, then walked towards the deer.
Shi Wuya clasped his hands behind his back and curled his lip. “Jingzhao, don’t forget, the deer is in my hands.”
With that, his dark, shadowy form vanished into the wind.
“Cough, ugh—!” Once he had completely dissipated, the white-clad figure by the tree coughed up a mouthful of blood. With his back to the moon, he stood in a daze for a long time.
That day was particularly difficult for the servants of Pei Manor.
The very day Young Master Huo left, the Master and the Little Young Master seemed like entirely different people.
The Little Young Master could ask eight hundred times a day, “Could Jingzhao be in danger?”
At first, the Master would console him, saying nothing would go wrong. But when the questions became too many, even the Master fell silent, just sitting there with a gloomy face.
After night fell, Cao Xian had a table full of dishes to Pei Lianyi’s taste arranged, but Pei Lianyi shook his head and ordered him to take them away.
Cao Xian said, how can the Family Head go a whole day without eating?
Pei Lianyi said, have the guards outside the manor keep watch. If anyone on horseback wearing white rides up, immediately go out to welcome him.
Truly, the cow’s head doesn’t match the horse’s mouth! Cao Xian shook his head helplessly.
How could he know that at this moment, Pei Lianyi’s mind was filled entirely with yesterday’s Huo Jingzhao.
The young man always wore black. Yesterday was the first time he had seen the other in white robes. The ivory-colored fabric wrapped around the man’s back and narrow waist, even the lines of his forearms were clearly defined. It was a physique that made one’s heart pound and face flush. Yet that cold, immaculate white discouraged any further thoughts.
Why did you switch to wearing white? he had asked.
Huo Jingzhao replied, To go claim kinship with the Snow Deer.
Pei Lianyi suppressed a smile and watched him gallop away.
Cao Xian took one look: the Master was so worried about the Little Young Master’s injury that he had lost all appetite for food and drink. Alright then! He could only order the maids to take the dishes away.
After the table was cleared, Pei Lianyi sat alone in his bedchamber.
He undid his collar buttons and was about to change into his sleepwear when a hoarse, mysterious voice drifted in from outside the door.
“Weren’t you the picture of glory at the auction gala, Master Pei? So who are you putting on this haggard act for now?”
Hearing that rough, grating voice, Pei Lianyi stood up in alarm, his fingers curling into his palms.
“Y-you, what are you doing here?”
Seeing that strange, crazed Ghost Mask, as if baring its fangs at him, he desperately suppressed his panic and furrowed his brow. “Leave quickly. Jingzhao will be back soon.”
Implicit in his words was the plea: don’t let anyone discover these shameful acts.
He quickly learned not to expect any sense of propriety, righteousness, or shame from this madman.
Clad in pitch-black armor, broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted, the Ghost-Faced Man laughed lazily and wickedly upon hearing this.
“It’s precisely because I know he’s not in the manor that I came to comfort you, Master Pei…”
