Passerby: Secret Image of Ancient Scrolls

In the deathly silence where time seemed to stand still, Old Gu was the first to react.

He remained kneeling on the ice, his knees hitting the hard ice, long since numb. He felt as if all his strength had been drained away, only his eyes fixed intently on the slowly turning figure, his turbid tears rolling down his deeply lined cheeks and splashing onto the ice.

Twenty-five years. He spent twenty-five years in prison and five years guarding the riverbank, tormented by guilt day and night. He had seen Xiulian's face countless times in his dreams, sometimes resentful, sometimes sad, sometimes desperate, but he had never seen such an expression.

There was no hatred, no resentment, no hysterical questioning, only an unyielding tenderness and a regret hidden deep in the eyes that spanned half a lifetime.

He opened his mouth, his throat feeling like it was stuffed with a wad of waterlogged cotton. With all his might, he managed to squeeze out a few broken syllables, so light they seemed like they could be blown away by a gust of wind: "Xiulian..."

The moment those two words were uttered, the frozen time finally began to loosen slightly.

The black mist suspended in mid-air swayed slightly, and the lingering resentment that had been frozen in the sky floated up slowly like snowflakes blown by the wind, but did not spread any further. The damp, cold sensation on my skin completely dissipated, the sticky ice under my feet hardened again, and the misaligned breathing, the soft scraping sounds, and the silent murmurs all vanished.

Lin Jian snapped back to reality, gasping for breath. The suffocating feeling in her chest finally subsided. The camera in her arms had somehow regained its faint glow, its body gradually warming up, as if echoing the gentle figure in the center of the ice. She subconsciously raised the camera, her fingertips hovering over the shutter button, but hesitated to press it.

She feared that this light and shadow, like the previous illusions, would shatter without a trace the moment the shutter clicked.

Ye Zhuo was finally able to move her arm. She gripped the entrenching tool and held the shield horizontally in front of her again, but did not adopt an attack stance. The wound on her arm still throbbed faintly, but the stinging pain in her soul gradually dissipated. She looked at Xiu Lian in the center of the ice, then glanced at the distraught Old Gu beside her, and finally just silently tightened her shield, her eyes scanning the surroundings warily, guarding against any possible disturbance.

Bai Wuchang finally dared to peek out from behind Shen Xun's clothes. She was still huddled into a small black shadow, but she was no longer trembling uncontrollably. She could clearly sense that the overwhelming lingering resentment had lost its previous despair and aggression, leaving only a peaceful, almost dissipated gentleness, like river water warmed by the sun, no longer chilling her to the bone.

The chaotic aura around her gently rippled, carrying the unique purifying power of the Reincarnation Well. She subconsciously moved closer to Xiulian's remnant soul—this was the cleanest and most immaculate remnant soul she had ever seen in thousands of years, without a trace of resentment, only endless regret.

The golden light surrounding Shen Xun was finally no longer swallowed by the black mist. The pale golden light slowly spread out, protecting the three people behind him. His face was still pale, and the depletion of his primordial golden blood had not yet recovered. The golden patterns on his forearm and the Samsara Well mark on his left chest glowed faintly. His gaze fell on the two figures in the center of the ice, with a hint of understanding and a hint of imperceptible solemnity in his eyes.

Xiulian swayed slightly, but didn't speak. She simply shook her head slowly at Old Gu.

Just then, from the black mist beside her, a soft, clear, almost transparent ball of light slowly rose. The ball of light had no fixed shape, and was surrounded by tiny specks of light, like a soul formed from river water, carrying the most primal aura of this land, quietly suspended above the ice crevice.

The previously destructive and malevolent aura had vanished completely, leaving only the weariness of long imprisonment and a slight sense of relief. It looked at the crowd, its voice calm and straightforward, without the slightest ripple, as if narrating a long-forgotten event:

"I am the original spirit of this barrier at the bottom of the river. Since the birth of this frozen land, I have been guarding the boundary gate at the bottom of the river, preventing the chaotic shadows from outside the boundary from setting foot in the human world."

The ball of light swayed gently, and the light spots around it fell on the ice surface. The cracks in the ice began to heal little by little at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Thirty years ago, a man named Su Jin found this place. He coveted the chaotic power within the boundary gate, wanting to break through the barrier, but was severely injured by the protective power of the barrier. Unwilling to accept defeat, he used strange mystical runes to lock my spiritual energy, gradually corrupting my origin, forcing me to absorb the resentment of the dead souls at the bottom of the river, transforming me into an evil spirit feared by all."

"He wanted me to corrode the barrier with resentment, to grow stronger by borrowing the obsessions of the living, to destroy the Yin-Yang node for him, and to tear open the gap in the boundary gate. He calculated that Old Gu's guilt towards Xiulian was the most intense obsession he could find, and also the thing most capable of penetrating the barrier."

Upon hearing this, Old Gu shuddered, abruptly raising his head, his eyes filled with disbelief and astonishment. He had always believed that his guilt had given birth to the evil creature at the bottom of the river, that he had harmed Xiulian and the people along the riverbank, but he had never imagined that it was all a carefully orchestrated deception from the very beginning.

A barely perceptible hint of grievance crept into the orb of light's voice: "I was controlled by him for thirty years, my consciousness shrouded in black mist, forced to do evil according to his commands. I watched as Xiulian's remnant soul was imprisoned in my spiritual core, watched as countless souls were devoured by resentment, watched as the barrier was gradually corroded, yet I could do nothing. It wasn't until you shattered the mystic runes he had carved into my spiritual core, dispelling the obsession that bound me, that I finally awoke."

"The colorful supernatural power that made me surge in strength when I fought back so desperately was transmitted to me by him through the barrier. He was unwilling to accept the failure of his plan and wanted to use me to drag you all down with him, and then use your resentful souls to completely tear down the barrier."

Shen Xun nodded slightly, his fingertips gently tapping the ice surface with his peachwood staff. Pale golden light spread along the ice patterns, merging with the aura of the light cluster. He had already sensed that this primordial spirit's aura shared the same origin as the earth's veins, containing no malice whatsoever, only pure protective power.

Just then, Xiulian's illusory figure slowly moved.

She walked lightly across the ice towards Old Gu, her steps leaving no trace. The lingering sorrows that filled the air gradually transformed into tiny specks of light with each step, merging beneath the ice. Those souls, trapped for decades, were finally freed, drifting downstream to where they were meant to go.

She walked up to Old Gu and stopped.

Old Gu knelt on the ground, looking up at her, tears streaming down his face, repeatedly murmuring, "I'm sorry, Xiulian, I'm so sorry... I failed to protect you, I'm the one who hurt you..."

Xiulian slowly squatted down, reaching out her hand to touch his cheek. Her hand was ethereal, passing through Old Gu's skin, yet still carrying a faint warmth, like the temperature thirty years ago when she held his hand and walked on the shallow beach by the river.

"It's not your fault."

Her voice was soft and gentle, like the wind blowing through the pine forests of the Xing'an Mountains, finally dispelling the icy chill that had been pressing on Old Gu's heart for thirty years.

"That day on the bridge, I kept it from you. Su Jin had already set up this scheme. I was going to Xishan'ao to find something important, something that could reinforce the barrier and stop Su Jin. I didn't tell you because I was afraid Su Jin would target you. You're just an ordinary person; I couldn't drag you into this."

"It was Su Jin who manipulated the primordial spirits in the river to create waves that swept me down. He planned everything from the very beginning; your guilt and my remnant soul were all nourishment for him to raise evil spirits."

Her fingertips gently brushed against Old Gu's trembling eyes, just like countless nights in the past when she would wipe away the dust from his long-distance runs. Her eyes held only a gentle relief, without uttering a single word about the unspoken secrets hidden in the past.

Old Gu trembled all over, his lips quivering, unable to utter a single word. He vaguely remembered that the moment Xiulian fell into the water, a blurry dark shadow seemed to flash by in the shadows of the trees near the river. But at that moment, his whole world collapsed; all he could see was Xiulian bobbing up and down in the river. He frantically wanted to plunge into the river to find her, assuming it was just a shadow of a tree swaying in the wind. He didn't pay any attention to it, never imagining that that fleeting shadow was the culprit behind this tragedy.

Xiulian looked at him and smiled gently, just like the girl who stood by the river and smiled at him all those years ago: "Old Gu, don't feel guilty anymore, just live well. I'm already very content to see you again and to know that you've remembered me all these years."

As soon as those words were spoken, a rapid deer bell sound suddenly rang out from the distant snowstorm.

The clear sound of bells pierced through the wind and snow, growing closer and closer, carrying the unique aura of deer spirits from the mountains and forests, as well as the shamanic heritage shared with Xiulian, rushing towards the frozen river.

Xiulian's figure suddenly paused, and she slowly raised her head, looking in the direction from which the bell sounded. A glimmer of light instantly appeared in her eyes. She smiled with relief, as if she had finally let go of the last worry.

In the wind and snow, a snow-white reindeer galloped by. Its body was bound with crisscrossing animal hide straps, secured with several slipknots. On its left side, a bundle of hard armor, almost as long as the reindeer's body, was firmly bound. Each piece resembled an elongated birch bark plank, long and straight, tapering to a slightly inward-curving triangle at one end, its tip extending slightly beyond the reindeer's shoulder. The twelve pieces overlapped perfectly, their edges staggered like layers of scales, seemingly an integral part of the white reindeer's body, not hindering its movement in the slightest. On its right side hung two animal hide bags, one large and one small.

A girl sat on the deer's back, wearing a small hat with deer antlers and two thick braids. She wore a well-fitting long deerskin coat that covered her from neck to ankle. A palm-sized copper bell, engraved with colorful deer patterns, was tied around her waist. Her face was rosy, clearly from the cold, but her eyes shone like stars in the cold night of the Xing'an Mountains. She was none other than Aoluya, who had come all the way from the tribe.

She reined in the white deer, jumped off its back, and her gaze had just landed on Xiulian in the center of the ice when she was slightly taken aback. A faint yet incredibly familiar aura was slowly emanating from that illusory figure—the unique spiritual energy of the Evenki shaman, resonating subtly with the heritage deep within her bloodline.

Ao Luya paused, looking at Xiu Lian with a hint of surprise in her voice: "You... how come you have the aura of our tribe's shamans on you?"

Xiulian looked at her and spoke first, her tone calm yet carrying a certainty that seemed destined: "I know your name is Ao Luya. I knew it before you were even born; your name was already decided."

Ao Luya was startled, her face filled with disbelief: "How did you know..." "Because I used to be a member of the tribe, but I left the tribe later," Xiu Lian said softly.

Upon hearing this, Ao Luya was struck dumb, her pupils contracted sharply, and her voice trembled uncontrollably: "You are... Aunt Ao Lu?"

Xiulian nodded gently, silently watching her. The wind and snow swept silently between the two of them. In Aoluya, she saw her own youthful self. She clearly felt the aura of the shamanic tradition, the aura of the white deer, and the last hope of the tribe.

She said no more, her ethereal figure slowly extending a hand towards Ao Luya. A faint light, adorned with deer spirit patterns, drifted from her fingertips and landed on Ao Luya's brow. "I buried something important in the Western Mountain Pass. You must find it. Su Jin has already descended to the bottom of the river, and the barrier is about to collapse. Aya, the tribe and the boundary gate are entrusted to you."

Aoluya bit her lip hard, nodded forcefully, tears streaming down her cheeks and splashing onto the ice. She knelt heavily before Xiulian and softly called out in the tribe's ancient language, "Aunt Aolu."

Xiulian withdrew her hand, took one last look at Old Gu, then at the distant mountains and forests, her eyes devoid of any regret. She turned around and gently nodded to the White Impermanence who was quietly floating beside her.

Bai Wuchang paused for a moment, then reacted, a soft halo of light, imbued with the aura of reincarnation, emanating from her body. She carefully reached out and took Xiulian's illusory fingertips in her hand, the chaotic power carrying the pure spiritual energy of the Well of Reincarnation, gently enveloping Xiulian's remnant soul.

Tiny specks of light slowly rose from the sky, and Xiulian's figure gradually became transparent, eventually transforming into specks of starlight. Following the halo around Bai Wuchang, she drifted into the depths of the snowstorm, heading towards her final destination in the cycle of reincarnation.

Old Gu knelt on the ice, gazing in the direction Xiulian had disappeared, remaining motionless for a long time. The river wind whipped snowflakes across the ice, and the primordial spirit's light continued to slowly repair the ice cracks, even the wind and snow seemed to soften. Lin Jian put away his camera, and Ye Zhuo relaxed his tense back; everything exuded a sense of relief.

Just then, three sharp whistles suddenly erupted from the windbreak forest high above! Without warning, three crossbow bolts shot out like black lightning, their sharpness piercing the air.

One arrow aimed straight for Lao Gu's back, another locked onto Lin Jian's neck, and the last one was aimed directly at Ao Luya. The trajectory was straight and tricky, and it was right in front of them in an instant, tearing the previous peace and gentleness to shreds. The hidden killing intent finally revealed its sharp edge.