Side Story: Pure Snow

On the West Lake in Hangzhou, along the Baisha Causeway, misty willows formed rows while pedestrians bustled like weaving shuttles. The golden, shimmering surface of the lake was entirely filled with painted pleasure boats darting back and forth.

Amidst the shaded, misty willows, Qi Kelang walked slowly and steadily, turning military strategies and battle formations over in his mind. Unprepared for what lay ahead, he suddenly felt his left shoulder collide squarely with something, causing him to stagger back a few hurried steps.

Looking up, he saw a dainty maid in green holding an oiled-paper umbrella, and beneath the umbrella was a fairy-like woman in white. The maid in green possessed autumn-water bright eyes, red lips, and white teeth, displaying an unspeakable charm and loveliness. Yet compared to the person beneath the umbrella, she was like mud to the clouds.

For a moment, Qi Kelang was dazzled and stood frozen in place. The dainty maid in green had already chided angrily, "Where did this fool come from? Walking without watching the road, and even gazing with such disrespect at my young mistress!"

Her words, spoken in the soft and melodious Wu dialect, were immensely captivating. Even tinged with a slight anger, they held a lingering tenderness that pierced straight to the heart.

Yet the voice of the woman in white that followed made Qi Kelang feel as though "hearing fairy music, his ears were refreshed." Her raven-black hair, like a waterfall, was bound only by a single golden ring, as pure and simple as the waters of the West Lake, possessing an peerless and graceful beauty.

"A-qing, do not be rude to a scholar," the young lady in white said. "This young gentleman must be reciting texts in his heart and failed to pay attention to the path. It is no harm."

The maid in green protested, "My young mistress, look at his coarse hempen garments, his small cap, and the faint scent of old medicinal herbs lingering about him. Clearly, he is just some little apprentice from a pharmacy. How is he any sort of scholar?"

"A-qing, that is where you are wrong. Who says an apprentice from a pharmacy cannot be a scholar?"

"Judging by his countenance, one knows his aspirations. This gentleman has an extraordinary bearing and is certainly not frivolous or devoid of virtue. The belly holds poetry and books, and its energy naturally shines forth; whether one has learning can also be told from the eyes."

"I can tell from the gentleman's facial features and demeanor that he is no ordinary person. Even if temporarily confined to shallow waters, the day will surely come when wind and clouds transform him into a dragon."

Hearing her words, as pleasant to the ear as the music of bamboo flutes, and spoken with such serenity and courtesy, Qi Kelang felt half his body melt away.

Yet, that she could tell at a glance he was not a regular pharmacy apprentice filled him with even greater astonishment.

"Many thanks for your magnanimity, elder sister," Qi Kelang said, raising his hands in a traditional greeting. "This humble junior has offended you; I hope you will forgive me."

"This young scholar has one more matter. Might I trouble elder sister to bestow upon me your honorable name?"

The green-clad maid's expression changed instantly. "My young mistress has a tranquil and refined nature, choosing not to bicker with a rake like you, yet you take advantage and push your luck?"

She was cut off, however, by a wave of the white-clad lady's hand. Seeming to recall something, the woman narrowed her bright eyes into crescent moons and let out a light giggle. Her previously dignified, fairy-like aura instantly transformed into a fox-spirit-like cleverness. "My name is A-xue, and I live right here in the West Lake. I am actually a water snake spirit turned human. Look at this body of mine—still as soft as if it has no bones at all."

As she spoke, she raised her fair wrist and gently twisted it a few times. Indeed, like a spring willow, it was so slender and soft as to be unbelievable.

Qi Kelang could not help but laugh. Regardless of whether spirits existed in the world, even if they truly did, they would not claim to be spirits upon a first meeting. Thus, what the young lady said must be a joke.

Yet not only did she possess such breathtaking beauty, but her words were also so witty, which stirred Qi Kelang's heart all the more.

At that moment, A-xue gazed at him with brimming, liquid eyes. "I have already stated my family background and origins, yet I have not yet asked about the gentleman's lineage and background?"

The maid in green could not restrain herself from interrupting again, "Young mistress, is there any need to ask? This fellow has the emblem of the Yonghe Hall from the east of the city on his clothes; he must be someone doing odd jobs over there..."

Qi Kelang's thoughts spun. This time when he returned, it was originally to visit his family. However, his master had admonished him never to reveal his true name and identity to others, otherwise he would not escape the five trials and three disasters.

He was originally the sole heir of the Qi family at the Renji Hall in the south of the city, and the Renji Hall was the largest pharmacy in Hangzhou, with its business covering the entire terrain of western Zhejiang. Yet when he was five years old, an extraordinary person had sought him out, saying that he needed to take him away to cultivate for over a decade in order to avert the fate of dying young.

The Qi family couple dared not disobey, because this eccentric person was not some rustic figure, but a dazzling new star in the political arena of the Great Tang. Though he dwelled within the imperial court, his actions bore a strong chivalric flair; he was a marvel recognized throughout the world.

By now, Qi Kelang had shouldered his book basket and followed his master in study for exactly ten years. With his master's gracious permission, he had returned to his hometown to visit his family for three months. Yet his mother and father had not abandoned the notion of having him inherit the family business, ordering him to work as a shop assistant in the Yonghe Hall, which was run by his father's close friend, to learn the medical arts. Yet how could his parents, mere mortals, know that his master possessed accomplishments in both the literary and martial arts that astonished the world, and that even his medical skills surpassed those of countless renowned physicians?

After a brief meditation, he finally offered the prepared false name: "This A-qing maiden is quite right. This junior's surname is Xi, with the given name Xuanzan, and I am merely a humble little apprentice in the Yonghe Hall."

A gentleman may be deceived by what is proper, yet confessing a falsehood to such a breathtaking lady in white still left Qi Kelang with a sensation of constriction and discomfort in his chest, his face burning slightly.

"So that is how it is."

A-xue smiled brilliantly, like a hundred flowers blooming all at once, making even the sun in the sky seem to lose its luster.

Her sleeves fluttered up like misty snow, and her delicate hand transformed into lightning in an instant, seizing Qi Kelang's wrist with an overwhelming, monstrous force that wrenched his palm back toward the back of his hand.

A sharp pain shot through his wrist, feeling as though he had been stung by a viper. Instinctively, Qi Kelang channeled strength into his forearm, deflecting A-xue's jade hand. He then cupped his palm into a claw and lunged toward her flowing sleeves, intending to counter-control her.

He had not expected his opponent to meet his claw-strike directly with her jade palm. With a light flick of her slender fingers, she dissolved his golden-splitting, rock-shattering claw technique in an instant, and the two of them found their fingers instantly intertwined.

A-xue exerted no further force, merely encircling his palm with a faint, gentle strength that left him unable to move.

"Little master is not being obedient. With martial skill like this, how could you possibly be an ordinary pharmacy apprentice?"

As she spoke, her autumn-water eyes met his gaze. Along the Baisha Causeway, willows swayed gently in the breeze. In such a posture, a subtle ambiguity hung naturally in the air.

Qi Kelang's fair face instantly flushed red, and his heart surged with inexplicable shock and awe. The delicate smoothness radiating from the beauty's jade hand brought wondrous comfort to his palms and fingers, the sensation instantly spreading throughout his entire body; his thirty-six thousand pores felt as if they had consumed a celestial ginseng fruit, every single one of them tingling with ease.

Taking advantage of his youth, he had brazenly addressed a lovely young maiden he had met by chance as "elder sister," which was indeed rather rash. Yet when she turned the tables and seized the initiative, he momentarily lost his wits, his face filled with awkwardness while his heart beat wildly.

"A-xue maiden, you are even more formidable... by far," Qi Kelang said, struggling slightly and panting.

Since the age of five, he had practiced diligently under his master, and his master was one of the peerless figures of the world. Yet A-xue looked only two or three years older than him, and though her lineage was unknown, she possessed martial arts superior to his own!

"I am a water snake turned spirit; isn't it only natural that I am proficient in the arts of binding and entangling?" A-xue's clear-water gaze swept up and down over him, a faint, playful smile playing upon her lips. Her aura was naturally tranquil, but right now her gaze held an peerless charm.

Qi Kelang's heart skipped a beat, an indescribable and ineffable power causing him to tremble involuntarily.

A-xue, however, released her grip. As the smooth sensation abruptly vanished, a sudden sense of loss welled up in Qi Kelang's heart.

"Very well, I shall not tease you further. Since you refuse to state your true origins, you must have some unspeakable hidden reasons; why should I compel you?"

She smiled lightly, her beauty surpassing the mortal dust. "Today this handmaid still has matters to attend to, so I shall not disturb the gentleman further. If the gentleman feels that you and I still share an affinity, simply come more often to gaze upon this Baisha Causeway; finding my tracks will not be difficult."

With that, she waved her hand and, alongside the dainty maid called A-xue, drifted away amidst a flurry of fragrant breeze, leaving the young man still turning his head to gaze at the beauty's slender and peerless retreating figure.

***

Qi Kelang had never imagined that someone as god-like as his master would depart in a manner so catching him off guard.

When confusion swallowed him up like the dark of night, an old friend came to visit him.

That was one of his fellow apprentices, who was later granted the imperial surname Li, but at the time still retained his compound surname, Zhuye.

His fellow apprentice was not a Han Chinese, but the son of a renowned general with a vast tribal influence, requiring no concern whatsoever for his future prospects.

At the time, heavy snow was swirling outside, while indoors a small red-mud stove burned, warming fresh wine. Yet the bright, flickering firelight was unable to melt the natural frost upon his fellow apprentice's face.

His rough hands crossed to support his chin, and above his chin was his fellow apprentice's habitually stern visage. Yet, unusually, there was a trace of warmth in his fellow apprentice's gaze.

***

"Junior brother, do you have any arrangements for your future?"

"Arrangements? What arrangements could someone like me, the son of a medicine merchant, possibly have? Nothing more than returning home to practice medicine and inherit the family business..."

"Kelang, those are not your true words."

"Senior brother, you also know that in the current world, whether in the literary or martial sphere, there is no place for the son of a pharmacy owner to make a name for himself."

"Then—" A trace of mockery appeared in his fellow apprentice's eyes. "Why not venture into a world of soaring eagles and cunning rabbits, of bright camels across barren sands? To hear you tell it, it seems our master simply sat idly at home and thus established immortal renown."

"Senior brother, you mean..." Qi Kelang felt a dawning realization.

His fellow apprentice nodded, seeming deeply moved. "It is precisely the place whence my family came. No doubt you also know that Tibet, which has been at war with the Great Tang for over a hundred years, has suffered internal collapse. A great hero named Zhang Yichao has raised righteous volunteers, currently recovering the imperial territories lost since the An Lushan rebellion."

"You want me to go and join Lord Yichao?"

"Emperor Wuzong has passed away, and the reigning sovereign dislikes our master, and thus distrusts you as well. By comparison, the imperial court distrusts even more those elders of Hexi who have not cost the state a single piece of iron, a bundle of grass, or a peck of grain, for they have already lived under the rule of enemy invaders for a century."

"If a Central Plains man journeys west of the Xiaoguan Pass to establish extraordinary merits among the Return-to-Righteousness Army on behalf of the imperial court, it would provide the court with a pretext to partition the Return-to-Righteousness Army. As for this person's future prospects, I need not say."

"Yet—" Qi Kelang asked, "Lord Yichao is also a person of supreme intelligence; how could he fail to think of such reasoning?"

"Heh heh heh, my foolish junior brother..."

His fellow apprentice narrowed his eyes, expelled a long breath, and pushed his chin with his palm. "Because, just like our master, Lord Yichao is also a hero. And this world only allows heroes to shed both blood and tears."

With those words, the two sat in silent confrontation, neither speaking for a long time.

***

When his fellow apprentice departed, Qi Kelang decided to go and see someone he cared about.

After their initial encounter, they had experienced much together, and their relationship had grown quite extraordinary.

Yet when he saw her standing upright in the courtyard amidst the swirling, goose-feather snowflakes, waiting for his arrival like a statue, Qi Kelang still felt his heart instantly constrict, unable to utter a single word from the thousands he wished to speak.

She gently brushed away the accumulated snow from her head and, like an immortal vision, leisurely stepped forward to meet him.

"A-xue."

Qi Kelang called out softly.

"Your cautious appearance right now makes it seem as though time has rolled back many years." A-xue smiled softly, her skin as clear and icy as ever against the backdrop of the falling snow, rivaling the finest Xingzhou porcelain.

Qi Kelang awkwardly scratched his hair bun, paused for a moment, but the uncontrollable emotions in his chest finally forced the words past his lips.

"I am younger than you, hesitant and indecisive in my actions, yet infatuated with fame and achievement. Having known each other for so many years, you must also know that I have a host of bad habits. Looking back on all that has passed, I truly feel I have no right to say these things; it feels almost as if I am using our friendship to coerce you..."

A-xue's fine eyes widened instantly, her fair hand covering her slightly parted lips as she waited for the words to follow.

"I am about to depart immediately for Xiliang, to that battlefield where the Return-to-Righteousness Army and the Tibetans wage endless war. How laughable I am, so greedy. Yet this should make me a man worthy of you. A-xue, are you willing to let me prepay a promise, to marry me and become the wife of Qi Kelang? I feel the scenery of Xiliang is magnificent; it is actually a wonderful place to hold a wedding."

Qi Kelang then watched as A-xue turned in silence and walked toward the house. At that moment, his heart sank to the very bottom.

Not long after, however, she returned to the courtyard carrying a black-lacquered, jade-footed paulownia zither with joined pearls. She seated herself gracefully upon the grass mat and let her delicate fingers sweep across the strings. The music spilled forth like flowing water, yet carried a resounding, heroic spirit.

"You shall brandish your sword and slaughter the myriad quarters; I shall pluck the zither, drifting and sinking alongside my lord."

A-xue's eyes were fixed upon Qi Kelang's face, as clear as when they first met.

***

Xiliang, Shan Prefecture City.

This had once been a heavily fortified stronghold complete with a moat, drawbridge, city gates, interlocking barriers, barbicans, inner walled annexes, fortress walls, defense towers, arrow towers, and watchtowers ringed in rows.

Yet after changing hands several times through attacks and defenses with the Tibetans, this city had long since fallen into ruin. Even though Qi Kelang had exhausted every strategy to repair it, due to the rush of time, it was barely in a usable state.

The rapid growth of the Return-to-Righteousness Army had severely provoked the internally fractured Tibetans. Not only the remnants of the Tibetans in the Hexi region, but also the monasteries locked in endless strife with the Zhabu region across the snowfields, had dispatched troops, mustering a massive army numbering as many as two hundred thousand to march menacingly upon the crumbling city of Shan Prefecture.

The Tibetans were devout believers in Buddhism; their military formations teemed with gleaming shaved heads and fluttering kasaya robes, and the Buddhist chants that periodically arose shook the earth and heavens.

General Zhang Yichao's main force was far away at Shazhou on the northern end of the Hexi Corridor. Defending Shan Prefecture were merely a few thousand hastily gathered righteous volunteer soldiers of various Han and foreign ethnicities.

Going into battle with bandaged wounds and drinking blood while ascending the parapets was nothing out of the ordinary for Qi Kelang at that time.

Yet prior to that day, even such a brutal battlefield was by no means a nightmare; rather, it held a certain tenderness amidst a sea of blood.

A-xue, who had been pampered since childhood, had married him as a bride right there in the desolate and distant frontier of Xiliang within the military camp. After their marriage, she not only washed hands to prepare soups and broths, but also had to inspire the soldiers and win over the people for him. Even when military affairs grew urgent, she had to don armor and personally engage in fierce combat.

Yet day after day, she merely smiled faintly, never uttering a half-word of complaint. She said that being together with the one she loved was already the greatest blessing bestowed by the heavens.

The heaven-shaking Buddhist chants drove the flood-like enemy formations to charge against the city walls. Massive boulders were hurled into the moat, piled high beneath the walls to form stone mounds reaching halfway up the ramparts. Cannon-fodder foot soldiers from the lower strata, inspired by religion, charged fearlessly, erecting scaling ladders along the battlements through a bloody sacrifice.

The heavily armored warriors of the upper strata discarded their body armor, leaving only lamellar iron helmets that exposed only their eye sockets, charging the walls with fierce battle cries. Thick silk padding was stuffed inside their helmets to effectively neutralize the impact of falling rocks.

Even without mastering the complex siege-engine construction techniques of the Central Plains, relying merely on swarming assaults, the boundless expanse of the enemy still filled one with a despair springing from the depths of the soul.

"All forces on the city wall, be on high alert! The Tibetan slaves are scaling the wall!"

atop the watchtower, the garrison drum sounded a steady beat, and sentries shouted loudly. From the crumbling arrow towers, crossbow bolts hissed out, cutting down the enemy soldiers desperately surging onto the ramparts.

Qi Kelang could no longer remember all the details of the fighting that day.

He only remembered the boundless sounds of slaughter, blood flowing everywhere across the ground, and corpses sprawled haphazardly, friend and foe alike indistinguishable.

He remembered even more a middle-aged Rinpoche with a pale face, holding a glowing auspicious-wheel of dharma. This man chanted Buddhist chants while his murderous intent soared to the heavens, clearly holding an extremely high position within the Tibetan army.

The defending volunteer soldiers were mown down like grass beneath the whirling dharma-wheel, and the Tibetans shouted wildly, their morale soaring like a rainbow. The Han troops began to rout, on the verge of abandoning this section of the wall and allowing the fierce enemy to charge unhindered into the city.

Horrified, Qi Kelang immediately leaped forward, taking the lead to plug the breach and ordering the soldiers to counterattack, only to find himself plunged into heavy encirclement.

The massive dharma-wheel, spinning like a windmill, danced with blinding radiance, crashing toward him like a tidal wave. The continuous pressure left him unable to breathe.

When the pressure grew as heavy as Mount Tai, his vision began to darken, and his body suddenly felt as though all its strength had been drained away.

He had not closed his eyes for three days and three nights. Fatigue and exhaustion suddenly made him feel that everything lacked any meaning.

Perhaps coming to Xiliang had been a mistake from the beginning.

The body's instinct to survive still struggled mightily, but his consciousness was utterly exhausted, unable to fight on.

At the very moment when his consciousness was about to sink into a bottomless abyss,

an immortal white vision fluttered over like floating flower petals chasing the moon.

A-xue wore bright silver armor draped with a silver-fox-fur cloak; amidst the chaotic battle, her armor was inevitably stained with spots of blood.

"Even in a certain doom of absolute death, A-xue will not let her husband die before her."

She said calmly, her words devoid of the slightest trace of hesitation.

To organize the routed soldiers for a counterattack required time.

Therefore, she and Qi Kelang had to face the tidal encirclement and slaughter of the enemy army, and not just that fiercely valiant middle-aged monk alone.

A-xue evidently knew that Qi Kelang was utterly exhausted and bore several wounds on his body, which was why amidst the fierce combat, she threw herself forward multiple times to shield him.

When that massive dharma-wheel smashed fiercely against her equally silver-gleaming breastplate, time froze completely in a single instant.

A bright fountain of blood burst forth from A-xue's autumn-chestnut lips, and the sound of breaking ribs made Qi Kelang's heart shatter at that exact moment.

The monk's overbearing and matchless wheel-technique transmitted its force directly through the armor.

"Ahhhhhhh..."

Qi Kelang burst into a heart-rending, piercing scream, his face instantly twisting into a ferocious grimace like a malignant ghost. His field of vision was dyed a deep, dark blood-red in a single flash.

The blue radiance of the殇-stopping divine sword surged violently, its sword intent erupting with a roar. With left-and-right slashing and hewing sounds akin to chopping melons and vegetables, severed limbs and headless torsos danced across the sky, filling the entire space.

For the very first time, Qi Kelang felt himself transform into a wolf.

A lone wolf, having lost its mate and companion, mourning its solitary shadow, howling endlessly across the snowfields with only bloodlust remaining in its eyes!

The resolve to slaughter replaced his reason, and when he finally regained a trace of clarity, there was not a single enemy left upon the ramparts—only the corpses of Tibetan soldiers carpeting the ground.

Yet the primary culprit was not among them.

Qi Kelang swept a cold gaze over the surging volunteer soldiers, uttering not a word amidst a chorus of pleas for forgiveness.

He lifted his sword and leaped down from the rampart.

His close guards hurriedly followed suit.

When Qi Kelang returned, he carried a cleanly severed skull by its hair. His fingers had pierced the scalp, biting deep into the flesh and hooking firmly into the cranial sutures.

"A-xue, I am sorry."

Qi Kelang placed the skull upon the paved brick floor before his beloved wife, weeping as he said, "Your martial arts were superior even to mine; had you not been weakened from childbirth, how could..."

He fiercely struck himself across the face several times. "I, Qi Kelang, am merely a coward who relies on a woman for protection! I should never have come to Xiliang, nor do I deserve to confess my feelings to you! It was all my obsession with fame that implicated you..."

"Was it solely for fame?"

A-xue's lips labored to part as she spoke leisurely.

"To hold back the Tibetans is to protect more common folk. Qi Lang, you once wished to inherit the family business and become a healer, but both healers and military generals share a fundamental duty: to protect."

"You did what you wished to do, and everything I did sprang from my true heart. That being so, what regrets could A-xue have, even in death? What lack is there in this life?"

Qi Kelang gripped her fair wrist, weeping uncontrollably.

"No matter what happens, do not harm yourself. Even in another world, I will still ache for you..."

With her final strength, she leaned her body into Qi Kelang's embrace and gently kissed his cheek. The blood upon her lips instantly left several petal-like crimson imprints upon his face, as vibrant as roses.

The clouds in the sky grew ever more overcast. Before long, heavy snow drifted down from the firmament, as if wishing to shroud all the slaughter and bloodshed in this world...

Several days later, Return-to-Righteousness Army military governor Zhang Yichao personally led a large army to arrive, rescuing the critically imperiled city of Shan Prefecture. Qi Kelang led the vanguard forces, fighting fiercely to rout the two hundred thousand Tibetan enemy troops, slaughtering them across the wilderness until blood flowed like a river.

The army pursued the victory, recovering the cities and fortresses around Qinghai Lake.

When he utilized the siege-engine techniques taught by his master to break through the Stone Fortress City amid the swirling snow—an ancient and perilous stronghold between the Tang and Tibet that had contested for decades and left countless corpses behind—he faced the shivering surrender-bearers within the city, thousands of captives and old and weak women and children pleading for mercy.

Qi Kelang merely hesitated for a fleeting moment before waving his hand and resolutely spitting out a single word: "Kill."

This was the only time in his entire life that he carried out a slaughter of a city and execution of captives.

Afterward, he left the camp alone, holding his newborn daughter, and walked in solitude beneath the Qilian Mountains.

The continuous days of heavy snow stopped as unpredictably as they had begun, just like when they arrived. The winter snow cleared at last, and sunlight spilled down from among the clouds, draping the towering mountain ranges in a layer of golden attire.

Later still, he returned to the Central Plains, serving within the Shence Army. After achieving military merit several times over, he finally won the sovereign's favor and was appointed to the post of Taining Military Governor.

This was precisely the fame and glory of his dreams.

A lone horse guarding Shan Prefecture; slaughtering the Stone Fortress in the west to win the purple robe.

He had attained the purple robe he so yearned for, yet the price was the eternal loss of his beloved.

If he could choose, high office and generous emoluments, establishing a military headquarters—none of it could compare to that person's brilliant smile.

Yet everything—

Could never be returned.