When the Treasure Monkey emerged from the secret chamber, Spring Temple Hall had already turned into ruins, even the clay sculpture of the Dragon Girl under the Guanyin had been shattered to pieces on the ground.

A hoarse voice exclaimed in surprise, "Where did Lord Bai Long find that woman, she's so fierce?"

The Treasure Monkey did not reply.

He quickly crossed the wreckage of the main hall, kicked open a half-leaning door panel, and jumped into the courtyard. The large copper incense burner in the courtyard had long been smashed, its fragments embedded in the snow, revealing ring after ring of copper patterns.

No one was there.

Mrs. Lu and Qi Zhong were both absent.

The snow was still falling, but there was an area in the courtyard without snow, as if swept clean by something.

The green brick had imprints of varying depths and a long drag mark, as if someone had been thrown and slid a great distance on the ground.

The Treasure Monkey listened carefully.

A muffled sound came from afar, muffled by several streets, hard to discern through the heavy snow.

A sharp voice urged, "Go quickly and see, don't let that kid Qi Zhong escape."

The Treasure Monkey leaped onto the remaining half of the courtyard wall and glanced toward the source of the voice. But he saw nothing, only the overwhelming snowfall, and the gray sky.

He jumped down from the wall and ran toward the street over a ground of broken bricks.

The Treasure Monkey passed through layers of snow curtains, and when he reached the street, he saw Qi Zhong and Mrs. Lu stirring up a blizzard, entangled in a fight. The snow and wind around them, brought up by their fists and feet, spun into a tornado.

Snowflakes were swept into the air, fell again, and were swept up once more, repeatedly.

The Treasure Monkey took only one step forward and felt the wind cut painfully across his face.

The hoarse voice said, "Let them fight first, we'll observe."

The Treasure Monkey retreated a step, watching the tornado grow bigger, as the accumulated snow on both sides of the long street was pushed backward, exposing the bluish-gray stone pavement.

At the edge of the vortex, the snow piled like two low walls, cutting off the whole street.

Pedestrians at both ends of the street took refuge in doorways, necks retracted, looking this way. A peddler carrying goods abandoned his load by the roadside, lying on the ground, not daring to move.

The Treasure Monkey squinted his eyes to look inside.

In the snowstorm, the golden swastika on Qi Zhong's forehead gleamed like a lamp.

His hands crossed in front of him, every palm strike generating a sound like thunder, with the wind of his palms carrying snow toward Mrs. Lu with overwhelming force.

The black veil of Mrs. Lu's brimmed hat was lifted by the wind, revealing the lower half of her face, the scar crossing the bridge of her nose.

Her palm techniques were not as bold and open as Qi Zhong's, but were instead hidden with needles in softness, flowers under leaves, using stepping as the mother, twisting as the root, with the waist as the axis, and circles as the method, uniting inside and outside, evading the direct to strike diagonally.

Every strike from Mrs. Lu's palm caused ripples to resonate in the air.

The Treasure Monkey saw the eight divinations—Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, Dui—rotating around the edge of her palm, and the snow on the long street being swept away, vaguely drawing a large yin-yang fish pattern between the two.

The yin-yang fish alternated comings and goings with their steps, and Qi Zhong suddenly closed in, aiming a palm at Mrs. Lu's face.

Mrs. Lu sidestepped, her right hand lifted from below toward Qi Zhong's ribcage. The movement of that palm was too fast to discern, only hearing a buzzing sound as a Li divination exploded in the air.

Li is fire, fire mountain travel, heaven fire peers with man.

After one palm strike, a phantom shadow flew back from Qi Zhong's back, the shadow's face deathly pale, and the swallowed thief soul was blown into the snow curtain, dispersing.

Qi Zhong grunted, staggered back three steps, leaving two furrows on the bluish-gray stone with his feet.

But he didn't fall.

Qi Zhong steadied himself, the swastika on his forehead glowing brighter, he pressed his palms together and struck the ground.

Boom.

The accumulated snow on the ground, of unknown thickness, was shattered upward by that palm, flying in all directions. In an instant, the snow fog blocked the sky, obscuring everything from view.

The Treasure Monkey heard the sound of bricks and stones shattering within the snow fog, the sound of green bricks flying and striking the wall, and the muffled groan of Mrs. Lu.

The next moment, a hand split open the snow fog.

Mrs. Lu emerged from the whiteness, her brimmed hat gone, her hair disheveled. Before the snow fog completely dispersed, she tore a strip of cloth from her garment and raised it to cover her face.

Qi Zhong stood on the opposite side of the street, his chest heaving, a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth.

Suddenly, the wind and snow on the street stopped.

It didn't stop; it was dispersed by the two.

The Treasure Monkey narrowed his eyes, seeing Qi Zhong and Mrs. Lu simultaneously striking out, their palms meeting together.

The entire street seemed to shake, and cracks spread from beneath their feet, crawling like a spider web across the whole street surface. The shuttered doors on both sides rattled, some directly burst open, revealing dark interiors.

But just at that moment, Qi Zhong suddenly retracted his palm, using the counterforce to leap back several meters before landing on the roof of a shop, turning to escape northward over the ridge.

The sharp voice sounded from the Treasure Monkey's throat, "Chase quickly, if he escapes, Lord Bai Long won't want to be friends with us anymore, what then?"

But the Treasure Monkey did not move.

Just as Qi Zhong leaped onto the roof ridge, a sudden light flared up from the unseen side opposite, and a rain of meteors shot from afar, twelve arrows in two breaths, much faster than the Divine Archers of the Jing Dynasty's cavalry.

Caught off guard, Qi Zhong was pierced by an arrow through the shoulder socket, another through the Dantian, and the meteors, passing through his body, carried two sprays of snow fog, continuing to fly further into the distance.

In an instant, twelve meteor arrow showers streaked through the snow curtain above the long street, dazzling to the extreme.

Qi Zhong staggered on the rooftop before eventually falling backward, heavily crashing onto the tiles, rolling twice and landing in the snow on the long street.

Supporting himself, Qi Zhong slowly got up and looked up at the roof.

At some unknown time, the Heavenly Horse had already skimmed overhead, standing at the edge of the eaves, drawing a bow and arrow, coldly gazing down at him.

In the Treasure Monkey's throat, a woman's voice clicked in wonder: "Three Seeking Dao Realm warriors surrounding and slaughtering one, and he almost got away."

Qi Zhong gasped, looking at Mrs. Lu and Treasure Monkey, then lowered his head to see the bloody hole at his Dantian.

Dragging his heavy steps, wading through the snow, he slowly walked towards Fuyou Street: "Only Third Miss is left for me; I must go back, yes, I must go back..."

Treasure Monkey was about to step forward to take Qi Zhong's life but suddenly felt his hair stand on end and retreated.

He looked up, only to see Heavenly Horse at some unknown time pointing his bow towards himself.

Treasure Monkey shouted angrily, "Are you mad, pointing at me for what?"

Heavenly Horse did not answer but looked back at Qi Zhong on the street, shooting arrow after arrow, like the Armor-Piercing Awl in Qi Zhong's hand that night when the West Wind gang hijacked the prison cart.

Just as Qi Zhong used the Armor-Piercing Awl to kill Jin Zhu's subordinates, the spies, Heavenly Horse repeated the act until Qi Zhong was thoroughly nailed to the long street.

Treasure Monkey turned his head to look at where Mrs. Lu had been, but there was nothing but continuous goose feather snow, no trace of Mrs. Lu's figure.

He came and squatted beside Qi Zhong.

Qi Zhong lay face down in the snow, his open eyes staring deathly at the direction of Fuyou Street.

Treasure Monkey spoke, a little girl's innocent voice said: "Uncle, don't look anymore, have a sleep, you're both too tired."

The small form of Treasure Monkey extended his hand over Qi Zhong's eyes, gently closing them.

...

...

Fuyou Street, in front of the Qi family's gate.

Among the crowd, the townsfolk whispered, their gazes alternately shifting between Chen Ji and Zhang Xia.

Chen Ji stood on the stone steps, looking into the distance, until Xiao Man, holding Wu Yun, ran from the snowy curtain, stood outside the sea of people, and nodded frantically at him, only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Finally resolved.

Just as Chen Ji turned to leave, from the threshold of the Qi family came Qi Zhaoning's heart-wrenching cries: "Li Changge!"

These three words chased out from the threshold, like a nail, driven into the heavy snow.

Chen Ji paused on the stone steps, continuing to walk down the steps.

Only to hear Qi Zhaoning's crying shout: "What on earth did I do wrong, why do you never deign to look at me?"

Qi Zhaoning rushed out from the threshold.

The hem of a white fox fur large cloak tripped her up, she stumbled a step, nearly falling. She grasped the red lacquer gate of the Qi family, standing at the topmost step, looking at the back of Chen Ji descending the steps.

Her voice trembled: "I heard at Xiangshan Villa that you were chased by the Five Mad Soldiers, day and night praying for you in the Buddhist hall. Later, hearing you met danger at Chongli Pass, I knelt, begging grandpa to dispatch someone to save you. For you, I learned embroidery, even learned horse riding and archery, yet how can you not look at me!"

Chen Ji turned back in the snow, softly said: "I'm sorry."

Qi Zhaoning sniffled, wiped her face with the back of her hand, smearing away tears and snow together.

She looked at Zhang Xia: "Zhang Xia, you too, will someday, whenever others mention him, remember that Commandery Princess Bai Li. And then you'll think of how the person in his heart was never you, but someone else!"

Zhang Xia sat atop Zaozao, looking at Qi Zhaoning's distressed appearance, sighed lightly in her heart, replied nothing.

Qi Zhaoning slowly straightened up, gazing at Zhang Xia: "Will you marry into this Eunuch Party, dragging the Zhang Family and the Xu Family to ruin alongside this unfaithful, unfilial, unkind, unrighteous man?"

Zhang Xia's eyes slowly turned sharp, yet did not deign to argue: "Chen Ji, go home."

Chen Ji approached Zaozao, took the reins, about to lead Zaozao carrying Zhang Xia through the crowd.

Only to hear Zhang Xia angrily ask: "What are you doing?"

Chen Ji paused.

What doing?

Zhang Xia said sternly: "Mount up!"

Chen Ji looked up at the girl in red atop the steed, radiant like a sun, stunned for a long time, then smiled: "Alright."

He mounted up behind Zhang Xia, took the reins, embraced Zhang Xia, spurred the horse to head out of Fuyou Street.

Xiao Man stood at the street entrance, tightly holding Wu Yun, eyes filled with jubilation.

The crowd parted like waves before the two and the horse, everyone watched silently as Zaozao plodded through the snow, the two no longer saw anyone else, the swarm of people turned transparent.

Yet at the end where the crowd had parted, emerged a woman dressed in a brown standing collar wide lapel, standing coldly in the center of the long street, staring at them.

Chen Ji suddenly nervously gripped the reins, Zaozao halting gradually five yards before the woman.

Zhang Xia opened her mouth yet spoke no words for a long moment, hesitated much before timidly calling: "Mother..."

Mrs. Zhang gazed at Chen Ji for a moment, then her gaze returned to Zhang Xia's face: "Foolishness!"