On the northern slopes of the vast and desolate Xiao Xing'an Range, the Heilongjiang River cuts through the undulating mountains and rushes eastward. It was the season of Grain in Ear, a time when the south should have been blooming with flowers and birds contending for the spring, but in this far eastern and northernmost region, the footsteps of winter had only just receded. Although the river had thawed, large patches of residual ice still occasionally drifted past Gu Cheng's eyes. Here, a tributary flowed into the river, with layers of floating ice seizing the river and piling up at the estuary. The river water could not flow freely, and the current became unusually violent. Finally, with a loud "boom..." the towering ice mountain collapsed in an instant, vanishing into the dark river like snow and foam.
Gu Cheng was startled by the loud noise, composed himself, and couldn't help but chuckle inwardly. After traveling thousands of miles, it seemed that not only his spirit but also his courage had been worn away. He stood in a birch forest on the riverbank, where a gust of cold wind swept through, causing the trees to rustle and a few snowflakes to sting his face, hinting at another snowfall.
Shaking his head, Gu Cheng was about to step away when he suddenly tensed up. Without lifting his head, his intuitive perception was triggered, and he "saw" a large droplet of water swaying on a bare branch before falling. A sudden chill pierced his skull, and his raised right foot froze mid-air, while the half-melted snow beneath his left foot crunched loudly.
Gu Cheng flipped open his fur coat and drew his sword, swirling it above his head. Through the sword's shadow, he saw a muddy yellow shadow falling straight down, with a glint of light leaking from it. A strong force hit Gu Cheng's hand, causing him to retreat a few steps, his feet slipping on the melting snow. The yellow shadow, missing its target, used Gu Cheng's momentum to spring back into the forest. It was like a cold gull skimming the water, swiftly passing by.
The forest was silent. Gu Cheng closed his eyes, and the bare jungle suddenly became profound. He could only sense the hidden killing intent, but even with his intuitive perception at full strength, he couldn't discern the source of the threat.
Suddenly, the wind rose again, carrying a speck of ice. Gu Cheng immediately retreated, but after only three or four steps, he abruptly twisted in mid-air, a movement so bizarre it was as if a tree branch had been snapped. The sword that struck was unable to stop and pierced into the trunk. Before Gu Cheng could catch his breath, a chill approached the back of his neck, as if it had been waiting there all along. Gu Cheng turned and parried with three swift sword strikes. Before he could see the clothes of the person in front of him, that person had already fled to the ground.
This movement had set off a chain reaction, with yellow shadows appearing everywhere in the forest, swiftly appearing and disappearing among the white branches. They moved as fast as swallows in the rain and hid as inconspicuously as trees in the forest. Gu Cheng paced through the forest, slipping on the snow, and a sword came close to the ground, aiming for his ankle. Gu Cheng jumped to step on the sword, but it spun, splashing up a mass of snow and mud, and the silent sword emerged from the dirty snow. Gu Cheng barely parried two swords when another sword was already pressing against his chest, the sword energy penetrating several layers of fur, making his heart tingle.
Gu Cheng's body shrank half a foot, and with a strong upward block of his sword, the blade scraped against the incoming sword with a grating "creak," cutting off several fingers mixed with blood. The person with the severed fingers did not retreat but kicked Gu Cheng's jaw. Gu Cheng had nowhere to hide and endured the kick, his mouth filled with the taste of blood, his body flying backward, his head spinning, but he still remembered the general direction and leaned against a large tree.
As soon as his back touched the tree trunk, a sword pierced through the tree, pressing against his back. He had walked in front of and behind this tree several times, and there was definitely no one hiding on it. This sudden change startled him, and he slashed his sword backward with all his strength, not daring to hold back at all.
The tree broke under the sword, and the two swords collided in the trunk. "Ding ding ding ding ding..." Amidst a series of crisp sounds, the lower part of the tree trunk turned into a cloud of sawdust. The large tree swayed in the air for a few moments before finally falling with a "crash," and the branches fell, forcing both of them to sheathe their swords and jump away.
"Please stop!" Gu Cheng shouted, slightly panting, feeling a cool draft on his back, probably because his fur coat had been cut and the cold wind was blowing through the gap. The person who had just dueled with him behind the tree was not in a good condition either, with the fur hat's ear protector and neck guard completely cut off, revealing most of his face. He was a man in his twenties, with two narrow eyes that sparkled with spirit at the slightest movement, a high nose bridge, and thin lips pressed tightly, clearly suppressing his anger.
The yellow-clothed swordsman, at first glance, seemed no different from the locals, all wearing fur hats that covered their heads and faces, and large fur coats with front and back slits. But the sword techniques just now had already made Gu Cheng understand this person's identity. He lowered his sword to the ground, showing no hostility, and shouted, "May I ask if you are the leader of the Hawk Seven Kills, Shen Qingyao?" The yellow-clothed man shouted, "So you really came for us!" As soon as he finished speaking, his sword trembled, and with this tremble, it was already close to Gu Cheng's throat. Their previous stealthy attacks were not surprising, but now, facing each other, they could still act so swiftly and unpredictably.
Gu Cheng leaped backward, with the sword on his back not striking, and shouted, "I am Gu Cheng, the Whistling Arrow Swordsman..."
"So what?" Shen Qingyao's expression was slightly surprised, but his movements were in no way delayed. Gu Cheng leaped through the forest, with the sword in front of him like a white snake, stretching and bending at any time, ready to strike.
With a large tree blocking the way behind him, Gu Cheng had no time to dodge as the sword was already in front of his eyes, with droplets of water splashing from the sword tip onto his nose tip. He could no longer retreat and swung his sword to block. His left hand, however, reached into his bosom and pulled out an object, shouting, "Look at this!"
Shen Qingyao's long sword was blocked by Gu Cheng, and the object was brought close to his eyes. It was a pure silver hairpin, exquisitely polished, with a design of magpies playing on a spring branch on the pin head, and a bead-sized red bead rolling in the magpie's eye, now washed bright by the raindrops hitting it. The bead was so lively that even the silver magpie seemed about to come to life.
"This is Fourth Sister's Blood Eye Magpie Hairpin. Where did you get it? Where is Fourth Sister?" Shen Qingyao was both surprised and delighted, snatching the hairpin and pressing down on Gu Cheng's sword without reducing the pressure at all.
"A few months ago, at the Battle of Swallow Cliff, she was injured and separated from you. She is now recovering in my home." Gu Cheng let him take the magpie hairpin, and when he mentioned "in my home," he couldn't help but show a gentle smile.
"Oh?" Shen Qingyao sheathed his long sword, looked at the hairpin and then at Gu Cheng, and after a while, he said, "You can come out now!"
As soon as he spoke, five yellow figures emerged from the tree branches, trunks, and roots, not approaching but spreading out about ten feet apart, subtly blocking all the directions Gu Cheng could escape.
Shen Qingyao said sternly, "Did Fourth Sister send you to find us? How did she know our whereabouts?" He was obviously very puzzled when he said this.
Gu Cheng nodded and then shook his head: "She doesn't know you're here. A few months ago, a divine doctor said that to cure Xiao Xi's injury, he needed old ginseng from the northeast as a guide. I searched everywhere in the south but couldn't find any suitable ones, so I decided to come north to buy it myself. Xiao Xi misses the brothers and sisters of the Jingwei Alliance and gave me this token to inquire about the news. I didn't expect to encounter you a few days ago, and since I was suspicious, I followed you, and it turned out to be you indeed."
Shen Qingyao nodded: "So that's how it is!" His expression had eased a lot, but he said, "We have business here; you should not follow us anymore. Please give my regards to Fourth Sister, and once we're done here, we will go find her." He sheathed his sword, nodded slightly, and the other five hawks marched away, their yellow robes disappearing among the trees like turbid fog dissipating deep in the jungle.
Gu Cheng shouted loudly, "That magpie hairpin..."
From the depths of the forest came a whistling sound, and Gu Cheng dodged to the side. A flash of silver light appeared and vanished before his eyes. When he looked again, the silver hairpin was embedded in the tree trunk. The hairpin was three inches deep in the wood, and the speck of crimson in the magpie's eye rippled, adding a touch of lonely brightness to the dim and cold forest.