A City Swept by Wind and Snow GL - Chapter 46

◎As soon as you recall it, I know.◎

There was no light.

There was no weight.

There was no time.

There was only a voice, slow and powerful, flat and cold, chanting repeatedly: “Child, tell me—your name!…”

West Wind didn’t know how long this state had lasted. Days? Months? —Or did this long torment only last an instant? It was a strange and terrifying state, as if being thrown into an extremely cold abyss of nothingness.

Yet the question was incredibly familiar.

Dragon’s Kiss! The parasitic soul, suppressed in the inverse position for many years, finally occupied the primary position once again! The difference was that its might was several times stronger than before.

“My name… must never be forgotten, and must never be recalled.” This was what West Wind’s elders had instructed her since she was old enough to understand.

As countless times before, West Wind restrained her thoughts, only wishing to be as ignorant and insensible as a rock. However, the overbearing force tore at West Wind’s mind, preventing her from entering a state of no-self.

“Never recall, never recall…” She thought this incessantly.

“As soon as you recall it, I know.” Dragon’s Kiss said with a sense of pity.

“Alright, let’s talk about something else.” As if weary of the fruitless stalemate, Dragon’s Kiss changed the subject.

“West Wind, are you the daughter of Susha Xingjian?”

No response.

“Why did you become a substitute for the clan leader’s legitimate daughter? When you were in deep peril, Susha Xingjian and his wife only cared about protecting their biological daughter on Sheng Lang Peak. Are you a lowly illegitimate daughter?”

“Illegitimate daughter?” West Wind was furious but smiled, “Do you think I’ll fall for this kind of nonsense? What kind of person is the clan leader…” She stopped herself as soon as the thought began. She really didn’t need to communicate further with Dragon’s Kiss. Yet, Dragon’s Kiss still caught a clue.

“Heh, do you want to say he is a noble and upright person? The Martial Alliance Leader, revered like a saint, yet he has been destroying a person’s life since infancy. He meticulously placed you in danger, tirelessly subjected you to devilish training, gently taking away your childhood, youth, and even your entire life, little by little. On which day did he pour out all these secrets to you? At what age are your earliest memories? Do you remember your real parents? How did they call you? Your name, your real name!”

“Susha Qianxun…” West Wind thought of that gentle voice, but she restrained herself from recalling that face, fearing that the image in her mind might also be seen by Dragon’s Kiss.

“Susha Qianxun? I know you’ve been called this fake name for many years, and the most you think about for all these years are these four characters, but not a single one belongs to you. However, you must have the Susha clan’s bloodline, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to…”

“Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to reside in my body.” West Wind thought.

Dragon’s Kiss was silent.

“You don’t need to avoid it. Star Sea has revealed this matter. Even a person with high aptitude like He Qiya cannot accommodate a soul like you. You can only parasitize within our clan’s bodies, isn’t that right?”

Dragon’s Kiss didn’t conceal it: “That’s right. For me, only the Susha clan’s body is strong enough and can best utilize my spiritual power. However, even within the same clan, there are differences in quality. Your aptitude is rare in the Susha clan for a hundred years, and even among the pure-bl00d… clan, you are excellent.”

“Pure-bl00d what clan?” West Wind pressed, though she knew what Dragon’s Kiss had said, she couldn’t “hear” it clearly.

“You cannot read my thoughts. The words I don’t want you to know, you cannot read.” Dragon’s Kiss chuckled proudly.

“You are different from before.” West Wind thought. This time, the oppressive force brought by Dragon’s Kiss’s return to the primary position was unprecedented. If West Wind showed even a slight tendency to resist, she would receive a counterattack several times stronger. But precisely because of this, West Wind dared not relax in the slightest, fearing that any retreat would lead to another collapse. She never wanted to hand over this body to Dragon’s Kiss again. Therefore, Dragon’s Kiss was not yet able to truly control her body at this moment.

“The ‘me’ you knew before only had thirty percent of my spiritual power. During these years of being suppressed by you, I simply recuperated. Coupled with some other reasons, I have now recovered to seventy or eighty percent.”

“So how strong must it be now? Before, the body it commanded was already a rare opponent.” West Wind thought.

Dragon’s Kiss heard her and comforted her: “Don’t worry, I won’t let you suffer too much.”

West Wind thought to it: “Why did you only have thirty percent spiritual power then?”

Dragon’s Kiss said: “Didn’t Star Sea mention the suppression barrier? Although the suppression barrier couldn’t seal all my abilities, it limited the full expression of all my abilities. And now, we are leaving that barrier.”

“Could it have heard Star Sea’s words? It was clearly in the inverse position then.” A thought flashed through West Wind’s mind.

Dragon’s Kiss said: “You inadvertently recalled your conversation. I sensed it.”

“Even the thoughts I myself hadn’t noticed were sensed by it.”

“Please stop talking to yourself as if no one else is around, alright? There is an audience here. Don’t forget, your thoughts are transparent to me.”

West Wind then thought to it: “Are there other reasons?”

“Of course. I consumed a lot of spiritual power to repair your almost dead body. This was an act against nature. For anyone else, even if they exhausted themselves to the point of soul scattering, it couldn’t be done.”

“Heh, should I thank you for that?”

“No need to thank me. Times have changed. The pure-bl00d… clan is already rare. If you die, I won’t know where my soul will go. I don’t want to wait in the Underworld Sea again.” It said this so lightly, filling West Wind with an inexplicable sadness.

West Wind sighed: “Before me, whose body did you parasitize?”

“The child prodigy Susha Chaolu. He should be your ancestor.” Dragon’s Kiss said matter-of-factly.

West Wind suddenly understood, but felt even greater grief. The name Susha Chaolu was familiar to her. He was also a rare genius with extraordinary talent, famous throughout the four seas at the age of nine, and was given a marshal’s seal at eleven. Such a remarkable person, however, became mediocre, useless, and irrational in adulthood. Aside from occasionally being brought up as a joke for amusement, no one paid him any attention anymore. Now she knew: the adult Susha Chaolu was no longer himself.

Dragon’s Kiss sensed West Wind’s thoughts and actually spoke in an innocent tone: “I don’t like being in the public eye. His personality was too flamboyant, and he was too meddlesome, and I…”

“Dragon’s Kiss! What right do you have to steal someone else’s life? Do you know that what you took was not just Susha Chaolu’s life, but his everything?!” West Wind was utterly enraged. Since childhood, she had been trained to have an indifferent and composed personality. Great joy and great anger were rare for her. But now, she felt endless sorrow and anger surge up in her heart, unable to restrain her emotions any longer. For the past few years, she had also been so powerless, the chariot of her life being forcefully seized, speeding towards the direction she least wanted to go. It turned out that long ago, that ancestor named Susha Chaolu had already endured all this pain.

From the best years of his life, Susha Chaolu was never able to control his own destiny again. It was hard to imagine what kind of emotions he carried watching his reputation be tarnished and his family and friends be disappointed, or with what feelings he faced the woman he loved, yet could no longer gently touch her cheek, or sincerely tell her “I’m sorry” and “farewell.”

West Wind was not just angry; there was a deep fear. The farthest distance in the world is not life and death separation, but being close at hand, yet separated by an boundless barrier, unable to communicate for eternity.

Suddenly, West Wind realized: she herself had been suppressed by Dragon’s Kiss again! Wasn’t she currently submerged in that familiar nightmare? Her consciousness was still there, but she couldn’t control her body. She was about to become the second Susha Chaolu!

Thousands of thoughts surged up like a storm. She no longer cared that these transparent thoughts would be perfectly revealed to Dragon’s Kiss.

But suddenly, West Wind’s anger and fear were like a scream directed at a cliff, reflecting back an endless layered echo. Only, this echo was stronger each time, more frantic each time.

That anger came from the parasitic soul, like a demon hysterically tearing itself apart. Even West Wind’s soul was about to be drawn into that frantic vortex, to be torn to shreds. That parasitic soul was weeping, roaring, but West Wind couldn’t read its thoughts, which were like chaotic ravings.

“Why! Why is Dragon’s Kiss so angry? A parasitic soul that survives by plundering the happiness of others, that has sown countless grievances and regrets, what right does it have to be angry at me?” It was this unbearable, profound fear that transformed into extreme fearlessness. West Wind met that powerful torrent with even more overbearing spiritual power—even if the body were to be destroyed and the soul turned to ashes, she would not allow the parasitic soul to do as it pleased with her life.

In the same vessel, two strong killing intents clashed sharply, stirring up an invisible but massive shockwave, which not only injured the body’s internal organs but also destroyed the objects outside.

“Not good, the Soul Summoning Formation is about to break!” In the dark secret chamber of Water Moon Palace, Cang Langhong suddenly opened her eyes, radiating two streaks of bl00d-red light.

There were a few other people not far from her, all letting out heavy gasps, and some even had bl00d seeping from the corners of their mouths. They did not possess Cang Langhong’s ability, but were carrying the heavy responsibility of guarding the formation here due to their high spiritual power.

Star Sea was among them. The damage from the impact just now was not serious for him, but he was the most nervous, and quickly asked: “What happened?”

Cang Langhong said: “Without West Wind’s real name, my Soul Summoning Formation cannot pinpoint her life coordinates, and I can’t catch her true soul. And this formation was not meant to be held for long. Long duration leads to decay. The impact just now actually damaged the Soul Summoning Formation.”

During that time, Cang Langhong had tried names like “West Wind,” “Susha Qianxun,” “Susha West Wind,” “Susha Feng,” etc., but none belonged to that tenacious soul.

A field of darkness.

Star Sea probed with his sword energy and sensed that West Wind was lying on the ground, motionless. However, he didn’t see that the Soul Summoning Formation beneath West Wind—the complex pattern drawn in cinnabar—had become distorted and blurred.

“Is there any way to remedy it?” Star Sea asked.

Cang Langhong struggled to regulate her breathing for a while, cut her palm with a dagger, and sprinkled her bl00d onto the Soul Summoning Formation. The hot bl00d carrying spiritual power evaporated completely the moment it touched West Wind’s body, and the person lying on her back with closed eyes was as peaceful and tranquil as if she were deeply asleep.

Cang Langhong took a breath and said, “It can still hold for a while.” Then she murmured exhaustedly, “The Soul Summoning Formation has an extremely strong deterrent effect on the human mind, but West Wind’s willpower is beyond imagination. Even Dragon’s Kiss failed to capture her memory of her real name all these years. This arrangement today may also be in vain.”

Star Sea sighed very lightly, as if there was no refuting Cang Langhong’s worry. He only said, “It is already a great gain to have enabled Dragon’s Kiss to return to the primary position using this formation. We have now reached the sea area where the barrier is thinnest, and we will be completely free of the suppression barrier soon. At that time, our abilities can be fully restored, and the power of this formation will also be stronger.”

One person said: “Not just us. Dragon’s Kiss could only retain its parasitic ability within the barrier. Outside the barrier, it will regain its soul-devouring ability. If West Wind’s soul still can’t be summoned by then, why not ask Dragon’s Kiss to devour her?”

No sooner had the words fallen than another surge of powerful force came in waves. The speaker, distracted, bore the direct impact and immediately spat out a mouthful of bl00d.

Star Sea shot an energy pellet across the air, hitting the person’s life-saving pressure point, and sighed leisurely, “The encounter between Dragon’s Kiss and West Wind is a catastrophe for both of them. Dragon’s Kiss parasitized West Wind, and West Wind imprisoned Dragon’s Kiss. Unless this body dies, Dragon’s Kiss will absolutely not be able to break free from this cage.”

Another person said: “If we had known this day would come, Dragon’s Kiss should have run outside the barrier years ago and devoured this child.”

Star Sea said: “Many years ago, Dragon’s Kiss did come to Tianyuan Peak and said he wanted to go out to sea. I asked him why. He said that West Wind’s spiritual power was too overbearing, and for the first time, he was worried that he would be suppressed in the inverse position. He wanted to go outside the barrier and devour West Wind. That way, he could gain all the spiritual power of the host soul and would also inherit all her memories.”

That person asked: “Did he go?”

“No. I stopped him.”

“Why?”

“The mere fourteen-year-old West Wind’s memory was already full of scars, and her willpower was incredibly strong. I was worried that Dragon’s Kiss couldn’t bear such heavy memories and emotions. Ever since he devoured the previous host, Susha Chaolu, I noticed his change. If he were to devour West Wind, I fear that Dragon’s Kiss would no longer be Dragon’s Kiss…”

When Star Sea said this, everyone was astonished, and only then did they understand the intention behind Star Sea’s painstaking setting up of the Soul Summoning Formation. With two souls, West Wind and Dragon’s Kiss, fighting, both were bound to be severely damaged. To eliminate the host’s soul without killing the container, the only way was to use the Cang Lang clan’s soul-summoning ability to pull West Wind out of the body, but this first required West Wind’s real name.

“Cang Langhong,” Star Sea suddenly said, “As soon as your Soul-Viewing Eye opens, forcibly extract West Wind’s soul.”

“But, if there are no life coordinates…”

“I know that would damage her body, and even if Dragon’s Kiss obtained this body, it would only be a cripple. However, Dragon’s Kiss has been imprisoned by her for too long. Let him be a cripple with a free soul!” When Star Sea said this, he felt immensely heavy. Perhaps, he had long anticipated such an ending for Dragon’s Kiss.

In that peaceful body, as if she were deeply asleep, West Wind’s soul was still confronting that powerful force. She didn’t know that this inexplicably angry killing intent did not come from Dragon’s Kiss itself, but from the residual resentment of Susha Chaolu, who had been devoured by Dragon’s Kiss. That long-extinguished soul had lost its independent consciousness. His spiritual power was absorbed by Dragon’s Kiss, and his memory was inherited by Dragon’s Kiss. His resentment and sorrow were deeply buried in the depths of Dragon’s Kiss’s soul. At this moment, West Wind’s intense sorrow and unwillingness suddenly impacted that long-buried corner, finally awakening this ancient resentment. Even Dragon’s Kiss could not stop the eruption of this energy.