Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

Braving the biting wind, Su Chang'an trudged through the Luoyan Town archway.

The wind, carrying shards of ice, scraped against her cheeks again and again. She lifted her eyelids, her deep blue eyes coldly surveying her surroundings. The street was paved with bluestone slabs, the cracks filled with black ice shards. At the street corner stood a steaming bun shop, the steam rising from the steamer quickly dissipating in the cold wind. In the distance, on the horizon, a dilapidated temple loomed faintly in the snowstorm.

The grain of the wooden planks, the thickness of the snow, every detail was exactly the same as the scene she had glimpsed in the illusion of the river of time.

Without the protection of spiritual energy, this mortal body was being rapidly eroded by the bitter cold. A wave of hunger cramped in his stomach, and acid refluxed. The joints of his limbs began to stiffen, and even the slightest movement felt dry and clumsy.

Su Chang'an gritted her teeth, suppressing her physical instinct to curl up. She wrapped her old red cotton coat tighter around herself, trying to stay close to the shadows of the eaves as she moved forward with difficulty. Her gaze was extremely sharp, scanning every corner of the street and alley. She had to find that ancient celestial fox, and that boy named Chang Geng.

The cold almost froze her blood. She walked to the steamed bun shop, hoping to warm her numb fingers a little with the steam from the steamer.

"Get out of here! Can you afford to pay for the mess you've made of my business? You stinking beggar!" The boss waved his broom, yelling at her to get rid of her, his face full of undisguised disgust.

Su Chang'an didn't speak or make any extra movements, but silently retreated into the wind and snow.

This scene was witnessed by three men sheltering from the snow under a tea stall across the street. They were local thugs, wearing tattered leather coats that reeked of sourness. Their sullen, disgusting gazes lingered on Su Chang'an. They stared at her disheveled yet undeniably angular face, and the red cloth coat she wore that barely offered any protection from the wind.

The three men exchanged lewd glances, left the teahouse, and trudged through the snow to surround each other with ill intent.

They formed a triangular formation, trapping Su Chang'an firmly in a corner of the brick wall.

The leader of the group had a hideous scar on his face. He grinned, revealing yellowed teeth, and spat out repulsive words: "Oh, look at this poor little thing, freezing, isn't he? Why don't you come with me? It's much warmer under the covers!"

As he spoke, he reached out his filthy hand and grabbed Su Chang'an's collar.

Su Chang'an's eyes were icy cold. But his body was too stiff; his frozen muscles couldn't keep up with his brain's reaction speed, and he couldn't completely dodge.

The scarred man shoved her roughly. Su Chang'an lost her balance and fell heavily onto the muddy snow. Black mud splashed onto her red coat, and the chill instantly penetrated the fabric, sticking to her skin.

A few faint gasps came from the townspeople watching across the street. In their eyes, this woman from out of town was definitely not going to escape the clutches of evil today.

But they soon realized something was wrong.

Su Chang'an, who had fallen into the mud, did not let out a single scream of terror, nor did she beg for mercy or cower in any way. She slowly raised her head, her eyes showing not a trace of the weakness that an ordinary woman should have.

It was a chilling indifference, exuding a condescending, emotionless cruelty, as if scrutinizing inanimate objects.

Scarface clearly didn't understand that look and thought she was terrified.

"Still pretending to be high and mighty here? You filthy bitch!" He grinned maliciously, bending down to grab Su Chang'an's hair.

Su Chang'an didn't use a single trace of spiritual power. She was indeed a mortal now, but she was also a Great Sage who had fought her way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Those instincts for killing were already etched into her bones and muscles.

Using the position of falling to the ground, she suddenly contracted her abdominal muscles and exerted force. Her legs clamped tightly around the scarred man's ankles with fierce strength, precisely tightening and dragging him backward.

Scarface's center of gravity collapsed instantly, and his massive body fell forward uncontrollably.

Just as he was about to fall, Su Chang'an swiftly reached out with both hands, precisely grabbing the scarred man's outstretched wrist. Without any hesitation, he twisted it sharply down along the reverse joint direction.

Crack. A crisp sound of bones breaking rang out, completely drowning out the howling wind and snow.

Then came an extremely piercing scream. Scarface's massive body crashed into the mud, clutching his severed arm, which was twisted at a bizarre angle, and rolled wildly in the snow, howling in agony.

The other two thugs stood frozen in place. The townspeople watching were terrified and gasped sharply.

Everyone stared in shock at this ragged, seemingly weak woman who showed no sign of spiritual energy. She had crippled a strong man in the blink of an eye, relying solely on physical skill and ruthless methods.

That swift and ruthless brutality utterly terrified the remaining two thugs. They retreated step by step, making meaningless gurgling sounds in their throats, and neither dared to take another step forward.

Su Chang'an stood up from the mud without expression. He casually brushed off the remaining snow from his clothes, not even glancing at the scarred man rolling on the ground.

But only she knew that the movements she had just performed had completely exhausted the last of her mortal body's strength.

A wave of intense dizziness swept over me, and my vision blurred briefly. My body temperature was dropping at an alarming rate, and my fingertips had completely lost sensation.

"How could this lousy body be so weak?!" she thought to herself in frustration.

She was well aware of her situation. If she continued to wander aimlessly through this huge town, she would definitely not survive the bitter cold of the night and would freeze to death on a street corner.

The coordinates must be found.

Su Chang'an dragged his heavy, stiff steps and turned into a secluded dead-end alley. Leaning against the cold brick wall, he gasped for breath, each breath piercing his lungs with pain.

A resolute glint flashed in her eyes. She gritted her teeth, raised her right hand, and brought her index and middle fingers together.

This was an extremely risky decision. But there was no other choice.

He pressed his two fingers together hard against a vital acupoint on his chest. That was the point he had previously used to seal his meridians.

They forced open a tiny gap.

Just a wisp. A wisp of the Celestial Fox's essence, so faint it was almost negligible, was released through the crack.

Just a moment later.

A vast yet deliberately suppressed aura of shared origin, mixed with a faint but persistent fluctuation of human spiritual power, crossed the snowstorm from the direction of the dilapidated temple on the north side of the town, and was precisely reflected in the sea of ​​consciousness.

Su Chang'an's heart jolted.

found it.

The moment that wisp of the Heavenly Fox's essence was released, the heavens reacted immediately.

The gloomy snow clouds sensed this heretical aura that shouldn't exist. From the depths of the thick clouds, a muffled rumble of thunder could be faintly heard, and the black vortex showed signs of churning and gathering again, with a suffocating pressure of annihilation rapidly taking shape.

With lightning speed, Su Chang'an brought his two fingers together and brought them down again.

He pressed hard on that vital point, completely sealing off the newly opened gap and forcefully cutting off all the leakage of vital energy.

The snow clouds in the sky lost their target, their churning gradually subsided, the thunder faded, and the snow returned to falling heavily.

Su Chang'an leaned against the wall and exhaled a long breath of white air carrying a strong smell of blood.

He stretched out his hands, which were purple from the cold, and wrapped them tightly around his body.

He raised his head, his deep blue eyes piercing through the swirling snowflakes, fixed intently on the direction of the dilapidated temple on the north side of the town.

Treading through the thick snow, their steps faltered, yet with an unstoppable determination, they walked toward that place.