"Roxie, why don't I go with you? I'm scared..."
May Shaw looked at me in terror, afraid I'd abandon her. I nodded and sighed—there was no other way now.
"May, be careful. If anything goes wrong, hide first—no matter what."
May Shaw agreed. It was already night. Following Serena Chen's instructions, I stood on the ice, and in the faint light, I could see the river flowing beneath—a strange sight. During the day, the ice is opaque, but at night it turns crystal clear, showing everything below.
At that moment, May Shaw and I felt as if we were walking on glass. Moonlight hit the ice, making it glow faintly—May had told me about this. I watched the river flow beneath us; slow, but visible.
I also noticed streams of Vitality and Death Energy swirling together below, sometimes separating in places. I picked a stream mixed with Vitality and started walking along it.
May once wandered here at night out of boredom, discovering that only at night could she see the river flowing beneath the ice—so clear and pure.
We'd followed the Vitality stream for nearly half an hour. During the day, it's impossible to reach other towns from the ice—only at night can we cross.
I asked May if she'd ever reached another town. She shook her head—never. They'd tried at night, but no matter how far they walked, they could only move between two towns, never any farther.
Apparently, they can't see the flow of Vitality and Death Energy beneath the ice. I stared at the riverbank ahead—we were about to reach land, but the Vitality stream still flowed beneath my feet.
"Roxie, where are you going? There's no path here."
I smiled and shook my head.
"May, I see things you can't. Just follow me."
I stepped onto the riverbank, just as I thought—by following the stream mixed with Vitality, we could reach other places. In an instant, we were back on the ice, its surface still intricate beneath my feet. I took out paper and pen to record what I saw. Though there were no clear directions, I could gauge the quality of the Vitality and Death Energy swirling below. I marked our location and used numbers to rate how much Vitality was mixed in.
Not far ahead, we saw a small town lit by a faint glow. May, delighted, tried to run toward it, but I held her back.
"Don't rush. We'll walk over slowly."
Ten minutes later, we reached the edge of the town. Above us ran a dusty, uneven dirt road. Ahead was a cluster of shabby houses by the river—the white walls peeling, grass poking through the earth. The river was narrow, and gardens lined its banks. We crossed a few gardens and came to the road.
We found ourselves before a rundown house with its door half open, a faint light inside. We pushed the door and entered a small courtyard: a well, four tiled houses—kitchen on the left, a larger house straight ahead, two similar-sized houses on the right.
Inside, a square table sat at the far end of the living room, an oil lamp on top. Above the table was a faded portrait of a Dao Sect deity. Doors led to rooms on both sides. Everything was old—like something from the 1950s or 60s.
The town was small—just thirty-four houses in total. Beyond lay fields, forests, and some pig pens dug into the hillside.
Everything looked so old. We arrived at the spot where we'd stayed before, but at the base there was no mountain wall—just a narrow, overgrown path winding toward the hills, about a meter wide. We were hungry; it was 9 p.m. now. We found some fresh vegetables and potatoes at a house, cooked them over a fire, then prepared to head down that unknown mountain path.
I worried about May—she seemed exhausted, but I couldn't leave her behind. After all, she couldn't see the flow of Vitality and Death Energy under the ice.
After a while, we started along the path. It was rough and hard to see ahead, so we moved slowly, feeling our way along the mountain wall.
After a while, I stopped.
"What's wrong, Roxie?"
"It's the end."
I saw a path veering right, with a recess in the mountain wall. Inside, the weeds were waist-high. Ahead stood the ruins of a Mountain God Shrine, smashed apart by human hands—brutally destroyed, not collapsed by nature. Even the Deity Statue had been shattered.
I looked around—nothing seemed out of the ordinary. May sat exhausted in the weeds, looking ready to sleep.
"Come on, May. We have to go back."
Without realizing it, we'd been walking back for nearly an hour. I stopped, and May noticed something was wrong too.
"Roxie, are we stuck again?"
(Irrelevant system message for reading navigation. Skip translation.)
I smiled and shook my head.
"It's fine. I'm here."
Honestly, I wasn't sure either. Watching the river below, I finally picked up May, spread my wings, and flew to the ice. We walked along the Vitality stream I'd found before, and sure enough, in less than ten minutes we were back at the town. But now, the path we'd taken was gone, and the mountain wall looked just like it did beside our old hotel.
May looked pale as we returned to the dirt road.
"Maybe we should go back, Roxie. I'm not used to the food here."
I comforted her with a quiet 'Mm.'
"I need to find a way out soon. Hang in there, May."
I was starting to get the hang of things—just follow the water beneath the ice to find new places. Then I saw a pale figure in the distance. I ran toward it, telling May to wait here.
"Why are you following me?"
I looked up at Serena Chen on the roof. She giggled.
"Don't waste your energy. There are dozens of towns along the Snowridge River. If you wander aimlessly, you might never get back to the town you started from."
I shook my head and asked,
"Was there always a path by the mountain wall in this era's town?"
I asked, and Serena Chen smiled and shook her head.
"It's looked like that for centuries. There's never been a path there."
I stared in shock. Maybe if I'd stayed longer, something different would have happened.
"Can you tell me about yourself?"
I asked, but Serena Chen had vanished. Behind me, I heard May's panicked voice—she'd caught up, looking at me in fear.
"Is there a ghost here, Roxie? Who were you talking to?"
May looked around nervously. I patted her back.
"It's fine. We're born able to see ghosts—you can't, naturally."
But May fell deep into thought.
"I remember when I started college and first met Rainie Chen. She always seemed odd—spooky, always talking about ghosts."
I immediately questioned May. Everything started with Rainie, and what puzzled me most was that even the dullest person should know her four 'close friends' only hung out with her for her money. I'd seen plenty like that. Even Ouyang Wei had friends like that—always making snide comments until, with my advice, Wei finally cut them off.
They were all juniors, so Rainie had only known them for less than three years. What was her motive? Hearing May's story made me even more suspicious. What was Rainie Chen really trying to do?
"I remember Rainie took each of us to a fortune-teller she recommended. The old man told us all sorts of things."
I smiled—I found the reason. These four girls weren't here by accident; some practitioner brought them in on purpose. And those Straw Man Effigies Rainie carried—what were they really? I had no idea.
"What did the fortune-teller say to you?"
May thought hard for a while before remembering.
"The old man said I had a hard fate, that I'd bring bad luck to my husband and all that. I remember fighting with Rainie Chen for the first time that day—who could stand being told something like that?"
I looked at May in confusion and asked for her birth date.
"You know how to read fortunes too, Roxie?"
I smiled and shook my head helplessly.
"There's no clear answer with this stuff. Do you know your other friends' birth dates?"