FRGNM -Chapter 268 The Awakening of the Snow Goddess

Ling Ruoxi stretched out her hand and quickly retracted the purple bamboo. But in the next moment, the entire earth trembled, and even the surface of the lake shivered. The massive stone statue quivered slightly, as if something had been triggered, and chunks of stone began falling continuously from above.

“What’s happening!? It’s… it’s you!” Kodak, returning once again, froze. When he saw the four figures, his face went pale. But now he couldn’t do much; he could only stare at the statue coldly, trembling instinctively. “This… this is the statue of the goddess… it’s starting to crumble. The goddess… she’s about to appear…”

“What do you mean? What’s going on!?” Silver Wolf nearly got thrown off by the tremor, swaying uncontrollably. They had only taken the purple bamboo from beneath the goddess’s feet—how could this happen!?

A surge of dense spiritual energy erupted, and the surrounding trees and flowers grew wildly. The statue began falling from the top, while the emerging white light swirled above like a swarm of fireflies.

“Are you still asking what this means!? You left, didn’t you? How are you back here!? The goddess’s sigh marks a forbidden area; all outsiders are barred! The ancestors said that if an outsider enters, the goddess will awaken—and we’ll fall into endless suffering, disasters upon disasters!” Sweat poured down his forehead as rocks tumbled down the mountainside toward him.

The statue standing in the lake shivered, emanating a cold aura that blanketed the surroundings.

Crack… It was as if something was breaking through the earth. Spider-like cracks appeared on the statue, eerie in appearance. Heavy stones fell, only to crumble instantly.

A white figure knelt on the water’s surface, her fingers interlaced. Despite enduring a thousand years, her face remained unchanged. She knelt lightly on the lake, as if in silent prayer, head bowed. Countless stones fell around her, her long curled lashes trembling.

“This… this is the goddess, Xue!” Maya, who had returned, was frozen in shock. She hadn’t expected that her joking words would summon the figure before her, so vivid, so real.

Xue—their goddess—was indeed before them. She was breathtakingly beautiful, unchanged even after a millennium.

Her long, curled lashes quivered. The kneeling figure seemed to hear the voices outside, like a drowsy child slowly opening her eyes. Her jet-black eyes met those before her, and she reached out to catch the white light before her.

Buzz! The white light trembled violently, transforming into a sharp sword that pierced into Xue’s body. Yet she smiled faintly, looking toward the people on the shore. “How many years… finally, I see you again.”

“You… you…” The people on the shore were speechless. Since childhood, elders had told them legends: within the statue lived a woman whose single sigh could resolve all disasters. She watched over the world from inside the statue.

They had thought it a mere legend, yet today, they saw her alive. And even after a millennium, she appeared unchanged. Her white dress fluttered like lotus leaves dancing on a pond—so beautiful, one could not look away.

“You… are the ones who awakened me?” Xue’s eyes flickered, resting on Ling Ruoxi’s Demon-Slaying Zither. In an instant, her pupils contracted, and the white figure moved in a flash to Ling Ruoxi’s side, placing her hands on the zither.

Her body trembled slightly, panic flickering across her expression. Raising her head again, she looked at the girl before her, shaking her head. “Impossible… why is the Demon-Slaying Zither in your hands? What is your relation to him?”

“What ‘him’? The zither is used to draw out the purple bamboo. We obtained it from a fox—what’s your connection to that fox?” Ling Ruoxi frowned, utterly confused. Was this person referring to the Dou Qi practitioner who had entered here long ago?

Calming her chaotic breath, Xue frowned. “A fox? How could a mere fox possess such a treasure of the world? Moreover, only someone with the bloodline inheritance could play this zither…”

She plucked the strings lightly—the clear, melodious tones resounded.

The person before them could play the Demon-Slaying Zither? Not only Ling Ruoxi, but even Qingyi, Silver Wolf, and Luo Mingyu were stunned. The zither, which none of them could play, was being played flawlessly by a person who had lived a thousand years! And she seemed deeply familiar with the instrument.

“You… know the Demon-Slaying Zither?” Ling Ruoxi whispered, placing the zither into Xue’s arms.

Xue nodded slightly, smiling faintly as she held the instrument, gently caressing it. “Of course I know it. It belongs to him. Long ago, he used this zither to search for the purple bamboo for me, granting me the power to suppress all things. I hadn’t expected that today, breaking the restrictions, it would still be this zither—but the person who came wasn’t him.”

Thinking of the past, Xue smiled softly. Her slender fingers moved along the strings, playing a high, flowing melody, her hands never faltering, like a sprite fallen to the human world. “He liked to conceal his identity, to wander mountains and rivers, saying it was enjoying life. He said he had a home, yet he constantly changed his identity. He is himself… and also who he was a millennium ago, and who he will be ten thousand years from now. I loved him, but…”

Her fingers trembled on the strings as Xue stood, catching water droplets in midair. “…I am unworthy of him. He has his freedom; I have my duty. I am merely a product of the past era, never meant to live until now. Perhaps… from the start, I shouldn’t have awakened, shouldn’t have entered the world, and would never have had this lingering attachment.”

“Who… is he?” Ling Ruoxi asked softly, resting her chin on her hand. Hearing the word “freedom,” she thought of her own father—a man who wandered without restraint, causing her mother to be imprisoned for over twenty years.

Perhaps he never knew her mother’s fate. Ling Ruoxi smiled wryly. She truly knew nothing of her father.

Smiling faintly, Xue handed the zither back to Ling Ruoxi and placed her slightly cold hand on her small head. “The one who can play the Demon-Slaying Zither carries his direct bloodline. You are his descendant. This zither was crafted by him—its strings made from the sinews of ancient divine dragons, its body from ten-thousand-year-old sandalwood from the pinnacle of battles, imbued with his own blood.”

“Descendant… uh…” Ling Ruoxi’s lips twitched. Since when had the Ling family produced someone so extraordinary?

Xue nodded lightly. “Yes, descendant. He is Ling Feng. Have you heard of him?”

“What!?”

Both Ling Ruoxi and Luo Mingyu’s expressions changed simultaneously. Ling Feng… how familiar a name! How could they not know him?

Seeing their dazed expressions, Xue chuckled softly. “You know him, then. Ling Feng… he is the one, a thousand years ago, who liked…”

“That’s impossible! My father can’t be that old—he should only be in his fifties or sixties!” Ling Ruoxi’s mind scrambled. How could her father exist a thousand years ago?

Shaking his head, Luo Mingyu held Ling Ruoxi’s wrist. “No… a thousand years ago, he did exist. Otherwise, who taught me my martial arts and swordsmanship? He only changed his identity.”

“Identity?” Ling Ruoxi’s heart jolted, and she clenched her fists tightly.

Xue smiled faintly, nodding. “Yes. His status in the Ling family is unparalleled. He has existed for a long time, living under different identities, leaving periodically for unknown places. He told me that, if possible, he wished to grow up slowly from a child.”

“To me, it seems absurd. Once grown, how could one return to childhood and grow again? But seeing you, I understand… he did it. From childhood, growing slowly, until he left home. Heh, exactly his style. You are his daughter, right? You are beautiful. Your mother must have been even more beautiful. I loved him… I wonder where he is now.” Xue’s eyes gleamed, as if imagining the outside world, eager to leave and see it.

Yet she had her own mission and could not step away.

“Does this mean my father was born again?” Ling Ruoxi’s lips twitched. Strange logic… but in medicinal alchemy, it was possible. If one knew how to prepare a potion to shrink the body, one could be like a child in every way except for the mind.

Yet to see someone who had lived a thousand years do this—Ling Ruoxi could barely accept it.

“You may not understand why your father did this,” Xue said. “He loved the feeling of home, so he pursued it endlessly, but failed. I wished to give him a home… but I could not.” She spread her hands, letting snowflakes scatter over the lake. Her eyes gleamed, and she chuckled softly. “With my position, how could I be with him? I wonder if he is well now.”

“He went traveling, looking for Old Man Murong. He still wouldn’t tell me about my father, only instructed me to collect the purple bamboo needles,” Ling Ruoxi frowned.

“Of course… still the same as before. Never staying in one place, leaving after a while. Your mother must have had a hard life. Heh… by the way, since you took the purple bamboo, the disasters here will begin again.” Xue pointed toward the darkened sky, smiling faintly. In a flash, her white figure vanished across the grasslands.