It was a cold night.

Heavy snow fell everywhere, the sky and earth frozen as water droplets turned to ice.

Gu Changqing curled up in a corner of the cave.

He felt he might freeze to death.

His sword cultivation was gone, and with an arm broken from falling from such a height, it was a miracle he was still alive.

But miracles aside, without cultivation he could hardly endure the bitter cold.

In a daze, Gu Changqing felt a warmth, as if a flame had just approached him.

He instinctively shifted his body to press close to that flame.

Gu Changqing felt an itch on his cheek and reached to scratch it.

Instead he grabbed a tuft of fur.

He woke slowly and discovered he was sleeping in the little fox’s embrace.

“You…probably can’t shapeshift, right?” Gu Changqing asked on a whim.

The little fox was stunned by the question. Her gem-like eyes flickered with a human-like shyness.

She then evasively changed the subject, “You’re still weak. Stay here for now. I’ll go outside the cave to see if there are any fruits.”

For several consecutive months.

Gu Changqing remained in this cave the whole time.

When he was hungry, the little fox would bring him fruits in her mouth.

When he was cold, the little fox would use her body to warm him.

But his body remained weak and his injuries showed no sign of improving.

His sword heart was destroyed, his dao foundation shattered.

This body had been riddled with wounds by Gu Changqing’s ordeals, and now even an arm was broken. His young body was like a candle flickering in the wind—if the wind rose again, the life within would be extinguished.

During this time, the little fox repeatedly used her demonic blood to nourish his shell of a body.

But it was only a temporary fix, forcing his life to hang on by a thread.

“Why not just give up? This body has long been ruined by me and it’s just an empty shell now. Even if you gave me all your blood, you couldn’t save me.”

Gu Changqing looked intently at the little fox lying weakly nearby, his expression shifting slightly.

He did not believe that anyone in this world would be kind to you for no reason.

But when he asked himself if he was worth this much kindness, he felt that he wasn’t worth anything to the little fox.

Whenever he couldn’t understand, Gu Changqing would ask the little fox why.

The little fox always replied with the same line, “Since our paths happened to cross, I didn’t want to see you die.”

The little fox seemed oblivious to Gu Changqing’s reasoning.

She persisted stubbornly, “It will be fine. There will be a way.”

After resting for a long while, her gem-like fox eyes gradually regained its color. “Wait here for me.”

“Where are you going?”

The little fox ignored Gu Changqing and in a few bounds leapt out of the cave.

She sprinted across the wasteland and vanished from Gu Changqing’s sight.

For three days straight, Gu Changqing did not see the little fox again.

He thought to himself: Maybe she finally straightened her thoughts out and left.

But on the fourth day, just when Gu Changqing felt he might suddenly die, that white figure reappeared.

She had returned.

But her snow-white fur was stained with dried blood.

Her body bore sharp cuts and wounds.

“Sword wounds?”

As a former sword cultivator, Gu Changqing was intimately familiar with such wounds.

These were clearly caused by sword qi.

At the wound sites, traces of sword intent still lingered.

“You went to the Tianji Sect?”

Gu Changqing’s expression grew somewhat agitated.

There were no other sects nearby, only the Tianji Sect. Moreover, that was clearly the sword intent from one of the old Sword Saint’s disciples.

The little fox didn’t answer him She opened her mouth and several pills rich with blood qi rolled out. “Eat these.”

“Get lost!” Gu Changqing’s emotions suddenly surged and he shouted at the little fox.

The little fox still ignored him. She raised her forepaw—blood still flowing from it—and pressed her other paw against Gu Changqing’s forehead.

Despite Gu Changqing’s struggles, she poured the blood from her forepaw into his mouth.

“Don’t waste it,” she said.

At first Gu Changqing resisted, then he shut his mouth and lay still, keeping his eyes fixed on her.

The little fox had never seen someone so stubborn.

Clearly she was saving him, so why was he so obstinate?

Gu Changqing had also never seen such a stubborn demon.

They were mere acquaintances, after all. It was one thing for her to feed him blood to save him, but why risk going into the Tianji Sect to steal pills?

Didn’t she know what sort of place that was?

It was a place that planted pawns among the powerful, causing the entire Beixuan Continent to fear it!

She was risking her life!

“Why are you doing this?”

“I don’t like to owe others. If you won’t tell me why, I’d rather die than accept your kindness again.”

Gu Changqing stared at her intently.

“I’m going to die,” said the little fox.

This time, she finally didn’t use that same line to brush off Gu Changqing.