Ten years ago.
Snowfall as dense as goose feathers; thick white blanketed the entire forest, stretching from the ground to the sky.
In Biluo forest, a man and a woman raced swiftly on the accumulated snow.
On the snow-covered ground they tread on, there were intertwining traces of crimson and dark green, vivid and heart-stopping.
Behind them, in places hidden from their sight, there were flickering flames, and there were surging figures beneath those flames, each urgent, each fierce.
After a while, the man and the woman stopped in front of a massive karst cave. The woman hurriedly pushed the man into the cave, her beautiful face filled with pain and reluctance: "Leave the rest to me; I won't let them hurt you!"
"Are you crazy? You can't go! I don't need a woman to protect me!" The man chased after her, blood flowing from a wound on his shoulder, green like flowing jade.
"The Nine-color Sunflower has already bloomed, and the Flame Crystal Arrow has emerged. You cannot match the centaurs! Once they find you, there will be no way out but death!" The woman tightly held the man's hand, her face flushing red, "Believe me, I'll find a way to avert this disaster."
"No!" The man firmly opposed, gripping her wrist. "Let's leave this place, leave Romania, and go far away!"
Tears welled up in the woman's eyes as she gazed at him. "Have you forgotten that you cannot leave this forest? You cannot break the barrier set up by the Baili family."
"Let me try!" There was a resolute and uncompromising determination in the man's eyes stronger than the Carpathian Mountains.
"I can keep them from hurting you!" The woman pleaded urgently. "You have to trust me! You'll be safe once tonight is over!"
"I don't need it!" The man's anger erupted in an instant.
In the midst of their argument, neither of them noticed the sudden appearance of two shadows behind them.
With a muffled thump and a lightning-quick strike, the man's neck went numb. His gaze froze on the woman's face as he slowly fell to the ground.
A middle-aged couple, wrapped in black robes and expressionless, helped him up—or more accurately, restrained him firmly.
"You..." The woman was initially startled but then bit her lip and said resolutely, "I'll handle this. Trust me. He'll be fine."
The couple ignored her, supporting the unconscious man and turning to leave. They were unwilling to say a word to her. In their eyes, there was only suppressed grief and indignation with a hint of helplessness.
"You… Please trust me!"
The falling snow grew heavier and heavier, so heavy that it drowned out the woman's voice along with the sound of her departing footsteps.
In the opposite direction, two lions with golden fur ran like the wind through the forest. Their dazzling colors resembled a sun leaving behind this world. On the back of one of them lay a man with closed eyes, murmuring, "Weiqing..."
In the basement of the Baili family, a shadow slipped in cautiously.
The beam of a flashlight strafed haphazardly across the ground as the figure stumbled through the winding corridor and stood before a tightly closed wooden door.
The glistening key sparkled in the darkness, and with a tinkling sound, the wooden door creaked open.
A beam of light illuminated a shrine-like pedestal behind the door. On it, a black lacquered wooden box adorned with intricate gold filigree sat prominently in the center. The smooth surface of the box seemed to have a flowing, water-like blue light, radiating an aura of untouchable solemnity.
The figure approached slowly, and the blue light on the wooden box gradually illuminated the frightened but still beautiful face.
She stood blankly in front of the wooden box, slowly extending her hand...
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