Footsteps sounded as two silhouettes trudged into the temple. A tall, handsome male that seems to be in his twenties with a broadsword on his back stepped in first to scan the surroundings vigilantly. A lady, probably at teenage years, followed behind timidly while holding a red bundle of cloth that seems to contain another living being. Both seem to be exhausted and part of their robes were stained in blood.

"Senior Brother, is it safe here? We really need a rest. I'm afraid young miss would freeze to death at this rate if we don't heat her up. I don't have enough Qi to keep her warm at the pace we are traveling at, and we still need to fend them off."

After glancing around sharply, the male finally responds in a gentle voice, "No worries. We will stop for a rest. I have left some Qi traps behind that should stall our pursuers for a bit. We need to use our time wisely and heal as much of our injuries as possible. I'll go scout the rest of the temple and install some traps. Start a fire and warm up young miss. We can't afford have master's only child to perish here due to some trifling cold."

The lady nodded and quickly hurried about picking up broken wooden pieces leftover from the ruined temple while the male starts pulled out a talisman, then waving his hands, a pale blue glow surfaced on the talisman and flew to the doorway of the temple before disappearing like it was absorbed.

"Alright, I installed a temporary blue grade barrier that can alert us and trigger to hold off the enemy for a couple of minutes, enough time for us to escape. I'll go check if there's any other doorways, and then I'll put some wall spike traps to prevent them from going over of through walls. If anything happens, just yell for me, I'll be here at an instant. Protect young miss well."

The lady nods and the male walks off to explore the rest of the temple while the lady continues to look for wooden pieces, rocks, dried twigs, but suddenly-

"AH!" The lady screams and almost dropped the baby in the bundle.

With a blue flash as the snow on the ground parts away to create a path, the male zooms back to lady while drawing his sword and getting into battle stance.

"What's wrong Xiao Cui?! Enemies?! Ambush?!"

"Eh...no. Senior Brother, look. It's ..." the lady said and points to a bundle of cloth on the ground holding a small life.

The male looks towards that direction and notices a baby wrapped in a bundle almost buried by the snow. It seems that the baby was almost frozen as the skin was already turning blue and the body was all stiff with no movements. The male walks up and digs the baby out of the snow. He injects some Qi into the baby to check its condition.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Still alive?! But probably not for much longer. Especially with these crippled meridians, and being malnourished like this. He'll probably perish soon."

"Sen-Senior Brother ... he's so pitiful ... he's like the same age as young miss, but he's ... and what is he even doing here ...? To leave a baby alone out here ..."

"There must have been someone else here, there are some blood stains on this baby so probably they were a pursued party like us. As for who brought him here ..." The male glanced around and then grunts. A wave of invisible energy blasts out with the male as the foci point. The snow in a radius around the male lifts up into the air and races away from the circle. Then, the male noticed a black clothed, shriveled man with bundles of arrows piercing his body.

"It seems that this man used his life to escape some heavy pursuit recently. Most likely from an army. Then the man used his remaining life force to ... probably keep this child alive. And this man seemed like he was in the purple Dan, even higher than me. Such a worthy hero, yet *sigh*, still ended up like this. This child must have been important to him."

"Senior Brother, wha- what do we do now? Are we able to save the child? He's so pitiful, it's like watching young miss be in tha-"

"Hush. We will not let young miss end up in this state. Although hopes are not high, perhaps I may be able to warm the kid up with some Qi. Go start a fire for young miss. I'll handle this."

The male sits down cross legged and holds the baby in his embrace. Then a blue glow surfaced as he placed his hand on the baby. As time passed, the blue on the baby seemed to fade as the baby seems to regain breath. Meanwhile, a fire was started by the lady and the warmth from the fire helped the blue recede faster. Once the blue receded, the man continued to insert Qi for a bit longer until he deemed that the boy's condition had stabilized. Then he stopped and recovered his Qi.

"Senior Brother, are you alright? You already exhausted a lot of Qi fighting off our pursuers. Can you still handle it?"

"No worries Xiao Cui. You know Senior Brother is capable of this much. Although there were many pursuers, they were still in the yellow and green Dans. As a blue Dan, it would be a shame if I can't fight those off. At most I would have a couple of injuries. Just a small rest and I'll recover."

"Mmm. Senior Brother rest for a bit. Then we will set off. I'll take care of the baby."

The male nods, hands over the baby to the lady, and closes his eyes to meditate.

A couple hours later, the male opened his eyes and nods at the lady. Then they both got up. The male waved his hands and a Qi shot at the fire causing the fire to go off while the pieces of fuel flew off into random directions. Then with another wave of his hands, invisible Qi stretched out and those debris were buried by the snow.

"Senior Brother, now ... what do we do with this baby? Do we bring him along?"

The male looks thoughtfully at the baby. Then nods and states, "I spent some my Qi to save him. Obviously I did it because there was some use for him. So we'll bring him along."

The male glides out of the temple. The lady stares pitifully at the baby, sighs and takes a leap to follow her Senior Brother.