On the way to visiting the Shrine of Moonlit Frost, almost at the door, Zishu doubles over with a hiss as it feels like his entire body is on fire. Again. Blood seeps from his mouth as he's brought to his knees with the pain and he struggles to keep breathing. It's not just his body that hurts, though.

It's his very soul.

He doesn't have to hunt for the reason to know it instinctively. Wen Kexing is gone.

But he'd made a promise, a vow, an oath more binding than anything. To live. His soulmate isn't dead. He's just not here right now.

So he can't die so easily. He knows this even through the growing, horrible numbness that settles around him as a chill, as if he'd lost all the progress he's made since arriving.