Chapter 116: The Winter Fever

The winter that descended upon Qingshui Town was not a simple change of seasons. It felt like a living beast had come to devour the weak and the poor, as biting winds howled down from the northern mountains, carrying thick sheets of blinding snow that buried the cobblestone streets and covered the market squares in white.

Inside the Azure Swallow School, the dilapidated state of the wooden architecture offered almost no sanctuary. The icy drafts slipped effortlessly through the cracked slates of the roof and the warped floorboards, turning the main hall into an absolute icebox.

Lin Yuan had spent the meager tuition money he had earned from his three students on heavy sacks of charcoal and basic winter rations. But it was not enough to keep the relentless, creeping frost at bay.

The brutal cold seeped directly into the dojo.

And then, the absolute nightmare began.