The short day quickly faded away in a few words, followed by a long, cold night. It is said that in the deepest part of the Polar Ridges, the sun can only be seen for two months every year, and the rest of the time is an endless night.
There is no gorgeous dusk here like in Chang'an. The sky is quickly covered with darkness, as if it was just a blink of an eye, and the world has been replaced.
The team stopped moving forward, and everyone dug holes to make fires and set up camp. Soon, piles of bonfires were lit. The experienced veteran hunters divided the nearly 100 people into groups of ten. Each group was stationed in a position where they could see the blind spots of other people's eyes, ensuring everyone's vigilance.
In this deep forest, the roles of hunter and prey often change over time. People go into the mountains to hunt in order to store food for the winter, and those extremely hungry beasts will take risks and attack humans in order to survive the winter safely.
And in this dense forest, what people need to be wary of most are wolves. Therefore, when everyone was camping and resting, they were also always paying attention to the surprise attack in the dark and dense forest.
The warm flames dispersed the cold night. Although the Qingya people were no longer afraid of the severe cold with their current cultivation, human beings' natural instinct still drove them to get closer to the light and warmth.
The firewood exploded with a crackling sound in the firelight, and sparks fell on the snow. The firelight illuminated the faces of several people. Qingya stretched out his hands and approached the fire, although he did not feel cold.
"I don't know what happened this year. I walked all day and didn't see any prey. In previous years, I would catch a lot of roe deer on the first day. You should go to bed at night. I will keep vigil here. If there is anything, If there is any movement, I will wake you up immediately."
After Tanashushu reheated the dried meat in the package by the fire, he took out a few pots of hot water and handed them to the three people in Qingya, while he just gnawed on the hard naan.
"Miss Tana, we, the people of the mountains, are not so rich, and the cold night is heavy. How can we let you keep watch all night alone? We should take turns."
As he said that, Qing Ya broke half of the dried meat in his hand and put it in her hand. Unexpectedly, she stuffed the dried meat back into Qing Ya's hand.
"No, no, no, you are guests. The Great Elder told me to take good care of you. If you don't eat well and sleep well, I will be scolded when I go back."
Qingya raised his head and glanced around, and found that most of the young hunters were eating white-faced naan with clear water. Only a few leaders who seemed to have higher status were given the dried meat. Seeing this, he once again put the half of the dried meat into Tana Shushu's hand, and whispered into her ear:
"Hush, my shopkeeper has recently complained that his waist is a little thick, and he keeps clamoring to lose weight. No, even my guy's dinner has been reduced. So, Miss Tana, help me eat some. Otherwise I will be scolded by the shopkeeper."
While talking, Qingya quietly glanced at Qiu Chiyu.
"That's it, you are so pitiful. Your shopkeeper is really overbearing, but she is obviously not fat at all." Tana Shushu looked at Qiu Chiyu's slim figure and expressed deep sympathy for Qingya's pitiful experience. .
Even such whispers still couldn't hide from Qiu Chiyu's ears. When she heard that she was described as a domineering and bad shopkeeper, she just held a piece of dried meat in her mouth and gave Qingya a speechless look, but she didn't expose his lies. , let’s save him some face in front of outsiders.
Cold nights are always suitable for telling strange things. As the few of them chatted, they got involved in those weird folk tales.
According to Tanashushu, in their tribe, a hunter once encountered a weasel on the roadside when he returned home late. The weasel was all oily and slippery, standing up to half a man's height, with a bamboo hat on his head. He had never seen such a big weasel before, and he was so surprised that he almost stumbled.
But what's even more strange is that at this time, the weasel actually spoke human words, first let out a burst of harsh laughter like an old man's cigarette throat, and then asked the man: "Fellow, do you look at me like this?" Are you a fairy, or do you look like a demon?"
The man had never seen such a battle before. He stood up and was about to leave, but the weasel grabbed him by the hem of his trousers. The weasel was so powerful that no matter how hard he pulled, he couldn't escape. And it kept repeating that sentence, asking him whether he looked like a fairy or a demon.
In desperation, the man hurriedly said, "Like an immortal, like an immortal, this Huang Daxian, please be kind and let me go...", and after hearing this sentence "Like an immortal", the weasel in front of him immediately shone. With a pale yellow halo, shrouded in a ray of skylight, he flew towards the sky, leaving a message to the man before leaving.
"You help me become an immortal, and I will repay you."
Strangely enough, from that day on, every time he went hunting, he came back with a full harvest. One day, he dug out a lot of gold under his home, and he lived a life of great wealth and wealth from then on.
Just like this, decades later, when his children and grandchildren were full, one day he saw a few weasels walking past his door, and he suddenly fell to the ground and died. Not only that, when he died, At that moment, their entire family died at the same time. When people came to check, they saw a large group of weasels carrying more than a dozen coffins into the depths of the forest...
Later, things spread, and those people realized that it was Wong Tai Sin who was asking for a title from humans. If you say it is like an immortal, then it will become enlightened and make you rich, but it will only bless you alone. The day your oil runs out, it will send its descendants to take away the lives of your whole family. And if you say it looks like a demon, it will fall into the demon realm on the spot and take eternal revenge on you.
Tanashu Shu deliberately lowered her voice and told stories mysteriously. Hua Qing'er was a little afraid of these myths. She pulled her cuffs with both hands and leaned back slightly, but she also wanted to know what happened next. As the story develops, he tilts his ears and tilts his head forward slightly. In Qingya's view, this uncoordinated look is a bit funny.
"Miss Tana, are what you said true?"
Perhaps because she was too nervous, Hua Qing'er's voice trembled slightly.
"I also heard it from the elders in the clan. At least in all my years, I have never encountered such a thing."
"Then what should we say if we really encounter Wong Tai Sin like this?"
At this time, Qiu Chiyu interjected a question, which stumped all of them.
"this……"
For a moment, several people looked at me and I looked at you, unable to think of how to answer such a question.
"Yes, I know how to answer."
Qingya raised his hands and mysteriously told the three people his answer:
"If it were me, I would say that you don't look like a fairy or a demon, but rather like my Qing'er sister. In this way, it will become like you, and I will have two Qing'er sisters. La."
With a puff, Qiu Chiyu couldn't help but laugh. Only he could think of such a weird idea.
"Oh, what nonsense are you talking about? If a fairy like you turns into me in the future, you will still be sold by others and still count their money? Stupid boy!"
Hua Qing'er slapped Qing Ya's shoulder angrily, but Qiu Chiyu caught a slight sound of the snow being stepped on at this moment.
It was not like the sound of human footsteps stepping on the snow, but the sound of padded paws stepping on the snow. Just as everyone had expected, in this cold night, the wolves came.
The old hunters seemed to have noticed the noise and immediately informed everyone. Facing the wolves, everyone did not behave as if they were facing a formidable enemy, because for them with their cultivation level, dealing with ordinary wild wolves was no problem.
In the darkness, several gray figures struck like lightning, and their targets were the slightly thin-looking huntresses.
But what was faster than the gray wolf's figure was the steel knife in her hand. Only a few rays of light were seen passing by. Before the huntress could get up, clouds of blood mist exploded from the necks of several gray wolves. Those tall gray wolves died before they could even let out a howl, and fell to the snow. The wolf blood slowly soaked into the snow, and then solidified into blocks of blood ice.
"What a fast knife."
Qingya couldn't help but admire that from the beginning to the end, the hunter did not change his sitting posture, and just waved the sword with one hand to solve the battle. And Qing Ya also saw that the knife in her hand was just ordinary steel. If she could change it to a weapon, even if it was just an earth-level weapon, such sword skills could be used to their full potential.
Immediately afterwards, several more gray wolves attacked several people one after another, but they were quickly dealt with. Seeing this, the wolves hidden in the darkness quickly retreated.
This raid came and went quickly. If it weren't for the corpses of several gray wolves left on the snow and the snow stained red with blood, Qingya would not have realized that a wild beast was attacking humans at this time. .
"Are they gone?" Qingya asked Tanashu Shu.
"No, the attack just now was just an advance force sent by the Wolf King, just to test our strength. If we were just ordinary people, they would swarm us and bite us. But now, they are only temporarily withdrawing. .
Next, they followed us, looking for opportunities when we were weak, and attacked again, just to weaken our strength. The wolf king would not appear until they thought they could launch a full-scale attack. This is the hunting method of the wolves in the Polar Ridges.
But it is a pity that they encountered us. No matter how many times they launch attacks, we will not suffer any losses unless..."
"Unless what?" Qingya asked immediately.
"Unless we encounter those monster wolves living in the central area of the forest sea, we will be in trouble. But as long as we do not cross the five hundred kilometers limit, we will not encounter any monsters. Thank you Lord Dragon God for your care."
Even so, Qingya felt a little panicked in his heart. With his physique that something would happen wherever he went, it would not be such a coincidence that he would run into this. Unless, he hoped that the legendary dragon god's restraint really existed.
