The snow plain, after sunset, grows dark incredibly fast!
Regardless of how much the sunrise and sunset affected us or our mounts, we had to consider the stamina of the Giant Wolves.
In seven days, they had rested only three times!
It was high time to let them have a proper rest!
The campsite was chosen within a dense grove of silver pines!
According to Luoye’s guidance, the route he selected was a direct dash toward the Silver Sea Snow Plain, which should be the mandatory path for Yueche and the others returning to their ancestral land!
But at this moment, we had already crossed north of the Maple Forest Valley by another route.
Luoye described that in three more days, we would encounter the heavy mists of the Forest of Fog—only then would we see the true Forest of Fog!
Calculating the time, it wouldn't be long before we could contact the other Fog Clan hunter, Xiangkong!
This made me both nervous and expectant!
After a flurry of activity, everyone, already exhausted to the bone, and the Giant Wolves slept soundly, leaving only Luoye and Chenguang to keep watch! As for the big guys, they habitually sprawled outside the entrance of my sleeping tent!
In the middle of the night, I was startled awake by a sense of unease!
It was the big guys outside the tent emitting bursts of muffled growls!
Vague, indistinct shrieks could faintly be heard!
Instantly, all sleep vanished, and I fumbled my way out of the tent!
I met Chenguang’s slightly tense face head-on.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s the Fog Savages,” Luoye, however, remained calm. “They only emit such sharp, long cries when they detect an attack.”
“Fog Savages.” I was quite astonished in my heart.
After all, Muyao and Xiangtian had specifically warned me about the terror of the Fog Savages!
Focusing my hearing, amidst the savages’ howling, I could faintly detect sounds of human shouting and killing!
This discovery greatly surprised me!
Could the ones being attacked by the savages be Yueche?
“Judging by the sound, it should be five li away.” Luoye seemed to have heard human voices too. “It seems my savage prey this time is human.”
As he spoke, Longxin, Wufeng, and Wuyin also scrambled out of their sleeping tents, clearly all awakened by the savages’ shrieks!
“Let’s go take a look.” Naturally, we were unwilling to miss this opportunity!
“Be extremely careful,” Luoye showed a rare hint of tension. “Once the savages are alerted, it’s extremely dangerous.”
Everyone donned their battle armor and mounted their beasts with the utmost speed.
We charged in the direction from which the shrieks originated.
Soon, we arrived at the edge of a clearing, within the treeline!
Looking from afar!
Directly ahead, under the hazy moonlight!
Dozens of people clad in strange attire, riding enormous creatures resembling elephants, were desperately resisting the savages attacking them from all directions!
And those savages were precisely those terrifying behemoths that had nearly cost me and Mowei our lives last time!
What surprised me was that these people besieged by the savages were all masters of exceptional skill!
This dense swarm of savages had, for a long time, failed to breach their defenses, and many savages had been slain!
However, as casualties mounted, the savages grew even more frenzied!
They wouldn't be able to hold out much longer!
“It’s not Yueche and the others.” With just one glance, I recognized that this group was not the Yueche party we were pursuing.
“This is a group of roaming savages; there aren't many!” Luoye analyzed. “It seems there are no other large savage groups nearby, otherwise, the sound from earlier would have drawn them over.”
“Quick, save them!” Violent Dinosaur Wufeng couldn't help but shout loudly. “It’s Big Fool Yanzhu’s caravan.”
“Big Fool Yanzhu!” Could Wufeng know them!
Before I could react!
The little girl and Wuyin had already spurred their mounts and charged forward like lightning!
Almost the moment Wufeng and Wuyin revealed themselves, the savage horde discovered our group of uninvited guests!
They immediately detached a contingent and rushed towards us!
“We’ve been spotted,” Luoye sighed helplessly! Raising the bizarrely shaped, short, and exquisite staff in his hand, it felt just like a handgun. Without seeing him make any discernible move, there was a strange, dull thud!
A blurred flash of fire abruptly appeared!
The foremost savage!
Pong Boom! A small hole was drilled clean through its forehead! It subsequently collapsed to the ground, completely still!
Ah! What kind of magic was that!
I only felt an extremely terrifying magical explosion wave in the instant of the muffled sound, and then it vanished without a trace!
However, I also knew this was not the time to be astonished and investigate!
I swiftly assembled the Dragon Shadow Spear as well and issued the command, “Combat Rescue.”
“Yes!”
Mowei, Matcha, and the others, who were already impatient, charged forward like tigers pouncing on sheep!
There weren't too many savages here, perhaps only a little over two hundred. I was confident that with our abilities, we could easily defeat them!
Every person present was a top-tier master!
Now, under my command, they certainly wouldn't hold back out of politeness!
Each one was ferociously brave! And Wufeng and Wuyin, charging at the forefront, were simply unstoppable! Her massive infernal blade danced up and down!
With just one charge, she cleaved over a dozen savages in half, truly like an Asura descending!
As for Wuyin, her skill was equally remarkable; her strange long saber constantly summoned bursts of electric light, flashing with crackling thunder. Anyone caught in the electric glow invariably convulsed and fell to the ground, utterly incapacitated!
It was like a high-voltage electric net, giving me a scalp-tingling sensation just watching!
Mowei and Matcha’s merged double swords were equally invincible; wherever the light swords pointed, destruction followed! It secretly startled me; this was the first time in twenty-five years I had seen the two of them fight together. It seemed only when they were united could they unleash their true power. No wonder they could be one of the Four Pillars supporting the sky of the Demon Dragon Empire!
But what drew my attention even more was Luoye!
I don't know what that staff in his hand truly was. It looked small and delicate, yet its power was extraordinarily immense!
Whenever any of our companions in the fray were in danger, he would raise his hand and unleash a strange burst of firelight!
I could sense that what shot out in that instant should be some kind of Fireball spell, yet the magical fluctuations of this Fireball, apart from the moment of explosion, I couldn't detect any lingering magical presence at all!
Fast, fierce, and accurate!
It was almost every strike a fatal blow!
And every savage hit had its forehead blown open, falling dead!
It felt exactly like a sharpshooter—one shot, one kill!
Yes, a handgun!
If it weren't for the fact that I was acutely aware that gunpowder did not exist in this Marfa world, I would almost suspect that what Luoye held was truly a pistol!
This scene was indescribably bizarre and strange!
Even I, accustomed to grand spectacles, couldn't help but feel a pang of chilling dread!
I truly couldn't fathom how he managed it!!
The group fought with increasing valor, and soon broke through the savages’ line of interception!
And the people who had been besieged waved loudly toward us!
It seemed they were overjoyed by our unexpected arrival as reinforcements!
But amidst the cacophony of the savages’ howls, we couldn't hear a thing they were shouting!
However, Wufeng let out a series of strange cries and charged into their ranks like a gale, splitting nearly every savage blocking her path in two with her axe or sweeping them aside!
In the blink of an eye, the savages surrounding her were thrown into utter disarray!
I already knew this girl was fierce and violent!
But the astonishing scene before me still left me dumbfounded!
This single person, astride her mount, wielding a giant battle-axe, had become an invincible steel war machine!
Every savage that collided with her couldn't even withstand a single move she made!
Perhaps spurred by Wufeng's fierce bravery!
Chenguang, Chenyu, and the others were also like tigers among sheep, leveraging the powerful impact of their mounts to charge and slash left and right, looking magnificent and imposing!
These two hundred-plus savages were routed and scattered!
They then let out piercing, strange cries and quickly fled!
In an instant, the savage group vanished completely, leaving only heaps of corpses!
The surroundings were a mess of severed limbs and fractured bodies, mixed with snowy white or scarlet brain matter and blood, staining the snow a shocking, indistinct mess!
Wufeng, however, still felt unsatisfied. “What are these Fog Savages? They’re not tough at all.”
“I know, you’re amazing, alright,” Wuyin shot her an exasperated look.
Everyone else looked helpless too!
Only Luoye’s face was grim. “These are just scattered patrolling savage groups. If you run into a large swarm, we’ll see how much swagger you have then.”
Wufeng, however, gave a playful smile. “If we can’t win, we can run away.” As she spoke, she wiped the bloody axe clean with a rag before hanging it back on the side of her mount!
The scene was unspeakably strange, making both Longxin and me feel a wave of nausea.
It was hard to imagine such a bright, sunny smile on the little girl hiding such a bloody demeanor in combat!
It seems understanding her cannot stop at the surface level!
And the group who had been besieged quickly advanced to meet us!
It was clear they had been in a sorry state before; everyone was wounded, and several had even lost limbs! This showed how fierce the battle had been!
The leader was a young man about twenty-five or twenty-six. His battle armor was already torn to shreds, and a blue scar marked his face, but it was easy to tell he was a very handsome young man!
His messy blue long hair fell loosely, giving him an untamed look. His clear blue eyes shone with a soft, wise light. Although the current location was so bloody, the young man before us gave off a feeling of warmth, like basking in the spring breeze!
Even in his current disheveled state, he bowed gracefully. “Thank you, friends of the Gray Mist Clan. If you hadn't appeared in time, we would have perished here.” His voice was deep and resonant, possessing a pleasant tone—the kind of baritone a male singer in modern times would dream of having!
“I say, Yanzhu, after all this time, why are you still speaking so pedantically?” Wuyin teased lightly.
“What do you mean pedantically?” The man called Yanzhu replied solemnly. “This is called demeanor, a basic requirement for a noble merchant. You wouldn't understand.”
“Give it a rest. If you don't sound repulsive, you sound nauseating,” Wufeng retorted without restraint. “You, a mere merchant, dare talk about noble demeanor.”
I was also observing the young man before me with great curiosity.
Seeming to sense that I was the leader of this group, the young man named Yanzhu looked at me with equal curiosity.
“I forgot to introduce myself.” Wuyin was very tactful in making the introduction. “This is Yanzhu, a tobacco merchant from the Ice Valley Tribe!”
“Yanzhu.” I then realized. “So I misheard earlier! I thought you were called Yanzhu!”
“Haha, respected friend, you didn't mishear. Friends who know me like to call me Smokey Yanzhu.” Yanzhu was rather nonchalant, seeming quite proud of this strange and comical name.
“Interesting,” I said, greatly intrigued. “It seems you are very fond of smoking.”
In the Marfa Continent, similar things like tobacco also existed!
However, this item was a luxury consumed only by the nobility; commoners rarely saw it!
I never expected the Snow Territory Continent to be the same!
“Indeed,” Yanzhu said proudly. “Because I am the most outstanding tobacco merchant in the Snow Territory Continent. Only the tobacco leaves grown by my Ice Valley Tribe are the most authentic and mellow. Only I can distinguish the finest, most refined leaves! My clansmen say I love smoke as much as life itself, so over time, my real name, Yanzhu, became Yanzhu. Because I am constantly rolling and smoking tobacco leaves, fellow merchants like to call me Smokey Yanzhu.”
“Haha, Yanzhu, Smokey Yanzhu.” I couldn't help but laugh. “You truly are an interesting fellow.” But in my heart, I muttered: This guy loves smoking so much; he’d better watch out for bronchitis!
“Mention Smokey Yanzhu, the one who loves smoke as much as life, in this continent, who doesn't know of him?” Yanzhu appeared somewhat proud, but he didn't ask my name!
“……” Wuyin and Wufeng were both taken aback for a moment, instinctively looking towards me. Then came a faint voice from beside me, Luoye: “The Ice Valley Tribe and my Gray Mist Clan have been friendly for generations, and Yanzhu is a trustworthy friend.”
Luoye was clearly subtly introducing the situation of the Ice Valley Tribe and Yanzhu’s stance!
I naturally understood what they meant!
“My name is Xingchen,” I quickly replied. “I am also a friend of the Fog Clan. This time I am heading to the far north, so Great Chief Xiangtian dispatched these three to act as my guides.”
“Xingchen.” Yanzhu’s expression became solemn. “It seems you have a deep relationship with the Gray Mist Clan. The Great Chief dispatched his own brother and sister, along with the clan’s most outstanding hunter, to be your guides.”
“That is certain,” Wufeng quickly added. “Xingchen is the most respected friend of our Fog Clan.”
“To be held in such high regard by the Great Chief and the Eldest Miss! You must be an extraordinary person!” A strange light flashed in Yanzhu’s eyes. “I heard that beneath the Throne City, a powerhouse from another continent defeated Yueche of the Frost Ice Tribe. They say his name was also Xingchen. Some say he is a prince of a country on that continent named Jiuyue Shenzhen, possessing unusual black hair and black eyes, wearing strange purple armor. On that continent, such armor is called the Phoenix Heaven Demon Armor. I wonder if they are speaking of you?”
“I didn’t realize I was that famous,” I said, somewhat taken aback.
“Haha, although the Snow Territory Continent is not small, the transmission of news is extremely developed. Moreover, the battle at Throne City, where the Snow Plain Tribe decisively defeated their sworn enemy, the Frost Ice Tribe, is a major event capable of reshaping the continental structure. If someone like me, Yanzhu, wasn't aware of such news, I couldn't be called a merchant.”
“Let’s leave this place first,” Luoye interrupted our conversation. Once that group of savages calls for reinforcements to return, we’ll be in trouble!
“That’s true,” Yanzhu quickly agreed. “After this battle, we are covered in blood. There is a forest about twenty li ahead!
There is a cavern inside!
Inside the cave, there is a warm lake we secretly dug out. Why don’t we stop there temporarily?”
“Then let’s hurry,” Wufeng was also impatient. “This blood-soaked feeling is unbearable.”
“You know about being blood-soaked?” Chenxin retorted pointedly. “But you were the one charging the fiercest just now.”
“Hehe, I was busy saving people,” Wufeng chuckled sheepishly.
“I think you were busy fighting,” everyone knew the little girl’s little tricks well enough.
While conversing, everyone busied themselves collecting the bags of tobacco leaves scattered on the ground!
Even with blood everywhere, the unique fragrance of the tobacco could not be masked!
Although neither in my past life nor my present life was I addicted to tobacco, I could still discern that these were all high-grade tobacco leaves!
Despite the rush, those collecting the tobacco were all exceptionally careful!
Afterward, the collected tobacco bags were loaded onto those towering mounts!
This was a unique breed of warhorse on the Snow Territory Continent. Their bodies were even taller than the Giant Wolves, almost a whole head taller than the big guys! They could definitely be counted as the largest mounts I had ever seen.
And these seemingly colossal warhorses were not at all cumbersome; instead, they possessed an unusual sense of beauty and power, making one imagine their magnificent, swift gallop!
“This type of warhorse is called Snow Wind,” Wuyin seemed to notice my curiosity. “It is a variant breed produced only by the Ice Valley Tribe. In terms of speed, even the Ice Wolves cannot catch them; they are the fastest mounts in the Snow Territory Continent.”
“Snow Wind,” I mused. “When running, they must be as fast as the wind over the snow plain.”
“Naturally,” Yanzhu affirmed solemnly. “If we weren't carrying so much cargo this time, the savages might not have been able to catch up to the speed of the Snow Winds.”
“Is that so? Can they really run faster than my big guys?” I asked with some curiosity.
Roar!
Unexpectedly, this murmur drew a displeased roar from the big guy, clearly showing its dissatisfaction that I would compare it to these Snow Winds!
Everyone was rendered speechless!
“The speed of Divine Wind is unparalleled,” Wuyin laughed sweetly. “But His Highness’s mount is a rare war steed in the world. Perhaps only the Red Flame Dragon King’s could contend with it in a duel.”
Roar!
Only then did the big guy let out a satisfied, low growl, clearly very pleased with Wuyin’s words!
During the conversation, Yanzhu’s caravan attendants quickly finished loading the tobacco!
Then everyone quickly left this place of trouble!
Not long after, we arrived before the cave Yanzhu mentioned!
The entrance was cleverly concealed by mechanisms. I don’t know how Yanzhu managed it, but after he muttered a few incantations, two massive boulders slowly began to…
It felt just like when Ali Baba discovered the treasure of the Forty Thieves!
I even secretly wondered if the magic he was chanting was the legendary Open Sesame!
Just as I was lost in thought, Yanzhu said proudly, “This is our secret base inside the Forest of Fog!”
It was evident that this was a place where their caravan often stopped!
This could easily be seen from the complete reserves of dry food, clothing, and medicinal herbs stored inside!
“Not bad, Yanzhu!” Wuyin was greatly surprised. “I didn’t expect you to hide such a fine spot under the noses of the Blood Mist Tribe.”