books44 Chapter 409: Song of Snow Mountain
Chapter 409: Song of Snow Mountain
As the sky brightened, Hu Qing suddenly opened his eyes from the thick snow.
Last night, a sudden snowstorm crushed the entire tent, and everyone was buried alive in their sleep.
Fortunately, after refining the ice dew flower, he was no longer afraid of the cold, so he did not freeze to death in his sleep.
Hu Qing sat up from the snow pile and looked around. It was all white. Where was the trace of his companions?
He immediately expanded his spiritual consciousness, and his spiritual power spread out in all directions like ripples.
Soon, three familiar auras under the snow were locked one by one.
"Wake up!"
Hu Qing raised his hand and waved it, and the snow was blown away by his spiritual power, revealing Gu Yang's face that was sleeping soundly.
The latter opened his eyes drowsily and smacked his lips: "Hmm? Is it dawn yet...?"
On the other side, Xiao Zi was still lying in a coiled position when he was dug out, with his purple scales covered with snow particles.
It shook its body, and the snow fell down, revealing a pair of slightly confused dragon eyes.
The worst off was the rat man. When Hu Qing pulled it out of the snow pile, the guy was gasping for breath with his mouth open, like a stranded fish.
"Hold it...it's killing me..."
The rat man collapsed on the snow and suddenly found that the blue fur on his body had completely faded and returned to its original gray-brown color.
It was so excited that it flipped over and rolled around in the snow. "I'm back! I'm back!"
Xiao Zi glanced at him with disgust, covered her face with her paws, and pretended not to know this embarrassing guy.
Hu Qing shook his head, took out a few pieces of bear meat from the storage ring, condensed a cluster of flames at his fingertips, and reignited the bonfire.
"Let's go up the mountain after breakfast." Hu Qing skewered the bear meat on a branch. "The snow on the Holy Mountain is much thicker than here, so be careful."
Gu Yang rubbed his aching chest. The tent frame that collapsed last night hit him squarely, leaving a purple bruise on his skin.
He shook his dazed head and suddenly realized something: "Wait, who was in charge of the night watch last night?"
Hu Qing's hand that was turning the bear meat suddenly stopped and his brows furrowed deeply.
Yes, according to the rotation arrangement, someone should be on night watch.
If someone was on guard, how could the tent be crushed by the snow without anyone noticing?
Xiao Zi timidly raised his paws and began to scratch the snow crookedly.
Hu Qing and Gu Yang stared at the handwriting that was uglier than dog's crawling, and took great effort to decipher:
"I was on night watch yesterday, but somehow I fell asleep."
"Your handwriting..." Gu Yang's mouth twitched, "I will definitely teach you a lesson when we get back."
Hu Qing distributed the roasted bear meat to everyone, his face solemn:
"Something's wrong. The four of us fell asleep at the same time. This is definitely not a coincidence."
Gu Yang took the barbecue and took a bite thoughtfully:
"I also find it strange. Even if Xiao Zi accidentally fell asleep, with our alertness, we should have woken up immediately when the tent collapsed."
The rat man held the piece of meat, his eyes rolling around. "Sir, could this be a side effect of the Ice Dew Flower?"
"Impossible." Hu Qing flatly denied, "Gu Yang and I woke up first, there's nothing unusual."
As the rat man rolled in the snow, his claws suddenly touched something hard.
It scraped away the soft snow on the surface, revealing a huge and clear footprint underneath.
It is twice as long as an adult man, with five distinct toes and a hard ice shell on the edge.
"Sir!" the Rat Man screamed. "Look at this!"
Gu Yang rushed over in two steps and leaned over to observe the footprint that was almost longer than him.
He sniffed closer and suddenly wrinkled his nose: "Strange, this footprint has a faint fragrance..."
Before he could finish his words, he suddenly felt sleepy. Gu Yang yawned loudly, his eyelids drooping uncontrollably, and he almost fell into the snow.
"Wake up!" Hu Qing grabbed him by the back of his collar and stared at the footprints with a serious look. "There's something wrong with this smell."
Hu Qing carefully used a branch to poke the ice shell at the edge of the footprints and found that the ice layer was an unnatural blue, exactly the same as the snow on the top of the holy mountain.
"Could it be a snow beast?" Hu Qing murmured uncertainly, "Let's check if anything has been stolen."
Upon hearing this, everyone immediately checked their belongings, but found that nothing was missing.
The storage ring, dry food, and even the small items hidden by the rat man were all intact.
"This is strange," Gu Yang rubbed his temples to dispel the sleepiness, "If he's not here to steal anything, then what is this guy trying to do by visiting in the middle of the night?"
Xiao Zi suddenly raised his tail and looked around vigilantly.
It used its claws to scratch crooked words on the ground: "More than one."
Hu Qing immediately expanded his spiritual sense and found more footprints covered by the fresh snow around the camp.
These footprints were distributed in a circular shape, surrounding their camp, but there was no sign of approaching.
"Like... observing us?" The rat man shrank his neck and his voice trembled.
Everyone packed up and headed towards the holy mountain facing the rising sun.
The snow crunched under my feet, leaving a trail of deep footprints behind me.
No one noticed that shortly after they left, a huge bulge suddenly appeared on the snow near the camp.
"Wow--"
The snow slid off, and a huge creature slowly sat up.
Its entire body is covered with long, fine white hair, with only two brown eyes visible on its face. Its hands and feet are inhuman, but several times larger than those of ordinary people.
The monster looked in the direction where Hu Qing and his group left, grinned with its sharp white fangs, and made a low gurgling sound in its throat.
It stood up slowly, shaking off the snow with its three-meter-tall body without making any sound.
What’s creepy is that its huge paws don’t leave any traces on the snow!
The monster turned and walked towards the path on the other side of the holy mountain, its body incredibly agile.
Each leap can cover a distance of more than ten meters, but when it lands, it is as light as a feather.
After a few rises and falls, the white figure disappeared in the vast snow-capped mountains, as if it had never appeared.
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At the same time, Hu Qing and his group were climbing up the mountain with difficulty.
"The snow is too deep..." Gu Yang panted heavily, pulling his legs out of the waist-deep snow with every step.
Xiao Zi was like a fish in water, sliding forward on the snow.
The rat man cleverly followed the footprints left by Xiao Zi, saving a lot of effort.
Hu Qing suddenly stopped and looked around warily: "Do you feel... that someone is watching us?"
Upon hearing this, Gu Yang immediately expanded his spiritual sense, but found nothing: "Could it be the guy who left the footprints?"
Just as he finished speaking, a long cry suddenly came from the direction of the mountain top. The sound was ethereal and ethereal, like some kind of horn.
Xiao Zi's scales suddenly exploded, and he turned his head sharply to look towards the mountain ridge.
There stood a row of white figures, each more than three meters tall, staring at them silently!
Hu Qing and Gu Yang tensed up instantly, their eyes fixed on the row of tall figures on the ridge.
In the backlight, the white shadows seemed to merge with the snow-capped mountains. Only the outlines could be seen, but the facial details could not be distinguished.
The leading white figure suddenly raised his arms, and his wide white sleeves rustled in the wind and snow.
A low and distant chanting sound came from its mouth, the ancient syllables echoed among the mountains, and were carried by the falling snowflakes to everyone's ears.
"This is..." Gu Yang's pupils dilated slightly, and the chanting seemed to strike directly on his soul.
Although I don’t understand the words, I can feel the vastness and piety contained in them, as if the wind and snow for thousands of years are telling a story.
Hu Qing's clenched hands loosened unconsciously, and the tip of the sword dropped towards the snow.
He felt a strange peace rising from the bottom of his heart, as if he had returned to the warmth and security of his mother's womb.
Even the usually noisy rat man quieted down, with an intoxicated gleam in his little eyes.
Xiao Zi's reaction was the most peculiar - it put its front legs on the ground, lowered its dragon head, and made a gesture of submission.
The runes on the scales flickered with the rhythm of the chanting, creating a subtle resonance with the chanting.
"Susu-"
A snowflake landed on the tip of Gu Yang's nose, and the cold touch suddenly woke him up.
Looking up, I saw that the originally sparse snow had turned into heavy snow, and visibility dropped sharply.
"Something's wrong!" Hu Qing shouted sharply, his sword sweeping across, creating a circular barrier around everyone. "This chanting has a disorienting effect!"
The snow witches on the ridge stopped chanting at the same time.
The leader slowly raised one hand, and the heavy snowflakes froze in the air, forming a strange still picture.
"Outsider." A hoarse voice sounded directly in everyone's mind, "Why are you trespassing in the Holy Mountain?"