Chapter 29: Extreme Cold

  Everyone walked along the mountain trail, stopping and going, eating a lot of dry food on the way. When they looked up, this snow-capped mountain was really towering high. The mountain range stretched for miles without seeing the end. Above the snow line, it was all white and vast, with white clouds and silver snow connected seamlessly, giving people the feeling that this sky was actually supported by the great snowy mountain.

  I pinched the touch gold symbol hanging on my neck, thinking that this time I went out of life and death is unknown, do not know if there is a life to come back, wish father bless me, help me turn evil into good.

  Although this is the fastest route to Lan Palace, it is a desolate area with rugged mountain roads and numerous steep cliffs. Fortunately, there are snow leopards leading the way, so you don't have to worry about getting stuck in an impassable place.

  After two days of walking, we arrived at the snow line. The temperature here was very low, close to zero degrees Celsius. Looking up, I could already see the snowy ground. Liu Dapao said that the terrain ahead was extremely complex, with several gullies that looked easy to walk but were actually very treacherous. The deep snow buried in these gullies reached waist-deep, and if we accidentally triggered an avalanche, the entire mountain valley would be immediately buried under a thick layer of snow. Not even a person could escape, let alone a snow leopard with its incredible speed.

  So everyone dared not to walk into the ditch, but instead put on polar survival equipment and slowly entered from the slope above the ditch, fearing that someone would fall into a snow pit or slip under their feet and fall to the bottom of the ditch. They were all connected by mountaineering ropes, with an ice axe tightly grasped in their hands. When they encountered impassable places, they had to use the ice axe to climb. The journey was extremely arduous.

  It turned out that the snow snake was quite capable, gliding down the snowy slope with ease. Seeing this, I picked some equipment that wasn't afraid of bumps and tied it to the snow snake's body, to help reduce the burden on everyone else.

  After passing through these mountain gorges, they arrived at a glacier. This glacier stretched for several miles and was formed from a lake thousands of years ago. The ice surface was very slippery, and one careless move would result in a fall, so everyone dared not walk too fast. Seeing the sudden change in weather, Liu Dabao had everyone set up their tents to prepare for spending the night there.

  I said to Liu Dapao, "It looks like there will be a big wind tonight. I heard that many wolf packs on the snowy ground will take advantage of the windy weather to raid the campers in the mountains. Shouldn't we strengthen our guard and have two people keep watch at night?"

  Liu Dapao said, "Young master, don't worry, there won't be any wolf packs here, and we have plenty of ammunition, so we don't need to fear any wild beasts. However, I've heard that the strong winds on Snow Mountain are quite eerie, often bringing out some unpleasant things. We should still be careful tonight, just as you said, let's take turns keeping watch in pairs."

  Su Qin didn't quite understand and asked Liu Dapao: "What are bad things? What will the strong wind blow out?"

  Liu Dapao said: "I don't know about that, but I do know that in Tibet there are some Tibetans living on the snowy mountains who have a great fear of strong winds. Legend has it that in ancient times, whenever a strong wind blew on the snowy mountains, devils would appear and take people away. The ancient Tibetans called them 'Blue-eyed Demons'. It's said that these 'Blue-eyed Demons' look like humans but have eagle wings and blue eyes, and can emit sharp horns from high altitudes to intimidate cattle and horses, making it easier for them to come down and plunder."

  I saw Liu Dapao's eyes rolling, and I knew he was bored and wanted to scare Su Qin. But unexpectedly, Su Qin wasn't afraid at all. As a member of the archaeological team and from a military family, how could she be intimidated by a legend? She said it was just an empty rumor, and how could such things exist in this world? After that, she went aside to hug the snow python for warmth.

  Liu Dapao sighed and shook his head, seeing that Su Qin was not afraid, he stopped joking and said to everyone seriously: "Tomorrow morning there is still a long way to go, let's rest early tonight. If anyone wants to relieve themselves in the middle of the night, remember to bring a whistle and don't go too far. This place has ice caves, if you fall in it won't be good. If anything happens, blow the whistle."

  Everyone was divided into night watch groups, with me and Su Qin in one group, Youzi and Zhou Xing in another, taking turns on duty until 4 am. After that, Liu Dapao would take over until dawn. By around 8 pm, everyone had retreated to their own tents, the original plan being to sleep at 10 pm, with me and Su Qin taking the first shift.

  As soon as I entered the tent, I saw Su Qin had laid out a big pile of miscellaneous things on the ground, dividing the already small tent into two areas. I knew what she was thinking, but still pretended to be unaware and asked: "Miss Su, what's this?"

  Su Qing gave me a white eye and said: "In view of your previous dishonest performance, I now formally declare that this dividing line temporarily becomes the boundary between you and me sleeping tonight. You sleep on the left side, I sleep on the right side. Don't think about crossing over, otherwise, I won't be polite."

  I said to Su Qin: "You're kidding, right? You make me sound like I'm some kind of person?"

  Su Qin turned her face away and said that's it, then ignored me. I found it amusing, so I crawled into the area she had previously marked out for me, shifted my sleeping bag and said: "Miss Su, it's not that I'm being petty, but this space you've allocated for me is too small, can't you be kind and expand it a bit?"

  Su Qin looked down at the ground and then pulled the dividing line on the ground towards her, saying: "Alright, isn't it big enough? If I move it over again, I won't have a place to sleep."

  I chuckled and said, "Actually, there's no need for this. This tent is already small, and with all these cluttered things inside, it's cramped and uncomfortable to sleep. I think you should hurry up and remove them, so we can have a good night's sleep. If the wind picks up in the middle of the night and the cold air seeps in, we can at least hug each other for warmth."

  "Sukin said: 'You'd better stop thinking nonsense, I don't feel cold at all. And even if I was cold, I wouldn't hug you, I'd rather hug my big python, it's warmer than you!'"

  She said and suddenly felt something was wrong, looked around and said: "Huh? It's really not cold in here... what's going on?"

  I pointed outside the tent and said: "Your python is outside, go hug it."

  Su Qin opened the tent and saw that Xue Mang was indeed coiled around it, sleeping. The warmth emanating from its body was spreading into the tent, making the temperature inside much higher than outside. Su Qin stroked Xue Mang's head and said, "This snake is really good."

  After that, he glanced at me intentionally or unintentionally and said, "Unlike some people, their minds are always thinking about those dirty things."

  I snorted and said, "You're making something out of nothing again. Since you're so particular, I'll go sleep in Uncle Liu's tent instead. Is that okay with you?"

  As soon as I finished speaking, I suddenly thought of Liu Dapao, who had the most things on his back all along the way. At night, there was only him in the tent, and I didn't know if he could sleep well. So I crawled to the door and poked the snow python outside with my hand. The python was poked awake by me, took a deep breath, raised its head and looked at me.

  "Hey... Boa... Uncle Boa, sorry to disturb your rest. Look, Liu's sleeping over there by himself and he must be freezing at night. Why don't you go sleep with him and keep him company?" I said, pointing to Liu's tent.

  The snow python looked at my fingers, then turned its head towards the tent where Liu Dapao was, and crawled over to it, coiling itself around the tent and continuing its peaceful nap. Su Qin looked at the eye-shaped scar on my forehead, her eyes suddenly flashing with a hint of something, and said to me: "You're quite good at considering others."

  I saw the snow python sleeping soundly around Liu Dapao, so I turned my head and said: "Where, where, Miss Su is overpraising me, but sorry to say, our tent tonight will be a bit cold."

  Su Qin lay back in her small domain and said, "I'm not cold."

  So I also crawled back into my sleeping bag, and as soon as I lay down, Su Qin asked me, "By the way, do you think 'Hei Niou' has already found Lan Gong? They entered several days earlier than us."

  I said to Su Qin, "Whether they found the Orchid Palace or not, I don't know, but with Xue Mang leading the way, we'll definitely be able to find it. And this Orchid Palace is no ordinary place, far surpassing that Witch King's tomb. Even if they did find it, wanting to venture deeper inside won't be so easy."

  Su Qin nodded and said, "That's true, I really want to know what this foreign gang is looking for. Why did they take the Jiao Jiao Jin Hao and Long Zhu, two of the world's most precious treasures, and still not be satisfied? They even ran all the way up to this snowy mountain."

  I told Su Qin, "Whatever they want to find, let's not worry about it. The priority is to retrieve the national treasure. The curse on me and Youzi is quite troublesome. I've mentioned it to you before, we need to use the Jue Di Jin Hao to destroy the dragon pearl in order to lift the curse. However, this dragon pearl might also be a first-class national treasure, although it's not officially excavated. If we really destroy it, I don't know if you'll mind or not."

  Su Qin said: "Of course, I mind! But relatively speaking, human life is still the most important. Don't worry, I'm not such a pedantic person. However, it's settled then, the Jiao Jiao Jin number plate, I will definitely bring back and return to the country."

  I said to Su Qin, "Don't worry about this, although we're not saints, we still keep our promises. This time it's a matter of life and death, signing documents, one careless word and not only the treasure but also our lives will be lost here. So I can't guarantee that I'll definitely help you get back the Juejiao Golden Token. If so, then my happy days with Youzi are probably coming to an end too. When you have time, come visit us and burn incense."

  Su Qin snorted and said: "Don't just pick out the bad things to say, since we've all come here, we should face it with a determination to win."

  As we were talking, a strong wind suddenly started blowing outside, and the temperature around us seemed to drop even lower. Su Qin shrank into her sleeping bag, poking out half of her head, looked at Liu Dapao's tent and said to me: "The temperature has dropped again, isn't your White Python uncle really afraid of the cold?"

  I knew she was feeling cold, and couldn't help but worry about the Snow Python outside, so I said to her: "Uncle Python, don't worry, it's an ancient rare species that usually inhabits extremely cold regions. This kind of weather might not even be cool enough for it. But what about us? Do you feel like it's getting colder inside the tent?"

  After saying that, my teeth also started chattering. I thought to myself, although it's windy outside, we're still wearing down jackets and sleeping in sleeping bags, so it shouldn't be this cold. What kind of weather is this? It's even more terrifying than the harsh winters in Northeast China.

  Su Qin also started trembling all over, telling me that the weather outside must have undergone some kind of mutation. This wasn't just ordinary windy and snowy weather. If the temperature kept dropping like this, we definitely wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. If we fell asleep, we would never wake up again.

  I also feel that the weather tonight is unusual, and something must have happened in the sky. I'm afraid Su Qin was right, the temperature in this area will probably continue to drop. Thinking of this, I couldn't care less about anything else, so I stretched out my hand to move aside the objects in between us, and moved closer to Su Qin's side, huddling together with her would be more conducive to keeping warm.

  Su Qin also knew that this was not the time to mind those "men and women are different" things, and she proactively leaned towards me. I pulled over the blanket to cover us up, seeing Su Qin shivering with cold, so I inserted my arm under her neck and hugged her close. Su Qin's face turned red as she leaned into my chest, saying: "That's it, no more messing around."

  I didn't have time to bother with her, and with my other hand I grabbed the wireless radio beside me, preparing to call Zhou Xing and Youzi. The two of them were probably in the same situation as us, but they were on duty for the next shift, so they shouldn't be sleeping now. Just as I was about to press the call button, the radio suddenly crackled to life, but it wasn't Zhou Xing or Youzi speaking - it was Liu Dapao.

  "Little masters, are you all right? The weather is a bit strange now. You'd better stick together tonight and remember, don't fall asleep!"

  I listened to Liu Dapao speaking, and found that his teeth were chattering with cold. I felt very strange at once - wasn't Liu Dapao being protected by the Snow Python? How could he also feel cold? I hastily asked Liu Dapao: "Do you also feel cold? Where's Uncle Python? Isn't it waiting outside your tent?"

  Liu Dapao said: "Didn't the python go to your place? How come it's not there?"

  I took a look around and thought to myself that with the temperature in the tent being so low, Snow Python was definitely not on our side. I asked Liu Dapao, "Could Uncle Python have run off to Old Zhou and Youzi's side?"

  Liu Dapao said: "No, I just contacted them, and they're also freezing their butts off over there. This damn weather is killing me!"

  When Liu Dapao said that the Snow Python was not on the side of Zhou Xing and Youzi, I couldn't help but feel a sudden shock. Suddenly, I remembered that Snow Pythons usually inhabit deep glaciers, and if it weren't for drastic changes in the weather, they wouldn't come out. It can be seen that Snow Pythons also can't stand firm against sudden changes in climate. Now, with the temperature plummeting, it's a time of drastic change in the weather. Could it be that even the White Python, which can withstand cold temperatures, can't handle this extremely low temperature? Has the Snow Python already abandoned everyone and left?

  Thinking of this, I couldn't help but curse loudly. This old monster is really not a man of his word. He's my father's brother, my uncle, and at the critical moment, he ran away with his tail between his legs. Now he's left us people who are completely unprepared for the extreme cold weather to fend for ourselves. It seems that the common saying is true: "A person's heart is separated from their stomach by a layer of skin, but a snake's heart is separated from its stomach by a layer of snake skin!"

  Su Qin grabbed my arm and said, "Don't think too much, Uncle Python definitely won't just leave like that. Maybe it's hungry and can't eat us, so it went out to forage."

  Now that it's come to this, scolding won't do any good. I let everyone keep talking, supervising each other so they wouldn't fall asleep. Enduring the cold, they crawled out of their sleeping bags and took out small stoves from their backpacks to warm up.

  Just got back into the sleeping bag, suddenly heard a noise coming from outside the tent.