More than thirty days later, the carriage left the Kyushu territory from Pingzhou in the north.
Exiting from the north, there is a vast wasteland called Liangyuan. After traveling more than a thousand miles to the north, you can see the majestic Snow Dragon Mountains. After passing the mountain pass, you enter the bitter cold land.
Thanks to the tall Snow Dragon Mountains that block the biting cold winds of the bitter cold land, the climate of Liangyuan is not particularly extreme, but it is still cold enough.
It is midsummer in the south at this time, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is the ninth coldest winter in Liangyuan.
This cold plain has been the place of exile for serious criminals from Kyushu and Silla for thousands of years, as well as some elusive bandits and tough natives who have always settled here.
It is desolate and dangerous, similar to the situation in the Xinzhou desert.
But what is even more cruel than the Xinzhou Desert is that this wild land does not belong to any country, nor is it controlled by a single gang. If someone is robbed and killed by thieves in this wilderness, there will really be no one to seek justice.
, die in vain.
Even the Huanyan Pavilion, which was once one of the five most famous sects in Kyushu, would require thirty or twenty people to travel with it over the years.
Su Wangting had doubts about entering the bitter cold with only this thin carriage. After all, since entering Liangyuan, the horses pulling the carriage had shown great discomfort in the severe cold, and the traveling speed was getting slower and slower.
If we enter a bitter cold place with extremely harsh climate, how can these horses survive?
But Ru Yan just comforted her calmly and said not to worry, saying that they had their own small village in Liangyuan, and they could just reorganize there before heading towards the bitter cold land.
Along the way, not a single person or animal was seen. A few strong weeds could occasionally be seen on the frosty gravel ground, but other than that, no other green vegetation was seen.
A desolate place.
Seven more days later, I finally saw a circle of courtyard walls made of gravel blocks in this wasteland. Within the courtyard wall, except for a few slanted stone houses, there was a large open space. From the open space, I placed
Judging from the several water troughs, they look like areas where domestic animals are kept.
"That's it, let's go in and tidy up before setting off." Ru Yan looked at the village from a distance and shouted excitedly.
When they arrived at the door of Zhuangzi, Ruyan jumped out of the carriage impatiently and shouted: "Ge San!! Open the door quickly, it's us!!"
But after waiting for a long time, no one in the village answered.
"Gesan!! Open the door!!!" Ru Yan picked up a piece of gravel and threw it towards the house in the courtyard.
Then I heard the creak of the door opening from inside the courtyard, and saw a middle-aged man wearing an animal skin coat walking over listlessly.
"Are you deaf??" Ruyan shouted angrily through the fence gate.
Ge San opened the door of Zhuangzi with a wry smile on his face, his head drooped, as if he had done something wrong and did not dare to look at Ruyan.
Seeing this, Ruyan frowned and looked around the village: "Where are the guys?"
"Two of them went back to Jiuzhou to buy supplies. Two died, and the other two are recuperating in the house." Ge San's voice could not be softer.
Ruyan was shocked when she heard this and asked urgently: "Two people died!? What happened!?"
Ge San sighed several times and said with a mournful face: "Two months ago, Zhuangzi was robbed by a group of thieves. All the materials prepared for the girls were robbed. Tian Shun and Hu Laoqi just complained a few words and went away.
…and were killed by them…”
There was a buzzing sound in Ruyan's head, and he shouted: "Where's the white-haired bear!!"
Ge San lowered his head after hearing this and shook his head slowly.
"It's over!" Ru Yan turned back and stared blankly at Su Wangting, "Without the white-haired bear, we can't enter the bitter cold land!"
"White-haired bear?" Su Wangting looked confused.
Ru Yan explained: "White-haired bears are ferocious beasts that live in bitterly cold places and are not afraid of severe cold by nature. We at Huanyan Pavilion have domesticated a group of white-haired bears early on and used them to pull carts. If there were no white-haired bears, we would be in a bitterly cold place.
It’s hard to move even an inch!”
"What are they doing to rob white bears, just for their fur and meat?" Su Wangting asked again.
Ruyan shook her head and said: "You don't know something. There is a precious snow lotus growing in that bitter cold land. If it is brought back to Kyushu, one flower can be worth dozens of taels of gold! There are lotus pickers from both Silla and Kyushu.
, they risked their lives and went deep into the bitter cold land to search for snow lotus. After hearing about it, they never returned nine times out of ten."
Su Wangting was speechless when he heard this: "Tsk, tsk, tsk, you really risk your life just to get rich. Then... what is the relationship between this lotus picker and the thieves who robbed the white bear?"
"Most of the thieves operating in Liangyuan also want to get snow lotus, otherwise they would not wander in such a wild place. Firstly, they rob the lotus pickers who survived and returned, and secondly, they themselves occasionally venture into the bitter cold
The land is looking for snow lotus. Like those lotus collectors, they go to bitter cold places with only two legs. They often never return. But if you have a white-haired bear, it will be completely different. You can go to bitter cold places.
Travel around safely. Tamed white bears are extremely precious. We found white bear cubs from bitter cold places and brought them back to warm continents to tame them. Taming these beasts took a lot of effort on our part."
"So... after they discovered that Zhuangzi had tamed a white bear, they immediately became jealous and came to rob it?"
Ru Yan nodded and said angrily: "There have been thieves who have coveted her before, but after learning about the skills of our girls, they have only had the heart to be thieves but not the courage! I didn't expect that they would actually dare to take action this time!"
Su Wangting said oh, approached Ge San and asked, "Who robbed it this time?"
Ge San did not answer this question. He just looked at them, shook his head and said, "You only have four people here this time? Hey, don't even think about it, it's no use!"
Ruyan frowned and said, "Ge San, you know that we are not ordinary women. Ordinary thieves and bandits will not be able to get close to us!"
"But this time the thief... is just unusual!!" Ge San shook his head repeatedly.
It turned out that the group of people who came back to rob were really no ordinary thieves.
Most of the gangs of thieves and bandits roaming this wasteland are composed of exiled prisoners from Kyushu or Silla, with at most a few or two local natives mixed in among them.
But this time, after Ge San inquired later, he found that this group of people was actually composed of martial arts people from Silla and Kyushu.
Moreover, they are all very skilled!
At this time, Su Wangting questioned: "Logically speaking, how can people in the martial arts degenerate into thieves who plunder everywhere?"
Ge San replied: "I spent some money and asked the exiled prisoners to inquire about it. Those people were warriors who were expelled from the rivers and lakes of Kyushu or Silla, and they were all masters who survived the fierce fighting.
I heard that most of them are from Silla."
"Do you know where they ended up?"
Ge San pointed to the northwest: "There is a hilly area more than thirty miles away in this direction, and they set up camp among the hills."
Su Wangting said "oh" and asked again: "What were the things that were robbed in total?"
Ge San scratched his greasy and tangled hair, clapped his fingers and said, "Six white bears, about sixty yuan of whale ointment, two garlic trucks... Well... and then there are the dry food prepared for the girls."
“What’s whale oil ointment and garlic carton?”
"In short...it's something you need to go to a bitter cold place!" Ru Yan looked very anxious.
Su Wangting jumped on the carriage, picked up the riding whip and said with a smile: "Don't be impatient for a moment. You and the two girls will have a rest in this village first. I'll go and come back."
Ge San asked in shock: "Brother, are you going to get your things back alone?"
Su Wangting nodded.
"Hey, how can this happen! There are twelve or thirteen of them, and all of them are very skilled. If you go alone, you will be wasting your life in vain!"
Su Wangting ignored these words, waved his riding whip, shouted "drive", and the carriage galloped towards the northwest.
Ge San stomped his feet at the departing carriage: "Oh, why waste your life! This guy is too reckless, why don't the girls persuade him!?"
Ru Yan sneered: "Persuasion? Does his Jade Faced Demon Sword need our persuasion?"
"Jade-faced demon sword?" Ge San frowned, "Hey, I haven't returned to Kyushu for a long time. Could it be that this brother is considered the number one figure in today's world?"
Ruyan walked into Zhuangzi with an impatient face and waved her sleeves: "I'm too lazy to tell you, I'm not in the mood right now! Do you have hot tea and soup? Bring me three bowls!"
"Uh...yes."
After traveling to the northwest for more than twenty miles, as Ge San said, we could see some low hills.
It is said to be a hill, but it is also full of gravel, without a single plant or tree, and it is equally desolate.
It is more appropriate to say it is a stone hill.
Su Wangting drove his carriage through the stone hills and found several traces of bonfires burning along the way. It was obvious that there should be some activity in this area.
In addition to the traces of burning, some animal bones can also be seen. These brown and crispy bones can be seen to have been burned and cooked. It seems that they should have been thrown away after eating.
"Huh?" Su Wangting suddenly sniffed his nose at this time, "This is... why is there a burning smell in the air?"
Jumping out of the carriage and climbing to the top of the stone hill beside him, Su Wangting squinted and looked around.
After a while, the corners of his mouth raised.
I saw a large rocky valley about three miles ahead, with black smoke rising from the valley.
"Is that there?"
Su Wangting abandoned the carriage and used Qinggong to skim down the top of the hill.
At this time, next to a blazing bonfire, more than a dozen men were sitting or lying, chatting away.
On the bonfire, a whole roe deer was roasting, and the aroma filled the air.
There are no animals in a wild land like Liangyuan. Most of the bandits that roam Liangyuan go hunting in the pine forests near Kyushu.
Fortunately, the temperature here is very low all year round, and raw meat is easy to preserve. The animals hunted from the pine forest can be used as food reserves without worrying about spoilage.
This roe deer is most likely one of their meat stocks.
I saw that each of these men had their own weapons beside them, including long swords common in Kyushu and long swords with narrow scabbards similar to those used by Su Wangting.
"Are you done baking? I'm starving to death!!" At this time, a burly man with two axes hanging on his waist shouted impatiently and slapped his fat belly loudly.
A man in charge of the barbecue with a long knife on his waist laughed and scolded: "You bitch, you eat the most every time, and you make the loudest cry of hunger! You scream hungry every day, but why don't you see me?"
Have you lost half of your body fat?"
As soon as these words came out, everyone laughed and began to make fun of the tall man. The chatter was very lively.
"Wow, the barbecue smells so good! You guys really know how to live a good life!"
A strange voice suddenly came.
Everyone was startled, and when they looked closely, they saw a man with a long sword in a narrow sheath on his waist appearing beside the bonfire at some point, staring at the roasted roe deer and smacking his lips, almost dripping with laughter.
Su Wangting!
"Crash..."
There was a sound of weapons being fired.
The man in charge of barbecue who was closest to Su Wangting rubbed his eyes and muttered: "I think he was blinded by the fire. Where did you get out of here?"
Su Wangting laughed and said, "It's freezing cold and I'm hungry. Can you give me some barbecue?"
"Go, go, go, we don't even have enough to eat!" The barbecue man quickly stood in front of Su Wangting, protecting his beloved barbecue.
"Hey, stingy!" Su Wangting curled his lips.
At this time, the burly man looked Su Wangting up and down warily and asked, "Are you a Silla warrior?"
"No, I'm from Kyushu." Su Wangting stared at the barbecue and replied casually.
"But the long sword on your waist is a typical Silla weapon."
Su Wangting swallowed: "Yes, yes. But I am indeed from Kyushu."
The sturdy man held the two axes on his waist and slowly walked towards Su Wangting: "Could it be that... you want to join the gang?"
Su Wangting pointed to the barbecue and grinned: "Once we join the group, can you share the meat with me?"
The burly man's eyes flashed coldly, and he said in a deep voice: "You can join the gang, but... there is no reason to join the gang empty-handed."
"Yeah, yeah, I understand the rules, I understand."
As he spoke, Su Wangting took out the silk bag Bai Kui gave him from his arms and opened it.
Bright yellow gold ingots.
Everyone let out bursts of exclamation, and then they all had ferocious smiles on their faces, staring at Su Wangting's hand like hungry wolves.
"Now, can we join the gang?" Su Wangting said with a smile.