In the afternoon, more than 200 miles east of Qingshan County, there was a remote low mountain forest.
"Wang Wang"
"Wang Wang"
In an originally quiet pine forest on the mountainside with white pine needles, a few dog barking sounds suddenly rang out.
Shortly after,
"squeak"
"squeak"
The sound of stepping on the snow, some deep and some shallow, began to sound, becoming clearer as it came from far away.
Soon, a figure wearing a deerskin coat, a felt hat, a bow and arrow on his shoulder, and a chopping knife on his waist appeared.
The figure was a bearded man with a dark face that was cracked and weathered.
White air was coming out of his mouth. He saw his six hunting dogs barking around a tree from afar. He immediately became alert, quickly put down the longbow from his arm, and with his other hand took out an arrow from the basket behind his back, bent the bow, put the arrow on it, and aimed in that direction.
But when he looked carefully, he saw a hand reaching out from under the tree with his back to the ground.
"people?"
The man's eyebrows jumped, but he didn't step forward immediately.
As a hunter in the nearby mountains, the man knew that there were many strange things in the mountains, and occasionally he heard of mountain spirits and monsters disguising themselves as humans to harm people.
In this icy and snowy place, deep in the mountains and forests, any normal person would find this scene strange.
He drew his bow and shot at the big tree.
"call out"
"boom"
The arrow shot out more than ten feet away and hit the tree trunk below with a bang. The arrow body trembled and made a buzzing sound.
It also shook off some of the snow on the tree.
That "person" didn't respond!
Out of caution, the man bent his bow again and shot an arrow, this time directly into the snow a few feet away from the hand.
Still no movement!
This time the man began to move slowly, went around to one side, and finally saw an old man sitting slumped under the uncle.
His clothes were tattered and his body was stained with blood. In his other hand, he tightly grasped a sharpened wooden stick, which was still covered in blood.
The old man closed his eyes and his body was covered with a layer of white frost.
The man was shocked and quickly knelt down on one knee under the tree to check on the old man's condition.
The old man's body was already stiff, with several wounds on his body obviously caused by scratches from wild beasts. The blood flowing out of the wounds had frozen into ice. He sniffed for breath.
"Still alive!"
The man felt the faint warmth and without saying a word, he quickly took off his deerskin coat, wrapped the thin and stiff old man, then put the quiver in his mouth, carried the old man on his back, and hurried down the mountain.
After walking about a hundred meters, a small sled appeared in front of us. It was not big, only five or six feet in size. On it was a pile of firewood, hunting tools, and five or six wild rabbits and musk deer.
These are what the man gained from his trip up the mountain.
But the man put the old man down first, then threw away all the firewood he had chopped on the sled, and then put the old man lying flat on the sled.
Then the man called his hunting dog over, put the rope in front of the sled on the hunting dog, then sat on the side of the sled and whistled.
The next second, the hounds barked and worked together to pull the wooden sled down the mountain.
The sky gradually darkened and the wind and snow began to blow again.
At the foot of Songqiao Mountain under the wind and snow, stands a lonely and dilapidated mountain temple.
This was built by hunters from a nearby village in the early years, but over the years, and because it was located deep in the mountains and forests, it became dilapidated.
Live off the mountain, and everyone wishes for peace.
A hundred meters outside the mountain temple, the Nujiang River flows by.
At this time, the sky was dark. In the mountain temple, there were flickering lights and voices.
"Crackle" "It's this late, why hasn't Zhuang Lao Er come back yet?"
"It's snowing again. Could it be that I'm blinded? That would be terrible."
"Yes, it snowed for almost half a month. It has never happened before. Even the topography has changed. I'm sure everyone will not recognize many places when they enter the mountains this time. It has become much more dangerous. It's not impossible."
"How about we all go out and look for them? They are all from the same village."
"Go ahead if you want to. It's windy and snowy outside, and it's getting dark. If you take a few steps, your footprints will disappear. Don't get yourself involved."
"Let's wait a little longer. Zhuang Lao Er learned some martial arts skills in his early years. He is more capable than us. He should be safe."
"."
In the temple, a bonfire was lit. A group of people dressed warmly were sitting around the fire. On the bonfire was a large black pot with bubbling steam and boiling white soup.
There were eleven people in the group, all of them were hunters from Zhuangjiaaozi on the other side of the river. Half a month ago, there was heavy snow in the sky, which blocked the mountain and caught the hunters in the village who relied on the mountain for their livelihood off guard.
After struggling for half a month and seeing that they could barely make ends meet at home, they finally hoped that the snow would stop one day, so the hunters in the village went out together and came to Songqiao Mountain to hunt.
For safety reasons, everyone decided to gather at the mountain temple at 3 . after hunting in the mountains, regardless of whether they gained anything or not, and then return across the river to the village.
However, the snow that had just stopped started again. The wind and snow outside were dazzling, and one person did not return on time. Everyone was guessing what had happened, and everyone was talking about it.
Just then, amid the howling wind and snow outside, the faint sound of dogs barking was heard.
It gradually became clearer as it got closer and closer, and we arrived outside the mountain temple.
"It should be Zhuang Lao Er."
When the villagers heard the noise, they started to make a commotion.
Someone stood up, ran to the door that was propped up with wooden boards, and moved the boards away. Immediately, a cold wind mixed with snowflakes blew into the simple mountain temple, bending the fire that was several feet high inside, and blowing the collars of other people tightly.
In the vast white outside, a figure with a heavy chill, and several large dogs, walked quickly into the temple.
"Zhuang Lao Er, what's wrong with you?"
A hunter from the same village was dissatisfied and was about to say something.
But he was interrupted by the man who rushed in, "Quick, save people!"
The hunter who had just come down from the mountain rushed to the fire and lifted an old man wrapped in a deerskin coat off his back.
The man himself was dressed thinly, and his eyebrows and face were covered with a layer of frost.
"Zhuang Lao Er, what's going on? What happened?"
"Who is this person?"
The other hunters in the village were shocked when they saw the dying old man.
The hunter named Zhuang Laoer did not respond, but quickly scooped a bowl of hot soup from the big pot above the fire, then shook it several times, waiting for the temperature to drop a little, then supported the unconscious old man and poured the warm soup in the bowl into the old man's cracked lips.
Then, he moved the old man closer to the fire, used a small knife on his body to cut a few strips of cloth from his clothes, poured some green powder from the gourd at his waist, poured it on several wounds on the old man's body, and then wrapped and tied the cloth strips.
All in one go!
Everyone in the village was watching closely.
After Zhuang Lao Er finished all this, he let out a long sigh, took off the wet felt hat on his head, and said:
"I picked up this old man from the mountains."
"There are wounds all over his body from being scratched by wild animals. It seems he has been in a fight."
“But not from around our village.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the hunters in the same village immediately became alert.
"Zhuang Lao Er, this is a deep forest in the mountains, and the snow has blocked the mountain. Suddenly a person appears, and you dare to pick him up. Don't hurt everyone."
There must be a demon in the abnormal situation.
It's not that everyone is indifferent, but as a hunter, after staying in the mountains for a long time, I know that if something abnormal happens, it must not be a good thing.
As the villagers stared at the old man warily, the stone eyes of the mud-covered mountain god statue in the temple suddenly moved and saw the old man. Their eyes glowed in the darkness. (End of this chapter)
