"It's okay, it's actually not difficult to leave."
Seeing Jenkins' frowning expression, the smoking old man changed his subject and pointed in the direction Jenkins came from:
"There is a temple over there. Find the temple and express piously that you want to leave. As long as you don't offend the world and your luck is not too bad, you should be able to leave. Remember, it's a temple, not a temple. That's fine. Distinguish, the temples are usually extremely dilapidated and full of dangers, do not touch any temples in the snow field, they are the remnants of the old days."
As he spoke, he even drew a road map on the snow with his fingers:
"It's hard to find the temple if you're not a local. Your luck is really good, and of course, my luck is also pretty good."
As he spoke, he exhaled smoke rings again. His movements were quite skillful, and he seemed to be an old smoker.
"I want to ask some questions about this place."
Jenkins said again.
"You ask, but I can't answer everything. You know, it's better not to know some things."
"I understand. Excuse me, what are you doing?"
He pointed to the bamboo basket thrown by the old man just now:
"Picking medicine."
"Picking medicine?"
"Don't believe it?"
As he spoke, he pulled the bamboo basket, opened the lid on it, and grabbed a handful of blue grass. They look similar to the weeds in the material world, but the abundance of spirits that almost escape into the air shows that this thing is absolutely unusual:
"You see, my luck is not bad today. I collected so much in 30 hours on the mountain. In this way, the materials I exchanged after returning home are enough for our family to survive the next snowstorm year."
It roughly stuffed the grass back into the bamboo basket, but after a moment of hesitation, it pulled out another one and handed it to Jenkins:
"It can be regarded as a gift that you saved my life, and it can also be used as a souvenir. After all, the possibility of you being able to come here again is almost zero. It can be seen that you should be a very powerful person, and you can stand up without any help." Here. I can't do it, I've been up the mountain for too long, and I didn't notice that the cold spirit invading the body is approaching the threshold."
Then, he took out another brass pocket watch with burrs on the metal surface from the bamboo basket, but when he opened it, the scale inside looked like a water meter:
"I had prepared enough cigarettes, but I almost froze to death. If I said this, I would be laughed at for a long time. But you see, my cold spirit is already below the threshold."
he said, waving at Jenkins and putting the thing away.
"You people here rely on cigarettes to keep warm?"
he asked tentatively.
"No, it's not about maintaining body temperature, it's about lowering body temperature and assimilating myself with the cold spirit. Not only cigarettes, there are many ways to achieve this purpose. For example, the herbs I pick can be used to prepare some potions. It's a pity that I am very poor, and only can use this."
With a cigarette in his mouth, he spit out a puff of white smoke from the corner of his mouth. When talking about his financial situation, the old man did not feel troubled by it, but instead smiled:
"But it's good, at least I still have this."
As he spoke, he took out the cigarette case and planned to let Jenkins smoke it, but Jenkins refused again.
He then explained the situation he encountered, and tried to find out about [Blizzard Ghost]. It's a pity the old man didn't know about such a weird thing, but he gave Jenkins a very important message:
"No matter what it is, don't even think about killing people on this holy snow field. It is an unforgivable crime to let warm blood melt the holy white snow. So, no matter what that evil spirit you are talking about, as long as it understands Here, it is absolutely impossible to use brutal means to kill people."
Jenkins nodded, indicating that he understood the situation. Then he got up and prepared to continue his journey, but the old man said that he would continue to wait for the snow to stop before setting off. He also wanted to gather some herbs, otherwise it would be too wasteful to leave the kingdom so far and go deep here.
"That old man has a problem."
Jenkins said to himself as he followed the footprints, twirling the grass with his left hand. Vanilla's snow-white head popped up again, and his eyes were attracted by the plant in Jenkins' hand.
"Go back, didn't you say not to leave your clothes?"
The little paw stretched forward, but Jenkins pressed it back immediately. Confirming that his pet cat retracted his clothes again, Jenkins reached out to hold his heart again:
"The Ice Soul didn't respond. Could it be that the opportunity for the Ice Soul's awakening isn't here?"
After thinking about it, he stuffed the grass into his mouth. The blue grass looks weird, but it tastes pretty good, and it has an inexplicable aroma. With chewing, the juice of the tender grass flows into the throat, and the spirit in the body increases slightly.
In addition, [Ning Bing]'s ability seemed to flash suddenly, but there was no other change.
"No response, it seems that's not the case."
"Meow~"
The cat in the clothes is already protesting.
Continuing to follow the footprints, the team with only a dozen people left actually separated again. All the way to the upper left, all the way to the upper right. So Jenkins called out his cat again to show the way, but this time it didn't cooperate very much, and it didn't help to look to the left until it was touched by Jenkins a few times.
After walking a few steps, I saw someone in front again, this time it was a middle-aged woman, still dressed in summer like the old man just now, and there were a few patches of coarse cloth on the skirt. Her appearance is not outstanding, just like an ordinary country woman. With a small basket in his right hand, he walked towards Jenkins with a somewhat anxious expression.
She hunched over and shielded her face with her left arm. Finally seeing Jenkins through the heavy snow, he subconsciously backed away in surprise, and then shouted to him holding back his fear:
"You're human, right?"
Of course, Jenkins couldn't understand this sentence, so he explained in Elvish that he didn't understand. After getting the poor Elvish translation, he said:
"Of course it's a human being. Why do you ask that?"
"Isn't this obvious... Oh, so you are an outsider? In our place, once it snows, many strange things will appear outside the kingdom. Therefore, we generally don't go out in snowy weather. You have to How do you prove that you are human?"
"Why should I prove it?"
He shook his head, then gave way to signal the woman to go first:
"I don't want to stop and talk to you at all, so goodbye, lady."
After speaking, he pulled his legs and continued to walk along the difficult snowy mountain road. After he passed the woman, he heard the woman ask again:
"Sorry, I know that outsiders are always guarding this place. I shouldn't doubt you... Excuse me, did you see a herbal picker carrying a bamboo basket just now? I'm here to deliver food."
she asked shyly.
Jenkins paused on his feet, then turned and said:
"In that direction, there is smoking behind the stone. You continue down the mountain following my footprints, and the smoke will be gone in fifteen minutes."
"Okay, thank you, are you looking for the owner of these footprints?"
She pointed again to the footprints where only six people remained.
"Yes."
"I saw them 20 minutes ago. The group of people was very strange. I didn't dare to approach them."
"Are they all still alive?"
"At least in my opinion, they are all still alive. Although they have no way to resist the cold, they are lucky enough to find some old sacrificial utensils, which may allow them to live for a while longer, but those sacrificial utensils are all Cursed."
Then, Jenkins got the news about the "sacrificial utensils" from the woman. What she and the old man just believed in, no accident, is the supreme existence called "The Lord of Winter", but as long as there are people All kinds of miraculous things will happen.
Some people superficially believe in the [Lord of Winter], but actually worship some weird and terrifying existences in the vast snowfield.
Because of the sacrifice, the sacrificial utensils were produced, and these things were stained with power, but also attached to the curse. All the items called "Old Sacrificial Utensils" are inaccessible to people in this world.
But the outsiders didn't know, so when the woman saw the group of people just now, she didn't approach them.
In order to thank Jenkins for guiding her, the woman took a handful of beans from her basket and gave it to Jenkins when they parted. It's just an ordinary bean that's been fried and used for nothing else but to relieve hunger.
"This woman has problems too."
After continuing on the road, Jenkins said, the white cat with its head stretched out looked straight at the handful of beans, and had no time to consider what Jenkins said.
"So what's the point of giving me beans?"
He thought for a while, raised his head and swallowed all the beans, not a single one was left, and immediately felt a slight increase in spirit.
"What does that mean?"
No curse or toxin was found in the body inspection, which made him even more confused.
Moving on, the team of six again split left and right, this time the cat directed Jenkins to the left, and Jenkins continued to the left. He smacked his lips to recall the taste of the handful of beans, which made the cat even more dissatisfied, and huddled in his chest and sulked.
Continuing to go upwards, the wind and snow became heavier, and while the visibility decreased, strange noises came from the direction away from the footprints. Jenkins bent over and stepped on the snow nest step by step before he heard the cry for help. He let the cat with a sharp nose find the location, and then rescued a young girl from the thick snow close to the cliff.
As soon as she came out, she took a big breath, and then took out a small green apple from the pocket hanging on her waist. The color of the apple made Jenkins' teeth sore at a glance. But the girl ate the apple without any scruples, and there was not even the core left:
"Oh God, I'm alive again."
She looked like an old man who had just taken a puff of a cigarette, her face was ruddy and her spirit had returned to normal. Looking at Jenkins who was about to speak, he didn't expect Jenkins to speak first. He shook his finger at the girl:
"I guess, you are looking for a middle-aged woman, or an old man with gray hair, right?"
PS: The chapter numbers of the first three chapters are wrong, they have been changed, and the refreshed chapters are visible.