Yeah, he still isn't strong enough. If Poker-Face had the power of Outer Scenery, who would dare scheme against him? There'd be no need for any of this messy nonsense. He could just bulldoze straight through and be done with it. Cao Ya sighed inwardly, entertaining the idea of teaching Poker-Face a cultivation method.
With Poker-Face's foundation, getting started should be easy, right?
But why would he teach someone a cultivation method for no reason?
The Cao Yas of different worlds varied somewhat in temperament.
Had it been the Cao Ya from the world of Global Martial Arts, he might have passed on the cultivation method right then and there.
"Well, we'll see later." Cao Ya shook his head.
When Shunzi heard that they still wanted to head farther up, he sighed and shook his head. He said they couldn't ride the horses any higher; they would have to use horse-drawn snow sleds. In winter, Changbai Mountain was actually at its easiest to travel across. Apart from blizzard conditions, a horse-drawn snow sled could generally reach anywhere a horse could go.
But once the wind picked up, they had to obey Shunzi in everything. If he said to turn back, they turned back. There could be absolutely no objections.
Cao Ya didn't mind. He had nothing to fear anyway.
The others nodded their agreement too. They unloaded the luggage from the horses and put it onto the sleds. Once everything was ready, Shunzi shouted to the horses and cracked his whip, leading the way. The remaining horses followed automatically, and the group sped across the snow.
Cao Ya still sat at the edge of a sled, with Poker-Face on the other side.
The others really were freezing badly.
The sled ride was quite fun, but the wind was so strong that the others grew cold and seemed to lose all feeling. Once the novelty wore off, they quickly went numb.
Cao Ya, on the other hand, found it fun the whole time. He looked around curiously, as though he had rediscovered his childhood innocence.
That was only because he had the strength to back it up. If his body had been frozen stiff, like hell would he have been in the mood.
Since they were on mountain trails, the horses ran unsteadily, and Fatty was far too heavy. Several times, they nearly tipped over into the snow, but each scare passed without incident.
Had the cold not been unbearable, Fatty would definitely have started boasting.
It wasn't actually luck. Cao Ya had simply intervened in secret.
They kept going until the sky turned gray. The wind grew stronger and stronger, and the horses moved slower and slower. Everyone had to put on wind goggles.
Cao Ya didn't. He had never liked wearing glasses, whether they had prescription lenses or not.
The others had lost all desire to talk, and none of them asked whether Cao Ya could take it.
His face looked rosy anyway. He was doing much better than they were.
They had better worry about themselves instead.
Cao Ya admired the snowy scenery. White snowflakes were everywhere, some falling from the sky, others blown down from the snowy mountains.
Everyone's body had gone stiff, and they felt utterly miserable. Fatty wanted to curse, but the words froze in his throat.
They also ran into a problem along the way. The snow was too deep and loose, and the horses refused to cross it, so they had to get off and walk.
Shunzi said there was an abandoned border outpost ahead, so they decided to make their way there on foot.
They could only let the horses loose and hope they returned safely.
Shunzi said the horses knew the way and had good endurance, so there was no need to worry.
Cao Ya abandoned his plan to intervene.
He had been planning to help the horses. They were out robbing tombs; how could they expect not to suffer a little?
Unless their lives were in danger, Cao Ya would not readily intervene.
Everyone dragged the sleds through the snow with great difficulty. This was a wind gap between the ridges on either side, and the wind was especially fierce.
Shunzi said they could reach the border outpost in an hour, but after two hours of walking, there was still no sign of it.
It turned out the outpost had been buried in snow. No wonder they had wandered around for ages without finding it.
Pan Zi and Fatty shouted, cold and hungry.
Shunzi said there was another hot spring ahead, inside a hill. It was very warm there, and if they could reach it, the food they had brought would keep them going for at least five or six days.
Fatty suspected that the hot spring had been buried in snow too.
Shunzi said it wouldn't be, because the hot spring was at a higher elevation than this place. Generally speaking, it couldn't get buried in snow. If they really did run into such rotten luck,
then it was fate, and there was nothing they could do. "Are you sure or not?" Fatty no longer trusted Shunzi much.
Shunzi nodded firmly. "I definitely won't be wrong this time. If we can't find it, dock my pay."
"That'll have to wait until our next fucking lives." Wu Xie rolled his eyes.
But they had no choice. They could only follow Shunzi's plan.
With mournful faces, everyone followed Shunzi farther up. The farther they walked, the darker it became. Shunzi pulled out a rope and had everyone tie it around themselves. Visibility was so poor that they couldn't see one another at all, and the wind was too loud for anyone to hear their shouts. Only the rope could keep everyone together; otherwise, they wouldn't even know when someone went missing.
With Cao Ya there, of course, the situation Shunzi described could never happen.
But the others didn't know that. For safety's sake, they could only follow Shunzi's instructions.
Cao Ya didn't tie the rope around himself, declining Shunzi's kind offer.
Cao Ya's earlier performance was still vivid in their minds. They all knew he was no ordinary man. Perhaps he would still be perfectly fine even if all of them were finished. So after trying to persuade him a couple of times and seeing how firmly he refused, they stopped.
Cao Ya simply found the rope uncomfortable.
He wasn't afraid of anything happening, so why not let himself walk in comfort?
He still walked at the very back. Up ahead, those near the front pulled farther and farther away, while those behind lagged ever farther back. Everyone seemed to have blurred vision and was swaying on their feet. Something would probably go wrong soon.
Cao Ya frowned slightly and flicked a finger gently. Several wisps of force brushed over them, instantly bringing them back to their senses and clearing their minds.
Everyone felt a lingering fear at the state they had just been in. They thought this was a sign from Heaven: surely nothing would go wrong on this trip into the mountains.
Those were words of comfort. In truth, none of them felt certain.
Cao Ya smiled. Heaven, nothing. It had plainly been his doing.
They walked a while longer, and both the wind and the snow grew stronger. The others couldn't see anything beyond a meter away or tell north from south, east from west. The fierce wind pressed down on them so hard that they couldn't even lift their heads. They were almost crawling forward; if they stood up, they would be blown over.
Watching from behind, Cao Ya rather regretted not bringing his phone. Photos of this would have made perfect records of their embarrassing past.
He was still in perfect condition and felt nothing at all, but the others couldn't take it anymore. Every face was deathly pale. Chen Pi A Si's eyes were unfocused. It looked as though the old fellow was close to his limit in this brutal environment and was about to go into shock.
Shunzi, leading the way up front, was also on the verge of passing out, swaying and staggering from side to side.
The rest were hardly any better. They felt numbness spreading from their limbs through their entire bodies. Each desperately reminded himself to stay alert, but they couldn't hold on at all. With every step, their eyelids felt as though another lump of lead had been poured into them, dragging them heavily downward.
Just then, Cao Ya's expression shifted. He had sensed something.
Have we arrived?
He suddenly frowned. Up ahead, everyone was tumbling like gourds rolling across the ground. The snow beneath their feet had collapsed, and the rope dragged them one after another into the snow. They rolled over and over, tumbling several times before coming to a stop.
Since their lives weren't in danger, Cao Ya didn't intervene.
Cao Ya took a single step, crossing more than a hundred meters to reach the slope where they had fallen, and looked down.
The rocky slope was steep. The group had stopped five or six meters above the bottom, their rope caught on a jutting corner of rock. Otherwise, they would certainly all have rolled all the way down.
The bottom of the slope was covered in chunks of snow and rocks that had slid down with them. Several sections of long, slender black claws protruded from the snowdrift.
Cao Ya looked thoughtful. Was that the thing the Eastern Xia King used to maintain his longevity?
So ugly!
Before you continue