The winter Sun rises very slowly.
When we set off, the sky was already faintly lit by the first light of dawn, but it wasn't until the convoy had been rumbling along for several hours that the sun finally rose, as if it were a sleepy teenager who had been playing video games all night.
The snow tires of the off-road vehicle crunched over the thin ice on the Seward Highway.
Enluke said the Seward Highway is the most beautiful highway in the world, running from Anchorage to the Kenai Peninsula, with high mountains and canyons, azure glaciers and lakes along the way. If you go at dusk, you can also follow the most beautiful sunset to chase the midnight light of Alaska.
But this winter is particularly cold. Cold air from the Arctic took over the skies over the southern bay of Alaska very early on, and once it arrived, it stayed there and refused to leave.
Apart from the glaciers, the rest of the scenic beauty along the Seward Highway is gone.
However, Huang Liang quite liked seeing this desolate scenery. After all, he had spent most of his life amidst flowers and greenery. Whether it was the South America in Wuzhong, the European charm of Amsterdam, or the romantic warmth of Stanley Park, none of them could move him as deeply as the primitive beauty reflected by the glaciers here.
When they entered the Harding Icefield and got off the car, Huang Liang felt that his soul had flown out and merged with the vast world in the cold air.
The Harding Icefield is covered by an ice cap 1,600 meters high. About 12,000 years ago, the Pleistocene glaciers that covered the entire continent began to melt, but for some unknown reason, they left behind this ice cap of more than 1,000 square kilometers in southern Alaska.
Compared to the Ice Age more than 10,000 years ago, the Harding Icefield is merely a remnant of ice and snow left over from that era. Yet, humans appear so small standing before it. The massive glaciers stretch into the distance like the tentacles of the earth, and the undulating ice peaks shimmer with a faint blue hue, as if telling a story of ancient sorrow.
Enluke said with no small amount of pride that every step he takes here is a testament to the ancient history of the earth.
Huang Liang wholeheartedly agreed with this statement, but he knew that now was not the time to admire the scenery, nor were they tourists hiking across the ice field.
The only clue to finding the Holy Land of Ice lies in the dreams of the Wolf Family. That mysterious white wolf once led the Wolf Family's ancestors through the Land of Eternal Seal, but later generations have never had such luck and can only catch a glimpse of the White Wolf King's splendor in their dreams.
Quill Wolf is the closest person in recent generations of the family to the White Wolf. He once entered that sacred place in a dream and looked the White Wolf in the eye.
Dreams are neither divinely inspired nor a reflection of the real world. Dreams are composed of memories, and the memories of the White Wolf and the Holy Land are ancient memories etched into the genes of the Wolf people.
According to the clues in the dream, the wolf king's last appearance should be in the Harding Icefield.
The Kenai Peninsula was once home to a giant wolf, measuring two meters in length and over one meter in shoulder height, truly the king of canines. From the 16th century onwards, humans hunted it for three hundred years, ultimately leading to its extinction in the 1920s.
What Huang Liang saw in Old Wolf's dream was a scene of a group of white men hunting Kenai Mountain Wolf. When the wolves had nowhere to escape, the White Wolf King appeared. It attracted all the hunters' attention and was eventually trapped on an ice cliff.
Old Wolf once tried to break through the barrier of the dream, Parasites, in order to obtain clues about the Holy Land, also encouraged him to do so, which weakened him to the point of almost dying.
Only Hong Kui successfully crossed the barrier and saw the ice cliff clearly. He believed that as long as he found this place, he would definitely find further clues.
Finding a specific location on an ice sheet spanning 1,900 square kilometers is difficult, especially since the details shown in the dream are merely scenes etched into genetic memory, at least a hundred years old. In those hundred years, the surface glaciers have changed dramatically, and the place may have been completely transformed. Sometimes, after a heavy snowfall, the mountain peaks become flat land, never to be seen again.
In fact, given the Wolf Family's influence, all Hong Kui needed to do was describe the scene in detail and arrange for people to search for it. As long as there were enough people and equipment, finding it would be relatively easy.
In fact, Hong Kui had already started doing this a long time ago. But to keep it a secret, he didn't make a big fuss about it, and instead only let his trusted Enluke be in charge, to do it quietly.
Although Enluke did not find the place, he delineated the area, at least excluding most irrelevant regions.
He pointed to the undulating ice mountains ahead and said, "It's probably there, there, and there too."
Huang Liang frowned. The area was far too vast, and it pointed in three different directions. How was he supposed to find it?
Hong Kui climbed up a high slope, looked into the distance, and then pointed confidently in a direction, saying, "There."
Huang Liang asked, "Are you sure?"
Hong Kui nodded. "And the book... I can smell his scent carried on the wind."
Huang Liang knew that the "he" he was referring to was the white wolf. He sniffed the air against the wind; the air on the icy plain was fresh, and apart from the cold that made his nose and throat dry, there was nothing else.
In winter, the Sun either doesn't come out at all, or when it does, it climbs very high. The sunlight shines on the ice, shimmering erratically, as if jewels are buried everywhere.
The three men, carrying heavy equipment, quickened their pace. Daylight hours were only five or six hours long this season; if they couldn't find the next clue and return quickly, they'd be forced to camp on the ice field.
After walking for about two hours, they finally arrived at the foot of the ice peak that didn't seem too far away.
Huang Liang glanced back, trying to confirm the distance he had come from, but the blinding light reflected from the ice made him uncomfortable. He squinted and suddenly saw a blurry, cloaked figure flash by in the halo of light, but it had vanished when he looked closer.
"It looks like someone is following us." Huang Liang was sure he wasn't seeing things.
"Who?" Enluke was startled and looked back, but saw nothing.
Huang Liang looked at Hong Kui, wondering if he had seen it, because he had also looked back.
"Hmm, ignore him," Hong Kui said. "Let's go our own way."
They continued walking, and three hours later, Hong Kui suddenly stopped.
He stared silently at the snow-covered ground before him, his eyes reflecting the color of ice, a deep, dark blue.
"This is it," he said.
Huang Liang couldn't see any connection between this place and the ice cliff in his dream.
"Here?" he asked.
"This is it," Hong Kui said. "The heavy snow has obscured the shape of the mountain range; it's hidden in the ice beneath our feet."
"Then what should we do?" Huang Liang didn't think they had the strength to pry open the ice here.
Hong Kui stopped talking and just stood there quietly, as if listening to something.
"Listen, he's calling!" he murmured.
Enluke heard nothing, but dared not ask; he simply stared in astonishment, his mouth agape.
Huang Liang sensed an unusual mental fluctuation emanating from Hong Kui. He turned his head to look and saw that Hong Kui's beard was growing longer, and long white down was growing all over his face.
The fluctuations in his mental state became increasingly apparent, spreading outwards like ripples. Then, sharp fangs emerged from the corners of his mouth, and his eyes glowed green, as if they could see through thick layers of ice.
At that moment, Huang Liang knew that the White Wolf was not under the ice cap, and that Qui- Wolf was the White Wolf.