Bears About

Suddenly, Qiluo's long horns emitted a soft light, enveloping the entire carriage.

"Mind Mapping!"

The unicorn's magic projected the images Younier sensed into the consciousness of everyone present.

"What happened to the doctrinal debate we were promised?" Su Ming asked, puzzled.

"Gossip is supreme!" the unicorn retorted confidently, stuffing another handful of popcorn into its mouth.

The image was initially blurry and indistinct, as if seen through a thin veil. As Younier's perception deepened, the image became clearer.

Inside a dark cave, many young girls lay sprawled on the floor. Their pale faces were frozen in terror, and their disheveled clothes were stained with dark red blood.

All of them are household items!

"Ah!" Younier screamed, dropping the gold coins in her hand. The girl's already weak mental energy instantly became disordered, and her face turned as pale as paper.

Jielusi immediately cast a divine spell, enveloping Younier in warm light and soothing her frightened heart.

"This is blatant provocation!" Su Ming slammed his fist on the table.

Zijin shook her head. She released her perception ability again, carefully scanning the area within a radius of several miles, but still found nothing. Judging from the signs, they did not seem to be targeted by any enemy.

Su Ming was completely baffled. Since the mastermind was able to pinpoint their location, why would they choose to use small animals to deliver a message and provoke them? This roundabout approach was truly incomprehensible.

Why don't we just click "Initiate a surprise attack" and everyone just start fighting?

He unfolded the military map on the "Green Bamboo Slip" and sensed the location of the "Dark Beacon." The little squirrel had already run nearly a kilometer to the west, leaving a clear trail on the map.

Following the directional marker, Su Ming discovered it was the route to the Upper Ridge Mountains.

"As for caves," Hansite pointed to a spot on the map a dozen kilometers away, "There's a place called Him Cavern, which is a very large natural cave."

Su Ming looked at the location of Him Cavern, which happened to be in the direction the little squirrel had gone.

"So the enemy is in the Him Cavern?"

"It's very likely that there are no other large caves around here," Newman said. As an engineering master, he had the authority to speak on the geological conditions of the Northern Lands.

Su Ming was annoyed and confused, but that didn't stop him from devising a plan.

First, the Youth Civilization immediately moved to an area with a wider field of vision. This would allow them to fully utilize the detection and surveillance capabilities of the train's modern equipment.

This movement also reduced the straight-line distance between the train and the Him Cavern to about 8 kilometers, separated only by a few hills. Su Ming released a drone to scout the cave.

This time, Su Ming dispatched a total of three drones. Through signal relay, one of the drones could even fly into the shallow area inside the cave. Considering the enemy in the dark, Su Ming controlled the drone to fly low close to the terrain, at a relative height of less than one meter, cautiously approaching as if playing hide-and-seek.

The Jisu team's fully upgraded drone flight control system has significantly increased the number of auxiliary functions designed to address potential battlefield environments in other worlds.

It wasn't until we were three kilometers away from the cave, climbing up a hillside, that the drone finally captured an image of the cave in its transmitted footage. It was an opening embedded in the mountain wall, about ten meters square.

Just then, a tall, white figure emerged from the cave.

Su Ming quickly lowered the drone's altitude and landed it on the snow.

"What's that!" He zoomed in on the image; the distance measurement showed it was about 2.5 kilometers. Based on the image size, he calculated that the white figure was over three meters tall!

"It's the Bearfolk Clan," Hansite said. "Strange, what are the Bearmen doing here?"

"Sowing discord? Using one tiger to devour another?" Su Ming instinctively suspected. In all the high-level Eagle Wars, Su Ming's first thought was this: the person behind the scenes was using this provocative letter to lure them into conflict with the Bearfolk Clan!

However, this Him Cavern is only five kilometers away as the crow flies from Pagni Canyon, where Su Ming planned to cross the Lower Ridge Mountains.

He really needs to figure out what's going on with these bear-like people!

****

The First Tier of the Icefield, Lisi City.

Leoni finally arrived in the small town. By now, his mood had calmed down considerably, and Princess Dafulin's intentions were clear.

Since Bone King and Liya have come to the Northern Lands, the princess must win over one of the few powerful figures in the Northern Lands —at least he is still considered a member of the Cold Mountain Kingdom's faction.

Dafulin chose to let Alva Territory, giving him this small task both as an investigation and as a way of showing goodwill.

"But if it's Liya, can we entrust that matter to her?" Leoni pondered to himself.

The carriage slowly came to a stop, having arrived at the ruins of the Asitake family's residence.

Leoni stepped down from the carriage. Although half a year had passed, his injuries were still not fully healed. The short journey had also made him look much paler.

He walked slowly toward the explosion site—the once magnificent mansion was now nothing but ruins, lightly covered by a thin layer of snow.

As his boots stepped over the dilapidated gate, the whole world suddenly turned into a black and white silhouette. With each step he took, the collapsed courtyard wall began to repair itself, and the blasted stone slabs were pieced back together. Continuing on, the trees in the courtyard that had been shattered and burned to ashes were also "replanted" in their original places.

He stopped in front of the burned-out house, the black and white silhouette spreading like ripples until the complete building reappeared before his eyes. A fierce-looking mercenary was holding a dagger to Dafulin's neck, his back against the wall. A few drops of bright red blood slowly slid down Dafulin's snow-white neck.

"Trace Shadows of All Things," a high-level nature spell, is the ultimate reconnaissance tool for forest rangers!

Although more than ten days have passed and the images are slightly blurry, this did not prevent Leoni from obtaining crucial information.

Upon entering the house, Leoni saw the legendary alchemist gunslinger. Wielding a strangely shaped weapon, the gunslinger destroyed Bulenleifu's puppet with just two shots.

"So this is Bone King." His eyes flickered slightly as Su Ming's disguise quickly disappeared, revealing his true face. "So young!" Leoni couldn't help but exclaim.

The puppet crashed heavily at his feet, raising a cloud of non-existent dust. He already knew the fate of the Grand Puppeteer Bulenleifu.

"Those who engage in intrigue will ultimately perish because of their own schemes." Leoni shook his head; this man had met a fitting end.

He ventured deeper into the cellar. Suddenly, a fire broke out on the ground, flames dripping from the oil stains, threatening to ignite the flammable materials inside.

But soon, the air was forcibly sucked out, and a light curtain precisely extinguished all the fires, cleverly avoiding the people in the cellar.

"Exquisite control!" Leoni exclaimed sincerely. Even he himself couldn't match that level of skill.

The smallest priest descended into the cellar, his phantom passing through Leoni's body as he searched for the imprisoned girl.

Leoni followed closely behind and saw four girls imprisoned in the cellar, with a severed rope on the ground.

He continued walking inside, where the priest was also searching. He didn't untie the ropes, choosing instead to maintain control of the situation first.

At the end of the cellar, Leoni saw a cocoon of light.

To be precise, it should be the fifth girl—at least in terms of her silhouette and clothing. But her head was a tangled ball of gray thread, tightly binding her head.

"What is this?" Leoni, very puzzled.

As time passes or the scene is deliberately destroyed, it's normal to not be able to see the faces of people in the retrospective Trace Shadows of All Things.

But the appearance of such a cocoon is too bizarre!

In the illusory world, the priest also found the girl, and he suddenly issued a terrified warning.

Leoni then looked at the details and discovered that the girl with the cocoon-like head was in the middle of a pile of alchemical explosives. She was holding a detonator, which she had already inserted into the explosives.

Just as the priest's paralysis spell was about to hit, the girl crushed the detonator without hesitation.

"Is this inside man so loyal that he'd rather die than let everything else be destroyed?"

Leoni muttered to himself, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes.

****

At the foot of the Upper Ridge Mountains, near the Him Cavern.

Su Ming ordered drones number one and two to stop and wait, while he himself piloted drone number three, keeping it close to the ground at a height of about one meter, carefully bypassing any obstructions to his view.

Although the flight control system allows him to fly lower, too much of a good thing is bad—it would kick up snowflakes from the ground, making him even more noticeable.

Soon, the drone approached to a position of about one and a half kilometers, and the angle changed to a better side view.

This time, we could finally see the entire area near the cave entrance: it was a roughly leveled area where a dozen enormous mammoths stood quietly. In the center of the area was a circular structure about ten meters in diameter, and the bear-men were busy moving various things around.

"The Ring of Winter!" Newman suddenly exclaimed, recognizing the device. "How could the Bearfolk Clan have something like this?"

"The Ring of Winter?" Zijin's expression changed upon hearing this. "Su Ming, that's a powerful magical weapon!"

"How huge exactly?" Su Ming asked.

"I haven't seen it with my own eyes," Zijin replied, her expression grave. "But it's said that this thing consumes 100,000 gold coins worth of materials just once it's used!"

Su Ming's heart tightened—a weapon that requires such a huge price to acquire must be incredibly powerful!

Due to the considerable distance, the image transmission resolution was limited. Su Ming chose to take a screenshot and send the high-resolution photo back for analysis.

This time, it was finally clear that there were quite a few humans mixed in with the bears at the scene. Some were working together, while others were clearly overseeing the work.

Judging from their positions, the highest-ranking individuals are a human standing next to the "Ring of Winter" and the largest bear-man.

Unfortunately, this angle only captured the view from behind, so Su Ming had to operate another drone to circle around to the opposite side to take the picture.

"Luckily, we discovered these bear-men in advance." Newman said, still shaken. "Which 'kind person' delivered the letter?"