At this time, it is only an hour before it is time to get up. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

She didn't sleep for long, she was woken up by Yang Xianmao, opened her hazy sleepy eyes, and saw that Yang Xianmao had already lit the air death lantern, and the lights in the tent were very dim. At the head of her bed was an hourglass that showed the hour of the morning.

This is the time they said they would leave. Yang Xianmao didn't call her, and used this hourglass to remind her that it was time to get up, because it was always dark outside, and it was not appropriate to wake her up by the light of day.

Yang Xianmao was already packing up her things, Huang Qiaoqiao was a little embarrassed, so she quickly sat up and rubbed her sleepy eyes.

Neither of them took off their clothes to sleep, but only took off their coats. So I got up and put on my coat immediately, and then hurriedly helped Yang Xianmao clean up. I quickly packed my bags and opened my tent and came out.

It was still dark outside, but there were no stars to be seen, probably obscured by clouds, but the sky was still relatively bright, and under the reflection of the snow on the ground, it could be seen clearly from a distance of 100 paces.

Yang Xianmao didn't bother to look around, so he began to dismantle the tent. Suddenly, he heard Huang Qiaoqiao screaming behind him.

Yang Xianmao couldn't imagine that Huang Qiaoqiao, who had just made a decisive decision, would be so panicked, as if he had encountered something terrifying. The scream frightened him so much that he quickly turned his head back to look.

At this glance, Yang Xianmao's whole person was frightened.

He saw that not far away on the snow, some sled dogs had been bitten to death, and there were pools of blood all over the ground, and the torn stumps, fur and even bitten heads of the sled dogs were scattered on the ice field.

Yang Xianmao bent down and pulled out the black dagger in his boots, and looked around vigilantly, within the scope of their eyes, they did not see any dangerous beasts or people, and the remaining sled dogs lay quietly on the ice and snow, and the wind and snow blew their hair and flew wildly. They lay there indifferently, as if they had no sense of what was happening around them.

Yang Xianmao carried the dagger and slowly walked to the side of the sled dog to check it again. No wild beasts were found in the herd, so he breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately counted the number of dogs, and found that there were sixteen sled dogs missing.

Huang Qiaoqiao nervously walked behind him, her voice trembling a little, and asked, "What's the matter?"

There will be wolves on the land and snow fields, but whether there are wolves on the ice fields of this extreme arctic cold land, Yang Xianmao does not know.

He turned to Huang Qiaoqiao and said, "Didn't you hear any noise last night? ”

Huang Qiaoqiao remembered the sound of chewing and chewing bones, and couldn't help but feel cold hairs stand on end, and her voice trembled a little, and said, "Last night, I heard that there seemed to be some animals eating outside the tent. The chew is relatively small, as if it has chewed bones. But I couldn't hear the dog bark, I didn't hear a dog bark, I didn't hear the dog's whimper, it was quiet, I thought it was the wind, I heard it wrong. If I knew what beast was stealing our sled dogs, I would have woken you up to see, it was all my fault. ”

Yang Xianmao shook his head and said, "You don't have to blame yourself, no one can guess this." ”

Huang Qiaoqiao said: "It should be a wolf pack." ”

"I don't think so. The wolf couldn't have eaten all sixteen sled dogs so easily, and we couldn't hear any of the struggling dogs barking. It is not normal for these sixteen sled dogs to be eaten by them without any struggle or resistance, not even wailing and barking. What kind of animal can quietly bite and eat all sixteen sled dogs?"

Huang Qiaoqiao thought for a while, then shook his head and said, "I don't understand, even if it's a tiger or a black bear, there's no way to eat sixteen sled dogs so quietly." These sled dogs are tall and mighty, like calves, and they may not be able to fight even if the tiger fights them. ”

Yang Xianmao also thought so, he thought about it in his head, all the animals he could think of thought of, and the target was locked on the Flood Desolation God Crocodile. Could it be that the Flood God Crocodile quietly appeared and bit these sled dogs to death?

No, this is the ocean, and under the ice layer is the seawater, and the Flood Divine Crocodile is a land animal, how can it appear in the sea? What's more, this is a thousand-zhang thick ice cap, and the sea water cannot be seen, judging from his experience of encountering the Flood Divine Crocodile so many times, the Flood Divine Crocodile has never been far from the water. What's more, if it is a flood god crocodile, the target of the flood god crocodile should be him, just rush to the tent and bite him to pieces, why only eat sixteen sled dogs and let him go.

If it is an enemy, it is possible to use a blunt knife to pull meat to cause fear to yourself, but it is an animal, animal revenge is revenge, and cats and mice play out of play, but if you want to take revenge, an animal should not think of using a blunt knife to pull meat to torture the opponent to enhance the pleasure of revenge.

If not animals, but humans?

No, the sled dogs are very vigilant, and when strangers approach, they will all bark, and it is impossible for someone to approach and kill these dogs quietly.

Yang Xianmao checked the broken wound of the dog's stump on the ground, and the section was not smooth, indicating that it was not cut by a sharp weapon such as a knife, but was formed by biting. This means that it is the animals, not the people, who kill these dogs.

If it weren't for the Flood Divine Crocodile, what animal could have quietly bitten and eaten sixteen sled dogs, right next to their tent and a whole bunch of sled dogs, it was too incredible.

Huang Qiaoqiao's voice trembled and said to Yang Xianmao: "Let's get out of here quickly, here, I always feel that something is wrong." ”

Yang Xianmao nodded, and the two began to redistribute the sled dogs that pulled the sled. Sixteen of them died, so the five sled dogs had to be reassigned to pull the loaded five. The number of sled dogs has decreased, and of course the speed has slowed down a bit.

They began to walk further north, still an endless ice field, and they kept galloping forward in the dark, but fortunately they were all plains with flat rivers and no hills and ravines, so they didn't have to worry about the road on the ground.

Keep running forward. After running for a few hours, at noon, the sky was much brighter than before, and the sun could even be faintly seen on the horizon, but the sun could not be seen.

It is the afterglow of the sun that can illuminate the entire snowfield and see far away.

Yang Xianmao stopped the sleigh and set up camp to prepare for food. They have to stop and rest, on the one hand, to give the sled dogs a rest, and on the other hand, they have to live and cook hot things to eat to increase the calories in their bodies.

In this extremely cold ice field, it is very important to maintain the temperature of the body. They also need a fire to keep warm. After a few hours of marching, their bodies were almost numb from the cold, and the cold in this extreme northern land was countless times colder than the coldest winter of the Song Dynasty. Although they wore thick fur robes on top and bottom, wrapped like zongzi, the cold wind still mercilessly froze their entire bodies into ice, and they couldn't even feel the sensation of their hands and feet, and if they didn't stop to keep warm, they were worried that their hands and toes would be frostbitten.

They quickly set up their tents, let the sled dogs go so that they could rest, and threw some cut meat for them to eat.

While Yang Xianmao was taking care of the sled dogs, Huang Qiaoqiao sat in the tent and built a stove to boil hot water, use snow to melt the water, and then cook beef soup and cakes.

Yang Xianmao sat cross-legged by the fire and closed the tent tightly, so that the tent was warmer. The two drank the piping hot beef soup and ate the meatloaf, and their bodies gradually warmed up.

Huang Qiaoqiao stretched out her hand from time to time to open the door curtain to look outside, Yang Xianmao was a little strange, and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Huang Qiaoqiao said: "I always feel as if there is the same chewing sound I heard outside last night, is it that monster is coming to eat our sled dogs again, so let's see." ”

Yang Xianmao also hurriedly stretched out his head with the meatloaf, and looked out through the crack in the door curtain, and saw their dozens of sled dogs lying quietly on the snow field gnawing on the meat thrown to them. Some licked their mouths after eating, and did not look at the food in front of other dogs, but looked blankly at the snowfield, and everything was safe. Looking into the distance, the light of the sun still illuminates most of the sky, and there is nothing unusual in the distance.

Yang Xianmao closed the curtain, glanced at Huang Qiaoqiao, sat down and continued to eat the cooking cakes. Huang Qiaoqiao was a little embarrassed, and reluctantly smiled and said, "It's me who made a fuss." ”

Yang Xianmao didn't speak, in fact, he had been pondering the terrifying scene he saw in the morning, and he always felt that there was a mysterious thing following them, and he didn't know what it was. Yang Xianmao herself has such feelings, how can she think that Huang Qiaoqiao is making a fuss.

After eating, the two packed their things and rode along the empty ice field towards the north in a sled dog.

The sun's glow scattered below the horizon lasted less than an hour in the sky before quickly vanishing. The sky, which had become somewhat bright, was once again plunged into darkness. Soon the stars were all over the sky again, looking at them like eyes from the sky.

This time, the daylight was shorter and the brightness was lower, equivalent to the sky showing the whiteness of a fish's belly, and then returning to the pre-dawn darkness.

Huang Qiaoqiao sat on a dog sled behind Yang Xianmao. She was very grateful to Yang Xianmao for this arrangement, if she walked to the front and could not see Yang Xianmao, but could only see the empty, dark and mysterious ice field, she would feel fear and despair in her heart. And now she can see Yang Xianmao's back from behind, which will make her feel grounded.

The biting cold on the ice field quickly robbed her of her heat. She felt her body sink back into coldness, the heat in her body was rapidly draining, and her hands with thick gloves were soon unconscious, as were her feet.

She didn't know if Yang Xianmao would feel as cold as she was. She wanted to call Yang Xianmao to stop and warm up and rest, but they didn't bring much charcoal, only enough for them to use on the ice field for three months. It was the chieftain who estimated for them how long it would take to travel back and forth. And there is no other fire on the ice field, it all depends on these charcoal fires. If the number of fires increased on the road will reduce the number of fires in the future, then they are afraid that on the way back, they will be unable to heat and cook hot food, and they will suffer from cold, starvation, or even death.