After staying in the camp of the ring wall for two days, there was neither the attack of the king of the outside nor the return of General Su Dingfang.

Yan Beixing couldn't sit still.

There is no doubt that more than 200 people have to consume a lot of food rations every day, and it is impossible for them to stay for a long time again.

Yan Beixing had no choice but to lead the team to continue deep into the mountains.

On the second night, they saw a campfire.

The fire did not come from one's own people.

The bonfire in the night, shining on the hillside at the other end, is like a falling star.

In fact, it is brighter than the stars, but it never twinkles, but sometimes it expands and stretches, and sometimes it falls into gloom, like a distant firework, faint and dim.

It was a mile ahead, two thousand feet high, and Jon reckoned that it was condescending, and there was no movement at the mouth of the gorge

"Watcher of the Windsglower Gap," the oldest of them began. This man served as the King's attendant in his youth, so the Guardian Brothers still call him "Attendant" Daiji. "If they dare to light a fire, they are either stupid or have set up an ambush. ”

"I think that if the king of the outside knows that these bastards are making fires, he must have skinned them. Wang Wanli said, although he was short and bald, he was muscular, like a pile of rocks.

"On the high mountains, fire is the source of life," Yan Beixing said, "and it is also the way to die." ”

On his instructions, the team did not make any more open flames after going deep into the mountains.

They fed on raw and cold corned beef and dried biscuits, and when they slept, they huddled together under cloaks and furs to keep each other warm. The experience reminded him of a cold night he spent in the North Underworld a long time ago, when he slept in the same bed with his brothers.

Now these people are also his brothers, but the shared beds have been replaced by rocks and earth.

"They must have a horn to tell the news at all times. Dai Ji said.

Han Jianshi said: "A trumpet that they will never be able to blow." ”

"It's such a high mountain, it's really long and fatal to climb at night. Wang Wanli said, observing the distant flames through the cracks in the rocks that covered everyone.

The sky was cloudless, and the jagged peaks rose in black to the top, and the extreme snow and ice around the summit glowed pale in the moonlight.

"If you're not careful, it's also a long fall. Han Jianshi said, "In my opinion, two people are enough." There should also be two guards over there, taking turns on duty. ”

"I'll come. "The attendant Dai Ji was the first to sign up, and after this period of getting along, Bu Yangying knew that he was the best mountaineer in the team, and this mission was naturally his.

"I'll go too," Bu Yangying said.

Yan Beixing looked at him.

The wind howls through the gorge high overhead, hence the name of the Winds.

Someone's mount hissed, kicking the stony mud of the cave where they were hiding.

"The wolf stays," Yan said northward, "the white fur is too conspicuous in the moonlight. He turned to Daiji. When the deed is done, throw down the torch. We immediately followed. ”

"Let's get started. Dai Ji said.

Each of them took a large roll of rope. Dai Ji also brought a bag of nails and a small hammer wrapped in thick felt at the top. They left their horses, helmets, armor, and white flash behind.

Before leaving, Bu Yangying knelt in front of the ice wolf, allowing the wolf to arch him with his nose. "Stay," he ordered, "I'll come back to you." ”

Daiji takes the lead. He was a short, lanky man, nearly fifty, with a gray beard, but his body was much stronger than he looked, and he was the best night vision of any person Bu Yangying had ever known—and it would come in handy tonight. During the day, the mountains are blue-gray and covered with snow and ice, and when the sun disappears into the jagged peaks, everything is black again. Now, the bright moon hangs high, dyeing them silvery.

The Guardian brothers walked in the dark shadows of the pitch-black rocks, heading towards the cliffs, leaving a curved trail and breathing in the frost of the dark air.

Bu Yangying, who was not wearing armor, felt naked, but fortunately it was easier to move. The journey was hard and slow, and if you were in a hurry, you would have to risk breaking your knee or even more. Dai Ji seemed to instinctively know how to get off his feet, but in this shattered and uneven land, Bu Yangying could only take it step by step and be more careful.

Fengsheng Gorge is a veritable series of canyons, long and winding, sometimes surrounded by rolling snow-swept mountains, and sometimes becoming a hidden gorge that never sees the light of day. Since leaving the forest and going up the mountain, Bu Yangying has not seen any living people except his companions.

The most ruthless of the lands is hostile to humans. The wind is like a sharp knife, screaming in the cold night, as if a mother is mourning her child, the trees here are few and short, and they are crowded in crevices and fissures, and the trails are often overhung with layers of rock chips, and icicles hang from the edges, which look like snow-white fangs from a distance.

Even so, Bu Yangying does not regret this journey, because this is also a place of miracles.

They walked over the edges of steep rock walls and saw the sun glistening over waterfalls covered in thin ice, they wandered the mountain lawns of autumn wildflowers, with their blue ice hearts, scarlet frost fires, and the russet-gold flute grass that people stood up, the deep black caverns that he thought were leading to hell, and he rode horses across wind-eroded natural stone bridges with nothing but the endless sky.

Eagles nest on cliffs and hunt in ravines, tirelessly spreading their majestic blue-gray wings and flying in circles that almost merge with the sky. On one occasion he even witnessed the shadow lynx hunting the ram, which waited and then culled like flowing smoke slowly spilling from the belly of the mountain.

Now it's our turn to cull. He hoped that he could be as firm and silent as the snow wolf, and kill the enemy cleanly. Long Night was on his back, but he was worried about the space he would use, so he also prepared a knife and a dagger. They will have weapons, and I'm not wearing armor.

They walked along the trail for a long time, serpenting, winding, turning and turning on the side of the mountain, constantly going up and up. At some point, the mountains cover each other, and you can't see the campfire in the distance, but as long as you go on, it will repeat itself ahead.

The road Dai Ji chose was not suitable for horses at all, and in some places, even the shadow had to stick his back to the cold stone, dragging his feet like a crab inch by inch. Widening the path is often not a good thing: it will lead to deep holes large enough to swallow people's feet, countless tripping rubble, and puddles of water that flow during the day and condense at night. Take one step at a time, Jon told himself. One step at a time, I will never fall.

After two hours of climbing, the cold wind became so fierce that he could only use all his strength to move desperately, clinging to the cliff, silently praying in his heart not to be blown down. One step at a time, when the wind temporarily stopped, he stressed to himself again. One step at a time, I will never fall.

It wasn't long before they were not allowed to look down at the height they had reached. There is endless darkness underneath him, and the moon and stars are above his head, and there is nothing else between heaven and earth.

"The mountains are your mother," Daiji had told him a few days earlier when they had climbed less rugged mountains. "Hold on tightly, press your face against her chest, she will never abandon you. At that time, Bu Yangying made a joke, saying that he had been looking for his biological mother, but he didn't expect to reunite with her in the place outside the Saiwai. It's not so funny these days. One step at a time, I will never fall, he thought to himself, and grasped it tighter.

The narrow path came to an abrupt halt in front of a protruding thick black granite. In the bright moonlight, the shadows cast by the rocks were as black as caves.

"Straight up," said Ranger Daiji calmly, "climb to the top of them." He took off his gloves, tucked them into his belt, and tied the rope around his waist at one end and Bu Yangying's waist at the other. "The rope tightened and followed. The Ranger set off without waiting for an answer, using both hands and feet, moving faster than he could have imagined.

The long rope is released slowly. Bu Yangying came closer to observe, carefully studied the posture of the other party's movement, and noted down the support of each foot. When the last roll of hemp rope was also loosened, he quickly took off his gloves to follow, and the speed was much slower.

Dai Ji wrapped the rope around the smooth and protruding rock, and the man waited beside him, and as soon as he approached, he relaxed again and continued on his way.

This time, when the rope was stretched, there was no suitable rock, so he took out a hammer wrapped in felt, and struck lightly, chiseling the iron nail into the rock. The sound was soft, but each blow echoed between the rock walls, causing Bu Yangying to cringe, thinking that the wildlings would be able to hear it. When the nails were tied, Dai Ji tied the rope tightly, and Bu Yangying followed.

Don't look down. Place your weight on your feet. Don't look down. Staring at the stone in front of you. The nail is very strong, yes. Don't look down. You can catch your breath when you reach that hanging wall, so go quickly!

Bu Yangying once stepped on the air, and the heart in his chest suddenly stopped beating, but the Bodhisattva blessed him and did not fall. The cold air from the rocks seeped into his fingertips, but he didn't dare put on his gloves - no matter how tight they seemed yesterday, the friction of fur and cloth between skin and stone would slip and kill him. The burned palm gradually stiffens and hurts. At some point, my thumbnail fell off, leaving a smear of blood wherever I got it. He just wanted to reach the finish line with his fingers sound.

They climbed upwards, upwards, upwards like two wriggling black shadows on a moonlit rock wall. They could easily be spotted by anyone standing in the canyon, but the high mountains sheltered the wildlings' campfires.

They should be close, Bu Yangying can feel it. But his thoughts were not about the unsuspecting enemies waiting for him, but about his brothers in the North Underworld. Bu Yangming loves to climb so much, if only I had one-tenth of his courage.

The rock wall was cut by an ice-rock fissure at two-thirds of the height. Daiji reached out to help him climb. Seeing that he had put his gloves back on, Jon did the same. Once on top, the Rangers turned to the left, and they crawled nearly three hundred feet on the platform until they saw a dim orange glow through the edge of the cliff.

The wildlings built campfires in a shallow hollow above the narrowest part of the valley mouth, with a vertical pillar of rock underneath, behind which the mountain wall was sheltered from the wind. The two Guardian brothers took advantage of the storm barrier to crawl slowly, crawling forward until they looked down on their opponents.

One of them fell asleep, curled up tightly, buried in the bottom of the mountain-like fur, and the only thing he could see was the bright red hair under the campfire. The second man sat next to the fire, adding branches to it, babbling and complaining about the cold wind. The last man watched the Gorge, and although there was nothing to see now, only the endless darkness that surrounded the snow-covered peaks, he did not let up. The trumpet was on him.

Three people. Bu Yangying couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. I thought it was two, but fortunately, one of them was asleep. But it didn't matter if there were two, three, or twenty below, he had to do his duty.

Daiji touched his arm and pointed at the horn-wielding wildling, while Buyangying nodded at the man by the fire. It feels so strange to pick a sacrifice. But he has been dancing with swords and shields for half his life, isn't it just for this moment? Does his brother feel the same way when he goes to the battlefield for the first time? He can't help but be curious, but he doesn't have time to think about it now.

Daiji's movements were as swift as his name suggested, and with a rain of pebbles, he jumped into the savage camp. Buyang Shadow came out of the sheath for a long night and followed closely.

It all happened in an instant, and afterwards he admired the courage of the wild man who would rather blow the trumpet than take a weapon.

He had raised it to his lips, but Daiji took the lead and threw a short knife to knock the horn away. Bu Yangying's opponent jumped to his feet, grabbed the burning wood and stabbed him in the face. He hurriedly dodged, only to feel the heat rushing to his face, and at the same time, out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the sleeper also began to act, and he knew that he had to fight quickly. The fire stick swept again, and he jumped forward, his hands clenched into the sword. The sword pierced through leather, fur, wool, and flesh, but the wildling fought for it before it fell, twisting the sword of the Shadow.

The sleeper over there sat up under his fur. Bu Yangying pulled out his short knife, grabbed the other man's hair, and reached the blade for his chin, reaching for his- no, her-

His hand stopped suddenly. "Female. ”

"The watchmen are men and women," Dai Ji said, "and they are all savages." Settle her. ”

He saw the fire and fear in her eyes. The dagger cut her white neck, and blood flowed down the blade. Kill her with a knife, he told himself. They were so close to each other that he could smell the fear in her breath.

She was younger than him, and although she didn't look like Bu Yangnan at all, she had a certain trait that reminded him of his little sister. "Will you surrender?" he asked, turning the knife a little away. What if she doesn't surrender?

"I surrender. Her words fogged in the cold air.

"That'...... You are our captive. He pulled the dagger away from the soft skin of her throat.

"Lord Yan didn't order the prisoners to be captured. Dai Ji said.

"He didn't forbid either. Bu Yangying let go of the girl's hair, and she hurriedly backed away, away from them.

"She's a spearwoman," Daiji said, gesturing to the axe next to the fur mattress where she had slept, "just as she was about to grab a weapon." If you were half a beat slower, she would have cut you down. ”

"I'm not going to be half a beat slower. Bu Yangying kicked the axe out of the girl's reach. "Do you have a name?"

"Rui Lei. She rubbed her throat with her hands, and her hands were bloody. She stared at the blood in amazement. Bu Yangying put the knife into its sheath and pulled out the long night from the body of the man he killed. "You're my captive, Ruilei. ”

"I gave you the name. ”

Bu Yangying smiled, "My name is Bu Yangying." ”

She couldn't help but wince. "Evil last name. ”

"I'm just an adopted son," Bu Yangying said, "My father is the Bu Yang Dust City Lord of the Northern Underworld. ”

The girl looked at him warily, and Dai Ji chuckled sarcastically, "Am you mistaken? The Ranger stuck a long branch into the fire. But she wouldn't say anything, and the wild man would probably bite his tongue and kill himself than answer the question. The ends of the branches burned with pleasure, and he took two steps forward and threw them down the ravine. The branches of fire swirled and fell into the night sky, disappearing without a trace.

"Cremate the dead," Rui Lei said suddenly.

"This ignition is not enough, and adding firewood will expose the target. Dai Ji turned his head and looked into the dark distance, searching for traces of the light. "There's a wild man nearby, right?"

"Burn them," the girl repeated stubbornly, "unless you want to kill them again." ”

Bu Yangying suddenly remembered the dead Ma Tie and his cold black hands, and he understood what the girl meant. "Maybe we should consider her suggestion. ”

"There are many ways. Daiji knelt beside his victim, took off his cloak, boots, belt, and waistcoat, carried the body on his thin shoulders, carried it to the edge of the cliff, and threw it with a relenting word. After a while, there was a muffled, heavy sound in the distance below.

Then Dai Ji stripped the second dead man and dragged him to the edge. Bu Yangying came over and lifted the wild man's feet, and the two of them threw him into the endless darkness.

During this period, Rui Lei has been watching coldly and silently.

Upon closer inspection, Bu Yangying found that she was not so young, perhaps twenty years old, but short in proportion to her age, with outwardly bent knees, a round face, small hands, and a lion's nose, and a messy red hair that stretched in all directions. She crouched there looking bloated, the illusion of layers of fur, wool, and leather, and in fact, she might have been as skinny as Arya.

"You've been sent to spy on us?" asked her.

"Spying on you, and other things. ”

Daiji warms his hands over a campfire. "What's on the other side of the canyon?"

"Freedmen outside the Cypriots. ”

"How many?"

"Hundreds and thousands, you're an eye-opener, Lord Guardian. She smiled, her teeth not straight, but they were unusually white. She didn't know how to count at all.

"Why are you gathering there?" asked Bu Yangying.

Ygritte was silent.

"What is your king doing when he throws up the gathering place and runs into the mountains? You cannot stay long, there is no food there. ”

She turned her head away from him.

"When are you going to march into the Seven Kingdoms?"

She looked at the flames, but she didn't hear him.

"Do you know where General Su Dingfang in the penal colony is?"

Rui Lei was indifferent, and Dai Ji laughed: "If she bites her tongue and commits suicide later, don't blame me for not warning you." ”

"Are they your relatives?" asked her softly. "Just the two we killed?"

"No closer than you. ”

"Me?" Bu Yangying frowned, "What do you mean?"

"You said you were the adopted son of the North Underworld. ”

"yes. ”

"And who is your mother?"

"I don't know...... It's a woman anyway. Someone had said it to him, but he couldn't remember who.

She smiled a second time, her white teeth flashing. "Didn't she sing 'Winter Snow Rose' to you?"

"I haven't seen my mother and I've never heard this song. ”

"The song was written by 'Bard' Bell," said Ygritte, "and he was the king of Cyprus a long, long time ago." Everybody in the freedmen would sing the songs he wrote, but you might not have a chance to hear them in the South. ”

"The North Underworld is not the South. Bu Yangying argued.

"No, for us, south of the wall is south. ”

He had never thought of it that way. "It seems that the statement depends on the location. ”

"yes," Rui Lei agreed, "it always has been." ”

"Tell me about this allusion," Bu Yangying urged her. There are still a few hours left for Yan to travel north up the mountain, and listening to the legend may keep him awake. "I want to hear it. ”

"I'm afraid you won't like this story. ”

"It doesn't matter. ”

"What a brave black crow," she mocked. "Okay, then I'll talk about it. Once upon a time, Bell was a great raider before he became king of the freedmen. ”

Dai Ji snorted, "In other words, killers, bandits, and rapists. ”

"It depends on the location. Rui Lei said, "At that time, the Buyang City Lord of the Northern Underworld City offered a bounty on Bell's head, but he always couldn't catch it, and the taste of failure made him extremely distressed. One day, he angrily accuses Bell of being a coward who only bullies the weak. When the news came, Bell vowed to teach the lord a lesson to remember. So, he climbed over the Great Wall, walked onto the King's Road, and arrived in the North Underworld on a cold winter night. He held a harp in his hand and claimed to be from Xuanhuo Island in Zhanzhou in the south. Then he swaggered around in North Hades for three months. ”

"I can't do it. Smoke will be found. ”

"That's right. She shrugged, "Well, burying yourself in the belly of a beast isn't the worst way to die. ”

He pulled the long night out of his shoulders. "Are you afraid?"

"I was scared last night," she admitted. "But now the sun has risen. She brushed her hair away, bared her neck, and knelt in front of him. "point, Guardian, or I'll come to you as a ghost. ”

The long night is not as long and heavy as my father's ice, but it is the sword of the king.

He touched the blade for a long time, estimating where the swing would be, and Ruilei began to tremble. "It's cold," she said, "quick, let's do it." ”

Bu Yangying lifted Changye high above his head and clasped his hands tightly. Just make a sharp knife and use all your strength. At the very least, I can make her die a clean death.

"Do it," she urged again after a moment's pause. "Adopted son, do it quickly. I can't be brave forever. When the blow never fell, she finally looked back at him.

The shadow of the step lowered the long sword. "Let's go. He muttered.

Rui Lei stared at him.

"Let's go," Bu Yangying said, "before I change my mind." ”

The female savage quickly disappeared into the thick night wind.