When Diego woke up the next day from a loud noise, he was surprised to find that the weather had cleared, and the sky was cloudless after the heavy snowfall, showing a pleasant blue. Under the blue sky, the mountains are shrouded, the forests and seas are reckless, the land is vast, and the sun finally releases its own light, reflecting the entire Alterac Mountains dazzlingly. To prevent snow blindness, people are blindfolded with strips of linen with sparse warp and weft, which look like they are wearing the blindfolds of demon hunters.

The air was dry and cold, and the hot breath exhaled from the nostrils instantly condensed into a white mist in the air. The snow-covered earth was silent, save for the constant clatter and crackling of the trees in the forest. Flocks of birds with nowhere to feed flock to the warm hills of the south, and hungry wolves roam the mountains, searching for food to eat.

After a simple but steamy breakfast, they hit the road again.

Diego and Masrae rode at the head of the group on Kodomon, a strong, massive mount that was simply made for this kind of spectacle, snow knee-deep enough to barely reach their hooves. They clattered through the thick snow like two small bulldozers, leaving a solid and flattened avenue behind them.

The way down is much easier than when you go up, as the road from the town of Stannbride south to Broken Ridge was once the main road of the Kingdom of Alterac, and the road here is very wide, and the bluestone slabs paved at the height of the kingdom are still well preserved today.

It took them two days to reach the area of Broken Ridge, and when they looked west along the fork in the road to the west, they could vaguely see the ruins of the city hidden among the mountains. It was once the capital of the kingdom of Alterac, but it has now been destroyed and reduced to the territory of ogres. These alien races from the orc homeland of Draenor saw a bad situation in the latter part of the Second Orc War, turning their backs on their orc masters and fleeing into the Alterac Mountains.

Compared to their people scattered throughout Azeroth, the Broken Ridge ogres are very cunning and know how to judge the situation - they hid in the mountains during the heyday of the Lordaeron Kingdom, hiding from the Alliance, and when the Lordaeron Kingdom was destroyed by the Plague War, they jumped out and seized the ruins of Alterac.

However, hiding in the lofty mountains of the Alterac Mountains is not only the Broken Ridge ogre, but also orcs, humans, dwarves and ogres, as well as snowmen, all of which are mixed here.

The largest of these is the syndicate of exiled nobles of the Kingdom of Alterac. After the Kingdom of Oakland was divided among the Alliance States for betraying humanity, these nobles have been seeking to reclaim their territory, especially after the Kingdom of Lordaeron, which had been pressing on their heads, was destroyed by the Scourge Legion, their activities in the Alterac Mountains, the Hills of Brad and the Arathi Highlands have become even more rampant, and a force led by their leader, Duke Facurrest, has even attacked half of Fort Riptide!

Slightly smaller than the Syndicate and Shattered Ridge ogres are the Frostwolf Orc Clan, and while Thrall has led most of his freed orcs across the ocean to the continent of Kalimdor across the Endless Sea, there are still a few frostwolf orcs who prefer the cold weather remain, entrenched in the depths of the mountains under the leadership of the old shaman Drektar, who live by hunting and gathering.

The latest to arrive is the Thunderspear Guards, an archaeological expedition of the Copperbeard Dwarves, who, under the command of Vandal Thunderspear, search for the remains of the Titan Age and trace the past of their race. But all along, they and the Frostwolf Clan have been disgusted with each other, and they have been at war more than once.

In addition, the depths of the mountains are inhabited by the mysterious snowmen with fur and horns, a ferocious race with an excellent appetite and never picky about food, whether dwarves, orcs, humans or ogres, all in their recipes.

In short, this is a chaotic land of constant war, where there are almost constant battles that can be seen and invisible going on in order to compete for survival resources. For Diego, who is like an arrow, he doesn't want to wade into this troubled water at all, he just wants to be able to pass this road safely and return to his territory.

But things didn't always work out as they wanted, and as they cautiously crossed the ogre-controlled area with skulls and human skin banners erected here and there on the side of the road, they descended all the way south to the snow line and saw the grassy hills of Hillsbrad.

About fifty yards from them, a bag of potatoes rolled out of the bushy hillside on the left side of the road, and rolled down to the middle of the road.

Diego blinked vigorously before he realized that it was a dwarf. He was dressed in brownish and yellow chain mail, and a red robe was worn over it, and in the center of the robe was embroidered a spear surrounded by an arc of electricity, which was the emblem of the Thunderspear Guard.

Before he could figure out what was happening, three humans sprang out of the bushes on the hillside that the dwarves had rushed out of. They wore black leather armor and yellow masks on their faces, and they didn't look like good people.

In fact, these people are indeed not good people, and in the hills of Hillsbrad, who else but syndicate bandits would dress like this?

The three humans rushed to the dwarf struggling to get up, swung their scimitars and slashed down. These vicious thugs were very arrogant, killing people on the road, but they didn't even look at the stunned travelers not far away, as if there was no one around, they just shouted "Syndicate errands, idle people, etc., quickly dodge"!

"Save him!" Without hesitation, Brian threw out the Storm Hammer in his hand and shouted at the same time. The Thunderspear Guards are one of Ironforge's most famous elite troops, and each of them is a treasure to the dwarves, and Brian can't afford to watch him die in front of him.

In fact, it doesn't take him to say that Diego has already pulled out the musket from the saddle and pulled the trigger! In the Hills Bled Hills, the syndicates were notorious for extorting peasants, robbing caravans, assassinating officials, doing whatever they wanted in the area, doing whatever they wanted, killing all the dregs, and Diego would not have had any psychological burden.

In the roar of the gunshot, before the knife could fall, the syndicate bandit who rushed to the front had already been shot to the ground, and the other companion who followed him was smashed in the head by the dwarf's hammer. The third syndicate, who was walking at the end, saw that the situation was not good, turned and sprang into the bushes faster than he had come, and before Diego could fire a second shot, he disappeared like a rabbit into the hillside.

Diego glanced at the gun a few times, and finally lowered the muzzle of the gun.

"Hell, that's a fast run!"