Hughes was at the front of the line with the guard who had first come under the tree, with Hodge slightly behind, followed by Carol and Fink, and finally the remaining two guards behind the line.

The eight of them followed each other closely, not too fast, but consistent enough to keep up with the movement of the blue line. Hodge was well aware that fog often rose in this kind of snow forest, and it was easy to get lost with his companions if he was not careful, so even if he sacrificed speed, he had to keep the team tight.

Eventually, the blue line reached the depths of the snowy forest, where there were three gray-brown rocks, one large and two small, half covered by thick snow, and beyond that, the trees were so dense that even the light could only shine through the gaps between the leaves and the snow.

In the slightly dim light, the blue shimmer was even clearer, and it circled around one of the small stones, and then quickly drilled along the stone wall to the point of the stone.

Then the blue light stopped moving, and stayed quietly on the stone tip, shimmering with light and dark.

"Is there something wrong with your reagent? There's nothing on this stone tip. Hughes asked, confused.

Hodge ignored him, stepped forward, pulled his hand out of the cotton glove, twisted it at the tip of the stone, and sniffed it between his nose.

"It smells of blood. His brow furrowed high, and he rubbed two fingers again, "It should be that it was not long ago, and this blood has not completely frozen into ice crystals." ”

"So Hayden fought monsters here and was wounded?"

"I don't think it's as simple as being injured. Hodge said: "The blood is dripping on the tip of the stone, although it seems that there is only a small piece of blood at the very top, it is unlikely that it is directly penetrated by the tip of the stone, but after all, it is the tip of the stone, you can touch it yourself, and the bonus of freezing snow is not even inferior to any sharp sword, even if it is just rubbed a little, it will not be comfortable, not to mention that there are monsters on the side." ”

"But even then, where would Hayden be now? ”

Hodge had to shake his head: "I don't know, it stands to reason that the tracking of the blood burning reagent is coherent, even if the blood is interrupted, but as long as there is another blood flowing within a certain range, the blood burning reagent will also capture the traces, but the blood burning reagent stopped searching, but it didn't find the situation of the person - unless the person stopped bleeding, it is impossible to think about it." ”

"So let's look around and see if we have any footprints?" asked Carroll.

Hodge nodded: "That's all, but we still have to act together, don't scatter, that's the premise." ”

The crowd fumbled around for a while, but still couldn't find any usable information.

"It's weird. "Even Hodge is starting to get a head at it.

Just when they were at a loss, the howling snow wind and a strange sound were exceptionally clear.

Tick.

Like drops of water falling to the ground.

He turned his head and the others did the same.

"You heard that too, that voice?"

"Hmm. ”

In this place, the water is still floating into snow in mid-air, and even if a few condensations fall, it is also set up in the treetops, and the sound of water droplets is not common sense.

Hodge looked around and finally found a clue.

He walked over to the blue-glowing stone, his face sinking like pitch-black stagnant water.

At the tip of the stone, the top, which was originally snow-white with a faint reddish color, had now turned into a scarlet crystal, and there was still a small trace of red liquid that had not yet condensed, and was slowly flowing downward.

It is blood, and it can only be blood.

Hodge looked up, and in the sunlight, the sky was mostly black, and that belonged to the branches and leaves, and in the light they were only shadows on their backs.

He narrowed his eyes, carefully searching for a difference in the darkness.

Eventually, his gaze fell on the top of the stone point, which at first glance was no different, but compared to the other parts, although the shadow area was large, there were always one or two random small holes that let in the light, and the shadow of this part was inevitably too comprehensive.

Hodge turned to look at Hughes.

Hughes's reaction was to take a step back for the first time, and he was kind of enlightened these days, and whenever Hodge needed him to run errands, he always looked like this now.

"What do you want to do!" he shouted, but his voice was weaker than before.

Hodge smiled a rare smile and looked at him with a sunny face: "Do you know how to climb trees?"

......

"Damn, it's really up there. Forced to climb to a tree trunk about ten meters high, Hughes shouted to the ground, "Spread out, I'm going to throw it down." ”

The others immediately retreated far away.

Boom!

The sound of a heavy object falling to the ground.

After throwing it down, Hughes looked at his height from the ground for a while, and then looked at the main branches of the big tree, the bottom of the tall trees in the snow forest has no side trunks to climb, Hughes can climb up with the help of two short knives, although the goal was achieved, but the process was not pleasant, considering that he did not want to go through the journey of climbing the tree, and took into account the fact that he was not high anyway, and the knight's physique was probably not able to fall to death.

He took a deep breath, kicked off the branch, fell down, and quickly adjusted his position when he was two or three meters above the ground, and with a loud bang, the snow particles on the ground were lifted up and scattered like mist.

Hit the ground with both feet steadily, full marks!

"Is he Hayden?" Hodge pointed to the thing Hughes had left behind, a dead corpse that was relatively good for Hood, Gauge, and Bonnard, but only relatively.

His body was in an exaggerated twisted posture, and it seemed that the back of the body supporting his body from his waist was completely broken, so he could hang on the side trunk of the high tree, and his head was no longer a small half, his left eye and half of the Heavenly Spirit Cover had left him, and the exposed brain flower was a little broken, as if it had been shot away, but it didn't flow out, it should have been frozen by the cold wind.

The three guards looked at the corpse and then at each other, their faces not very good, and finally nodded with difficulty.

"Okay, so we now get two pieces of news, one good and one bad. ”

Hodge exhaled hard, letting the cold in his lungs force his composure.

"What's the good news?" asked Carroll.

"The good news is that we've found the monster's tracks. ”

"What about the bad ones?" asked Hughes this time.

Hodge sighed helplessly, "The bad news is that we found the monster's tracks. ”

"That doesn't sound any different. Hughes said.

"No, it's a big difference, young master of the aristocratic family, don't you hear me use the word 'special' in the second sentence?" Hodge pinched the bridge of his nose, "Good news means that we may be close to achieving our goal, bad news - it is that I think not only will we not achieve our goal, but we will most likely die here." ”

The bonfire was lit as usual at night, and there was a lack of a guard on duty, and the rotation seemed to be a little insufficient, and if only three guards were on duty, the fatigue would make them incapacitated, so Hughes and Hodge joined the rotation sequence, and Hodge made it clear that if necessary, Carol and Fink must also join, and they did not object.

The sound of crackling wood burning, and the occasional whistling of wind and snow.

Last night, in addition to this, the guards would talk for a while to relieve boredom, but this night the handover between them seemed quiet, and it was terrifyingly quiet.

The seven-member exploration team began to be enveloped by emotions called uneasiness......