Chapter 7: The Wasteland II
"It's just a rough map, and the farther you go, the less accurate it is, after all, none of us have ever been to a deeper place. Even if you dodge the main force of the Tempest Battalion, there is still the Blood Drink Camp in Storm Mountain, where the toughest opponent to deal with, Agaza the Drinker. When he said this name, even Rong Lifeng's voice trembled, "If that demon is in Storm Mountain at this time, you are really very dangerous! Maybe you are not afraid of him when he fights alone, but he has so many extremely murderous subordinates." Legend has it that one barbarian in the blood-drinking camp was as good as two or three of the other tribes. ”
That's why Your Majesty sent me. "Don't worry, brother, the boat will naturally go straight to the bridge. The dragon god is above, and he will watch over my way. ”
Rong Lifeng sighed: "Brother, I hate to see you late, if it weren't for your mission, my brother would really want to chat with you all night and talk about three days and three nights!"
Yu Jian smiled: "There will definitely be such an opportunity." ”
"My brother will take you to the watchtower, and by the way, I will prepare some useful things for you. You should rest early, you know, the most lacking thing in the wasteland is physical strength. The two men got up and left the tent.
Outside the tent, the bonfire in the field turned the cold night into a hot one, and the half-moon on the canopy of the sky was hidden in the dark clouds at some point, and it was obvious that tomorrow would not be a good day. The two ravens snuggled together, flew past the banner of the golden dragon on the sentry and flew in the direction of the Great Wasteland, their chirps buried in the noise of the crowd.
The next day, Yu Jian woke up early and found a large piece of blue canvas on the ground, on which were placed the materials he was going to use to go north.
Qin Wei prepared him with the soft and light white scale armor, replacing the delicate but slightly bulky thick scale armor he wore when he set out from the dragon, and also prepared him with a thick wool cloak, shearling knee pads, handguards, and woolen boots. It is said that the summit of Storm Mountain is covered with a thousand years of thick ice, and the area is close to the ice field, and the temperature is very low, so this set of clothes is essential.
Rong Lifeng added him a birch helmet soaked in oil, a hook pickaxe, a pair of iron claw boots, a parchment map, and two silver bottles with unknown things. The water bladder was filled, and the dry food was wrapped in a large bag.
Many of the things he had been carrying had been removed, leaving only a compass and two fire folds. He re-wrapped the canvas bag and washed it in a barrel at the door. The wind is cold in the morning, and there is already a taste of winter.
He went down the watchtower with a canvas bag on his back, and saw Rong Lifeng walking towards him, and the north wind blew his cloak to hunt.
"Brother, it just so happened that you woke up, let's go pick out some suitable weapons. So he followed Rong Lifeng into the equipment warehouse.
He picked a short crossbow, a full pouch, a sharp steel short sword, and a bag of stone pellets. Not only should it be handy, but it should also be simple and lightweight.
"You'll be able to use this. Rong Lifeng picked a shovel of pine snow for him, "The weather is bad today, and it will be difficult to stop as soon as the wind blows." It's better to leave late than early, brother, let's have breakfast, and you can go. ”
Their breakfast was roast sheep and dragon fruit wine, which were shipped from Changshou Gang every three days. Rong Lifeng was quite reluctant, and repeatedly toasted Yu Jian, only saying that he didn't know if he would be able to see him again in the future.
"Brother, you haven't been to the Great Wasteland, my brother will give you a ride, and I can talk to you a few more words. Rong Lifeng's vicissitudes of life were slightly sad.
To enter the Great Wasteland from the Dragon Wall, the only way to do this is to pull the huge hanging basket on the wall with a winch and put it outside the wall. The dragon wall is made of the body of the dragon god, the wall is not made of rock, the material is very special, and there is no doorway. Yu Jian put on a full set of wool clothes, sat on a yellow-maned horse carefully selected by Rong Lifeng, and walked out of the dragon wall through a hanging basket made of wooden strips and iron pieces, and Rong Lifeng followed him down with twenty cavalrymen.
Because it is located on the Whirlwind Mountain Range, the dragon wall is on high ground, coming down from the four-leaf clover, there is still a height of about two arrows from the hard mud ground on the wasteland, the dragon wall guards have been patrolling for a long time on the ridge to step on a path long enough for horses to gallop, twenty-two horses rushed down the road, and it didn't take long to fall on a large yellow wasteland.
"It's easy to go down the mountain and hard to go up, our horses are all specially trained breeds, and if we change to other horses, we really can't go up. Rong Lifeng said loudly. The wind is strong, and it is difficult to talk when you are far away.
Along the way, Rong Lifeng and Yu Jian talked about the things to pay attention to in the wasteland, especially lighting a fire to keep warm and staying overnight at night. At this time, the night of the wasteland is much colder than the dragon wall, and the endless field, the wind is unhindered, blowing all the way, and the dust that blows up obstructs the view, and it looks hazy in the distance.
Thousands of miles away, there will be a farewell. After running for about half an hour, Rong Lifeng and Yu Jian hugged on their horses, and the cavalrymen high-fived Yu Jian one by one to say goodbye.
"The four-leaf clover will look forward to your return soon. ”
As shown on the map, just go straight due north and within a few hours you will see the first meadow, where you can take your first break. The direction of Storm Mountain is slightly west due north of Clover, and if all goes well, Rong Lifeng is expected to reach it in four to five days.
For the seasoned Dragonwall cavalry, the greatest difficulty in the Great Wasteland was not only the lack of food and water, but also the heating and rest. The Great Wilderness is close to the ice fields of the far north, and the further north you go, the cooler the temperature becomes, and the water can freeze in the fall, and at night the temperature is too low, and it is very difficult to start a fire. Low temperatures and high winds can greatly exacerbate physical exertion.
With the help of a compass, the first meadow was found a few hours later. The compass relied on waxed magnetic needles and silk to identify the direction, which was quite cumbersome to use, and had to be covered with a windshield. This is a rye meadow, the soil in this area is relatively soft, Yu Jian used a pine snow shovel to dig a small pit, nest in it and eat dry food to replenish his strength. The water in the water bladder needs to be used sparingly, but Rong Lifeng also prepared a small skin bag filled with soju for him, which is not to solve the addiction to alcohol, but to protect against the cold.
Yu Jian spent his first night in the wasteland like this: he dug a pit near the rocky mud field, and then piled up the mud and rocks to form a windbreaker, and he leaned against the pit behind the windshield to open a small tent and make a fire. It's very difficult for an ordinary person to do this work, but for him, hard mud is not a problem.
The fuel for the fire was the two silver bottles, which contained green acid. This green acid legend is the secret legend of the goshawk, smelted from the green iron of the wasteland, is an excellent fuel, when burned to produce a green flame, resistant to wind and long-lasting, at the same time it is also a magical melting agent, the barbarians rely on it to dissolve the dragon wall, break through into the territory of the boxers.
It was not easy to get green acid, and Clover only had ten bottles in stock, so he was given two bottles at once. According to Rong Lifeng's instructions, the amount of green acid used was enough to support the burning for about three hours, which was enough for him to recover his strength.
Along the way, it was exactly the same as Rong Lifeng predicted, not to mention the barbarian camp, and even the spiders of the patrolling team could not be seen. It seems that the Tempest Camp has indeed gone somewhere else, which has provided him with unexpected convenience. For a long distance, all he had to deal with was Steppenwolf.
He was lucky next. His dry food was quickly consumed, and the water bladder was almost empty, but he met a wolf, and found a moose and a meadow not far from the wolf's infest, and dug a pit for water, and there was mud and sand in the water, and he had a barbed wire fence, which filtered out large particles of sand and gravel, and deposited it for a while as drinking water, and there was not so much care in the wasteland.
By noon the next day, the yellow-maned horse was foaming at the mouth and dying, and his lack of experience in caring for it in the moors had overwhelmed it. Before it could stay up into the evening, it stopped breathing.
The nights were getting colder and the winds were getting stronger, and the green acid was able to last less and less, so it was consumed faster, and the first silver bottle was sold out the next night along with his wine bag. He used up a lot of green acid to roast the horse meat, so he began to drink horse blood, at least it was warm.
On the third day, he had nothing to eat except a cut horse's leg. He could neither stay where he was and feed on the corpse of his horse, nor could he carry the dead horse on his back. Only a small half of the second bottle of green acid remained, and he didn't want to light it until the evening. The compass was accidentally broken while digging a pit at night, and he lost his bearings. That night he ran out of green acid and relied on the last horse meat to fill his belly.
The terrible weather was dim even during the day, and there were no stars at night, which caused him to wake up on the fourth day and only rely on his instincts to judge the direction.
He prayed to the dragon god every night, and his piety seemed to have paid off. The wind was strong and the visibility was low, and on the fifth day, he finally saw a mountain with its summit dyed white. Storm Mountain, that can only be Storm Mountain, the only high mountain in the Great Wilderness.
He was hungry and tired, the rucksack on his back was like a thousand pounds, his mouth was so dry that he lost his sense of taste, and he couldn't even hear the voice he shouted: "Long live the dragon king!
Camp Tempest has left their hometown, and this area of Storm Mountain is the territory of the Blood Drinking Camp. Although Storm Mountain is in view, it is still a long way off. A sense of purpose kept him going, and he was almost unconscious, when he was about to fall, he saw a patch of green.
"The top of Storm Mountain is covered with snow and ice all year round, and there should be a lake below, and the soil in that area may be soft. Rong Lifeng's judgment was once again verified to be correct.
Where there is grass, there will be moose. He shot a deer with a short crossbow and drank its blood hungrily, and he had no strength or patience to find the materials to make a fire, and even if he found it, it would not be possible to burn it into a fire under the strong wind to roast the meat, so he cut off the bloody flesh with his short sword and put it in his mouth and ate it raw.
Where there are moose, there may be wolves. Before he could fill his stomach, he saw a second Steppenwolf. The wolf was clearly as hungry as he was.
The cunning wasteland hunter stared at him for a long time in the grass, and when he noticed that the other party had been eating meat and had not made any other moves, he finally decided to attack.
At this time, Yu Jian had a deep understanding of Rong Lifeng's sentence "The most lacking thing in the wasteland is physical strength". He had never found a wolf so difficult to deal with, hunger made the beast even more ferocious, survival ** stimulated its potential, it struck with swiftness, sharp front paws and sharp teeth aimed wildly at the throat of its target. As the wolf attacked, he pulled the bracket of the crossbow, but lost his head, and hit once twice, but before he could hit the vital point, the wounded wolf approached him with frantic speed and threw him to the ground.
The light scale armor that Qin Wei gave him saved his life. Although this scale armor was not as good as the silver scale armor of the Dragon Monarch's guard, there was no cutting corners in the throat protection part, and the wolf's attack slipped over it. He'd defeated many of his tougher opponents, but this hungry wolf nearly killed him. If he hadn't discovered the moose before it, or if the wolf hadn't fainted with hunger, he might have died in the end. As the wolf's fangs persistently attacked his scales, his dagger slit the wolf's throat. He's just sharper and luckier.
If he ran into a wolf or a brute from the blood-drinking camp at this time, he would surely die.
The shadow of death hung over him like a huge net, and he felt so truly that death was imminent.