The Phantom Beast Trial is an extremely painful process.

Moreover, under the double pressure of heavy snow and lack of oxygen, 10%~20% of the phantom beast riders are unable to complete the task every year, and the most important manifestation is that the phantom beast is frozen to death on the mountain.

Of course, there are also some phantom beast knights who also froze to death on the mountain.

--"Phantom Beast Knight Trial Instructions"

Chapter 13: Life and Death

After going on the road the next day, Xiao Hei was indeed much more honest, basically no longer naughty, and followed Chi Aotian to climb the mountain.

Looking at Xiao Hei's eyes full of uncomfortable tears, listening to its whirring panting, Chi Aotian was very worried, according to the Phantom Beast Instructions, many Phantom Beasts came from the tropics or plains, and suddenly came to the plateau above 3000 meters above sea level, and the temperature was more than 10 °C lower than the environment in which they lived, and when it came to the top of the snowy mountain in the end, the temperature was minus 20 °C, coupled with the lack of oxygen on the plateau, this almost became the first killer in the Phantom Beast Trial.

Of course, this pair of phantom beast knights is nothing, in order to allow the knights to better pass the phantom beast trial, all the knights who have the opportunity to come will be sent to climb over the mountains in the north of the empire every year to exercise, where the average altitude is also more than 4000 meters, and it is also snowy all year round.

It stands to reason that the earthly dragon lives in temperate hills, there are four seasons in a year, and the average altitude is more than 1,000 meters, so it should not have such a big reaction.

Chi Aotian untied the strap of his waist, tied a loop, put one side around Xiao Hei's neck, and straddled his shoulder on the other side, so that he could pull it in a more difficult place.

There was no little black running around, the trip was much faster, and at 3:00 p.m. the next day, they arrived at the second campsite. The sun hung high in the western sky, and the golden sun swayed on the snow line not far away, above the snow line, the white ice and snow shè shè against the dazzling sunlight, and then looking up, there were some ice walls hung with huge ice picks, and the wind could faintly be heard whistling through the valley in the distance.

After a tiring day, Xiao Hei's appetite improved a little and he ate a lot of meat. Chi Aotian was a little relieved.

On the morning of the third day, Xiao Hei's situation was still the same, he looked like he had no appetite, looking at the ice and snow all over the mountain, Chi Aotian was very worried, and found all the cold-proof clothes for the phantom beast that he found from the camp, on his head was a leather hat that only showed his eyes, a thick animal skin scarf was tied around his neck, and he was also dressed in a leather armor cold-proof suit specially customized for the earth-walking dragon, and finally tore a leather blanket and wrapped it around Xiao Hei's legs.

Although I was very worried about Xiao Hei's body, but after putting the tea sè eyes on Xiao Hei, both Xiao Hei and Chi Aotian felt funny, this is a majestic earth dragon, just a hunchbacked little old man with a hat.

Xiao Hei is obviously better when he is fully armed, and his steps are not so shaky.

I just entered the snow line, and although it was white, the snow here was mainly from last year's snow and the white frost after the cold dew condensed in autumn, so although the sound of clicking when I stepped on it, it basically did not affect the speed of progress. According to the instructions for phantom beasts, after entering the snow line, the daily itinerary will be much slower, about only about 2/3 of the original, and when it is necessary to climb the top on the last day, it will only be about 1/3 of the usual itinerary, and Chi Aotian also deliberately slowed down his pace. It may have been really cold, and Xiao Hei sneezed a lot along the way.

After entering the snow line, the camping site could no longer provide too much firewood, and at night, in a sheltered place, Chi Aotian built a small bonfire with limited firewood, hastily roasted the meat, and gave it to Xiao Hei to eat. When he went to bed at night, Xiao Hei was tired and shrunk, and he kept drilling into Chi Aotian's bed, and he was still shivering.

Chi Aotian didn't sleep well all night, and got up from time to time to touch Xiao Hei's body to see if it was normal.

On the fourth day, when Chi Aotian got up in the morning, he was immediately startled, Xiao Hei's eyes were full of bloodshots, his nose was full of mucous membranes, and his tongue was also covered with white tongue coating, drooping his head, which ...... Is this still the little dragon with the power of a king? Chi Aotian's brows furrowed, very heartbroken, he carefully rummaged through the objects in the camp, found some medicine for people to eat, pressed Xiao Hei's head, and forcibly poured it down, Xiao Hei didn't even have the strength to struggle.

What to do now? If you continue to move forward, I don't know if Xiao Hei's body can hold up, if you retreat, whether it is for yourself or Xiao Hei, this time there is no chance, and even if you retreat for two days, because there is no mount, if you want to return to the nearest barracks, you need to walk for at least four days, and if you go further, it will only take 7 days to reach the Phantom Beast Holy Garden.

Chi Aotian bit his lip tightly, let's move forward, as long as Xiao Hei can be brought into the Phantom Beast Holy Garden, the blood pool there can heal all the damage suffered by phantom beasts.

The cold wind began to blow, whining and crying in the mountains, the gray sky, the snow-white mountains, the boy in the black sè suit and a black sè walking dragon wrapped in leather clothes, struggling to advance in the snow.

The wind was getting stronger and stronger, and Chi Aotian walked carefully in front of Xiao Hei, trying to help him block some knife-like wind. Xiao Hei crawled with great effort, his mouth whirring and his mouth whimpering, and he choked with a whimper.

In order to encourage the confidence of this little guy to continue walking, Chi Aotian suddenly became more talkative, he touched Xiao Hei's head with his hand, and shouted loudly in the wind, and the violent wind brought his voice in all directions.

"Xiao Hei, don't worry, today we only need to walk half of yesterday's road. ”

"Xiao Hei, I heard that after I heard about the Phantom Beast Holy Garden, there will be a lot of fun Phantom Beasts, and you may see a beautiful Phantom Beast sister. ”

"Hi, it's almost there, do you see? The sign says we're only two miles from the campsite. When you arrive, I'll bake you delicious meat. ”

Xiao Hei was pulled by Chi Aotian and finally came to the camp on the fourth day. Chi Aotian tried to do his best and made some simple food, but ...... Xiao Hei didn't want to eat anything, but drank some hot soup.

The fifth day is the most painful day of all the phantom beast knights in the trial, it is said that 80% of the failures are in this day, when I get up in the morning, I can't see the sun outside at all, the black clouds seem to be pressing against the sky, I almost don't have to look up, I feel that the clouds are floating above my head and ears, the snow is whistling with the cold wind, the snowflakes are not flying at all, but like a javelin thrown on the ground and the human body, if there are no road signs outside, I can't tell the difference between heaven and earth, and I don't know the southeast and northwest at all.

When Chi Aotian returned to the tent and pushed Xiao Hei, Xiao Hei snorted twice, motionless, and pushed again, it raised its head with great effort, struggling to get up, but immediately fell down again, there was no bright and clear gaze in its eyes, a layer of dark yellow mucous membrane covered the entire eye, and the corners of the eyes were also condensed with large eye droppings, and the snot continued to flow out.

Chi Aotian used the last bit of firewood to make a large bowl of hot broth, and despite Xiao Hei's struggles, it completely poured into its stomach. Then he cut the whole tent into strips of leather, several strips of leather into one thicker one, and then three thick strips of leather into a triangular ring, which was put over the little black tail, and the two horns were pulled up from between its legs, and the last horn was pulled up from its back to become a pocket for carrying people. He slowly squatted down, first tied the leather strip that had been pulled up from between his feet firmly in his waist, split the strap that had been pulled up from his back in two, and pulled it down from his shoulders and tied it to the leather strip around his waist.

Chi Aotian took a deep breath, holding an ice stick with one hand and holding his leg with the other, he struggled to stand up, and the weight of more than 200 catties of Dixinglong was immediately put on his shoulders and waist, and he began to move forward along the road signs.

If it is on flat ground, with Chi Aotian's physical strength and usual training volume, it is very common for 200 catties to move forward with a weight, 10 miles and 20 miles are very common, but now it is a plateau, the air is thin, and every time he breathes, his lungs seem to be torn apart, under the huge gravity, Chi Hanfeng had to lower his noble head, and the blood rushed from his spine to his head, and his face turned from blood red to iron blue.

The wind shouted fiercely, and the snowflakes were like knives around Chi Aotian, who was struggling to move forward, and the cold air not only blew in through the gaps in his clothes, but also poured into his pants from under his feet. Walking is even more difficult, the snow has already reached the calf, the pants are covered with ice stubble, and the tall and shallow feet slowly move in the wind and snow.

Suddenly, the side of the road in front of him revealed the corpse of a phantom beast that had been dead for a long time, as if it was some kind of deer; Chi Aotian was startled, wiped the sweat beads that had condensed on his face and turned into ice particles and then moved forward, without taking a few steps, a figure suddenly appeared behind a huge ice wall, and after two steps, he could see it clearly: it was a phantom beast knight frozen by ice and snow, and there was a large phantom beast shrunken by his side, which seemed to be a rhinoceros born in the tropics, and it seemed to be a victim of an avalanche.

Everything in front of you shows that if you are not careful, you are likely to become a relic of history. Chi Aotian bit his lip tightly, explored the road with his ice staff more carefully, and slowly moved forward cautiously.

The road suddenly closed in front, and the two peaks sandwiched a small and slender valley, only more than two people wide, and the raging blizzard was forcibly pressed into the gap by the valley, constantly knocking on the valley, Chi Aotian moved forward little by little with his hand on the ice wall, and the wind smashed on him like an iron cone, forcing him to keep retreating, and finally, he had to kneel on the ground and move forward.

Out of the gorge, Chi Aotian was almost desperate, he thought that he was already at the top of the mountain just now, but when he looked up again, he found that there was still a hillside and a peak in front of him. At this time, his legs were almost numb, his palms were also cut by the ice blade in the march just now, the blood was frozen as soon as it flowed out, his hands were swollen very high, his face felt like a knife cutting his skin, and his ears were almost frozen. With such physical strength, how can you climb a snowy peak that is still 200 meters high?

The sky was getting darker and darker, and there was no reliable timekeeping tool - the sand inside the sand bucket timer that I carried with me had long been frozen on the crystal wall due to the moisture, and it had been unusable since yesterday. I don't know if it's because the clouds are getting heavier or if it's getting darker. The road sign on the side of the road reads: 1000 meters from the next campsite, it should be 1:00 pm. Unfortunately, this time is no longer of any reference value.

I took out a few pieces of beef jerky from my bosom and stuffed them into my mouth, picking up a ball of snow stubble from the ground and stuffing it into my mouth. "Hiss--" It was so cold, my teeth couldn't stand it, the snow slowly melted in my mouth, so I chewed the beef jerky with the snow water, chewed it, spit it in my hand, pulled Xiao Hei's head over, and stuffed the minced beef into its mouth with the heat, Xiao Hei stretched his neck with great effort, and swallowed the beef.

The beef juice flowed down the esophagus into Chi Aotian's stomach, and the stomach, which had not eaten for a day, began to tumble as if a knife had been hung. However, after touching the piece of meat in my arms, it was really not much, and if I couldn't find a camp at night, then ...... Let's save some. At this moment, he regretted a little, he should have torn apart the dead phantom beast just now and brought a part of it.

The sky on the snow peak, because the sun will soon enter the embrace of the mountains once it slanted westward, so the night came extremely quickly, and after Chi Aotian just felt that the sky was changing, he didn't take a few steps, and the night came. It is estimated that it may only be a few hundred meters away from the campsite, and Chi Aotian knows that if he can't reach the campsite tonight, then he and Xiao Hei won't be able to reach it in this life.

Maybe...... Now put Xiao Hei down, and there is still a chance to walk over by himself.

Every year, a few knights had to give up the trial because of the bad weather, threw the dead phantom beast on the snowy mountain, and walked back by themselves. If there is a year when all the Phantom Beast Riders complete the trial, it will be big news.

Do you want to do the same yourself?

However, if you don't do this, it will be difficult for you and Xiao Hei to get through this level, in the ice and snow, there is no food, no calories, and what is in front of you is a dead end.

Moreover, with Xiao Hei's current body, even if he can reach the camp today, or even if he can pass today, the chance of reaching the Phantom Beast Sacred Garden alive is extremely slim, so in this case, maybe putting it down is the wisest choice for him. Where there is life, there is hope.

Life or death? Chi Aotian raised his head, his eyes were confused as he looked at the dark night sky, and his heart began to shake.

;