"Archer—"

Jiang Bai, who was roasting the fire, sneezed loudly.

"Who's talking about me? Or do I have a cold? ”

Thinking so, he quickly added a thick coat to himself.

It's okay to be told, it's not good to catch a cold. Although you haven't climbed the mountain yet, just at the bottom of the mountain, you can feel like you're in winter.

He laid out the futon for his condensed coffin, and under the roasting of the fire, even the cold stones were warm.

】

When the futon was also warm, he lay down in his clothes and looked at the starry sky with his eyes open.

Looking at the starry sky at the foot of the snowy mountains is a completely different feeling than looking at the mountains of Liyue, where the snow is very visible even at night in the moonlight, and the stars far away from the universe are not so bright in contrast.

Jiang Bai changed to a comfortable position and lay in the coffin, looking at the countless stars in the sky, his thoughts were a little divergent.

If he really came from outside this world, then from which star did he come from?

How did he come to this continent?

How long has he been here?

All kinds of questions linger in my mind, and no one can answer them.

After a long time, he pulled the lid of the coffin forward to block out all the light.

None of this matters, the important thing is that it is time for him to go to bed now.

He yawned, wrapped himself in the quilt, and fell into a deep sleep.

Early in the morning, Jiang Bai, who had slept comfortably all night, kicked open the coffin lid and sat up from inside.

Although he was wearing clothes, he was shivering from the cold air that suddenly burrowed into the coffin.

"Well... It's so cold......."

He hurriedly jumped out of the coffin and moved to speed up the blood circulation throughout his body, so that it was not so cold.

After a brief wash with the hot water that had been heated on the fire, and nibbling on the dry mola meat, he changed into thicker cotton clothes and shoes, put on crampons and gloves, and put out the fire and prepared to go up the mountain.

It was still early, the sun had not yet risen, but the surroundings were already exceptionally bright, and some birds that were not afraid of the cold landed on the branches, chirping and combing their feathers.

Most adventurers travel to and from the snow-capped mountains on the main road in the direction of Mondstadt, and the path that has been opened up at some point has long been covered with snow because no one has traveled for a long time.

Jiang Bai followed the general outline of the road, using the spirit banner as a walking stick while exploring the snow while slowly moving forward.

I don't know how long the snow has been covered, and when I lift my feet, there is a deep pit.

The cold wind blowing from the mountains blew the spirit flags, and the three words of the Death Hall loomed on it, the three bells on his waist jingled with his actions, and the boots crunched on the snow, as if they were playing a mourning song in an ensemble.

The snow is vast, and there seems to be only this dark figure left in the world, looking for the remains of the deceased, and walking forward unswervingly.

Jiang Bai held the spirit banner in one hand and the compass in the other, adjusting the direction from time to time along the direction pointed by the pointer.

The snow is not easy to walk, especially this kind of road that is covered in heavy snow and ice, and you can't see the specific road clearly, if you don't pay attention to the road, it is not a road, but a deep pit covered by heavy snow.

"I'm glad I'm well prepared......"

He flicked the snow off his boots, readjusted his crampons, and lamented that he was prescient.

"No wonder the hall master is reluctant to come to the snow mountain, the road is cold and difficult to walk, I really don't know how those adventurers who are keen to go to the snow mountain adventure persevered in such an environment...... Or is it that the path I am walking is particularly difficult? ”

Jiang Bai thought about it seriously and felt that the latter was very likely.

He walked for so long, not a single person, not a camp, not a single fire, which shows that this path is not the right path.

He looked back and saw that there was only one footprint behind him, spreading all the way up alone.

Although the sun has long been hanging in the sky, the sunlight has not penetrated the thick clouds of the snow-capped mountains, and it cannot drive away a trace of chill.

Jiang Bai found a big rock, cleared the snow from it, and sat on it to rest.

He took out the flask and poured a sip of spirits, rubbed his frozen red face, and looked up into the depths of the snow-capped mountains.

When you look at it from the outside, you don't think it's a big mountain, but when you are in it, you can't see the mountains and lakes in the distance, and you can only see the snow in the distance, and the only thing you can see when you look up is the peak that goes deep into the clouds.

The pointer of the Sifang Sutra Instrument pointed upwards as firmly as a straight finger, and no matter what direction Jiang Bai changed, it always pointed to the peak.

"That adventurer must have fulfilled his wish and climbed to the top of the mountain!"

If you can die after your wish is fulfilled, then your life will be considered complete.

After a pause, he stepped on the snow that no one had stepped on and continued to move.

After walking up the hill, the road was wide and flat, and he could even hear the murmuring of the stream.

When I walked over, it turned out to be a stream flowing down from the snow-capped mountains, and the melting snow flowed down from here into the great river of Liyue.

Jiang Bai squatted at the water's edge and put his hand into the water, the temperature of the water mixed with ice cubes was cold and biting, he was frozen to the core, and hurriedly shook off the water stains on his hands.

"There should be a lot of streams and snowy mountains like this, right?"

Such a large snow-capped mountain, I don't know how many rivers it has formed.

As he walked up the stream, he saw a number of ruined buildings, which could no longer tell what they were used for, except for broken stone walls and toppled stone pillars.

Only the base of these stone pillars remains, but even the base is carved with patterns, which is the crystallization of time and wisdom.

Jiang Bai leaned over curiously, cleaned up the ice and snow covered by the stone pillar, and carefully observed the patterns on the stone pillar.

These patterns are very similar to those on the broken ruins on the Lonely Cloud Pavilion, and even in a specific symbol composition.

The more he looked, the more confused Jiang Bai became.

He had already decided that the ruins of the Lone Cloud Pavilion came from the suppressed Demon God people below, how could there be the same architectural ruins far away in the snowy mountains?

Could it be that the birthplace of those people is the snow-capped mountains? It's just that it was later moved to the Lonely Cloud Pavilion, so the Lonely Cloud Pavilion has a similar architectural pattern?

Or do these patterns not represent the people of the Demon God who were suppressed by the Lonely Cloud Pavilion, but represent a specific civilization and race?

There was too little information, and Jiang Bai couldn't figure it out, so he put this issue aside for the time being and continued to move up.

The further up you go, the more remains of the ancient buildings there are, and you can even see some small settlements of hilichurls.

Because of the snow-capped mountain environment, these hilichurls living in the snow-capped mountains have also purified the corresponding snow-capped characteristics, and their hair has evolved to white, which can help them better hide in the snow.