lcionline Chapter 402 Seeing Through the Illusion
Chapter 402 Seeing Through the Illusion
The biting cold wind cut across his face like a knife. Hu Qing squinted his eyes. The outline of the snow-capped mountains in front of him was faintly visible in the blizzard.
Xiao Zi let out a low growl. A thin layer of ice had formed on its purple-black scales, and every time it flapped its wings, tiny ice crystals would fall off.
"Hold on a little longer, we'll be there soon." Hu Qing patted Xiao Zi's neck and turned to look behind him.
The rat man was hanging in the air shivering, his wings flapping slower and slower, and he was about to freeze to death.
"Sir..." The rat man's teeth chattered, his words were incoherent, "I really..."
Hu Qing sighed, and condensed a wisp of spiritual power at his fingertips, casting a layer of pale white spiritual shield around the rat man.
The cold air was immediately isolated outside, and the rat man felt as if he had been pardoned, and nodded and bowed in gratitude.
But after just a moment, Hu Qing withdrew his spiritual power - the spiritual shield consumed too much energy, and it was not worth it in this extremely cold environment.
"There's a cave ahead. We'll rest there tonight."
Inside the cave, Hu Qing lit a bonfire. The warm orange light dispelled some of the coldness. Xiao Zi squatted beside the fire, occasionally spitting out dragon breath to maintain the flame.
The rat man curled up in the corner, holding his tail and trembling.
Hu Qing checked Gu Yang's condition. His breathing was steady and his skin was no longer hot. Instead, it was emitting a faint golden glow.
What surprised Hu Qing even more was that the spiritual power in Gu Yang's body was running on its own, circulating in a mysterious trajectory - this was a sign of an impending breakthrough.
"A blessing in disguise..." Hu Qing muttered to himself.
He walked to the cave entrance and looked at the howling wind and snow outside. His eyes had returned to normal a few days ago.
Ever since he tore the chains in his eyes apart, his predictive ability has undergone a qualitative change.
At this moment, as soon as his mind moved, the scene ten breaths later appeared before his eyes:
A snowflake would fall right between his eyebrows, while thirty miles away, an avalanche was brewing.
What was even more amazing was that when he reversed his spiritual power, he was able to recall the scene within ten breaths.
The rat man's small action of hiding a piece of dry food just now was seen clearly by him.
"Predicting the future...looking back at the past..." Hu Qing seemed to be lost in thought.
If I continue to practice, perhaps I can really glimpse a more distant time and space.
But then he shook his head again - such a heaven-defying ability must be accompanied by a huge price.
As night falls, the wind and snow stop for a while.
The bonfire crackled in the cave, and the orange-red flames illuminated everyone's tired faces.
Hu Qing skewered several pieces of marinated animal meat on tree branches and slowly roasted them next to the fire.
The fat dripped into the flames, making a sizzling sound, and the rich aroma of meat filled the cold air.
The rat man huddled beside the fire, his hands clasped around his knees, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.
Even wrapped in the thick blanket he took out of the storage bag, he still couldn't stop shivering -
The temperature here is close to minus twenty degrees Celsius, and the white air exhaled quickly forms tiny ice crystals on the beard.
"Gah...Gah..."
Xiao Zi was lying on the other side of the fire, chewing a few wild fruits that were frozen hard as stones, her purple vertical pupils full of pride.
It deliberately bit the fruit to make a loud noise, and from time to time it cast a contemptuous look at the rat man.
The dragon race's naturally strong physique allowed him to completely ignore such severe cold.
Hu Qing was flipping the barbecue, his eyes looking particularly deep in the light of the fire.
He divided the roasted meat into three portions, gave the largest piece to Xiao Zi, kept the medium portion for himself, and finally gave the smallest but filling piece to the rat man.
"Thank...thank you very much, sir!" The rat man took the barbecue with trembling hands, and the scorching temperature almost made him drop it.
He took a cautious bite, and the hot gravy burst in his mouth. A warm current suddenly surged through his frozen body, and he was so moved that he almost cried.
Hu Qing ate his portion slowly, but his eyes were always on the rat man.
To be honest, it is really troublesome to carry this burden - he is weak, timid, and always thinking about running away.
If it weren't for his identity as a "treasure-hunting rat", he would have been thrown into a snow pile to fend for himself.
"We're heading into the snowy mountains tomorrow," Hu Qing suddenly said, his voice calm and emotionless. "You'd better pray that your nose is as sensitive as the legend says."
The rat man froze and almost dropped the barbecue.
He certainly understood the threat in Hu Qing's words and nodded quickly:
"Don't worry, sir! My ancestors for three generations are all treasure-hunting rats. They can smell the location of treasure with their eyes closed!"
Xiao Zi blew out a puff of smoke with sparks from her nose, obviously not believing what he said.
Hu Qing did not comment, but just silently finished the last bite of barbecue, then stood up and walked towards the cave entrance.
The wind and snow outside had stopped, and the moonlight shone on the snow, reflecting a faint blue glow.
In the distance, the towering snow-capped mountains stand quietly between heaven and earth like sleeping giants.
"I hope your nose is trustworthy." Hu Qing said without turning his head, his voice so soft that it almost disappeared in the wind, "Otherwise, you will be the first one to be fed to the snow monster."
When the rat man heard this, the barbecue in his hand fell to the side of the fire with a "pop".
…………
In the dim morning light, the snow-capped mountains glow with a light golden light under the rising sun.
Hu Qing tightened the snow-white scarf around his neck. He was wrapped tightly in a thick duck down robe. The collar and cuffs were sewn with windproof leather, and even his fingertips were covered with special animal skin gloves.
He looked back at Xiao Zi and couldn't help but curl his lips——
The majestic purple-scaled dragon beast was now wearing a thick dark blue sweater, with two slits specially cut on its back to allow its wings and dorsal fin to move freely.
The limbs sticking out from the hem of the sweater look particularly funny.
Xiao Zi swung her tail in dissatisfaction, and the snowflakes on her sweater fell off.
"Stop messing around and carry Gu Yang on your back." Hu Qing patted Xiao Zi's head. "It's much colder deep in the snowy mountains than here."
Gu Yang was still unconscious and was placed on Xiao Zi's back.
Hu Qing originally wanted to add a piece of clothing to him, but he found that once Gu Yang came into contact with cold air, the golden light on his body would flow steadily.
On the contrary, if you wrap yourself too thickly, your body temperature will rise abnormally.
In the end, they had to give up and just tied a safety rope around his waist.
"Master...Master!" The rat man came running over excitedly, his round figure like a running ball of fur.
The brown robe Hu Qing made for him was stuffed with too much down, causing him to swell up twice.
He spun nimbly, the hem of his robe flying. "Thank you, sir, this doesn't hinder my movements at all!"
Hu Qing raised his eyebrows. It seemed that the treasure-hunting rat clan was indeed gifted. Even in such bulky attire, the rat people could still walk briskly.
"Lead the way." Hu Qing raised his chin. "Remember, find a safe route directly. Don't play tricks."
The rat man immediately straightened his back, his nose twitching rapidly in the air:
"Don't worry, sir! This way, there's an ice valley three miles away that can avoid the wind!"
The group officially set foot into the snow-capped mountains.
In the snow-capped mountains, everything is silent.
Hu Qing took every step very carefully, and his boots sank into the half-foot-deep snow, making a squeaking sound.
The surroundings were covered in white, so pure that it was almost unreal.
He held a long stick in his hand and occasionally reached out to the snow in front of him - under the seemingly flat snow surface, there might be deadly holes hidden.
After the rat man fell down once, it is now his turn to lead the way.
"Follow my footsteps closely." Hu Qing whispered without turning his head.
Xiao Zi carried Gu Yang on her back, and every step she took was precisely on the footprints left by Hu Qing.
A thin layer of frost had covered its purple scales, and the white air it exhaled condensed into tiny ice crystals in the air.
The rat man followed at the end, one foot deep and one foot shallow. His round figure was like a clumsy snowball, and he stumbled from time to time because he missed a step.
Suddenly, a snowflake fell on Hu Qing's eyelashes.
He looked up and saw that the originally gray sky began to fall with heavy snow, and in the blink of an eye it turned into an all-encompassing curtain of snow.
"It's snowing, speed up." Hu Qing frowned.
However, before they had walked far, the snowflakes in the sky suddenly turned into hail the size of fingernails, falling down with a crackling sound.
At first there were only a few scattered hailstones, but soon it developed into a dense hailstorm.
Hu Qing raised his hand to block his eyes, and a hailstone as big as an egg hit his arm with a dull thud.
"boom!"
Not far away, the branches of a spruce tree were broken by hail and fell to the ground with a loud bang.
The icicles on the treetops fell like sharp blades, piercing deep into the snow.
The rat man screamed as a hailstone hit him right on the back, causing him to stagger and fall to his knees in the snow.
"Sir!" The rat man held his head in horror. The hailstones hit his thick robe, making a dull sound like raindrops.
Hu Qing quickly expanded his spiritual sense, and his spiritual power spread out in all directions like ripples.
Thirty paces to the left, beneath an ancient pine, he found a cave half-hidden by snow.
"Over there! Quick!"