Chapter 107
Chapter 107
Early the next morning, Xiao Che left Black Pine Valley with Ye Qi, ten Shadow Guards, and Jin Bao.
They carried ten days’ worth of dry rations and water, traveling toward the Garrison on sleds pulled by Snow Mastiffs.
With Jin Bao serving as a living map, the group never took a wrong turn.
They also avoided every hidden danger in the forest and never encountered any packs of snow wolves or ferocious tigers.
The journey out of the forest took only five days by sled.
The moment they emerged from the trees, the map in Jin Bao’s mind disappeared.
“It’s gone, Daddy! Mappy in Baby’s head is gone!”
Jin Bao grew anxious. She had not finished helping Grandpa Han draw the topographic map. What was she supposed to do now?
Xiao Che was also surprised, but he did not panic as she did. Holding Jin Bao, he walked back into the forest.
“How about now, Daughter? Is the map in your head back?”
Sure enough, the instant Jin Bao entered the forest, the map returned to her mind.
Delighted, Jin Bao broke into a wide grin. “It’s back! It’s back!”
Xiao Che now understood the pattern. He explained, “Daughter, I suspect this map appears in your mind only while you’re inside the forest. Once you leave, it hides itself. Daddy doesn’t know why, but the fact that it hasn’t vanished for good is what matters. We won’t need the map after we leave the forest anyway, so it doesn’t matter if it’s unavailable for now.”
Jin Bao nodded her little head. She understood what had happened and stopped worrying.
“Daddy, where are we going now?”
After spending nearly half a month in the forest, Jin Bao felt unaccustomed to being outside again. In the forest, she always felt like its ruler, able to hold everything inside her little mind. Now that they had left and she no longer had a map, the absence felt strange.
“We’re going back to the Garrison we visited before – the place where you knocked that building down. We’ll take a look around.”
Xiao Che’s reminder brought the place back to Jin Bao at once. She remembered it vividly. She had even helped everyone kill a wolf pack there. It was filthy and smelled awful. Jin Bao did not want to return.
“Daddy, do we have to live there again? Baby doesn’t like it. It’s dark and stinky. Blegh…”
Jin Bao rolled her eyes, stuck out her little tongue, and pretended to gag.
Xiao Che affectionately tapped the tip of her nose. “No, we aren’t staying there. It isn’t safe either.”
Xiao Che feared that someone might be lying in wait, so he did not intend to approach during the day. He would wait until nightfall before investigating.
It was already past noon. They ate a simple meal of dry rations before setting out again.
In the Northern Frontier, the sky generally grew dark shortly after four in the afternoon.
By the time their sleds arrived at the Garrison, night had completely fallen.
Xiao Che fed the Snow Mastiffs some wolf jerky to quiet them.
The Snow Mastiffs had been professionally trained and were remarkably intelligent. Once Xiao Che gave them jerky and ordered them to remain quiet, they did not make a sound. They obeyed every command as readily as people.
“Ye Qi, come with me to investigate.”
Xiao Che wrapped Jin Bao tightly in the furs Pei Wanqing had prepared and secured her directly against his chest. That way, if they encountered danger, he could protect the little girl in front of him.
The two approached the abandoned Garrison one behind the other. It was pitch-black, without a single light.
The underground huts appeared exactly as they had when the group left, as if no one had visited since.
However, heavy snow had fallen here just a few days earlier, and the entrance to the huts was now covered in a jumble of footprints. A substantial number of people had clearly visited recently.
Suspicion instantly flooded Xiao Che’s mind. Who could it have been? Zhao Lei?
It certainly could not have been Lu Dachang. He had left the Garrison days ago.
Xiao Che signaled to Ye Qi, and the two split up.
Xiao Che inspected the underground hut where they had lived and discovered the severely wounded men they had left behind.
Their bodies still lay inside.
The food Xiao Che’s group had left them remained untouched, suggesting that none of the men had survived even a single day.
Xiao Che and Ye Qi searched every underground hut but found nothing unusual.
Only then did Xiao Che have the Shadow Guards bring the Snow Mastiffs over.
He also asked them to help bury the bodies.
No matter what, the dead deserved to be laid to rest.
In this weather, their corpses had long since frozen solid. The slightest carelessness could snap off an arm or leg.
After burying the men, Xiao Che led his group down the mountain overnight.
From the moment they entered the Northern Frontier, they had been taken straight to the Garrison and never had the chance to visit anywhere else.
Now that they had finally emerged, they needed to thoroughly understand how power was divided throughout the Northern Frontier.
Although the region was governed by the imperial court, the great distance made it difficult for the court’s authority to reach this far.
As a result, powerful local families dominated the region. Even if the court wanted to send officials to suppress them, its efforts accomplished little.
As soon as Xiao Che left the Garrison, an Ironfeather Sparrowhawk took flight from a nearby tree and headed toward Bei’an City.
After descending the mountain, the group hid by day and traveled at night, avoiding checkpoints and sentry posts whenever possible.
People said Jinshi Town was only a little over fifty li away, but that was probably the straight-line distance.
Two mountains stood between the Garrison and Jinshi Town, forcing Xiao Che’s group to take a detour.
In previous years, the courier road did not close until the twelfth lunar month. This year, it was only the tenth month, yet the snow already reached above the knee. The postmen along the route could not be bothered to clear the road, leaving the courier stations half-abandoned and lifeless. Ten days or even half a month might pass without a single visitor.
Xiao Che and his people did not dare stay at the courier stations. Guests had to register their identities, and as exiles, they possessed neither travel permits nor household registrations. If discovered, they would be arrested.
One day, Xiao Che noticed that Jin Bao seemed listless. He did not know whether the past several days of traveling had exhausted her or whether their food had been too coarse, but he needed to find somewhere for them to stop and rest.
“Ye Qi, scout ahead and see if there is an inn where we can stay. We need a break.”
Ye Qi accepted the order and soon returned.
“Valley Master, Blackwind Fort lies ten li ahead. We can stay there.”
“Blackwind Fort? It doesn’t sound like a courier station. Let’s go take a look.”
Old Han had told Xiao Che that some clans in the Northern Frontier named their forts after their family names. The largest was said to be Xie Family Fort, which housed several thousand people. Its population flourished, and it wielded considerable power, making it one of the regional tyrants of the Northern Frontier.
Xiao Che immediately increased his speed.
Fifteen minutes later, the group stood before a crumbling section of wall.
In the darkness, they could only make out that the wall was built from black stone. Perhaps because of its age, several sections had collapsed and remained unrepaired, blocked off only by wooden fences.
When they reached the entrance and looked up, they saw several weathered characters spelling out “Blackwind Fort.”
A yellowed lantern hung on either side. Their flames had long since gone out, and they swayed in the bitter wind, sending chills down the observers’ spines.
No matter how Xiao Che looked at the place, it resembled an abandoned fortress.
However, he had not encountered a single inn throughout their journey. This was also the first fortress they had seen beside the courier road. Curiosity and uncertainty ultimately drove him to enter.