Volume 4: How big is the heart, how vast is the earth Chapter 95 Abandoning the Dragon to Save the Wolf
“Ahhh! Aa ...
In a beautiful low mountain range, heavy snow covered the sparse trees, leaving only branches, and the ground was almost flattened.
Mumu grabbed the door panel and dived down from the slightly arched hill, slid down the slightly steep slope at a high speed, and crashed into the woods. With a "bang", the door panel tied with bark broke into pieces, and Mumu was directly knocked into the sky by the recoil force of the trees. After landing, he rolled more than a dozen times before he stopped.
Xiao Yun: “…”
Mumu fell to the ground in a mess, but he was revived in less than a few seconds. He stood up from the snow with his arms raised high: "Ahaha——!"
"Oh my god! Is it dangerous? Come back soon!" Veins popped out on Xiao Yun's forehead.
"Hehe!" Mumu patted the snow off his body, turned around to collect the broken door panels, held them up with both hands, and then trotted to the temporary campsite where a small piece of ground had been cleared.
In this kind of weather, you don't need to bring a tent when you go out. You can melt snow, pick up branches and thorns, build a small frame, pour water on it and freeze it, and it will be a safe igloo. In front of the two-meter-high and four-meter-wide igloo, a fire lit by matches made of phosphorus sulfide made from phosphate ore is burning. In front of the fire, a simple grill is built with stones, and the grill is covered with wire mesh. Xiao Yun, wearing fingerless gloves, is grilling meat on the wire mesh with a brush.
The sled stopped on the left side of the igloo, and on the open space on the right was a Thornwood Demon... an eight-legged monster with thorns on its back that looked like thorn bushes. Its meat was very tender under its thick chitinous shell. It was one of the wandering monsters that warriors of all ethnic groups on the grassland liked to encounter the most...
With his hands deftly turning the meat of the thorny wood demon, Xiao Yun rolled his eyes at Mumu in disdain: "I was wondering why you brought a discarded door panel with you when you went out. So you want to have fun like this? You are a grown-up, but others are not as naughty as you."
"Who said that? Wool is only skinny when you can't see it." Mumu sat by the fire, took off the bark tied to his feet and started to repair the door. "Last time, the charcoal pencil drew a lot of circles on Lan Guo's sweater. It was wool. Lan Guo didn't tell others that she washed it herself. And the meat floss hidden by Huo Yan in Room No. 1 was eaten by wool, and..."
" ...What a fake sisterhood. Does she know that you have sold out the wool so thoroughly?" Xiao Yun's mouth twitched.
"What?" Mumu looked over cutely...
"Don't tie your broken door panel, go and remove the legs of the Thorny Wood Demon and roast them in the fire." Xiao Yun pursed his lips. After all, that thing was a demon beast, and he couldn't remove the two-finger-thick chitinous shell with his bare hands.
"oh."
The thorny wood demon's leg, which was slightly thicker than the snow werewolf's arm, was put into the fire and roasted for a while. Hongye and Qiu, who had gone out to explore the surrounding area, came back.
"We caught some squirrels~" Qiu trotted with four or five squirrels in his hands. The bark bag on his waist was bulging. He probably raided the squirrels' homes as well.
"Skin it and roast it." Xiao Yun moved his butt to make room for Qiu to sit, then looked at Hongye, "Did you find a frozen snake? Throw it on the sled and let's have a good meal."
Hongye nodded, walked a few steps to stick the frozen snake onto the sled, then came back and sat by the fire, took out the dagger provided to the soldiers at his waist and helped Qiu skin the squirrel, then picked up a wooden stick and carefully broke the squirrel's bones.
"It's all frozen over there, and the river surface is pressed down by the snow, so we walked around but couldn't find the direction of the river. I dug through the snow next to the signpost and found the ice surface, and then I was sure we were on the right track." Hongye said while busying himself, "Do you want to go up further, Ayun? If you go up further, you will enter the northern part of the grassland."
"Let's go up for two days and see what's happening in the upper reaches of the Earth River." Xiao Yun nodded. "This year's snow is so heavy that the water level will definitely be higher than last year in spring and summer. We have modified the tributaries, but we have never managed the Earth River. If the terrain on the south side of this section of the river is not high, the water level after the snow melts will most likely rush towards our tribe."
Qiu looked up, a little surprised: "Isn't this place far away from our tribe? How could this be affected?"
"If the river of the earth changes its course, this distance won't be that far." Xiao Yun smiled bitterly. In Chinese history, every time the Yellow River changes its course, a large area will be flooded. "Anyway, let's take a look at the terrain upstream first. If anything goes wrong, we will have some idea in mind."
After walking upstream for two days along the tributaries that passed through the tribe, Xiao Yun became more and more frightened... The tribe was located on the southwestern border of the grassland. As luck would have it, the surface of the ground in this place was concave, so the tributaries that were left to flow freely did not go east after diverting from the River of the Earth in the north, but flowed downward in twists and turns; it would not be a big deal if there were only tributaries, as the tribe had not relaxed its flood prevention work in recent years, but what if in spring it was not just the tributaries that came... this would be a big joke.
The most annoying thing is that even if he discovered the crisis, Xiao Yun currently has no solution... Where would he get the manpower to repair a dam of this size on a river!
"I can only hope that there is terrain in the north that can form a certain barrier..." Xiao Yun sighed in his heart, otherwise he would have to prepare to move in advance, which would be more than just a painful matter.
Mumu and Qiu looked at each other. They didn't expect this matter to be so serious. Mumu swallowed and said carefully: "Then...Ayun, what should we do if the bad terrain you said comes true?"
"It depends on the situation. We should try our best to remedy the situation and make preparations for migration to avoid floods."
"Hiss——" The three of them gasped in unison, Qiu's eyes widened, "Is it really that serious?"
"I also hope it's not that serious... Let's see first, there's no definite number yet. Well, it's cooked, who's going to eat it first?"
"Give it to the ball." Mumu didn't think twice.
Xiao Yun followed suit and handed the roasted Thornwood Demon Meat to Qiu...
Hongye put the hammered squirrel on the grill, turned the thorny wood demon leg in the fire, and added a few pine branches: "Ayun, pass me the spices."
Qiu took a bite of the fragrant barbecue and said, "Huh... It's so spicy. Put less spicy, Ayun."
"Not much. You boiled it. Drink some canned sugar water. It just melted."
"I want more spiciness, more! And more peppercorns!"
"Come on, add more, and bear the spiciness yourself , Mumu."
With a "sizzle", the squirrel oil fell onto the fire. Hongye picked up a brush and dipped it in barbecue sauce and brushed it on. The smell of smoke, meat and spicy aroma rose up and was blown to the east by Xuan'er's wind.
On the other side of the beautiful mountains which were only a hundred meters away from their temporary camp, a snow elf warrior who had jumped onto a dead tree whose lower half was covered with snow and was looking around sniffed and subconsciously stretched his neck to look around.
"Ed?"
Under the tree, my companion who was packing his bag looked up and asked, "Did you find anything?"
"No...are there any tribes around here? Xiu?" Ed lowered his head.
Xiu was stunned for a moment, then he pulled out the animal skin map from his backpack and spread it out to take a look: "...No, the nearest tribe is also a hundred miles away."
The Snow Elf warrior jumped down from the crown of the dead tree and landed on the ground with a "bang". He looked at his companions seriously and said, "I can vaguely smell the smell of food. Someone is grilling meat around here."
Xiu subconsciously looked towards the low mountain range in front of him: "You mean the other side of this ridge?"
"It's possible." Ed nodded. "Not many people in the Cursed Lands would go out hunting in this kind of weather. Do you think it could be the lost green dragon?"
"This... If the green dragon was running around in this kind of weather, it would have been found by Austin long ago." Xiu said this, but he stuffed the map back into his bag and put the backpack on his back again.
“Let’s look on the other side of the mountain. Even if it’s not a green dragon, we can ask the hunters if they have seen him.” Ed also bent down to pick up his backpack.
The two snow elf warriors packed their luggage, put on their skis, and glided away on the snow with light and skillful movements in the blink of an eye.
A few minutes later.
Qiu, who was sticking out his tongue due to the burn, had his eyes wide open. Mumu, who was frantically adding chili powder and peppercorns, paused. Hongye brushed the barbecue sauce on the brush onto the empty space. Only Xiao Yun remained calm. With a "click", he unscrewed the frozen can that was almost welded shut due to the principle of thermal expansion and contraction.
Two blond girls with red eyes, skin as white as snow, wearing silver-white armor, carrying large white backpacks, and pointed ears on skis stood less than ten meters away from them, staring in amazement... at the igloo they had built with snow water.
"..." Xiao Yun approached Hongye, "Hongye, is this... the elf on the northern snow mountain?"
"Red eyes mean they are not afraid of the cold, it seems." Hongye swallowed, "Look how little they are wearing, and they are even wearing armor."
That's right... If the Snow Wolf and Cat Tribe want to go out in this kind of weather, they will wear two layers of cotton clothes, a sweater, and then a fur coat. The whole set will make them look fatter. Even so, they will still be frozen like idiots if they are exposed to the wind for a long time. But as for the two guys in front of me, it is impossible to tell what they are wearing inside. Anyway, they are wearing a layer of silver armor on the outside. Their bodies are not bloated, and it is estimated that they are not wearing very thick clothes. Their hands and faces are directly exposed, and they are not equipped with hats, scarves or gloves.
"..." Ed and Xiu lowered their eyes to look at the people who were openly gossiping... Hmm... Judging from the color and shape of the ears on both sides of their heads, they should be the two people of the Snow Wolf Tribe. But their skin is not dark anymore, nor dirty or smelly. They are dressed neatly and have all the equipment...
After silently sizing up the three snow wolves and a small cat tribe, Ed nodded slightly as a symbol: "Good day...Are you hunters from the nearby tribe?"
Hongye handed the brush to Xiao Yun and stood up: "We are from the southern tribe, what do you want?"
Ed turned to look at his companions. Xiu stepped forward and nodded to Hongye in a friendly manner. "We are from the Ice and Snow King City. My name is Xiu, and this is my companion Ed. We have come to seek the help of the Curse...Grassland Tribe to find a missing person."
"It's the snow elves." Xiao Yun frowned secretly. To be honest, he didn't want to deal with the elves in the north. After all, the Snow Wolf Tribe had a direct conflict with them. When he heard the second half of the sentence, he felt something was wrong. Missing person? Did the snow elves lose some important person, a runaway princess or something? It's not that ridiculous!
"Missing?" Hongye asked directly.
"Friends in the Ice and Snow King City, a young green dragon disappeared for no reason a year ago. We are looking for him. Friends in the grassland, have you seen a young green dragon?"
“Huh?!”
Xiao Yun was thinking "Shit!" In his heart, he managed to remain calm, but Hongye, Mumu, Qiuqiu and the other two didn't have that ability. They all turned their heads to look at him cutely.
The two snow elves were obviously not stupid and cute. Seeing their reaction, two pairs of red eyes looked towards Xiao Yun.
"As for the dragon clan, I've seen them before." In an instant... Xiao Yun used his acting skills that he had practiced for many years, and naturally tilted his eyes to the upper left. "It was probably... a year and a half ago in the summer or spring, I saw a green dragon flying across the sky." He pretended to be annoyed and looked at Qiu and Mumu, "I told you that at the time, but you didn't believe me and thought I was lying."
"Um……"
"Well……"
The three of them also knew that their performance just now was not good. Balk was hiding in their tribe to avoid that scary old man. How could they betray him? They all tried their best to perform their best and scratched their heads embarrassedly.
The two snow elves' eyes lit up, and one of them took two steps forward: "Did you see where he flew?"
"When I saw the dragon, I immediately told them to look. But when I looked again, the dragon was gone. So they didn't believe that I saw the dragon." Xiao Yun shook his head.
The two snow elves looked at each other and asked again: "Can you tell us where you saw it?"
Xiao Yun didn't answer so straightforwardly this time. He looked at the two elves suspiciously: "Why are you asking this? Why should I tell you?"
Ed & Xiu: "..."
This question is correct. Although the two of them act very friendly, the relationship between the Snow Elves and the Snow Wolf Tribe in the Cursed Land is not really friendly...
Hongye understood what he meant and took a few steps forward to block the two snow elves. He stared at them with a frown and said, "If I remember correctly, the Ice and Snow King City and the Dragon Clan are not very friendly. Did you come to the grassland to find a green dragon?"
This is the reason why I doubted the snow elves' intention of setting foot on the grassland...
Ed's mouth twitched, Xiu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The two looked at each other, and Xiu negotiated again: "Indeed, the Ice and Snow King City was commissioned to find the missing green dragon, and there was no other intention."
Xiao Yun breathed a sigh of relief and hinted to Hongye to step forward and force them just to see the attitude of the two snow elf warriors. If they were willing to explain, it would mean that the Snow Mountain Elves' resentment towards the Snow Wolf Tribe was not so great that it could not be reconciled, which meant that there was still a chance to sit down and talk.
I don't even bother to explain and just walk away, that's really annoying...
Hongye stared at Xiu seriously, thinking hard about how to react. At this time, Xiao Yun pretended to be curious and spoke to help Hongye out: "Who is so powerful that he can be entrusted with the work of the Ice and Snow King City?"
"It's Lord Austin, the father of the missing green dragon." Xiu explained sincerely.
Xiao Yun: “…” Damn!
Hongye was afraid that her eyes would betray her heart, so she pretended to speak to Xiao Yun and turned around: "Ayun, do you remember where you saw the green dragon?"
Xiao Yun spread his hands and said, "It's been so long, how can I remember it? I have forgotten the day, I just saw him flying across the western sky." He pointed to the west casually, "The place I saw him at that time was far away from where I was. I'm sure I can't tell the exact location."
"Have you seen a green dragon since then?" Xiu refused to give up.
"No, if I had seen it twice, the impression would have been very deep. The only reason I can remember that time is because they didn't believe that I saw the dragon." Xiao Yun said.
Since he had to lie to get away with it, he could actually divert the blame and say that Balke flew to the center of the grassland. But after briefly weighing the pros and cons, Xiao Yun gave up this idea. No matter what method Balke's father used to convince the Ice and Snow King City, since the Elf King was willing to help, he would definitely send more than just a few people. There was no point in telling such a meaningless lie that might be exposed.
The two snow elves looked at each other in silence… They didn't dare to say that they could remember clearly a certain day hundreds of days ago. At that time, perhaps the green dragon had not disappeared yet and was still wandering around in its own nest. It was not surprising to be seen by others occasionally.
"Thank you all for your help. We'll take our leave now." Xiu nodded slightly and signaled Ed to leave.
Ed was a little slow in raising his feet, and his movements in turning were a little slow...
Xiao Yun had already felt the bottom line of the two snow elf warriors. How could he let them go so easily? He had already noticed that the one standing slightly behind had looked at the grill several times. He immediately put on a smile and said, "Since we meet on such a vast grassland, may I take the liberty of inviting you two to share our tribe's food? Although our tribe has never dealt with you snow mountain elves, we do have many forest elf friends."
Xiu turned around in surprise, and Ed also looked surprised.
They are all elves, and the snow elves and forest elves know each other's faults... They say that we should not forget the history of all races fighting side by side, and maintain courtesy and etiquette towards all races, but in fact the elves really don't think much of outsiders - how can these snow wolves and forest elves have a relationship?
"Last summer, the forest elves gave us a lot of their specialty fruits. This canned food is made with the fruits given by the forest elves." Xiao Yun added with a smile, holding up the glass bottle.
The two snow elves looked at each other. This time, Xiu's expression was more natural. It turned out that his politeness just now was just a polite way of fooling people: "Excuse me, I haven't asked the name of the chief of your tribe yet?"
"Our tribe is called the Fire Tribe." Xiao Yun invited warmly, "Last year we made a deal with the forest elves, and they bought a lot of our tribe's special sauces. The meat we are grilling is cooked with this special sauce. We are very confident in the taste. Want to try it?"
The two snow elves came here because they smelled the barbecue. These grassland people were relatively clean and not dirty or smelly. Ed looked at his companion Xiu and started to untie the straps of his backpack...
Xiu rolled his eyes at him unhappily.
It is not difficult to trick these two snow elves away, but blindly avoiding them will not solve the problem, there will always be a day when it cannot be avoided; then to solve the problem, it is better to infiltrate the enemy...well, at least get familiar with them and get some information, find out what price Father Austin paid and how sincere the Elf King is in helping, so that it will be convenient to figure out a response strategy.
Even if things develop to the worst point and Balk is caught by Austin, they must find a way to minimize the losses of the tribe. At that time, the tribe must be able to do business with the elves on both sides, at least to make the old dragon who is more greedy than Balk feel afraid - anyway, Xiao Yun will never allow others to fight in his lair. The worst case scenario is to kick Balk away in advance!
After giving a wink to Mumu and Qiu, the two with poor acting skills, and asking them to give up the front seats to the snow elf, Xiao Yun enthusiastically picked up the meat that had just been grilled on the grill and handed it to Ed who had sat down first.
Ed had long been craving for this fragrant barbecue, so he took it and started biting into it.
"Hey——" Mumu stretched out his hand, that's my meat tooth! I added a lot of ingredients!
Xiao Yun saw Mu Mu's shocked and sad look out of the corner of his eye, and suddenly felt something was wrong.
“Hiss—Ha! Cough cough cough! This, ha, this is, cough cough cough! My tongue—ha, cough cough cough!”
The snow elf warrior Ed, who had just eaten a bite of meat, burst into tears and his facial features became numb due to the spicy taste...
Xiu got a crispy squirrel roasted with red leaves. He took a small bite of the skin and was just enjoying the rich aroma in his mouth when he saw his companion looking like he was about to ascend to heaven. He was so shocked that he forgot to ask...
Xiao Yun lowered his head to look at the grill. The traces of pepper powder and chili powder left by Mumu were particularly conspicuous... He held his forehead with his hand.
...Ten minutes later.
Ed, whose eyes were red and face was flushed from the spiciness, relied on melted canned fruit to stay alive. He finished the piece of meat that Mumu had added spices to, and kept blowing on his tongue. Seeing his companions looking so embarrassed, Xiu couldn't keep up the airs of a snow elf. He silently finished two roasted squirrels and took a can of food to drink. He also shared the snow mountain specialty spices he brought with him to Qiu and Mumu who were holding the roasted thorny wood demon's leg pit.
"The sauce of your tribe is indeed unique. I wonder how you trade with the forest elves?"
Xiao Yun smiled innocently and quoted a preferential price that made the forest elf so excited that he was at a loss as to what to do. He pointed to the iron plate on the edge of the grill where warm pickled cabbage was placed and said, "They also bought a lot of this. It's very good for relieving the greasiness after eating barbecue."
Xiu tried the pickled cabbage which didn’t look very good and nodded: “It’s indeed good…”
Xiao Yun didn't wait for him to propose a deal, and interrupted him with a curious look, "When we were doing business with the forest elves, we didn't hear them mention that the green dragon was missing. Don't the forest elves know about this?"
Xiu wanted to ask the Fire Tribe whether they were willing to trade with the Ice and Snow King City. Besides, it would not be a good idea to eat a meal for free and then pretend. He nodded and said, "Lord Austin did not ask for help from the Queen of the Forest Elf. Due to the disputes over the territory, the Green Dragon Clan is not very close to the Queen."
"Oh... no wonder. But I've also heard that the Elf King doesn't like dragons. Why do you have to work so hard to come out and help them?" Xiao Yun asked suspiciously.
Xiu smiled indifferently: "Lord Austin once used a verbal trap to lure the leader of our garrison stationed in the western part of Samar Snow Mountain and took away our gold mine in the west. This time he promised to return the gold mine, so my king naturally has to express his gratitude."
Xiao Yun had a calm expression, and secretly gave Balke a thumbs up in his heart... He had already spent so much money, and he couldn't afford to waste it, so he would just go back to where he came from.
