Li Xiaoning found a clean tent and lay down.
The continuous cries of Gongcheng Qianye echoed in her ears. She thought she would have trouble sleeping, especially with someone calling out constantly and corpses lying outside her tent. Thus, Li Xiaoning prepared to stay awake until dawn.
Unexpectedly.
Not long after lying down, a surge of fatigue swept over her body, and Li Xiaoning fell into a deep sleep.
When she opened her eyes again, it was the next morning.
Li Xiaoning immediately crawled out of the tent and saw Chen Jinzhao sitting not far away, roasting something. She tucked in her coat and walked over to Chen Jinzhao's side. Only then did she realize that Chen Jinzhao was actually roasting meat, causing Li Xiaoning's pupils to contract sharply.
"You're..."
Chen Jinzhao said without looking back, "Wild rabbit, don't misunderstand."
Li Xiaoning carefully examined the roast on the rack and breathed a sigh of relief after confirming it was a wild boar. She had almost thought Chen Jinzhao was doing something anti-human.
"Where is that person?" she asked.
Chen Jinzhao said calmly, "You mean Gongcheng Qianye? He was quite tough. He endured three thousand one hundred and sixty-seven blows before he died."
Li Xiaoning's scalp tingled.
As Chen Jinzhao spoke, he handed Gongcheng Qianye's map to her.
Li Xiaoning reacted and took the map from Chen Jinzhao with both hands, her eyes immediately falling on the red dot on the map.
"It's different again!" she exclaimed in surprise.
"Why are these locations all different? Which one is the real one?"
Chen Jinzhao said faintly, "Perhaps all of these are fake. We now have four different coordinates. If all four are fake, then the real coordinates should be in the hands of the Mitili people."
Li Xiaoning deflated.
"Then, should we still explore, or retreat now?"
The distance between any two of these four locations exceeded ten kilometers. Only by exploring them one by one would they know which was real and which was fake. However, this would multiply the required time by several times. Li Xiaoning felt that her stamina could no longer keep up with Chen Jinzhao's pace, and she would only become a burden if she continued.
"Let's go to the nearest location first and see if there's anything unusual there," Chen Jinzhao said.
"If there's nothing there, we'll make other plans."
The two of them took out the four maps and compared them, finding that the closest coordinate to them was from the map obtained from Gao Juntan.
It was still seventy to eighty kilometers away.
At a normal pace, they should be able to reach it in two days.
Chen Jinzhao said to Li Xiaoning, "You can choose to leave now. It's not far to get out from here, or you can choose to go further in with me."
Li Xiaoning said without hesitation, "I'll go with you."
Chen Jinzhao grunted.
After filling their stomachs, the two of them shouldered their bags and continued their journey.
As they left the camp, Li Xiaoning saw a horrifying sight—more than a dozen heads were piled up by Chen Jinzhao, neatly arranged on a high point.
It had clearly become a landmark.
"This is a 'Jingguan' commonly seen in ancient times. It's a pity that the Japanese were not numerous, otherwise this Jingguan would have been even more magnificent and imposing," Chen Jinzhao said.
Gulp!
Li Xiaoning swallowed hard. "Can I take a picture as a memento?"
"As you wish."
Li Xiaoning took out her phone and took a few pictures, then murmured, "These invading Japanese have been killed by us. May your family of three rest in peace."
Sensing that Chen Jinzhao had walked far ahead, Li Xiaoning quickly put away her phone and followed.
Over the next two days, the two of them encountered no one and successfully arrived at the marked spot on Gao Juntan's map at noon on the third day.
It was an open area, without even a tree trunk, let alone any supposed meteorite.
Li Xiaoning volunteered, "I can search carefully nearby. Perhaps I can find some trace of the meteorite."
Chen Jinzhao shook his head. "No need."
"Why? What if the meteorite is covered by the heavy snow? Don't forget, there was a blizzard a few days ago. This is very possible."
Seeing that Chen Jinzhao did not respond, she added, "You don't have to do anything, I'll go look."
Chen Jinzhao rubbed his temples and said with some helplessness, "Meteorites from outer space hitting Earth would create a deep crater. Look at this area, it's flat all around. Where is there any meteorite crater?"
"Oh, right." Li Xiaoning patted her head.
"I was wondering why the meteorite would land so precisely in a meteorite crater. So it was a reversal of cause and effect."
Chen Jinzhao: "..."
"You rest here for a while. I'll go look around."
Li Xiaoning said, "Okay."
While Chen Jinzhao was looking around, Li Xiaoning, still unconvinced, began searching for the meteorite in the snow.
The result, naturally, was nothing.
Meanwhile.
Chen Jinzhao's brow furrowed.
He was wondering if the red dot on Gao Juntan's map was drawn randomly by someone, or if there was another intention behind it.
It was destined that no one would give him the answer.
After a few rounds, Chen Jinzhao found nothing unusual. Just as he was about to go back to find Li Xiaoning, a scream broke the silence.
The person screaming was Li Xiaoning!
Chen Jinzhao frowned and immediately ran towards the direction of the scream.
About three hundred meters away, Chen Jinzhao saw Li Xiaoning. There was no one else around her, which made Chen Jinzhao breathe a sigh of relief.
Approaching Li Xiaoning, Chen Jinzhao frowned and asked, "What's wrong?"
Li Xiaoning stared intently at the snow-covered ground. Hearing Chen Jinzhao's inquiry, she pointed to the ground and said tremblingly, "Look!"
Following Li Xiaoning's gaze downwards, Chen Jinzhao finally discovered something unusual.
Under the snow, a pale, bloodless arm was exposed to the air. It looked like it had been dead for some time.
Chen Jinzhao told Li Xiaoning to step back, then began to dig away the snow.
Hmm?
There was not just one body under the snow, but several.
In the past few days, Li Xiaoning had been following Chen Jinzhao and had become much braver. After calming down, she was no longer as afraid. She walked back to Chen Jinzhao's side, and upon seeing the bodies, she exclaimed, "Why are there so many bodies? And these people don't look like Chinese. Could there be other Chinese people here besides us?"
Chen Jinzhao examined the bodies and found that they had not died from gunshot wounds, but from fatal injuries inflicted by cold weapons.
What surprised Chen Jinzhao even more was that each person had only one fatal wound.
This meant that the person who killed them was very powerful, killing them with a single strike.
If the opponent was only one person, their strength would be even more terrifying.
"Huh?"
"The opponent's weapon wasn't a short knife, but something like a long sword? What kind of weapon is this? I haven't encountered anyone using a sword before."
Could it be that they had encountered an immortal?