"What is that sound?" Wu Tianzhen felt that this snow mountain was extremely strange, with all sorts of bizarre things appearing one after another.
A deep, heavy melody drifted from afar, echoing through the snow mountains, exuding a desolate and profound atmosphere.
"A horn?" Fatty listened intently for a while, then smacked his lips and said, "How can anyone have the mood to blow a horn here? Could it be that ghosts are gathering for a concert?"
"Will they ask us for concert tickets later?"
Hearing this, Wu Tianzhen instinctively patted his pockets, only to find he had no cash on him. He then thought that those ghosts were likely remnants of some ancient dynasty, and cash would probably be useless anyway, so he felt strangely reassured.
The sound of the horn came from a great distance, yet it was still so clear to their ears, so clear that they could distinguish every subtle pause in the melody, indicating that the horn's sound must have been very loud.
But in this vast expanse of snow mountains, such a loud noise was produced, yet the accumulated snow showed no signs of vibration, let alone an avalanche.
It felt as if the horn's sound did not exist in this world at all.
"Alright, stop thinking about it," Fatty waved his hand in front of the pensive Wu Tianzhen, and with a carefree attitude, he lowered his voice and sang a song to accompany the eerie horn. "Anyway, those talented performers are far from us, so why not enjoy the free music?"
Wu Tianzhen thought it made sense and perked up, intending to continue their journey.
However, to his utter surprise, just as he straightened his back and looked up, a tremendous force pressed down on his head, smashing him into the ground! Although the snow cushioned the impact, making it not too painful, the feeling of having his mouth full of snow was quite unpleasant.
"Holy—"
Before he could finish a curse, his mouth was pushed back into the snowdrift, and a light, quick whisper reached his ears—
"Shh!"
Zhang Qiling's voice was like a spell of immobilization. As soon as it fell, Wu Tianzhen, who had been struggling, stopped moving. It was only then that Wu Tianzhen realized that Fatty was gnawing on snow to his right, also pinned down by Zhang Qiling, with his face pressed into the ground.
Knowing that Little Brother must have his reasons for acting, both of them remained tense and still. However, the snow in their mouths was so cold it made their teeth ache. Wu Tianzhen and Fatty exchanged a look, and with grimaces, swallowed the melted snow.
And at that very moment—
"Crunch!"
The soft sound of footsteps on snow was heard, and this sound of footsteps quickly intensified like a rolling snowball, becoming increasingly harsh and noisy. For a moment, it sounded as if thousands of troops were traversing through time and space to arrive here.
Following this was the distant, mournful sound of the horn. The two sounds mingled, like clashing weapons and charging horses shattering glaciers, the horn piercing the sky, the deep valleys cracking, and the cold west wind howling.
In an instant, Wu Tianzhen clearly saw streaks and wisps of blood seeping from the clean white snow before him, intertwining and spreading, forming a brutal bloody ground. The conflicts of a battlefield from many years ago broke through the mists of history and appeared before him.
His body trembled uncontrollably, and Wu Tianzhen felt almost paralyzed by the pressure.
Suddenly, a sharp pain on the back of his neck jolted him awake.
He instinctively looked up. Zhang Qiling was seriously observing his expression, seemingly prepared to pinch him again if Wu Tianzhen hadn't fully woken up.
Wu Tianzhen: !!!
He immediately flashed a fawning smile, proving that he was perfectly fine and that Zhang Qiling's noble hands were not needed.
Zhang Qiling then averted his gaze, lowered his body slightly, and hid himself as much as possible behind a raised snowdrift, his eyes fixed on the situation below through the snow hole.
He saw that amidst the noise, a group of eerie soldiers, as if they had just crawled out of the underworld, were slowly advancing along the canyons between the snow mountains.
They wore tattered armor and exuded a faint blue-green glow. As they walked, their weapons and armor clashed, producing clear metallic sounds, just like living people.
But upon closer inspection, their heads were clearly grotesquely elongated, with high skulls and slender jaws, making their heads nearly half a meter long.
"This is... the passage of Yin soldiers..." Wu Tianzhen couldn't help but let out a soft exclamation.
His voice was extremely low, so low that even Fatty, who was eating snow beside him, couldn't hear it. But the moment he made the sound, the ghostly figure at the forefront of the Yin soldiers, who was blowing the horn, suddenly turned its head and stared intently, as if trying to twist its neck!
Zhang Qiling's expression turned stern, and he exerted force, pushing both of them into the snowdrift again. With the help of the cold snow and ice, the body heat of the three living people was quickly suppressed.
The ghostly soldier stared for a moment, found nothing amiss, and slowly turned its head, leading the Yin soldiers forward.
These soldiers, it was unknown from where they came, nor where they were going, but it was clear that they had a definite destination and were not wandering aimlessly.
Only after their shadows disappeared from this area did Fatty dare to look up.
He spat out the strangely flavored snow water from his mouth, muttering, "This is damn ridiculous. The commotion was clearly a thousand miles away just now, and in the blink of an eye, they're almost at our doorstep!"
"Legend has it that the passage of Yin soldiers often signifies major events..." Wu Tianzhen, almost frozen in the snow, his face pale, shivered and hopped to warm himself, his lips chattering. "All living beings in their path will die, so living people must not be seen by them."
"Major events..." Fatty, relying on his own fat to resist the cold, had already recovered. "What major events? Are gold and silver treasures about to emerge from the ground?!"
As soon as Fatty finished speaking, a violent tremor suddenly came from afar!
The tremor was as if the ground was splitting open. The snow mountain where they were located shook, and it seemed like an avalanche was about to occur, but the accumulated snow finally stopped at a point just before falling.
Wu Tianzhen breathed a sigh of relief, his face having turned pale. In these short few minutes, his face had changed colors so much that he could almost apply for a job as a color palette.
...Damn it, don't tell me Fatty has also contracted the ability to make things happen just by saying them?!
He wanted to say something but stopped. Just as he was about to turn to see Fatty's current condition, he met Fatty's jaw-dropping, stunned expression.
Fatty's gaze went past him to look behind him—
"I, I'll be damned! Holy cow, what the hell!"
"What the hell is this?!"
Wu Tianzhen slowly turned his head. In the midst of the mountains, in the direction where the Yin soldiers were heading, a bronze gate, almost reaching the sky, now stood majestically!
The intricate patterns exuded an ancient and heavy aura. The colossal gate clearly surpassed the limits of human imagination, to the point where one would doubt if it was a creation of this world.
A harsh crackling sound came from his chest. Wu Tianzhen took out the high-tech detector from his clothes. The screen was a mess of garbled code, clearly interfered with by some mysterious force, and it was obviously no longer functioning normally.
"What on earth..."
"Rumble—!"
Under their astonished gaze, the bronze gate slowly opened!