In the snowy woods to the northeast of the Kunlun Mountains, as Li Zihang and Chen Bin successfully started the bonfire, the flames illuminated the surrounding trees, startling many birds and beasts...
"Uncle Shi, have some hot water."
Li Zihang held the kettle placed on the embers. It was hot water from melted snow. Wu Weizi took a few sips, and only then felt his body warm up.
Jiang Tingxia, Duan Yingying, Xu Lingwei, Chen Bin, Lu Bao, Lin Jie, and Peng Lei also sat around the bonfire, roasting themselves and boiling water while eating dry rations.
"I wonder how junior brother Wan and senior sister Zhou are doing," Jiang Tingxia asked with a slight frown, her heart filled with worry.
"Senior sister Jiang, can you still contact senior sister Zhou?" Li Zihang, while adding firewood, turned his head and asked her.
"I can't."
Jiang Tingxia shook her head, worriedly saying, "My left eyelid has been twitching since this afternoon. It feels like something is about to happen."
Wu Weizi, sitting beside them, sighed softly. He knew that Wan Yunting and Zhou Ruoxi had taken a risk to distract the pursuers behind them so that they could continue searching for the Phoenix Tail Grass, which made them very worried.
"Senior sister Jiang, don't scare yourself."
Li Zihang smiled and said, "Junior brother Wan is very capable. Perhaps after distracting those pursuers, he and senior sister Zhou will directly leave the Kunlun Mountains and return to the Wuliang Daoist Temple on their own."
"Hmph, that scoundrel had better die in the mountains."
Duan Yingying, sitting nearby, glared with her almond eyes, gnashing her teeth and snorting coldly.
Thinking of being spanked by Wan Yunting before, which was the shame of her life, she wished Wan Yunting would die in the mountains and never come out.
"Yingying."
Wu Weizi glared at her with his old eyes. Duan Yingying couldn't sit still, so she got up, snorted, and went back to her tent to sleep.
"This girl still hasn't changed her pampered and wilful habit."
Wu Weizi shook his head and sighed, then said to Jiang Tingxia, "Alright, you don't have to worry too much about little Wan and little Zhou. I believe they can handle it."
Li Zihang nodded and said, "I contacted my師娘 this afternoon. She said the police have already sent people to meet junior brother Wan and the others. Perhaps after distracting the pursuers, they will meet up with the police who are escorting them. So, senior sister Jiang, don't worry too much."
"Mhm."
Jiang Tingxia nodded and sighed, "I hope they can return safely."
Although she said that, her left eyelid had been twitching non-stop all afternoon. Jiang Tingxia had a premonition that something had happened to senior sister Zhou!
"It's getting late, you should all go to sleep quickly."
Li Zihang glanced at the time and told Jiang Tingxia and Xu Lingwei to return to their tents and get some rest.
He turned to Lu Bao and said, "Senior brother Lu, you and I will stay on watch. We'll switch with senior brother Chen and senior brother Lin in the latter half of the night."
"Alright."
Lu Bao nodded in agreement and stayed to keep watch with Li Zihang.
Chen Bin, Lin Jie, and Peng Lei also went to sleep.
Li Zihang and Lu Bao sat by the bonfire. Everyone else had gone to their tents to sleep. The two of them were idly tending the fire, constantly adding firewood, listening to the terrifying calls of the nocturnal animals in the surrounding woods.
"I wonder if senior brother Wan has managed to lure away all the pursuers behind us!" Lu Bao suddenly said.
"Probably."
Li Zihang poked the bonfire with a stick. Lu Bao sighed, "It's best if that's the case, otherwise if we still have a group of pursuers behind us, it will be troublesome."
Li Zihang tilted his head slightly to look at Lu Bao, his eyes narrowing. Suddenly, he said, "Senior brother Lu, you're not a spy too, are you?"
Lu Bao's expression froze, and he immediately laughed a few times, shaking his head. "Junior brother Zihang, if I were a spy like Tao Zifu, I'd twist my head off and give it to you as a chamber pot."
Li Zihang looked at his natural demeanor and also smiled, "I'm just joking. How about you go to sleep too, senior brother Lu? I can watch alone."
"No, let's watch together. Chatting will keep us from getting tired," Lu Bao waved his hand and smiled.
Li Zihang nodded, and then the two began to chat casually...
However, they did not know that Lei Tianhu, along with the Fourth Brother Wu Chang, the Seventh Brother Qi Dazhuang, and the Eighth Brother Zhang Boda, following the marks left by another hidden spy among Li Zihang's group, were now behind Li Zihang and the others, spending the night in the snowy woods three kilometers away.
It was night now, and the temperature had dropped to minus twenty degrees Celsius. So Lei Tianhu, Wu Laosi, and the Seventh and Eighth Brothers had also set up tents, started a bonfire, and were sitting around the fire, boiling water and eating canned meat.
"I wonder how Second Brother and Third Brother are doing. We can't contact them now," said Wu Laosi, lighting a cigarette after finishing his canned meat.
"Don't worry about Second Brother and Third Brother. I guess they've already caught up with that kid Wan Yunting and stripped his skin and cracked his bones by now," the Seventh Brother said with a smile while eating.
Lei Tianhu also finished a can of meat, threw the empty tin into the fire, and then stood up. "Seventh and Eighth, you take turns on watch. We must set off at exactly six o'clock tomorrow morning to catch up and eliminate them, lest there be more trouble."
"Okay, Big Brother. You go and rest."
The Eighth and Seventh Brothers responded. Wu Laosi finished his cigarette and also got up to return to his tent to rest...
However, they also didn't expect that behind them, a group of people were braving the night wind and snow, leading two police dogs, traversing the pitch-black snowy forest. It was Qu Rongguang, the director of Buxida County, leading a team of police officers.
They had already contacted Li Zihang and had located their position. However, Qu Rongguang was one day behind Li Zihang and his group, so the distance between them now was more than twenty kilometers of mountain road.
Therefore, it was already past nine o'clock in the evening, and Qu Rongguang was still leading the police officers and the two police dogs to advance in the biting cold wind and snow, planning to rest after another hour of travel...
Time passed slowly, and it was suddenly midnight.
Li Zihang and Lu Bao sat by the bonfire. Both of them were wearing cotton daoist robes and a thick cotton cloak, their heads tucked in to ward off the cold. Just then, a tent zipper was pulled open, and Jiang Tingxia walked out, holding the sides of her white cloak to wrap herself. Li Zihang looked up and asked, "Senior sister Jiang, why aren't you asleep yet?"
Jiang Tingxia's brows were furrowed. She walked over and sat beside Li Zihang, shaking her head. "I can't sleep. I feel very uneasy. I think senior sister Zhou is in trouble!"
Li Zihang and Lu Bao's expressions froze. Looking at Jiang Tingxia, whose face and eyes were full of worry, Lu Bao smiled. "Senior sister Jiang, it's no use worrying now. We can't contact junior brother Wan and senior sister Zhou, and we don't know where they are. So, it's even more impossible to find them. You should stop overthinking and go to sleep."
Jiang Tingxia shook her head. She had been lying in the tent for several hours, thinking about senior sister Zhou Ruoxi. The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt, so she ran out. "Junior brother Zihang, can't you contact junior brother Wan either?"
"I can't."
Li Zihang took out his phone and opened WeChat. "Look, I sent him over a dozen messages earlier, and he hasn't replied. His phone probably has no signal by now and can't receive my messages."
Jiang Tingxia's brows were tightly furrowed, and she said worriedly, "We can't contact either of them. It's really worrying."
Li Zihang comforted her, "Senior sister Jiang, you really don't need to worry too much. After all, junior brother Wan is not an ordinary person. As you saw in the news before, he was trapped in a cave in the disaster area for five or six days and didn't die. Moreover, this time, he is only taking senior sister Zhou to distract the pursuers behind them, so you don't need to worry about them encountering any danger."
"Yes, it's so late, you should go to sleep quickly."
Lu Bao said, standing up, and said to Li Zihang, "I'm going to relieve myself."
"Go ahead, it's just over there."
Li Zihang said, pointing to the woods in the distance, indicating for Lu Bao to go there to relieve himself.
"Okay."
Lu Bao nodded and went over.
Jiang Tingxia, who was sitting beside him, was still worried. She couldn't sleep at all and kept imagining senior sister Zhou and junior brother Wan meeting with misfortune...
Lu Bao walked into the woods and stopped in front of a tree. He looked back at Li Zihang by the bonfire, who was chatting with Jiang Tingxia...
Then, Lu Bao urinated while pulling out a dagger from under his daoist robe. He quickly made several cuts on the trunk of the tree in front of him, carving a mark! He was another spy hidden among this group!