Hidden moth

Chapter 151: Thousands of Miles of Snowy Tracking

He Kao left his cell phone in the room to charge it, then went to the Gushan Secret Mansion to prepare some things. Then he traveled through space and came to the territory of Maoluo again. The place he appeared was still near the river valley.

He was very cautious and did not approach the valley. Instead, he found a high place and observed with an infrared telescope. He found that the camp of Zeng Hongye and his foreign disciple Xiao Si was still there.

In fact, not much time had passed. He Kao discovered the two people in the afternoon, then went back to call Qian Guran, waited for Qian Guran to call back, and just contacted the second uncle... All this happened this afternoon.

It was just past dinner time, but it gets dark early in the north, so the light in the mountains was already dim and the temperature was dropping rapidly. If you didn't return to camp in time and stayed outside for a while, you would be frozen to the bone by the cold wind.

The two men seemed to have been misled. They found that the traces of He Kao's activities finally stopped in this river valley, so they searched in this area. Of course, they would not find anything unless Xiao Wu happened to escape here as well.

He Kao suddenly remembered that on the morning after he crossed the Wulong River, he had discovered traces of human activities in the mountains.

At that time, he saw a branch that seemed to have been broken by someone, because there were many branches lying on the snow, and the traces were obviously that they had been cut off by a knife.

But he walked for a whole day and didn’t see a single person, which made him feel strange... Now thinking back, could that be someone Xiao Wu had left behind?
That location was not far after he crossed the river. He Kao could still remember it and arrived there the next moment.

This is a mountain nest, sheltered from the wind on all sides, and it hasn't snowed since that night, so many traces are still there.

He Kao observed carefully and found that someone must have broken a tree stick as thick as a walnut and cut off the small branches on it. It might have been processed into a wooden stick or a simple spear... The person should have been carrying a knife.

Zeng Hongye, who is tracking Xiao Wu, is a fourth-level warlock. Such a simple tool is dispensable to him... So it should be Xiao Wu?

Zeng Hongye had mentioned that he and Xiao Si had crossed the Wulong River in pursuit of Wu Yanjun, but a snowstorm that night wiped out all traces. This suggests they had crossed the river around the same time as He Kao, three days prior.

Shortly after crossing the river, He Kao's whereabouts and Xiao Wu's whereabouts happened to intersect where Xiao Wu was processing tree sticks.

On the first day after crossing the river, He Kao walked north all the time; on the second day, he reached the river valley and accidentally found a Xue Guanghan, and then continued searching along the river valley; on the third day, which is today, he found Zeng Hongye and Xiao Si.

Why did Zeng Hongye and Xiao Si chase into that river valley? Because they discovered He Kao's whereabouts, and then the pursuit direction was led astray!

Tracking He Kao in this environment is a very confusing act.

Because He Kao is a recluse, he doesn't have to worry about outdoor equipment and supplies. He can go back and get whatever he wants at any time. If he feels hungry or cold, he can go back to the hotel to rest. He doesn't have to camp here at night.

Therefore, its movements are very fast and its whereabouts look very strange.

The two men accidentally chased each other all the way to the valley, but were discovered by He Kao.

If Wu Yanjun had fled in a hurry, he would not have been fully prepared. It was a fluke that he could have escaped to this place, and he probably couldn't have run far... It's not easy to survive in such a harsh environment.

Considering that Wu Yanjun is a second-level warlock after all, there is a great possibility that he will survive. The most urgent task is to find him as soon as possible.

If you want to spend the night here, you need to find a cave or dig a snow pit, and if possible, build a fire. Flying a drone with an infrared camera to search the surrounding area is probably the best way.

But drones cannot be flown here because the temperature is too low, exceeding the performance limits of civilian drones.

The mountains and fields north of the Wulong River are colder than the Heling area. In recent days, the lowest night temperature has been close to minus 30 degrees Celsius, and the highest daytime temperature is only minus 10 degrees Celsius. If the wind blows, the perceived temperature will be even lower.

He Kao stood there, trying his best to put himself into Wu Yanjun's shoes - if he were Xiao Wu, where would he hide and where would he run to?
Facts have proved that Zeng Hongye lost his target. So from Xiao Wu's perspective, he has already shaken off the pursuer in the past two days, and he will definitely not continue to run towards the uninhabited area in the north!

The wise choice is to go back in a circle, return to the territory of the East Country, and find a populated place to hide, such as hiding in an empty house in a village, or sending out a distress signal.

There are many vacant houses in the villages, towns, and counties here in winter.

Xiao Wu escaped in the Yimei area, but he was able to leave traces here, which means that after crossing the Wulong River, he did not continue to go north, but went east along the river... This kid has really good physical strength to be able to run so far.

Braving the severe cold at night, He Kao searched the area with infrared night vision goggles. He didn't find any infrared signals, but he did find traces not far to the east.

This is a snowy plain, and people walking on it leave obvious traces. However, there is often wind in the mountains, such as in the early morning and evening when the temperature changes more dramatically, and wind can also be generated by air convection.

The snow here is not the wet snow in the south, but is almost powdery. It makes a crunching sound when you step on it. When the wind blows, it is like blowing sand and salt, and many traces will be wiped out, leaving only intermittent clues.

Disciples of the Yin E Sect are good at stealth and tracking. To practice telepathy, one must first have particularly developed five senses to form a comprehensive intuition-like sensing ability...so He Kao also followed.

After all, there were great restrictions on movement at night, so He Kao had to occasionally return to his hotel room to rest and check his phone to see if anyone had replied to his message.

When he returned to the hotel room for the third time and was about to drink a cup of hot water and eat something, he suddenly found a missed call on his mobile phone from an unfamiliar number.

Regardless of whether it was a scam or a sales pitch, He Kao immediately called back, and the person who answered was Li Xiuyuan. He Kao asked his second uncle to try to contact Elder Jiang or Elder Li, and Xiao Guangnian actually did.

Li Xiuyuan: "What were you doing just now? Why didn't you answer the phone?"

He Kao: "I went to Maoluo Country and wanted to find Wu Yanjun. I just found his trace... Senior Xiao has already told you why I am looking for you, right?"

Li Xiuyuan: "He did... but you didn't tell him who was following Wu Yanjun?"

He Kao: "It's Zeng Hongye, a disciple of Xingshen Sect..."

In front of Elder Li, He Kao did not need to hide his ability to hide moths and could speak freely. He told the truth about his whereabouts and what he had discovered.

If he could see Li Xiuyuan's expression, he would find that the elder's brows were twisted into knots.

Li Xiuyuan: "Do you know Zeng Hongye's current location?"

He Kao: "I can find it, but I can't clearly tell... How about I check the satellite map and point out a roughly similar area?"

Li Xiuyuan: "It's enough to know who it is. Go find Wu Yanjun first. I hope he's still alive. If you find him, take him to a safe place and tell him not to contact the outside world for the time being...

As for what's going on in Ah Cheng, you don't have to worry about it. Xiao Guangnian is already keeping an eye on it, and I'll be there as soon as possible!"

After daybreak, He Kao continued to search for Wu Yanjun's tracks in the deep snowy mountains. By noon, he finally understood what Wu Yanjun had used the stick for: he had sharpened it and used it as a spear to hunt a young roe deer.

There were traces of a fire under a big rock. Wu Yanjun must have roasted roe deer meat here to replenish his strength.

There aren't many caves in the mountains here, and the ground is covered in snow, so it's hard to find a suitable place to camp. Lighting a fire in the wild would easily expose your whereabouts. But Wu Yanjun was probably too tired and hungry to care about that.

Next, Xiao Wu turned south again, crossed the Wulong River again and returned to the territory of the East Country.

He Kao finally found Wu Yanjun in a tree hole in a mountain valley. This place was not far from the nearest village, and the nearest town was Xiaohe Town.

The so-called tree hole is not a hole in the trunk, but a hole under the roots. This is a large tree with a well-developed root system, which forms the top structure of the supporting burrow.

The hole is very deep and spacious inside, and is filled with a lot of warm hay. It should be the place where the blind bear hibernates and raises its cubs.

There was no blind bear in the cave at the moment, but there was a little Wu hiding there. He curled up as much as possible and wrapped himself in a roughly cut roe deer skin.

It was already dark and Xiao Wu had just fallen asleep. Next to him was a half-roasted roe deer leg, which was frozen hard and had teeth marks on it.

A second-level warlock shouldn't be so unalert, but Xiao Wu must have been cold and tired, and had reached his limit. He Kao had to slap him several times before waking him up.

Wu Yanjun was still confused for a long time after waking up. When he saw He Kao, he thought it was an illusion - people may indeed have hallucinations when they are hypothermic.

He Kao finally managed to explain to him that he'd been camping and skiing near the border when he'd stumbled upon two suspected poachers and overheard their conversation, realizing he'd been in trouble… and then had found his way here. Wu Yanjun was so moved he was practically crying, like a lost child finally finding his parents!

But Xiao Wu was completely confused by what He Kao said. He had no idea what Communist order he had violated.

He was being hunted for unknown reasons. He didn't know the person and didn't know what was going on. Anyway, he escaped across the Wulong River in a daze.

Although he had shaken off the people chasing him, he was lost in the wilderness with no cell phone signal. He could only return to the eastern territory in the general direction... and insisted on heading south during the day.

He had already spent three days and three nights in the wilderness, and still hadn't seen a village or a road. He was almost desperate! If He Kao didn't find him, he probably wouldn't wake up from this sleep...

He Kao put away the flashlight, took out two polyester film thermal blankets from his backpack, and asked Xiao Wu to wrap them tightly first. He then took out a portable picnic stove and cooked a pot of nutritious porridge in the tree hole to help Xiao Wu replenish minerals and calories and recover.

During this time, He Kao also walked around outside the tree hole, as if to confirm whether this place was safe.

After drinking half a pot of hot porridge, Xiao Wu finally felt alive again. His speech was no longer so incoherent, and he began to recount his experience from the beginning.

At this time of year, the days are short and the nights are long in the Ice and Snow Village. The younger sister, checking her phone, stays up late every night and wakes up even later. But Wu Yanjun is used to waking up early. If he doesn't exercise for a while every morning, he feels uncomfortable.

It was very cold, so he had a simple breakfast first, went back to the room, changed into snowboard boots, put on cold-proof clothes, put on a mask, hat, and goggles, and went to the hillside outside the village with his snowboard.

He came out to check out the place because his junior sister said yesterday that she wanted to go backcountry skiing.

The so-called backcountry skiing means skiing in the wild instead of on the slopes of the ski resort. It is a relatively dangerous sport. But the little sister has watched a lot of such videos and thinks that this is very cool and exciting. She wants to feel it.

Wu Yanjun had also tried backcountry skiing while studying abroad, and he had even boasted about it to his junior sister yesterday. Ye Yuxuan was even more interested after hearing this, and she insisted that Xiao Wu take her to try it.

Xiao Wu is an expert and calls himself a skiing expert. He is well aware of the dangers of this sport.

After all, my junior sister is also a second-level warlock. If she wants to ski in the wild, then she can go skiing. But she has to find a suitable route in advance, ski twice by herself, and make sure there is no problem before she can bring her to play.

Such a natural snow trail needs thick snow, sparse trees, not too steep a slope, and a long enough route to be both safe and fun. So he left the Ice and Snow Village and headed north, trying to get as high as possible to better observe the terrain.

The temperature was still very low at this time, and he was just here to try out the skiing, so he was wearing cold-proof clothing instead of professional ski clothes. But as he walked, he found that two people seemed to be following him.

The forest was not his home, so it was impossible for him to stop others from taking the same route as him. Therefore, Xiao Wu did not care too much at first, but just quickened his pace and ran towards the highest point within his sight.

But as soon as he sped up, the two men followed suit, blocking him from both sides at the highest point of the mountain. In front of Wu Yanjun was a gently sloping snow-covered pine forest, and behind him was a steep cliff.

Wu Yanjun felt uneasy. He buckled his feet onto the snowboard and asked, "Are you guys here to ski too? Why don't you bring a sled?"

The visitors were two men, one of whom seemed to be a foreigner, namely Zeng Hongye and Xiao Si. However, Xiao Wu did not know their identities at that time.

It was Zeng Hongye who spoke: "Wu Yanjun, is that you?"

Wu Yanjun immediately felt something was wrong and subconsciously asked, "What do you want to do?"

Zeng Hongye: "Come with us, we have something to ask you."

Wu Yanjun shook his head and said, "Who are you? Just let me go with you if you want me to? Get out of the way! Don't disturb me while I'm skiing..."

Zeng Hongye: "That's not up to you!" As he said that, he waved his hand, and a snow dragon rolled up from the top of the mountain and coiled towards Wu Yanjun.

Wu Yanjun did something he didn't expect. He jumped backwards, turned in the air, and actually jumped off the high cliff.

There is a steep snow slope at the foot of the high cliff, which is seven or eight meters high from the top of the cliff. This action is a shot that can often be seen in extreme sports videos. If the wrong terrain is chosen or technical errors are made, it can be fatal.

Wu Yanjun landed on the snow slope on his snowboard and slid rapidly down the mountain to the other side, triggering a small avalanche along the way.

He thought that the two men could not catch up with him, but after sliding a long way, he looked back and found that they had actually jumped off the cliff. Zeng Hongye in particular was very fast. Although he didn't have any skis, his feet seemed to be gliding.

People usually can't run fast when hiking in such thick snow. Seeing this, Xiao Wu knew that he had met a master. For some reason, his mind seemed confused and he found it difficult to think carefully. He just felt scared instinctively and wanted to run away quickly.

If it were someone else, he might have been caught up by Zeng Hongye long ago.

Wu Yanjun did not brag to his junior sister. He was indeed an expert skier and had very skilled snowboarding skills. He originally majored in physical education and had also practiced ice and snow sports overseas. Now that he had broken through to the second level of cultivation, he was more agile than before.

So after accelerating on a long downhill run, he left Zeng Hongye far behind.

Although skiing is fast, it also has a disadvantage: you have to take off the skis and walk when going uphill. Just as he encountered the uphill slope, Zeng Hongye, who had been left behind, gradually closed in.

Zeng Hongye climbed the slope much faster than Xiao Wu, as if his feet could slide on the snow. Fortunately, Wu Yanjun quickly reached the top of the slope and continued to slide down, leaving Zeng Hongye behind.

Fortunately, the overall terrain from their starting point to the bank of the Wulong River was a long and undulating downhill slope. Wu Yanjun slid and meandered through the mountains, spending less time running up with the board and more time sliding down with the board.

In order to shake off the pursuers as much as possible, Xiao Wu had to take advantage of the terrain and escape to the north towards the Wulong River.

So although Zeng Hongye didn't lose the person, he still didn't catch up with him.

The chase and escape brought them to the banks of the Wulong River, where they had already run quite a distance. Zeng Hongye, standing high above, watched Wu Yanjun, snowboarding, treading the frozen surface, as he fled across the border. He too had to stop and rest.

Zeng Hongye was able to run at such a fast speed on foot on the snow because he relied on his magic power, but his magic power was not infinite, so he had to take a break after chasing for so long.

There was another person who was even more tired behind, that was Xiao Si. Fortunately, the traces left in the snowfield were very clear. He followed behind until dusk before he caught up with Zeng Hongye who was resting by the river.

Wu Yanjun on the other side of the Wulong River was also exhausted and also needed to stop and rest. He found a hidden angle to quietly observe the movements on this side of the river.

Zeng Hongye and Xiao Si met up at the riverbank, also preparing to cross the Wulong River. Once they reached the Wulong River, Wu Yanjun no longer had the advantage of skiing, as the terrain became increasingly higher as he headed north.

Just then, a snowstorm arrived, forcing Zeng Hongye and Xiao Si to seek shelter. The next day, after the snow stopped, they crossed the river to continue their pursuit, but Wu Yanjun had already fled eastwards.

Soon after Wu Yanjun crossed the Wulong River, it was dark and a snowstorm hit the mountains. He quickly found a place to shelter from the cold and almost froze to death.

He used his skis as a shovel and dug a snow hole under the roots of a big tree in a sheltered place. He hid in it for the whole night and his skis were broken.

The next day he did not go to the high ground in the north, but fled to the east. On the way, he made a sharpened stick as a crutch and weapon. He walked for a long time before he was sure that he had shaken off the people behind him.

At that time he was extremely tired and hungry. Fortunately, he met a group of roe deer. In desperation, he used his last strength to hunt a small roe deer, made a simple campsite, started a fire, skinned and roasted the meat, and finally got some replenishment.

Fortunately, I had a windproof lighter and a Swiss Army knife with me.

He spent another night there, then took the remaining roe deer meat and headed south, crossed the Wulong River and returned to the territory of the East Country, hoping to find a village to report the incident to the police.

But he walked all day and didn't see any village.

It would have been fine if he could have seen a road, as he should have been able to find a village or town along the road. However, all he could see was a vast expanse of snowfields... This afternoon, he couldn't hold on any longer and found a tree hole like this to rest.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw He Kao's figure.

**
PS: The two-in-one chapter is a bit long, so the update is a bit late.

Starting from midnight on the 25th, this book will have a "strongly recommended by the editor" recommendation. I sincerely ask all book lovers to support it as much as possible. Thank you!
(End of this chapter)