Chapter 79

Chapter 79: The Heirloom Jade Seal of the Realm [3]

Translator: Xah

The uncle’s name was Kule. He was 58 years old and grew up in Enhe Village since he was young. He went to China in his twenties and met his wife there. After spending more than three years in China, he had a child and returned to Mongolia. He lived by hunting and collecting herbs in the snow mountain. Later, his wife fell ill and passed away, leaving only Kule and his son.

One could see the end of the house with a quick look, but Zhang Qiu didn’t see the son he had mentioned.

“He, Amur, went into the mountain.” Uncle Kule frowned as if he was thinking something.

Zhang Qiu was undecided. Uncle Kule had aged and looked like a thin old man. It was a perilous task to take them climbing into the snow mountain.  Not only did Zhang Qiu think so, the others also didn’t think he’s reliable.

“Can you find someone else, Bayin?” Qi Xi was the first to say it directly.

“No need to find, you don’t believe me?” Uncle Kule glanced at them and smiled. “You young people, don’t look down on me. I’m sure you can’t find any more suitable guide in this area other than me.”

Indeed. Uncle Kule could speak Mandarin and time was pressing, so he was indeed their only best option right now.

“But Uncle Kule, we’re afraid your body won’t be able to hold up.” Zhang Qiu said.

Kule looked at Zhang Qi and said, “I’m afraid your body can’t withstand the cold of the beautiful mountains.” Then he cut off their next words neatly and said, “Enough, don’t worry about me, aren’t you guys in a hurry? I’ll get something ready first and we’ll leave early tomorrow.”

“We’ve brought all the things for mountain climbing. Can we start as soon as possible?” Qi Xi spoke.

Uncle Kule shook his hand and looked serious. “I’m not used to your things. Don’t be hasty, you have to rely on the old things to get there.”

Zhang Qiu saw Qi Xi was impatient and he pressed Qi Xi’s s shoulder as he said: “We’ll set off if we wait.”

Qi Xi’s lips moved, but ultimately he didn’t say anything.

That night, they stayed in Uncle Kule’s house. There was no room and bed for them to sleep, thus they made do with the night at will. Zhang Qiu noticed that Uncle Kule’s house was very simple and bleak. There dust was everywhere and there was no food. Apparently, these father and son weren’t the type of people who cooked. Bayin went back that day.

At night, the cold wind howling like a wail and the windows of the house made echoes of slamming.

Zhang Qiu woke up in a daze. He was shocked by the blurred figure in front of him. After looking carefully, it turned out to be Qi Xi.

“What are you going to do?” Zhang Qiu played down his volume.

The hand Qi Xi used to open the door stopped. He turned around and said, “I can’t wait. Xiao Rong is still waiting for me to save him.”

“It’s snowy outside. You don’t even have a map, do you want to die?!” Zhang Qiu kept his voice down. He knew Qi Xi’s mood. At that time when he had no news of Li Shu, he was also very anxious. However, they had already arrived here, they couldn’t send the gourd dolls one by one to save the grandfather[1].

Qi Xi irritably took two steps. The closer he got to here, the more urgent he was. He couldn’t imagine what kind of torment Qi ZhiRong would suffer.

“We’ll set out come morning, just wait.” Li Shu suddenly opened his mouth.

Zhang Yushui, Pei Qing and the others also woke up. It could be said that everyone didn’t sleep at all. They held back the impatient Qi Xi in the room to wait for the dawn, no one felt sleepy at all. The sky wasn’t light yet, Uncle Kule in his jacket came out with an old shotgun on his back.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Uncle Kule took the lead in opening the door, facing the cold wind mixed with snowflakes. The blow startled the few people behind, with a lot of spirit.

Zhang Qiu wrapped Xiao Jiang with a scarf, making him looked like a cotton ball. At this moment, he could finally realize how his mother felt when he was cold before and gave him cotton-padded trousers. Xiao Fei was in his coat pocket. In order to prevent Xiao Fei from being cold, he purposely bought down coat with zipper pocket and put a small hand warmer on the inside. It could said the most comfortable and warm place for Xiao Fei to hide in.

It began to snow late last night. The next day, there was now a vast expense of whiteness everywhere, making the whole village seemed to be covered up.

Zhang Qiu was even afraid that Uncle Kule would say that the weather was bad and told them to wait for the snow to stop. However, Uncle Kule didn’t seem to care about such bad weather and very soon took them out of the village.

……

“I used to have a black hound called Xiao Guai. My wife gave it to me. I used to take it when I went to the mountain…” Uncle Kule took out an old-fashioned canteen from his waist and took two sips, licked his mouth and said, “Any of you wants a sip? It feels good to drink Burning Knife[2] in this weather.”

Zhang Qiu and the others promptly waved their hands as refusal.

Last night, after making the decision to set out, Zhang Qiu gave the map to Uncle Kule. Uncle Kule just took a look at it and knew where they were going.

“I know there is a lake there and heard that it used to be a city. You are going there ah!” Uncle Kule said thoughtfully.

Right now, they were standing at the foot of the mountain, and Uncle Kule pointed to the west. “See there? The place you are looking for is the highest mountain, and going over after that is the lake. Another kilometer or so ahead is the place you are looking for.”

Uncle Kule was very detailed.

From a distance, the big mountains looked as though connected with the small mountains, but Uncle Kule was referring to the highest mountain. When they entered the snow mountain, they couldn’t distinguish the southeast from the northwest.

“If we hurry up, maybe we’ll be there in two days.” Uncle Kule had just finished saying when there was a roar that shocked him till he looked stupefied.

Zhang Qiu knew it was Qi Xi’s. It would take two days to find the way, which Qi Xi was unwilling and would rather risk being discovered by Uncle Kule and possibly called a monster.

The Xiezhi was bigger and muscular. Zhang Qiu looked up at the true form of Qi Xi in front of them, which compared to the last time they were in Beijing in May, Qi Xi seemed to have grown a lot.

Uncle Kule was stunned at the spot, but he didn’t react. Suddenly he heard another loud cry. In front of him was a big bird full of gold and emitting light — Hold on, there were nine tails. Uncle Kule’s eyes were half squint by the wind and snow. It looks like the legendary Phoenix?!

Qi Xi’s and Zhang Yushui’s true forms were standing in the snow. Zhang Qiu hurriedly dragged the dazed Uncle Kule onto the back of Qi Xi, while Ling Dang entered the spirit bead. Pei Qing and Pixian Huiwang got on the back of Zhang Yushui.

The golden wings fluttered, blasting the snowstorm around as it flew high.

Uncle Kule creased his face by the blast. Only after a good while did he have some reaction, but his mouth wasn’t responsive, he couldn’t say anything.

“You just lead the way, we won’t hurt you.” Zhang Qiu’s words of comfort were scattered in the air by the wind.

Uncle Kule’s mouth was trembling, no one knew what he was saying. Then later, he took out the canteen from his jacket pocket and drank two mouthfuls of liquor. His face was very red and his eyes were shining, he said: “Are you guys Celestial Beings?”

“No.”

Uncle Kule’s eyes flashed with disappointment. Zhang Qiu didn’t notice it, he teared his throat to ask: “Uncle, where do we go now?”

Their speed of flight was very fast. They dared not talking much lest they missed the route. Although they were in the sky, they were still not familiar with the terrain. The snow mountains everywhere didn’t make any difference in Zhang Qiu’s eyes, and seeing it for a long time made his eyes blurry.

Li Shu put on the goggles for Zhang Qiu. Uncle Kule lay on Qi Xi’s back with his eyes half narrowed, carefully identifying the direction.

Not two hours later, they had reached the highest mountain top that Uncle Kule spoke of. Looking from above, there was a lake not far away. The water was frozen and there were small black dots moving. Zhang Qiu looked carefully. “Is it human?”

Li Shu nodded, patted Qi Xi’s back and said: “Lower down a bit, don’t alert them.”

Zhang Qiu immediately thought of Christine’s group. If it was true that Qi ZhiRong was in the hands of the other party and they rushed to the other party, but in case the other party used Qi ZhiRong as a shield, it would not be good for them. At the back, Erge also saw that and he didn’t dare to get too close. He stopped at a gentle slope shelter. Qi Xi and Erge had been in their true forms and flew for nearly two hours on ice and snow, only now they turned back into human bodies covered with ice dregs. Uncle Kule handed over his canteen of liquor.

“Wet something with this first to rub your body.”

Ersao said thanks and accepted it. He moistened the disposable wet tissue and wiped Erge’s face, who hurriedly put on his clothes.

After wearing clothes, Qi Xi’s bloodshot eyes were staring at the distance.

“We go there stealthily.” Li Shu said.

They hurriedly packed up and put on the backpack again. According to the distance just seen, their group of people looked forward to the opposite direction along the frozen lake, where it should be two kilometers long. They sped up their steps. Uncle Kule’s physical strength was really good. Zhang Qiu hadn’t walk past the snow mountain, but he felt tired after walking for a distance. Head on was the wind, while under the foot was hard to tell if it was real or sham, if it wasn’t Uncle Kule who led the way at the front, they might easily stepped on empty and fell into a pit.

At about noon, they arrived at the lake surface. The traces on the ice were already fading. The snowstorm blew all the time that the surface was covered with a new layer of snow.

“Your Excellency, they went there.” Ling Dang suddenly appeared.

Uncle Kule had become inured to the unusual that his expression had not change and his eyes did not even look at Ling Dang’s way.

It turned out that Ling Dang came out of the spirit bead and secretly followed Christine’s group of people as soon as they were seen. These days, Ling Dang had been nurtured by Pei Qing, so his strength had greatly increased. He followed behind as a ghost, which was really hard to be discovered in the snowstorm. However, Ling Dang had experience and didn’t dare to follow closely.

“I saw Qi ZhiRong.”

Pei Qing had wanted to talk to Ling Dang, but as soon as these words were out, Qi Xi took hold of Ling Dang’s arm first and asked eagerly: “How is he? Are there any other injuries?”

Ling Dang shook his head. “I didn’t follow very close but looked from a distance. There are two people guarding him, but I saw that there is nothing else out of ordinary except the eyes. The leader is a woman and particularly sharp. I just walked into a few steps and the woman looked back. I was so scared that I didn’t dare to go over.”

Qi Xi was relieved to know that Qi ZhiRong was safe for the time being, but when he imagined that supercilious Qi ZhiRong was taken as a prisoner, his eyes turned red with anger.

“Go and have a look [at the situation] first.” Li Shu said.

They followed Ling Dang’s route along the ice surface of the lake and when they reached the bank, Li Shu made a gesture, “There’s a sound in the distance.”

They slowed down and crept over, covered in ice and snow leaning against the gradual slope to shelter their bodies. Not a kilometer away, the other party was camping and it seemed that they intend to stay there tonight.

Qi ZhiRong was wearing a light tan down jacket. His clothes were a bit messy and he was wearing sunglasses. A tall man beside him deliberately made an obstacle with his feet. Qi ZhiRong could not see, so he tripped on the ground, which made several people around him laugh heartily.

If Li Shu hadn’t pulled Qi Xi, Qi Xi would have rushed out.

“At night.” Li Shu said as he squinting into the distance.

---

Note:

[1] There is a cartoon about gourd dolls being send one after another to save a grandfather. It refers specifically to the action of not concentrating the fighting power in the game or other team battles, fighting the enemy’s main forces one by one, and finally being defeated by the enemy one by one.

[2] A liquor commonly known as ancient shochu. It is named for its high percentage and strong flavor.

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