Chapter 508 - 162: [Snowfield Pursuit] (6,500 Words) _2
What surprised Chen Yan even more was the cause of death of this corpse.
Its head had been cut off, the head was nowhere to be found, and the body lay on the ground, facedown.
The blood had already coagulated and was covered by a layer of snow.
Chen Yan was no longer the young man he was a few months ago. Having experienced considerable slaughter, he was now enveloped by Evil Qi and did not feel nauseated or uncomfortable upon seeing such a bloody and brutal scene. He simply reached out coldly and cautiously to check the corpse’s neck.
Then, Chen Yan exhaled, his expression growing more peculiar.
The cut on the neck was extremely smooth!
It was evident that it resulted from something very sharp and hard, and the decapitation was likely fatal with a single strike, severing the neck in one go!
Judging by the smoothness where the skin and neck bone broke, the weapon used must have been excellent.
This level of sharpness could definitely not have been crafted by the crude and savage Fierce Beast Race!
Apart from this corpse, Chen Yan found at least two more corpses nearby on the ground, all from this short and stout version of the Fierce Beast Race.
The lethal injuries were different, one had a throat pierced through, while another had its heart impaled.
Based on the size and contour of the wounds, Chen Yan estimated and confirmed one thing.
"Did the person use a sword?"
If so, the person was very powerful! At the very least, their swordsmanship was excellent.
For there were three corpses of the Fierce Beast Race on the scene, each with only one fatal injury!
Do they not need a second stroke to kill?
Chen Yan noted it down in his mind.
These short and stout versions of the Fierce Beast Race wore attire different from those in the villages. They were not wearing those ragged fur coats but rather leather armor with slightly better craftsmanship — albeit still crude in Chen Yan’s eyes, at least it resembled leather armor and provided some defense.
The corpses had belts at their waists, with a small hoop on the left side, and leather straps attached to them.
Chen Yan speculated that this place was used to strap some kind of portable container, perhaps a fabric or leather pouch.
However, the leather straps had been cut, most likely as a result of being robbed, and the items attached to them had been taken away.
But there was still something unexpected left behind.
After turning over one corpse, Chen Yan found a leather pouch pressed under the thigh.
This thing wasn’t big, about the size of a palm. As the leather strap had been cut, the pouch ended up opened, and after picking it up and weighing it a bit, Chen Yan poured out several pieces of crushed stone.
They varied in size, were irregularly shaped, hard in texture, and black and semi-transparent in color, resembling some kind of Black Crystal.
And as he held a piece of Black Crystal in hand, a familiar sensation vibrated through Chen Yan’s fingertips.
"Primordial Qi?"
Chen Yan’s eyes lit up.
But quickly, he found he couldn’t extract Primordial Qi from the Black Crystal; though he could sense the Qi’s oscillation, his own Primordial Qi drive was heavily suppressed by this place, making it unusable despite sensing the Qi within the Black Crystal.
Naturally, the Black Crystal with Primordial Qi fluctuations reminded Chen Yan of that rumored "mountain mining area."
Could these be minerals from the mining area?
And perhaps these short and stout versions of the Fierce Beast Race are monsters from the mining area?
This judgment and speculation excited Chen Yan a bit, indicating that his tracking was likely fruitful.
Conducting a search without any clues but making a discovery is certainly better than ending up with nothing!
Chen Yan no longer bothered with the three corpses on the ground. He just took the five pieces of Black Crystal from a pouch and put them in his pocket, then continued forward.
·
Eight hours later, Chen Yan glanced at his watch, looking at the seemingly endless ridgeline in front of him, he paused.
Time to rest.
Forcing oneself to track while physically exhausted is not wise.
He wasn’t sure if Big White was dead or alive, or if it had been captured. Forcing himself to track continuously despite exhaustion could spell trouble if he encountered enemies.
Saving enough stamina is, by any estimation, the better choice.
Chen Yan found a spot to sit at the edge of the ridgeline, pulled an energy bar from his inner pocket — since it was stored close to the body, it hadn’t frozen hard. He ate one energy bar to replenish some energy.
Chen Yan lit an alcohol stove, melted snow to boil water, made a pot of beef soup for himself, and tossed in two pieces of compressed biscuits.
After quickly eating a meal, Chen Yan extinguished the stove and packed up his gear, then dug a snow pit at the mountainside’s base, built a wind-blocking wall using snow, then pulled out his sleeping bag to burrow into.
Hunched in the sleeping bag, Chen Yan could feel his body heat gradually resisting the cold, slowly being drained away.
At this point, he couldn’t help but miss the fishy yet robust Beast Meat — it tasted horrible but could warm you up continually, making it the best food for resisting the extreme cold in this environment.
In such an environment, deep sleep is hard to come by; Chen Yan only fell into a light half-awake half-asleep state for less than four hours before opening his eyes.