"Hoo... hoo... hoo..."
Snowflakes danced in the sky, the land was frozen for a thousand miles, and the piercing wind howled, whipping up a flurry of snow. As dusk settled, the temperature plummeted. Hills, trees, wild grasses, rivers – everything in the world seemed to freeze solid. Even the air exhaled appeared to solidify.
Zhou Fugui and his company of four hundred trudged forward, their steps faltering in the wind and snow.
Zhou Fugui took out his千里眼 (qianlǐyǎn - telescope) to survey their surroundings, desperately seeking shelter from the storm.
"Cold, so cold, what kind of place is this? Why is it so frigid?" Wu Tianqi pulled his padded coat tighter, his body almost curled into a ball, yet he still felt an abnormal chill. The biting wind was unbearable, feeling like knives against his skin.
"Just hold on a bit longer. There's a hillside over there; we can take shelter from the wind and snow at its base," Zhou Fugui said, pulling the nearly frozen Wu Tianqi closer.
And so, the group braved the blizzard, heading towards the hillside.
"Camp Leader, are they trying to kill us?" Chen Kunkun shivered as he walked. "Why don't we brothers just run for it?"
"Run?" Pan Jianguǐ said sarcastically. "You can run from the monk, but not from the temple. You'll be worse off if you flee."
"Old Ghost is right..." Zhou Fugui nodded. "In this heavy snow, without horses or food, we'd freeze or starve within ten miles if we tried to escape."
"When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on a person, it first tests their resolve with hardship, exhausts their body with toil, starves them, impoverishes them, and confounds their undertakings. By these means, it stimulates their spirit, hardens their nature, and compensates for whatever they had been unable to do," Li Qing, though his face was ashen from the cold, still managed to quote from memory. He straightened his back and forced a smile, "Perhaps they are testing us."
The north wind whistled, fluttering Li Qing's robes, lending him a certain dashing air.
"Testing? Bookworm, you can go and get tested. I'm not going," Hu Yuan glared at Li Qing before saying, "This kind of testing that drives us to death, who can stand it?"
"Hot, so hot, I'm burning up!" Just then, Xue Wentai, the stout monk from Guanzhong, tore open his chest, revealing a patch of chest hair, and shouted loudly.
The others immediately looked at Xue Wentai with astonished and envious eyes. They were freezing to death, and he claimed to be hot? And it didn't seem like he was faking; there were beads of sweat on his forehead.
Truly, comparing oneself to others leads to despair, and comparing goods leads to throwing them away. What was this fellow made of? they all thought in unison.
"His residual poison hasn't fully dissipated," Ge Rufeng, the young Taoist priest skilled in knowing people's fates, said, his teeth chattering, his face also pale.
Ge Rufeng, the young Taoist, was not a convict. However, by associating with Zhou Fugui and the others, he was automatically considered one. He had been driven out of Xuelin City along with them, and he was so cold that he almost forgot he was a Taoist of immortal demeanor.
"Roar!" The crowd suddenly understood.
At that moment, they all wished the peculiar Master Xiao would appear and cast his sorcery on them again, just to warm them up.
At this moment, they would rather die of heat than of cold.
"Great monk, is your body alright? Can you hold on?" Zhou Fugui also shot a glance at Xue Wentai before asking.
"Fine, why wouldn't I be? My health is excellent," Xue Wentai replied with a smile.
"Good. In that case, how about you lead some men to scout ahead?" Zhou Fugui nodded.
The hillside Zhou Fugui had spotted with his千里眼 was not far, only about two li away. Yet, traversing these mere two li was proving exceptionally difficult for Zhou Fugui and the others.
"Why not? General Zhou, I'm off!" Xue Wentai boomed in response.
"Ah, brother Wentai, I am no longer a general, so please don't address me as such," Zhou Fugui sighed.
Although the Yan court had reinstated Zhou Fugui as a Deputy General, upon arriving at Xuelin City, the city's lord, Hu Yan Sheng, and his subordinates seemed to pay no heed to Zhou Fugui's status.
Would a general of the Great Yan truly be driven out into the wilderness to endure the trials of wind and snow?
As Zhou Fugui spoke, Xue Wentai had already led a few sturdy men from Guanzhong away.
"Little Taoist Ge, I am deeply sorry for causing you such undeserved hardship..." Zhou Fugui scooped up the little white bear, "Chiyou," that had been following him, and then put an arm around Ge Rufeng, shielding him somewhat from the wind and snow. "I am truly apologetic."
Ge Rufeng had been living quite contentedly on Feilong Mountain, but Zhou Fugui had tricked him down the mountain into this frozen world, causing him much suffering. Zhou Fugui felt a pang of guilt.
The little white bear extended its now somewhat sharp claws, securing itself firmly to Zhou Fugui's arm, and curiously observed its surroundings.
Although the little white bear was a cub, its growing thick fur and accumulating fat kept it comfortable, rather than cold, in this icy landscape.
"Hmph, you ought to be sorry," Ge Rufeng shivered. "Don't forget what you promised me."
"Don't worry, I won't forget," Zhou Fugui smiled. "When things settle down, I will teach you everything I know."
"Brothers, put in some more effort! We're almost there. Once we reach the foot of the hill, we can light a fire to warm ourselves and shelter from the wind and snow," Zhou Fugui shouted encouragement as they spoke. They were only about a hundred paces from the hillside, and could already see Xue Wentai and the others.
Having endured so much, and with Zhou Fugui's position as a Deputy General, he had now become the leader of these convicts.
The more than four hundred convicts were primarily composed of Zhou Fugui's twenty-odd fellow provincials from Youzhou, and over a hundred sturdy men from Guanzhong like Xue Wentai. The remaining two hundred-plus were prisoners from Youzhou, Jizhou, and Jizhou, and other regions.
Zhou Fugui's fellow provincials, naturally, followed his lead. As for the hundred-odd Guanzhong men, after Zhou Fugui had desperately saved Xue Wentai, they were all grateful for Zhou Fugui's righteousness and willingly obeyed him. The prisoners from other regions, being more scattered, simply went along with the majority.
"Oh, my dear mother, I'm exhausted!" They pushed forward desperately and finally reached the foot of the hillside. Although it was still extremely cold, the steep cliff face blocked a considerable amount of the wind and snow.
Xu Mancang collapsed into a snowdrift and cried out loudly.
"Mancang, get up quickly, don't lie down," Zhou Fugui said in a hurry to Xu Mancang and the others. "Brothers, if you need to rest, you can sit or lean, but you cannot lie on the snow. Get up quickly."
"Fugui, why can't we lie down?" Yi Jisheng, who had also collapsed in the snow, asked breathlessly after sitting up and leaning against a large rock.
"If you don't want to end up like that rock, then listen to Brother Zhou," the young Taoist Ge Rufeng, who had spent much time in the northern regions, knew some ways to ward off the cold. He pointed to a snow-covered rock.
Zhou Fugui nodded.
In the bitter cold, amid the ice and snow, one must never lie or lie prone on the ground. The reason was that the frozen earth would rapidly drain away body heat. Zhou Fugui understood this all too well.
"Brother Wentai, take twenty men to chop some firewood," Zhou Fugui said, sitting on the ground and catching his breath. "Da Cheng, take twenty men with bows and other weapons and see if you can hunt some game. Mangcang, don't be idle either, take some men to gather dry twigs, grass, and the like for a fire."
Xue Wentai, Suo Dacheng, Xu Mancang, and the others, though utterly exhausted, perked up and responded in unison before dispersing.
In a matter of life and death, only by working together could they overcome the difficulties. How could they not understand this?
"Brothers, are you rested enough? If so, get up and get to work." About half an incense stick later, Zhou Fugui stood up, drew his waist knife, and addressed the crowd.
With that, Zhou Fugui plunged his steel knife into the soft snow at the base of the slope and pulled out some snow with effort.
If it became dark, the weather would turn even colder. Therefore, they could only withstand the cold by digging snow pits or snow caves and taking shelter within them.
Seeing this, the others understood Zhou Fugui's intention. They then took their spears, iron shields, clubs, shovels, and other tools and began digging frantically. They all knew that the larger and deeper the snow pit or cave they dug, the more they could huddle together for warmth and withstand the biting wind and snow.
The soft snow at the foot of the slope was easy to dig, but creating a pit was more challenging. However, the situation greatly improved after Xue Wentai and the others returned with some thick branches.
Using the thick branches as support, Zhou Fugui and the others worked together and quickly dug over ten snow caves. By this time, everyone, including Zhou Fugui, was so exhausted they could barely move.
...
"Crackling! Crackling! Crackling!"
Night fell, the temperature plummeted, and the weather grew even colder. The wind and snow howled with a chilling sound. However, Zhou Fugui and his group now had snow caves to shelter from the storm. Inside the caves, fires were burning, crackling merrily. Some roasted game was placed over the fire, and as the fat dripped into the flames, it sizzled and popped, releasing a tantalizing aroma that made everyone's mouths water, wishing they could eat the meat raw.
Only the little white bear, "Chiyou," was contentedly gnawing on a rabbit leg.
With the dried rations they had carried and the hunted game, they should be able to make it through this frigid night without major issues.
"Sparta!"
Zhou Fugui stared into the fire and suddenly uttered three words that no one understood.
"Fugui, what is it...?" Wei Xiazi thought Zhou Fugui had caught a chill and was babbling incoherently. He reached out to touch Zhou Fugui's four limbs, meaning his hands and feet.