149: Chapter 149 The Strange Blizzard

Xie Feng leaned on the cold crystal blind staff and walked in the middle of the group, his spiritual perception piercing through the ice layer to detect extremely subtle pulsations deep within the frozen soil.

Underground in the Northern Wilderness lay a semi-dormant ley line, its temperature much higher than the surface, serving as the sole Foundation of the tundra ecosystem.

A migrating herd of snow deer flashed past in the distance, their hooves striking the frozen soil to produce a muffled and dense drumming sound, followed closely by several grayish-white long-haired giant wolves at the back of the herd, prowling slowly along the edge of the tundra.

Tu Ziguan touched the colt at his waist.

"I haven't hunted any wolves since my Transmigration."

"Everyone has a responsibility to protect wildlife, and I am a person who cares for wildlife."

Xie Feng pointed at the giant deer in the distance.

Tu Ziguan retorted sarcastically.

"Love it so much that you can't go a single meal without it? It's not that you dislike venison; if a wild boar showed up, you'd strike much faster than me."

Bickering all the way, before sunset, the group finally caught sight of the outline of the Irkut City-State at the end of the tundra.

There were no city walls. The entire city-state was built on a slightly raised frozen highland, and the houses were low-domed buildings rammed together from frozen soil and dwarf shrub branches, arranged closely in several concentric circles, with a waist-high low stone wall surrounding the outermost layer.

Several militiamen wearing thick fur robes crouched behind the low wall to warm themselves by the fire, with extremely crude iron short sabers tucked at their waists and hunting bows leaning against the low wall.

Seeing several unfamiliar figures walking over from the tundra path, they stood up. One of the Elder militiamen struck the frozen soil three times with his short saber, producing an extremely muffled and restrained sound.

"Irkut does not turn away outsiders. Explain yourselves: where are you from, where are you going, and what is your purpose?"

Just as Xie Feng was about to step forward, the Elder militiaman's gaze swept past the others and landed on him.

Landing on the deep-sea aura faintly exuding from beneath his cloak.

The militiaman fell silent for a moment, then switched to another language in a very slow tone.

It was not the jiuzhou language commonly used among Sect Cultivators, but rather a local dialect passed down orally from generation to generation on the northern tundra.

And Xie Feng understood it.

Hiss... As expected, they were getting closer to the Hyperborean continent; these people had all been affected to varying degrees.

To think they could realize something was wrong with him?

Xie Feng opened his mouth to reply in standard jiuzhou mandarin, but after his tongue pressed against the roots of his teeth, what came out was a guttural sound he had never learned, yet at that moment it flowed as smoothly as a native language.

The movement trajectory of his lips and tongue completely defied human pronunciation habits.

He lowered his head and scanned his oral cavity with spiritual perception; at some point, the tip of his tongue had split into several slender tentacle-like structures, and the inside of his teeth gleamed with a faint dark green luster.

This was the blessing of Cthulhu, the language from the deep sea.

Tu Ziguan squatted on the stones of the nearby low wall, his mouth open in a daze for a long while before squeezing out a sentence.

"What the hell... Will you still be able to speak human words when you go back to the Qingyun Sect?"

Xie Feng tilted his head to reply, the tentacles inside his mouth already retracting and returning to the shape of a normal tongue.

Zhou Jinglan smiled and nodded.

"It seems we can save a translation fee, sister. This fellow is truly versatile."

The council hall of the Irkut City-State was a spacious domed stone house. Hanging on the frozen soil walls were several star maps drawn with mineral pigments, and the embers in the charcoal brazier glowed slightly red.

The Third Princess presented the city-state council with a caravan passage document issued by the Yongzhou Protectorate, stamped with a few half-true and half-false cinnabar seals. The identity registered on the document was that of Qingzhou merchants heading to the northern wilderness to purchase snow marten pelts and tundra herbs.

Lu Mingyuan timely added a few professional terms regarding the quality of the furs; having traveled extensively for many years, he indeed knew a thing or two about these matters.

Several Elders of the council took turns browsing the document. One white-haired old man raised his head and glanced at Xie Feng and Zhou Jinglan.

Then, without asking anything further, he simply returned the document to the Third Princess and said in stiff jiuzhou mandarin, "Irkut welcomes honest merchants."

The group thus easily settled down in an empty domed house on the east side of the city-state.

Tu Ziguan leaned his bundle against the frozen soil wall, rubbing his hands as he huddled close to the charcoal brazier.

"I now think Your Majesty's fake-certificate-making skills are truly exceptional. After retiring from service, if he opens a document shop in Qingzhou Prefecture, I'll be his apprentice."

Xie Feng squatted on the other side of the charcoal brazier. He was still using his Divided Soul to pay attention to the residual movements of the tentacles in his mouth, and offhandedly replied, "He's an imperial prince; what service is there for him to retire from?"

Xu Liujing plugged his ears tightly and pleaded aloud.

"Brother Tu, Brother Xie, I beg you both to stop talking, alright? You guys don't have families, but I still have mine. When I go back, I don't want my distant relatives to vanish along with me."

Tu Ziguan pointed displeasedly at Xie Feng.

"Stop talking nonsense, I have a family; only your Brother Xie is an orphan."

Zhou Jinglan, wrapped in a fur cloak, did not participate in this discussion about fake-certificate-making skills.

He stood at the doorway of the domed house, his gaze piercing through the gray twilight above the low wall and falling upon the endless tundra outside the city-state.

Snow had started falling at some unknown point.

Extremely fine and dry snow grains were whipped across the ground from the end of the tundra by the wind.

A thin layer of white spread between the path and the frozen soil, covering up all the footprints and ruts left behind during the day completely clean.

"This snow is falling a bit strangely."

He closed his folding fan against his palm.

Xie Feng raised his head, his spiritual perception spreading out along Zhou Jinglan's gaze to touch the patch of fresh snow.

Then he felt it too.

The surface of that thin snow was far too level, as if something had skimmed closely over it from above, sweeping the snow across the entire ground into a flat line.

Hiss... Is this damn city-state really called Irkut?

Outside the city.

Beyond the reach of spiritual perception and human sight.

The starry sky overhead was obscured by dark clouds... This giant cloud had a human-like outline... Despite the heavy clouds, at its top layer, the human-like head shone with two brightly gleaming stars, resembling a pair of giant eyes. (— August Derleth, The Thing that Walked on the Wind)

On the path outside the city-state's low wall, which had just been covered with fresh snow, a depression appeared.

A huge, five-toed complete footprint pressed forcefully down from deep within the frozen soil.

That footprint cut diagonally across from the tundra on the side of the path, crossed the entire path, and extended toward the direction of the volcanic cone to the north of the city-state.

The distance between each step was nearly half a li.

Large billows of clouds and snowflakes seemed to accompany something, slowly blowing across the land of the Northern Wilderness.

The howling cold wind, the swirling snowflakes, and gradually even sleet began to appear, as if this wasteland did not welcome the Third Princess and Xie Feng's group.

Inside the city.

In some undetectable room, several Northern Wilderness women dressed in bizarre furs were covered in cold ice chunks.

Everyone was shivering from the cold, but their faces were filled with a look of honor.