347: Snow Mountain Temple (Part 1)

In the afternoon, about two hundred li east of Qingshan County, in a remote low mountain forest.

"Woof woof!"

"Woof woof!"

In a quiet pine forest on the mountainside, where pine needles were stained white, several barks suddenly rang out.

Soon after,

"Creak!"

"Creak!"

The sound of footsteps treading on snow, sometimes deep, sometimes shallow, followed, growing clearer as they approached.

Soon, a figure appeared, clad in a deerskin jacket, wearing a felt hat, with a bow and arrow slung over his shoulder, and a wood-cutting knife at his waist.

The figure was a bearded Hunter, his face dark, bearing some cracks and a weathered look from the wind and frost.

He exhaled white mist, and from a distance, seeing his six hunting dogs barking around the base of a tree, he immediately became alert, quickly unslung the large bow from his arm, and with his other hand, took an arrow from the quiver on his back, nocked it, and aimed in that direction.

However, as he focused his gaze, he saw a hand dangling from the place where the tree was turned away.

"A person?"

The Hunter's eyebrows twitched, but he did not immediately go forward.

As a Hunter from the nearby mountains, he knew that strange things often happened in the mountains, and he had occasionally heard of mountain spirits and wild monsters disguising themselves as humans to harm people.

In this icy, snowy, deep old forest, seeing this scene, any normal person would find it strange.

He shot the nocked arrow towards the large tree.

"Whoosh!"

"Bang!"

The arrow shot out more than ten zhang away, hitting the tree trunk below with a smack, the shaft vibrating and humming.

It also shook off some of the accumulated snow from the tree.

That “person” did not react!

Out of caution, the Hunter again nocked an arrow and shot another, this time directly into the snow a few feet away from the hand.

Still no movement!

This time, the Hunter began to slowly move his feet, circling to one side, and finally saw an old man slumped beneath the large tree.

His clothes were ragged, stained with blood, and his other hand tightly clutched a sharpened wooden stick, which also had blood on it.

The old man's eyes were closed, and his body was covered with a layer of white frost.

The Hunter was startled at the sight, quickly knelt down by the tree, and checked the old man's condition.

The old man's body was already stiff, and several wounds on him were clearly from wild animal scratches; the blood that had seeped from the wounds had frozen into ice shards. He checked for a breath.

"He's still alive!"

The Hunter felt the faint warmth, and without a word, quickly took off his deerskin jacket, wrapped the frail, stiff old man in it, then held the arrow quiver in his mouth, carried the old man on his back, and hurried down the mountain.

After walking about a hundred meters, a small sled appeared ahead, not large, only five or six feet in size, piled with a stack of firewood, hunting tools, and five or six wild rabbits and deer that had been hunted.

These were the Hunter's gains from his trip up the mountain.

The Hunter first set the old man down, then threw away all the firewood chopped from the sled, and then laid the old man flat on it.

Next, the Hunter called his hunting dogs over, attached the ropes at the front of the sled to the dogs, then sat on one side of the sled, and blew a whistle.

The next second, the hunting dogs barked, pulled together, and dragged the wooden sled down the mountain.

The sky gradually darkened, and the wind and snow began to howl again.

At the foot of Songqiao Mountain, under the wind and snow, stood a solitary, dilapidated Mountain God Temple.

It was built by the Hunters from nearby villages in earlier years, but with the passage of time and its location deep in the mountains, it had fallen into disrepair.

Living off the mountain, everyone sought peace.

A hundred meters outside the Mountain God Temple, the Nu River flowed swiftly.

At this time, the sky was dark, and inside the Mountain God Temple, firelight flickered, and human voices could be heard.

"Crackling!"

"It's this late, why hasn't Zhuang Lao Er returned yet?"

"It's snowing again, he wouldn't have gotten lost, would he? That would be terrible."

"Yes, this snow has been falling almost continuously for half a month, something that has never happened before. Even the terrain has changed. This time entering the mountain, I suppose many places are unrecognizable to everyone, becoming much more dangerous. It's not impossible."

"How about we all go out and look for him? We're all from the same village."

"If you want to go, you go. It's windy and snowy outside now, and it's getting dark. If you walk a few steps, your footprints will disappear. Don't get yourself stuck out there."

"Let's wait a bit longer. Zhuang Lao Er learned some skills outside in his early years; he's more capable than us. He should be fine."

"..."

Inside the temple, a bonfire was burning, and a group of people, warmly dressed, sat around the fire. A large, dark pot was suspended over the bonfire, bubbling with hot, white soup.

There were eleven people in this group, all Hunters from Zhuangjia'aozi on the other side of the river. Half a month ago, heavy snow fell from the sky, sealing off the mountains and catching these Hunters, who relied on the mountains for their livelihood, off guard.

After enduring for half a month, seeing that their families were almost out of food, they finally waited for the snow to stop that day. So, the Hunters from the village went out together to hunt in Songqiao Mountain.

For safety, everyone agreed to gather at the Mountain God Temple at Shenshi (3-5 PM) after hunting in the mountains, regardless of their catch, before returning across the river to the village.

However, the snow, which had just stopped, began again. Outside, the wind and snow obscured vision, and one person had not returned on time. Everyone speculated about what might have happened, talking over each other.

Just then, amidst the howling wind and snow outside, faint barking sounds drifted in.

From far away, they gradually grew clearer, finally arriving outside the Mountain God Temple.

"It must be Zhuang Lao Er."

The villagers heard the commotion and stirred.

Someone got up and ran to the door, which was propped shut with a wooden plank. As he moved the plank, a cold wind, mixed with snowflakes, immediately rushed into the simple Mountain God Temple, bending the several-feet-high fire inside and causing the others to quickly tighten their collars.

And out in the white expanse, a figure, bringing heavy cold, and several large dogs, quickly walked into the temple.

"Zhuang Lao Er, how could you—"

A fellow Hunter from the village was about to complain.

But he was interrupted by the Hunter who had rushed in, "Quick, save him!"

The Hunter, who had just come down from the mountain, rushed to the bonfire and helped an old man, wrapped in a deerskin jacket, off his back.

The Hunter himself was thinly dressed, his eyebrows and face covered with a layer of frost.

"Zhuang Lao Er, this is? What happened?"

"Who is this person?"

The other Hunters from the village were startled at the sight of the dying old man.

The Hunter named Zhuang Lao Er did not answer, but instead quickly scooped a bowl of hot soup from the large pot over the fire. He then swirled it several times until the temperature dropped a bit, then supported the unconscious old man and fed the warm soup from the bowl into the old man's frozen, cracked lips.

Next, he moved the old man closer to the fire, then used a small knife to cut several strips of cloth from his clothes, poured some green powder from a gourd at his waist onto several of the old man's wounds, and then wrapped and tied the cloth strips.

All in one smooth motion!

The villagers watched intently.

After Zhuang Lao Er finished all this, he let out a long breath, took off his wet felt hat, and said:

"I found this old man on the mountain."

"His body is covered with wounds from wild animal scratches; he seems to have been in a struggle."

"But he's not from our nearby village."

As soon as he said this, the fellow Hunters in the village immediately became vigilant.

"Zhuang Lao Er, in this deep old forest, with the mountains sealed by heavy snow, for a person to suddenly appear, and you dare to pick him up, don't bring harm to all of us."

When things are abnormal, there must be something demonic.

It wasn't that everyone was indifferent; rather, as Hunters, having spent a long time in the mountains, they knew that abnormal occurrences were never a good sign.

And just as these villagers were staring vigilantly at the old man, inside the temple, the Mountain God statue, made of mud, its stone eyes suddenly moved, seeing the old man, and light glowed in its eyes in the darkness. (End of Chapter)