Opening the window and looking outside, Ding Hao found that the sky was dim.
The night had passed.
…
When finishing washing, Ding Hao went out of the room. Gao Feng and others had already been waiting for him outside. Seeing Ding Hao coming out, Gao Feng greeted him respectfully. The little girl Xue’er washed away the mud stains on her face and revealed her white delicate little face.
All people had breakfast at the inn and started on their way to Valley Village.
Before leaving Peaceful City, Ding Hao bought a lot of things, most of which were armor, weapons and food. He hired a big carriage so that all things bought were carried.
The sun was red, and in the sky fragmented snowflakes were falling. A group of people came out of the north gate of Peaceful City.
…
Valley village.
Just like most small-sized villages of Human Tribe, Valley Village was not big with an area of about 60 mu.
The village was located among hills against Snow Dragon Mountain. The mountain was covered by the snow glacier all year round. In front of the village was grassland and shrubs covered by snow. In a thousands-of-meters deep crypt gully, like a crack out of the mountain being cut by an Almighty in the antiquity times with a sword, the wind howled and the snowy mist filled the sky.
The whole village was built against the mountain, and it was long and narrow from east to west.
A main street ran from the east end of the village to the west, flanked by houses of rock and ice brick.
The village was surrounded by a wall of rocks, huge logs and ice blocks, which was more than fifty meters high. All kinds of thorns were frozen in the ice. From a distance, it looked like a clumped white hedgehog. The ice wall was shining in the sun and it looked awesome. The wall could defend against some lower devils.
As the long and cold winter approached, both humans and devils were facing the danger of shortage of food.
At this time every year, in Snow Province, the conflicts between the human tribes and devils became tense and bloodshed took place almost every day. In order to continue life and survive, both sides had to kill each other with swords and sabers.
When the sun just rose, Gao Lin, who was already 73 years old this year as the village’s oldest and also the only elder here, with some armed young men, climbed up the tower in the south of the ice-encircled wall. Keeping watch on one hand, they looked the far south on the other hand.
Four or five days had passed from the day when Gao Feng, the village chief and several young adults went to Peaceful City to hire a guarding warrior. According to their previous appointment, yesterday should be the day for Gao Feng and others to return.
The devils in Snow Dragon Mountain became more and more irritable, but perhaps they would soon come to this area. People hoped that the village chief and his followers could return successfully, hiring a guarding warrior with good strength, otherwise…
Gao Lin dared not think of the bad.
If there were no guarding warriors, this winter might be the doomsday of Valley Village.
More villagers stood on the tall wall in succession with expectation and looked towards the south mountain road.
Time, in such anxious waiting, slowly passed.
Gradually, from day to noon, there was still no one in sight on the only road leading to the outside in the distance.
Elder, why have the village chief and others not returned?
A young man, who appeared to be 18 or 19 years old, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, and rather heroic manner, was impatient to wait, holding a spear with an iron point in his hand.
Gao Jian, don’t talk nonsense.
With the white eyebrows lifting, Gao Lin interrupted the bad boy.
Gao Lin opened his mouth, but dared not answer back.
Look, there’s movement in the distance…
Someone suddenly cried out in surprise.
All of a sudden they looked toward the mountain road to the south. In the distance where the white sky met the ground, a dozen black dots showed up. Then the black dots became clearer. They were definitely not devils or other animals, but human shadows moving extremely quickly.
Are the village chief and his fellows back?
Gao Lin felt surprised pleasantly, but the next moment, his old face full of wrinkles was frozen, and then he became frightened.
Go quickly. Deploy our people for defense. Get ready on the battlement tower. Those people are from Blood Dragon Village…
A long white banner was fluttering suddenly on the distant mountain road with a long bloody dragon with teeth and claws depicted. It was floating by the north wind. The dragon seemed to be alive, wandering in the sky and being full of evil blood aura.
The banner was held by a young knight with full black and light armor.
Behind this burly knight, a cavalry troop of thirty or more came with roaring up, like a black evil wind was blowing between the white sky and the earth with great speed, and in the thunder of hooves, the group of knights showed up under the ice-crystal walls of Valley Village soon.
As from a closer distance, the ferocity of these knights could be seen.
Everyone’s black armor was stained with blood. All big horses were black-haired. Under the horsehead were hanging several human heads and they were frozen stiff. Panic-struck expressions in those faces were still clear and distinguishable. Apparently, they were killed not long ago.
These guys were like an army of death coming out of hell.
The knight’s armors were covered with frozen red blood and silver ice. The knights with silence solemn exhaled the white air, and the air was like ghost fog spread out. From time to time a horse snorted, and it made the atmosphere more thriller with the indescribable killing intent.
On the wall, the people of Valley Village were almost stunned.
Most people were so scared that they failed to speak. Some of them were even frightened to tremble with their hands holding long spears shaking. They became pale with desperate looks
Almost everyone had heard all kinds of rumors about Blood Dragon Village.
This group of mountain bandits was the largest within a radius of 250 kilometers, and they were notoriously bloodthirsty and ruthless. They came and went with howling wind, running wild in Snow Dragon Mountain so that nobody dared challenge them. They ransacked caravans, looted villages and robbed people and money. They did all kinds of things. If anyone made any resistance, they would burn out and even fowls and dogs were not spared—they carried out ruthless mass slaughter.
However, these vicious bandits also knew that they should not drain the pond to catch all the fish. For villages within 50 kilometers that showed obedience to Blood Dragon Village, a
Protection Fund
was levied four seasons of the year. In addition, they did not plunder any more. Therefore, many similar villages including Valley Village could survive.
At the gate.
A knight with black armor, as the head, was burly and appeared to be 2.5 meters tall and seemed to be an iron tower. He was sitting upright on a huge, somewhat exaggerated half-demon horse Black Wind Beast. He was bald, his face and scalp were marked with blue thorn tattoos, which made him even more fearful.
The tattooed baldheaded man, with slightly narrowed eyes and a faint flicker of green lawn in the depths of the pupils, was cold as if his cold eyes were not like human’s.
