Chapter 1151: First Snow
Whether willing or not, Snow Old City was always there, waiting for returning wanderers or ill-intentioned strangers.
The human army was still in the south. The northern city gate was under somewhat stricter watch, but entry and exit were still permitted.
The large cart pulled by a ground-bound beast rumbled over the bluestone slabs, drawing many gazes.
The demons stared at the tall corpse in the cart. Their pale faces and deep blue eyes were filled with shock, and they shouted loudly. The demon language had many dialects, and different classes in Snow Old City often used different speech, but most of the exclamations at this moment contained similar syllables—Gue.
No one noticed that on the tall corpse there was a very long wound, with a small hole broken open at the chest, just barely concealed by the shadow of the leather robe.
If anyone had approached to look closely, they might have seen a scene both eerie and terrifying.
Inside the small hole was an eye. Its gaze was very calm, devoid of any emotion, but it was clearly alive.
"Grandson of Pantagruel?"
Zhe Xiu compared this with the top-secret files he had seen back at the military headquarters years ago, realized who the young noble he had killed was, and then dismissed the thought.
Through the small hole in the young noble’s body, he surveyed the streets and buildings of Snow Old City.
Humans and high-ranking demons looked somewhat similar on the surface, but they were two completely different species. They had been fighting for tens of thousands of years, forging an irreconcilable blood feud. Whether materially or spiritually, the two sides were utterly isolated from each other. Only during the time of the great scholar Tungus had there been a very brief period of limited exchange.
Over countless years, very few demons had ever appeared in the capital, and most of those ended tragically. As for humans… ever since Wang Zhice signed the armistice with the Demon Lord, no human had been able to set foot in Snow Old City. Zhe Xiu could be said to be the first human to enter Snow Old City in centuries.
To humans, Snow Old City was foreign, evil, a den of devils, an abyss of sin. So what was it really?
Zhe Xiu only knew that the city walls were extremely high—several times higher than those of Luoyang. Even after entering the gate for a long time, he could still clearly see the moss and remnants of snow on the walls. The streets here were straight and wide, and the buildings were also tall, mostly made of stone. They looked somewhat rough, yet possessed an indescribable beauty. Every so often, he could see a pointed-roof structure, its purpose unknown, but it gave a sense of grandeur and sanctity.
He didn’t know how long he had traveled. The sky gradually brightened, and it was now noon. Suddenly, the sunlight was blocked, casting a shadow. Zhe Xiu saw a black stone tablet. He couldn’t tell what material the black stone tablet was made of, but when his gaze fell on it, it seemed to be sucked clean away.
As if passing an inspection, the ground-bound beast continued forward. More and more black stone tablets entered Zhe Xiu’s view, one appearing every ten or so zhang, standing tall among the green hills. Because his view was blocked, he couldn’t see the full layout, but from what he could see, he could imagine how spectacular the scene must be.
The green hills were covered with black tablets everywhere, looking like a massive graveyard or some kind of sacrificial formation.
Zhe Xiu felt the young noble’s corpse being lifted, then slowly and carefully placed into a pit slightly lower than the ground.
Suddenly, he felt something was wrong.
In the original plan, he intended to wait underground for a few days after the young noble was buried, then leave to find Nanke.
Based on his understanding of demons, the family cemetery of a young noble like this should be not far from the Demon Palace.
When he saw those huge black tablets, he really thought this was the young noble’s family cemetery.
The Gue family’s bodies were especially large, hence the name Pantagruel. He assumed their tombstones would naturally be larger than ordinary ones.
But given the young noble’s status, the burial shouldn’t have been so hasty, even during wartime.
If this wasn’t the Gue family cemetery, what place was this? Why were there so many mysterious black stone tablets here?
After some time, no coffin lid fell. Zhe Xiu found this even stranger.
He extended a finger through the wound on the young noble’s body, pushed the clothing aside a little, and looked out of the pit.
The view he could see was still limited. The first thing that came into sight was still a black stone tablet.
Only when he was closer could he see clearly that it was a square stele, its top converging diagonally into a pointed tip, aimed at the sky.
Zhe Xiu’s gaze followed the tip of the stele upward.
Back in the snow plains, he often looked at the sky from this angle. When he was tired from chasing and fighting, or when he needed to hide his presence, he would often bury himself in the snow, eyes open, staring at the gray sky for a long time. He knew that if you looked too long, it was easy to develop a certain illusion—high and low would reverse, the sky would become an abyss, and you would float in a void of nothingness, filled with a sense of instability, just like now.
That hollow feeling grew stronger and stronger, until it finally became a kind of warning sign.
On the other side of the sky, at the bottom of the abyss, it seemed an eye was quietly watching him.
Zhe Xiu felt his body lose control. Cold sweat slowly seeped out of his body, as if it were also draining away all his courage.
At the highest point of the grassy hill he couldn’t see, surrounded by thousands of black square steles, a figure in a black robe looked up at the sky, doing who knows what.
Suddenly, the black robe withdrew its gaze and swept it across the thousands of black square steles.
Just then, Zhe Xiu’s heart suddenly gave a violent beat, out of its normal rhythm.
At the most critical moment, his old ailment—a sudden surge of intuition—woke him from this nightmare without real content. It seemed someone was now observing him.
He closed his eyes, and his breathing gradually stopped, like a truly dead man.
Suddenly, snow began to fall from the depths of the gray sky, landing on the grassy hill, landing at the bottom of the pit, gradually covering all the demon corpses.
…
…
The war between humans and demons had entered the most grueling stalemate. On the three-sided plains south of Snow Old City, battles raged everywhere. Within a thousand li radius, there was no patch of pure land. Death occurred at any moment. Both sides were exhausted to the limit, numb to the extreme, waiting only to see who would collapse first.
The human army’s holy light crossbows were nearly depleted. Supplies from the rear had been lagging for over ten days. As for other military equipment and crystal supplies, they had been cut off for several days. The western army, which was sweeping through the demon outposts, had yet to bring good news. The demons’ situation was not much better. Most of their defensive siege weapons were beyond repair, to the point where the bravest human cavalry squads could sometimes charge to within less than three li of the city walls.
One morning, a shout full of surprise suddenly came from the northern plains. Then, faint singing could be heard. Gradually, the shouts and singing spread southward. After entering Snow Old City, they turned into thunderous cheers. Finally, hundreds of thousands of tribal warriors on the plains outside the city joined in the wild roars.
At first, the human army noticed the commotion among the demons. They observed with vigilance and confusion, not knowing what had happened.
The demon soldiers’ cheers grew louder, and the human soldiers’ tension increased.
General He Ming looked up at the gray sky and finally understood what was going on.
He reached out and caught a drifting snowflake.
It was snowing.
…
…
(Barring any surprises, April will be the last full month for Ze Tian Ji. I will write with all my strength. Thank you, everyone.)