Merchant of the Underworld

Three days later, we had advanced more than 100 kilometers deep into the snowfield.

The group of burly Russian men they brought, who were used to walking through ice and snow, were all a little overwhelmed.

However, under Han Laoliu's urging, we almost only rested for four or five hours a day, and spent the rest of the time traveling at full speed!

The extreme cold, coupled with the overload of exercise, caused these sturdy men to completely strike out. No matter how threatened Han Laoliu was, they could not move even half a step.

Even I was almost exhausted to the limit and it was difficult to hold on any longer.

"Damn, what a bunch of trash!" Han Laoliu kicked out a strong man lying on the ground and kicked him far away, and cursed in anger. Then he ordered everyone to gather the blood, food and vodka together and carry them on their shoulders, then turned around and left.

Those guys watched us leave helplessly, but there was nothing they could do.

I don’t know who this Han Laoliu is? Carrying such a heavy baggage, I was able to walk as fast as I could, pulling the old guide and me far behind with my hands empty.

…

On this day, we experienced an extremely brutal snowstorm. If the old guide had not taken us to hide on a snow slope in advance, we would have died.

In the evening, the exhausted guide and I were resting under the snow slope when we heard a heavy breathing sound in the distance.

After muttering something, the old man hurriedly lay down on the ground, clutching the gun in his hand tightly and staring at the opposite side.

Han Laoliu had left half an hour ago, saying he was looking for some branches to light a bonfire.

At this time, the sound came from the direction he left, and my heart immediately jumped up. This sound was obviously not made by Han Laoliu, but sounded like some kind of ferocious beast!

Did he encounter any danger?

The rough sound got closer and closer, and a dark shadow gradually appeared under the vast snowy light. The dark shadow was extremely fat, almost the size of a calf. It stepped on the hard snow, making a muffled sound that made people's hearts tremble. Endless!

I lay on the snow, slowly drew out my double swords for killing ghosts and gods, and stared closely at the black figure.

As the black shadow got closer, I finally saw clearly that it was a bear!

The big brown bear had long hair, a huge body, bright eyes, and a bright red mouth that breathed out white air. It was walking quickly towards our hiding place.

After the brown bear got closer, I was surprised to find that there was a person lying on the back of the brown bear - it was Han Laoliu. He was half-lying on the bear's back lazily, and the big brown bear was lying on its hind legs. He was tied to something and was being dragged forward.

The old guide was also extremely shocked and kept shouting something loudly, as if he regarded him as a god.

Han Laoliu rode up to us on a big brown bear, patted the bear's head and jumped down.

The brown bear opened its big mouth and let out a soft cry, then slowly lay down on the ground. His obedient appearance was no different from that of a pet dog.

Han Laoliu gave the old man something in Russian, then walked up to me, grabbed the bottle of wine and drank heavily.

What the brown bear was dragging behind him were bundles of twigs and hay, stained with a lot of bear hair and feces, as if they had been taken out of the bear's den.

Han Laoliu's ability became even more astonishing. He was able to subdue such a huge brown bear with his bare hands!

The old guide nodded in fear and fear, lit the bonfire according to his instructions, handed the baked food to us, and then started gesticulating and chattering.

After hearing this, Han Laoliu turned to me and said, "He said we can reach the Valley of the Devil at noon tomorrow! But when we reach the entrance of the valley, we can no longer accompany us. He said there are demons there and you will die if you go in." .”

Han Laoliu smiled disapprovingly, then his face tightened, and he said seriously: "In other words, starting from tomorrow, the danger will really come. We must be very alert and take a good rest tonight. !"

This night we were not in a hurry like the previous few days and slept until daylight.

After packing everything up, Han Laoliu let me and the old man ride on the back of the bear. The brown bear became extremely docile in front of Han Laoliu, and obediently carried us forward.

Near noon, we finally arrived at the legendary Devil’s Valley.

This is a semicircular solitary peak, covered with a layer of white snow all over the mountain. Two dark cave entrances are exposed on the mountainside. At the foot of the mountain in the middle is a dark tunnel. At first glance, the entire The mountain is like a huge skull.

The only passage is the skull's mouth!

The old guide knelt in front of the mountain and kowtowed several times. He muttered something and refused to leave. Han Laoliu translated to me: "He said this is the Devil's Valley, a forbidden area for humans. He lives there." I am over 70 years old, and I have never seen anyone come out of here alive, and I have never even heard of anyone."

We didn't make it difficult for the old man. Han Laoliu took out some money, gave him some food, and sent him away first.

Han Laoliu and I took the big brown bear to the mouth of the valley, and immediately felt a cold wind howling out, far more fierce than the cold current in the wilderness.

The big brown bear seemed to have noticed something, growled lowly, and took several steps back.

There were frequent winds and snow outside the valley, and all the traces had long been wiped away, but the valley was extremely messy, leaving a mess of footprints.

I squatted down, looked at the footprints on the snow and said, "It seems that what the old man said before was right. Many people have indeed walked into the valley recently. And judging from the age of these footprints, there are three groups of people." , the first group had a larger number of people, the footprints were messy, and the shoe prints were all very large, they should be the white foreigners he was talking about."

"There are fewer shoe prints in the second batch, and many of them are shallow and abnormal. It seems that they all possess special skills." Having said this, I raised my head and looked at Han Laoliu.

These days, he has not deliberately concealed it. I have long discovered various strange things about him. For example, his footprints on the snow are much lighter than ours. Even a five- or six-year-old child would never leave only His ability to leave such shallow footprints is extremely difficult!

Han Laoliu frowned, stepped forward to take a look and said, "The two people in the third group are the strangest!"

There were only two pairs of footprints in the third group. One pair was very large and very deep. Every time they touched the ground, they left very deep traces on the thick ice and frozen soil, which were more than two feet long.

The other pair was extremely light, leaving only a shallow mark of less than one centimeter on the snow. Even if I held the shoe in my hand, the mark would probably be much deeper than this. The footprints are also extremely small, not much bigger than a fist.