"Nothing... nothing!"
So he said, but Old Liu Tou's heart was greatly shocked.
Because he sensed that Ye Feng had suddenly become stronger in that instant, just like what happened at the Explorer's Guild in Shuangyu Town...
"Strength and Agility 400 is Bronze beginner, 600 is Bronze intermediate, 700 is Bronze advanced..."
"According to the system, the level after Bronze is Black Iron beginner, I wonder what it will be like then?"
Looking at his Personal Information panel, Ye Feng couldn't help but look forward to it.
...
For the next few days,
Ye Feng and his group continued to advance deeper into the frozen snowfield.
During these days, Ye Feng and his group encountered many monsters, such as snow mountain baboons who could imitate human speech and combat, nicknamed "Snowman Brothers"; storm hyenas that specialized in rear attacks and ran extremely fast, like storms approaching; snow leopards with wings; and extremely ferocious ice and snow bears of enormous size...
...
One noon,
As everyone was eating lunch,
"Uncle Liu, before we came, you told me how dangerous the hinterland of the frozen snowfield was, but now it seems like it's just that?"
Lei Jian said to Old Liu Tou while wolfing down his rice.
"Yes, Uncle Liu, we must be deep in the frozen snowfield now,"
"But the monsters we've encountered these past few days, only the snow leopards with wings and the 'Snowman Brothers' gave us some trouble!"
Nong also nodded while drinking hot pot broth.
Ye Feng also turned his head and looked at Old Liu Tou with a questioning gaze.
"This... I'm not very sure either. The extremely troublesome monsters I've heard of before, such as snow demons that can rapidly absorb body heat, four-eyed ice foxes that can induce hallucinations, and even thunder cloud leopards with lightning elemental arcane energy..."
"We haven't encountered any of them, which is very strange!"
Old Liu Tou's brow furrowed tightly.
Perhaps Nong and Lei Jian, as young people, would be glad not to have encountered such monsters, but he didn't think so. This situation was not normal at all.
Ye Feng's heart also felt heavy.
Because they had found several more batches of dismembered corpses in the past few days, identical to those they had encountered at the very beginning.
Moreover, in several of these batches of corpses, there were clear traces of Ice Gu...
"Is someone, or something, moving ahead of us, and... their route seems to be the same as ours?"
Looking at the direction pointed by the arcane compass on his wrist, Ye Feng narrowed his eyes.
"Nong, Lei Jian, you must not be careless!"
Suddenly, Old Liu Tou spoke to the two in a very serious tone.
"You should have noticed too, there have been several strange corpses along the way..."
What Old Liu Tou said was similar to what Ye Feng had analyzed and guessed in his heart, both believing that a powerful group might be taking the same route as them, and walking ahead of them.
"Uncle Liu, you mean, the reason we haven't encountered the powerful monsters you mentioned is that someone walked in front of us and cleared them for us!"
After listening to Old Liu Tou, Nong said with a heavy expression.
"If they were cleared, killed, or something like that, it would be fine, but I'm afraid..."
At this moment, Ye Feng interjected hesitantly.
"Afraid of what?"
Nong turned to look at Ye Feng, frowning slightly.
"Do you still remember the stitched monster with a fish head, dog head, and pig head that we saw before?"
Ye Feng did not answer directly, but asked back.
"You mean, someone might have deliberately stitched those monsters together?"
Upon hearing this, Lei Jian's expression changed, "But why would the other party do that? Were they too full?"
"Who knows~"
Ye Feng sighed slightly. He had always been concerned about the "Faceless Ghost" mentioned by the explorer who was chased by the three-headed monster...
"Regardless, from now on, we must be even more careful!"
Old Liu Tou said seriously to Nong and Lei Jian.
"Yes!"
...
In the evening,
Ye Feng and his group arrived in a valley.
"Damn it, why isn't this supply station open!"
"Damn it, it was here half a year ago!"
"Damn, food and water are running out, and we were chased by storm hyenas all day yesterday..."
...
As Ye Feng and his group walked through the valley, suddenly, a burst of complaints came from ahead.
"Son of a bitch, why is there a big monster here?"
"Holy crap, where?"
"Don't be so nervous, it's already dead, it seems to have just died, about 2 days ago!"
"How did it become like this? What kind of creature is this? I've never seen it before!"
"Who cares, this is meat, dinner is sorted!"
...
As Ye Feng and his group were moving forward, suddenly, another discussion came from ahead.
Hearing the content of their discussion, Ye Feng couldn't help but quicken his pace.
In a short while, they arrived at a protruding giant rock in the valley.
Seven or eight explorers dressed in cold-weather gear, carrying various backpacks, and holding various weapons appeared in Ye Feng's vision.
"Who?!"
"Who!"
...
Ye Feng's running speed was not slow, but his steps were very light, making him barely noticeable in the valley's wind. By the time Ye Feng was less than 10 meters from the explorers, they finally noticed him. They immediately drew their weapons and looked at Ye Feng with vigilance.
Ye Feng glanced at these people indifferently, then his gaze fell on the monster corpse behind the group of explorers.
It was also a three-headed monster, and Ye Feng recognized all three heads: a storm hyena, a snow leopard, and a snow mountain baboon.
And the massive body should have been an ice and snow bear...
Just like the one he had seen not long ago, the three-headed monster was covered in surgical stitching marks, but the marks were fresher...
"Hey, hey, kid, stop right there. We found this pile of meat first, don't cause trouble!"
Seeing Ye Feng's gaze, one of the explorers grumbled unhappily.
"Oh, hey~ Kid, your backpack seems to be quite well-equipped. A few of us need to borrow some supplies from you!"
Another explorer, seeing that Ye Feng didn't have many weapons, chuckled maliciously with a sinister look.
"Click click~ Click click~"
At this moment, the sound of gun bolts being cocked echoed.
It was Xiao Xiao, Nong, and the others who had caught up. They were holding AK-47s and Mauser 98ks.
"Uh... misunderstanding... misunderstanding!"
"Brothers, calm down!"
"Yeah, it's not easy for everyone to explore the hinterland of this frozen snowfield, so let's be considerate of each other~"
Seeing this formation, the group of explorers raised their hands, chattering in apology. After all, they mostly had melee weapons, at most Colt pistols. Only their leader had an M4, but he only had 5 bullets left.
Ye Feng ignored the group of explorers and walked forward on his own to examine the monster on the ground. Old Liu Tou quickly followed.
After a thorough examination, both Ye Feng and Old Liu Tou's expressions turned grim!
Clearly, Ye Feng's earlier guess that someone might be stitching various monsters together ahead of their route had been confirmed!
"Let's go!"
Ye Feng nodded at Xiao Xiao and the others, and without paying attention to the sweating explorers, he strode forward.
Ten minutes later,
Ye Feng and his group arrived before a stone door.
"Big brother, why are we coming to this abandoned supply station?"
Xiao Xiao looked at Ye Feng with some confusion.
...