Author: Bamboo Basket Frame Water

In the endless snowfield, only the toughest pine needle trees and tenacious hay can survive in this cruel environment.

rustle~

A cute, fat snowshoe rabbit slowly crawled out of its cave, its white fur almost blending in with the surrounding environment.

Seeing a dry grass plant not far from the cave, Tutu's eyes immediately flashed with excitement.

Although it doesn't like to eat grass roots without juice, in this ice and snow environment, this is one of the few foods that can satisfy its hunger.

Although there is a saying that ‘rabbits don’t eat grass around their nests’, the prerequisite is that grass can grow around their nests!

If it wasn't really short of food, it wouldn't risk leaving its safe cave and running outside to look for food.

"Zhizhizhi~"

Humming a little tune that only rabbits can understand, the rabbit jumped towards the hay in the distance and began to nibble on the chewy turf.

"It finally came out..."

At this time, the snow rabbit who was competing with the turf did not notice at all that on the treetop not far away, there was a pair of cold eyes staring at his plump body.

Looking at the plump rabbit on the ground, the figure covered in snowflakes slowly pulled the bow string in his hand, and then aimed a simple bone arrow at the unaware rabbit.

Peng~

"Nice!"

Looking at the rabbit that was directly nailed to the snow by the arrow, the figure in the tree shook the snowflakes on his body excitedly, and then climbed down from the tree skillfully.

Looking at the trophy he finally obtained after squatting for several hours, the young man pulled out the arrow from the rabbit, then pulled out a sharp iron dagger, and sighed while dissecting the rabbit:

"The weather is getting colder and colder. There are really fewer and fewer prey like this that can't resist..."

"Yes, Hawke, there are fewer and fewer prey that cannot resist, so can you please not resist and just give me the rabbit?"

"who?!"

Hearing the noise coming from behind, the young man named 'Hoke' hurriedly raised his hunting bow and pointed around, only to realize that his situation did not seem to be good:

At some point, several free people holding stone spears and short bows suddenly walked out of the distant bushes, and the leader was wearing a rare set of chain armor!

Seeing the surrounding free people surrounding him in the center, Hawke's face gradually turned ugly, and he gritted his teeth and angrily yelled:

"Pamir! This is not your hunting range. Do you want to break the rules set by the clan?"

"Hahaha, what are you talking about? Boy, we are free people. When will free people like us need to abide by any rules?"

Looking at the fat snow rabbit at Hawk's feet and the iron dagger at his waist, Pamir had a greedy look in his eyes.

As free people living north of the Great Wall, most of the tools they used in life were bone knives and stone axes that were easily damaged and inefficient.

After all, although they looked down upon the 'kneeling people' south of the Great Wall who claimed to be civilized, they had to admit that the iron tools and tools used by those 'nobles' were very useful.

But even so, as vicious people who were born in a vicious place, expecting them to obediently develop an iron civilization is obviously overestimating them.

After all, without the constraints of law and morality, a nomadic life that can be passed along is always more practical than the development of civilization with slow returns.

Therefore, free people could only obtain rare and precious iron tools by risking their lives to climb the Great Wall to plunder, or by exchanging with smugglers who were willing to trade with them.

And being able to own an iron weapon, even just a dagger used for dissection, is enough to greatly improve a freeman's nomadic life!

Seeing that Hawke didn't seem to be planning to give up his prey, Pamir whipped out the mace hanging from his waist, smashed it on the ground, and shouted arrogantly:

"Don't be stupid, this is already the northernmost point of the clan's territory. Even giants will not visit this extremely cold place, and no one will come to save you!"

"Damn it... give it to you!"

Looking at the mace inlaid with sharp copper blades and the eagerly watching Pamir accomplices around him, Hawke could only pick up the fat rabbit at his feet and threw it towards Pamir.

Looking at the plump snow rabbit at his feet, Pamir couldn't help but lick his lips, and then continued to coerce greedily:

"If you want to return to the clan alive, just relying on a snow rabbit as 'blood money' won't be enough to redeem your life!"

Blood money is a very ancient tradition among free people. Any free citizen who accepts blood money from others cannot harm the other person for any reason.

This blood money can be gold, silver and jewelry, or one's own children can be used as collateral, which is similar to the "guest etiquette" of the nobles in the south.

But the difference is that blood money is used to exchange lives...

Seeing that Pamir was still unwilling to let him go, Hawke angrily pulled out the bone blade and dagger from his waist and reprimanded loudly:

"You've got my rabbit, aren't you satisfied?"

"Hehehe, these are not enough to exchange for your life, but if you can hand over the dagger in your hand, then maybe I will consider letting you go back."

"Don't even think about it. I challenge you in the name of the gods. If you have the ability, challenge me to a duel!"

Hearing that Pamir actually put the abacus on his dagger, Hawke's eyes were immediately filled with anger and he pointed the dagger at the opponent.

This is the last relic left by his mother to him. Even if he dies, he cannot let a scum like Pamir get his hands on it!

Seeing this, the savages who were still watching around immediately became interested, and they all put down their spears and joked to Pamir:

"Come on, Pamir, this will be a glorious duel watched by the gods!"

"You are still wearing iron armor. Are you going to coerce a young man who has just learned how to go hunting?"

"Hahaha, if you really accidentally capsize in the gutter, don't expect us to take revenge on you."

…

Hearing the constant teasing and sarcasm from his companions around him, Pamir pretended to look at the young man on the snow with disdain, but he was already thinking about how to avoid the fight.

He is able to survive to this day not only because of his powerful martial arts and sophisticated armor, but also because of his cautious attitude towards life.

This is the land beyond the Great Wall, which can be said to be the most unsuitable place for human habitation in the entire world.

In this barren land with little medical treatment, any simple wound or illness, as long as you don't pay attention to it, will turn into a horrible disease that kills people!

He would not risk injury in a duel with a young man for an iron dagger that could only be used for dissection and dissection.

If he could really rely on the strength of the crowd to get Hawke to hand over the iron dagger to him, then of course he would be more respectful than obedient and choose to accept it.

It’s a pity for young people nowadays~

Everyone is so angry and they don't know how to properly preserve their own strength in this land of eternal winter.

The society of free people is not about fighting and killing, but about worldliness!

Picking up the fat snowshoe rabbit weighing more than ten kilograms from the ground, Pamir

"Forget it, seeing as the meat of this snowshoe rabbit is so fat and tender, I won't argue too much with you this time."

"Hahaha, Pamir, when did you become such a coward? I remember you have... um!"

Pfft~

The sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh suddenly came from the back of the team. The free soldiers immediately raised their weapons in alert and looked back:

I saw that the chest of the freedman who spoke earlier had been penetrated by a strange ice pick, and the bright red blood was following the ice spike spitting out from the other person's chest, condensing into ice crystals and falling to the ground.

Everyone was frightened by this sudden scene, and Pamir subconsciously looked up to the top of the woods after confirming that there were no enemies around.

Could it be that this unfortunate guy was stabbed to death by a condensed ice pick?

Just when everyone was confused about the sudden casualties, a white light suddenly flashed in the distance, causing Pamir's expression to change immediately.

Even with his many years of combat experience, he could only barely see a sharp ice cone flying towards them. The speed was so fast that he could not react at all. He only had time to shout:

"careful!"

"Uh-huh!"

Unfortunately, the warning was too late, and another freedman soldier next to him also followed suit and was pierced through the chest with a sharp ice pick.

Seeing this, everyone couldn't care less about the previous grievances between the two parties, and began to look for bunkers to escape.

Seeing that the two corpses on the ground were covered with white frost under the influence of the ice pick, Pamir withdrew his mace angrily, then drew out his short bow and asked:

"Have you seen clearly who we are attacking? How dare you attack us so boldly?"

"There is a white-haired man wearing black armor, and he is also heavily armored. It seems that we are going to make a fortune!"

Looking at the slowly approaching figure in the distance, the only archer holding a horn bow excitedly put an arrow on the bowstring, and then aimed at the black figure.

Although free people did not have the concept of private property and relied on force to rob each other's belongings, they still had priority in killing prey.

As long as he can kill that weirdo, he can possess the armor!

Thinking of this, the shooter took a deep breath, then held his breath to make the arrow more stable, and stared at the target.

Peng~

Under the gaze of everyone, the arrow from the string turned into a black shadow and shot straight towards the strange white figure in the distance.

Everyone, including Hawke, was praying secretly and watched nervously as the arrow hit the strange man holding the ice pick spear, causing a shower of sparks.

No defense breach!

The weirdo looked down at the white marks on his armor, touched the armor with his hands covered in white frost, and then continued to walk towards them with the ice spear in hand.

Such a strange scene made everyone present feel cold in their hearts, and they felt as if their blood was about to condense.
To be continued...