Chapter 19#

If You See SnowCh19 - A Superfluous Person#

At dawn on the third day, Su Ruhui and his two companions set off towards the snowline. It had snowed heavily the previous night, and the ground was completely covered with a thick layer of snow. Along the way, they passed countless corpses, all frozen solid, their empty eye sockets filled with dust and snowflakes. To avoid encountering other trial participants, they chose a slightly steeper route to go around a cliff, cross a ravine, and then climb a bare slope to reach the snowline.

The mountain path was steep and treacherous, especially with snow piled high. Each step sank them up to their calves, making the journey extremely difficult for the three. When the sun finally rose completely, they had managed to loop around the cliff and reached the ravine. The three of them walked in a single file, tied together with a rope, following the narrow, protruding edge of the ravine towards the north. This edge was so narrow it was like walking on a tightrope. Thankfully the weather was good during the day, unlike the blizzard that raged the previous night.

Suddenly, He Sheng at the very front let out a shriek as the snow beneath his feet caved in. His footing gave way, and he toppled sideways, tumbling down the snowy slope. His fall dragged the Su Ruhui and Sang Chiyu behind him along with him. The trio tumbled down like a snowball, rolling all the way to the bottom. Su Ruhui was buried completely in the snow, his mouth filled with cold particles of snow.

Luckily, it snowed heavily last night. The mountain was covered in sharp rocks, and without a layer of snow to cushion the fall, anyone rolling down would be done for. Su Ruhui was almost frozen stiff at the bottom. He struggled to open his eyes and found himself staring into a pair of vacant eyes.

Sang Chiyu grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out. The two of them saw the corpse beneath him, its eyes still wide open in death.

On the other side, He Sheng also stood up. He was not far from Su Ruhui on the other side. The three of them simultaneously looked back at the ravine, only to see countless corpses scattered haphazardly beneath the snow. Some had their hands and feet exposed, others their heads. Their skin was frozen a bluish white, each one stiff as an icicle. If they hadn’t fallen and collapsed this layer of ice, they wouldn’t have been able to see this mass grave.

【Congratulating host on harvesting frozen meat with messed up internal organs x37.】

“Who…” He Sheng said fearfully, “Who are these people? Are they trial participants?”

Su Ruhui squatted down to look at their faces. He had an eidetic memory and remembered all the people who had participated in the trial. After a quick glance, he did indeed spot a few familiar faces. He said: “There are indeed some trial participants, but most of them are unfamiliar faces.”

Su Ruhui flipped over one of the corpses. The clothing was intact, and the expression was one of terror, as if the person had seen something extremely frightening before dying. The words “Bao Tai” were embroidered on the collar in red thread, probably the deceased’s name.

“How could they have died here?” He Sheng asked.

Su Ruhui shrugged, indicating he didn’t know.

This place was on the leeward side of the mountain and very steep. Normally, no one would come here, which is likely why it had become a place to dump bodies. Who threw them here? Su Ruhui wondered. He turned to look at Su Yu. The youth’s expression was serious, as if lost in thought.

Time was running out, and they didn’t have time to deal with the bodies. The three continued climbing upwards. They reached the snowline just in time, but didn’t dare go any further. The area was surrounded by snowdrifts, and they hid in the snow, waiting for wushi. They shielded their eyes with their hands and scanned around. There was no one on the snowline. It was most likely that everyone else was waiting somewhere nearby.

Wushi arrived, and a few officers rode up the mountain on puppet horse carriages. Just like three days ago, they set up tables and waited for people to report in. Finally, a few scattered individuals emerged, reporting their names and hometowns to the officers. Counting the arrivals, there were over a dozen now, including the monk Xiao Huang who had fought with them earlier. Su Ruhui and his two companions exchanged a glance before climbing out of the snow themselves.

After giving their names, they waited nearby. After waiting long past wushi, no one else appeared in the snow. The officer counted the names and said: “Fifty-two. That’s two too many.”

Everyone showed a face of dismay. “Are we going to have to fight again?”

“Hold up…” The officer narrowed his eyes as he studied the ledger. “Jiang Quexie? The Jiang Quexie from the Jiang family of Yunzhou?”

“That’s me!” Su Ruhui stepped forward.

“You are a child of a noble family, and those from noble families cannot join the Scout Guard.” The officer waved his hand and signaled someone to take him away, “Someone, assign him to a different guard.”

Su Ruhui asked, puzzled: “Why can’t I join? We used to be able to join. My sister was in the Scout Guard.”

“Orders from above. You can’t join from today onwards.” The officer said impatiently, “Hurry up, don’t hold up our work. There are plenty of aristocratic kids in the Secret Sect. One more or one less of you doesn’t make a difference. If you keep arguing, I’ll throw you out.”

He Sheng comforted him, “Erdi (second younger brother), don’t worry. You have a noble family background. They will surely arrange a better position for you.”

Something was wrong. Su Ruhui had a bad feeling. He had spent some time in the Secret Sect in the past and had selected skilled individuals for recruitment. The process had always involved a fighting match on stage or a martial sparring match. He had never heard of such a bloody and cruel method of trial by combat. Looking around at the remaining participants, there weren’t many left with the label “passerby” above their heads. Most were “monks” and “thugs.” It was obvious that when hidden secret arts cultivators from the Underworld faced ordinary people, the participants from the Underworld would have a much greater chance of winning.

Combined with the corpses they encountered earlier, it all felt even more wrong.

He feared the true purpose of the Secret Sect’s trial was not to recruit soldiers, otherwise there would be no need to screen out noble family members.

He cupped his hands in a bow: “I apologize for troubling you, sir. I have two sworn brothers here as well, and I wish to take them with me to another guard. Might you grant me this favor?”

He grinned as he stepped forward, using his body to block the view of the trial participants behind him. He then discreetly stuffed a handful of silver coins into the hands of each of the two officers.

The officer took the silver and put on a smile: “I didn’t expect that a young master from such a noble family would be so sensible. To be honest with you, we’re just following orders. If we can make an exception, we’ll make one. There are fifty-two people here, but we only need fifty. You can only take one with you. We’d have trouble explaining if we took fewer. I hope you can understand, Young Master.”

“Then could you perhaps tell me why the children of aristocratic families aren’t allowed to join the Scout Guard?” Su Ruhui quietly asked.

“Orders from above, we also have no idea why.” The officer said in a low voice, “All we know is that last month, the Scout Guard was dispatched into the Snowlands. Five hundred men went out, and only a dozen or so returned. They were almost completely wiped out. I heard from the survivors that many refugees in the underground tunnels have disappeared, and no one knows where they went. So many people have gone missing that even the people from the Underworld are pulling back. The Snowlands is not safe right now. Young Master, if you can go to another guard, do it. The Dragon Guard and the Eagle Guard are both better than the Scout Guard, no?”

“One last question, did you guys have more than one round of recruitment for this guard?” Su Ruhui asked.

The officer nodded. “Indeed, we’ll have to go back down in a bit to clear the dead bodies and toss them onto the leeward slope.”

No wonder there were so many corpses. Su Ruhui now knew where those bodies had come from.

“Young master, hurry up and pick someone to get going. We’re busy here.” The officer urged him.

Su Ruhui straightened up and turned to apologize to He Sheng: “Dage, I’m sorry, I can only take one person. Sandi (third younger brother) is still young and needs someone to look after him, so I’ll take him. You’ll be fine on your own, right?”

He Sheng pushed Su Yu forward and said, “Of course it’s no problem. I came here specifically for the Scout Guard, I’ve been looking forward to this for years. Thank goodness I caught the recruitment period. I wouldn’t be willing to go anywhere else.”

Su Ruhui pressed down on Su Yu’s shoulder and whispered to He Sheng: “Then I’ll take sandi with me. Dage, you take care of yourself.”

With that, Su Ruhui led Su Yu to board the puppet horse carriage.

The carriage rattled along the mountain road, gradually leaving the snowline behind. Su Ruhui turned his head and asked Su Yu: “That didn’t scare you just now, right?”

Su Yu lightly shook his head and said: “Something’s wrong with the Secret Sect.”

The two fell silent, each feeling a heavy weight in their hearts.

Earlier, when Su Ruhui had fallen into the snow filled ravine and collided with a corpse, Su Yu had pulled him up, and both men saw the face of the dead body—it was He Sheng’s face. A bluish white face, blood flowing from his nose and mouth, eyes wide open in death.