Chapter 1961: Surveying the Lands of the Extreme North! (1/2)

Edited by: Michyrr

”Ah! Watch out!” a voice suddenly cried out. One of the horsemen guarding the perimeter had discovered something, a snow-white bear that had to weigh nearly two thousand jin and was a head higher than an adult man. This bear bared its teeth in a savage expression, ready to jump down from its tree to attack the party at any time.

A polar bear!

The horsemen were no stranger to these large white bears. They had run into some of these massive creatures that had gone south to forage for food. Their bodies were packed with strength, and they were capable of shattering stones with a single strike from their paws. Even a well-trained war horse would have their skull obliterated if struck by one of these polar bears.

At any other time, they would not have cared, but rushing all this way had greatly taxed both their physical strength and Stellar Energy, and they were far from peak strength. Moreover, this frigid land was the home terrain of these bears. If they were not careful, they really might suffer some losses.

”Be careful! Don't provoke it! Slowly approach it!

”Everyone, approach slowly! We'll work together and kill it as soon as we can!

”Take out a shield if you have one! Get to the first row and get ready to block!”

The leader of the team was extremely experienced, and he swiftly issued orders. It wasn't long before the ten-some elite horsemen had taken up formation, and they began to slowly surround the polar bear.

Everyone walked on tiptoes, moving at an extremely slow pace.

The air was fraught with tension.

One hundred feet, fifty feet, twenty feet…

”Wait! Captain! There's something wrong with this polar bear!” A scout in the team quickly noticed that something wasn't right, and soon, so did the others. The group had been advancing for some time, but that polar bear continued to maintain the same posture, its teeth bared in aggression.

In all this time, the beast hadn't even blinked. This was not the behavior of a living creature, at least not of such beasts they had encountered in the past.

Fwoosh!

An arrow flew and struck the polar bear's body, but the bear remained motionless. Moreover, when the arrow struck, there was no meaty impact, but an abnormally crisp snap.

Everyone soon gathered around the polar bear. One of the horsemen extended a hand and found the polar bear to be ice-cold. Its fur had frozen into hard needles.

”Dead!” a horseman said, his body suffused with shock.

”This polar bear has already been frozen into an ice statue!”

As he spoke, the horseman circulated energy through his palm and slapped. Crack! Half of the polar bear's neck instantly disappeared. The skin and its flesh had all turned into fine pieces of ice. And what was revealed behind the vanished neck was not normal flesh and blood, but large, blood-colored pieces of ice.

Its blood, muscles, blood vessels, and even the bones had all been turned to ice.

Upon seeing this bizarre sight, everyone speechlessly looked at each other.

Polar bears had dense fur and thick layers of fat and meat, making them more resistant to extreme cold than humans, even more than many human martial artists.

Moreover, this polar bear's body was still large and stocky, so there was no way it could have died from starvation. It was truly difficult to imagine just what could have frozen it to death.

”Captain! There's something here! Come look!” someone shouted before the group could ponder what was going on.

The captain's eyes glinted with cold light as he quickly led his men over.

”Captain, look, look! There are a lot of frozen wolves here!”

Next to a large fir tree, an elite horseman pointed ahead.

Everyone turned to look and saw ten-some wolves scattered around the forest in a large arc. They were in a variety of postures, some of them crouched down, others with their backs arched, and some of them curled into balls. These were wolves that had been ready to go out on a hunt.

Clap!

One of the horsemen pushed, upon which a wolf fell to the ground and broke into several pieces.

The ice chunks scattered across the ground made their hair stand on end. What had frozen all these snow wolves to death right before they were about to go hunting?

”Everyone, be careful. There's something weird about this place!” the captain warily called out.

As they advanced, they saw more and more animals frozen to death. A snow rabbit had curled up in a bush, its eyes frozen into blue beads of ice. Underneath a pine tree, an adult sika deer had been frozen to death, its body fused with the icy ground.

Arctic foxes, squirrels, river deer, hedgehogs… more and more frozen animals became visible, all of them apparently instantly frozen to death.