Chapter 94: Four Season Valley (2/2)

The cave extended into the mountain. Qian Jin held up the fire stick and carefully walked in with the help from the flickering fire. He realized the he was at the end of the cave after going in ten meters. From the information he had, Qian Jin felt like this was a great place to stay. The ground was dry, and there weren’t any hairs or fecal odors from demon beasts or animals.

“Come on in, it’s safe in here.”

The two girls outside carefully squeezed into the cave after they heard Qian Jin’s voice. They were both surprised by how big the cave was.

“You guys stay here. I’ll go out there and double check.”

Qian Jin squeezed out of the cave with his Zhanmadao. He lightly shook his head as he saw the ongoing avalanche. “It looks like it’ll be hard to leave this place even after the avalanche stops, unless all the snow melts. Otherwise…”

Qian Jin turned his head and stopped looking at the avalanche. He looked at Four Season Valley carefully to assess what kind of a situation he was in. Nearby, the ground was entirely covered in white snow. There were dry grass and tree branches sticking out. A bit farther away, there was a green pine tree forest. Snow also covered the leaves and branches, decorating the trees in a winter theme.

Qian Jin shrugged his shoulder subconsciously. He only needed a single layer of clothes outside of Four Season Valley. He never expected that he would be locked in the valley by the avalanche, and that he would be stuck when he came close to Four Season Valley to inspect it. After he stayed in Four Season Valley for a bit, his body felt a bit cold.

“If I knew this were the case, I would have taken a few pieces of animal fur when I came in.” Qian Jin stabbed the Zhanmadao in the ground and rubbed his hands together as he blew hot air onto them. He stomped his feet and moved around to try to warm up his body. He looked around again, trying to find something that would help him stay warm: something like a cotton jacket. However, other than snow, there were only trees around.

“Damn it!”

Qian Jin bit his teeth and stomped on the ground forcefully a few times. He quickly gathered some dry grass on the snowy ground and quickly tiptoed his way towards a small forest about three to five hundred meters away. He used his Zhanamdao to chop down a small pine tree, cut off all the branches and split the tree trunk into a two-meter tall piece. After, Qian Jin ran back to the cave with the dry grass and the big piece of wood.

“We probably can’t leave this cave tonight,” Qian Jin said as he used the Zhanmadao as an axe and chopped the pine wood into smaller pieces. “We have to stay in this cave at least tonight. To prevent us from freezing, can you guys please go and find more dry grass and dry tree branches? Remember, don’t go too close to that little forest. It might be dangerous around there.”

Sophia stared at Qian Jin as he moved. She couldn’t wrap her mind around it. “Does he want to light up the wood and dry grass to stay warm? If he does that, then we would choke to death by all the smoke before we even get warm,” she thought.

Gabriella used both her hands and feet and climbed out of the entrance of the cave clumsily. Although mages would jog and exercise to stay healthy, the intensity of their workouts was much lower than that of warriors. On top of that, the entrance of cave wasn’t easy to get through, so her movement looked even clumsier.

In the snow field within Four Season Valley, Gabriella, who was in her mage robe, carried an armful of branches and wood. However, it wasn’t much in Qian Jin’s eyes. She slowly walked back towards the cave.

Qian Jin used the limited fire he had and melted some snow, and then he used the Zhanmadao to mix it in with the frozen soil that he dug up. After, he carried the mud back into the cave and quickly formed a simple furnace with it. He mixed some dry grass with the leftover mud and made a thin and crude funnel. He connected it with the top of the furnace and put the other end outside of the entrance of the cave.

Sophia blushed as she watched Qian Jin put everything together. Although Qian Jin’s method wasn’t magical, it was unexpected. “I’ve been an adventurer for more than three years, yet I can’t even beat this Grade One Warrior Student in this situation? How did he think of it? I don’t think most of adventurers could come up with this method,” she thought.

After lighting up the dry grass inside the furnace, Qian Jin placed small branches on top of the dry grass, followed by the bigger pieces of woods on the very top.

Sophia watched Qian Jin work smoothly. She asked curiously, “You, how do you know all this?”

Qian Jin grabbed a handful of snow that he brought into the cave ahead of time and washed his hands with it. He smiled and said, “After reading a lot of books, you will know a lot of stuff.”

“Reading a lot of books?” Sophia was even more curious as she looked at Qian Jin. “Are things like this are recorded in books?”

Qian Jin put the lid he made from the thick mud onto the opening on the side of the furnace. After he felt the heat coming from the furnace, his worry about freezing to death vanished. He thought to himself, “When I was still a part of the Qian Family, I wanted to make some money, so I worked at the Qian Family’s External Library. When I got bored, I read the notes from an adventurer and this method was recorded on it.”

After finishing all the work, the cave became quiet again. The only sound left was the crackling noise coming from the wood in the furnace. Suddenly, a grunting noise sounded in the cave, and all three people heard it.

A bitter smile came on Qian Jin’s face as he rubbed his stomach. Of all the roasted meat that he obtained from hunting small animals in Sunset Mountains, a portion of it had already been eaten, and the rest was in Gabriella’s bag that Qian Jin ditched in the avalanche. “I probably shouldn’t have left that bag,” Qian Jin thought.

At this point, he didn’t have a lot of stamina left, and his warrior energy hadn’t fully recovered. If he took the chance and went out to hunt in this Four Season Valley that was full of demon beasts and vicious animals, it would be no different from committing suicide.