Chapter 1798 — Arriving at Snow Valley: The Road Ahead Grows Harder, but Gu Mengyao Has Learned to Be Clever—She Opens the Sunroof and Has Tang Yun Scan the Road with Binoculars, Ready to Turn Around at the First Sign of Trouble

Last time, it was only because Xiao Shu had used a trick that they escaped by the skin of their teeth. If they ran into another gang of robbers blocking the road, Gu Mengyao did not know whether their luck would hold. If those two robbers had not been so desperately greedy, they would not have ended up in such a state.

Xiao Shu, however, had also been clever: she had seen how insatiably greedy the two men were, and that was how she had led them into the trap. Had they not let their greed grow again and again, they could not have come to such an end.

"The road ahead is a little rough, overgrown with weeds, but there shouldn't be any danger..." Tang Yun reported on the road conditions the whole way, which set Gu Mengyao's mind much more at ease.

Still, it was hardly surprising. This place already belonged to that uninhabited stretch deep in the mountains and old forests. Under ordinary circumstances, apart from the occasional expedition team, no one ever came here.

"How much farther to Snow Valley? Why doesn't it feel the least bit cold?" Gu Mengyao found it strange. The temperature here was not high, but with trees and weeds everywhere, it did not look like a bitterly cold place at all.

"A dozen kilometers or so, I think, but the road is bad, so we may have to go a longer way around..." Tang Yun said, comparing the map with the coordinates on the GPS. Now that they had reached a place with no highways, they could only make sure their general direction was right; the specific route they would have to find themselves.

Mo Kongwen had drawn them a route map for the earlier part of the journey, but beyond this point, where there were no roads, they could only rely on their own judgment and adapt as they went.

"Hold on a little longer. We should get there today..." Gu Mengyao had been driving for days on end and was quite exhausted, but of the three women, only she and Xiao Shu could drive. Tang Yun did not drive, and Xiao Shu could not leave Wei Zhao's side, so Gu Mengyao had no choice but to drive alone.

At last, after a whole morning and a whole afternoon, toward evening the car finally passed through that stretch of jungle, which was extremely difficult to traverse. Beyond the jungle, however, lay a wasteland of barren yellow earth. Here there was no grass or tree, nor any bird or beast to be seen; it looked for all the world like a land of death from a film.

This eerie landscape, especially under the slanting light of the setting sun, seemed all the more gloomy and desolate, and a chill rose in everyone's heart for no reason at all.

"What... is this place?" Tang Yun looked at the map in her hands. If not for the fact that their direction was perfectly correct, she would have thought she had led them the wrong way.

"I don't know, but the route map Mr. Mo gave us should be right. He would not deceive us." Gu Mengyao sped up. Though the land here was barren, the road was clearly much better than before, and the car could run fast.

Before anyone realized it, Tang Yun sneezed, frowned, and said, "It's so cold..."

At Tang Yun's words, Gu Mengyao felt a chill too. Earlier in the jungle they had been unbearably hot, especially with Wei Zhao and Xiao Shu, two natural furnaces, making it even hotter. But after they reached this barren land, everyone felt the temperature drop sharply.

Even after Gu Mengyao closed the sunroof and turned off the air conditioning, a deep chill still seeped through the body of the car into their bones.

"How cool..." Shen Yushu visibly breathed a sigh of relief. All the way here she had been so hot she was dizzy, and now, at last, she felt much more comfortable.

"Could it be that we're already approaching Snow Valley?" The sharp difference in temperature made Tang Yun suspect that they were not far from Snow Valley.

"On the map, it should be just a little way ahead. It looks like we really have found the right place!" Gu Mengyao checked the map and the GPS position and let out a deep breath of relief. "At last... we're almost there!"

"It should be," Tang Yun agreed with a nod. "Let's hurry. We may reach Snow Valley before the sun goes down!"

The area around them was truly too desolate. Compared with the jungle before, it filled everyone with fear, and they were most unwilling to linger another moment in this lifeless place.

Gu Mengyao drove faster, following the coordinates indicated on the GPS. Although there was no longer any map here, and the navigation screen showed only vast blank spaces, as long as they knew the exact coordinates, they should not go in the wrong direction.

No one knew when it began, but snowflakes started swirling down thickly from the sky, and on the ground, from a thin layer of light snow at first to the white expanse now covering everything, it seemed to Gu Mengyao to have happened in the blink of an eye.

The vast white snow forced Gu Mengyao to slow down. After all, when driving on snow, safety was the most important thing.

"It's so cold, so very cold..." If she had not come to this place herself, Tang Yun would never have known that such an astonishing place existed in the world. Not far away was a living jungle, and a little farther on was barren wasteland, and then, right after that, a world of white snow. The environment and climate here could no longer be judged by ordinary rules.

"Yunyun, you seem to be very afraid of the cold?" Gu Mengyao asked, looking at Tang Yun.

"I wouldn't say afraid of the cold... I'm just more sensitive to cold temperatures. But in winter, when the stove fire at home goes out in the middle of the night, I'm the one who can stand the cold best..." Tang Yun said.

Farther ahead lay a depression, the ground sinking lower and lower as if forming a natural valley, while the driving snow around them grew heavier and heavier. This place could be called a world of snow; it was hard to imagine that in August the weather here could be so cold.

"This... should be within Snow Valley, shouldn't it?" Gu Mengyao looked at the coordinates on the GPS drawing closer and closer and spoke with some uncertainty. Everything before her was a vast whiteness; she could see only a few dozen meters, and beyond that it was all a hazy blur.

"It should be. Let's search around. I wonder where Snow Valley is?" Tang Yun frowned too. The closer they came to their destination, the harder the target was to find. They could not just wander back and forth in the snow, could they? The gasoline in the car was limited. If they used it all up, how would they get back?

Yet just as the women were growing bewildered, a figure suddenly appeared in front of the car and shouted at them, "Who goes there?"

Gu Mengyao jumped in fright. She had not expected anyone to appear here so suddenly, and she hastily slammed on the brakes.

In fact, even if Gu Mengyao had driven straight at him, she could not have hit the newcomer. This man was a valley patrol guard of Snow Valley, with the strength of the early Earth Rank. With such strength, it was impossible for Gu Mengyao to kill him even if she tried.

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