The snowfields of the Northern Territory are not uninhabited land.

Su Yu truly understood this truth when he was awakened by a heavy sound of treading snow in the early morning of the ninth day.

He opened his eyes suddenly. The bonfire had been extinguished for a long time, and only a few wisps of smoke were left curling up in the darkness.

The Seed Guard Beast is still squatting at the door of the stone chamber, but its spar eye sockets have switched from the warm light gold to the dark red before the battle. The bronze body leans forward slightly, and the joints of its limbs make a very slight metallic friction sound - this is its reaction when it enters an alert state.

It is warning its owner: something is coming.

Lin Shuang also woke up at the same moment, with his hand on the hilt of the sword.

The two looked at each other without speaking, and stood up at the same time to silently touch towards the exit on the ground.

This is Su Yu's routine day of patrolling the ground.

He goes to the ground once every two days, patrols within a five-mile radius of the shelter, and hunts some snow monsters to supplement his food.

But this time, he felt something was wrong before he even left the ground - the sound of the wind on the ground was wrong.

It was not the continuous and even roar of a snowstorm, but something cut it off in the middle, and there was an extremely brief break.

That was the sound trace left by someone's body crashing through the wind curtain while moving at high speed on the snow.

He pressed against the stone wall of the ground exit and looked out through the gaps in the snow.

The morning light was weak and the sky was full of wind and snow.

In a snow valley about three miles northeast of the shelter, a series of footprints are being quickly buried by the wind and snow, but the outline of the footprints is still vaguely discernible.

Su Yu climbed out of the ground quietly, crawled in the snow and quickly approached the set of footprints.

He had to see where the footprints came from before they were completely buried by the wind and snow.

The footprints were deep, leaving clear lines on the snow.

Those were the prints of moiré boots - the moiré patterns pressed out of the soles were exquisite and regular. These boots were only issued to inner disciples of the Qingyun Sect.

He pressed lightly on the edge of the footprints with his fingertips. The snow was not completely frozen yet, indicating that the owner of the footprints had been gone for less than two hours.

Judging from the depth of the footprints, it can be seen that the opponent is not carrying any weight, his strides are even, and each step is firm. He is walking normally rather than escaping or pursuing.

This shows that the other party is not passing by by chance, but is searching for something purposefully.

The scope of the search happened to cover this snow valley—less than three miles from the ground exit of the underground shelter.

He followed the footprints silently for a short distance.

Using the timing perception enhanced by the Time Seed, he adjusted his heartbeat and breathing rate to be completely synchronized with the rhythm of the wind and snow - he moved when the wind blew up, and stayed still when the wind blew down.

This is the most secretive way for hunters to track prey in a snowstorm, and it is also the last hunting skill his father taught him.

Deep in the snow valley, that line of footprints merged with three other lines of footprints.

Two of the three lines of footprints were also wearing moiré boots, and one line of footprints was particularly heavy - each step made a dent several inches deep in the snow. The snow at the edge of the footprints was not stepped down, but was directly pressed into solid ice by an invisible force.

Those are the traces left by the leakage of spiritual pressure unique to monks in the pill-forming stage.

It's not that he deliberately releases the pressure, but the elixir in his body is too huge, and the spiritual power that naturally overflows when he walks is enough to crush the snow into ice before it touches the soles of his shoes.

The four lines of footprints merged and extended outward along the snow valley, gradually disappearing into the wind and snow.

They seemed to have finished their search and left—at least temporarily.

When Su Yu returned to the underground refuge stone room, his face was colder than the wind and snow outside.