Chapter 3: The Near-Death Experience

"Can you understand what I am saying?" Gao Wen shouted loudly, but the other party merely shook their head in sorrow and began to cough up blood, their breath faint, continuously pointing at the wound on their leg.

This object, no matter how you look at it, is merely an iron hoe

Unwrapping the cloth cover, there lies a shiny little axe inside

I am the deceased and the Lord of the Inferno, Ajehe, the one you seek

At this moment, let us consider the hero knight of Saint George, who waved his sword, and the dying man was immediately enveloped in a golden light, as if he had fallen into a deep slumber

Gao Wen felt somewhat troubled and distressed. He pulled out a few withered leaves from beneath the snow, gazing at the ground covered with dead bodies and the deepening night. He rolled the withered leaves up and ignited them with a firebrand, then took a few hard puffs, coughing repeatedly from the smoke. Once he finished, he hurriedly discarded the rolled leaves, which were about to catch fire in his hands, along with the flames. He then drew out an axe, contemplating first to chop some branches in the nearby forest to start a fire, to fend off the cold and the threat of wild beasts.

Isn't that the signal for the slaughterers to return to camp? Gao Wen bent down, casually flipping over two corpses, both of which were half-naked, their bodies frozen and swollen. It seemed that this group of slaughterers did not even spare the clothing of the deceased. Gao Wen reached out again and retrieved something from the hand of one of the dead.

Saint George? Is he not the Christian saint revered across various nations, the patron saint of the Crusaders? Gawain also acquired an ancient Persian miniature painting, depicting a warrior clad in Eastern armor, wielding a spear, slaying a venomous dragon, dressed in the typical attire of a Persian. Yet, this is also Saint George, but seen through the eyes of the Persians. It is similar to another ancient Persian painting, where "Alexander the Great" is wrapped in a crescent headdress, leading a group of warriors donned in crescent armor on an eastern expedition.

The curled dry leaf, carrying flames, fell like a small meteor to the ground, landing ten paces away from Gao Wen, where several corpses lay horizontally. Soon after, Gao Wen heard a faint trembling moan.

Finally, the other party's hand trembled continuously as they pulled out a silver cross from their collar and said a few words to Gao Wen with sorrow, either attempting to bribe him or offering a final prayer

He walked over and saw that the fire was still burning on the opponent's wrist, so he quickly rubbed it with the sole of his boot a couple of times. Smoke rose up, and the man groaned a couple of times before turning over, only to see the terrifying figure of Gawain, clad in black armor, with a copper ring on his arm and an axe in hand. Frightened, he began to shout repeatedly, quickly uttering some words while raising his hands towards the sky, seemingly praying for divine assistance. It became clear that he must have mistaken Gawain for a member of the slaughterer legion, realizing that he still had breath left, and raised the axe as if to deal with him.

It seems that this fellow is beyond saving, so it would be better to give him a swift end to spare him from further suffering.

Continuing on, Gao Wen carried the iron hoe and walked up a shaded hillside. He swung it and quickly dug a shallow pit, placing the child along with the blanket inside. He then covered the earth back over. "It seems like it still needs a tombstone..." he thought, and raised the antique sword in his hand, inserting it at the head of the grave to serve as a tombstone. He then knelt partially at the grave, clasped his hands together, and prayed to the deceased, "Although I couldn't save you, at least I have buried you properly. There are so many corpses in this wilderness that wild dogs and wolves won't pay attention to such a small one as you."

I will find a burial place for you

Not long ago, a massacre occurred here. The child just now must have been trying to escape the hunters of the massacre, yet unexpectedly, he still could not avoid it. As he thought this, a piercing sound of a horn echoed, and he looked up to see, on the opposite peak against the fading twilight, a cavalryman standing there, holding a black battle flag fluttering in the wind, wearing a silver-tipped helmet adorned with two feathers, with the horn raised in his hand

What should be the next step

After the sound of wailing, the cavalry turned around and quickly disappeared from Gao Wen's line of sight

At this moment, even Gao Wen could clearly hear the dying person's excited cries, "Saint George, Saint George!"

As he reached the edge of the forest, the wind and snow gradually subsided. It was at this moment that he noticed a copper ring with an opening encircling the arm of his armor. He looked down and saw that it was inscribed with characters he had never seen before, twisted and contorted, which should be the identification of the warrior from earlier.

Just as Gao Wenyang raised his axe, a sudden burst of golden light appeared behind him. The dying man also opened his mouth wide. Gao Wen turned around to see a figure dressed as a warrior in a white robe and silver armor, riding a white steed, holding a golden cross flag, with a disc-shaped golden halo above his head, standing out remarkably in the snow.

He donned the armor of the original owner of the horse, causing the black mare to gently circle around the tree trunk, recognizing him as her previous master. However, Gawain remained cautious, gripping his sword as he moved about, making every effort to avoid the mare's hindquarters to prevent her from unexpectedly delivering a kick. He quickly removed the boots hanging from the stirrups and eagerly slipped them onto his legs, then took down the saddlebag, a roll of luggage, and an object wrapped in cloth from the saddle.

Gao Wen stayed in place, bouncing around for a while, and eventually managed to restore his body temperature. He then opened his bag and found a water pouch inside, thinking it was wine, which brought him joy. He uncorked it and began to drink—only to find that it was a sweet, cool liquid, resembling some kind of soft drink rather than alcohol. Gao Wen shook his head and put it back. He then took the blanket from his pack and walked over to where the child's body lay. He wiped the snow from the child's innocent face, closed the child's eyes, and then spread out the blanket to wrap the small body. He tied it with knots both horizontally and vertically, securing the end to his left arm. Unable to find a suitable sheath, he continued to carry the Schwert upside down in his right hand, dragging the child's body as he slowly made his way through the wind and snow, exiting the forest.

Hello! Gao Wen did not know whether the other party was alive or dead, so he turned around and shouted at Saint George. However, the knight on the hillside instantly vanished, transforming into a gust of black whirlwind, which in the blink of an eye appeared before him—turning into a girl with black clothes and black hair, her complexion pale.

As he took the seventh step out of the forest, his foot landed on a dead man's hand, stiff and cold. He looked down the slope, where the ground was littered with bodies lying in disarray. In his life, he had seen the dead, and in unnatural circumstances, but he had never encountered so many corpses at once. He stood on the steep edge of the forest, overlooking a vast, snow-covered basin below, with a bluish-gray river winding through it, carrying fragments of ice. On either side, the ground was densely packed with bodies, numbering in the hundreds, along with charred stumps and tree trunks still smoldering, emitting a pungent stench and the metallic scent of blood. He was astonished, quickly stepping through the snow, half walking and half sliding down the slope.