Miraculous

We all shifted inside, not wanted to be caught on the outer edges. Miraculously, there was enough space for all 50 of us, plus the huskies and some materials the cover scouting crew had managed to bring. Not a moment sooner, the boulder shook violently as snow erupted from the top of the boulder.

We watched terrified as snow, slate, rocks and Rouran were washed away to the left, right, and top of the boulder. For some time, all we saw was white. Outside the semi-circle of protection the boulder provided, everything in its path was washed away mercilessly, buried under snow.

"Noble Concubine Ling, what a genius idea!" Gu Yin immediately took the initiative to praise. "Yes, yes, who would have thought we could make explosives from alcohol?" "And throwing them at the mountain instead of at the barbarians, amazing!" the convoy began to praise me. "I found this while experimenting some things for my business." I explained without batting an eyelid. Only Lu Qing Yu was silent.

The avalanche would take some time to stop, possibly hours. In the meantime, we discussed how we would get back to the base. The guys who looked for cover weren't stupid either. They had somehow managed to dislodge a large sled we had been using to pull a carriage along, figuring we would need a way to get out of the avalanche. Along with all the (confused) huskies we brought along, we could probably just manage to all squeeze onto the sled.

That was settled. Now, the issue was waiting it out. The convoy passed the time joking and also discussing strategy. Finally, after a long while, the snow overhead the boulder stopped, and we could see the sky again. Now we could survey the mass destruction. Peering behind the boulder, I could see our cocktails had taken off a good chunk of the snow off the mountain. There were even patches of dry rock I could see now. Debris and slate were mixed with white snow.

"Search for any Rouran and kill all of them." Lu Qing Yu ordered. Most of the soldiers trudged off to wade in the snow to look for Rouran, while the rest set up the sled, hooked it up to the huskies and organised our supplies so we could set off afterward.

The snow was already knee-deep before the avalanche. Now, even for the burly soldiers, the snow was up to waist level. I would most certainly have been buried in the avalanche. To prevent the soldiers from sinking into the snow or getting lost, we could only search slowly. After 3 hours, we had finally covered most of the ground.

The exhausted soldiers were given priority to sit on the sled while the rest rode huskies. Then we began the long journey back to camp. Silence fell over the convoy as the trained huskies slid over the snow. Occasionally, the navigator would check his compass and give out some directions.

Night fell. I was starting to get very exhausted, perched on the edge of the sled with half a dozen men behind me. Luckily, the military camp felt something was amiss after we didn't return on time and had sent out a search party for us, a party of 5 carriages.

We met them halfway and were able to board the carriages. We had just reached the camp when snow started to fall. This was very odd since we were in the middle of the desert. I could only imagine there must be very heavy snowfall at the other areas.

If we had returned any later, surely we would have been buried in the snow. Once we returned to camp, everyone was shocked at our encounter. 2000 elites! This was bullying. How had we managed to get out unscathed?

I ignored all the comments and left the explaining to the men. I had thoroughly used up all my brain cells as well as quite a lot of energy today. I definitely wasn't built to half-wade, half-swim through knee deep snow. If I could lie down in the tent, that would be great.

Unfortunately, we were met with another piece of very bad news.

According to scouts, the Rouran had discovered the location of our base camp.