The desert at dawn was still very cold.
With each breath Cang Xu took, a puff of white mist formed.
The elderly Scholar walked on, stretching out his hands to grasp the front of his clothes, trying to wrap his sheepskin jacket more tightly around himself.
This sheepskin jacket, roughly made as it was, had come from the mass slaughter of a flock of goats by the exploration team in the forest long ago. Now Cang Xu cherished it more than ever, knowing that this unassuming garment had saved his old life the night before.
The firewood had burned out, and the bonfire had extinguished in the latter half of the night.
Without the flame to keep them warm, all four of them fell into a torment of severe cold. Zhenjin and Zi Di, Cang Xu and Bai Ya huddled together to share warmth.
Only then were they able to hold on.
As soon as the sky began to grow light, Zhenjin and the others set out once more.
Despite the dim visibility, they had to get moving quickly to warm up their bodies.
