Unfortunately, in order to prevent the Wu people from hunting them down, Ashima and the others had cleaned up their footprints very thoroughly. In addition, it was very difficult to preserve traces in the snow, which made it very difficult for Guhan to determine where Ashima and the others had gone after the star shuttle crashed here.
Fortunately, Guhan still had his own brain to use.
In a situation where all clues had failed, Guhan could only use his own intelligence to speculate the next path of Ashima and the others.
From Ashima's point of view, when they fell on this snowy mountain, they naturally only had one request in mind, and that was to return to the human territory as soon as possible.
Therefore, they would definitely choose the fastest and safest route to return to the human territory.
Therefore, a map of the entire Shanhai Pass immediately appeared in Guhan's mind, and then he began to deduce the possible routes that Ashima and the others could take.
First of all, the western route could be ruled out. Although the journey back to the human camp from the west was the shortest and the fastest, it had to pass through the actual territory controlled by the Wu people.
For the sword bearers who had lost their sword essence, this was undoubtedly a suicidal thing to do, so it was impossible to go south.
Next, the eastern route was ruled out because Changbai Mountain was considered the border of the Zhou Tian Star Battle Formation. If they went east, it was impossible to return to the human territory, and they could only enter the sea.
In this way, there were only two possibilities left. One was to go around the original Korean territory from the south, then cross the Yalu River and return to the human territory.
The other was to go around the Yalu River from the east and return to the human territory.
The other was to go north, go around the Mudanjiang, and return to the outermost area of the Taiyin Garrison's territory, which was the ruins of Bing City.
Then, Guhan needed to make a decision himself to determine whether Ashima and the others should go south or north.
In theory, the southern route was the best because the weather there was better at this time, and there were fewer areas covered by snow and ice on the southern route, so it was easier to travel.
However, there was a fatal threat on the southern route, and that was the core camp of the Qiangliang Tribe was next to the Yalu River. If Ashima and the others took the southern route, they would have to pass by the Qiangliang Tribe's camp, which was undoubtedly a very dangerous thing to do.
They didn't have to worry about this if they took the North Road. The North Road was smooth all the way, and there was no obstruction from the Wu people's tribe. It could be considered the safest road.
However, the North Road had its own shortcomings. The snow was too heavy and too thick.
The area north of Bing City had not been visited by humans for the past 1000 years. There were no traces of humans in that area. It was frozen by ice and snow. The difficulty of going around it was the same as the Red Army crossing the snowy mountains.
However, the Red Army still managed to get there in the end, and they successfully joined forces in northern Shaanxi. Then, as the sword-bearers who possessed all kinds of advanced technology, it would be much easier for them to get to the Taiyin Star from the north than it was for the Red Army back then!
With this in mind, Guhan decided to start his search from the north.
Of course, Guhan didn't need to walk. He only needed to sit in his Flying Droplet and travel at a speed of 50 km/h.
However, it was undoubtedly a very difficult thing to search for traces of Ashima and the others with his own eyes. This required Guhan to cover the entire North Road like a sweeping robot … At the same time, it was extremely easy to get visual fatigue if he used his eyes to observe the snow for a long time … After searching like this for more than an hour, Guhan couldn't help but feel sleepy.
"It would be great if I had a radar!"
Guhan thought of this divine search device from before the apocalypse. His personal terminal also had a simple radar search function. Unfortunately, this function was suppressed in Shanhai Pass and couldn't be used.
But unexpectedly, when Guhan said the word radar, the Flying Droplet suddenly sent a piece of information to Guhan's mind.
Only then did Guhan discover to his surprise that the Flying Droplet also came with a radar system that could be activated with just a thought.
Therefore, Guhan immediately activated the Flying Droplet's radar system. Probably because it was prehistoric technology, it wasn't suppressed by the Zhou Tian Star Dipper Formation and could be used normally. It covered a distance of 50 km, and as long as it was alive, nothing would be able to escape the detection of this radar.
With the help of this radar, it was very easy for Guhan to track them down. He only needed to choose the most suitable path in the middle and go all the way, and he could cover more than half of Changbai Mountain. He didn't have to worry about not being able to find traces of Ashima and the others.
The pursuit went on for a full seven hours, but halfway through, Guhan realized something was wrong. In an extreme environment like the snow, it was already very impressive for an ordinary person to be able to travel two to three kilometers in an hour.
His seven-hour pursuit was equivalent to Ashima and the others' ten days of travel. How could they have traveled so far!
Could it be that they could open their dimensional pockets, and there was a hover car inside for them to use?
That was absolutely impossible. To open a dimensional pocket, one must have the sword essence.
If one had the sword essence, he could release his own swordmistress.
If he could release his own swordmistress, why would it take him more than a hundred stabs to kill a Wu people?
To deal with a Junior Magus like the Wu people, any famous swordmistress would be able to stab him with a sword.
"Did I miss something?"
Guhan fell into deep self-doubt again. The key points about time, speed, Wu people's corpses, sword essence, and so on kept lingering in his mind. Suddenly, with a flash of inspiration, Guhan realized what he had missed!
Guhan realized that he had missed the point of eating!
As a swordsman, he didn't have to worry about eating at all.
The reason was simple. Every swordsman's dimensional pocket would have enough food to last them for at least three years, so they didn't have to worry about eating at all. Naturally, Guhan didn't consider this problem.
But the truth was that Ashima and the others could no longer use their sword essence, so their dimensional pockets naturally couldn't be opened either. If they couldn't open their dimensional pockets, they wouldn't be able to eat the food in them … If they took the northern route, it would take more than ten or even twenty days to cross mountains and ridges, and these swordsmen would starve to death along the way.
Therefore, these swordsmen definitely wouldn't take the northern route.
On the contrary, if they took the southern route … as long as they could survive the first five days, they would be able to enter North Korea, which wasn't covered in snow and ice.
North Korea had always been a paradise for wild animals and plants. There were neither humans nor Yuan Kou there, so there was naturally an abundance of wild animals and plants.
In the eyes of the starving swordsmen, these were naturally the most delicious food.
Having understood this, Guhan immediately changed the direction of the Droplet and began to head south … Guhan's radar showed tens of thousands of different wild animals running wantonly over the land within a fifty-kilometer radius, but there was no trace of any humans.
Could it be that Guhan's speculation was wrong again?
But apart from the northern and southern routes, where else could Ashima and the others take?
The western route was completely suicidal for the Wu people, while the eastern route was the vast ocean, which was getting further and further away from the human camp … Wait, Guhan finally understood that he had made a fundamental mistake.
Before this, Guhan had always thought that Ashima and the others' ultimate goal was to return to the human camp in Shanhai Pass, so they only had two paths to choose from: the southern and northern routes.
But in reality, why did they have to return to the human camp in Shanhai Pass?
They just needed to break free from the suppression of the Zhou Tian Star Battle Formation!
As mentioned before, Changbai Mountain was at the border of the Zhou Tian Star Battle Formation. As long as they went east and crossed Changbai Mountain, they would reach the eastern barrier of the Zhou Tian Star Battle Formation.
This barrier was set up specifically for the Wu people, so it was impossible for the Wu people's bodies to pass through it … This was the hard truth that the Wu people had figured out after being suppressed into the Zhou Tian Star Battle Formation for decades. Under normal circumstances, the Wu people would never waste time getting close to these barriers.
But Ashima and the others were different. They were humans, and these barriers were meaningless to humans.
It was like a dimensional barrier. As long as you were a real human, you could pass through this barrier without any hindrance.
It would take five days to reach North Korea by the southern route, but it would take less than three days to pass through the barrier of the Zhou Tian Star Battle Formation by the eastern route.
As long as they passed through this barrier, the sword bearers would be able to use their swordmaidens again, open their dimensional pockets, and eat the sumptuous food they had prepared in advance. They could also use their hovercrafts to move around at high speeds.
Therefore, there was no doubt that when Ashima and the others were presented with such a choice, they would definitely choose the eastern route and break free from the restriction of the Zhou Tian Star Battle Formation.
If that was the case, there was a new problem. It had been six days since Ashima and the others went missing, but it would only take them three days to pass through the barrier.
However, they only needed three days to pass through the barrier. Logically speaking, Ashima's people should have left the Heavenly Cycle Star Formation three days ago.
The moment they left the Heavenly Cycle Star Formation, Ashima and the others should be able to regain contact with the Sword Council and report the news that they were safe.
But why hadn't there been any news from them after six days?
Could it be that they had died on the way?
With this question in mind, Gu Han immediately rushed towards the East Road without stopping.
As expected, as Guhan got closer and closer to the barrier of the Zhou Tian Star Battle Formation, many clues gradually appeared on the radar.
First, Guhan found a few discarded clothes. These clothes were human junk. These junk were obviously newly discarded by the sword bearers in order to have a lighter burden.
Next, Guhan found the skeleton of a Baihu … but there was still fresh flesh on the bones, so it was obvious that it had just been slaughtered.
There was also a bonfire next to the Baihu skeleton. From this, Guhan could tell that a group of humans had set up a bonfire here three to four days ago and killed this Baihu. Without a doubt, this was definitely left behind by Ashima and the others.
At this point, Guhan felt more and more excited. He felt that he was getting closer and closer to Ashima and the others.
But when Guhan finally reached the edge of the barrier, a tragic battlefield made Guhan fall into endless anger.
It was a battlefield full of human corpses. Guhan found a total of 17 human corpses on the battlefield, which was less than a kilometer in radius. There were only 18 people in Ashima's team.