Simply Trading 43 Traces of War

Then he smelled it. It was faint, and seemed rather distant. But there was no mistaking wood smoke.

If there was smoke, then there was a fire. And if there was a fire ...

Qin Feng felt a smile lift up the corners of his mouth as he started in the direction of the source of that lingering, faraway scent. So long as he could find someone, he was certain that he could find out where the army camp was. After all, it was supposed to be a rather large place, wasn't it?

Yet, as he continued along his way, he found himself wandering deeper and deeper into the woods. And the presence of all those trees and their thick branches certainly did not make it easy for him to pick up on the smell of the burning wood.

But he was not so stupid as not to figure out a way around that. He jumped up one of the tallest of trees, scattering the snow that had accumulated on its boughs as he clambered all the way up to its peak. And he was quickly repaid for his efforts: from his position up there, it was easy to spot the point of origin for the smoke itself.

And with his Lightness-of-Body Movement Technique, it didn't take him very long to reach the spot.

But what he found gave rise to more questions, rather than the directions that he was in need of:

There had been a fire there. And there was even a small fire-pit, and traces of a rough little camp. For no more than three or four men, Qin Feng judged, from the traces that were left around the same.

And it looked as though the fire had been put out a while ago, when the same left the site.

It was also obvious that the camp was small, and that it was not something that the Marquis' Third Army had left behind. The use of Grey Ash Tree Bark for its kindling was enough to tell Qin Feng that. It was one of those things that irritated the horses and the other dogs that the Army used, so all of the soldiers had been warned not to use it in their fires.

Even Qin Feng had been warned about that, and the punishment that it would bring down on his head, during that long and boring lecture that he had received, back at the Adjutant's Camp.

So he could safely say that this was not a fire that had been set up by any of the Third Army Scouts. Then ...

But what were Barbarians doing so far North?

Or had he managed to get that deep beyond the lines, and into Barbarian Territory?

Qin Feng didn't know. But that was warning enough that he had to be more careful, more vigilant. If there were Barbarians about, who could say if they were planning to ambush the participants in this particular Trial? To upset the Third Army's plans?

It took him about an hour or so, before he realized what they were after:

To tell the truth, it was not that difficult to figure out, once he realized that they had set up a hide, covered with white furs, on one of the trees close to their makeshift camp. And it was sparse enough, small enough, that it would look like it was simply another tree, heavily laden with snow.

Once he had climbed up to the site, however, things became a lot clearer: a simple look from within the same showed him exactly what they had been staring at.

That brought a smile to his lips at once. Since these Barbarian scouts had clearly been keeping a close eye on the military camp a short distance away, set atop another hill.

And it certainly made sense, since the two groups were clearly warring on each other. Spying on the Third Army's forward military base in the Southern Woods made as much sense as the Marquis sending out his own spies into the Barbarian Tribes Territories, to find out what they were doing.

But Qin Feng was pleased for another reason: that same camp had to be his target destination!

As for these Barbarians were watching the Third Army's camp down at the river ... Which made them scouts? That made sense, Qin Feng decided, as his eyes took in how the soldiers were washing up in the river, and joking with the inattentive sentries close by as they did so. No doubt the enemy was gathering information on the Third Army from that hill.

And it was also clear that no one from the camp had realized that they were being watched. Not even with the fire and the smoke giving away their positions, he snorted to himself with a shake of his head.

But he had expected such lackadaisical attitudes from the soldiers involved, after he had met with rest of them where he had received his briefing earlier. Save for that Lei Kongwei fellow, the rest of the idiot soldiers were literally worthless, in his opinion.

He didn't waste any time at all, clambering down from the tree once he had a good idea how to reach the place. It was not that difficult, now that he had seen the place and had taken note of the likely landmarks about the place.

It seemed he had mistaken a random stream in the half-frozen forest for the wider river that had been marked on the map. That was wound around the distant hill, and was certainly wider that the narrow riverlet that he had simply jumped across earlier in the day!

Qin Feng started for the camp immediately, the moment that he was back on the frosty ground. It wouldn't take him more than an hour to reach that place, if he kept to the same pace that he had advanced earlier. Which meant that he would be able to get his papers stamped, and rush back to the Adjutant's camp for dinner!

It was simple thing, since he now had the target in sight.

As for the Barbarian Scouts, let someone else worry about them!

* * *

Chapter end

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