"Exactly the same?"
Lynn abruptly stood up, a sharp glint in his eyes.
"Let's go."
Without the slightest hesitation, Lynn immediately gave the order.
Fifty men were left to guard the camp and supplies.
Lynn personally led the remaining hundred most elite warriors, following Jason overnight towards the mysterious river valley.
This way, if he didn't return, the remaining men could promptly go back to Castle Black for reinforcements.
The Haunted Forest at night was even more eerie and terrifying than during the day.
Twisted tree shadows swayed in the wind and snow, like monstrous specters clawing the air.
The cold wind whistled through the trees, making a mournful sound.
But not a single person in the team felt afraid.
They followed behind Lynn, their weapons and torches giving them endless courage.
They passed through a dense black pine forest and bypassed several treacherous cliffs.
A narrow river valley, sandwiched between two towering mountains, appeared before them.
In the valley, a frozen river snaked forward, disappearing into the endless darkness.
The ground on both sides of the river was covered with thick snow.
On the snowy ground, some black objects were scattered.
Lynn walked closer to look, and his pupils involuntarily constricted.
Those were bones.
Human bones.
Piles upon piles of human skeletons were casually discarded on both sides of the riverbank.
On some bones, there were still traces of being gnawed by wild beasts.
"This is…"
Toren gasped, taking a sharp breath.
"Is this a slaughterhouse?"
"No." Lynn shook his head, his expression solemn.
"This is a warning."
He pointed to the arrangement of the skeletons.
They were not haphazard, but deliberately arranged into strange spiral patterns.
Lynn had seen that pattern described in the original novel.
It was the mark of the Others.
"They… were here."
Jason's voice trembled.
All the soldiers instinctively tightened their grip on their weapons, vigilantly scanning the surrounding darkness.
As if in that endless darkness, countless pairs of ice-blue eyes could rush out at any moment.
"Keep moving forward."
Lynn's voice broke the suffocating silence.
There was no trace of fear on his face.
Instead, there was an almost fanatical excitement.
The more dangerous, the more bizarre, the closer he was to that secret.
The team cautiously walked along the frozen riverbed, heading deeper into the valley.
Each step crunched on the bones that had been dormant for countless years, making a "crunch, crunch" sound.
After about an hour of walking.
The river valley reached its end.
What appeared before them was a massive cliff face, as if carved by a knife and axe.
Beneath the cliff, there was a naturally formed cave.
Found it.
The place on the human skin map.
At the entrance of the cave, stood a huge black rock, like a tusk piercing upwards.
The rock was entirely black, its surface smooth as a mirror.
It was dragonglass.
A… huge piece of dragonglass!
"Oh my god…"
Everyone was stunned by the unimaginable sight before them.
They had never seen such a massive obsidian.
In this icy and snowy world, this black boulder appeared so out of place, so eerie.
And on top of that massive dragonglass rock, a blood-red eye symbol was clearly carved.
The symbol seemed to be cast from fresh blood.
It shimmered with an eerie glow in the torchlight.
Beside the dragonglass, a figure on horseback caught everyone's attention.
He was also dressed in black robes.
Benjen Stark!
What was he doing here!
Had Benjen already become a special existence, half-human and half-Other, like in the show?
He was unknowingly transformed into an Other, and then rescued by the Children of the Forest, becoming a special Other with human emotions, but he still fought for the living.
Did Benjen fall here?
Still, be careful!
Lynn's hand unconsciously reached for longclaw at his waist.
Previously, Benjen had led his Ranger squad towards the Frostfangs in the northeast.
Their purpose was to investigate rumors about Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall, gathering tribes.
But he appeared here now, and his teammates were nowhere to be seen, which made Lynn have to be cautious.
Lynn led his men towards Benjen.
Closer and closer.
Benjen suddenly turned his head, noticing movement behind him.
Upon seeing Lynn, he was clearly stunned for a moment.
"Lynn?"
Only when Lynn came closer did he realize that Benjen's body was covered in wounds, clearly having gone through a major battle.
But one thing was certain, he was not an Other.
"Lord Benjen, why are you here?"
Lynn also asked the doubt in his heart.
Benjen revealed a bitter smile.
"My squad was wiped out by Mance Rayder's men; only I was lucky enough to escape."
"I was about to return to Castle Black to report what happened there, but I encountered this place on my way back."
Benjen's words slowly relaxed Lynn's tense body, and Lynn and the soldiers also walked to Benjen's side, all gathered around this huge dragonglass.
"Do you know what this is?"
Benjen's voice was filled with awe for the unknown.
"It looks like… an altar."
Lynn walked around the dragonglass once, then slowly said.
"An altar?"
"That's right."
Lynn's gaze was fixed on the blood-red eye symbol.
"An altar used for sacrifice."
He could feel that just looking at this dragonglass made his heart pound.
Was the Cold Gods worshipped here?
Was this a place where those wildlings who worshipped the Cold Gods communicated with their "gods"?
Lynn first had his men take Benjen away to treat his injuries, and then his gaze carefully searched the huge dragonglass.
Soon, he found a cleverly concealed recess at the base of the altar.
The shape of the recess was like a small niche.
The entrance to the niche was sealed by a black stone slab of the same material.
On the stone slab, some twisted and ancient runes were carved.
It was the writing of First Men.
Although Lynn couldn't understand it, he could guess.
Those were probably some warnings or curses.
"Lord, look here!"
A Guards pointed to the ground around the altar.
On the ground, some dried bloodstains were scattered.
And some… fresh footprints.
The footprints were messy, extending into the snow in front of the altar, and then disappearing.
There were also some human skeletons, with all the flesh and blood cleanly scraped off.
"They were here not long ago."
Lynn's brows furrowed.
Those wildlings who believed in the "Cold Gods" had been here.
They performed some kind of ritual here.
Then, where did they go?
A premonition of ill omen surged in Lynn's heart.
He no longer hesitated.
"Toren, Harvey!"
"Here!"
"Take a few men and pry open this stone slab for me!"
"Yes, Lord!"
Several strong Guards immediately stepped forward.
They used their longswords and battle axes as pry bars, inserting them into the cracks of the stone slab.
"One, two, three! Lift!"
With Toren's loud shout.
Several Guards exerted force simultaneously.
The heavy stone slab made a grating sound that set teeth on edge.
Then a gap was slowly pried open.
A colder, more ancient aura gushed out from the gap.
Everyone instinctively took a step back.
Only Lynn, instead of retreating, advanced.
His eyes were fixed on the pitch-black gap.
As if to completely see through the secret within.
"More force!"
The Guards exerted force again.
"Boom!"
The stone slab was finally completely pried open and fell heavily to the side.
A pitch-black cave entrance appeared before everyone.
Inside the cave entrance, there was dead silence.
As if it connected to another world.
Lynn raised his torch and was the first to walk in.
Ãdvåñçé çhàptêr àvàilàble óñ pàtreøn luffy1898
Etsy id in bio please follow and put the product in your favourite after that I will upload more chapters here