Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei's War Journey

The group gritted their teeth and continued climbing for several more hours, reaching the halfway point of the mountain. As the sun shone, more of the snow under their feet melted, and their sponge mats became soaked, making it increasingly difficult for them to lift their feet.

"I can't... I really can't... I have to... I have to rest... eat... eat something..." Perez, who was walking at the front, shouted breathlessly. His face was no longer pale, but had a bluish-purple tinge from lack of oxygen.

Behind him, Lu Mingfei, Canesa, Roy, and Cancesa were in no better shape, all panting heavily.

Upon hearing Perez's words, the group almost collapsed onto the snow. They lay there, panting heavily, and Lu Mingfei felt as if his lungs were about to explode.

However, he still struggled to get up, took out an aluminum sheet and a bottle from his pocket and began to make water. It was the hottest time of day, and the snow was melting faster than at other times.

The others also started to take out food and eat. It was called food, but it wasn't even enough to fill a tooth gap. Each person only had two dried dates, which was not enough to make up for the calories they had consumed in the past few hours.

"Should we continue?" Canesa swallowed the two dried dates in his hand and then asked, as he was considering turning back.

"Yeah, we've been climbing for so long and haven't seen anything. Let's go back," Roy chimed in.

"No, we can't go back like this before we've found the tail section!" Cancesa said firmly. He came out not only to find a way to survive, but also to clear his name and prove his worth.

Perez, panting heavily, looked down at the distant plane wreckage and then up at the seemingly endless snow slope. A struggle crossed his face, but in the end, resentment prevailed.

"Cancessa is right... Let's go a little further. How can we explain going back like this, all disheveled and defeated? We came out carrying everyone's hopes."

With the score tied at two to two, all four eyes turned to Lu Mingfei, who was still silently using an aluminum sheet to focus light and collect water. The decision rested with this usually unremarkable young man from the East.

Lu Mingfei stopped what he was doing, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Let's keep going. There's not much food left on the plane. Even if we go back, we'll starve to death sooner or later."

The final result was three to two. After a rest, Lu Mingfei and his group set off again to search for the tail of the plane.

Not long after, Lu Mingfei began to feel a slight stinging and dryness in his eyes. He thought it was sweat getting into his eyes or the glare from the snow, so he didn't pay much attention to it. He just blinked hard and continued to follow the group, stumbling along.

Just then, Roy, who was walking slightly ahead of him, suddenly let out a short scream and fell forward without warning, crashing heavily into the snow!

"Roy! What's wrong?!" Lu Mingfei's heart tightened, and he quickly stepped forward to help him up.

"I can't see! My eyes! I can't see anything! It's all white! Just white!" Roy cried out in terror, covering his eyes tightly with his hands, his body trembling violently with fear, and tears streaming uncontrollably from his tightly closed eyes.

Before Lu Mingfei could process this sudden turn of events, he heard panicked shouts from Perez and Canessa almost simultaneously from ahead.

"My eyes! I can't see anymore!"

"What's going on?! Why can't I see anything at all suddenly?! It hurts!"

Lu Mingfei staggered to their side and saw that Perez and Canessa were in the same situation as Roy, both of them unable to stop crying and unable to open their eyes at all.

"What on earth is going on?!" Lu Mingfei panicked, and just then, he felt the foreign object sensation in his eyes suddenly intensify, as if sand or glass shards were rubbing against his eyes. His vision began to blur, and tears flowed involuntarily.

He didn't understand why they would suddenly all go blind when everything was fine.

"Snow blindness! Damn it! How could I forget something so important!" Cancesa shouted, his voice filled with regret and self-reproach.

The pristine white snow can reflect up to 80% of ultraviolet rays. When these rays are absorbed by the corneal epithelial cells, they damage the DNA and proteins within the cells, leading to cell death and shedding. Simply put, this results in severe sunburn to the eyes, which can cause temporary blindness.

"Quickly, use something to block out the light around your eyes!" Cancesa continued to shout.

Upon hearing this, Lu Mingfei hurriedly took off a relatively dark-colored sweater and covered his head with it, like an Arab, leaving only a gap for breathing below his nose.

The sudden darkness slightly relieved the stinging in my eyes, but my vision remained very blurry.

Amidst the chaos and panic, Cancesa suddenly seemed to have noticed something, muttering uncertainly, "Wait... over there... I think... I think I see Caritos..."

"Caritos?" Upon hearing this name, all three except Lu Mingfei were stunned. Caritos was the rugby player who spoke into the microphone at the tail of the plane earlier, and was sucked out when the tail broke off.

"No... I have to find him. If he's still alive, he must know where the tail section is... If I find him, I can find the tail section!" Kansesa said, and ran straight over.

"Kancesa! Kansessa! Come back!" Lu Mingfei shouted desperately, trying to call Kansessa back, but Kansessa quickly disappeared from his blurry sight.

"What should we do now?" Roy asked, his voice trembling as he knelt on the ground. Although he had covered his head with his clothes, he still couldn't open his eyes.

"We have to go back! It's almost afternoon, and if we don't get back before dark, we'll all freeze to death here!" Perez shouted. He had no doubt that they would freeze into ice sculptures if they spent the night outside.

"What about Cancesa? He must be seeing things!" Cancesa shouted, unable to accept abandoning his teammates even though he couldn't see it himself.

"He's in the best shape among us. He knows he was wrong and he'll come back. What we need to think about now is how to get back!" Perez continued to shout. In their current state, it was impossible for them to go to Canceza. How to get back and save their own lives was the most important thing.

After a brief argument, the instinct for survival prevailed.

"Stop arguing!" Lu Mingfei took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the panic and worry for Kansessa in his heart, and shouted in a voice as calm as possible.

"Listen to me! We'll line up now! Each of us grabs another's clothes! I'll lead the way! We have to go back now!"

The other three are now blind, while he is only partially blind. He must shoulder the heavy responsibility of leading the others back.

Soon, under Lu Mingfei's command, Perez grabbed Lu Mingfei by the back of his shirt, Canessa grabbed Perez, and Roy grabbed Canessa, forming a chain of four.

Lu Mingfei stumbled forward, like the mother hen in the story of Eagle Catches Chicks, leading her three chicks.

Going downhill requires less physical exertion than going uphill, but it is much more dangerous. If you're not careful, you can turn into a snowball and roll all the way down the mountainside. There are rocks hidden everywhere in the snow, and if you hit one while rolling down, you'll probably be crippled even if you don't die. In such an environment, it's no different from being dead.

"Lu Mingfei...you can do it...you can definitely get back alive...you made a promise with Nuonuo..." Lu Mingfei encouraged himself in his heart, and then began to walk down the mountain step by step. He could only rely on his blurry vision and intuition to walk down.

After walking down a relatively gentle slope, Lu Mingfei gradually found his rhythm, and his tense nerves relaxed a little. He estimated that at this speed, it seemed that there was still hope of getting back to the plane wreckage before dark.

But fate seems to always deliver the heaviest blow just when people see a glimmer of hope.

Just as he was slightly distracted, thinking about which direction to take next, Roy behind him suddenly let out a terrified scream.

Immediately afterwards, Lu Mingfei felt a tremendous force coming from behind. Roy lost his footing and his balance was pulled along with Canesa and Perez in front of him.

A chain reaction occurred instantly!

The color drained from Lu Mingfei's face instantly, his expression completely stiffened, and before he could even react, he felt the world spinning around him.

The four people instantly lost all control and began to accelerate down the steep snow slope.