"So poachers have to study law now? Are you trying to bargain with us?" Feng Mountain chuckled and glanced at Yves and the others. They were laughing too.

Feng Mountain then took the badge from his chest, placed it in front of the Red Hat Man, and said with a smile,

"Are you an idiot? Open your damn eyes and take a good look. We’re Crown Territory Sheriffs."

"I hereby declare that you are under investigation for the crimes of illegal trespassing, illegal hunting, illegal possession of firearms, attempted murder, assaulting an officer, and serious violent crime. Congratulations, you’ve just won the Super Millions lottery."

Yves and the others snickered.

If they were actually convicted on all the charges the boss listed, these four would be doing hard time until they were old and gray.

"No!"

The Red Hat Man’s eyes instantly went wide, staring fixedly at the badge before him.

’How can this be?’

’How could the Crown Territory have sheriffs?’

’This godforsaken shithole has a sheriff’s office?’

’Illegal trespassing, illegal hunting, illegal possession of firearms, attempted murder, assaulting an officer, serious violent crime... so many charges.’

’He’s trying to bury me.’

"I..." Just as the Red Hat Man was about to beg for mercy, his cousin Parker, who was beside him, dropped to the ground with a THUD, slamming his forehead into the snow. "I was wrong! I just wanted to earn a little extra cash! I haven’t fired a single shot in the last two days! My cousin can vouch for me, he can prove it! Cousin, tell them!"

’Vouch for you my ass! I haven’t even started begging for mercy, and you’ve already beaten me to it!’

The Red Hat Man stared speechlessly at his groveling cousin.

For a moment, he felt a murderous impulse, but the sight of his cousin’s face, a mess of snot and tears, made him sigh inwardly. He turned to look at Feng Mountain again.

"I hired the other three. It has nothing to do with them. The decision to come poach in the Crown Territory was my idea."

"Ha, trying to play the hero? Too late. You can tell that to the judge." Feng Mountain shook his head. Once the scattered animal carcasses were reloaded and tied to the skis, he ordered, "Take them back to camp."

"Get up! Move!" Cradling their guns, Yves and the others herded the four poachers onto separate snowmobiles. The remaining vehicles towed the cargo as they all departed.

The eight snowmobiles sped off towards the camp.

Halfway there, as one of the snowmobiles was climbing a snowy slope, Beard threw his body to the side, leaped off, and tumbled to the bottom of the incline. He scrambled to his feet and made a run for it.

Everyone stopped their vehicles and watched his faint silhouette in the darkness. Nash was about to turn his snowmobile to give chase but was stopped by Feng Mountain.

"It’s fine. Let him run. He’ll come crawling back soon enough."

The Red Hat Man looked at his fleeing companion as if he were looking at a dead man.

’What was that idiot thinking?’

’Never mind whether he can actually get away. With no warm gear and no source of fire, even if he did escape, he’d never survive the extreme cold of the Far North Tundra, where it’s over forty degrees below zero.’

’With a pig-headed teammate like that, how could we not get caught?’

「Ten minutes later.」

Beard ran back, his face pale as if he’d seen a ghost. He kept glancing back over his shoulder, screaming in terror.

"Wolves! There are wolves! Wolves!"

Feng Mountain and his five men sat on their snowmobiles, smug smiles on their faces.

Beard ran to the snow slope, but with his arms tied behind his back, he failed to climb it several times, tumbling and getting covered in snow instead.

In the darkness behind him, pair after pair of green eyes appeared, slowly closing in on Beard.

"It’s a wolf pack!" The Red Hat Man shivered involuntarily when he saw the green eyes.

’A while back, a super wolf pack with over fifty members appeared in the Tundra. That was why I’d taken a break and hadn’t dared to come poach here.’

’For poachers, facing such a super wolf pack and rashly entering the Tundra to hunt was undoubtedly a death wish. Wolves are extremely vengeful; once provoked, a pack could hunt you down relentlessly.’

Beard leaned despairingly against the snow slope, his body trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind.

He screamed himself hoarse, begging for help from the people at the top of the slope, but his only answer was cold silence.

Not only did those people not help him, but they wore gloating smiles, as if watching a fantastic show that had nothing to do with them.

Just then, the soft crunch of footsteps echoed from the darkness, like the beat of a death drum, striking Beard’s heart with every step.

’This time, I’m really done for!’

One by one, white Taiga Wolves slowly emerged from the shadows, their forms gradually becoming clear in the snowmobile headlights.

The wolves were powerfully built, their white fur shimmering with a mysterious, cold light under the headlights.

As the wolf pack drew closer, a thick, foul stench washed over him.

The pungent smell made Beard want to vomit, and his fear reached its peak.

He could almost see the gruesome scene of himself being torn apart by the wolves, his heart filled with despair and helplessness.

Just at that critical moment, a whistle rang out like a sound from heaven.

The advancing Taiga Wolf pack stopped in its tracks, their fierce gazes snapping in unison toward the top of the slope.

"That’s enough. Were you really going to eat him?" Feng Mountain’s voice rang out as he shot the White Wolf Pack a stern glare.

The white wolf leading them, Lao Liu, immediately lowered its head, as docile and obedient as a child who had done something wrong. It gave a slight wag of its tail, then led the pack to the side.

Beard’s eyes widened in utter disbelief.

’I never would have imagined that someone could tame Taiga Wolves.’

"Hey, Big Beard, are you coming up or not?" Feng Mountain’s voice sounded again.

Beard scrambled clumsily to the top of the slope, the snow crunching under his feet.

His heart was filled with the relief of having survived a close brush with death, and he didn’t dare to delay for a second.

Without waiting for Feng Mountain to urge him, he voluntarily leaped onto a snowmobile as if it were his only safe harbor.

"Back to camp."

The snowmobile engines roared to life again, shattering the silence of the Tundra.

They sped off under the glow of their headlights, leaving a stretch of disturbed snow in their wake.

... 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

「Crown Camp.」

The camp was surrounded on three sides by an Ice River nearly three meters wide. The only way in was across a wooden bridge; no one but a fool would be willing to swim through the sub-zero water.

After Feng Mountain and his group left, Wawa, David, and Sun Jia took up their guns to guard the three wooden bridges leading into and out of the camp.

When Liu Jing from the Mammoth Pit heard there were intruders in the Crown Territory, he immediately brought his companions to join the guard detail.

The long-absent sun of the polar night slowly appeared, its weak light like a lamp of hope in the darkness, struggling to pierce through the layers of gloom.

However, it was more like a layer of grayish-white mist shrouding the sky, creating a hazy and mysterious feeling.

The wind also seemed to soften at that moment, gently blowing across the snow. In the distance, the outlines of the mountains gradually sharpened in the sunlight, as if to welcome its hard-won appearance.

The camp appeared calm, but a faint worry was etched on everyone’s brows, and their gazes would periodically drift towards the Tundra.

’The boss has been gone for almost five hours.’

’Why isn’t he back yet?’

As the backbone of the Crown Territory, Feng Mountain’s every word and action affected everyone.

You could say that with Feng Mountain, there was a camp. Without Feng Mountain, even the best camp would be fleeting.

Just then, the faint roar of engines carried through the air, growing closer.

’The boss is back!’

Someone shouted—it was unclear who—and in the next instant, the quiet camp erupted with activity.

Everyone dropped what they were doing and swarmed toward the bridgehead like a hive of bees.

Seven or eight beams of light appeared in their line of sight, piercing through the gray-white mist like brilliant stars illuminating the dark land.

As the lights drew nearer, the employees’ hearts began to beat faster.

Finally, the convoy came into view. Feng Mountain was at the head of the column, and he brought his snowmobile to a stop at the bridgehead.

The employees gathered around, all talking at once as they asked what had happened.

"Khilla, are you hurt?" Jenny asked, leading the other girls anxiously to Feng Mountain’s side and checking him for injuries.

"Hey, where do you think you’re touching?" Feng Mountain feigned anger and slapped away Erica’s hand, which was taking the opportunity to grope him. "We caught four bastards. They’ve been poaching a lot of animals in the Crown Territory."

Before the words were even out of his mouth, the other snowmobiles arrived.

The moment the four poachers saw the camp, their minds went completely blank.

If their hands hadn’t been bound with zip ties, they would have raised them to rub their eyes.

’What am I seeing?’

’There’s a camp in the Crown Territory? With this many people? This many buildings? And they even have electricity!’

’Damn it!’

’How the hell did you gather your intel?’

The Red Hat Man shot a vicious glare at Beard. He had given him 200 US Dollars to scout the area, and the man had come back reporting that everything in the Crown Territory was the same as before.

’Did you use your ass for eyes when you scouted this place?’

’Does *this* look like "the same as before"?!’

.....