335: Chapter 335 An Existence Capable of Swallowing Cities

Ling Shuanghan chose a drilling site three kilometers northeast of the Shelter.

A weak point in the ice sheet.

How to judge if the ice sheet is weak?

Ling Shuanghan crouched down, pressed her palm against the ice surface, and closed her eyes to sense it for about ten seconds.

Then she stood up and pointed at her feet.

"Here."

Qin Ziyan looked around.

It was a vast, white expanse of ice, no different from anywhere else.

"How do you know it's thin here?"

"The vibration frequency of the ice sheet is different."

Ling Shuanghan said. "In thinner areas, vibrations conduct faster."

Qin Ziyan fell silent for a second.

She was a soldier.

She had seen many formidable people.

But this was the first time she had seen anyone perceive the thickness of an ice sheet with their palm.

"In the Everwinter World, this is a basic skill," Ling Shuanghan added.

Her tone was very flat.

Just like saying "On Blue Star, everyone knows how to use chopsticks."

Qin Ziyan decided not to ask anymore.

If she kept asking, she was afraid her self-esteem would shatter thinner than the ice sheet.

The drilling tool was provided by Lin Yuan—

A modified version of the plasma penetration gun.

The original version was for attacking people.

The modified version was for drilling holes.

From attacking people to drilling holes, it only required adjusting the output power and beam diameter.

It took Lin Yuan about fifteen minutes to modify it.

Xia Muqing watched the whole process from the side, then asked a question:

"How did you know to adjust these two parameters?"

Lin Yuan: "Common sense."

Xia Muqing: "...This is not common sense."

Lin Yuan did not answer.

Because in his cognitive system, this truly was common sense.

Just like 1+1=2 is common sense.

It's just that his "common sense" and an ordinary person's "common sense" are not on the same dimension.

Drilling began.

The moment the plasma beam cut into the ice, it emitted a sharp hiss.

The ice sheet vaporized under the high heat, and white steam gushed out from the borehole.

The passage extended downward at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It was two meters in diameter, enough for two people to walk side by side.

Ling Shuanghan stood at the entrance of the passage and expanded the Frost Emperor Domain.

A pale blue light spread from her, covering the entire team.

The temperature within the domain instantly stabilized at minus 30 degrees.

The surface temperature was minus 153 degrees.

Minus 30 degrees, in this context, counted as "warm."

The standard for warmth in this world had reached a ridiculous level.

The moment Ji Wushuang walked into the domain, she shivered.

It wasn't from the cold.

It was from the oppressive feeling of the Frost Emperor Domain.

She was an SS-rank Ability User.

The temperature of the Nanming Li Fire could reach over three thousand degrees.

But standing in Ling Shuanghan's domain, for the first time, she felt a sense of being "suppressed."

It wasn't a suppression of power.

It was a suppression of aura.

Every ice molecule in this domain was listening to Ling Shuanghan.

Every single one.

"Even more overbearing than my Nanming Li Fire," Ji Wushuang said.

Ling Shuanghan glanced at her.

"Practiced for a hundred years."

Four words.

No showing off.

No false modesty.

Just stating a fact.

A hundred years.

Ji Wushuang thought about how long she had practiced the Nanming Li Fire.

About three months.

She decided to shut up.

The team began to descend.

Ling Shuanghan walked at the very front.

Ji Wushuang was second.

Qin Ziyan brought up the rear.

Ling Shuanghan's 12 Female Warriors were dispersed in the middle of the team, responsible for the actual work.

The passage grew deeper.

The light grew dimmer.

The sunlight from the surface completely disappeared at 50 meters underground.

The only light source was the pale blue light emitted by Ling Shuanghan's Frost Emperor Domain.

Cold light.

Shining on everyone's face, it was like applying a death filter to living people.

Ji Wushuang felt the atmosphere was a bit stifling.

She wanted to say something to liven it up.

But she looked at Ling Shuanghan's back—

Straight, silent, walking down steadily step by step.

And looked at Qin Ziyan—

A soldier's expression: vigilant, focused, eyes scanning the surroundings constantly.

Then looked at those 12 Female Warriors—

Expressionless, footsteps uniform, like 12 precision-running machines.

Forget it.

This team was not suited for livening up the atmosphere.

100 meters underground.

The color of the ice sheet began to change.

From white to pale blue.

Further down, the pale blue turned into deep blue.

It was like someone had poured a bucket of blue ink into the ice sheet, slowly seeping from the bottom up.

Ling Shuanghan stopped.

Her expression changed.

For the first time, a trace of fluctuation appeared in her consistent calmness.

It wasn't fear.

It was... surprise?

"Frost crystal," she said.

Her voice was very soft.

But everyone in the team heard it.

"Blue Star has frost crystal stone."

Only Ling Shuanghan knew the weight of this sentence.

Before coming to Blue Star, this was what she worried about most.

If Blue Star didn't have frost crystal stone, then all the survival experience she brought from the Everwinter World would be worthless.

But now—

It had it.

Blue Star has it.

Ling Shuanghan took a deep breath.

Then she noticed something else.

There were patterns in the ice sheet.

Not naturally formed cracks.

It was a kind of regular, branching, vein-like pattern.

Frozen deep within the ice sheet.

Ling Shuanghan had the team stop.

She used her ice crystal casting ability to cut a small sample from the ice wall.

The sample slowly melted in her hand.

The moment it melted, a faint aura was released from the sample.

Life aura.

There was something alive in the ice sheet.

Ling Shuanghan frowned.

Qin Ziyan's Perception Ability issued a warning at the same moment.

Very faint.

Not the kind of "about to die" warning.

More like a feeling of "something is watching you from afar."

"There is something below," Qin Ziyan said.

Her voice was very low.

"Not very dangerous, but... very big."

"How big?" Ji Wushuang asked.

Qin Ziyan shook her head.

"My perception range is about 500 meters in radius. That thing... is beyond my perception range. But I can feel its edge."

"Edge?"

"Yes. I only perceived its edge."

Ji Wushuang digested this information.

Something so big that you can only perceive its edge.

This meant it was at least over a kilometer.

Underground.

Beneath their feet.

Ji Wushuang looked down at the ice sheet beneath her feet.

The ice sheet was very thick.

But the word "thick" suddenly became less reassuring.

"Continue," Ling Shuanghan said.

Her tone did not change.

A hundred years of experience told her: underground, stopping is more dangerous than continuing.

Because stopping means you are hesitating.

And hesitation will make you miss the best opportunity to retreat.

The team continued to descend.

200 meters underground.

They appeared.

Ice Frost Evolved Body.

When the first one crawled out of the ice wall, Qin Ziyan almost fired her gun.

That thing was made entirely of ice crystals.

No flesh and blood.

No organs.

No eyes.

But it had a "mouth"—a circular opening composed of jagged ice crystals, like a blender made of ice.

The way it crawled out of the ice wall was also bizarre—not breaking out, but "seeping" out of the ice wall like water.

As if the ice wall itself was part of its body.

Then the second one appeared.

The third.

The tenth.

The fiftieth.

On the ice walls on both sides of the passage, they were densely packed everywhere.

Large ones were as tall as a person, small ones were only the size of a fist.

They were like immune cells grown from the ice sheet itself—something foreign had invaded, so they were activated.

The foreign objects were Ling Shuanghan and the others.

But strangely, these Ice Frost Evolved Body did not attack.

They were retreating.

Ling Shuanghan's Frost Emperor Domain was too "hot" for them.

Minus 30 degrees.

For these creatures born in environments below minus 200 degrees, minus 30 degrees was a sauna.

They instinctively stayed away from the edge of the domain, retreating deep into the ice walls.

Ji Wushuang watched this scene, her hands itching.

"Should we clear them out?"

Ling Shuanghan: "No need. They won't attack actively."

Ji Wushuang was a bit disappointed.

But she couldn't help but extend a finger, igniting a cluster of Nanming Li Fire at her fingertip.

The flame was very small.

About the size of a lighter.

But the effect was extremely exaggerated.

The nearest Ice Frost Evolved Body—

A person-tall ice crystal construct—the moment the flame appeared.

Like a snowflake meeting a furnace, it evaporated directly.

Not even a residue remained.

The surrounding Ice Frost Evolved Body retreated frantically, huddling together, wishing they could stuff themselves back into the ice walls.

Ji Wushuang withdrew her finger.

"This is too brittle."

Ling Shuanghan glanced at her.

"Don't be careless. These are just the outermost ones. The further down, the stronger they get."

Ji Wushuang shrugged.

She wasn't being careless.

She just felt that if all enemies were this brittle, then she had wasted wearing this combat suit today.

250 meters underground.

The passage suddenly widened.

Not widened manually.

It was natural.

A huge ice cave appeared before the team.

The cave ceiling was about ten meters high, twenty meters wide, extending to both sides, with no end in sight.

But what was most striking was not the scale of the ice cave.

It was what was on the cave walls.

Blue crystals.

Densely embedded in the ice wall.

Every single one was glowing.

Pale blue, soft, constant light.

Like someone had embedded tens of thousands of blue stars on the ice wall.

The entire ice cave was illuminated as bright as day by these lights.

No, more beautiful than daylight.

Daylight is white.

Here, it was blue.

A kind of blue that only exists 250 meters underground, a blue that humans had never seen before.

Ji Wushuang was stunned.

She had seen many beautiful things in her life.

The golden-red when the Nanming Li Fire burned.

The orange sky at sunset at the Shelter.

The dark purple light when Ye Qingxue activated the Abyss of Death.

But nothing compared to the blue before her eyes.

"Beautiful," she said.

This was the first time Ji Wushuang used "beautiful" to describe a place.

Instead of using it to describe herself.

Ling Shuanghan was not in the mood to enjoy the scenery.

She walked to the ice wall and reached out to touch a blue crystal.

"frost crystal stone. Confirmed."

She turned to look at the 12 women behind her.

No verbal instructions were needed.

The Female Warriors had already taken out their tools from their backpacks.

Collection began.

Their movements made both Ji Wushuang and Qin Ziyan quiet down.

No unnecessary movements.

Not a hint of hesitation.

The angle, force, and depth of every cut were precise to the millimeter level.

A piece of frost crystal stone was cleanly stripped from the ice wall without any loss.

Then the second piece.

The third.

The tenth.

The speed got faster and faster, but the precision did not drop at all.

Like an assembly line.

No, more precise than an assembly line.

An assembly line is a machine.

They are humans.

But their precision exceeded machines.

Because machines only need to run for a few years before they are phased out.

They had been running for a hundred years.

A hundred years of repetition had carved every movement into their bones.

Ji Wushuang watched for a long time.

Then she said one sentence.

The voice was very soft.

So soft that only Qin Ziyan next to her heard it.

"I used to think that people without powerful Superpowers couldn't survive in the Apocalypse."

Qin Ziyan glanced at her.

Ji Wushuang didn't continue.

But Qin Ziyan understood.

She was also a soldier.

She knew that true strength is not smashing a mountain with one punch.

It is living in a desperate situation for a hundred years and still being able to maintain this level of precision.

When the collection was about halfway done.

The ice cave shook once.

Everyone stopped their movements at the same time.

The second time.

The third time.

Rhythmic.

Like a heartbeat.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Every vibration came up from the soles of their feet, crawling all the way up the spine to the back of the head.

Not an earthquake.

Earthquakes are chaotic and disorderly.

This vibration had rhythm.

Had breath.

Had life.

Ling Shuanghan's expression changed instantly.

This was the second time she changed her expression today.

The first time was the surprise when she saw the frost crystal stone.

This time it was fear.

No, not fear.

Ling Shuanghan would not feel fear.

She had seen everything in a hundred years.

This was—

Vigilance.

The highest level of vigilance.

"Stop collecting."

Her voice was not loud, but every word was like a nail driven into the air.

"All personnel retreat. Now."

The 12 Female Warriors put away their tools within 0.5 seconds, shouldered the collected frost crystal stone, and turned to line up.

No one asked why.

No one hesitated.

An order is an order.

In the Everwinter World, hesitating for a second means death.

Ji Wushuang did not move.

She stared into the depths of the ice cave.

The vibration grew stronger.

Cracks began to appear on the ice wall.

A kind of light shone through the cracks.

Not the pale blue of the frost crystal stone.

It was a deeper, more ancient blue.

Like the color of the deepest part of the ocean.

Like the color of the farthest part of the starry sky.

Like the color of time itself.

"What is down there?" Ji Wushuang asked.

Ling Shuanghan had already reached the entrance of the passage.

She turned back and glanced at Ji Wushuang.

"In the Everwinter World, this kind of vibration means there is a Frost-Sealed Beast deep in the ice sheet. Not those fist-sized Ice Frost Evolved Body outside. It is a giant existence formed after being completely swallowed by the frost curse."

"How big?"

"The largest one I have ever seen swallowed a city."

Ji Wushuang fell silent for a second.

"A city?"

"Yes. Including city walls and residents, in one bite."

Ji Wushuang fell silent for another second.

Then she turned and followed the team.

She wasn't afraid.

She had made a judgment—

Something that can swallow a city is not something she can fight right now.

It's not that she can't beat it.

It's that there's no point in fighting it.

Even if she turned her Nanming Li Fire to maximum power.

To a city-sized Frost-Sealed Beast, it would probably be like being bitten by a mosquito.

The mosquito is very brave.

But mosquitoes don't bite elephants.

Because mosquitoes have brains.

The retreat was three times faster than the descent.

Ling Shuanghan's Frost Emperor Domain operated at full power, forming a moving protective shield around the team.

The vibration continued.

But it did not catch up.

That thing did not wake up.

It just turned over.

Just like a sleeping giant being bitten by a mosquito, it turned over and went back to sleep.

The mosquitoes ran away.

Ran very fast.

When the team crawled out of the passage onto the ice surface, standing again on the minus 155-degree surface, everyone let out a sigh of relief.

The minus 155-degree cold wind hit their faces.

They had never felt the surface wind to be so welcoming.

Ling Shuanghan counted the supplies.

About 200 kilograms of frost crystal stone.

Enough to use.

At least enough for the Shelter to survive the first wave of the Frost Tide.

She glanced at the ice surface beneath her feet.

The ice surface was very calm.

The vibration had stopped.

That thing had fallen asleep again.

But it was there.

Right beneath their feet.

Hundreds of meters beneath the ice sheet.

A being that can swallow a city.

Sleeping.

Ji Wushuang walked to Ling Shuanghan's side.

"What exactly is down there?"

Ling Shuanghan did not answer.

Her hands were in her pockets.

Ji Wushuang did not see—

The hands in her pockets were trembling slightly.

For a hundred years.

Ling Shuanghan's hands had never trembled.

Never trembled when raising her sword.

Never trembled when killing.

Never trembled when watching over seven hundred subordinates die in front of her.

But now they were.

Because she recognized that blue light.

That was not the light of an ordinary Frost-Sealed Beast.

That deep, ancient blue, she had only seen in one place.

The deepest part of the Everwinter World.

The place where her father died.

Ling Shuanghan withdrew her gaze and turned to walk towards the Shelter.

"Go back."

She said.

"Give the supplies to Lin Yuan."

The wind and snow howled behind her.

The 200 kilograms of frost crystal stone emitted a faint blue glow in the Female Warriors' backpacks.

Like a gift from the underground world to the surface.

But hidden beneath the gift was a sleeping nightmare.

And the nightmare's heartbeat was still continuing.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.