341: Chapter 341 Seeing Shen Bingtong again in this way!

It was the third day since the Northern Border Army merged into the Shelter.

The weather forecast—

If the Apocalypse still had weather forecasts—it would probably go like this:

Today, in the ice field region, strong winds, blizzards, visibility less than one meter, high temperature of minus 178 degrees, low temperature: please pray for yourselves.

The super blizzard began at 2:00 AM.

Without any warning.

One second, the ice field was just experiencing ordinary cold winds.

The next second, the wind speed shot straight up to 80 meters per second.

What is the concept of 80 meters per second?

A Category 12 typhoon has a wind speed of 32.7 meters per second.

80 meters per second is roughly two and a half typhoons piled together.

And the temperature of these two and a half typhoons is minus 178 degrees.

The Shelter's Core Zone stood firm.

After the frost crystal stone modification was completed, the insulation performance of the Core Zone had reached an abnormal level.

Outside, it was minus 178 degrees.

Inside, it was 18 degrees.

The temperature difference was nearly 200 degrees.

Chu Yanran was even cooking in the kitchen with the window open—

Of course, it wasn't a real window, but a ventilation duct.

But that composed demeanor made it seem like she was just spending an ordinary winter.

The Outer City wasn't as fortunate.

The Origin Ember heating devices began to overload in the minus 178-degree environment.

The temperature dropped from zero all the way down to minus 10 degrees.

Minus 10 degrees.

For people who had lived on the ice field at minus 170 degrees for so long, minus 10 degrees was already considered "warm."

But for the Outer City residents who had just adapted to living at zero degrees—

This ten-degree temperature difference was like someone snatching away the quilt they had just tucked themselves into.

Zhou Tiezhu was wrapped in three layers of thermal clothing.

He ran back and forth in the Outer City, arranging for people to gather in the warmest areas.

His lips were frozen purple, but his voice remained loud and clear.

"Everyone squeeze to the middle! Don't spread out! Keep each other warm with your body heat!"

Over two hundred men squeezed together to keep warm.

The scene didn't look very good.

But they could survive.

The military zone was even worse off.

Zhao Tieshan's tents and armored vehicles were like paper in the face of the blizzard.

Seven or eight tents were torn apart by the wind.

The metal shells of the armored vehicles became brittle in the extreme cold, and the doors of two vehicles cracked directly from the freezing.

Zhao Tieshan stood in the blizzard for ten minutes and did something he had never done in his thirty years as a soldier—

Asking others for help.

He contacted Su Yuyan via walkie-talkie.

"I can't hold out here. I need support."

Su Yuyan forwarded the message to Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan's reply was quick.

"Have Lan Xin send a batch of Intelligent Building Modules over."

He paused.

"Dead people are useless. Only the living can work."

When this sentence reached Zhao Tieshan's ears, he didn't know whether to be touched or to smile bitterly.

What was touching was: Lin Yuan was indeed saving his people.

What was bitter was: The reason for saving them was "only the living can work."

Not because of sympathy.

Not because of morality.

It was because—you still have utility value.

Lan Xin arrived at the military zone in the blizzard with the Intelligent Building Modules.

She was wearing the Shelter's standard cold-weather gear, walking steadily in the 80-meter-per-second wind.

It was as if she were out for a stroll.

She pressed three buttons.

The silver-gray cubes began to deform.

Forty minutes later, a reinforced wall had appeared around the perimeter of the military zone.

The wind was blocked.

The temperature rose from "dying" back to "still holding on."

Zhao Tieshan watched Lan Xin's back disappear into the blizzard and remained silent for a long time.

A problem that his 1,500 soldiers had scrambled to solve for two hours in the blizzard—

A woman, three buttons, forty minutes.

Solved.

...

The blizzard lasted until the next afternoon.

Qin Ziyan's Special Operations Team was still patrolling in such weather.

Not because they weren't afraid of the cold.

It was because Qin Ziyan did not allow any weather to become an excuse for laziness.

"A blizzard is the enemy's best cover," she said. "The more it is like this, the less we can let our guard down."

The Special Operations Team members moved forward with difficulty in the wind and snow.

Visibility was less than one meter.

They relied on Qin Ziyan's Perception Ability and their tacit understanding of each other.

Three in the afternoon.

Two kilometers south of the Shelter.

Qin Ziyan suddenly stopped.

"Someone."

The Special Operations Team members immediately entered combat mode.

"One person," Qin Ziyan added. "No hostility. Vital signs are very weak."

They searched in the wind and snow for five minutes.

Then they found her.

A woman.

Lying in the snow.

Her body was covered in a thin layer of ice.

The thin ice shimmered faintly in the blizzard, like a layer of transparent armor.

Qin Ziyan squatted down and reached out to check her pulse.

There was one.

Very weak.

But it was there.

"Bring her back."

The Special Operations Team carried her back to the Shelter.

Medical Zone.

Ye Qingyue's first reaction upon seeing this woman was to frown.

Not because of the injuries.

Because of the body temperature.

28 degrees.

A normal person's body temperature is 36.5 degrees.

Below 35 degrees is hypothermia.

Below 30 degrees, the heart can stop at any time.

28 degrees—

At this temperature, a normal person would already be dead.

But she was still alive.

Heartbeat stable.

Breathing steady.

It was as if 28 degrees wasn't "near death" for her, but "normal."

Ye Qingyue performed a more detailed examination.

Then she discovered a second anomaly.

This woman had no symptoms of the frost curse on her body.

A minus 178-degree blizzard.

Walking alone.

No cold-weather gear—she was wearing an ordinary gray coat, as thin as paper.

Under these conditions, the infection rate of the frost curse is one hundred percent.

But her body was clean.

Not a single symptom.

Ye Qingyue reported the examination results to Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan arrived at the Medical Zone.

He stood in front of the hospital bed, looking at that face.

Long black hair spread out on the pillow.

The skin was very white.

Not that kind of sickly pallor.

It was a natural, cold-toned white.

Like marble.

The features were cold and clear.

Well-defined contours.

Even in a coma, there was an aloof temperament between her brows.

Lin Yuan looked for three seconds.

95 points.

The system score popped up automatically in his mind.

It was her.

Shen Bingtong.

The person who left first when Ling Shuanghan disbanded the team.

Lin Yuan did not speak.

He pulled up a chair and sat beside the hospital bed.

Wait.

He was very good at waiting.

About two hours later.

Shen Bingtong woke up.

Her first action upon opening her eyes was not to look at the surrounding environment.

Not to ask "Where am I."

Not to say "Thank you for saving me."

Her first action was—

Her fingers curled slightly.

As if ready to fight at any moment.

This was an instinct.

An instinct that only someone who had survived alone on the ice field for a long time would have.

First, confirm the threat.

Then confirm other things.

Then she saw Lin Yuan.

Sitting in a chair.

The posture was very relaxed.

Holding a cup of hot mineral water in his hand.

The vigilance receded a little.

But it didn't fully let down.

Her light gray eyes looked at Lin Yuan.

The color of those eyes was very special.

Not blue, not green.

It was gray.

A pale gray.

Like the winter sky.

Like the fog on the ice field.

Lin Yuan spoke.

"How were you in the blizzard?"

Shen Bingtong was silent for a few seconds.

"I was looking for a place."

Lin Yuan: "Found it?"

Shen Bingtong's gaze swept around the Medical Zone.

Warm lights.

Clean bedding.

There was a faint scent of herbs in the air.

And—steam from hot water.

She looked at the cup of hot water Ye Qingyue handed over.

She reached out and took it.

Took a sip.

Her fingers lingered on the wall of the cup.

She was feeling the temperature.

As if she hadn't touched anything warm for a very, very long time.

"...I suppose."

She said.

The voice was very soft.

Carrying a kind of exhaustion that even she herself didn't notice.

Lin Yuan didn't press for more.

He wasn't the type of person who would press.

If you want to talk, he listens.

If you don't want to talk, he doesn't ask either.

This attitude made Shen Bingtong relax a little more.

She didn't like being questioned.

People who survived alone on the ice field didn't like being questioned.

Because the answers to most questions didn't sound good.

The door to the Medical Zone was pushed open.

Ling Shuanghan walked in.

Her footsteps stopped the moment she saw Shen Bingtong.

About half a second.

Then she continued walking forward.

But that half-second pause had already explained everything.

She recognized this woman.

Shen Bingtong also recognized Ling Shuanghan.

The two looked at each other.

No greeting.

No small talk.

No "long time no see."

Nothing at all.

When Ling Shuanghan disbanded the team, Shen Bingtong was the first to leave.

No hesitation.

No looking back.

She left more decisively than anyone.

Now they were under the same roof again.

But the atmosphere didn't feel like a reunion.

It felt more like two former colleagues running into each other at a supermarket.

"Oh, you're here too."

"Yeah."

Then each went their own way.

That was probably the feeling.

...

Shen Bingtong rested for half a day.

Half a day later, she took the initiative to find Lin Yuan.

Not in the command room.

In the hallway.

Lin Yuan had just come out of Chu Yanran's kitchen, holding a bowl of soup.

Shen Bingtong stood at the corner of the hallway, as if she had been waiting for a while.

"I have something to tell you."

Lin Yuan glanced at her.

"Speak."

"I saw a city deep in the ice field."

Lin Yuan held the soup, not putting it down.

"A moving city."

Shen Bingtong said.

"It wasn't built by humans. It moves on the ice field, very slowly. But where it passes, the temperature drops below minus 300 degrees."

Minus 300 degrees.

This number made Lin Yuan's hand holding the soup pause.

Minus 273.15 degrees is absolute zero—the lowest temperature that matter can theoretically reach.

Minus 300 degrees had already broken through the limits of physics.

This was not a natural phenomenon.

This was a supernatural phenomenon.

"How big?" Lin Yuan asked.

Shen Bingtong thought for a moment.

"I was watching from ten kilometers away."

She paused.

"It occupied half the horizon."

Half the horizon.

Occupying half the horizon from ten kilometers away.

That was at least a volume of dozens of kilometers.

A moving Ice City dozens of kilometers in size.

Moving slowly on the ice field.

The temperature dropping to minus 300 degrees where it passed.

Lin Yuan took a sip of soup.

The soup was still hot.

Delicious.

His expression did not change at all.

"What's inside?"

Shen Bingtong's eyes flickered slightly at this moment.

Very subtle.

But Lin Yuan caught it.

"There are things moving inside the Ice City. Not Evolved Beasts. I can't explain what they are."

She paused for a moment.

"But it made me feel fear."

She paused again.

"I have never felt fear for anything."

This sentence carried a lot of weight.

A woman who could walk alone in a minus 178-degree blizzard and survive with a body temperature of 28 degrees—

Said she felt fear.

What exactly was that thing?

Lin Yuan didn't press for more.

He finished the soup.

"Let's go, talk in the command room."

In the command room.

Ling Shuanghan, Luo Qinghan, Ye Qingxue, Qin Ziyan.

Shen Bingtong recounted the story of the moving Ice City again.

When Ling Shuanghan heard the words "moving Ice City," her face changed.

Not a slight change.

It was a drastic change.

Her face lost all color within a second.

"Frost Coffin."

Her voice was very low.

So low it sounded like it was squeezed out from between her teeth.

"In the Everwinter World, we call it the Frost Coffin."

Everyone looked at her.

"That is the marker left behind by the cleanser," Ling Shuanghan said. "Wherever it appears, the cleansing begins."

Cleansing.

This word had appeared many times in Ling Shuanghan's mouth.

Every time it appeared, it was accompanied by shadows in the depths of her eyes.

But this time, the shadows were deeper.

Luo Qinghan's reaction was more intense than Ling Shuanghan's.

Her hands were trembling.

Not from the cold.

It was fear.

Luo Qinghan was a Reborn Person.

She had seen the future of the Blue Star.

Seen the endgame of the Apocalypse.

Seen the destruction of human civilization.

But her expression at this moment was more terrified than when she recalled those scenes.

"It's not the cleanser," she said.

Her voice was trembling.

"It's more... than the cleanser."

She took a deep breath.

"That was the last thing I saw in my previous life's memories before the Blue Star was destroyed."

The command room went quiet.

Completely quiet.

Even the sound of breathing disappeared.

Ye Qingxue stood behind Lin Yuan, her fingers slightly clenched.

Qin Ziyan's hand was unconsciously pressed on the weapon at her waist.

Shen Bingtong leaned against the wall, her light gray eyes expressionless.

But her fingers were curling slightly.

It was that gesture again.

The gesture of being ready to fight at any moment.

Lin Yuan was the only one who didn't change.

He sat in the chair.

His posture was the same as before.

His expression was the same as before.

He asked two questions.

"Direction?"

Shen Bingtong: "Moving from the northwest, roughly towards the southeast."

"Speed?"

"About five kilometers a day."

Lin Yuan calculated in his mind.

Northwest to southeast.

Five kilometers a day.

If the route didn't change—

In about 60 days, it would pass through the area where the Shelter was located.

"Two months," Lin Yuan said.

Luo Qinghan looked at him.

"Enough."

Luo Qinghan: "Enough for what?"

Lin Yuan: "Enough for me to prepare."

He turned to Ling Shuanghan.

"You've seen the Frost Coffin in the Everwinter World. Does it have any weaknesses?"

Ling Shuanghan was silent for three seconds.

"We have never fought it. Everyone who tried to approach the Frost Coffin died."

Lin Yuan: "Then that just means no one has tried the correct method."

This sentence made Ling Shuanghan freeze for a moment.

One hundred years.

Humans in the Everwinter World had coexisted with the Frost Coffin for one hundred years.

In one hundred years, no one had defeated it.

No one had approached it.

No one had returned from its side alive.

And Lin Yuan said—"No one has tried the correct method."

It seemed like a hundred years of fear was just a methodological problem in his mouth.

Lin Yuan stood up.

His tone was as flat as usual.

As if he were talking about what to have for lunch today.

"Do what you need to do. The blizzard hasn't stopped yet, handle the matters at hand first. We'll talk about the Ice City in two months."

He walked toward the door.

Ji Wushuang poked half her head out from behind the door frame.

She had clearly overheard the whole thing.

"So... that Ice City is huge, right?"

Lin Yuan: "Yeah."

Ji Wushuang's eyes lit up.

"How much stuff can it hold?"

Everyone looked at her.

Ling Shuanghan looked at her as if she were looking at an extraterrestrial creature.

Luo Qinghan looked at her as if she were looking at a lunatic.

Ye Qingxue looked at her as if she were looking at an ignorant child.

Qin Ziyan didn't look at her—she was already used to it.

Shen Bingtong's gaze...

A bit confused.

She didn't understand why someone's first reaction after hearing about "the last thing seen before the Blue Star was destroyed" was to ask "how much stuff can it hold."

Ji Wushuang was stared at by six pairs of eyes and shrank her neck.

"What? I was just asking."

The corners of Lin Yuan's mouth moved slightly.

A very small arc.

"Good idea."

Ji Wushuang's eyes lit up even more.

"But don't think about stocking up for now."

Ji Wushuang's eyes dimmed again.

She pouted and retreated behind the door frame.

The sound of her footsteps fading away came from the hallway.

And a mumble.

"Dozens of kilometers large Ice City... how many good things must be in there..."

In the command room, everyone was silent for two seconds.

Then Qin Ziyan sighed softly.

"She's always like this."

Lin Yuan didn't comment.

He walked out of the command room.

The blizzard was still raging outside.

The sound of the wind was like the howling of wild beasts.

Two months.

60 days.

Enough.

He didn't know what the Frost Coffin was.

Didn't know what the cleanser was.

Didn't know what the last thing to appear before the Blue Star was destroyed was.

But he knew one thing—

Two months of time was enough for him to turn the unknown into the known.

Turn the known into preparation.

Turn preparation into response.

Lin Yuan returned to his room.

Closed the door.

Outside the window was the white, vast blizzard.

Inside the window was 23 degrees of warmth.

He lay on the bed.

Closed his eyes.

Today's information load was a bit heavy.

Super blizzard.

Shen Bingtong.

Moving Ice City.

Frost Coffin.

cleanser.

Blue Star destruction.

But Lin Yuan's heartbeat was always 72 beats per minute.

Not faster.

Not slower.

He fell asleep.

Fell asleep very quickly.

About three minutes.

The scarcest ability in the Apocalypse was not Superpower.

Not supplies.

Not military force.

It was being able to fall asleep within three minutes after knowing the sky was about to collapse.

Lin Yuan had this ability.