346: Chapter 346 Eternal Winter Alloy

After the wall repairs were finished, everyone retreated to the Shelter.

Ling Shuanghan walked at the very back.

Her steps were steady.

Her back was held very straight.

Her breathing was even.

She looked no different than usual.

But Lin Yuan, walking beside her, noticed a detail.

Her left hand.

It was kept inside her pocket.

Ling Shuanghan never kept her hands in her pockets.

She was a soldier.

A soldier of one hundred years.

A soldier's hands must be ready to draw a weapon at any moment; they are not meant to be kept in pockets.

Unless—

She didn't want others to see that hand.

When they reached the corridor of the Core Zone, Ling Shuanghan's footsteps faltered.

Very briefly.

So briefly that even Qin Ziyan, who was following behind, didn't notice.

But Lin Yuan noticed.

He reached out and held Ling Shuanghan's arm.

Ling Shuanghan stopped.

"I am fine."

Lin Yuan did not let go.

"Your hand is shaking."

Ling Shuanghan looked down at her left hand.

She pulled her hand out of her pocket.

Her fingers were trembling slightly.

It wasn't from the cold.

It was a symptom of Spiritual Power overdraft.

Maintaining the Frost Emperor Domain for four hours.

In a blizzard of minus 195 degrees.

Covering the entire repair area.

This level of consumption was nearing the limit, even for an Ability User of her level.

Ling Shuanghan looked at her trembling fingers and fell silent for two seconds.

She did not say "I am fine" again.

Because her hand was shaking.

That was a fact.

In the face of facts, being stubborn was pointless.

Ye Qingyue arrived.

She performed a quick check-up on Ling Shuanghan.

The results were not good.

"Excessive consumption of Spiritual Power."

Ye Qingyue's expression was very serious.

"You need at least 48 hours of absolute rest. During this time, you cannot use any Superpower."

She glanced at Ling Shuanghan.

"Any. Including the most basic sensory Superpowers. Otherwise, it may cause permanent damage."

Ling Shuanghan frowned.

48 hours without using Superpowers.

For her, this was even more uncomfortable than going 48 hours without eating.

Superpowers were a part of her.

Just like her eyes and ears.

Asking her to turn off her Superpowers was equivalent to covering her eyes and plugging her ears.

"Go to my place to rest," Lin Yuan said.

Ling Shuanghan looked at him.

"The frost crystal stone concentration is highest in my quarters in the Core Zone. The recovery effect will be the best."

This was a reasonable justification.

A justification based purely on efficiency.

Ling Shuanghan wanted to refuse.

She opened her mouth.

Lin Yuan: "This is an order."

Ling Shuanghan closed her mouth.

She was stunned for a moment.

One hundred years.

For one hundred years, no one had dared to order her around.

After her father died, she became the highest military commander in the Everwinter World.

Everyone listened to her orders.

No one gave her orders.

Until now.

A man nearly a hundred years younger than her said in an unquestionable tone:

"This is an order."

Ling Shuanghan looked into Lin Yuan's eyes.

There was no room for negotiation in those eyes.

She suddenly found it a bit amusing.

Not mocking.

It was a feeling she hadn't experienced in a long time—being managed by someone else.

"Fine."

One word.

Crisp and decisive.

Ye Qingyue watched this scene from the side and silently packed up her medical kit.

She felt as if she had seen something incredible.

But she was smart enough to choose not to say anything.

...

Late at night.

One o'clock in the morning.

Lin Yuan's room.

Ling Shuanghan was lying on the bed.

She couldn't sleep.

One of the side effects of Spiritual Power overdraft!

Her brain was abnormally active, unable to enter a normal state of sleep.

Images kept flashing through her mind.

Fragmented images.

Images of the Everwinter World.

The military flag of the Seventh Legion when they set out.

Her father's back as he stood on the city wall.

The moment the sky turned silver when the cleansers descended.

Of the three-thousand-man rearguard unit, fewer than two hundred returned.

Shen Ruobing did not return.

Many people did not return.

It had been one hundred years.

She thought she had forgotten these images.

But the Spiritual Power overdraft had dug them all up.

It was like opening a dusty box.

The box was filled with things she didn't want to see.

Lin Yuan was sitting at the table on the other side of the room.

He was processing documents.

Progress reports on defense construction. Lists of material consumption. Staff schedules.

He did not leave.

Ling Shuanghan did not ask why he hadn't left.

He did not explain either.

The two of them just stayed like that.

One lying on the bed with her eyes open.

One sitting at the table flipping through documents.

Occasionally, Lin Yuan would stand up and pour her a cup of hot water.

Place it on the bedside table.

Then return to continue reading documents.

No talking.

No asking "Are you okay?"

No asking "Do you need anything?"

Just pouring water. Placing it down. Returning.

Ling Shuanghan felt that this man was sometimes like a machine.

A precise machine with no unnecessary movements.

But a machine wouldn't pour hot water for someone at one o'clock in the morning.

When the third cup of water was placed down, Ling Shuanghan spoke.

"How are you able to do it?"

Lin Yuan's hand, flipping through documents, paused.

"Do what?"

Ling Shuanghan looked at the ceiling.

"Keep so many people alive."

Her voice was very soft.

"I have fought for one hundred years. The number of people I have protected has become fewer and fewer. From one hundred thousand to ten thousand, from ten thousand to one thousand, from one thousand to sixty."

Sixty.

Of the people she brought out of the Everwinter World, only sixty remained.

"You have been here for less than a year. Eight thousand people. Not a single one is missing."

Lin Yuan thought for a moment.

"None were missing when repairing the wall today either."

Ling Shuanghan: "Hmm."

Lin Yuan: "Because I am not doing it alone."

Ling Shuanghan turned her head and looked at him.

This answer was too simple.

So simple it sounded like a perfunctory response.

But she knew it wasn't.

Because it was the truth.

He was indeed not doing it alone.

Ye Qingxue was coordinating.

Qin Ziyan was fighting.

Xia Muqing was researching.

Chu Yanran was cooking.

Su Yuyan was managing supplies.

Ling Shuanghan herself was repairing the wall.

...

Everyone was doing their own part.

And what Lin Yuan did was—

To let everyone be able to do their own part.

This sounded very simple.

But Ling Shuanghan had fought for one hundred years; she knew this was the hardest thing.

She stopped speaking.

The images in her mind were still flashing.

But they were not as dense as before.

Perhaps it was the effect of the hot water.

Perhaps it was something else.

...

Three o'clock in the morning.

Ling Shuanghan's body began to turn cold.

Not external cold.

There were frost crystal stones in the room, keeping the temperature constant at 22 degrees.

It was internal cold.

A cold seeping out from her bones.

Spiritual Power backlash.

When Spiritual Power consumption exceeds the limit, the body experiences a series of chain reactions.

Stage one: hand tremors.

Stage two: insomnia.

Stage three: internal hypothermia.

Ling Shuanghan had now entered the third stage.

Her body temperature was dropping.

From 36.5 degrees.

Dropping to 35 degrees.

34 degrees.

33 degrees.

Lin Yuan noticed.

Not because Ling Shuanghan told him.

It was because she began to curl up.

Ling Shuanghan never curled up.

Her sleeping posture was the same as her military stance—straight.

Now she was curled up.

Like a cat.

A cat shivering from the cold.

Lin Yuan walked over and placed his hand on her forehead.

Ice-cold.

He remembered what Ye Qingyue had said.

"If internal hypothermia occurs, it requires external energy injection to stabilize. It is best to use high-concentration Superpower energy, acting directly on the Spiritual Power core."

The authority fragment within Lin Yuan was the strongest energy source in this Shelter.

But energy conduction required close physical contact.

A very close distance.

Lin Yuan looked at Ling Shuanghan curled up on the bed.

Her lips had already started to turn white.

Her body temperature was still dropping.

32 degrees.

If it dropped any further, it would be dangerous.

This was not a decision that required hesitation.

Ling Shuanghan needed energy.

He had energy.

Conduction required contact.

Then he would make contact.

A simple logic chain.

He sat on the edge of the bed.

Ling Shuanghan opened her eyes.

Her eyes were somewhat unfocused—the Spiritual Power backlash had already begun to affect her consciousness.

But she saw clearly that it was Lin Yuan.

"Your body temperature is dropping."

Lin Yuan said. "It needs energy injection."

Ling Shuanghan was silent for two seconds.

She was a woman who had lived for one hundred and twenty-two years.

She knew very well what "energy injection" meant.

And she also knew very well what "close physical contact" meant.

She did not act coy.

One hundred and twenty-two years of life had taught her one thing—

In the face of life and death, reserve is the most useless thing.

But she said one thing.

"This doesn't mean anything."

Lin Yuan: "I know."

Both of them knew it very well.

This was a pragmatic decision.

Not romance.

Not impulse.

Not driven by emotion.

It was "You are going to die, I can save you, so I will save you."

Nothing more, nothing less.

Ling Shuanghan closed her eyes.

...

The energy of the authority fragment surged out from Lin Yuan's body.

Warm.

Not the physical warmth of frost crystal stones.

It was something deeper.

It was as if something had directly touched her soul.

Ling Shuanghan's Spiritual Power core began to stabilize, wrapped in the energy of the authority fragment.

Her body temperature rose.

33 degrees.

34 degrees.

35 degrees.

The fragments of memory churning in her mind slowly settled.

They hadn't disappeared.

They had been put in their place.

It was as if someone had helped her tidy up that overturned box and closed the lid.

Ling Shuanghan felt something she had never experienced before.

It wasn't warmth.

She had experienced warmth before. The warmth of frost crystal stone, the warmth of flames, the warmth of hot water.

This was different.

This was—

A sense of safety.

For the first time in one hundred and twenty-two years, she felt "safe."

Not "temporarily safe."

Not "no immediate danger."

It was a pure, irrational sense of safety that surged from the depths of her heart.

It was as if someone were saying: "It's okay. I'm here."

No one actually said those words.

But she heard them.

Something that had been frozen for a hundred years cracked at this moment.

It wasn't forcefully broken.

It melted naturally from within.

Like a river in spring.

No one went to smash it.

It melted on its own.

Because the temperature was right.

...

Early morning.

Seven o'clock.

When Ling Shuanghan woke up, her first sensation was—

Her hands were no longer shaking.

She raised her left hand and looked at it.

It was as steady as a piece of iron.

Her Spiritual Power had recovered by more than half.

Her body temperature was normal.

Her consciousness was clear.

Her physical condition was much better than expected—

Ye Qingyue said it would take 48 hours, but less than six hours had passed.

The energy of the authority fragment was more effective than any medicine.

She turned her head.

The other side of the bed was empty.

Lin Yuan was not there.

There was a glass of water on the bedside table.

It was warm.

Not hot, and not cold.

It was the perfect temperature to drink.

This meant he had left less than twenty minutes ago.

Because water poured twenty minutes ago would be exactly this temperature now.

Ling Shuanghan sat on the edge of the bed.

Looking at the smear of red on the sheets...

She was silent for a long time.

Her expression was complex.

It wasn't regret.

She never regretted any decision.

It wasn't shyness.

She had lived for one hundred and twenty-two years; she was long past the age of blushing.

It was a feeling she didn't quite understand herself.

It was as if something had been added to her body.

And as if something had been taken away.

The thing that was added, she couldn't quite say what it was.

The thing that was taken away, she knew—

It was distance.

The distance between her and Lin Yuan had decreased by a layer.

Before, when she looked at Lin Yuan, she saw a "leader worth following" and an "outstanding young man."

Now, she saw one more thing.

"Someone who made her willing to let down her guard."

This was not love.

Ling Shuanghan was certain.

She had lived for one hundred and twenty-two years and had seen too much life and death to fall in love with someone after just one night.

But this was trust.

Something rarer than love.

At least for her, that was the case.

She got dressed, tidied her hair, and walked out of the room.

In the hallway.

Ye Qingxue was walking toward her.

The two women met in the middle of the hallway.

Ye Qingxue glanced at Ling Shuanghan.

Ling Shuanghan glanced at Ye Qingxue.

Ye Qingxue said nothing.

She just gave a slight nod.

Ling Shuanghan also nodded.

The two passed each other.

Without a word.

But everything had been said.

Ye Qingxue knew what had happened.

Ling Shuanghan knew that Ye Qingxue knew.

Ye Qingxue knew that Ling Shuanghan knew that she knew.

But no one needed to say it out loud.

This was the unspoken understanding between women.

Words were unnecessary.

A single look was enough.

Ji Wushuang walked over from the other end of the hallway.

She saw the scene where Ye Qingxue and Ling Shuanghan passed each other.

She leaned over to Murong Xueer's ear and whispered:

"There's one more."

Murong Xueer glanced at her:

"Aren't you one of them too?"

Ji Wushuang puffed out her chest:

"I'm different. I'm a volunteer."

Murong Xueer: "...They are all volunteers."

Ji Wushuang opened her mouth, finding she couldn't refute that.

She decided to change the subject.

"What's for breakfast?"

Murong Xueer: "Chu Yanran said we're having millet porridge with pickles today."

Ji Wushuang's expression was worse than when she heard the Ice Coffin Society was attacking.

"I want to eat meat."

Murong Xueer: "Eating meat at seven in the morning?"

Ji Wushuang: "I can eat meat at any time."

Murong Xueer decided not to discuss this issue with her anymore.

...

Nine in the morning.

Command Room.

Lin Yuan looked at the system panel.

A line of text appeared on the panel.

【Collection Complete: Ling Shuanghan (Lev.1)】

【Unlocked Material: everwinter alloy (1 second / 1 kilogram)】

【everwinter alloy Properties: The lower the temperature, the higher the hardness. At -200 degrees, the hardness is five times that of alien alloys; at -300 degrees, it is ten times. Can fuse perfectly with frost crystal stone.】

Lin Yuan read the property description and was silent for three seconds.

Then he called a meeting.

Ten minutes later, the Command Room was full of people.

When Xia Muqing received the first batch of everwinter alloy samples, her reaction was—

She almost flipped the laboratory table.

"The lower the temperature, the higher the hardness?"

Her glasses were crooked.

"This violates every principle of materials science I know! Metals should become brittle at low temperatures! Why does this thing get harder the colder it gets? How does its crystal lattice structure manage that?"

No one answered her.

Because no one understood what she was talking about.

Lan Xin did understand.

She held the everwinter alloy sample, examined it for five minutes, and then said:

"I can use this to redesign the building modules."

A more critical discovery was made by Xia Muqing in the subsequent tests—

everwinter alloy can fuse perfectly with frost crystal stone.

The composite material after fusion can both retain heat and resist cold.

"These two materials are simply a match made in heaven," Xia Muqing said.

After saying this, she realized the remark was a bit subtle in the current context and quickly lowered her head to look at the data.

Lin Yuan approved the comprehensive upgrade plan.

All walls and buildings were to be replaced with the composite material of everwinter alloy and frost crystal stone.

The seven cracks that appeared in the blizzard yesterday would not appear again.

Ling Shuanghan's performance at the meeting was different from before.

Before, during meetings, she stood opposite Lin Yuan.

Today, she stood beside Lin Yuan.

Before, when Lin Yuan finished speaking, she would be silent.

Today, when Lin Yuan finished speaking, she added: "I agree."

Just two words.

But everyone present noticed.

Ye Qingxue said nothing.

She just, when arranging seats after the meeting,

Silently reserved a permanent seat for Ling Shuanghan at the long table in the Command Room.

On Lin Yuan's left side.

Ye Qingxue herself sat on the right side.

No one questioned this arrangement.

Because Ling Shuanghan's strength and contributions were evident.

After the meeting, Lin Yuan kept Shen Bingtong behind.

"I have a mission."

Shen Bingtong stood straight.

"Reconnaissance of the ice sheet within a five-kilometer radius of the Shelter. Terrain changes, distribution of Evolved Beast, location of ice cracks. Complete it within three days."

Shen Bingtong: "Equipment?"

Lin Yuan: "Communicator. Dagger. Is that enough?"

Shen Bingtong: "Enough."

She turned to leave.

Lin Yuan: "Not taking a cold-weather suit?"

Shen Bingtong stopped and looked back at him.

The meaning of that look was clear: Are you kidding me?

Lin Yuan: "Go."

Three days later, Shen Bingtong returned.

She brought back a detailed terrain report.

Terrain changes on the ice sheet around the Shelter. Distribution patterns of Evolved Beast. Locations and paths of ice cracks.

There was also an additional piece of intelligence—

40 kilometers to the northwest, there was an Ice Coffin Society outpost.

Stationed with about 200 people.

Lin Yuan finished reading the report.

"Not bad."

Shen Bingtong waited for two seconds.

"...Is that it?"

Lin Yuan: "'Not bad' is my highest praise."

Shen Bingtong looked at him.

She didn't know how to respond to this.

"Thank you" was too polite.

"Oh" was too cold.

"Your highest praise is too low" was too insolent.

She chose the safest way—she turned and left.

After walking out of the Command Room, the corners of her mouth twitched slightly.

Not a smile.

But close to a smile.

Very close.