151: Chapter 151 Unable to Get Out

The blizzard suddenly slammed down after nightfall.

The Third Princess spread out the inventory list of today's purchased supplies by the permafrost wall, checking them item by item.

Zhou Jinglan sat on the other side of the charcoal brazier, gently tapping his palm with a folding fan.

Lu Mingyuan leaned against the innermost corner.

The first batch of hail slammed onto the permafrost roof of the dome house.

Xie Feng and Tu Ziguan thought it was thunder.

The ice pellets grew denser and denser, turning from a muffled sound like thunder into a roar like ten thousand horses galloping; every dome house in the entire Irkut City-State trembled slightly under the bombardment of the hail.

The snow outside mixed with rain and was blown into ice by the wind of the Northern Wasteland.

Slamming onto the ground, it kicked up a flurry of debris, leaving a vast expanse of white outside where nothing could be seen clearly.

The Imperial Guards propped up a Spiritual Qi barrier outside. A Cultivator's barrier could withstand the frontal impact of a residential-level anomaly within the borders of the Nine Provinces.

"What kind of snow is this?"

Xie Feng heard the barrier emitting an extremely faint and dense sizzling sound.

The structure of the barrier was being slowly infiltrated, stripped away, and dissolved by something.

Xie Feng pushed open the door, and an intensely fierce and freezing wind wrapped in ice pellets slammed head-on into his Face. His Spiritual Qi perception pushed out against the snow, touching only a white expanse of Chaos.

The Imperial Guards' Spiritual Qi barrier flickered uncertainly in the blizzard, its edges growing brittle.

Tu Ziguan stood at the doorway with his mouth open in a daze.

"A Cultivator's Spiritual Qi can't even block a snowstorm?"

The Third Princess stood behind him, folded the supply list, and tucked it into her bosom, her gaze looking out over his shoulder.

A few local residents were running through the blizzard with hunched bodies, their thick leather robes covered in a layer of ice crust, but their footsteps were fast and powerful.

They were very accustomed to this kind of weather.

A middle-aged man wearing a grayish-brown thick leather robe walked over with a hunched waist against the wind and snow, standing outside the Spiritual Qi barrier.

"Respected traveling merchants! Lord City Master sent me to pass along a message. This year's north wind season is at least a month earlier than previous years, and this blizzard will last for at least several days. The trails on the tundra will be sealed by ice, and no caravan can leave."

As he spoke, he fished out a few extremely rough parchment papers from his bosom.

"To express our apologies, please take a look—this is the City Master's sincerity, storage vouchers for several top-quality white fox pelts as a small compensation. You all can just stay in the city for a few more days."

Zhou Jinglan stood at the doorway and cupped his hands: "Thank you for the City Master's good intentions, but our schedule is pressing. Since the supplies are already prepared, we will not disturb you any longer."

The middle-aged man wanted to say more, but Zhou Jinglan had already slightly bowed his body. His movements were polite, but his tone left no room for negotiation.

"We shall part ways here."

Xie Feng also trusted the judgment of this person gazed upon by the Yellow Robe. If they didn't leave just because of the weather and ended up getting backstabbed later, that would be the height of stupidity.

Just like the protagonists in horror movies who insisted on exploring some abandoned house.

Xie Feng poked the cold crystal blind staff against the permafrost and stepped into the blizzard.

As soon as his figure stepped across the Spiritual Qi barrier, the blizzard instantly covered his cloak with an extremely thin and uniform layer of ice crust.

Fortunately, he didn't need to worry about the problem of hypothermia; the sun on his chest was slowly radiating heat.

Moreover, he felt that the blind staff in his hand was jumping with joy; the Lord of Ice and Flame seemed to really like this feeling.

The three-lobed pupils of his left eye twisted around in the darkness of the blizzard, and the Face beneath the veil turned to Face the few people still standing blankly at the doorway of the house.

"Let's go, you little Lin Chongs."

The Imperial Guards gave up on propping up the barrier, instead using Spiritual Qi to condense a layer of form-fitting protective shield on their bodies.

The wind whipped ice pellets into Xie Feng's hood, and he stumbled as he walked through the blizzard. The trails on the tundra beneath his feet had been sealed by the ice layer, and every step felt like stepping on broken glass.

The wind had completely sealed the snow pellets into the surface layer of the permafrost, and the ground was so solid that even hail couldn't smash a pit into it.

Although others couldn't see clearly, Xie Feng's eyes were still very powerful. The three eyeballs rotated within their sockets, staring closely outside.

Then Xie Feng's eyes touched upon that footprint.

Huge, with five separated toes, slanting in from the depths of the tundra.

"I knew it. When I heard the name of your city back then, I didn't mishear. Irkut? It should be Ithaqua, right?"

Ithaqua.

Aliases: "Wind-Walker", "Walking Death", "The Great White Silence", "The God Who Must Not Be Seen on Totems".

One of the Great Old Ones of the Far North.

Ithaqua's footsteps sounded as loud as muffled thunder, often heard in the quiet winter nights, and huge footprints would subsequently be found in the snow. The distance between footprints was usually about half a mile.

Therefore, Xie Feng's judgment speed was extremely fast; a single footprint had exposed this entity.

This was the terror of a veteran.

Xie Feng was now thinking that if his group went out and ran into this God of Death, it might let them go.

The reason was very simple; this entity had a subordinate relationship with Hastur.

Those two brothers had a good relationship; perhaps it would give some Face to His Excellency.

Xie Feng stopped and looked back.

In the wind and snow, the Irkut City-State only had a few extremely dim and weak lights left.

No one chased out, but Xie Feng knew that those residents must be standing inside the low wall, silently, neatly, staring with those eyes that didn't need to be squinted in the blizzard at this group of disobedient outsiders.

Xie Feng and the others turned around and continued walking forward. The blizzard wrapped in ice pellets slammed onto the veil, onto the cloak, and onto every depression poked by the tip of the cold crystal blind staff.

That string of huge footprints continuously appeared not far off to the right, maintaining a fixed distance from them, as if something was unhurriedly following this group of people hurrying through the snowstorm.

"Wait a moment!"

Tu Ziguan and the Third Princess behind him were just about to leave the city when the Third Princess suddenly clutched her heart area and fell backward.

Zhou Jinglan was quick-eyed and quick-handed, catching his younger sister in a single grasp.

"The thing inside her has reacted?"

Xie Feng looked back, his three eyes gazing intensely. There really was something throbbing inside the Third Princess.

"This Princess is fine."

The Third Princess tightly clutched her chest, leaning on her older brother.

What did this mean? Could it be that the thing inside the Third Princess was related to Ithaqua, and the thing inside her was left behind by the Wind-Walker?

The Wind-Walker wasn't far from the Northern Continent either; it might very well have been left behind by Him.

Now it really wouldn't be easy to leave.

If this bizarre and terrifying snowstorm didn't stop, the time that their Spiritual Qi could support them would also be extremely limited.

Moreover, looking back at the Third Princess's state, although she was trying her utmost to persist, without Zhou Jinglan supporting her from the side, she wouldn't even be able to stand.

Now there were two paths before them.

Insist on leaving the city, but the nearest town from here would require a very long time to walk.

Furthermore, pushing forward against a blizzard of this scale made it almost impossible to discern directions.

Zhou Jinglan made a prompt and decisive choice.

Choosing the second path: temporarily return to the city first.

We'll meet whatever comes our way.

No matter what moves the other side wanted to make, staying together now was still better than going out.

The situation outside was even harder to judge; at least inside the city, everyone could maintain stability.