116: Chapter 116 The Ice Storm Strikes

Lin Ye propped himself up with one hand and pulled half of his body out of the snow.

As soon as he stood up straight, a gust of wind mixed with ice shards slammed into his face.

The wind force was twice as strong as it had been on the giant vine.

It stung his face.

Lin Ye grabbed Zhao Mengmeng by the shoulder and hauled her out of the waist-deep snow pit.

Zhao Mengmeng tried to say something, but she swallowed a mouthful of cold wind and started coughing violently.

"Cough... This damn place is at least ten degrees colder than it was below."

She rubbed her stiff cheeks and looked around.

There were no living creatures. There was no color.

The terrain of the entire Floating Island was extremely rugged. Everywhere she looked, sharp rocks pierced straight through the snow layer.

Scattered between the rocks were giant dead trees, each thick enough to require several people to wrap their arms around.

The trunks were a carbonized grayish-black, and the crowns were twisted into bizarre angles.

There were no Blood Vines. There were no Pale Species.

There was only extreme cold and a deathly silence.

"There isn't even a bird."

Zhao Mengmeng's teeth began to chatter, and she tightened her grip on the wolf king pelt she was wearing.

"Brother Lin, we risked our lives to climb up here—surely it wasn't just to freeze to death in a higher place, right?"

Lin Ye wiped the frost from his eyebrows.

"Find shelter from the wind first. If we stand here, we won't last half an hour."

He had just taken a step when a dull, tearing sound suddenly erupted from the depths of the gray-black sky.

Boom—it wasn't thunder.

Lin Ye looked up sharply.

The clouds in the distance split open, and the grayish-white snow clouds turned a heavy, ink-black color.

A terrifying cyclone began to form at the base of the clouds.

Then, hundreds of grayish-white trails shot down from the clouds.

"Run!" Lin Ye roared.

Zhao Mengmeng instinctively followed Lin Ye as they sprinted toward the front-side.

Bang! A fist-sized chunk of ice slammed into the edge of the snow pit where they had just been standing.

The snow layer exploded, and sparks flew from the black rock underneath.

Bang, bang, bang, bang! Chunks of ice poured down.

This wasn't a snowstorm; it was the concentrated firepower of a heavy machine gun emplacement.

The violent wind accelerated the ice chunks to a terrifying degree.

The ice blocks left white trails as they frantically bombarded the ground.

"Holy crap!" Zhao Mengmeng caught a glimpse of a basketball-sized block of ice snapping a dead tree trunk as thick as a waist.

Wood chips flew everywhere.

"Run to the tree roots!"

Lin Ye locked his eyes on a spot a few dozen meters ahead where three giant dead trees had fallen and tangled together.

Their root systems had been ripped out of the ground and were pointing diagonally toward the sky, creating a natural triangular gap underneath.

The Great Xia Live Stream was flooded with comments.

[Is this hail? This is an orbital bombardment!]

[Out of the wolf's den and into the tiger's mouth! The natural disasters on this Level 4 Floating Island don't leave any way to survive!]

[If that hits someone, it's an instant headshot.]

[Brother Eye, run faster!]

The density of the ice storm grew greater and greater.

Lin Ye ran in front, raising his right arm as the Dark Weaver's mechanism engaged.

An anchor point fired toward the giant tree roots.

The engine retracted, pulling him forward into a sliding lunge.

As soon as he squeezed into the gap under the roots, he reached back and grabbed Zhao Mengmeng's backpack strap, hauling her in by force.

Boom! Almost simultaneously, a vat-sized ice rock slammed into the thick tree roots above their heads.

The entire giant tree groaned, and wood chips rained down, covering both of them.

Zhao Mengmeng fell at Lin Ye's feet, half her body still exposed outside.

Lin Ye kicked against the tree root, grabbed her shoulders with both hands, and pulled her inward with all his might.

A small piece of ice grazed past Zhao Mengmeng's heel.

A piece of leather was ripped right off her boot.

The two of them huddled into the triangular gap, pressed tightly against the freezing black soil.

The world outside had turned into a white purgatory.

Lin Ye sat in the innermost part, propping his backpack against his side.

This ice storm lasted for over ten minutes. The frequency of the bombardment finally began to decrease, turning into a gale mixed with fine ice particles.

Zhao Mengmeng leaned against the tree roots, curled up into a ball.

Although the wolf king pelt was windproof, under the pressure of the ice storm, the heat from her body was still being forcibly drained away.

Her joints started to refuse to obey her, and icicles hung from her eyelashes.

"Brother Lin..." Zhao Mengmeng's jaw was chattering uncontrollably. "I think... I can't feel my toes anymore."

Lin Ye glanced at her.

Zhao Mengmeng's lips had already turned from purple to white. This was a precursor to severe hypothermia.

If they froze stiff in a place like this, it would be impossible to stand up again.

"Don't start writing your will while you're still alive."

Lin Ye deftly pulled out a large bundle of tree-bark rope from his waist.

He threaded one end of the rope through his belt buckle and tied a knot.

He reached out, grabbed Zhao Mengmeng's belt, and fastened the other end around her waist.

Zhao Mengmeng's brain was a bit foggy, and she looked down at the rope connecting them.

"What are you doing..."

"Walking the dog." Lin Ye picked up the damaged Fire Axe from the ground. "Let's go."

Zhao Mengmeng was so angry she wanted to curse, but she could only squeeze out a few fragmented sounds.

"It's... still blowing outside..."

"If we wait for the wind to stop, we'll freeze to death first."

Lin Ye kicked away the snow blocking the gap and crawled out first.

The gale swept up, whipping his cloak until it snapped loudly.

Lin Ye waded forward two steps. The snow was deep, going straight over his knees, and every step required an immense amount of physical exertion.

The rope suddenly went taut.

Lin Ye didn't look back; he put force into his waist and gave a sharp tug forward.

Zhao Mengmeng, under the tree roots, was yanked by the immense force, stumbling two steps before being dragged into the snow.

"Move your legs."

Lin Ye's voice carried through the wind, devoid of any warmth.

"If you can't walk, I'll drag you. It's better to have a broken leg than to lose your life."

The netizens in the Great Xia Live Stream felt their eyes sting.

[Brother Eye's mouth is truly venomous, but his actions are truly manly.]

[At a time like this, any empty words are useless—you have to drag them along, even if it's by force, to keep them alive.]

[This scene makes me want to cry. With their waists tied together, they've tied their lives together.]

Lin Ye acted as a snow-breaker in front.

With every step he took, the handle of the Fire Axe would first probe the snow pit ahead to avoid cracks in the black rock.

Then, he would use his thighs to force his way through the snow.

Zhao Mengmeng followed behind. With the guidance of the rope, she only needed to step into the footprints Lin Ye had made and shuffle forward.

Although it saved effort, the cold air was still mercilessly draining her vitality.

"Brother Lin... where are we going?"

"To find a shell that doesn't leak wind."

In the wind and snow, the two figures moved very slowly. The footprints behind them were buried again in just a few seconds.

Lin Ye's right arm was still throbbing with pain from previous heavy use.

But his stride remained completely steady.

He began to blink his left eye at an extremely high frequency.

Amidst the blinding Red Tide of ice and snow, he filtered for lethal sources of danger.

Five minutes. Ten minutes.

Zhao Mengmeng's steps became heavier and heavier, until finally, she was almost hanging from the rope, being dragged forward by Lin Ye by force.

His left eye swept over a massive cluster of black rocks ahead.

Just below the side of the rock cluster, a faint green dot of light abruptly pierced through the screen of red light on his retina.

Lin Ye's footsteps paused. He had found it.

"Up ahead."

He lowered his body and dragged Zhao Mengmeng, speeding up.

Rounding a sharp black rock three stories high, the wind suddenly died down behind the rock face.

Lin Ye stopped. In front of him was a natural rock crevice.

The bottom of the crevice was about two meters wide, receding inward to form a very deep cave.

But the problem was that the entrance to the cave was sealed by a block of solid ice half a meter thick.

The ice surface was a deep, pale blue, with some dead branches and gravel vaguely frozen inside.

Zhao Mengmeng leaned against the black rock, looking at the ice wall with despair in her eyes.

"It's hopeless... You couldn't even blast this thing open with a cannon..."

"Shut up."

Lin Ye didn't untie the rope from his waist.

He strode up to the ice wall and gripped the handle of the damaged Fire Axe with both hands.

He planted his feet in the snow, his boot soles pressing firmly against a rock protrusion under the ice.

He inhaled. He sank his hips. His entire body's muscles tensed in an instant.

Bang! The chipped Fire Axe slammed viciously into the center of the ice wall.

Ice shards flew everywhere, and the axe blade sank in less than an inch.

The recoil traveled back along the handle, numbing the web of Lin Ye's thumb.

This amount of progress would be enough to make anyone break down under normal circumstances.

But Lin Ye didn't pause. He pulled out the axe. And smashed it again!

Bang! The same spot. There were no fancy tricks, only mechanical, heavy smashing.

The third axe! The fifth axe! The tenth axe!

As the twentieth strike landed, the ice wall finally emitted a dull cracking sound.

A white crack spread outward from the point of impact.

Lin Ye's breathing was rapid; the sweat on his forehead froze the moment it seeped out.

He stared fixedly at the crack. He gripped the bottom of the axe handle with his right hand and pushed forward with his left.

"Open, damn you!"

Lin Ye roared, and the Fire Axe slammed into the area with the densest cracks.

Crack—boom! The half-meter-thick solid ice shattered with a roar.

Large chunks of ice rock collapsed into the cave, crashing onto the ground.

A gap large enough for one person to crawl through while stooping was forcibly chiseled out.

A musty odor, different from the gale outside, drifted out from the depths of the cave entrance.

Lin Ye leaned on the axe handle, panting heavily for a few moments.

He turned his head and pulled the rope connecting them taut. "Go in."

Zhao Mengmeng scrambled after Lin Ye and crawled into the dark cave.

The sound of the wind and snow was blocked out behind the thick chunks of broken ice.