117: Chapter 117 Hardcore Awakening

The cave was oppressively dark.

After Lin Ye dragged Zhao Mengmeng through the gap, his first priority wasn't to catch his breath or sit down.

He swung his Fire Axe horizontally in front of him.

Outside, the wind and snow continued to batter the broken ice wall.

Fine ice particles poured in, crackling against the rock walls.

Zhao Mengmeng knelt on the ground, her head bobbing downward.

She was losing all responsiveness.

Lin Ye opened his left eye for a split second, then closed it.

Opened it again.

Closed it again.

The outline of the front section of the cave flickered intermittently on his retina.

Rock walls, the ground, broken ice, withered roots.

There was no mass of red light within his field of vision.

The area near the entrance was safe.

The depths of the cave remained dark; it was too far, and his mental energy consumption was too high to scan indiscriminately.

Lin Ye withdrew his gaze and kicked away a piece of ice that had rolled to his feet.

The ice chunk struck the rock wall and shattered into several pieces.

"Zhao Mengmeng."

There was no response.

Zhao Mengmeng knelt on the ground, the Wolf King pelt hanging loosely off her shoulders.

Her lips were terrifyingly pale.

The frost on her eyelashes hadn't melted yet.

Lin Ye threw his backpack onto the ground and reached out to untie the bark rope around their waists.

The knot had frozen stiff from the snowmelt, and he couldn't pull it loose with his fingers.

He drew his dagger and cut it.

Zhao Mengmeng's body tilted to the side, nearly falling into a pile of broken ice.

Lin Ye grabbed her by the collar and dragged her to the sheltered side of the rock wall.

"Don't sleep."

Zhao Mengmeng's eyelids only lifted halfway.

Her voice was hopelessly slurred.

"I'm not sleeping... I'm in... power-saving mode..."

"Save your own damn self."

Lin Ye pulled off the Wolf King pelt and wrapped it around her roughly.

One turn.

Two turns.

He nearly wrapped her head up in it too.

Zhao Mengmeng was bundled into a ball, with only half of her frozen face exposed.

Her eyes were unfocused, and she instinctively shrank back.

Lin Ye raised his hand.

Slap!

He slapped her across the left cheek.

Zhao Mengmeng shuddered, her eyes finally widening a bit.

"Lin Ye... you hit me?"

Slap!

A second slap followed.

"Are you awake or not?"

Zhao Mengmeng's eyes turned red from the impact.

She gasped for air.

"I'm awake! You try slapping me again, damn it!"

"If you can curse, you aren't dead yet."

Great Xia Live Stream.

[Holy shit, Brother Eye's first aid method is too hardcore!]

[Mengmeng: I was about to freeze to death, and I wake up to two big slaps.]

[Don't laugh, this is actually useful. You can't sleep if you're suffering from hypothermia, or you're done for!]

[Brother Eye is really ruthless, but why do I feel more at ease the more I watch?]

Zhao Mengmeng tried to raise her hand to cover her face.

She was wrapped so tightly in the Wolf King pelt that she couldn't move.

She panted in anger.

"You mark my words, when I recover, this slap on the left side will count as interest."

"Put it on the tab."

After saying that, Lin Ye immediately turned to inspect the cave.

It was deeper than he had estimated.

The entrance was a downward-sloping rock crevice, and it only opened up slightly after a dozen meters or so.

The ground was covered in frozen mud, sand, and gravel.

Thin ice hung on the rock walls.

Most importantly, the ice wall he had split blocked most of the wind at the entrance, with only the gap letting in cold air.

He could start a fire.

The prerequisite was finding something to burn.

Lin Ye picked up his Entrenching Tool and dug through the frozen soil in the corner.

He dug out a few pieces of gray-brown withered roots.

Beneath the roots were patches of dried moss.

They could burn.

He dug out all the moss and withered roots.

He also rummaged through his backpack and found a few scraps of cloth.

Zhao Mengmeng watched him work while huddled in the Wolf King pelt.

Her voice was still trembling.

"Got firewood?"

"A little."

"Is it enough?"

"Enough for you to speak clearly."

Zhao Mengmeng cursed, shivering.

"Then hurry up, my tongue is about to run away from home."

Lin Ye crumpled the moss to loosen it and placed it under several peeled-back withered roots.

He took out his flint.

Clack!

Tiny sparks fell into the dry moss.

A speck of orange light emerged from deep within the dried moss.

Lin Ye continued to add firewood.

The fire grew from the size of a fist to half an arm's height.

Finally, there was warmth in the cave.

The temperature drained by the ice storm began to flow back into their bones, bit by bit.

Zhao Mengmeng huddled in the Wolf King pelt, her face flushed with color from the firelight.

She was still tough-talking.

"I'll get back at you for those two slaps sooner or later."

Lin Ye held his hands up to the fire to warm them.

"Talk to me when you can stand up."

Zhao Mengmeng sneered.

"The first thing I'll do when I stand up is perform a Sichuan-Chongqing woman's revenge story for you."

"Fine, the ticket price is one piece of dried meat."

Lin Ye opened his backpack.

There wasn't much left inside.

A few pieces of venison were frozen rock-hard, and the small packet of coarse salt was still there.

The aluminum pot had been protected by Zhao Mengmeng the whole way, though the bottom was dented.

He took the pot down.

He walked to the cave entrance and scooped up a handful of clean snow.

He put the snow into the pot and placed it by the fire to melt slowly.

Then he drew his dagger and cut a piece of venison.

He skewered it with a thin twig and set it over the fire to roast.

The fat rendered out.

It dripped into the fire, making a faint sizzling sound.

Zhao Mengmeng's throat bobbed.

She was still tough-talking.

"I'm not hungry."

Gurgle.

Her stomach betrayed her and growled.

Zhao Mengmeng closed her eyes, her expression crumbling.

"It's defecting."

The Great Xia Live Stream went wild with amusement.

[I heard that sound! I really heard it!]

[Just came back from the edge of death, and the first thing she does: her stomach starts a team fight.]

[Never mind Mengmeng, I'm hungry just watching from behind the screen.]

The venison was roasted to a golden brown on the outside, with the edges curling up.

Lin Ye sprinkled a tiny bit of coarse salt on it.

When the meat stopped steaming hot, he tore off a strip.

He walked over to Zhao Mengmeng and gripped her chin.

"Open your mouth."

Zhao Mengmeng glared at him.

"Are you feeding a pig?"

"Pigs don't talk back."

Zhao Mengmeng opened her mouth to curse.

The strip of meat was stuffed directly into her mouth.

The hot meat entered her mouth.

Her eyes widened from the heat.

But the next second, she went completely quiet.

The salty taste was very faint.

The meat fibers were rough.

There was a slight burnt bitterness.

But for someone who had nearly frozen to death, this bite of hot meat could pull their soul back.

Zhao Mengmeng chewed very slowly, her eyes red-rimmed.

Lin Ye picked up the melted snow water.

He touched the edge of the aluminum pot to the back of his hand to test the temperature.

It wasn't hot.

He brought it to her lips.

"Drink."

Zhao Mengmeng didn't quip back.

She drank a few mouthfuls of hot water from the edge of the pot.

As the hot water went down, the lump of ice in her stomach was finally broken.

She took a long time to recover before speaking in a hoarse voice.

"Brother Lin."

"Yeah."

"One more bite."

Lin Ye tore off another piece of meat and stuffed it over.

Zhao Mengmeng took it quickly this time.

After chewing it, she still stared at the meat on the dagger.

"Don't give it all to me, you eat too."

"I've already eaten."

"Bullshit, I've been watching you the whole way, did you eat air?"

Lin Ye bit the remaining half of the meat into his mouth and chewed twice.

"I'm eating it now."

Zhao Mengmeng stared at him and didn't argue anymore.

The fire burned more and more steadily.

The frost in the front section of the cave began to melt.

Water droplets trickled down the rock walls.

Outside the cave entrance, the ice storm had turned into a turbulent blizzard.

The half-meter ice wall he had split earlier had scattered into a pile of large and small ice chunks.

Lin Ye used the Fire Axe as a pry bar.

He pushed the largest chunks of ice to the gap.

The ice chunks were heavy, and their bottoms were still frozen to the rock surface.

He used the back of the axe to break the frozen connections, then shoved them with his shoulder.

Thud.

The first chunk of ice jammed into the left side of the gap.

The sound of the wind immediately quieted down a notch.

The second chunk.

The third chunk.

There were gaps between the broken ice.

Lin Ye brought over rocks from inside the cave and stuffed them in.

Small rocks filled the bottom, and large ice chunks were pressed on top.

Finally, he sealed the gaps with frozen soil and snowy mud.

Every time he swung the axe, the muscle fibers in his right arm spasmed instinctively.

His movements grew slower and slower, but he didn't stop.

Zhao Mengmeng sat by the fire, watching.

Her gaze landed on Lin Ye's slightly trembling right arm.

She wanted to go over and help.

But her legs were too weak to obey her.

She could only hug the Wolf King pelt and curse.

"Lin Ye, if you wreck yourself, I really won't take care of you."

"Don't worry."

"Don't worry my ass!"

"Even if I'm wrecked, I can still command you to do the work."

"You should really be glad I can't stand up right now."

The live stream comments scrolled by rapidly.

[I could watch these two argue for a hundred episodes.]

[Brother Eye may have a foul mouth, but he didn't slack off on the work at all.]

[With this ice door sealed, the sense of security is maxed out.]

[Don't jinx it, the Void Sea is never short of accidents.]

Half an hour later.

The gap was finally rebuilt.

The entrance, which originally allowed a person to stoop through, was left with only a fist-sized ventilation hole at the top.

The wind and snow were blocked outside.

The flames inside the cave finally stood straight.

Heat began to accumulate.

Lin Ye knocked on the ice wall with the axe handle.

Thud.

The sound was solid.

He used the Dark Weaver to pull out two strands of Nano-wire.

He nailed them diagonally into the rock walls on both sides, securing the loosest pieces of ice.

If something were to hit the door from the outside, the Nano-wire would transmit the vibration first.

After doing all this, he finally turned back.

Zhao Mengmeng was already sitting steadily against the rock wall.

The Wolf King pelt was wrapped around her, and her complexion was much better than before.

Seeing Lin Ye return, she immediately held up the pot.

"There's still some hot water left, drink it."

Lin Ye walked to the fire and reached out to take the pot.

Just as he bent down.

The firelight flickered.

The orange light swept across the side wall of the cave.

Lin Ye's movements suddenly stopped.

Zhao Mengmeng sensed something was wrong and looked over in the direction of his gaze.

On the rock wall.

It was covered densely with claw marks.

Each one was deeply etched into the black rock, uneven in thickness, layered one on top of another.

They extended from near the entrance deep into the darkness.