123: Chapter 123 The Giant Tower in the Snowstorm

By dawn, the sound of the wind outside the ice door had dropped an octave.

The wind hadn't stopped, it just wasn't as crazed as it had been last night.

A layer of grayish-white daylight filtered through the smoke vent.

The fire inside the cave was still burning.

The stone walls were covered with water streaks left over from the previous night.

Lin Ye opened his eyes and moved his right arm.

The wound on the web of his thumb had scabbed over with blood.

The muscles in his shoulders and back were still sore, but his fingers could now firmly lock onto the handle of the axe.

He glanced toward the opposite side.

Zhao Mengmeng was wrapped in the wolf king hide, leaning against the black rock. She wasn't sleeping soundly, her brow furrowed.

Lin Ye didn't make a sound.

He walked to the cave entrance and placed his fingers on the Dark Weaver's tripwire.

The three thin lines were taut and motionless.

No living creature had approached outside the cave.

He turned back and adjusted the remaining dry roots in the fire pit.

The flames flared up, and the heat dispelled the cold that had accumulated in the cave.

Zhao Mengmeng woke up.

She rubbed her face, her voice raspy from just waking: "Has it calmed down outside?"

"Enough for us to move around."

Zhao Mengmeng sat up.

She looked first at the fire pit, then at the cave entrance, and finally fixed her gaze on the half-dismembered carcass of the Great Bear.

"Are we eating bear again today?"

"Eat first, then work."

Lin Ye pushed the aluminum pot over to her.

"Dig the drainage trench deeper, render the bear fat, hang the meat up, and flip the fur. Don't move the ice blocks at the entrance recklessly."

Zhao Mengmeng took the pot and curled her lip: "You're dumping all the work on me?"

"You're more meticulous than I am."

She snorted but didn't argue back, picking up the Entrenching Tool to start turning the frozen earth.

Dark red blood began to flow out along the deepened trench.

Lin Ye pulled his backpack in front of him.

Dagger, Fire Axe, flint, rope, remaining jerky, Dark Weaver, Wind-Chasing Claw.

He hefted the Fire Axe, which showed the most wear.

The notch in the blade had grown larger, but it could still be used to chop bone.

While cutting the bear meat, Zhao Mengmeng looked up: "Getting ready to go out?"

"We can last a few days in the cave, but the meat won't last long enough. I need to scout the paths of this snowfield."

"Then be careful."

Lin Ye glanced at her: "Watch the house. Don't let me come back to find you've scraped a hole through the cave."

Zhao Mengmeng's knife paused, and she cursed: "Get out."

Lin Ye pushed aside a piece of shattered ice blocking the door.

Cold wind rushed in, causing the flames to suddenly dip.

Outside was a world of dead white.

The wind and snow swept across the ground, burying half of the craters smashed by last night's ice storm.

Black rock rifts crisscrossed, ending beneath the snow layer.

Several giant withered trees lay slanted in the snow, their roots overturned.

The snowfield, which appeared flat on the surface, was filled with man-eating cracks and faults underneath.

Lin Ye closed his eyes briefly, then opened his left eye.

In his field of vision, the nearby snow layer was stripped away, and the edges of the black rock revealed cold, hard lines.

His mental power was running low.

He didn't look far.

He walked out, sticking close to the rock wall.

The fierce wind blew, and the wolf king hide snapped loudly in the gale.

He used the black rock to shield himself from the wind, walking slowly and specifically avoiding the hollow-looking snow surfaces.

After walking over a hundred meters,

He stopped.

On the retina of his left eye, beneath the snow dozens of meters ahead to the right, several clusters of eye-catching red light were lurking.

The red light was extremely vibrant and carried intense aggression.

Lin Ye did not disturb them.

He detoured to the left.

After circling a black rock as high as a three-story building, a tangled mess of giant tree roots appeared ahead.

A sheltered lowland had formed beneath the tree roots.

His left eye opened briefly again.

The red light disappeared.

In its place were several clusters of green light.

Lin Ye lowered his center of gravity and peeked out.

Seven or eight Arctic Rock Sheep were scattered under the withered tree roots.

They were bowing their heads to nibble on frozen moss.

Lin Ye had no intention of chasing them at all.

He crouched down, grabbed a handful of snow, and kneaded it into two hard snowballs.

Then he retreated to the gap between two black rocks.

He raised his right arm.

The miniature mechanism popped open.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three Dark Weaver anchors were fired in succession.

The first one nailed into a high crevice on the left black rock.

The second one bit into the edge of the rock base on the right.

The third one plunged into the hard earth beneath the snow at ground level.

An almost invisible transparent cutting net blocked the only escape route to the rear.

Lin Ye retreated to the edge of the black rock and tossed the snowballs in his hand.

He flicked his wrist.

The first snowball hit a withered tree to the left of the flock.

Thump!

The muffled sound spread.

The flock raised their heads, ears pricked up, their hooves pawing at the snow.

The second snowball followed immediately, hitting the moss directly in front of them heavily.

Snow splattered.

The Rock Sheep were startled.

The strongest ram let out a short bleat, turned, and bolted toward the black rock crevice to the right-rear.

The flock followed blindly, their white silhouettes turning into a streak of wind across the snow.

The bullet chat in the overseas livestream was still going crazy.

[Look! The sheep are running away!]

[Stupid Great Xia person, he actually scared away his prey himself!]

Lin Ye leaned against the rock wall, not moving a single step.

The lead ram plunged into the gap between the black rocks.

Just as its galloping front hooves hit the ground,

A circle of gruesome blood spray erupted at its neck.

It didn't even let out a scream before its head smoothly shifted out of place.

The two Rock Sheep behind it couldn't stop in time and crashed directly into the bottom layer of Nano-wire.

Their flanks and front legs were sliced open.

Scalding blood splashed onto the snow.

The remaining Rock Sheep retreated in horror.

Lin Ye pressed down with his right arm.

The engine suddenly retracted!

The Nano-wire tightened instantly, frantically changing directions to slaughter everything in the gap.

Several Rock Sheep trying to turn around had their hind legs severed at the base.

Their screams were quickly drowned out by the wind and snow.

The entire Great Xia Live Stream exploded into a sea of golden words.

[Who said he couldn't catch them?! Does Brother Eye even need to chase!]

[You dogs on the foreign net, open your eyes and look clearly! This is what you call a high-end hunter—all it takes is the simplest physical cutting!]

[Setting the trap, luring the mobs, and taking them out in one wave! That was so damn smooth!]

Lin Ye waited for ten seconds.

Confirming that the heavy scent of blood hadn't attracted any other red-light monsters,

He then stepped out from the black rock and retracted the Dark Weaver anchors.

The sheep carcasses were dragged to the leeward slope.

He pulled out his dagger.

His left eye's judgment was briefly activated.

Avoiding the organs with a few gray spots, he precisely cut off the choicest hind leg meat, tenderloin, and fat layers.

The two most intact sheepskins were stripped and tied to the outside of his backpack.

The mutton was wrapped in two layers of wolf king hide to insulate it from the freezing air.

After finishing his preparations, Lin Ye was in no hurry to return to the cave.

He looked up and fixed his gaze on a giant black rock rising from the ground nearby.

That rock was dozens of meters high, its edges as steep as if carved by a knife, making it an excellent vantage point for the area.

He had to scout the terrain.

Lin Ye pulled out the Dark Weaver.

Anchors were fired one after another, allowing him to force his way up the rock face.

His boot soles crushed the ice, making a sharp, brittle sound.

He vaulted onto the top of the rock.

The moment he stood firm,

A brief rift suddenly occurred in the ice storm's airflow above.

The thick snow clouds that blotted out the sky were torn open into a long, narrow crack by the high-altitude winds.

Lin Ye abruptly looked up.

His vision pierced through the outer barrier of wind and snow.

In the center of the Level 4 Floating Island,

A silhouette so massive it was suffocating stood between heaven and earth.

It wasn't a mountain.

It was a Giant Tower covered in metallic cold light and eerie runes!

The tower's body had no visible end, piercing directly through the higher cloud layers.

Countless chains hung down from the surface of the Giant Tower.

With just one look, the sense of oppression that crushed carbon-based lifeforms surged toward him like a tsunami.

Lin Ye tried to activate his left eye.

Boom!

An intense, needle-like pain pierced his eyeball.

The high-dimensional energy in that area was distorted to the extreme; only a blinding white light remained on his retina.

Lin Ye immediately closed his left eye, pressing his fingers against the corner of his eye.

Two seconds later,

The storm closed back up.

The Giant Tower was swallowed by the wind and snow, as if it had never existed.