131: Chapter 131 Cliffs and Abysses

The fog at the end of the snowfield dispersed.

The cold wind blowing from high above tore apart the grey-green miasma rolling along the ground.

As the residual fog retreated to both sides, a steep black rock slope was revealed.

Lin Ye stopped at the bottom of the slope and raised his hand in a downward gesture.

Zhao Mengmeng immediately crouched, her crossbow resting on her arm, the muzzle locked onto a protruding black rock ahead.

"Something else again?"

Lin Ye didn't answer immediately; he briefly opened his left eye.

Toward the top of the slope, the red light had mostly dissipated, leaving only a few thin, mist-like dark red areas clinging to the low-lying spots.

The concentration of the toxic miasma had dropped, but it was still fatal if inhaled too much.

Several thin red lines stretched across both sides of the black rock slope, where the ice crust had cracked and the rock layers were loose.

If they took half a step wrong, they would slide into the abyss, people and snow alike.

Lin Ye closed his left eye.

"Follow me closely. Only step on the protruding black rocks. Don't touch the fog in the low areas."

Zhao Mengmeng looked at the remaining grey-green mist: "Is it poisonous?"

"It's not worth it to inhale it."

"You really are particular. Even the poisonous gas would have to give you a thrift award if it heard that."

Lin Ye didn't respond, bending down to grip the edge of a black rock to pull himself up.

The slope surface was extremely slippery from the ice storm, coated with a thin layer of ice that made their boots slide.

Zhao Mengmeng followed two meters behind, her Wind-Chasing Claw locked onto her right arm, her left hand gripping a rock crevice, and her crossbow slung across her back.

She didn't dare look up, staring fixedly at Lin Ye's footprints as she climbed.

When they reached the middle of the slope, the toxic miasma below suddenly rolled back.

The grey-green mist wave rushed toward them along the ground, moving extremely fast.

Zhao Mengmeng cursed under her breath that the wind direction had changed.

Lin Ye raised his right arm, and the mechanism clicked as two anchor points shot out.

The anchors slammed firmly into the black rock at the top of the slope and a rock crevice on the right; the Nano-wire pulled taut instantly.

"Grab the line."

Zhao Mengmeng grabbed the knot Lin Ye threw to her.

Retraction activated!

The two were yanked from their spot, sliding rapidly up the ice slope.

The toxic miasma rolled past just beneath their feet.

The grey mist splashed onto the black rocks, causing a faint corrosive sound.

Her back was soaked with cold sweat; if they had been half a second slower, their legs would have been swallowed.

Dozens of seconds later, they climbed onto the cliff top.

The cold wind slammed into them, cutting their faces with pain.

As soon as Zhao Mengmeng stood steady, she looked ahead and froze in place.

Beyond the cliff top, the world seemed to end.

A super glacial abyss, hundreds of meters wide, lay between them and the central Giant Tower.

The abyss formed a huge ring, locking away the black Giant Tower that pierced through the clouds.

The ice walls on both sides dropped vertically at ninety degrees.

Below was an impenetrable, dense black.

Countless violent air currents rolled, collided, and tore at each other within the abyss.

The airflow was chaotic.

Rolling up, cutting horizontally, back-flowing, and rushing diagonally.

The sound of the wind ground the snow powder, constantly hitting the ice walls with a dull roar.

"How are we supposed to cross this?" Zhao Mengmeng's throat tightened. "Even if you grew wings to fly across, you'd be sliced into minced meat."

Lin Ye didn't speak, his gaze turning to other high points on the edge of the abyss.

On an ice mound to the left, several figures were holding the high ground.

[Nationality: USA]

Behind a broken rock to the right, two people were crouching in a wind-sheltered crevice, wrapped in rough animal skins.

[Nationality: France]

Near the ice pillar ruins further away, several more Challengers were scattered.

[Nationality: United Kingdom]

[Nationality: India]

[Nationality: Russia]

Zhao Mengmeng scanned the area.

"Whoa, everyone is stuck here. They all want to enter the tower."

Lin Ye was expressionless: "That makes things troublesome."

Zhao Mengmeng gripped her crossbow, staring at the high ground where the USA was located.

"When we can't cross, everyone watches the wind. Once someone finds a way, everyone will start watching each other."

Lin Ye glanced at her.

"You're improving fast."

"Duh, after being slaughtered like a fat sheep so many times, if my brain didn't grow, grass would be growing on my grave."

While they were observing others, countless gazes also pierced toward them.

On the USA high ground, a burly man draped in white animal skin stood up.

He held a bone spear, his gaze greedily licking the Dark Weaver on Lin Ye's right arm and the full set of bear skins on Zhao Mengmeng.

His companion beside him made a throat-slitting gesture without any hesitation.

Over on the France side, the two Challengers were more direct.

One lifted a coil of special silver-grey flying rope.

The other was quickly checking the gravity clip at his waist.

There was no challenge, no negotiation.

But everyone knew the tower was right in front of them.

Whoever could cross this dead-end first would be able to eat the top-tier resources.

The Frenchman didn't want to wait; he was going to bet his life for the prize.

"The equipment is quite sophisticated." Zhao Mengmeng stared at the flying rope. "Doesn't look like a beginner."

Lin Ye looked deep into the abyss.

"This place can't be crossed, and it has nothing to do with equipment."

"Then what does it have to do with? The wind?"

"Yes."

The France Challenger retreated behind the ice rock, lowered his body, and assumed a sprinting posture.

His companion drove the main anchor of the flying rope into an ice pillar as thick as a person could embrace, and locked the hook onto a protruding black rock on the other side of the abyss.

Whoosh!

The hook broke through the white mist and bit firmly into the rock wall on the other side.

The flying rope pulled taut.

Everyone on the edge of the cliff held their breath.

The USA burly man narrowed his eyes, his bone spear pointing obliquely at the ground.

He wanted to use the life of this Frenchman to test the bottom of this abyss.

The Frenchman locked his sliding clip and sprinted out.

His body used gravity to slide toward the abyss along the flying rope.

The first twenty meters were as stable as flat ground.

Thirty meters, significant speed increase.

Fifty meters.

A lateral wind shear erupted from below the abyss.

The Frenchman was knocked to the left.

The sliding clip sparked against the flying rope; he forced his single leg to stabilize his center of gravity, barely managing to hold the main axis.

Before he could catch his breath, a second air current back-flowed upward.

The wind cut diagonally into the middle of the flying rope, causing the main line to twist violently, and the man's body was forcibly flipped half a circle.

The sliding clip at his waist locked directly.

He hung in mid-air with one hand, drawing his knife to cut the tangled secondary rope.

The third crosswind arrived.

Countless ice powder and rock fragments mixed into the storm, whipping across his face and body, breaking the load-bearing limit of the main line.

The man's hand slipped.

In the moment of his fall, he reached out futilely toward the main line in mid-air, his fingertips only brushing the rapidly vibrating rope.

There was no scream.

The figure was swallowed by the darkness of the abyss.

The cliff top was quiet, leaving only the sound of the wind.

Zhao Mengmeng swallowed.

"This guy was quite strong, and he died quickly."

The remaining companion from France had his legs go weak and fell onto the ice.

He didn't retract the flying rope, nor did he dare to get within half a step of the cliff edge again.

On the USA high ground, the burly man's expression was grim.

He understood.

Forced crossing by flying rope was absolutely impossible.

The wind in the abyss had no pattern; once a person lost balance in mid-air, it was hell below.

The Great Xia Live Stream barrage flooded the screen.

[Damn! This wind is killing people!]

[That Frenchman's strength was definitely top-tier; he couldn't even handle the first gust of wind!]

[How can this be crossed? Wouldn't Brother Eye's Dark Weaver be torn apart by the wind too?]

[Shut up! Brother Eye is watching! He definitely has a way!]

At the edge of the abyss.

The white burly man from the USA stepped out of cover, his eyes locked on Lin Ye's cold-resistant gear and the bulging bag.

"Great Xia man, there's no way across the abyss."

He pointed his bone spear at Lin Ye.

"People can jump down, but leave the supplies."

Zhao Mengmeng felt her anger shoot straight to the top of her head; she raised her hand and gave him the middle finger right to his face.

"Wait until I step on the other side, then you can whine all you want."

A burst of cold laughter erupted from the USA team.

The burly man didn't move, staring at them coldly.

He wanted to see how the Great Xia people would die; everyone hiding behind cover wanted to see it.

Lin Ye ignored the scum behind him and walked to the very edge of the abyss, opening his left eye.

The world was stripped away.

The raging winds filling the sky were deconstructed into large, glaring red areas.

The deep red air currents trampled, tore, and reorganized each other, turning the abyss space into a violent dead zone.

There was no gap at all.

But within that rapidly operating crimson network, a few green gaps representing life were flickering through it.

The duration was extremely short, and the gaps were extremely narrow.

Some only appeared for a second or two, while others were swallowed again after traveling diagonally along the ice wall for a dozen meters.

Cold light gathered in Lin Ye's eyes.

His gaze swept rapidly over the cliff wall, ice pillars, and the black rock on the other side.

The near-end crack would define the first anchor point, the frozen stone platform thirty meters away would be used to borrow force and change direction, and the broken ice pillar on the other side would serve as the load-bearing axis for the forced pull.

The route was not a straight line; it was a deadly zigzag.

Every time he threw an anchor, he had to cut precisely into those fleeting green gaps.

Half a second too early, he would be smashed against the cliff wall by the wind; half a second too late, he would be fed to the abyss.

Lin Ye closed his left eye.

"It can be crossed."

Zhao Mengmeng's eyelids twitched.

"The two words you just said sound as dangerous as a funeral."

"Safer than waiting for death."

"How do we go?"

"I'll clear the path, you hang the second main line."

Lin Ye turned to look at her. "Don't rush the rhythm, don't judge the wind yourself. When I shout jump, you jump."

Zhao Mengmeng locked her crossbow on her back and cocked the Wind-Chasing Claw.

"Fine. If you call it wrong, I'll haunt your dreams and curse you every day after I go down."

Lin Ye twitched the corner of his mouth: "I'll try."

The two walked to the jumping point.

Lin Ye raised his right arm, and the mechanism of the Dark Weaver gauntlet exploded with sound.

The storm roared in front of him.

He stared fixedly at the first cliff crevice, waiting for the moment when that green gap of life would slice through the red zone.