86: Chapter 86 Resources Beneath the Ice Field

The further northeast they went, the sparser the forest became.

The snow was piled thick in the hollows; one step down, and the snow line would go straight over the top of the thigh.

Zhao Mengmeng was sweating all over, her cloak rimmed with fine, powdery snow.

She struggled to pull out one leg, only to sink halfway in again.

"This place really doesn't welcome short people!"

Lin Ye walked in the lead, holding the Fire Axe in his right hand, the handle rhythmically probing the snow layer.

"Step in my footprints, don't move around."

"I know, I'd have to trouble you to fish me out if I fell into a pit."

Zhao Mengmeng exhaled a puff of white air, stopped grumbling, and followed closely behind.

Every dozen meters or so, Lin Ye would pause for a moment.

His left eyelid twitched slightly.

Open, then shut in an instant.

The Eye of Destiny was under immense strain in the vast, white snowfield.

The reflection from the snow made the visual feedback blindingly intense, and the giant green light in the distance blotted out the sky.

Each time he scanned, his eyeballs accompanied by a fine, needle-like stinging sensation.

That patch of green light was right ahead.

It almost covered the entire bottom of the hollow.

It was not the faint glimmer of scattered supplies, but a continuous, sheet-like green radiance.

The grey spots covering the surface were sparse and shallow.

This meant that whatever was buried underground had an extremely low level of pollution.

It might be some kind of high-purity mineral deposit.

Lin Ye's gaze was cold and sharp, devoid of any unnecessary emotional fluctuations.

Massive resources often meant that the difficulty of extraction increased exponentially.

Seeing him stop, Zhao Mengmeng immediately raised her crossbow.

"Are we there?"

"Yeah."

Zhao Mengmeng looked around; all she saw was a mediocre, snow-covered hollow.

A few dark, frozen rocks were scattered along the edges, and the center was depressed, the snow surface eerily flat.

There were no fruit trees, no traces of beasts.

And certainly no so-called ruins of civilization.

"What's here? Aside from a pot of rice porridge, I don't see anything."

Lin Ye crouched down, spread his fingers, and scraped away a patch of snow.

Beneath the snow layer was cold, hard, brown frozen soil.

He brought the blade of his Fire Axe down heavily.

Clang!

The axe blade cut through the frozen crust, the vibration traveling straight to his elbow.

Zhao Mengmeng leaned in, lowering her voice.

"Buried underground?"

Lin Ye didn't speak; he shifted positions and hacked three times in succession.

The frozen soil crumbled slightly, but only left a shallow pit less than three centimeters deep.

He used the tip of the axe to pry out a chunk of frozen soil.

The clod was as hard as iron ore, filled with fine ice crystals in the layers.

Zhao Mengmeng picked up the clod and tapped it, producing a crisp clinking sound.

"If you used this thing to smash a Pale Species, you could probably kill it."

"The tools aren't sufficient; we can't dig it up for now."

Lin Ye activated his left eye again, his gaze piercing vertically downward.

The green light extended at least half a meter beneath the surface.

Further down, there were vast, bright, intertwined fluctuations of gold and green laws.

Relying on brute force with the Fire Axe and a dagger would only waste their stamina.

Zhao Mengmeng was a little unwilling, tracing patterns on the ground with the tip of her knife.

"How about we dig a small hole to see? What if it's edible high-energy food?"

Lin Ye walked to the edge of the hollow, examining the surrounding terrain.

It was sheltered from the wind here, with no signs of large exotic beasts.

But this abnormal flatness meant that there might be a loose, hollow structure underneath, or an unstable frozen layer.

If they rashly dug into the soil and it collapsed, neither of them would be able to get out.

"We can't dig."

Lin Ye hung the Fire Axe back on his waist.

"The stuff is too deep underground; with these tools, we won't be able to get a sample even if we dig until dark."

Zhao Mengmeng looked at this "fat piece of meat" beneath her feet, stamping her feet in anxiety.

"Then what if someone else discovers it and gets to it first?"

"They don't have the ability."

Lin Ye pointed at the iron-hard frozen soil.

"Without pickaxes, shovels, or large-scale soil-melting fuel, anyone who comes here will only be able to stand around blowing in the cold wind."

Zhao Mengmeng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Then let's record the coordinates first, and come back once we get heavy-duty tools?"

"Wait for the weather to change, or for a more efficient mining method."

Lin Ye took a piece of bark rope from his pack and wrapped it around the leeward side of a nearby dwarf tree.

He tied an extremely concealed dead knot.

Then, he tapped three specific grooves into the back of a rock.

Once covered by loose snow, outsiders would only think they were natural cracks.

Lin Ye led Zhao Mengmeng around the center of the hollow, only confirming the boundaries of the resources.

The scale of this green light was far beyond his estimation in the cave.

If it really was some kind of uploadable resource mine, it would be absolutely vital for the Great Xia.

But he needed a sample.

Even if it was only the size of a fingernail.

Zhao Mengmeng followed behind, looking back every three steps.

"Brother Lin, I just don't feel at ease, it's like I lost money."

"We'll eat meat when we get back, don't think about it."

The two of them retreated along the original path, relying on the faint daylight.

Their footprints were mostly covered by fresh snow, and the forest returned to gloom.

Lin Ye walked steadily.

The direction of every tree, the drop of every slope, formed a precise map in his mind.

It wasn't until the Ice Waterfall by the Water Pool appeared at the edge of their vision that Zhao Mengmeng collapsed beside a tree trunk.

"Finally almost there, walking this path felt like my legs were about to break."

"Don't move."

Lin Ye's palm pressed firmly on her shoulder with great force.

Zhao Mengmeng's back stiffened, and she held her breath almost instinctively.

"Monsters?"

Lin Ye didn't answer.

He stared fixedly at the clearing by the Water Pool ahead.

There were extra footprints on the snow.

Messy, heavy.

They weren't left when they departed, but two sets of brand-new human tracks.

They cut diagonally across from the other side of the forest and circled the Ice Waterfall three times.

The edges of the footprints were clear and hadn't been smoothed out by the wind and snow yet.

Zhao Mengmeng's eyes turned icy in an instant, her dagger already reversed in her palm.

"Someone has snuck over."

Lin Ye pulled her into a dense thicket, their bodies blending into the shadows.

He activated his left eye.

Two clusters of human-colored light flickered behind the rocks.

Deep green, with very dense grey spots.

This meant that the other party had no immediate killing intent, but their bodies had a high degree of pollution, and they were extremely weak.

Two lines of basic information popped up on his right eye's light screen.

[Nationality: France]

[Nationality: Canada]

Seeing Lin Ye's expression, Zhao Mengmeng knew it was nothing good.

"Where are they from?"

"France, Canada."

"Should we kill them?"

Lin Ye raised his crossbow, aiming the bolt at the edge of the rock, his expression as calm as a deep pool.

"Let's see what they want to do."

At the edge of the Water Pool, two foreigners were hunched over, frantically smashing the ice surface with rocks.

They were in rags, their knuckles purple-black from frostbite.

The Challenger from France, Lucas, growled angrily, cursing the damn weather in a foreign language.

Martin from Canada's teeth were chattering, and he was holding a broken aluminum box in his arms.

"Get the ice first, then go find firewood; there must be a cave here."

Lucas swung the rock.

Crack!

Splinters of ice splashed onto his face.

The two of them shiveringly filled a box with ice shards and, without staying any longer, left in the opposite direction of the Ice Waterfall.

Lin Ye crouched in place, not moving for a long while.

It wasn't until their figures were completely swallowed by the wind and snow that he put away his crossbow.

Zhao Mengmeng gritted her teeth: "Just let them go like that? What if they find their way back and discover the dog hole?"

"They didn't discover the entrance."

"We still have to be on guard."

Lin Ye looked at the Ice Waterfall, his tone without a ripple.

"If they dare to come back, then they can leave their names in the snow."

The two of them stood up, hugging the cliff wall, and familiarly squeezed into the narrow gap beneath the overhang.

The moment they squeezed in, the heat wave and firelight from the cave rushed to meet them.

Zhao Mengmeng shook off the snow from her body and let out a long sigh of relief.

"I'm alive."

Lin Ye didn't idle.

He first reinforced the door bolt, then went to check the chimney and the natural refrigerator.

The prey was still there, the reservoir hadn't frozen solid, and the fire pit still had thick red coals remaining.

Five Snow Cave Hogs, a nest of Snow Chickens, and two green-furred giant rats.

The harvest was extremely bountiful.

Zhao Mengmeng crouched by the fire, starting to sharpen her blade.

"If those two unlucky bastards really dare to follow the scent and sneak back, I'll treat them to a taste of the northwest wind directly."

Lin Ye sat cross-legged on the stone bed, starting to repair his arrows.

"They had better not come tonight."

Zhao Mengmeng looked up at him.

"And if they do?"

Lin Ye inserted a specially crafted bone arrow tip into the slot, his voice somewhat deep in the echoing cave.

"If they come, then I'll make them regret walking at night."