90: Chapter 90 Icefield Assault

Halfway through the second hour, the wind changed again.

The cold wind that had been blowing from the northwest began to swirl around the hollow.

Fine snow was swept into the pit, landing on Lin Ye's shoulders and the tips of his hair.

Zhao Mengmeng's alertness instantly peaked.

When the wind direction is chaotic, scents become scrambled.

If a predator approached now, it would be difficult to judge their direction by the smell of blood or musk.

Holding her crossbow, she walked a circle around the pit.

"Brother Lin, the wind isn't right."

"Yeah."

Lin Ye didn't stop.

The tip of his shovel slammed into the frost layer, bringing up a chunk of black soil mixed with ice.

The pit was nearly a meter deep.

With a backhand motion, Lin Ye leveled the walls of the pit, creating a slight outward slope to prevent a collapse.

Zhao Mengmeng stared at the surrounding snow.

There was nothing in the vast, white expanse.

But the more there was nothing, the more uneasy she felt.

"I keep feeling like something is watching us."

Lin Ye paused for half a second.

His left eye snapped open.

Within his field of vision, several clusters of red light moved deep within the distant tree line.

They weren't close, clearly drawn by the movement in the wind.

Their bodies weren't large.

There were four to six of them.

In deep snow like this, these small groups of predators were extremely troublesome.

Lin Ye blinked, closing the eye.

"Northwest, more than four."

Zhao Mengmeng turned immediately, aiming her crossbow at the tree line.

"How far?"

"Over a hundred meters."

"Can we avoid them?"

"Unsure."

Lin Ye stuck his Entrenching Tool into the bottom of the pit and looked up at her.

"If they get within thirty meters, shoot the leader first."

"What if they charge?"

"Retreat behind the pit; I'll set the wires."

Zhao Mengmeng nodded heavily.

She didn't waste another word.

The viewers in the Great Xia Live Stream instantly held their breath.

[There really is something!]

[I knew this place was too quiet. Treasures underground and no one guarding them?]

[The pressure on Mengmeng to keep watch alone is too high.]

[Brother Eye can't stop; it would be too much of a loss to retreat after digging halfway.]

At the bottom of the pit, Lin Ye continued digging down.

The Eye of Destiny confirmed the green light was right beneath his feet; further down, the green light became blindingly bright, while gray spots remained scarce.

The sample was within reach.

But right above the green light, a thin dark band appeared at the bottom of the pit.

Lin Ye slowed his movements.

He switched from vertical hacking with the Entrenching Tool to horizontal scraping.

He peeled away the frozen soil layer by layer, no longer digging violently.

Zhao Mengmeng noticed the change behind her.

"Almost there?"

"Yeah."

"Those things have arrived too."

Just as she spoke, a muffled thud of snow falling to the ground came from the northwest tree line.

A grayish-white shadow poked its head out from behind a tree trunk.

A light screen popped up in his right eye.

[Frost-Maned Fox]

This kind of strange beast was only as tall as a person's waist at the shoulder.

But they were used to acting in groups, specializing in biting through the tendons of their prey from the side or rear.

After the first one appeared, a second and third emerged halfway from behind the snow slope.

Their grayish-white fur blended perfectly with the snow.

Zhao Mengmeng gripped the trigger.

"You beasts, stay back."

The Frost-Maned Foxes didn't charge immediately.

They prowled back and forth along the edge of the tree line, noses twitching; the freshly unearthed soil seemed to stimulate their appetite.

Lin Ye glanced into the distance.

"Don't shoot too early."

Zhao Mengmeng swallowed the curse on her lips and steadied her breathing.

The first arrow had to draw blood.

The distance was too great; the cold wind could blow the Wooden Arrow off course at any moment.

The Frost-Maned Foxes' encirclement tightened bit by bit.

Eighty meters.

Sixty meters.

Fifty meters.

The leading Frost-Maned Fox suddenly lowered its forelimbs, letting out an extremely short low growl from its throat.

The two on its sides began to spread out.

"They're going to flank us!"

Zhao Mengmeng's voice was tight.

Lin Ye raised his right arm slightly.

The Dark Weaver vibrated faintly.

Several Nano-wires shot out, accurately pinning themselves into the scattered black stones and the roots of low trees outside the pit.

The wires spread out just above the snow.

Nothing could be seen.

Lin Ye gripped his Entrenching Tool and continued scraping the soil.

"Let them come."

Zhao Mengmeng gripped her crossbow tightly, gritting her teeth as she stared straight ahead.

"Bring it on!"

The Frost-Maned Foxes finally moved.

Two flanked from the left and right, while the leader made a frontal assault, its four paws kicking up splashes of muddy water from the snow.

The distance closed in on thirty meters.

Zhao Mengmeng pulled the trigger.

"Whoosh!"

The Wooden Arrow pierced the wind, plunging accurately into the shoulder of the leading Frost-Maned Fox.

The strange beast let out a miserable cry, its forward momentum instantly collapsing as it tumbled headfirst into a snow hollow, rolling frantically.

The one on the right took the opportunity to speed up.

Zhao Mengmeng didn't have time to load a second arrow.

Just as that Frost-Maned Fox rushed within ten meters, its front legs were severed out of thin air.

The inertia from its high-speed run sent it tumbling violently across the snow, the blood spraying from the cut leaving a long red trail.

The pungent smell of blood directly enraged the third one on the left.

It roared and leaped, lunging straight for Zhao Mengmeng's face.

Zhao Mengmeng didn't retreat even half a step.

She pulled out her dagger with a backhand grip, holding it across her chest.

"Come on!"

The Frost-Maned Fox lunged within seven meters.

From the bottom of the pit, Lin Ye grabbed a chunk of hard frozen soil with his left hand and threw it with a backhand force.

The frozen soil slammed heavily into the side of its skull.

The angle of its pounce instantly shifted.

Zhao Mengmeng stepped to the side, and using the beast's momentum, she plunged her dagger into its carotid artery.

The Frost-Maned Fox opened its foul-smelling mouth to bite her wrist.

She raised her knee to pin the beast's head down firmly, using all her strength to press the blade deeper.

A large spray of hot blood splattered onto the snow in front of her.

After a few twitches, the strange beast breathed its last.

Zhao Mengmeng panted heavily.

"Are there any more?"

"They've retreated."

Lin Ye stared toward the tree line.

The remaining two Frost-Maned Foxes crouched low, looked at the blood-stained snow, and finally retreated behind the tree trunks with their tails between their legs.

The Great Xia Live Stream breathed a collective sigh of relief.

[Mengmeng's knife work is so ruthless!]

[Frost-Maned Fox: I just wanted a meal, but I walked into a Cutting Array.]

[The Dark Weaver's anti-charge capability is insane; this physical cheat is unbeatable.]

[Brother Eye is mining while farming mobs; what a perfect match.]

Zhao Mengmeng dragged the corpse aside and used snow to cover the obvious bloodstains.

"The pelt is usable, and we can try the meat too."

"Don't touch it yet."

Lin Ye kept his head down, clearing the bottom of the pit.

"The pollution might be on the higher side."

Zhao Mengmeng immediately pulled her hand back.

"Got it."

The bottom of the pit was now nearly 1.5 meters deep.

Looking down from above, only Lin Ye's wide hood and shoulders were visible.

The color of the soil layer had changed.

The frozen soil above was brown, but the bottom began to show a texture mixed with dark black.

The black wasn't evenly distributed, seeping outward along the grain of the soil layer.

Lin Ye stopped.

The Eye of Destiny activated.

The green light beneath his feet was blinding, and the gray spots were sparse.

But the black soil directly above the green light held a strange, deathly stillness.

Lin Ye closed his left eye, inserted the edge of his Entrenching Tool into the gap between the black soil and the frozen earth, and pressed down gently.

"Crack."

The soil layer cracked slightly.

A stale, earthy smell surged out of the pit through the crack.

Standing at the edge of the pit, the moment Zhao Mengmeng smelled that scent, her throat tightened, and she instinctively took half a step back.

She raised her crossbow and aimed it downward.

"Is it poisonous?"

"Unsure."

Lin Ye squatted down and used the tip of his shovel to slowly push aside the outermost layer of black soil.

The temperature at the bottom of the pit was abnormally low.

When the tip of the shovel passed over a certain area, it made a sticky sound like cutting through rotting flesh.

A deep black, thick liquid slowly seeped out from the cracks in the soil.

Heavy.

Dull.

Even the surrounding loose soil was stuck together by this puddle of liquid.

Lin Ye's hand froze mid-air.

Standing at the edge of the pit, Zhao Mengmeng stared at the puddle of black water, her voice changing pitch.

"Brother Lin..."

"What on earth is this thing?"