96: Chapter 96 The Crimson Shadow at the Bottom of the Pit

Dusk arrived early.

The wind and snow pressed down on the daylight.

Lin Ye was in no rush to rest.

He propped his entrenching tool by the fire to dry, then gathered the fragments of the wooden boards damaged today.

He kept what could be burned.

Anything stained with acid was kicked straight out into the snow pit outside the door.

Zhao Mengmeng crouched by the fire pit, cutting the remaining meat into thin strips.

The meat of the Snow Chicken and Snow Cave Hog was hung above the smoke to slow-roast.

Most of the Spirit Sheep meat was set aside to continue boiling into soup tomorrow.

The wolf hide had been scraped clean of fat and was laid out on a flat stone far from the fire pit.

Zhao Mengmeng's wrists were aching and trembling, but her mouth showed no signs of softening.

"Brother Lin, with these skills, if I went to apply for a job at a slaughterhouse now, the boss would have to beg me to stay on his knees."

"Work experience from the Void Sea might not be recognized on Blue Star."

"Then I'll make the boss watch the livestream replay."

"He'd probably call the police to arrest you first."

Zhao Mengmeng rolled her eyes.

The aluminum pot in the fire pit was still bubbling.

Animal fat floated on the surface of the soup, and both the heat and the aroma were trapped inside the cavern.

After experiencing those Sickle-Foot Wolf Spiders, Zhao Mengmeng looked at that pot of soup with wariness in her eyes.

"Having to guard the door just to eat a hot meal from now on... it's really frustrating."

Lin Ye walked to the area beneath the smoke vent and used his dagger to test the wind pressure in the stone crevice.

"Living things in the wasteland all lack heat."

"As long as there is fire, meat, and blood, they will find their way here."

Zhao Mengmeng hung up the last strip of meat and wiped the grease from her hands.

"Then can we only hide and eat secretly from now on?"

"Try to minimize the scent."

Lin Ye retreated to the wooden door and reached out to press against the freshly patched layer of mortar.

The mortar had frozen solid.

But it definitely couldn't withstand another round of acid.

The wooden eaves frame had already frozen firmly into the Ice Waterfall, and the difficulty of repairing it was increasing exponentially.

The Sickle-Foot Wolf Spiders had scattered.

But the situation on this cliff wall had become even worse.

The dismembered corpses of Lucas and Martin, the rotting flesh of the Bloodthirsty Snow Wolf pack, and the acidic blood of the Sickle-Foot Wolf Spiders.

All of these things were smeared along the edge of the Water Pool below.

This smell would sooner or later attract things they couldn't afford to provoke.

The atmosphere in the Great Xia Live Stream finally relaxed a little at this moment.

[ That wave of spiders blocking the door just now scared me so much I couldn't even hold my bowl steady. ]

[ Brother Eye's door repairs are getting tougher, but the problem is the monsters outside are getting deadlier too. ]

[ Don't just watch the fighting; watching the two of them stewing meat soup in a cave during extreme cold is really stress-relieving. ]

[ Their survival skills are too strong. My dad, who works in civil engineering, was nodding in approval just watching them fix those eaves. ]

Inside the cavern.

Lin Ye stood behind the door, motionless.

Zhao Mengmeng acutely sensed his abnormality.

"Is there still something outside the door?"

"No movement for now."

"Then why are you staring at the threshold?"

Lin Ye turned his head.

"The way those Sickle-Foot Wolf Spiders found the door today was too precise."

Zhao Mengmeng thought about it.

"Because of the hot pot smell?"

"The smell is secondary. What attracts them the most is the stench of blood at the bottom of the cliff that won't dissipate."

Zhao Mengmeng shut her mouth.

Outside was basically a serial murder scene right now.

The smell of blood had permeated the ice layers.

"Then do we have to move?"

"Moving during the extreme cold period is equivalent to suicide." Lin Ye walked toward the fire pit.

"Hold our ground?"

"Hold it." Lin Ye used a branch to push aside the red coals.

"And prepare a second exit."

Zhao Mengmeng immediately looked toward the back of the main cavern.

"Dog Hole Number Two?"

Lin Ye glanced at her.

"Can't you pick a different species when naming things?"

"Call it the Escape Crevice?"

"Forget it, Dog Hole is fine."

Lin Ye picked up a piece of charcoal and drew a few thick lines on the flat stone wall.

The main cavern, the Ice Waterfall entrance, the smoke vent, and the water reservoir.

Everything was clearly marked.

Then, he drew a heavy circle at the deepest part of the main cavern.

That was the narrow crevice discovered the day before yesterday.

A person couldn't crawl through it.

But if you pressed your ear against it, you could hear a faint sound of wind.

There must be a connected cavity behind it.

Zhao Mengmeng leaned over.

"Want to start digging from there?"

"It's not time yet."

"Why not strike while the iron is hot?"

"Frozen rock is much harder than frozen soil. We can't dig through it with just this entrenching tool, and forcing the wall could risk a collapse."

Zhao Mengmeng nodded repeatedly.

"Got it, I'll add it to the to-do list."

"If the wind is lighter tomorrow, take a rope to the back cave and measure the depth."

"Sure."

Zhao Mengmeng retreated to the fire and held her hands out toward the red coals to warm them.

Outside the cave, the Ice Waterfall continued to make squeezing sounds.

Falling ice chunks crashed into the Water Pool, the muffled thuds intermittent.

That night, Lin Ye kept watch for the first half of the night.

Zhao Mengmeng took over for the second half.

She didn't doze off again.

Clutching the crossbow, she huddled by the wooden door; whenever there was the slightest strange noise outside, the muzzle of her crossbow would bite into the crack of the door.

...

At the same time.

Tens of kilometers away, a massive sinkhole left behind after an oil vein was drained dry.

The permafrost fault line that could still be seen during the day was now covered by a vast expanse of blood color.

It was countless scarlet vines.

They crawled out from the deepest crevices of the rock layer, densely intertwined and tangled.

There were no leaves.

The rough skin was covered in barbs and tiny suction cups.

As the vines rubbed and dragged against the rock wall, the surrounding ice and snow melted directly into puddles of red water.

The cold mist at the bottom of the pit exuded a fishy, sweet scent.

The thickest section of the main vine was stuck between the rock crevices, accompanied by a rhythmic contraction.

More long, thin vine tendrils crawled out from the surroundings.

They climbed upward, clinging to the vertical pit wall.

The frozen soil couldn't stop them.

The rocks were forced open.

Above the pit wall, the wind and snow raged.

The moment the Blood-colored Vines climbed out over the edge of the sinkhole, they didn't blindly spread outward in all directions.

Instead, they plunged directly into the bottom layer of the accumulated snow.

On the pure white snow surface, nothing could be seen.

Only a few shallow depressions were rising and falling slightly.

At the edge of the tree line.

A shivering Frost-Maned Fox approached, following the scent of soil.

It lowered its head to sniff the snow near the sinkhole.

The crust of snow suddenly exploded.

Two blood-red vines instantly shot out and constricted its front legs.

The Frost-Maned Fox let out a shrill scream, opening its mouth to bite wildly.

Two thin vines were bitten through.

Dark red sap dripped onto the snow, sizzling and steaming.

But immediately afterward, seven or eight thicker vines surged up from underground, wrapping tightly around its belly and neck.

The screaming stopped abruptly.

A few minutes later, only a pelt and a few white bones remained on the snow surface.

The Blood-colored Vines dragged the leftover remains and continued to slither deeper into the tree line.

...

On the other side of the sinkhole.

The island nation Challenger Yamamoto Kenta was dragging his half-dead body, struggling through the snowy forest.

Ever since he was dropped onto the outer Floating Island, he hadn't had a single good day.

The extreme cold storm had swept away the few supplies he had left.

His companion had frozen to death in a tree hole last night.

Now, all he had left in his backpack was half a piece of tough, inedible dried fish and a chipped short blade.

If he didn't eat hot meat, he would definitely die tonight.

In Yamamoto Kenta's personal livestream, the island nation viewers were as anxious as ants on a hot pan.

[ Keep moving forward! There must be a way to survive ahead! ]

[ There was a sound of something collapsing over there just now; there must be resources buried underneath! ]

[ That Chinese pig, Lin Ye of Great Xia, was able to dig out an oil field with just a shovel, Yamamoto-kun can definitely do it too! ]

[ Look over there quickly! The color of the snow is wrong! Go over there and look! ]

Yamamoto Kenta ignored the fanaticism of the bullet comments.

His gaze was fixed on what lay ahead.

In the middle of the sparse tree line, a massive sinkhole had opened up.

The snow crust at the edge of the pit had been blown away by the wind, revealing large patches of black soil.

The most critical thing was that he smelled it.

The smell of blood!

On this wasteland where everything could freeze, the smell of blood meant a fresh corpse.

A corpse meant meat.

Even if it was just a skeleton chewed over by other things, scraping off a few shreds of meat would be enough for him to survive tonight's blizzard.

Yamamoto Kenta stuck out his tongue and licked his cracked, bleeding lips.

He drew his short blade.

"As long as there is food, I can hold on."

He stepped into the snow, walking step by step toward the sinkhole.

Beneath the snow layer, a few Blood-colored Vines slowly turned.

They followed his footprints, trailing him silently.