Cold

Wang Shuo froze for a moment. “Why?”

“Because the most dangerous places should always be left to those with the greatest strength.”

With that, Liu Feiyu closed her eyes again. The rhythm of her fingers never faltered as she continued to lose herself in her own world.

Everyone in the vehicle understood what she meant.

These student soldiers weren’t qualified to venture into the most dangerous areas yet.

Wang Shuo’s face shifted between red and pale. With those words, he had been made to look like a joke.

Chen Guan had remained silent the entire time. He leaned against a corner by the joint between the carriages—a spot that jolted the most and attracted the least attention.

The dull ache in his left arm grew sharper amid the cold and the constant shaking, as though countless ants were crawling through the gaps between his bones.

Just then, the vehicle lurched violently. The emergency light on the ceiling flickered twice, went out, then came back on.

Li Ce’s voice crackled through the intercom from the driver’s cab, distorted by static. “We’ve just passed through the first detection barrier. The energy field is becoming unstable. Hold on tight.”

Through the narrow bulletproof observation window at the rear of the vehicle, they could already see the blue rift in the distance, stretching from the heavens to the earth.

“How much longer?” An Changqing asked into the intercom.

“Five minutes,” Li Ce replied.

Chen Guan extended his right hand and touched the cold metal disk in his pocket.

Baal let out a mocking laugh. “Using a strand of cotton as a lifeline. Humans really are amusing.”

Chen Guan ignored the taunt and pushed the disk deeper into his pocket.

His physical body might be invincible, and there might be a demon god lodging in his mental space, but it never hurt to be cautious.

The troop carrier gradually slowed, finally coming to a stop after a slight rocking motion.

The engine shut down.

Silence descended in an instant. Only the energy fluctuations from the blue rift remained, pulsing with a low rumble in their ears.

The hydraulic mechanism at the rear of the vehicle emitted a muffled clanking sound.

The heavy metal ramp began to lower. A streak of icy, blue light shone through the opening, accompanied by a blast of freezing air.

Li Ce appeared at the mouth of the ramp. Without looking back, he raised a hand and gestured for them to advance.

“We’re here.”

“Those assigned to the eastern survey group, disembark.”

An Changqing was the first to walk down the ramp. His boots landed on the crystallized ground with a crisp crack.

Cold.

So cold.

Unbearably cold.

The chill pierced through everyone in an instant.

There wasn’t a trace of moisture in the air. Every breath felt like swallowing snow and ice, leaving their chests numb and constricted.

The twelve of them quickly assembled outside in a loose defensive formation.

The troop carrier left its headlights on behind them. Two beams of light stabbed into the distant darkness, becoming the only warm-colored lights in this blue world.

“Commander Li, aren’t you coming with us?” one of the students from Yanjing Academy asked.

Li Ce shook his head and leaned against the vehicle door, arms folded across his chest. “Our mission is to deliver you safely and wait for you at the designated rendezvous point.”

“Good luck.”

With that, he turned and returned to the driver’s cab.

The heavy ramp slowly rose. The moment it sealed shut, it let out a deep, muffled boom, swallowing the two beams of light along with it.

The engine roared back to life. The troop carrier turned around, its tracks grinding over the crystallized ground, and soon vanished into the darkness.

Now they had been completely abandoned on this wasteland.

All that remained between heaven and earth was the rift in the distance, stretching from the sky to the ground like a gigantic blue eye silently watching them.

“Team Leader An, which way do we go now?” Wang Shuo’s voice broke the silence.

Though he had plenty of complaints about the mission, he wasn’t about to challenge the leader at a time like this.

An Changqing raised his wrist. A simple map appeared on the screen, with a blinking red dot marking their current location.

“Move in the three-o’clock direction and maintain a steady pace.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone. “This is a survey mission, not a combat mission.”

“Our primary objective is to collect data. Do not engage with anything. Understood?”

“Understood,” everyone answered in unison.

“Move out.”

An Changqing led from the front, with Qin Wu and Li Yuqing spreading out to his left and right rear, forming the most basic triangular search formation.

They had worked together to some extent before, so they still had a decent level of coordination.

The students from Yanjing, however, were far more loosely organized. There was nothing to be done about that.

Chen Guan walked toward the rear of the group, with Long Ao on his left and Su Yuehe on his right. Without realizing it, they had placed him between them and were protecting him.

The team moved silently across the crystallized wasteland. The only sound beneath their feet was the crisp crunch of shattered crystals.

Blue light poured down from the rift overhead, stretching and twisting everyone’s shadows across the uneven ground.

“This damned place is reading minus forty degrees Celsius, but it feels colder than minus sixty.”

One of the Yanjing Academy students rubbed his hands together. The white vapor from his breath instantly condensed into frost.

At the rear of the formation, Chen Guan felt the ache in his left arm grow more pronounced in the extreme cold. Fine needles of pain seemed to bore out from within his bones.

An Changqing suddenly stopped ahead and raised a hand, signaling the entire team to halt.

“What is it?” Qin Wu stopped and looked at him.

An Changqing crouched down and touched a crystal on the ground whose color clearly differed from the rest. It was deep purple, standing out sharply against the pale blue crystals surrounding it.

“The detector is responding.”

Li Yuqing held up the device. The waveforms on its screen were jumping violently. “The energy level is three times higher than in the surrounding area. The source is eight hundred meters straight ahead.”

Wang Shuo leaned over to look at the readings, his brows drawing tightly together. “This concentration is wrong. The briefing said the energy concentration in the outer region should remain below the safety threshold.”

“The briefing was based on data from three days ago.”

An Changqing rose and brushed the crystal fragments from his hands. “The rift’s fluctuation frequency is increasing. A rise in the surrounding energy concentration is normal.”

“Normal? You call this normal?”

Wang Shuo’s voice rose slightly.

Long Ao came up from behind and stopped beside An Changqing. He glanced at Wang Shuo. “If you’re scared, you can stay here and wait for us to come back.”

Wang Shuo’s face flushed. “Who said I was scared?”

“Then keep moving.”

An Changqing offered no further explanation and turned to continue forward.

The group started moving again, but their pace had noticeably slowed. The distance between each person had also widened.

Chen Guan walked toward the rear of the formation on the right flank, with Su Yuehe two steps ahead of him.

Her stride was steady, but Chen Guan noticed that her breathing had become noticeably faster than when they first set out.

“Are you cold?” Chen Guan asked.

Su Yuehe turned to look at him, the tip of her nose red from the cold. “I’m fine. The air here is just uncomfortable to breathe in. My chest feels tight.”

Huo Qixing could still alter his attributes to resist the cold. Su Yuehe, already low on mana, had no choice but to endure it through sheer toughness.