"I'm really pissed off. Didn't we agree to hide from headquarters here and treat it like a vacation? I just ate a whole roasted lamb, two pieces of yak meat, and half a plate of pilaf, and now I have to go through this?
I'll be damned if I ever go on another business trip."
He Li cursed under his breath as he sat on the ice, tightening the clothes on Xiao Lan, then his own.
"Xiao Lan, let's go save that snow lotus."
"Woof!"
Xiao Lan turned and ran, with He Li following.
"Xiao Yue, do you know where Kuer was dragged to?"
"Mm, under the glacier."
"Is he dead?"
"Still breathing."
"Then that's good. If he were dead, we'd leave right now. Since he's not, we have to go save him. It's a shame, all my grenades and bombs are in the car. I don't have any suitable weapons on me."
Xiao Yue was speechless. He really liked using guns and grenades.
He Li followed Xiao Lan, and soon they reached a huge ice crevice. Xiao Lan stood at the edge of the crevice, looking at He Li.
He Li nodded. If Kuer were dead, he would leave immediately without looking back. But since Kuer wasn't dead, he had to go save him.
Xiao Lan slowly walked into the ice crevice. He Li opened his watch, connected it to his glasses, and activated the scanning function. Xiao Yue walked leisurely beside He Li, his expression calm. It didn't concern him anyway; as long as He Li was safe, that was all that mattered. Kuer, Xiao Lan, none of them had anything to do with him.
The sides of the ice crevice were lined with hanging icicles, some of them four or five meters long.
The only sound in the crevice was the crunching and cracking of broken ice underfoot.
Suddenly,
it became foggy.
It didn't seem like fog, but rather a white mist mixed with fine ice crystals and snowflakes. He Li felt ice shards in his breath, a chilling cold.
Xiao Lan stopped in front of the white mist, waiting for He Li.
He Li walked to Xiao Lan's side, carefully observing the white mist.
No,
it wasn't white mist,
but a hazy white barrier.
He Li glanced at Xiao Yue. "What's behind this?"
Xiao Yue replied, "It's a staircase made of ice. Below the staircase is a palace of ice. I don't know what's inside the palace, but your friend is at the palace's main gate."
He Li took a deep breath, pondered for a moment, then turned back.
Xiao Yue was indifferent. Saving or not saving, it had nothing to do with him. Xiao Lan also followed He Li back, and it had nothing to do with it either; it was merely following He Li's orders.
After a few steps,
He Li stopped, his face grim, his eyes conflicted and struggling.
"Damn it!"
He spat fiercely, cursed, then turned and walked into the white barrier.
Xiao Lan and Xiao Yue followed closely, plunging into the white barrier.
The glacier disappeared, and at the same time, the cold in the air intensified.
In front of He Li was a staircase of ice leading straight down. The sides were smooth, white ice walls. The sky was not visible above, nor the ground below. Everything was pure white, a hazy, blurred white.
They could only move forward or backward.
In this mysterious and unknown icy space, the atmosphere was oppressive. There was no sound. When He Li reached out to touch the ice wall, he quickly retracted his hand; it was cold, chillingly so.
Looking at the vast white expanse below the stairs, He Li gritted his teeth and stepped onto the first step.
Then,
he began to walk down slowly.
Xiao Lan followed behind He Li, and Xiao Yue walked beside He Li.
He Li asked, "How much further to the ice palace?"
In such a quiet and eerie environment, sound was the only solace for his mind. Chatting and talking gave He Li a sense of security.
Xiao Yue, however, answered his question with a smile, "You shouldn't be afraid."
He Li replied, "I'm not afraid, but that's emotionally. Not having the emotion of fear doesn't mean I'm willing to put myself in danger."
"There are still one hundred and twenty steps."
"Thank you."
Continuing to walk down, He Li was surrounded by white mist for more than ten meters in front and behind him, with ice walls on either side. At this moment, he was like the meat in the middle of a hamburger.
"The Mother of Poplars is over 3,600 years old, meaning it has survived since the beginning of this era. There's also a theory that it survived from the previous era. People of the new era can only record the time of the current era."
Xiao Yue nodded. "It's not impossible." After speaking, he added, "Of course, there's another possibility: that tree, like the dog beside you, is also a divine envoy or servant of some god."
He Li was silent for a moment. "Does that include the green-eyed eagle?"
Xiao Yue nodded. "I'm just saying it's a possibility. I don't know about that eagle. Of course, if dogs and trees can be divine envoys, why can't an eagle?"
"I'm not saying that tree is definitively a divine envoy of some god, it's just a guess. Don't make further deductions based on my guesses; it's easy to make mistakes."
He Li grunted. "Thank you for the reminder."
"We've arrived."
He Li descended the last step and stood on a circular ice platform. White ice walls surrounded him. The ice platform connected to an ice bridge, below which was an unfathomably deep glacier. Opposite the ice bridge stood a colossal ice palace.
Kuer was hanging from the main gate of the ice palace, his head bowed. Blood continuously flowed from his body, slowly staining the ice gate red.
It shouldn't be called staining red,
rather, Kuer's blood seeped into the ice gate.
The pure white ice gate gradually turned into a light red blood ice.
"Should I just drag him over?" Xiao Yue asked.
He Li turned to look at Xiao Yue and blinked. "Xiao Yue, we're here to rescue someone, not to rob a tomb. I'm not interested in an ice palace beneath a glacier. Besides, I didn't bring a compass or candles."
Xiao Yue nodded, and instantly, viscous psychic energy filled the entire space.
Kuer slowly flew down from the ice gate, hovering across the ice bridge. He Li reached out to catch Kuer, hoisted him onto his shoulder, and immediately turned to leave.
The moment he stepped onto the first step.
Crack!
A loud ice-cracking sound echoed behind He Li, followed by a gust of cold wind carrying snowflakes and ice shards.
He Li slowly turned around, looking at the massive, light red ice gate.
The ice gate opened with a grating sound and the cracking of solid ice.
A bone-chillingly cold wind surged out from within the gate.
The ground beneath He Li began to shake, the ice bridge broke, and fell into the glacier.
"Screech!"
The piercing cry of a giant eagle echoed from the bottom of the glacier.
Immediately after,
the ice palace also began to shake. Several branches, thicker than He Li, extended from inside the gate and pierced the ice layer in front of the palace.
A deep voice emanated from the palace,
"You actually woke up first and came to my sleeping palace."
...