Chapter 147: The Ice Pit

Zhu Senlin was only overweight, not frail. He had strong limbs and lived a comfortable life, leaving him well-fleshed, robust, and exceptionally resistant to the cold—a typical example of someone who feared the heat rather than the frost. Wearing a leather hat and thick woolen gloves, and gripping mountaineering tools, he climbed upward with impressive vigor.

Seeing that the person he had been worrying about turned out to be far more reassuring than himself, Zhang Can clenched his teeth and did his best to climb upward as well. Su Xue was still ahead of him, ready to provide support. While the cold affected him less than anyone else in the group, his physical stamina, experience, and psychological resilience fell far short of the others.

Then there was Wang Qian, who was even worse off than Zhang Can, as his tolerance for the cold was the lowest of all. However, Wang Qian was flanked by bodyguards and men arranged by Zheng Dabao who helped and looked after him every step of the way, so he managed well enough. Besides, as the leader and the highest-ranking core figure of this operation, retreat was naturally out of the question for him.

Climbing upward step by step on the steep snow slope, their progress was extremely slow. By nightfall, they had only ascended a hundred meters or so to reach a snow cliff. Atop the cliff lay a flat stretch of land some thirty meters wide, above which the terrain grew steep once more.

Not until the members of all four groups had climbed up did Zheng Dabao instruct his men to pitch their tents right against the cliff wall. Pitching tents against the rock face was a matter of basic common sense; if snow masses rolled down from above, such as in an avalanche, people were most easily buried. According to the laws of parabolic motion, falling snow or ice chunks would not land flush against the cliff wall, but would typically fall five or six meters away from it.

The men then set up their cooking gear, lit alcohol stoves to melt snow for water, and tossed in dried beef once the water boiled. With no branches or firewood to be found here, this was their only option. When natural firewood could not be used, the self-brought supplies had to be strictly rationed; otherwise, they would not last until the descent. Without a way to cook food on the snowy mountain, dried beef would be as hard as frozen stone, capable of chipping one's teeth.

Finally, Zheng Dabao’s men added some powdered mutton, and the soup soon began to exude a rich aroma. Still, the taste fell far short of roasted beef, and everyone received a strictly measured portion. After eating, they retreated to their tents and crawled into their sleeping bags. The seventeen people were divided into two groups of seven, with the remainder taking turns on night watch. The night watch was meant to guard against unexpected incidents or wild beasts, though in a place like this, the number of wild beasts capable of reaching them was likely negligible. While some creatures, such as snow squirrels and birds, could climb up, they posed no threat to humans; the primary danger they actually had to guard against was an avalanche.

Zhang Can had intended to keep his distance from Su Xue and find a separate spot, but she stuck close to him, and as a result, they still ended up sharing a tent. Zhang Can sighed inwardly. Since they were in the same tent, he still had to be mindful of her status as a young woman, so he kept his head down and moved to the very edge. Su Xue naturally followed him there, squeezed into the innermost corner, and unzipped her sleeping bag.

Once inside their sleeping bags, no one spoke, each person rushing to get some sleep. Undertaking an expedition like this required intense mental concentration; otherwise, one would simply be toying with their own life.

Zheng Dabao sat smoking a cigarette with a deeply furrowed brow. He had no certainty about finding the place his father had once visited, and the path only seemed to grow more treacherous. He had no idea what tomorrow's journey would bring after another full day of travel.

Zhang Can pulled his leather hat down to cover his eyes and tried to sleep, but with his mind racing with thoughts, he simply could not drift off. Beneath him lay a leather sleeping bag, and the ground inside the tent was layered with fur and plastic mats to prevent melting snow from seeping into the bag. Unable to sleep, Zhang Can released the energy within his body to probe the ground beneath him.

The thickness of the snow beneath the ground was unknown, but under Zhang Can's energetic probing, the snow depth immediately revealed itself to be a little over a meter. The deepest layer of snow, having accumulated over a long period, had frozen quite solid, which meant that when people moved across the surface, their feet would only sink in by about a foot.

A depth of this sort posed no grave danger to humans, but it would unquestionably slow down their forward progress.

In the past, Zhang Can's energy had never encountered snow. It had only manifested in the sea, a bathtub, and finally during a storm and a river below the mountain, where the power of his Water-Averting Pearl was able to come into play. Now, when the energy of the Water-Averting Pearl encountered accumulated snow, it could vaguely probe outward for a distance of over ten meters, though the images formed in his mind were not very clear.

Since snow was simply frozen water, the energy of Zhang Can's Water-Averting Pearl still had some effect, but it could not compare to liquid water. The energetic probe was greatly diminished, restricting his detection range to a radius of ten meters or so around him.

Hearing Su Xue's breathing shift between rapid and slow, he knew she was still awake. He tucked his head in slightly and concentrated on running the spiritual energy within his mind. Whenever he had spare time, it was best to practice and hone his spiritual energy. Zhang Can felt that he could no longer live without this power; he used it constantly, and if he went without it even for a short while, he would feel as though he had lost something vital.

His mastery of spiritual energy had become extremely refined through constant practice, yet it still refused to merge with the energy of the Water-Averting Pearl scattered throughout his body. Zhang Can sometimes wondered: if these two types of energy were to fuse, just how terrifying a level would they reach, given the immense power of the Water-Averting Pearl?

Although he had failed to fuse the two different energies, frequent practice had made his spiritual energy noticeably stronger than before. The direct result was that Zhang Can felt more capable, possessed greater endurance, and could wield the power of the Water-Averting Pearl with much greater synergy.

The energy of the Water-Averting Pearl was truly miraculous; Zhang Can felt absolutely no sensation of cold, which was completely different from the perspective-granting spiritual energy. However, the spiritual energy of his perspective-enhanced eyes could heal ailments—another extremely practical function Zhang Can had discovered since acquiring it.

Su Xue's breathing gradually grew soft and even. It seemed she had finally fallen asleep. She shifted slightly within her sleeping bag, pressing her body closer to Zhang Can, evidently still feeling a trace of chill.

A thought stirred in Zhang Can's mind. Since the energy of the Water-Averting Pearl on his body could ward off the cold, what would happen if he tried channeling that energy into Su Xue's body? Could it help drive away the chill for her?

Acting on the thought, Zhang Can—who was already quite familiar with the dispersed energy of the Water-Averting Pearl within him—channeled a portion of it into Su Xue's body. Su Xue lay curled up in her sleeping bag. In an environment like this, it was bound to be bitterly cold no matter what. But the moment his energy entered her body, Zhang Can clearly felt that it allowed her blood to circulate normally and her body temperature to return to normal. It actually worked!

Su Xue's breathing gradually grew steady, and in her sleep, she comfortably straightened her body out inside the sleeping bag. She stirred slightly, yet continued to lean against Zhang Can's side.

Meanwhile, Zhang Can drifted off into a hazy slumber himself. As the first faint light of dawn appeared on the horizon, the two men on night watch had already finished boiling the beef soup. Everyone got up, drank the soup first, and then packed their belongings. By eight o'clock, when full daylight broke, they prepared to move out once more.

The climbing resumed. After advancing for a little over ten meters, the terrain suddenly leveled out somewhat, but the snow grew deeper and thicker. Zheng Dabao and his men, possessing the greatest experience, acted as pathfinders at the front, using telescopic poles to probe the ground ahead. Only when a pole met solid ground upon insertion would they advance; if it met empty space, they had to detour. Otherwise, falling into a deep ice crevasse could prove fatal. Moreover, inside some of these ice caves stood icicles that had remained unfrozen for ten thousand years, as sharp as iron spikes. If a person fell into the cave and landed on them, they would undoubtedly be pierced straight through.

Zhang Can was still assigned to the very rear position, with Su Xue directly in front of him. Only a meter or two separated them, making it clear that Su Xue was keeping close to look after him.

Watching the way the lead men probed the path, Zhang Can couldn't help thinking that it would be ideal if he were at the very front. The energy of the Water-Averting Pearl within him could detect the thickness of the snow up to ten meters deep, making pathfinding an effortless task. Yet he had no justification for doing so; appearing as weak as he did now, how could Zheng Dabao's men possibly let him lead the way?

In truth, the person at the very front was in the greatest danger. The reason Zheng Dabao placed his own men at the head of the four groups to break the trail was precisely to rely on their hard-earned experience.

The distance between each of the four groups spanned roughly six or seven meters horizontally, making them look like grasshoppers tethered by four ropes along the slope.

The slope was long, the climb arduous, and a wind seemed to be picking up once more.

Zheng Dabao shielded his eyes with his hand, looked around from the front, and his expression changed somewhat as he cried out in alarm, "This is bad! The weather is turning—there's a blizzard coming!"

Everyone raised their heads to look around. The distant vistas that had previously been visible were now obscured by a hazy, pale mist, blocking the line of sight entirely. Nothing could be seen beyond a few dozen meters. It looked like ordinary mist, but Zheng Dabao and the others, with their wealth of experience, knew instantly that this was the precursor to a blizzard.

Being caught in such a middle-of-nowhere stretch with no place to take shelter when a major blizzard struck was the most perilous situation imaginable.

Glancing downward, attempting to return to their previous campsite was entirely impractical. Clenching his teeth, Zheng Dabao waved a hand and shouted, "Move up! Pick up the pace and hurry ahead to see if we can find a place to shelter from the wind and snow. Otherwise, once this massive blizzard hits, we'll all end up frozen like human popsicles, buried beneath this snow. Anyone who doesn't want to die, move!"

Seeing Zheng Dabao suddenly turn so fierce, everyone realized the danger was real. Zheng Dabao had always remained relatively calm and rarely used that tone of voice; it was clear he was genuinely panicked.

Zheng Dabao understood all too well that blizzards on snowy mountains struck without warning and were utterly irresistible. Their only chance now was to quickly locate a sheltered spot—preferably a recessed cliff overhang. On the snowy mountains they frequently traversed, virtually every location featured remnants left behind by predecessors, such as cliff shelters or cave entrances, and some even had temporary lodgings built from timber. But their current location certainly offered no such refuge, as no one had ever set foot here before.

Without needing instructions, Zheng Dabao's five men accelerated their pace on their own. They understood perfectly that if they failed to find shelter before the blizzard struck, not a single one of the seventeen of them would survive the ordeal.

Fortunately, Zhang Can did not fear the cold. In the snowy expanse, he grasped the safety rope with one hand while following closely behind, taking deep and shallow steps. The snowy mist seemed to grow thicker by the moment, and the rising wind whipped up with such force that it was difficult for anyone to stand steadily.

Growing increasingly anxious, Zheng Dabao muttered curses under his breath while pressing forward in haste, though urgency alone could not alter the fact that paradise did not await them ahead.

The lead man in Zhang Can's group also quickened his pace, but as his speed increased, his caution naturally waned. After advancing another four or five meters, he let out a sudden cry of "Aha!" and his entire body vanished right where he stood, plunging downward!

Zheng Dabao, standing seven or eight meters away, immediately shouted, "Watch out! It's an ice pit!"

Fortunately, the spot where the man fell was near the highest point of their segment, meaning it merely pulled the safety rope taut for the rest of his group, rather than causing them to tumble downward. Had they tumbled down, the level of danger would have escalated exponentially.

The companion directly behind the fallen man hurriedly scrambled forward, threw himself onto the edge of the pit, and shouted, "A-Budo! Where are you? Can you hear me?"