Swift Travel and Wolf Assault
Relying on the Shadow Frost War Elephants' leg strength, Fa's ability to disperse the snow fog, and Lin Ya's navigation, the team crossed a vast distance on the first day. The monotonous pallor of the Eternal Frost Tundra blurred into the background under high-speed movement. However, this desolate land was never short of hungry predators. The newly acquired aura of the Cold Silence origin within Fa, like a dark beacon of temptation, attracted countless lurking covetous eyes.
At noon, as the team traversed an area dotted with low ice hills, the first wave of assault descended.
Woo—!
A mournful, prolonged wolf howl echoed from all directions, piercing through the wind. Immediately after, dozens of agile white figures emerged like specters from behind the ice hills and snow gullies! They were a size larger than ordinary snow wolves, with fur like needles and eyes flickering with hungry ethereal green light—the tyrants of the Eternal Frost Tundra, the Snow Plains Wolf Pack! Their target was clear, locking onto the first sled where Fa emanated the enticing "cold aura," launching a fearless charge in an attempt to tear through the defenses and devour the "prey" containing powerful energy.
"Beasts! Courting death!" Kayla roared, leaping from the second sled. She didn't opt for the energy-consuming fourth-stage transformation but used the second stage: her left arm exploded with thunder light, instantly swelling and covering with destructive lightning, transforming into a ferocious "Thunderstorm Giant Claw"! Her right arm surged with cold air, condensing into thick and sturdy "Frost Heavy Armor"! Like a human cannonball, she smashed heavily into the densest part of the wolf pack.
Boom! The Thunderstorm Giant Claw swept horizontally, violent thunder exploding and electrocuting two pouncing giant wolves into charred masses that flew backward. The Frost Heavy Armor blocked a side pounce's sharp teeth, emitting a clang of metal, while Kayla's right leg whipped out, her ice-armored knee ruthlessly shattering another wolf's jaw.
"Don't let them get near Fa!" Gorg bellowed, his chainsaw battle axe engine roaring as he jumped from the sled, charging like a heavy tank. The axe blade whistled through the air, bisecting a wolf attempting to flank, the bloody scent instantly permeating the air. Jack's "Thunderer" gunshots rang out rhythmically, white-hot energy beams precisely sniping leaping wolves, blasting them apart in mid-air.
Arya stood steadily on Fa's sled, drawing her Storm Bow. She didn't use high-power arrow techniques but fired a barrage of arrows imbued with "Wind Binding" effects. Cyan cyclones precisely entangled several wolves attempting to encircle from the flanks, drastically reducing their speed and turning them into live targets for Kayla and Gorg.
Yuyuer endured the headache from her not fully recovered mental strength, raising her dragon bone staff. "Illusory Tide · Ice Crystal Labyrinth!" The crystal ball flowed with blue light, a thin layer of light-distorting ice mist instantly enveloping the wolves' charging path. The snow wolves trapped within immediately lost their sense of direction, colliding and biting each other, their attack formation thrown into chaos.
The wolf pack's assault quickly disintegrated under the team's tacit cooperation. Leaving behind over a dozen wolf corpses, the remaining snow wolves let out unwilling howls and vanished into the wind and snow.
Ice Crystal Scorpion Ambush and Cooperation
In the evening, the team entered an area filled with massive, semi-transparent blue ice pillars. The setting sun's afterglow refracted through the ice pillars, casting dreamy yet dangerous lights. The Shadow Frost War Elephants seemed to sense something, their steps becoming hesitant, emitting low soul whines.
"Something's there! Underground!" Lin Ya's notion carried a warning.
Before the words finished, the ice surface beneath everyone suddenly shook violently and cracked! Hundreds of massive, crystal-clear Ice Crystal Scorpions burst out from under the ice layer! Their shells were like carved sapphires, shimmering with cold light, their tails raised high, tips condensing highly compressed ice spikes that shot toward the people on the sleds with piercing whistles! At the same time, they swung their massive, ice-chisel-like pincers, viciously clamping at the sled edges and the pulling war elephant skeletons, attempting to destroy the vehicles.
"Watch out for the stingers!" Zhamisi scolded娇, springing from the third sled, her Poison Fang Curved Blades tracing inky green arcs in the air. "Abyssal Poison Mist · Bone-Eroding Stream!" She crossed her dual blades in a flourish, no longer diffusing poison mist but highly compressed inky green venom streams, precisely shooting like spirit snakes toward the joints of several scorpions' tail stingers. Sizzling sounds arose as the deadly poison rapidly corroded the ice crystal shells, the scorpions emitting sharp screeches, their tail attacks instantly paralyzed.
"Yuyuer, freeze their legs!" Zhamisi shouted.
"Got it!" Yuyuer responded immediately. Pointing her dragon bone staff at the ice surface, "Ice Water Binding · Frost Ring!" Centered on the scorpions eroded by Zhamisi's venom, cold pale chill rapidly spread, firmly freezing their pincer legs and parts of their bodies to the ice, rendering them immobile.
"Great job!" TISK praised, standing on the sled and slamming down his Lava Hammer! "Furnace Shock!" A shockwave with a dark red halo spread along the ice, shattering the frozen scorpions along with the ice blocks! Rex's nano-drone swarm whistled out, their surfaces covered in thin frost, firing not hot energy rays but ice-blue freezing beams, precisely targeting scorpion joints and compound eyes, slowing their movements.
Arya targeted the scorpions threatening the war elephants. "Wind Arrow · Spiral Pierce!" Arrows wrapped in spiral airflows precisely penetrated the scorpions' relatively weak head-thorax junctions, nailing them dead to the ice. Kayla switched back to Thunderstorm Giant Claw form, jumping directly onto a scorpion's back, infusing violent thunder into its shell gaps and blasting it open from the inside.
Though the ambush was sudden, under the team's quick reactions and Zhamisi and Yuyuer's newly developed "water-poison hybrid attack" tactic, the Ice Crystal Scorpion swarm was quickly exterminated. The team didn't linger and continued forward.
Lin Ya's Shelter
As night fell, the temperature in the Eternal Frost Tundra plummeted to terrifying levels. The wind and snow intensified; even with Fa dispersing part of the snow fog, visibility was extremely low. Lin Ya once again demonstrated the power of the Forest Oathkeeper. He chose a spot below a wind-sheltered ice cliff, his roots growing wildly, rapidly constructing a sturdier life-wood cabin with an arched roof than before. This time, the walls and roof faintly showed intricate emerald patterns like ice crystal veins—this was Lin Ya's new defensive manifestation after absorbing some resentment and ice-cold energy from the Cold Silence Ice Palace, better resisting physical impacts and extreme cold erosion.
Inside, the root floor emanated gentle warmth. Everyone sat together, sharing Karim's high-energy rations and hot soup. Lirian's prepared herbal tea wafted a soothing aroma. The atmosphere was somewhat lighter than after the Ice Palace battle, but the gravity remained.
"Those scorpions... coordinated well." Zhamisi wiped her Poison Fang Curved Blades with a cloth, nodding her chin at Yuyuer. Yuyuer's pale face showed a faint smile as she nodded, cradling the hot tea to warm her hands.
"The experimental subjects researched by Doomsday Rebirth... who knows what monsters they'll be." Jack inspected the barrel of his "Thunderer," his tone heavy.
"No matter what monsters, this old man's hammer will smash them flat!" TISK waved his Lava Hammer, the runes on it faintly flowing with a trace of ethereal blue cold air, a new trait after incorporating Ice Palace materials.
Rex busied himself in the corner repairing several nano-drones damaged in battle and logging the collected Ice Crystal Scorpion shell data into the database. "New enemy unit data recorded. Defense strategy updating." The cold mechanical voice reported.
Fa leaned against Arya, her right eye bandaged again, quietly sensing the flow of the Cold Silence origin within her and the vast stellar power in the depths of her Star Eye. Arya held her hand, continuously nourishing her with warm life energy. Kayla meditated in the corner, thunder light and cold air alternating on her body, evidently consolidating control over her newly acquired power forms.
Frost Stalker's Deadly Hunt
On the second morning, the team set off again. As they approached the towering Frostblade Snow Mountain, encircled by eternal storms, the magical beasts on the tundra became scarcer, as if even those fierce predators held awe for that sacred (or dangerous) peak. Yet the oppressive feeling in the air grew heavier, the thin oxygen and omnipresent chill testing everyone's endurance.
However, just as the mountain's outline, like a giant sword cleaving the sky, became clearly visible at the base, the most dangerous hunter appeared.
Without warning, without sound. A nearly transparent, distorted figure almost blending with the snow ground glided along the ice at astonishing speed like a specter, targeting Fa on the first sled! It stirred only minimal snowflake ripples in movement; if not for Lin Ya's extreme perception of life energy and Rex's high-sensitivity dynamic sensors on his armor simultaneously issuing sharp alerts, the team would have been hard-pressed to detect it!
"Careful! Frost Stalker! Left side!" Lin Ya and Rex's voices rang out almost simultaneously.
The figure erupted abruptly when less than ten meters from the sled! It fully materialized, shaped like a massive skinned humanoid mantis, covered in color-shifting camouflage ice crystal shells, its four scythe-like sharp limbs carrying bone-chilling cold and air-tearing whistles, slashing viciously at Fa! Its attack was lightning-fast, with a soul-freezing chill, evidently sensing Fa's pure Cold Silence origin and viewing it as the ultimate nutrient for evolution!
"Fa!" Arya exclaimed in alarm, instantly drawing her Storm Bow fully, light and dark elements converging at the arrow tip, but in the haste, it was too late!
At the critical moment!
"Time... Stagnate!" Fa's right eye bandage fluttered without wind, a flash of ethereal light in the Star Eye depths! Not complete stagnation, but a forced distortion and slowing of time flow for herself and a small surrounding area! In an imperceptible instant to ordinary people, the Frost Stalker's ghostly swift slashing trajectory became clearly visible in her eyes, like slow-motion playback!
This gained fraction of a second was enough for Kayla to react! "Get lost!" She roared, directly launching a short-range "Ice Thunder Charge" from the second sled! Without transforming, but pushing her thunder claws and ice armor powers to the limit, her whole body enveloped in an ice-thunder storm, arriving first despite starting later, slamming heavily into the Frost Stalker's flank!
Boom! Ear-piercing impact and energy explosion resounded! The Frost Stalker staggered from the collision, its fatal slash trajectory deviating, grazing past Fa's body and carving a deep, frost-covered crack on the sled edge! Kayla was also repelled by the recoil, cracks appearing on her arm's ice armor, thunder light flickering unstably.
"Freeze it!" Zhamisi's Poison Fang Curved Blades followed with inky green poison glow, but the Frost Stalker's shell seemed highly resistant to deadly poison, the venom sliding off with minimal corrosion.
Yuyuer seized the opportunity: "Extreme Cold Bind!" Drawing on her new insights into the Cold Silence origin, her dragon bone staff tip shot a condensed pale chill with white star gleams, not wide-area freezing but chaining like locks toward the Stalker's joints! The Stalker's movements indeed showed a trace of lag.
"Target locked! Weak point analysis: Head compound eyes and neck junction!" Rex's electronic eyes locked with blue light, his back ion cannon instantly charged. "Superconducting Freeze Round · Launch!" A projectile shimmering with ethereal blue light whistled out, not exploding but releasing a terrifying absolute low-temperature field upon hitting the Stalker's neck! Crack! The neck's ice crystal shell instantly froze and brittled!
"Now's the time!" Gorg, like a beast long waiting, swept his chainsaw battle axe with a roar that tore everything! Splurt! The frozen brittle neck severed cleanly! The Stalker's gruesome head flew off, its headless body twitching a few times before crashing down, its transparent blood rapidly freezing into ice.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, lingering fear in their hearts. The Frost Stalker's stealth and lethal strike—if not for Fa's crucial time stagnation gaining that instant, plus Kayla's self-sacrificing collision and the subsequent precise coordination—the consequences would have been unimaginable. This also gave them a more intuitive understanding of Frostblade Snow Mountain's dangers—even the gatekeepers at the base were this terrifying.
Farewell at the Foot of Frostblade
After slaying the Frost Stalker, the team encountered no major obstacles. The Shadow Frost War Elephants pulled the sleds, finally arriving at the foot of Frostblade Snow Mountain before night fully fell on the second day.
Looking up, the massive mountain body was like an ancient giant supporting the heavens, silent and majestic. Above the mountainside, it was completely shrouded in ceaselessly rolling eternal storm clouds with hidden lightning, fierce winds howling down from above, whipping up ground snow into ghostly wails. The cold air was so thin it made breathing difficult. The Light Feather Dome at the summit was hidden in the storm and darkness, seemingly unreachable.
The sleds stopped. Lin Ya retracted the life energy constructing the sleds, and the Shadow Frost War Elephants, under Salsa's command, dissipated into wisps of cold air and shadows, vanishing into the wind and snow.
Lirian, Jack, and Gorg walked up to Fa and the others. Their faces showed relief from completing their mission and worry for the future: "Fa, Arya, everyone. Our path ends here. Karim's commission—we've fulfilled it, safely escorting you to the foot of Frostblade Snow Mountain."
Gorg pounded his thick chest hard, his grayish-green face like rock in the cold wind: "The road ahead is the climb of the brave. Scaling this mountain, finding that glowing bird nest (Light Feather Dome), is up to you now! Remember, the storm is alive; it will tear apart weak souls!"
Jack shouldered his "Thunderer," his mechanical prosthetic eye scanning the towering peak, grinning with a mercenary's characteristic nonchalance and approval of these companions: "Hey, folks, up there ain't for fun. The wind can scatter your bones, air thin like an old lizard's drunken ramblings. But..." He paused, looking at Fa, "I believe you can do it. Come back alive, don't forget to buy this old man a good drink!"
Fa took a deep breath of the icy air carrying the mountain's austere scent, her right Star Eye seeming to pierce through the rolling storm via the bandage, seeing the glow at the summit. She solemnly bowed to the three guides who had shared life and death along the way: "Lirian, Jack, Gorg... Without you, we wouldn't have made it here. We remember this favor in our hearts. Thank you!" Arya and the other companions also sincerely thanked them.
"Take care!" "Come back alive!" The three guides said no more, turning away, their figures soon disappearing into the wind and snow in the direction they came. They still needed to cross the tundra and bring back everything that happened here, especially the intelligence on the Doomsday Rebirth organization, to Wing Shadow Port.
Watching the guides leave, Fa turned around, facing the majestic Frostblade Snow Mountain and the all-devouring storm. Her gaze swept over her companions: Arya's gentle yet resolute eyes, Kayla's eager battle intent, TISK's fist-rubbing fighting spirit, Rex's calmly scanning electronic eyes, Zhamisi's focused poison blade quenching, Yuyuer's contemplative gaze at the peak, Lin Ya's steadily emanating life glow, and the flickering ethereal light in Salsa's mechanical cat eyes.
Fatigue lingered, wounds unhealed, but the baptism of the Cold Silence Ice Palace and the battles along the way had tempered them even tougher. New powers surged within, the shadow of Doomsday Rebirth and the call of the stars awaited at the summit.
"We'll camp here and rest." Fa's voice was clear and calm, piercing the wind and snow's howl, "Regain our strength. Tomorrow at dawn..."
She lifted her head, her right eye seeming to burn with flames of stars and cold ice, pointing to the storm-ravaged cloud summit.
"Climb Frostblade Snow Mountain, straight to the Light Feather Dome!"