Chapter 28: A Cold Night

The snow at the northern foot of the mountains remained intact for longer, while the snow on the southern side melted easily due to sunlight. But this year’s climate was extremely unusual. After the first snowfall, the ground was still warm and the sun still held some strength, so the snow melted soon. Though it wasn’t as muddy as when Neo and the knight Adrian were on their way to Tures, soft, melted snow was widespread. Under such conditions, there were continuous sudden snowfalls, strong winds, and heavy snowstorms…

The mountains were covered in ice and thick snow. Neo arrived here in the morning, created an avalanche pit, and concluded that avalanches were highly likely. He told Mach and Valentina to follow in his footsteps, worried that an avalanche might strike before they reached their shelter. Fortunately, the extreme cold froze much of the snow, which worked in their favor.

For the Red Demons, this was truly the icing on the cake. An avalanche buried more than half of them under snow, and many were injured from the crush as they tried to escape.

As soon as Sarug emerged from the forest, he was stunned by the scale of the avalanche and the heavy losses it inflicted on his troops. Then he became furious and rushed toward the summit like a madman. He hated the culprit behind all this so much that he wanted to kill him while he was still alive—or even whip his corpse after death. With his banners buried, he no longer cared about his status.

There was a path on the steep slope that Neo had created earlier, but it was extremely difficult to climb. Right after the avalanche, Neo led the other two upward despite the lingering danger.

“Be careful—stability is speed!” Neo reminded them.

“Oh!” Mach and Valentina now fully trusted Neo.

To climb the icy slope, Neo brought ice axe grips, and his habit of having backups meant Valentina, who wasn’t part of the original plan, also had a tool to help her climb. Ice axes were the most useful at the moment, providing strong traction.

It was then that Sarug arrived. The icy slope was hard to climb, but Sarug was as strong as a level-10 warrior. His claw-like paws, glowing with combat energy, sent shards of ice flying with every grip on the slope, allowing him to climb up like a gecko.

“Die!” Sarug’s fury manifested in powerful combat energy attacks. Compared to blade attacks, combat energy attacks were far more devastating. Most importantly, given Neo and the others’ condition, it was almost impossible to dodge them.

Boom!

Valentina at the back used her shield to block the attack. Her face turned pale instantly, and blood spilled from the corner of her mouth.

From the aftermath of Sarug’s attack, Neo realized just how terrifying it was. The “Wave of Life” and “Touch of Life” targeted Valentina’s body and the arm holding the shield respectively. However, the healing effects of the Life series weren’t instant. Seeing Sarug gather energy again to launch another attack, the situation became critically urgent.

“Captain, hold on!” Mach shouted urgently.

“Okay!” Neo said, driving his ice axes firmly into the frozen wall.

Mach took out a small tube from her pocket, pulled an arrow from her thick, horizontally worn quiver, inserted it into the tube, pushed hard, and pulled back—resulting in a glowing blue tip on the arrow.

Bang!

Boom!

Almost at the same moment, Mach’s arrows struck again, and Sarug became active once more.
Bang! The shield in Valentina’s hands shattered, and her left arm was covered in blood. With a gurgle, she spat out blood, staining her scarf red. Her body went weak, and she collapsed unconscious.
Sarug stared in shock at the arrow embedded in its left front leg. There was an arrow that could penetrate its protective energy field. Moreover, despite its high resistance to toxins, its left front leg had become completely paralyzed in less than 2 seconds, and the paralysis was spreading rapidly throughout its body.
“Let me muster my strength one more time!” Sarug desperately wanted just a dozen more seconds, but it could no longer gather strength. Its heavy body rolled down the slope.
Whoosh! Three consecutive arrows, each carrying a faint blue glow. This was Mach’s strongest attack. His main class, like Neo’s, was at the stage of transitioning from level 4 to 5. The difference was that Neo, distracted by his shamanic skills and having just reached level 4, was improving rapidly but not steadily. Mach, on the other hand, had stayed at level 4 for a longer time, already understanding combat energy, and with Neo’s life magic boosting him, his progress was evident.
Sarug couldn’t dodge any of these three arrows. One of them accidentally damaged its private parts, causing it to let out agonized screams that carried far across the mountains on the wind as it rolled down.
Neo and Mach pulled the unconscious Valentina up, hastily bandaging her arm wound. With Mach’s help, Neo tied her to his back. “Let’s go!” Neo said in a deep voice, and the two continued climbing upward.
“Kill them! Kill them!” Sarug, falling down the mountain despite its injuries, screamed loudly. The paralysis came and went quickly, but the three additional arrows from Mach left it unable to climb again.
A couple of centurions rushed forward as ordered, but they had the same weight as Sarug yet lacked its strength. By then, Neo and the others had climbed higher. Helplessly, they unleashed a few energy blades, causing the centurions to slide down, forcing them to watch their enemies go.
“Circle around! Go behind the mountain! We must kill them today!” Sarug, enraged after having its private parts damaged, issued such a crazy order.
“Sarug-bi, our warriors can’t withstand the extreme cold up there. If we go any further, we’ll freeze to death!” one of the centurions bravely pointed out the dire situation.
Sarug finally realized the importance of its subordinates. It glared hatefully at Neo and the others in the distance. “Rescue our warriors! We’re going home!”
Home—this word sounded like heavenly news to the Red Ghosts. For this goal, they all worked hard to rescue their compatriots from the snow.
Buried in snow, people would die of suffocation in 15–20 minutes. With the large number of Red Ghosts and quick rescue efforts, 80% of them were saved.

Over a thousand, facing three opponents, more than a hundred died, while the enemy only suffered one injury—earned by their leader at great personal cost. Undoubtedly, it was a failed battle. Coupled with the shock of the avalanche, the Red Ghosts’ morale couldn’t rise; even though Sarug had been injured and walked with a stiff gait, it couldn’t lift their spirits.

Yet, the Red Ghosts’ misfortune had only just begun. Not knowing how long they could survive under the snow, they spent nearly half an hour searching for over a hundred corpses. At that moment, the first Red Ghost to freeze to death appeared—it had sustained minor injuries during the earlier pursuit and hadn’t paid attention at the time. By the time it realized something was wrong, the other Red Ghosts were busy rescuing others and ignored it. Eventually, blood loss and hypothermia led to its death. Sarug didn’t notice this; it was too preoccupied to focus on such trivial matters. “Take our warriors home!” was its latest order.

Humans and beasts always carried items by carrying them on their backs, but hauling the bodies of their own kind was a grueling task, especially when moving through knee-deep snow and dense jungles. Once inside the jungle, the mountain winds lessened, and the Red Ghosts felt somewhat better, but the cold remained pervasive. Many of them had thick layers of frost on their bodies, as if they had rolled in flour hundreds of times.

In the jungle, Sarug noticed signs of trouble: the Red Ghosts who had been seriously injured during the pursuit and left behind were either frozen to death or barely alive. When going out hunting, food was of utmost importance. Sarug couldn’t think beyond that; it repeated, “Take our warriors home!” and added, “Run as fast as you can to ward off the cold!”

Running? Sarug couldn’t imagine how unrealistic that concept was for those ordinary Red Ghosts. Although they took turns carrying the corpses, it didn’t solve their fundamental problem—excessive physical strain and excessive heat loss. Those buried in snow had their body heat absorbed by the cold snow, and the rescuers exhausted themselves. Additionally, the widespread frost on their bodies severely impaired the insulation of their fur. It was this frost, in this harsh battlefield, that caused constant loss of body heat, moment by moment.

Just as they emerged from the jungle, the Red Ghosts found that the wind and cold on the plain were even worse than on the slopes. Of course, this was partly an illusion—time was moving toward midnight, and the cold was intensifying. Still, it seemed better at the foot of the mountain. But the Red Ghosts’ resistance had plummeted, leading to this misconception.

More Red Ghosts froze to death—one after another. They were those who had suffered minor injuries during the pursuit but had lost a lot of body heat.

The situation was dire. Several centurions jointly suggested abandoning the warriors’ corpses and returning the next day to remove them. Sarug agreed, though sadly, the decision came too late.

Less than 2 kilometers from the forest, those with minor injuries and those carrying frozen corpses gave in first. Some collapsed mid-run and could not be awakened no matter how much they were called; others ran until they became numb, moving forward blankly without realizing they had strayed from the group, and could also not be awakened—as if possessed. These too soon collapsed and never got up again.

By this point, panic had spread among the Red Ghosts. Everyone wanted to be in the middle rather than at the edges, and even the centurion’s whips lost their effectiveness.

Next were those who had exhausted their strength—those who had participated in digging out corpses at the fake camp and later in the rescue efforts. Deaths followed one after another, in batches.

Then there were those buried in the snow. Those buried the longest started to suffer from hypothermia and organ failure.

The real test arrived then. Even Sarug could no longer control his subordinates. Some Red Ghosts felt that following the main group was a waste of time, so they rushed ahead toward Wurtzburg. Without exception, they were found dead along the way. Those who sprained their legs during the pursuit and became unable to move were abandoned by the group and eventually froze to death in despair.

As they ran, more died. Only those who closely followed Sarug and the centurion, maintaining a strong will to survive and a steady pace, had a better chance of survival. Even so, some of them returned to Wurtzburg and died after relaxing their guard and losing their strength.

Excluding various cases of frostbite, fewer than 400 Red Ghosts survived in the end. Less than 20 died directly from the attack by the three of Neo. For the first time, the Red Ghosts witnessed what natural weapons and the brutality of extreme cold could do. This battle loss directly led to a series of subsequent events. It is no exaggeration to say that the power of the three of Neo marked the path to the Red Ghosts’ destruction.

As the Red Ghosts left, the three of Neo reached the mountaintop. Neo took out a pair of ski poles and a sled from a crack in a boulder and handed them to Mah. “Remember the skiing I taught you?”

“I do. It’s easy.” Indeed, for Mah, who had excellent physical skills, skiing was not a difficult technique to learn.

Neo explained the route down the mountain to Mah. Finally, he said, “Once you’re down, there’s our common marker. Return to the camp as soon as possible.”

“Captain, what about you?” Mah asked, glancing at Valentina, who was still unconscious.

“A single sled can’t carry us both. There are shallow caves in that valley over there. We’ll spend the night there.”

Neo had a plan, and Mah stopped being pretentious. Before leaving, he turned back and said, “Captain, I caused trouble.”

“You mean that special arrowhead?”

“Yes. Someone among the human messengers from Wurtzburg might be able to recognize it.”

Neo smiled. “So what? The three of us are alive. As long as we’re alive, we can solve any problem. You did the right thing!”

Neo’s optimism infected Mah, who nodded. “I understand, Captain. Take care.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Although it was night, Mah used the sled to disappear quickly from Nio’s sight. Nio, carrying Valentina on his back, had a harder time, but he held on—every extra minute Valentina spent in such extreme cold was dangerous for her. He also couldn’t transform into a werewolf; the restriction of only being able to transform once every 24 hours, with midnight as the limit, still had no satisfactory solution. Fortunately, his night vision had improved greatly, and with his strength and agility, he dared to run fast, dart around, and jump. When the speed became too great, he would move in a zigzag pattern to slow down before charging again. After repeating this process for over ten minutes, he finally made it down the mountain.

The term “monster” was quite popular in ancient times, but nowadays it’s only used by monster hunters and various spellcasters. As for the waves of monsters that cause massive destruction to the world every few hundred years, they’ve long been buried in the sands of time. From another perspective, monsters have entered a higher stage of natural selection, so none of those still alive today are simple creatures. Nio knew there was a saying in Frey: to capture or hunt monsters, a level 5 professional is barely good enough to carry luggage.

There were monsters in the Anuel Mountains. Nio regarded these towering, barrier-like peaks as a boundary and didn’t want to go any further, preferring to endure hardship in a shallow cave at the northern foot of the mountains.

Nio now had a fairly good understanding of how long his spells could last. So, after entering the cave, the first thing he did was build a snow wall. The cave was about 3 meters deep, 3 meters wide at the entrance, and 2 meters high. Without a snow wall to block the wind, its insulation was extremely limited.

The temperature kept dropping, making the air feel thick and almost frozen.

“Damn it, is some monster born or what? How did it get this cold so fast?”

Despite his complaints, Nio didn’t dare slack off in his work. If he continued like this, he might die from hypothermia.

On the way here from the foot of the mountain, Nio had cut down bundles of pine trees of varying thicknesses, which he used as beams, propping them diagonally at the cave entrance. He covered both the inside and outside with snow, quickly completing a simple snow wall. Then, braving the wind and snow, he went back to fetch more wood, cutting the thicker pieces and laying them inside the snow wall to create a thermal barrier. He tied the branches together with the ropes he carried to form a fence. Not trusting the strength of the snow wall, he reinforced it with more snow using his cloak before entering the cave. By then, he could already feel the piercing cold, his heart trembling from the chill.

“Light a fire! Light a fire…” Whenever Nio went on an expedition, he would carry a small fire bundle—essentially flammable materials like wood shavings and oily bark wrapped in oilcloth. With this kindling, lighting a fire was much faster. Otherwise, in such wet and cold weather, finding dry, flammable wood would take a long time.

The more urgent the situation, the slower one had to act. To ensure success on the first try, Nio not only gathered several rocks to form a circle but also cut off a piece of his cloak—actually a piece of beast skin that had just been stripped of flesh and still had oil on it—and laid it on the wet, cold ground. The fire was lit on this piece of skin.

“Huh!” As the campfire stabilized, Neo let out a long sigh. Though he still felt cold, the situation wouldn’t get any worse. He blocked the lower part of the fence with his cloak, then propped it up with his weapons, greaves, and arm guards, thus essentially completing the shelter. To allow air circulation, the upper part of the fence couldn’t be sealed off, so the cold air kept blowing in—there was no other way but to gradually adjust the temperature with the campfire.

Worried about Valentina’s condition, Neo, still out of breath, went to check on her. The situation wasn’t good—her body was icy cold, her lips blue, her face pale, and her heartbeat extremely weak.

Neo used the Life Wave on Valentina again, but the effect was limited. He could only confirm that she had no external injuries; as for her internal condition, he still didn’t have an effective way to detect it.

“Valentina, there’s very little I can do. It mainly depends on you. Hold on!” Not caring whether Valentina could hear him, Neo muttered these words as he started undressing. He lay face down on the ground, removed Valentina’s clothes, placed them aside, then lay down holding her in his arms, covering both of them with those clothes.

“Ugh…” Neo felt no physical excitement at all. Holding Valentina’s icy body was like waking up from a warm bed only to have a bucket of ice water poured over you—extremely cold! He shivered from the cold. Moreover, Neo’s appearance was quite strange—naked except for underwear, with his head tightly covered. It was hard to say whether he was trying to preserve his dignity or not.

His chest, abdomen, head, and limbs were the parts that needed the most heating. Neo tried his best to keep these areas in contact with his warmer body parts—his hands under her armpits, her head against his chest, her feet between his legs—while also ensuring she could breathe smoothly. It was a truly awkward and complicated position, one he managed after much effort. After that, he freed one hand to warm himself by the fire and rub her body, repeating this process without pause.

Time passed slowly. The wind outside grew stronger, and that peculiar howling sound made Neo realize for the first time how terrifying wind could be. The shallow cave had warmed up thanks to the campfire, while the upper part of the fence and the branches were covered in ice and frost. Cold and heat clashed here, and the frosty white showed just how harsh the world beyond the fence was.

“If nothing went wrong, Mah should be drinking strong liquor to warm up now, and Boglem’s supplies have arrived. What’s Dihusband doing? Is he patrolling the camp with Ebute and Rijef, trying every means to deal with the cold? What about Milien and Liz? Have they taken care of themselves? And those wounded—there must be frost inside the tents in the infirmary by now…”

As he wandered in thought, Neo instinctively continued rubbing Valentina’s body.

Her body temperature finally rose, and the previous stiff, corpse-like sensation disappeared. Valentina’s body became much softer; its healthy, elastic, well-proportioned texture was indeed different from a man’s muscular bulk, making Neo want to touch it carefully. He tried hard to control his thoughts and avoid indulging in fantasies, though he wasn’t entirely able to resist. Today had been exhausting for Neo—both mentally and physically—far beyond what the techniques from his Life series could restore. He was tired and sleepy but dared not sleep, fearing that if he did, Mah and the others would find two naked corpses when they arrived tomorrow.

After another two hours, Valentina’s body was extremely soft, and her body temperature had fully returned to normal. Neo was pleased. Her current condition was like a campfire that had passed its initial vulnerable stage; now the wood was damp, but there was no need to worry too much—the flame would naturally dry it out first. The same was true for the Fire of Life—once the functions of various organs in the body recovered, normal operation would begin.

Valentina’s condition also made Neo realize the strengths and weaknesses of his Life series techniques. Simply put, these techniques involved injecting fuel into the body; the burning of the Fire of Life and the will to survive were the fundamental guarantees for their effectiveness. Unlike the healing techniques of the Holy Light series or divine spells, which seemed to have an immediate activating effect and were highly effective, his techniques excelled in persistence. If he was willing to sacrifice some time, his techniques consumed less energy yet still produced good results. Additionally, they had beneficial effects—at least prolonging life was a certainty.

Another advantage of Valentina’s restored body temperature was that she began to generate heat on her own. Being together helped them endure the bitterly cold night.

Neo originally thought tonight would just be intimate and exciting, but it turned out to be far more intense than he had imagined.

Not long after midnight, the wind gradually weakened. Just as Neo began to feel a sense of peace, the frost and ice formations above the fence suddenly worsened rapidly, spreading and turning into solid ice strands, just like in the Bitter Thorns Forest earlier. Then, crystal formations appeared on the nearby cave walls, achieving a glassy, smooth texture.

At the same time, a blue, heart-pounding object separated itself from the ice strands above the fence and rolled in.

It had the clarity of water, the texture of amber, the viscosity of glue, and the appearance of fluff. Numerous long, uneven whiskers gave it a fluffy look, but Neo found it utterly unattractive. Wherever it passed, the icy cold spread at a terrifying speed. In just two or three breaths, the temperature in the cave dropped back to its original level. Despite the campfire burning brightly, it seemed ineffective—Neo couldn’t feel any warmth at all.

Just as Neo was about to do something, Ji Ke reminded him, “Don’t move. It’s an Ice Spirit.”

“What?”

“A special existence from the Ice and Snow Realm. They rarely appear in this world.”

Ji Ke’s explanation made Neo think of this year’s designation: the Year of Frost. Could it be because of them?

At the same time, Neo saw the ice spirits drifting down like feathers, then using their long tentacles to touch the campfire in the air. A cyan glow flashed, and the campfire turned into an ice block, still maintaining its burned appearance.
“…”
“They hate fire and heat! It’s noticed us. It seems you and this female are going to die.”
Spine’s explanation left Neo speechless. Spine didn’t have human-like intense emotions; when discussing life and death, his tone was so indifferent it was both amusing and frustrating.
Strangely, at this moment when death seemed just around the corner, Neo didn’t feel any intuitive sense of danger. “Could even this be frozen?”
The ice spirits paused in midair, then a bright light flared, turning the entire cave bright blue. The light was so intense that Neo could see nothing but brightness. Soon after, he felt a searing pain on his face, as if struck by a club. When the pain subsided, the blinding light and the ice spirits disappeared, leaving only a crystal-clear ice cave where breath could be seen.
Neo had a feeling that his conversation with Mah at the mountain top might have been overheard by some mischievous powerful being, who then played this trick on them. “As long as you’re alive, there’s always a way to solve any problem.” He was still alive, but he had no idea how to solve this problem. The ice spirits hadn’t directly extinguished his body heat, but they had left behind a cruel environment. How could they survive this night?
“Interesting! Very interesting!” Neo gritted his teeth, looking at the upper part of the fence. The campfire was gone, and they could make it smaller there, but he hesitated. Compared to doing that, getting out of their barely covered makeshift bed, losing a lot of heat, and then going through the trouble to restore their current state—wasn’t the loss even greater?
“Never mind. Let’s rely on ‘fuel’! You take one, I’ll take one too…” Neo used the Life Pearl for himself and Valentina. The effect of this technique lasted over 40 minutes, and Neo hoped it would sustain them both…
When Valentina woke up, she thought she was lying on a fur bed. But when she moved her foot, she felt the icy cold as if it were submerged in freezing water. Startled, she fully woke up. She tried to move, but her limbs were trapped by Neo’s strong arms. Then she heard Neo’s voice: “Don’t move. We need to make it through dawn.”
Valentina quickly understood the situation and realized what had happened. She pulled her foot back and placed it between Neo’s calves again, then began to move slowly.
“What are you doing?”
“How long has this been going on? My body has no sensation. Let me move, just a little.”
“Slow down. I’ll cooperate with you. Move more gently.”
“Ah, it hurts! Be careful.”
“I’m already being careful. Doing this kind of movement necessarily requires some separation.”
“It’s because you’re too big.”
“There’s nothing I can do. Returning to the original state won’t work…”
Valentina burst into laughter! She didn’t know why, but her cheeks turned red.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Thank you for saving my life.” This time, Valentina was much more generous than during her recovery in the tent last time.

“If I have no choice, I hope you don’t mind. Hurry up and recover. I’m going to enter a deep meditation state to see if I can extend the transformation time this way.”
“Mm…” Valentina gently closed her eyes. The chaotic energy within her indeed needed to be sorted out, but before that, she planned to take a few minutes to firmly remember this warm feeling.