Chapter 276: Perils Abound

“Biuzi, adjust your body movement quickly!” Liu Dashao shouted loudly at Fan Debiao.

Fan Debiao had probably sensed the danger too. At this moment, he was less than ten meters away from the ice shelf on this side. However, if he continued sliding along this trajectory, he would fall off the bridge two or three meters short of reaching the ice shelf. In other words, a slight deviation in his sliding path had pushed Fan Debiao into a deadly predicament.

At that moment, Liu Dashao’s mind went blank. He stared helplessly as Fan Debiao was about to plunge into the abyss, unable to do anything to help. All he knew was that his heart twisted painfully, like a twisted rope, hurting so much that he nearly burst into tears.

Often in life-or-death situations, the body’s latent energy is instantly triggered, just like a desperate dog jumping over a wall. At this critical moment, Fan Debiao quickly took his entrenching tool from his waist. Gripping it tightly with both hands, he slashed diagonally downward to his left.

The blade of the entrenching tool barely touched the edge of the ice bridge, sending shards of ice flying. Using the force from this strike, Fan Debiao’s entire body shifted half a meter to the right. That half meter pulled him back from the brink of death. His body whizzed closely along the edge of the ice bridge, surged onto the ice shelf where everyone was standing, and then slid for more than ten meters before finally stopping.

All these events happened in a brief moment. Everyone stood stunned, watching Fan Debiao safely cross the bridge, unable to recover from the previous shock.

“Damn! You’re so awesome!” Cai Qingchong shouted excitedly as he slid over from the opposite side of the cliff.

Fan Debiao lay motionless on the ice, staring blankly at the cave ceiling, his face pale and bloodless. He himself hadn’t yet recovered from the shock.

Everyone rushed to Fan Debiao’s side. “Debiao, are you okay?” they asked anxiously.

Fan Debiao’s eyes rolled slightly. Then he exhaled a puff of cold breath and roared hoarsely, “Cai Qingchong, I’ll get you for this!”

Cai Qingchong had just stood up after climbing onto the ice shelf when a piece of flying ice hit him on the head.

“Ouch!” Cai Qingchong covered his head and fell back down. “Why did you throw that at me?”

“Throw it at you? I want to chop you up!” Fan Debiao raised his entrenching tool and was about to charge.

Everyone quickly grabbed Fan Debiao tightly. “Calm down! Calm down! Don’t act recklessly!”

After a while, Fan Debiao finally calmed down, though his cheeks were still puffed up in anger.

Liu Dashao scolded Cai Qingchong, “What was wrong with you just now? Debiao nearly died because of you!”

Cai Qingchong looked wronged. “He was the one who asked me to push him! Besides, Yang Weidong made it across just fine. I think it must be Fan Debiao’s butt that’s uneven, causing his trajectory to shift!”

Upon hearing this, the already calm Fan Debiao became furious, his hair seemingly standing on end. “What?! My butt is uneven?! Big Liu, step aside, let me chop this fatty into pieces!”

Cai Qingchong cried out, “Mommy!” and turned to run. Fan Debiao chased after him, waving the entrenching tool and shouting loudly. The others shook their heads helplessly behind them. “What a pair of troublemakers!”

Carefully avoiding the cracks in the ice, everyone slowly walked forward. At this moment, they were just like walking through a crystal palace, everything feeling surreal.

As they walked, Liu Dashao felt his body growing heavier, as if he were carrying something heavy. He quickly looked down and saw a layer of frost had already formed on his outer jacket. In a little while, it would probably turn into an icy armor. Liu Dashao glanced at the others; everyone was the same, though they hadn’t noticed yet. He hadn’t expected that the exploration suit could withstand heat but not cold. At this rate, their entire bodies would freeze.

“Quickly take off your outer jackets!” Liu Dashao immediately told everyone.

“Why throw away something so valuable?” Fan Debiao said while touching his chest, then cried out in alarm, “My God, how… how did it freeze?”

Only then did everyone notice that frost had formed on each of them.

Cai Qingchong said, “No wonder I felt more and more exhausted; I didn’t even realize I had turned into an ice person!”

“Quick! Take them off! Otherwise, we’ll freeze to death!” At this realization, Jia Zhuangyuan was the first to take off his outer jacket. The frost made it difficult to take off.

Liu Dashao took out his tungsten steel dagger to help everyone scrape off the frost from their jackets, making them easier to remove. Everyone discarded their jackets on the ice. In the blink of an eye, the jackets quickly became covered with a thick layer of frost, turning the high-end gear, worth thousands of yuan each, into six heavy ice armors.

Looking at the six ice armors on the ground, everyone could only shake their heads helplessly.

Fan Debiao lamented, “Sigh! It was hard-earned money after all!”

Walking on ice was extremely difficult. Since the group hadn’t brought ice cleats, they found walking very strenuous. Despite being very careful, they occasionally slipped and fell hard on the icy surface, causing them to grimace in pain.

After another fall, Fan Debiao rubbed his butt and shouted, “Let’s take a break! Let’s take a break! I can’t walk anymore. If I do, my butt will split into four pieces!”

Jia Zhuangyuan also expressed his agreement, “Yeah! Let’s rest. My old bones are about to break apart!”

Seeing everyone’s pitiful state, Liu Dashao had no choice but to announce a break on the spot. Everyone sat on the icy surface, panting heavily. It was more tiring than their previous battle with the six-headed snake. Looking back, after walking for nearly half an hour, they had barely covered less than 100 meters.

“I really don’t know how long we’ll have to keep going like this!” Yang Weidong said gloomily.

Fan Debiao said, “Actually, this underground ice cave isn’t a bad place to be buried!” As soon as Fan Debiao finished speaking, he was hit by chunks of ice thrown at him from all directions by the others, causing him to cry out in pain.

“Hey, listen! What’s that sound?” Jia Zhuangyuan suddenly said.

Everyone stopped fooling around and listened attentively. Sure enough, they heard a faint rustling sound, like the sound of an ice shaver.

A few seconds later, there was a soft ‘pop’ sound, and a lizard’s head, about the size of a glass marble, suddenly emerged from under the ice.

“Mommy! What is that thing?” The lizard’s head was less than a meter away from Yang Weidong, scaring him into rolling backward.

Everyone tightened their grip on their weapons, staring intently at the lizard’s head. They saw the lizard’s head swaying left and right before suddenly springing out from under the ice with a ‘swish’.

Everyone looked in astonishment at the lizard nearby. It had a snow-white body, with slightly raised black spots on its back, resembling a glutinous rice stick sprinkled with black sesame seeds. Strangely, its eyes were blood-red, about the size of mung beans, rolling around in their sockets. The lizard was very small, only half the length of a palm, and it crouched silently on the ice, its blood-red eyes coldly staring at the unexpected visitors.

Liu Dashao said with some confusion, “What kind of creature is this? It looks like a lizard, but doesn’t seem like one. Even stranger, this creature actually lives in such a cold underground ice cave. I wonder how it sustains its life!”

Fan Debiao said, “Wow, first we encountered a fiery one, and now an icy one. It’s really a tale of ice and fire! If I were a biologist, I’d definitely take this thing back for study!”

At this moment, Jia Zhuangyuan suddenly stood up and said, “This isn’t a lizard. Looking at its appearance, I think it’s a newt!”

A newt?! What kind of thing is a newt?! Liu Dashao had never heard of such a strange animal name before.

Jia Zhuangyuan told everyone that newts, because of their lizard-like appearance and their habit of living in moist environments like ponds and streams, are also known as water lizards. Most newts are poisonous, but they can also be used medicinally, with effects such as relieving dampness, relieving itching, pain relief, and clearing heat and detoxifying.

After saying this, Jia Zhuangyuan muttered to himself, “But I’ve never seen a snow-white newt like this one, especially living under the ice. It’s really strange!”

Liu Dashao stood up and said, “In this vast world, there’s nothing strange that doesn’t exist. We don’t need to worry about whether it’s a lizard or a newt. We should focus on moving forward. Let’s go, everyone!”

They hadn’t walked far when they heard rustling sounds coming from around them. The rustling became increasingly dense, as if countless venomous snakes were flicking their crimson tongues. This rustling sound was exactly the same as the one made when the first newt broke through the ice. Everyone’s faces changed instantly. Just from the sound, they could tell that countless newts were lurking beneath the ice.

Then, a series of popping sounds followed one after another. From the ice under their feet, one newt after another emerged. These newts had the same appearance as the first one: snow-white bodies with black spots on their backs and blood-red eyes.

In no time, the ice around them was crawling with these snow newts, like maggots, constantly moving and covering several meters of the ice surface. At this moment, everyone stood in the middle of these snow newts, watching helplessly as these terrifying creatures slowly approached.

Yang Weidong exclaimed in horror, “How come there are so many snow newts?”

Fan Debiao said, “They must be starving and have come out from under the ice specifically to eat us!”

Liu Dashao asked Jia Zhuangyuan, “Do newts eat meat?”

Jia Zhuangyuan looked at him and answered with just one word, “Yes!”

Upon hearing this, Yang Weidong cried out in terror, “I’d rather fall off the cliff and die than be slowly devoured by these disgusting creatures!”

Liu Dashao said to everyone, “What are you all standing there for? As the saying goes, those who come are not good, and the good ones do not come! While these snow newts haven’t yet blocked our way, let’s work together and break through!”

“I hate these squishy, disgusting things the most! Let me borrow your entrenching tool, old Fan!” Yang Weidong took the entrenching tool from Fan Debiao, shouting furiously as he swung his arms around, smashing the tool down hard. The front snow newt was flattened into a pulp, releasing a thick, black blood that smelled pungently. Then, Yang Weidong struck several more times with loud ‘slap’ sounds, leaving a large area of snow newt corpses at his feet.

Fan Debiao was not to be outdone. He grabbed the crescent shovel from Liu Dashao’s hand and swung it around with a whooshing sound. The crescent shovel cut through the air, leaving a trail of cold light. The sharp blade, with a whistling sound, slashed down, cutting the snow newts into pieces, their thick black blood splattering everywhere.

At this moment, facing the endless stream of newts, only two long weapons were of any use. Liu Dashao’s dagger was a short-range weapon and not very effective. Therefore, everyone now relied entirely on Yang Weidong and Fan Debiao to lead the way.

Everyone stumbled behind Fan Debiao and Yang Weidong. The ice surface was too slippery, and their walking speed was less than half of what it would be on flat ground. However, the snow newts moved very quickly on the ice, almost gliding along with their limbs and bellies pressed tightly against the surface.

“Ah!” Yang Weidong suddenly shouted.

Liu Dashao turned around and saw that several snow newts had already bitten onto his heel and the cuffs of his pants. No matter how hard Yang Weidong tried to shake them off, they clung on tightly, like parasites impossible to remove.

Swish!

With a flick of his sleeve, Jia Zhuangyuan shot out several throwing knives, which whizzed through the air and pierced the bodies of those snow newts, pinning them to the ice.

Yang Weidong looked down and saw that his pant cuffs had already been bitten full of holes, and even a piece of his heel had been bitten off. As Yang Weidong was just beginning to calm down, Jia Zhuangyuan grabbed his sleeve and pulled him forward, saying, “What are you still standing there for?”

The snow newts behind surged forward like a tide. No matter how fast the group ran, they couldn’t outpace these snow newts. To avoid being attacked from behind by the snow newts, Liu Dashao sent Fan Debiao to the back of the group to fend off the snow newts chasing from behind. He and Yang Weidong continued to lead the way at the front. This way, with one at the front and one at the back, one attacking and one defending, they could ensure the safety of the entire group.

They hadn’t run for even a quarter of an hour when everyone was already panting heavily. However, the army of newts not only showed no sign of retreating but grew stronger instead, like surging waves, rolling forward continuously. Their escape speed became slower and slower, until eventually they were almost standing still. With every step forward, the ground became sticky with the corpses of snow newts, and the group trudged forward, step by step, over the bodies of the snow newts.

Danger was slowly approaching. Fan Debiao and Liu Dashao didn’t dare to take even a moment’s rest. Yang Weidong was already injured. They had to keep swinging their entrenching tools to prevent the snow newts from getting close. The blades of the entrenching tools were already covered with black blood and white pulp. Fan Debiao and Liu Dashao swung their arms mechanically. As time passed, their arms became heavier and heavier, almost too heavy to lift. But both of them persisted, gritting their teeth.

Gasping for breath, Fan Debiao said, “This won’t work. There are just too many of these disgusting things. No matter how many we kill, they just keep coming!” As he caught his breath, two snow newts lunged forward and bit onto the edge of the entrenching tool’s blade. With a loud shout, Fan Debiao slammed the entrenching tool onto the ice, instantly slicing the two snow newts into two pieces.

To Fan Debiao’s amazement, the upper halves of those two snow newts immediately lunged forward again, displaying extreme bravery.

Fan Debiao exclaimed, “How come these things won’t die no matter what?”

Jia Zhuangyuan said, “Newts have an amazing regenerative ability. They can grow new limbs and bodies!”

Fan Debiao opened his mouth wide, “Then are they invincible?”

Jia Zhuangyuan said, “Remember, their fatal weakness is their head. As long as you sever their central nervous system, they will die for good!”

“I see! Then die!” Fan Debiao raised his entrenching tool and slammed it down with a ‘slap’ on the heads of those two snow newts. The two snow newt heads flew into the air along with the thick black blood, and the half bodies finally stopped moving.

Cai Qingchong suddenly pointed at a protruding ice rock ahead and said, “Let’s get to that ice rock!”

Although that ice rock wasn’t the group’s hope for escape, it at least gave them a place to rest.

Liu Dashao encouraged Fan Debiao, “You two, put in a little more effort. Let’s try to reach that ice rock!”

Fan Debiao nodded. The two of them shouted simultaneously, putting in their last bit of strength. They swung the entrenching tools like spinning wheels. It was clear that both of them were giving it their all.

Under the group’s assault, the encircling army of newts split open a gap, with countless snow newt corpses scattered across the ground, piled up thickly.

Liu Dashao’s eyes were already bloodshot, charging forward relentlessly. Fan Debiao, at the back of the group, swung the entrenching tool like a shield, blocking the tide-like attacks of the snow newts.

The ice rock was only ten meters away, but this short distance took nearly ten minutes. The short ten-meter path was covered with countless snow newt corpses. After a frenzied slaughter, they finally reached the base of the ice rock.

This ice rock was like a lifeline for everyone. Cai Qingchong turned around, took over Liu Dashao’s position, and stood on the outside with Fan Debiao, holding the entrenching tools to cover the others. “Quickly climb up!”

The ice rock was about two meters high. Fortunately, its surface wasn’t smooth but had countless irregular edges, which made climbing easier.

Liu Dashao quickly squatted down, letting Yang Weidong step onto his shoulders. Then he slightly straightened his body, allowing Yang Weidong to easily grab the edge of the ice rock and climb up without much effort.