The ice sculptures shimmered with a cold light in the biting wind, the soldiers’ twisted faces sealed inside the crystalized frost, as if still crying out from the agony of being frozen alive.
Li Guanglong stared at those figures, his
Adam’s apple rolling a few times as he forced down the tremor in his chest.
He raised a hand to rub his still-stiff arm.
The spot that had been swept by the white mist earlier was still faintly
bruised with purplish-blue, the chill seeming to seep deep into his very bones.
“Your Highness, that spirit deer carries a
poisonous cold beyond imagination.” Wan Zhong leaned on his blade as he walked
over, the wound on his lone arm having split open again from the cold. Blood
seeped through the bandages, dripping scarlet dots onto the snow.
He gazed toward where the deer had vanished,
his eyes full of dread. “We’d best hold our camp steady for now, and not
recklessly provoke the creatures of this island again.”
Li Guanglong nodded silently. His earlier
impulse had already cost him several elite men --- a lesson delivered with
crushing weight.
Turning back toward the soldiers huddled around
the fire, he saw many still trembling, their eyes filled with unease.
“Steady yourselves!” Li Guanglong raised his
voice, trying to restore their morale. “It is nothing more than a beast skilled
in frost techniques. As long as we stay vigilant, we can overcome it. Pass down
my order --- pairs of two will take turns keeping watch. The rest, rest while
you can. At dawn, we march for the island’s center!”
As night deepened, faint cracking sounds rose
from beneath the ice, as though something was writhing below.
The watchmen pulled their coats tighter, hands
trembling slightly on their weapons from the cold. Suddenly, a faint blue glow
flickered across the distant ice field. Moments later, more lights appeared ---
like countless pairs of eyes, slowly advancing toward the camp.
“Something’s coming!” a guard cried, thrusting
his torch toward the lights.
In the firelight, they saw a pack of snow-white
foxes sprinting across the ice. Their eyes gleamed with pale blue light, and
they carried shards of ice between their teeth. With each step they took, a
thin sheet of frost spread out beneath their paws.
“Snow foxes!” another soldier shouted. “They’re
said to feed on ice --- and are vicious in attack!”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the
leading fox leapt high, hurling the ice shard in its jaws toward the soldiers.
The shard streaked through the air like a
dagger, grazing a soldier’s face and leaving a deep cut across his cheek.
“Open fire!” Li Guanglong, roused by the
commotion, burst from his tent, sword in hand as he bellowed the order.
The soldiers quickly raised their rifles,
firing toward the charging foxes. Gunshots echoed across the ice field, bullets
shattering into sprays of frost as they struck the ice around the beasts.
But the foxes were incredibly swift, darting
nimbly past the shots. In moments, they had reached the camp’s edge.
One fox lunged at a soldier, its claws raking
through his coat. The icy talons touched bare skin, and the man screamed --- his
arm instantly turning purple-blue with frostbite.
Seeing this, Wan Zhong swung his blade with his
lone arm, cleaving the beast clean in two.
Yet more foxes swarmed in, throwing the camp
into chaos.
Li Guanglong slashed fiercely with his sword,
his strikes cutting down fox after fox, yet their numbers seemed endless.
Then he noticed --- the foxes’ glowing eyes
never strayed from the central bonfire. They seemed instinctively afraid of the
flames.
“Everyone, gather at the fire! Use the torches
to drive them back!” Li Guanglong shouted.
The soldiers snatched up torches, forming a
ring around the blaze. Sure enough, the foxes halted, prowling around the
circle, growling low and restless.
Suddenly, a thunderous crack echoed from the
distant ice cliffs. A massive icicle broke loose, plummeting toward the camp.
“Dodge!” Li Guanglong roared, dragging a
soldier down with him just as the shard smashed into the ground nearby.
The impact shattered the ice, sending shards
flying like deadly shrapnel. Many soldiers were cut, their blood staining the
snow crimson.
Startled by the crash, the snow foxes
retreated, fleeing back into the frozen expanse until the night swallowed them
whole.
Climbing to his feet, Li Guanglong surveyed the
wreckage with a heavy heart.
That night, not only had they lost more men,
but their camp lay ruined, their already scarce supplies now in even worse
condition.
The next morning, the sky remained overcast,
the wind howling through the wasteland.
The soldiers worked to clear the camp, mend the
tents, and tend to the wounded.
Li Guanglong, meanwhile, led a handful of his
best men up a nearby hill to scout the island.
From the summit, they saw a vast land drowned
in ice and snow. Distant peaks were cloaked in mist, and here and there strange
spires of ice rose, like palaces carved from frozen crystal.
“Your Highness, look over there!” a soldier
pointed toward an ice lake below. “There’s something glowing on the surface!”
Li Guanglong followed his gaze. At the lake’s
center stood a massive block of ice, glowing faintly blue. Something seemed to
be sealed inside.
“Let’s take a closer look!” Li Guanglong
ordered, leading the men cautiously down the slope.
The frozen lake groaned underfoot with every
step.
At last, they reached the crystal.
It stood taller than a man, translucent and
flawless. Inside was a strange plant, its leaves a pale blue, its petals
transparent like glass, slowly blooming with icy grace.
“Could that be… the Ice Soul Flower?” Wan Zhong
exclaimed. “The old texts say it grows only in places of extreme cold. It can
purge a hundred poisons --- and even strengthen one’s inner force. A priceless
treasure!”
Li Guanglong’s eyes lit with joy. If they could
claim this flower, their journey would not have been in vain.
“Break the ice! Retrieve it!” he commanded.
The soldiers struck at the crystal with their
weapons, but it was impossibly hard, leaving only shallow marks.
Then the lake trembled violently. Cracks spread
across the frozen surface.
“This is bad! Fall back!” Li Guanglong shouted.
The men bolted toward the shore.
But it was too late. The ice suddenly gave way,
the great crystal sinking into the depths. A tremendous suction dragged several
soldiers down into the freezing waters.
Li Guanglong turned in time to see a colossal
shadow rising from the lakebed.
An enormous ice turtle surfaced, its shell coated in thick frost like a moving glacier. Its eyes gleamed with a frigid red light as it fixed its gaze on the men at the shore. - Ton
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