The first step was always the heaviest. The hundredth step felt like lifting a mountain. The thousandth step... no words could adequately describe it. The snow no longer fell—it attacked. Ice granules propelled by gale-force winds pierced the skin like thousands of tiny needles, leaving a frozen, stinging sensation upon every exposed centimeter of flesh. Lin Feng walked at the front, parting the blizzard with his hunched body, attempting to create minimal shelter for the two women behind him. Yue Ling walked in the middle, her usually calculating face now frozen rigid by the cold. Years of experience as a bounty hunter aided her survival, yet even she began displaying signs of extreme exhaustion. Her lips had turned blue, her eyelashes frozen into small clumps of ice that blinked whenever she did. The one who suffered most was Xiao Lan. The girl had never experienced cold like this. Throughout her life at the Vermilion Bird

The snow fell in deceptive silence.Lin Feng leaned against the ice wall at the cave mouth, his breath freezing before it could form a cloud of vapor. Outside, the world was a white canvas faintly illuminated by the light of the two moons penetrating gaps in the clouds. Beautiful. Calm. Lethal.Because upon that white canvas, shadows moved.His Deconstruction Eye operated at peak velocity, mapping every detail of the creatures patrolling the darkness. Twelve of them existed, dispersed in a semicircular formation one hundred meters wide, advancing with steps synchronized as one unified entity. Their bodies were dense black silhouettes, reflecting no light, refracting no snow. Only vague humanoid forms remained visible, with eyes—two blazing red slits—that swept the terrain with slow, methodical movements.[Analysis: Darkwardens - Standard Patrol Type]· Classification: Autonomous Energy Constructs, Pre-Fracture Era.· Power Source: Red

The wind howled like tormented souls across the Neverthaw snowfields.Lin Feng ran. Not running as ordinary humans run—he shot forward with steps amplified by Primal energy, leaving footprints that were covered by snow within seconds. His heart pounded violently, pumping adrenaline and Qi to every muscle fiber that was beginning to feel like ice. Behind him, Yue Ling and Xiao Lan had concealed themselves behind a pile of frozen rocks, staring at his back as it grew smaller, swallowed by the white tempest.Ten minutes.That was the time Old Chen had given them. Ten minutes from the moment the first spike was inserted until the Chrono-Spatial formation completely ceased. Yet the distance between the first and third anchor points was one kilometer of slippery, treacherous ice terrain. Lin Feng had covered half of it in the first five minutes. Now, with his breath freezing in the air, he perceived the third point ahead—a pile of black rock formations rising fr

The bronze door closed behind them with a heavy, echoing thud, as if burying them alive within the womb of the ice mountain. For the first few seconds, only darkness existed—darkness so dense, so absolute, that Xiao Lan felt her heart cease its beating. Lin Feng's hand gripped her wrist, warm and steady, the sole anchor in an ocean of nothingness.Then, one by one, the symbols upon the walls began to ignite.A dim blue light, like fireflies awakening from a long slumber, spread from one engraving to the next. Within seconds, the entire corridor before them glowed with cold celestial light, illuminating a world that had remained hidden for thousands of years.Xiao Lan inhaled, and that breath froze in her throat.The Neverthaw Observatory was unlike anything she had ever imagined.This was not merely a building—it was an underground complex stretching as far as the eye could see, a city buried within ice. Its walls were crafted from an unf

The tension in the Hall of Echoes exploded like an overloaded formation.Yue Ling drew her sword in one fluid motion, the silver blade reflecting the dim blue light from the metal walls surrounding them. In an instant, she had assumed a combat stance, her body half-crouched, ready to lunge toward Elder Feng at any moment. Xiao Lan stepped back, both arms wrapped protectively around the memory core at her chest, her still-swollen eyes radiating a mixture of fear and determination.Yet Lin Feng did not move.He stood petrified in the center of the chamber, his eyes—now gleaming with a strange intensity thanks to the Deconstructor's Gauntlet concealed beneath his sleeve—fixed upon the figure of the old man before them. His Deconstruction Eye operated at maximum speed, flooding his mind with information arriving so rapidly it nearly felt like a throbbing headache.Yet he could not stop. Not now.Every word Elder Feng uttered, every gesture he