The night was dark and desolate, the wind howling ominously.

The vast starry sky illuminated the snowfield, creating an eerie, dreamlike hue.

A mournful wolf howl pierced the night, followed by a dozen pairs of eerie green eyes suddenly lighting up from all directions. A stench unique to wild beasts gradually enveloped them, slowly approaching the group.

In the pitch-black night, those eyes looked like flickering will-o'-the-wisps, particularly eerie.

That's strange. Logically speaking, wolves shouldn't risk attacking those gathered around the fire.

After all, there were six of them, not a lone wolf. But perhaps because there was really no prey to be found in the freezing cold nearby, they just wanted to have a good meal.

That's great! Zhan Xinjia was just looking forward to a good meal.

She was already feeling a bit down and depressed from eating the tough beef jerky with the multigrain biscuits, but now her eyes lit up. "Swish—!" she drew her sword, her whole body excited and eager to try.

With a graceful wave of her hand, she shielded everyone behind her.

"Everyone stay away, or I won't pay for your clothes if blood splatters on you."

After saying that, Zhan Xinjia went straight for A.

She could slice through even the top assassins of the Lanjiang region like vegetables, let alone mere wild beasts. Zhan Xinjia swiftly and skillfully slaughtered about ten of them, but when she stood still and took a look—

There were even more than a dozen pairs of green eyes nearby.

Um? ? ?

Sensing something was amiss, she frowned suspiciously, and, refusing to believe it, killed a dozen more, only to take a closer look—

No, there are still more than a dozen?!

This thing just spawns right here, is there a fixed spawn point nearby or something?

Not only her, but the other five people were also stunned.

"What...what do we do now?"

"Ask, ask, ask! What's the point of asking? Don't you guys have legs? Run, damn it!!"

Zhan Xinjia angrily rebuked him, pointing fingers and criticizing him.

She quickly kicked and extinguished the fire, not even bothering to take her baggage, and turned to continue climbing towards the top of the mountain.

To be honest, it's not that we can't beat them, but the problem is that people's physical strength is limited and they get tired.

She can't just say she did nothing all night but kill wolves, right? People who didn't know better would think she was AFK farming experience, that's not right.

As soon as Zhan Xinjia ran, the others belatedly followed suit. Although the wolves were in hot pursuit, the deep snow on the ground limited their movement to some extent.

After trekking through wind and snow for an unknown amount of time, the stench finally began to dissipate.

Zhan Xinjia wiped her face, bent over, and gasped for breath with her hands on her knees. She felt a dry, tearing pain in her throat, and her breath was filled with the biting, icy chill of snow.

worn out! !

Before she could even feel relieved to have shaken off the wolves, a sudden unease struck her. She abruptly straightened up, pricking up her ears like a vigilant snow fox to listen intently.

I keep getting the feeling that I can vaguely hear thunder.

No, it wasn't thunder, it was an avalanche!

The letter was torn open.

Turning around, I saw that the five clueless idiots below were still trying to climb up.

Damn it, knowing you guys is such bad luck!

With a swift and precise kick, Zhan Xinjia sent Yan Yuyao and Wangcai flying to safety. He then scooped up Cui Wanzhao with his left hand and held Qiao Qiao in his right, running wildly to the side like a madman.

As for Pei Yi...

Oh well, we weren't that close anyway, so if he's dead, he's dead.

The sound of the avalanche was like the beating of drums, or like the deafening roar of thunder. The terrifying roar, with its overwhelming force, poured down from the mountaintop. Huge snowdrifts crashed down like a raging torrent, as if to bury the world completely.

Even though Zhan Xinjia acted quickly, she was still carrying two pendants, so she was inevitably affected.

With her last ounce of strength, Zhan Xinjia struggled to push the two of them to a place where the snow couldn't cover them, before collapsing from exhaustion herself.

When the heavy snow pushed her down, everything went black before her eyes, and a metallic, sweet taste suddenly welled up in her throat. Her body was instantly bearing the weight of hundreds of pounds, her internal organs were being squeezed violently, and even her ribs felt like they were about to break.

Her consciousness went blank for a brief moment, as if she were in a coma. Zhan Xinjia was limp and passively pushed by the snow into a deeper and darker place. No matter how she tried, she could not wake up.

From afar, not far away, came Qiaoqiao's panicked voice.

"Ah Zhi!!"

Stop shouting, he's still alive.

Zhan Xinjia struggled to stand up, but as soon as she got up, she stumbled and was pushed down by the snow. The scene in front of her flashed a few times like a badly signaled carousel before gradually going out.

"It's nothing... I just... the internet seems to be a bit slow..."

After uttering his last incoherent words, Zhan Xinjia lost consciousness and completely fell into a coma.

——

Zhan Xinjia was awakened by the cold.

It was cold, bone-chillingly cold, as if I were in an ice cellar or snow cave, my teeth chattering and chattering.

Her eyelashes fluttered slightly, and before her vision was clear when she opened her eyes, she knelt down in a disheveled state, supporting herself with her hands on the ground and gagging painfully a few times, vomiting out a few lumps of snow that she had somehow swallowed.

Her mouth was numb and lost all feeling from the cold, and her body was gradually losing temperature. Zhan Xinjia could only curl up on the spot and wrap her clothes tightly around herself.

At least this way, body temperature can be retained temporarily.

Her throat was throbbing with pain, probably from being cut by shards of ice. Even swallowing saliva hurt. She leaned against the wall behind her to catch her breath and began to look around at where she was.

It was pitch black all around, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. As you groped your way forward, there was another wall just a dozen steps away.

It can't really be called a wall, but it feels uneven to the touch.

Despite feeling extremely unwell, Zhan Xinjia decided to find a way out once her eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness.

Measuring the size of the cave with her footsteps, she soon discovered that it was actually a tunnel-like place, with walls made of frozen soil on both sides, wooden beams overhead, and a dark path winding forward, its destination unknown.

Wait a minute, this structure looks a bit like a mine shaft.

Could she have been pushed by the snow through some collapsed entrance and accidentally fallen into the mine of the Southern County people?

Since it was a mine, the people of Nanjun couldn't work in the dark. There must be a light source nearby. Zhan Xinjia searched around for a long time and finally found something that looked like an oil lamp embedded in the frozen soil.

He pulled out a flint from his sleeve and lit the lamp. The dim light barely illuminated a corner, making it all the more sinister and terrifying. The end of the road was hidden in a deep shadow, looking like the gaping maw of some kind of wild beast, as if a monster was lurking around the corner.

Sure enough, this was a mine shaft.

The walls on both sides are covered with traces of human excavation, and the frozen soil overhead is secured with thick wooden pillars to prevent collapse.

Wait, where's the map?

Zhan Xinjia belatedly realized that the map wasn't on her. She sighed and could only slowly move forward, leaning against the wall, going wherever the road took her.

She thought she would soon encounter the stone miners from Nanjun in the mine, but after walking for almost half an hour, she still hadn't seen a single person. The mine was also ridiculously large, seemingly without end.

What's even more despairing is that this mine has more than one entrance; in some places, there are three or four branching paths, leading in all directions.

If she continues wandering aimlessly, she will definitely lose her way and starve or freeze to death here. Perhaps no one will find her body even after a hundred years.