After a brief rest in the safe house, Su Yao embarked on another quest for supplies. This time, the system guided her to an extremely cold valley she had never been to before, where precious energy crystals were said to exist, playing a crucial role in the safe house's energy supply and the enhancement of her supernatural abilities.

Stepping into the valley, a cold wind, even more biting than before, swept over her, causing Su Yao to feel her supernatural shield tremble slightly. Thick white fog filled the valley, severely reducing visibility and interfering with the system's detection capabilities.

Suddenly, Su Yao heard a deep roar, seemingly coming from the depths of the valley. She immediately became alert and gripped her weapon tightly. As the roar grew closer, a huge ice bear emerged from the mist. This ice bear was enormous, its fur seemingly composed of countless sharp ice spikes, leaving deep footprints on the ice with every step it took.

Not daring to underestimate her opponent, Su Yao launched the first attack, shooting a bolt of lightning at the ice bear. The lightning struck the bear, but only caused it to tremble slightly. Enraged, the bear pounced on Su Yao. Su Yao used her spatial ability to teleport to the side, but the ice bear was incredibly fast. With a swing of its paw, the powerful force created a gust of cold wind, and Su Yao was thrown back several meters by the impact.

Su Yao knew that a direct confrontation was not the solution, so she began to move quickly around the ice bear, trying to find its weakness. While dodging, she noticed that the ice bear's eyes would briefly close when it attacked, which might be a gap in its defense.

Seizing the opportunity, as the ice bear pounced again, Su Yao concentrated all her supernatural abilities, fusing fire and ice attributes into her sword, and thrust it towards the bear's eye. The ice bear sensed the danger and tried to dodge, but Su Yao was faster, and the sword pierced its left eye. The ice bear roared in pain and frantically swung its paws.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Su Yao created distance and continued to attack the ice bear's injured eye with her supernatural abilities. Under the sustained attacks, the ice bear's left eye was completely damaged, and its movements became even more chaotic. Su Yao pressed her advantage, relentlessly attacking the ice bear's legs, attempting to incapacitate it. After a fierce battle, the ice bear finally collapsed.

Panting heavily, Su Yao continued deeper into the valley. In the center of the valley, she discovered a cave covered by ice, and the system indicated that the energy crystal was inside. However, the ice surrounding the cave emitted strange energy fluctuations, seemingly a protective mechanism.

Su Yao cautiously approached the ice. When her hand touched it, a powerful electric current surged through her body, and she quickly withdrew her hand. She tried to attack the ice with her powers, but only minor cracks appeared, which quickly healed.

Su Yao observed the ice layer and discovered some faint patterns on it, which seemed to be related to some kind of code. She began to recall similar patterns she had seen in ancient ruins, and after some attempts, she injected her supernatural power into the patterns on the ice layer in a specific order.

As the final rune was activated, large cracks began to appear in the ice layer, eventually shattering it. Su Yao entered the cave, where the temperature was extremely low, and the walls were inlaid with many glittering energy crystals. Excitedly, Su Yao began collecting the crystals, storing them one by one into her spatial storage.

Just as she was collecting the crystals, a sharp whistling sound came from the depths of the cave. Su Yao's heart tightened; she sensed an aura even more powerful than the ice bear approaching. She quickly prepared for battle, only to see a swarm of bat-like creatures fly out from the depths of the cave. These creatures had bodies as transparent as ice, and sharp ice blades on their wings.

A swarm of bats flew towards Su Yao, moving with incredible speed. Su Yao could only dodge using her wind-based abilities. While dodging, she noticed the bats paused briefly during their attacks, seemingly adjusting their direction. Seizing this opportunity, Su Yao retaliated with attacks imbued with lightning power. Each attack knocked down several bats, but the swarm was vast and seemingly endless.

Su Yao realized this couldn't continue, so she decided to take a gamble. She retrieved some of the collected energy crystals, fused her supernatural abilities with the crystal energy, and then released a powerful energy wave. The energy wave exploded within the swarm of bats, annihilating a large number of them. The remaining bats seemed to sense the threat; they ceased their attacks and flew back into the depths of the cave.

Su Yao breathed a sigh of relief and continued collecting the remaining energy crystals. Once she had collected all the crystals, she quickly left the cave. On her way out of the valley, she encountered some small creatures mutated by the extreme cold. These creatures tried to stop her, but Su Yao easily dealt with them.

Filled with her bounty, Su Yao embarked on her journey back to the safe house. She knew these energy crystals would bring new life to the safe house, giving them more resources to combat the crisis in this frigid apocalypse. But her journey wouldn't end there; for survival and hope, she would continue to explore this cruel world.