In the latter half of the night, the chill in the mountains grew stronger, and the campfire needed to be constantly fueled to maintain its meager warmth.

Zhang Shaozhong wrapped his tattered coat tighter around himself, but he was still shivering from the cold. His eyelids were drooping so badly that he had to pinch his thigh to stay awake.

On the other side, the two bigwigs were clearly not in much better shape either.

The emergency blanket was thin and didn't fit snugly, offering no protection against the dampness and chill of the deep mountain night.

Night Enchantress was the first to give in; she was cold and hungry (the compressed biscuits weren't filling at all), and her stomach rumbled again, its sound particularly clear in the quiet night.

She was taken aback for a moment, then became furious and embarrassed. To cover her embarrassment, she sat up abruptly and vented her anger on Ling Qingxue, who was furthest away from her:

Hey! You hypocrite! Aren't you cold? I'm freezing to death!

"What a lousy place! The eerie atmosphere at night is more like a burial ground for corpses!"

Ling Qingxue was also freezing cold, and she was trying to use her meager spiritual power to ward off the chill, but the effect was minimal.

Hearing Ye Meier yell at her like that, she retorted irritably:

"A witch is a witch, all she knows is to complain. If she's cold, she should use her internal energy to resist it herself. What's with all the chatter? She's just disturbing our peace and quiet."

"Circulate internal energy? Circulate my ass!"

Nightshade got angry.

"If I could still use my demonic powers, I'd freeze you into an ice sculpture and use you as a decoration!"

Why bother suffering like this here?

"vulgar!"

Ling Qingxue coldly rebuked,

"Even if you have temporarily lost your cultivation, a calm mind will naturally cool you down. Your restlessness will only make you feel colder."

"Calm down? I'm perfectly calm! Right now, all I can think about is how to roast your fake face in a fire!"

Nightshade cursed viciously, but her body betrayed her by moving her buttocks further toward the fire.

Zhang Shaozhong, feeling utterly exasperated by their renewed arguing, helplessly advised:

"You two...save your energy, arguing won't warm you up...I have some energy bars here, how about..."

"Shut up! It tastes awful!"

"Take it away! Pig swill!"

The two bigwigs once again retorted in unison, their tacit understanding astonishing.

Zhang Shaozhong:

"..." Well, I guess I was just being nosy.

Just then, a loud rustling sound came from the nearby woods, as if something was approaching!

"What is that?!"

Ye Meier gave a low, wary shout and instinctively moved a little closer to Ling Qingxue, purely out of instinct, since the latter seemed to be the more formidable fighter.

Ling Qingxue also tensed up instantly, her eyes sharply scanning the source of the sound, her hand instinctively reaching for her waist.

Even the sleeping hikers were startled awake and groggily sat up:

"What's wrong? Is something the problem?"

Zhang Shaozhong's heart was in his throat, and he quickly grabbed a flashlight and shone it over.

The beam of light swept across the darkness, finally settling on a pair of alert little eyes reflecting a green light.

It turned out to be a badger or a similar small animal that had been attracted by the firelight and human presence.

It glanced at the large group of people, seemed to realize it couldn't afford to offend them, and darted back into the bushes and ran away.

It was a false alarm.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

But that moment of tension made the two big shots' postures quite awkward!

Ye Meier had somehow already half-hid behind Ling Qingxue, her hand still unconsciously gripping the corner of Ling Qingxue's windbreaker.

Although Ling Qingxue looked disgusted, she didn't push her away immediately when danger struck.

With the crisis averted, the two reacted instantly, jerking away as if they had been branded with a hot iron!

"Witch! Get your filthy hands off me!"

Ling Qingxue vigorously patted the hem of her clothes that Ye Meier had grabbed, as if she had been infected with some kind of virus.

"Pah! Who wants to touch you! You're as hard as a coffin lid!"

Ye Meier's face flushed red and then turned pale. She stubbornly retorted and even deliberately wiped her hands on her pants.

Seeing their obvious attempt to conceal something, Zhang Shaozhong almost burst out laughing and quickly lowered his head to pretend to add firewood.

After such a scare, none of them were sleepy anymore. One of the hikers took out the last of his compressed biscuits and shared them with everyone:

"Eat something to calm your nerves and replenish your energy."

Looking at the dry biscuits, Ling Qingxue and Ye Meier once again showed expressions of extreme resistance.

"It's that thing again..."

Ling Qingxue's tone was filled with despair.

"I'd rather starve to death than eat this stuff!"

Night Enchantress swore an oath.

But the cold reality and the rumbling stomach ultimately triumphed over dignity.

Five minutes later.

Ling Qingxue nibbled on the biscuit with great difficulty, each bite feeling like she was being tortured, her brows furrowed so deeply they could trap a fly.

Ye Meier, on the other hand, wore an expression of "it smells so good!" but refused to admit it aloud. She bit into the biscuit fiercely, as if she were biting into Ling Qingxue's flesh, and mumbled a complaint:

"It's so dry! It's choking! Can't you people of later generations invent something delicious and filling?"

Zhang Shaozhong rolled his eyes as he ate a biscuit:

"Yes, self-heating hot pot and self-heating rice are so delicious! Who told you to end up in this middle of nowhere? You should be grateful to have anything to eat!"

"Self-heating hot pot? What is that?"

Ling Qingxue noticed a new word.

"Rice can self-heat?"

Night Enchantress also perked up her ears.

Zhang Shaozhong then began his arduous product presentation:

"It's a kind of...using lime...uh, a chemical substance to generate heat, which heats the prepared food and hot pot, so you can eat hot food without lighting a fire..."

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