"Don't be nervous, it should just be a normal ice crack, after all, there is a glacier nearby." Xi Xi continued to slurp up a mouthful of noodles soaked in soup. "I've calculated it, even if the nearest mountain has an avalanche, it won't affect us here."

Hearing this, everyone felt a little more at ease.

Xi Xi then began to draft a duty roster. Having more people has this advantage: taking turns on duty allows everyone to get more rest time.

"I can lend my spare tablet to the person on duty!" Liu Yunyan suddenly remembered something and laughed, "There are lots of movies on it, that should help kill some time!"

And so, life at the icefield camp began.

The days weren't exactly comfortable or pleasant, but they were definitely much more comfortable than the previous days of traveling day and night. For some reason, it felt like I was participating in a winter camp in the snow.

The beef tripe curled up in the hot pot of butter, and Xi Xi watched Liu Yunyan and Cheng Xu play rock-paper-scissors for the last piece of tripe while sucking on an ice-cold cola straw.

Outside the RV, a blizzard was raging, and the outside temperature was still below critically low. The steam from the hot pot seemed to be specifically designed to defog the windows, spreading throughout the entire first floor of the RV.

Honestly, nothing tastes good in this freezing weather, except hot pot. Xi Xi never imagined that her childhood wish to live on hot pot when she was young and didn't understand things would come true at this moment.

"How about we have barbecue tonight?" Liu Enxi sat cross-legged on the plush carpet, playing with her mermaid baby and Aura white duck. She said with great joy, "I'm getting a bit of a sore throat from eating hot pot every day!"

"Sure." Xi Xi picked up a cooked meatball, the broth dripping back into the pot along the bamboo skewer. She had just gotten it from opening a treasure chest today.

That's right, treasure chests will also randomly spawn on the ice plains, and they don't actually need to go out to collect them; the Treasure Magnet will attract all the surrounding treasure chests.

Aside from the drawback of a lower refresh rate resulting in less loot, everything went very smoothly. Even if we assume there's no problem, at least there's a daily supply, so why not?

Occasionally, the Treasure Magnet can also attract rare airdrop supplies.

The supplies airdropped mainly consisted of vegetables and fruits, and even a small amount of crop seeds.

Xi Xi only realized now that the Liu sisters also had miniature planting pots. Not only did they have them, but they had two! However, due to the extremely cold weather, they couldn't grow anything decent, so Liu Enxi simply used the planting pots as insulated containers.

Seeing the thriving growth in Xi Xi's planting pot, Liu Yunyan immediately moved all her own planting pots over and solemnly handed them to Chu Zhiqin.

The blizzard outside was still raging relentlessly. However, in stark contrast to the harsh cold outside, Xi Xi and her group were living a blissful life in the warm "courtyard camp".

This campsite is like a secluded little world, surrounded by thick snow, but because the fresh snow is fluffy and porous, it has inexplicably become a relatively quiet "haven".

Eating hotpot together every day has become the most anticipated moment for everyone. Occasionally, they will also get together to chat or play cards.

Cheng Xu even brought out a projector that he hadn't used in a long time. Everyone sat around it, plugged in Liu Yunyan's treasured hard drive, and watched the movie together in a lively atmosphere.

In the early stages of their struggle for survival, who could have imagined such an opportunity? So much so that everyone was almost too happy to leave.

It wasn't until the fourth day after the earthquake that Xi Xi rode her motorcycle again, heading east with Liu Yunyan and Cheng Xu to find a suitable campsite. Only then did the group begin packing their belongings and preparing to evacuate.

“This road looks feasible. We’ll have more than enough time to get there before the next earthquake!” Xi Zhongcang strongly agreed with the location and couldn’t help but think even more highly of his daughter.

"We're acting like nomads now!" Chu Zhiqin joked with a laugh.

"Isn't this actually the correct rule for survival in extremely cold regions?" Xi Xi said thoughtfully as she packed her things.

Clearly, the people on the public chat had grasped the survival rule here earlier than they had – haste makes waste.

Instead of pursuing speed to reach the transit station as quickly as possible, as before, everyone gathered together and focused on collecting enough Earth Spirit Shields within each cycle to ensure their survival before slowly advancing.

Humans are amazing creatures; as the saying goes, it's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. Similarly, it's easy to go from an individual to a group, but difficult to go from a group to an individual.

Even in the once highly prosperous original world, if individuals were to be separated from the supplies provided by human society such as water, electricity, and gas, they would find it difficult to survive on their own.

“Speaking of which, the last refuge island meant we stayed for an extra period of time.” Chu Zhiqin pressed the button to retract the inflatable tent and turned to Xi Xi, saying, “I wonder when we’ll be able to get out of this refuge ice field.”

"It's hard to say." Xi Xi shook off the snow from the awning. "Based on the previous route, the extreme cold probably won't last too long. As long as the weather warms up, the progress will be much faster."

During a brief respite from the blizzard, Xi Xi and her group seized the opportunity and embarked on their journey without hesitation.

The journey went smoothly, without encountering many obstacles along the way. Even though the surrounding environment remained rugged, the group successfully traversed this treacherous terrain of undulating peaks.

They arrived at their new destination just hours before the earthquake struck. The terrain was relatively flat, and there were some natural shelters around, providing them with a relatively safe place to set up camp.

Everyone quickly sprang into action, methodically setting up tents and arranging the "courtyard campsite" exactly the same as before.

The earthquake struck as expected, but this time everyone was much calmer, working together seamlessly and surprisingly calmly through the entire period of crustal movement.

However, after the tremors completely subsided, an astonishing scene appeared on the map.

A huge crack appeared on the map! It was a bottomless ice fissure canyon, the narrow cracks breathing out cold air like a living thing.

For safety reasons, Xi Xi, Xi Zhongcang, Cheng Xu, and Liu Yunyan braved the wind and snow, riding their motorcycles to the area shown on the map. The inner walls of the fissure glowed with an eerie, ghostly blue light, as if some liquid seeping from the earth's core had frozen into ice.

Xi Xi immediately contacted Li Jinshao, who believed it was a typical "ice tremor" phenomenon caused by crustal compression leading to deep fracturing of the ice sheet.

Everyone understands the principle, but when they see it with their own eyes, they still feel a tightness in their throats—the ice layer at the edge of the crack is broken in a spiral shape, like glass being twisted and shattered by an invisible hand.

"It's terrifying..." Cheng Xu's legs started trembling after just one glance down.

Xi Xi, who had been silent to the side, paced around a few times before looking up at her father: "Am I just imagining things? I feel like... I heard something?"