He couldn't open his eyes; his vision was enveloped by thick darkness and the soreness of his eyelids.
I can only vaguely perceive my surroundings.
He was carried out of the caverns bathed in cruel starlight, away from the corrupted dwarves whose silent voices spoke of their suffering.
The flow of air seemed to shift subtly, from a more open space into a narrower, more concentrated passage of chill.
The dwarves carrying him walked steadily, making almost no extra noise on the uneven ice surface, except for the slight "crackling" sound of their boots breaking through the thin ice and the occasional slight sway of the stretcher.
The air was filled with the scent of years of ice, a faint smell of mineral dust, and...
An indescribable feeling of old emptiness, like the star dust emanating before falling asleep.
His vague senses detected that the ice walls on both sides of the passage, or the corridor, seemed to be very close, and there were traces of dense and powerful excavation on them.
It was exactly the kind of unique, pragmatic and exquisite craftsmanship of the dwarven master craftsmen that he had experienced before.
I don’t know how much time has passed, maybe only a few minutes, or maybe an hour. In this state, time has long lost its meaning.
He was carried out of the cold corridor and into a new space.
The chill here has faded a little, or rather, there is a slightly different atmosphere.
The air was no longer as pure and bitingly cold as in the passage. The coldness was mixed with a hint of... an extremely faint smell of rotting grass and wood, and the faint smell of fireworks.
The team stopped.
Once again, he was carefully lifted up by the steady hand, then gently put down.
These people did not put him directly on the cold ground, but placed him on something relatively soft.
It was a fluffy, dry mass with a distinct smell of plant stems.
Is it... some kind of dry grass? Or dry moss?
They were spread thickly, and although still cold, they provided some cushioning for his bruised and exhausted body.
A damp chill came from beneath my body, as if some of the straw mat was soaked by the slowly melting thin ice, but this faint feeling of coldness was like a downpour after a long drought, bringing a strange sense of comfort.
"Mmmmm..."
Xiao Mu hummed softly and landed on the straw mat beside him. He probably moved instinctively, looking for the position closest to his warmth source, and then fell into complete silence again.
His heavy eyelids seemed to be sealed by ice and snow, and no matter how hard Mark tried, he couldn't move.
He could only lie heavily on this simple straw mat that smelled of mold and cold. His body felt like it was falling apart, and his soul was empty and numb from excessive exhaustion.
All that remained was the imprint of the faint starlight of the blue ice wall in the distance, deep in his senses, and a vague impression of the long, cold corridor along the way.
He and Xiao Mu were like two pieces of rags thrown into a corner. Deep in this secret nest shrouded in starlight, they temporarily lost all ability to resist.
Before his consciousness completely slipped into darkness, Mark's "sense of smell" caught the last trace of unusual breath in his exhaustion.
On the uneven walls of this simple shack, which seemed to be hastily pieced together from huge irregular ice rocks and black iron supports, wisps of extremely faint and slowly floating... like fine yarn, stardust light.
over time.
Mark's consciousness was like sinking in cold deep water, slowly floating up.
The first thing that revived was the body's perception. The first feeling was a heaviness that was so stiff that even the bones were groaning, and a cold aftertaste that penetrated deep into the bone marrow and was difficult to dispel.
Every breath pulled on the sore muscles in my chest and abdomen, and my throat felt as dry as sandpaper.
"Well…"
A low moan escaped from his cracked lips.
He struggled to open his eyelids a crack.
What comes into view is a soft blue light, coming from... the walls and curved dome that cover the entire space.
His sight focused, and Mark's wine-red pupils suddenly contracted!
It's ice!
That kind of ice!
The walls, roof, and even the floor of the entire room are made of a unique material that is deep and introverted, yet radiates a faint blue light from the inside out, like a frozen galaxy!
He would never mistake this feeling. It was the wall of despair that almost swallowed him, the blue ice that the dwarves called the "Star Barrier"!
But here, they are carefully cut and shaped to form a room!
The shock brought by this sudden scene was like a heavy hammer hitting Mark's still chaotic brain, causing a dull pain and dizziness.
“Hmm…?”
An extremely faint, almost inaudible breathing sound came from the side.
Mark tilted his head sharply, enduring the stiffness and pain in his neck.
Xiao Mu, the pink slime body that was so soft that it had lost its luster, curled up on a small pile of relatively dry moss that emitted a stale smell.
It was the only soft thing in the room.
Xiao Mu's weak breath was like a candle in the wind. It was his own carelessness that led to such a mistake.
If Mark hadn't known about Xiao Mu's magical powers, he would have slapped himself twice at this moment.
"Don't be afraid...Xiaomu, we...are still alive."
At this time, Mark's voice was hoarse and unpleasant, but it carried the certainty of surviving the disaster and deep regret.
He struggled to raise his arm, which felt as if it were filled with lead, and his mind struggled to sink into the gap between the starlight between his fingers.
The icy touch of divine consciousness now carried a hint of familiar warmth.
With a flash of light, several pieces of air-dried beef jerky and a crystal bottle appeared next to him.
At this time, the only thing that can restore Xiao Mu's vitality is obviously the special holy water. As long as Xiao Mu can recover, his risk will be resolved.
Mark almost gritted his teeth and used up all his accumulated strength to complete a few seemingly simple movements.
First, stuff a piece of dried meat into your mouth, let the tough fibers slowly absorb the saliva, and then use trembling fingers to pull out the cork.
A strong sacred smell with a false soothing power filled the air.
He used two fingers to carefully lift Xiao Mu's cold, soft body and slowly tilted the bottle mouth.
One drop, two drops...
The holy water, gleaming with a milky white glow, dripped carefully onto Xiao Mu's lifeless surface.
“Sizzle…”
The sound was so faint that it was almost inaudible, like a flame igniting ice chips.
The small piece of slime's surface that came into contact with the holy water briefly lit up with a faint rainbow light, and was then immediately covered by the soft holy light.
Just like the cracked earth after a long drought encountering a refreshing rain, Xiao Mu's pink "skin" greedily absorbed the warm energy, and the subtle activity immediately increased a little.
Although it is far from complete recovery, at least it is no longer in a state of silence that looks like it is on the verge of death.
Mark didn't dare to feed too much at once. Seeing that Xiao Mu could absorb it slowly and his breathing stabilized, he carefully put the crystal bottle and it back on the moss mat, and focused on the damn jerky in his mouth.
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