396. Death Icicles didn’t know death would come so quickly…
The human-headed elephant seemed to understand what she said and rubbed its front legs in place. Zhu Ning stretched out her hand. Lin Xiaofeng looked at her palm and sighed. As if she was here to collect a debt, she gritted her teeth and took out an energy bar and handed it to her.
Zhu Ning tore open the package and threw it forward. The human-headed elephant's trunk was extremely flexible and it caught the bone in mid-air quickly like a dog.
Then he didn't even have time to breathe, he bit the energy bar into pieces and ran immediately. Lin Xiaofeng grew up riding roller coasters, and it was his first time sitting on a human-headed elephant, and he almost got thrown out.
Zhu Ning was much calmer in comparison. She had ridden a horse in the "Zombie World". Zhu Yao had sent her to learn it. The tuition was very expensive, but because Zhu Ning was interested, she studied for two years.
Now that I think about it, these memories should have been deliberately created by Zhu Yao, including some fragmentary biological knowledge that Zhu Ning knew, probably to facilitate dealing with various emergencies, such as now.
Zhu Ning had no reaction to this matter a long time ago and was extremely numb most of the time.
She didn't have a map, so she could only look at the compass. The direction where the elephant's head was running was north.
The wind and snow were getting stronger all around. The enthusiasm that the human-headed elephant had just ignited because of the energy bar quickly dissipated. Its speed slowed down but became more suitable for Lin Xiaofeng's rhythm. Finally, it could take a breath.
Lin Xiaofeng was so cold that she couldn't help but snuggle into Zhu Ning's arms. Zhu Ning's temperature kept rising like a furnace.
They trekked through the snowfield, but the human-headed elephant's progress became slower and slower. The wind was too strong. If it weren't for the elephant's physique, Zhu Ning would have found it difficult to move forward alone in the snow.
Lin Xiaofeng buried her body in the elephant's fur to keep warm, so they had to lie on the elephant to avoid being blown away.
Everything was white all around, and the thermometer continued to drop, forty below zero, forty below zero.
The low temperature was even more exaggerated than they had imagined. If it got any lower, it would be difficult to survive without fire abilities.
The human-headed elephant moved forward almost inch by inch, walking against the wind and snow. Now it seemed to be tired, and the elephant stopped steadily.
Zhu Ning patted the elephant's body, but its four legs were like bridge piers and refused to move an inch.
The human-headed elephant bent its trunk and suddenly turned its head. The human face on the top showed a pitiful expression, and then buried its face in the long hair. It was probably too cold. The part of the human skin had no hair, and even after evolution, it could not withstand the cold.
Lin Xiaofeng touched it and tried to communicate, "I'll give you some more, can you walk a little further?"
Lin Xiaofeng rubbed the outer packaging of the energy bar, making a rustling sound of plastic. If it had been before, he would have raised his neck long ago, but now he was indifferent like an ostrich.
Lin Xiaofeng used all sorts of threats and inducements, but the man refused to fall for it. "You really aren't leaving?"
Lin Xiaofeng searched through its long fur, trying to find a human face so that he could have a good "communication" with it. Now he no longer found it disgusting or weird, but rather a little cute.
The hair was thick and heavy. The more Lin Xiaofeng searched for it, the deeper she shrank into it. She almost fell into the elephant's hair.
Zhu Ning didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The two looked quite cute together. Just as a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth, it suddenly froze.
She squinted her eyes and looked into the distance, but her helmet was covered with ice mist. She opened the helmet panel and her vision seemed to be able to penetrate the layers of wind and snow.
Lin Xiaofeng felt Zhu Ning's body behind him straighten up. He stopped looking for the face and followed Zhu Ning's gaze. He only heard the whistling of the north wind and a vast expanse of white.
But the next moment, the human head buried in the hair suddenly raised its head and looked in the same direction as Zhu Ning, which was further north.
Lin Xiaofeng didn't understand why, but his hands holding the elephant's fur tightened unconsciously. The north wind became louder and louder, and the whistling sound was almost crushing.
She wiped the mist off her protective suit helmet, and her pupils suddenly contracted.
The wind and snow all around suddenly stopped, and every snowflake stopped in the air, as if intimidated by some force. The scene was spectacular.
The visibility suddenly increased, but Lin Xiaofeng had no time to appreciate it. She saw a white vortex on the horizon. This might be what the ancients called "dragon sucking water", or it looked like a long nose hanging from the sky, constantly rotating.
As it swept over, it was as if the sharpest blade in the world was spinning at high speed, making a terrifying sound of wind.
"Tornado? You underestimate the Northland," Pei Shu said, hooking his sweater. "It's a death icicle."
In Zhu Ning's knowledge, this phenomenon mostly occurs on the seabed of the Arctic and Antarctic, and this is the first time he has seen a land version.
Like a tornado blowing up, a giant icicle was cast from the clouds, quickly freezing everything in its path, and all living things would die instantly on contact.
The human-headed elephant retained its animal instincts, or perhaps it was already common in the north. Before Zhu Ning gave any specific instructions, it had already spread its hooves and turned its head to run. It did not run in the opposite direction, but ran to the right wing.
Just as Pei Shu described, the ground where the icicles touched was freezing rapidly, making a crackling sound, as if a giant beast was gnawing at the earth.
The speed of the death icicles was too fast. The human-headed elephant was running almost desperately against nature. It was even faster than when he ate energy bars. Zhu Ning heard the laughter he made because of his extreme speed.
But it was not enough, the death icicle was approaching, like a sickle hanging around the neck.
Any kind of fire is useless in front of this kind of power. If the spread area is several thousand meters, or even tens of thousands of meters, it can freeze thousands of miles in an instant, and they won't even feel any pain when they die.
"It all depends on luck." Pei Shu put down the yarn and said, "Good luck."
Zhu Ning gritted his teeth and understood why the North was Prometheus' natural defense line. If humans wanted to break through here, they would be going against the laws of nature.
This kind of death is random and will not happen just because you are smarter. Investigators who have reached this point have relied on luck.
The crunching sound of gnawing became louder and louder. Lin Xiaofeng didn't dare to look back. The ice line was getting closer and closer to them. Before, they could only see it from a distance, but now it was only more than 800 meters away.
No wonder the temperature dropped suddenly. They were already in the monster's mouth and had become food on the chopping board.
Death was approaching, Zhu Ning looked around, thanks to the condensation power of the icicles, they could see farther.
As his sight opened, Zhu Ning's brain began to work rapidly. The human-headed elephant was panting and exhausted. It had lived in the north for many years and knew the power of nature better. It slowed down and prepared to close its eyes and wait for death to come.
But it couldn't control its feet. Zhu Ning was controlling its body, and the hair on its neck was pulled by a force. Zhu Ning was just a passenger before, but now he began to take control, like a real rider.
Flames spread from Zhu Ning's palms, faster than any fire-starting tools in the world, and the elephant hair became fuel. In the blink of an eye, the surface of the human-head elephant was covered with a layer of fire, like a huge bonfire suddenly ignited on the snowy field.
No one knows the actual blocking ability of the flames against the ice line. They are trying to block the encirclement of the ice and snow line with their weak posture.
The human-headed elephant raised its neck and urgently changed direction as Zhu Ning pulled it. There was a computer in Zhu Ning's head, and she was calculating the route. The human-headed elephant's initial escape route was correct, but it needed to be more precise.
Zhu Ning's eye data kept scrolling, a map opened in his mind, and a virtual road stretched out. That was the way out calculated by human computers in the face of natural strangleholds.
The crackling sound of ice was so close that even wearing protective clothing, I could feel the pain on my back, as if the ice blade of death was scraping down one by one, torturing people to death. If you only freeze the hind legs of the human-headed elephants, they will freeze in place and become ice sculptures.
"Look!" Lin Xiaofeng shouted excitedly, "There's someone in front!"
Black appeared in front of him. It was not even a buoy, but the color of human beings. Lin Xiaofeng had just ignited hope, but the next second it was like someone poured cold water on him.
That was not a human being, or to be more precise, not a living person, but a frozen corpse.
They were wearing black protective suits from the North China Diao School, and they maintained their original shapes before they died. Some wore helmets, some even lost their helmets, and some died inside the flying car. They had expressions of fear on their faces or were completely stunned. If this was some kind of ice sculpture, it would definitely be called lifelike, but they were living people.
The dead investigators became a natural landmark, or a unified cemetery for everyone, preserved forever as long as the cold persisted.
Zhu Ning had always wanted to find the body, but now that she had found it, she was not excited, because the place where her predecessor died would be her new grave.
Her calculations were not unique; someone had reached this location before and still died.
With a snap, the iceman was crushed by the elephant's foot, and the human body instantly broke into pieces, like expensive porcelain being smashed to pieces.
The human-headed elephant can no longer stop. It has only one last goal in the rest of its life: to keep running.
Zhu Ning held it tightly, and his heart was extremely calm at this point. If death really came, Zhu Ning would not be able to do anything, but he had done everything he could.
After coming out of Utopia, Zhu Ning had long been indifferent to life and death. At this moment, he was just lucky that he died beside his own kind.
If she really had to be buried, she could be buried as a human being alongside the countless dead investigators, which would be a blessing for her.
Crunch, crunch, the monster of the Frozen Line finally gnawed at them, and the human struggles were of no use.
Ice and snow covered the hind legs of the human-headed elephant, as if the hand of death suddenly grabbed it. Running was no way to resist the power of nature. The ice shell spread rapidly at the moment of contact. Even when the whole body was on fire, the ice and snow did not care and just carried it with brute force.
The ice shell crawled from the hind legs of the human-headed elephant to its buttocks and then onto Zhu Ning's back. At the last moment, she burst out with strength and pushed Lin Xiaofeng away.
This is the agreed order of death: Bai Cheng first, Pei Shu second, Zhu Ning third, and only Lin Xiaofeng last.
Even at the last second before his death, Zhu Ning would ensure that he died before Lin Xiaofeng.
Lin Xiaofeng's body flew high up. Zhu Ning used herself as the starting point and bought Lin Xiaofeng more distance. When Zhu Ning threw her up, she was covered with a layer of flames, like a blanket left by Pei Shu, which passed from Zhu Ning's hand to Lin Xiaofeng's hand.
At first, Lin Xiaofeng thought that this was a new trick that Zhu Ning had come up with, just like when he tamed the human-headed elephant just now. She only needed to listen to an instruction, and Zhu Ning would tell her what to do next firmly and neatly.
But she didn't hear it. When Lin Xiaofeng turned around in mid-air, she saw a scene: Zhu Ning and the human-headed elephant were bitten by the ice and snow. Along with the fire burning on their bodies, the surface of Zhu Ning's eyeballs was quickly covered with an ice shell, like the lid of a coffin.
In the last second before being frozen, Zhu Ning was still looking at Lin Xiaofeng, and his expression was extremely indifferent, as if he had been waiting for death for a long time.
Lin Xiaofeng opened his mouth wide, but didn't even have time to shout. His body fell to the ground with a bang, and was swung dozens of meters away due to inertia.
She quickly got up, and a chill came towards her, covering her right leg and palm in the blink of an eye. Lin Xiaofeng felt hopeless and knew that she was doomed.
She thought she would die soon, but the damn ice line had stopped long ago. The ice shell spreading on her body was just the aftermath of death, not the god of death itself, and was more fragile in comparison.
Lin Xiaofeng just moved her palm instinctively, and the sharp ice shell slid off her body with a crash.
The last layer of fire defense that Zhu Ning gave her before her death has melted.
Death froze everything, and the view was wider than ever before. In the distance were icicles of death, connecting the sky and the snowfield. They fell to the ground and solidified into a layer of ice thousands of miles away, which was so awe-inspiring.
For the first time, Lin Xiaofeng understood what true austerity meant. It was like nature's scythe falling and no one could escape. There were many corpses here, densely covering Lin Xiaofeng. It was probably the escape destination for everyone.
Zhu Ning remained in his original state when he was frozen, the flames were eye-catching and dazzling, and the man and the elephant stopped just like that.
Lin Xiaofeng's lips trembled. He didn't know that death would come so quickly. He didn't even have time to say anything.
She hesitated and didn't dare to take a step forward, always feeling that she was still dreaming and had not yet woken up.
After losing Zhu Ning's warmth, Lin Xiaofeng felt freezing cold all over. The protective suit was like an iron can this time. The temperature was already minus 48 degrees Celsius.
It took her a long time to take a step, and she walked towards Zhu Ning so stiffly.
The storm stopped and there was no force to stop her from moving forward, but this was the longest road Lin Xiaofeng had ever walked.
She even wanted to run away to delay, but even if she tried to escape, she would still have reached the destination. The human heads were so tall that when she looked up from below, it was as if she was looking at the remains of a giant.
Lin Xiaofeng's eyes were blurred. She was not prepared to deal with a second death and her face was covered with tears.
She couldn't help crying and tried to climb onto the elephant's body to pull Zhu Ning's body out, but the ice shell was too slippery and she couldn't find a foothold.
She groped on the surface of the ice elephant, and the huge sadness quickly overwhelmed her. She suddenly stopped her powerless struggle and stared blankly upwards. The fire on her body had gone out, but the fire in her heart began to ignite.
Zhu Ning, who was sealed in the ice shell, slowly turned her eyeballs. The data flow in her eyes did not extinguish. Her blue pupils were looking downwards, and she was looking at Lin Xiaofeng.
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