The snow was getting thinner and thinner, and before dusk, the eight people reached the edge of the snowfield.
"Captain! Keep going forward! That's the edge of the abyss!" the old man roared.
Just then, the snow leopard slowed down until it came to a complete stop. No matter how Li Changzhou tried to urge it on, it refused to step out of the snowfield.
“Snow leopards can only survive in the snow,” the old man said, leading his horse out of the black sphere to Li Changzhou’s side. “Captain, kill it. Its teeth can be sharpened into weapons, its fur is very valuable and has excellent cold-weather protection, and although the meat doesn’t taste as good when eaten raw, it can still keep you warm.”
“Kill them,” Li Changzhou said.
The old man turned his face and shouted, "Tali, Andy, Stonefist, the three of you, make your move!"
As Tali's dagger pierced the snow leopard's body, the snow beneath it seemed to come alive, thirstily drinking the blood.
"The weather is getting colder and colder." Li Changzhou gazed towards the abyss.
Yang Qinglan nodded silently.
There was no wind or snow ahead, but the temperature was terribly low.
Here, even the wind flies far away, the snow sleeps deep on the earth, and there is nothing in the world that can move.
After dealing with the snow leopard, the eight men led the horses forward—just like the snow leopard, the horses refused to move forward no matter how they were urged, so they had to dismount and pull hard.
Sometimes the reins even tear the horse until it bleeds.
The blood froze as soon as it left the body, embedding itself in the horse's body like a blood diamond.
Each person received a piece of the snow leopard's pelt, enough to make a blood-stained cloak.
With this, everyone's perceived temperature finally returned to what it was this morning. Although they were freezing cold and wished it were even colder so they could freeze their bodies, they were still able to endure it.
In addition, occasionally feeding the horse a mouthful of snow leopard blood—this may be the main reason why the horse was willing to continue walking.
"Grandpa, what should we do if... there are no Snow Leopards?" The cold made Tali speak haltingly.
"Endure," the old man replied.
"But...it's so hard to get through..."
"Difficult doesn't mean insurmountable; I've survived it all my life."
“This is survival, little Tali,” Yete laughed, her laughter tinged with the unavoidable fear of the bitter cold.
“There is no other way,” Berts said.
Tali seemed even colder; she hunched her shoulders and instinctively turned her gaze toward the Shadow Team's captain.
"Captain, are you finding it tough?"
Li Changzhou, who was walking alongside Yang Qinglan, said, "We must learn to enjoy life. Adversity is the best pleasure for us adventurers. I have fought with people in the scorching heat, and my teammates were so weak that they could only wet their clothes with urine and cover their faces to cool down. I have also chased enemies in towns burning with raging fires. I have even been swallowed by a giant deep-sea fish and run through its intestines."
Li Changzhou was not worried about exposing his information.
The Shadow Squad couldn't possibly know everything about him.
The former Shadow Team captain whose identity was replaced by him, according to the rules of the value game for replacing identities, will have similar experiences to him to some extent, such as going through many hardships to obtain 'great power'.
Sure enough, no one doubted it; all they felt was admiration.
"Only someone like the captain might be able to wield 'great power'," the old man said, his voice tinged with sadness.
As a warrior who has endured a lifetime of hardship, there must have been a period in his life when he was frantically pursuing the 'great power,' but the 'great power' did not choose him.
"Captain..." Andy's voice trembled with coldness, "Tell us about your past!"
“Yes, yes, now that we have a story—” Tali swallowed, looking cold. “We’ll forget we’re cold.”
"You guys are all so cold-tongued, yet you expect me to tell you stories," Li Changzhou said with a laugh.
"Talk to me more, and I won't be cold anymore!" Andy regained his previous playful smile.
“Alright,” Li Changzhou said, “I’ll tell you about it.”
"Very good!"
"Yo-ho!"
Li Changzhou looked up at the frozen sky and thought for a moment: "It's so cold, I'll tell you about that adventure in the desert."
"Is there any 'great power'?" Stone Fist asked curiously.
"Yes, there is also a beast that can change size, from as small as a hair to as large as a house, but the most dangerous one is still humans..."
Even the old man perked up his ears.
Only Yang Qinglan walked silently beside him, her head bowed, looking just like the beautiful corpse Li Changzhou was chasing.
Just as Li Changzhou finished recounting his revised desert journey, the eight of them reached the edge of the abyss.
As dusk painted everything in gold, the sky seemed to be ablaze, making Tali, immersed in Captain America's adventures, unable to resist imagining that perhaps the scorching desert was just like that.
At the edge of the abyss, there is a 'cold-free zone' where the temperature miraculously remains at 0 degrees Celsius.
Life swarms here—humans, wild animals, plants—as if they want to fill this place up like the sea.
But those who dare to stay here for a long time ultimately cannot leave.
"Why? Are you cursed?" Tali asked.
The old man shook his head and said, "Anyone who has lived in the 'Cold-Free Zone' for more than a certain period of time, including wild animals, will never have the thought of leaving the 'Cold-Free Zone' again, without exception. But whether this is a curse, no one knows."
“It could also be a ‘great power’!” Andy exclaimed excitedly.
“Anyone who thinks like that will stay here their whole life.” The old man sneered. “Kid, I know what you’re thinking. Don’t be delusional. Some people have tried to leave before being left in the ‘Cold Zone,’ and then come back to continue their search after a while. But when they came back the next time, they never left again.”
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