"There is definitely a purpose." Nan Song said coldly, his fingers unconsciously stroking the hilt of the dagger, and his eyes vigilantly swept over the scarlet shadow swaying outside the ice house.
"What are those villagers doing?" she asked in a low voice.
Ma Tuan was silent for a moment, his voice becoming smaller and smaller: "They are... praying to God." He himself found it ridiculous, but those hunched figures were indeed kneeling on the edge of the glacier crevasse, chanting distorted syllables towards the bottomless darkness.
But the next second, his tone suddenly lightened up. "But I found some sea otters!" He lowered his voice, but his excitement couldn't be concealed. "They don't look right, but maybe they can lead us to a clue. Let's sneak up on them!"
Nansong frowned: "Sea otters? In a place like this?"
"They're not ordinary sea otters," Ma Tuan shook his head. "Their eyes..."
Before he could finish his words, the door of the igloo was suddenly shrouded by a shadow.
Bai Di and Nan Song's pupils suddenly contracted, and their bodies tensed instantly. Nan Song's hand suddenly pressed down on the hilt of the knife, while Bai Di silently moved to the edge of the ice wall, signaling Ma Tuan to look towards the door.
Ma Tuan slowly turned his head——
A tall black shadow stood in front of the door, almost as big as three horses stacked together.
Its outline was blurred, as if made of sticky darkness and frost. Only two narrow eyes with a faint blue fluorescence were clearly visible, staring straight at them.
The air froze for a moment.
"...Run?" Ma Tuan asked in a low voice.
"What do you think?" Nan Song gritted his teeth.
The shadow moved.
Ma Tuan saw that the huge black shadow was blocking the door, almost completely covering the entrance to the ice house.
Instead of rushing in directly, it raised its front paws—if the limbs formed by sticky shadows and ice crystals could still be called "claws"—and knocked lightly on the door frame three times.
Boom, boom, boom.
The sound was dull, like thick ice being struck by a blunt object.
The three of them froze in place, the air so stagnant they could almost hear each other's breathing. Nansong's fingers silently clasped the hilt of his knife. A cold glint flashed in Bai Di's eyes, and beneath Ma Tuan's mask, his Adam's apple rolled slightly.
The silence lasted for several heartbeats.
Finally, the shadow moved. Slowly, almost politely, it bent down and squeezed in from the door. It seemed to swallow up some of the light in the igloo, and the faint blue flames in the brazier suddenly dimmed, as if shrinking in fear.
Now, they can finally see what it looks like -
It was indeed a "sea otter," if sea otter bones could be distorted to that extent.
Its body was huge and deformed, covered with a layer of translucent pale fur, and dark blue veins were faintly visible under the skin, spreading like ice cracks.
The head, which should be round, is unusually long and narrow, and the snout is split into a jagged gap with spiral fangs arranged in it.
The most uncomfortable thing is its eyes - two round, glass-like eyeballs, but the pupils are split into countless tiny black dots, like a cluster of frozen insect eggs, slowly wriggling with the sight.
Its front paws were resting on the ground, with webbed fingers, but each claw ended in a slender, icicle-like spike that vibrated slightly with its breathing, making a subtle buzzing sound.
The strangest thing was that on its back was a crude shrine made of fish bones and frozen soil. Inside it was a pulsating, tumor-like object, its surface covered with nerve-like blue lines, which was contracting and expanding with some indescribable rhythm.
It did not attack, but just stood there quietly, its split pupils moving back and forth between the three people.
"...What is it waiting for?" Nan Song asked softly, his voice tense.
Ma Tuan's face turned pale beneath his mask. "Maybe... it's waiting for us to follow it?"
As if responding to his words, the sea otter slowly turned around, took a step toward the door, then stopped and looked back at them.
Its split snout curled up slightly, revealing an arc that was almost a smile - if it could be called a smile.
Bai Di narrowed his eyes: "It seems that we have no choice."
The three of them looked at each other, and finally took a step forward to catch up with the strange giant beast.
Its steps were slow and heavy, and the ice made a slight cracking sound under its claws. Every few steps, it would stop, and its split pupils turned, as if to confirm whether they were keeping up.
A thick silence permeated the air, with only the faint sound of villagers chanting in the distance, mixed with the low, organ-like hum coming from deep within the glacier.
The sky was still torn between scarlet and dark gray, but now the colors began to flow strangely, like an oil painting being stirred by an invisible hand.
The houses along the way gradually became distorted - the igloos that should have been domes now had irregular edges and corners, and some even seemed to be twisted into spirals by some huge force.
A faint blue light shone through the window, and I could occasionally glimpse a swaying figure, but I could never make out the face clearly.
Ma Tuan walked in front,
Nerves are tense.
Suddenly, he felt something cold touching his shoulder—the paw of a sea otter.
Before he could react, the giant beast picked him up with amazing agility.
"Wait! Put me down!"
Ma Tuan was startled and struggled, the mask tilted to one side, revealing half of his pale face.
But the sea otter was incredibly strong, and its icicle-like claws were carefully retracted, neither hurting him nor preventing him from breaking free.
Nansong was already extremely nervous. Seeing this, he immediately wanted to release his mental image, but Bai Di held his wrist. "Don't be impulsive," he whispered. "Where is it taking us?"
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