lcionline Chapter 412: Shadow in the Ice
Chapter 412: Shadow in the Ice
Gu Yang rubbed his arms and found that a layer of light blue ice film had formed on his skin.
Upon seeing this, Xiao Zi immediately turned his head and spewed out a ball of purple-gold dragon breath.
Warm sparks swirled around them, temporarily dispelling some of the chill.
"This damn place..."
Gu Yang flexed his frozen fingers. "The temperature is at least minus fifty degrees Celsius. Why would the rats run to a place like this?"
As you go deeper, the rock wall is completely covered with ice, forming a strange blue ice crystal corridor.
Xiao Zi's paws stepped on the ice, making a crisp "tapping" sound.
Soon, he led the two almost frozen people through the narrow tunnel, and the view in front of him suddenly opened up.
A huge cave appeared in front of us.
The temperature here was much higher than in the tunnel. Hu Qing and Gu Yang were finally able to stretch their frozen limbs. As their spiritual power circulated, the ice crystals on their bodies shattered and fell to the ground.
Hu Qing took out a spirit stone lamp, and the soft light instantly illuminated the entire cave.
The scene before me was shocking——
The surrounding rock walls were flickering with a blue light, flickering like stars.
Dozens of huge light blue ice crystal cones hang from the ceiling of the cave, each of them is crystal clear, and it seems as if liquid is flowing inside.
The most eye-catching thing is the huge blue ice wall in the center of the cave.
It looks like it is carved from the purest crystal, transparent throughout, and you can almost see every line deep in the ice.
"Rat man! He's there!" Gu Yang suddenly shouted.
I saw the rat man standing in front of the ice wall, one claw pressed against the ice, his body remaining strangely still.
Strangely, there was not a trace of frost on his body, and his gray hair was shiny and oily.
Under the illumination of the spirit stone lamp, it even glows with a healthy luster, forming a sharp contrast with the extremely cold environment around it.
"Something's wrong..." Hu Qing walked forward slowly, observing the rat man's condition vigilantly, "He seems to be stuck in this ice wall..."
Xiao Zi gently grabbed the rat man's hind leg with his teeth, trying to pull him away from the ice wall.
But the rat man's body had been frozen as hard as black iron, and no matter how hard Xiao Zi tried, he couldn't move at all.
Purple ambergris dripped down the ratman's stiff hair and instantly condensed into beads on the ice surface.
Gu Yang leaned over to take a closer look while holding the spirit stone lamp. Under the light, the rat man's expression was clearly visible.
There was a greedy gleam in those small eyes, and the corners of his mouth even maintained an upward arc, as if he had seen something ecstatic just before freezing.
"This is not right..." Gu Yang murmured, "He didn't even have time to be frightened before he was frozen in an instant."
He couldn't help but stretch out his hand, wanting to touch the dark blue ice wall.
Hu Qing grabbed his wrist with such force that it hurt Gu Yang.
"Don't touch it yet!"
Hu Qing lowered his voice to a whisper, his eyes flashing with vigilance. "The ratmen's transformation into this state is definitely related to this ice wall."
Gu Yang retracted his hand as if he had been electrocuted, his Adam's apple rolling:
"So what should we do now? We can't just leave him here, right?"
Hu Qing didn't answer immediately. He walked slowly around the ice wall, the light from the spirit stone lamp casting flickering shadows on the ice.
"Don't worry, I'll use my foresight to see."
Hu Qing stared at the dark blue ice wall, slowly raised his hand, and stopped three centimeters away from the ice surface.
The biting cold made the hairs on his fingers stand up, and a layer of white frost instantly condensed on the surface of his skin.
He took a deep breath, and a dazzling golden light suddenly burst out from his eyes——
Precognitive ability activated!
Broken images flashed through my mind like a kaleidoscope:
He saw his palm touching the ice. At first, everything was normal. The cool and smooth touch of the ice wall came through his fingertips...
It seems that the ice wall is safe, so how can this ratman stay still like this!
But just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief and prepare to cancel the premonition, the picture suddenly distorted -
A faint black shadow emerged from the depths of the ice wall, like smoke and fog, silently winding up along the ice surface!
"Uh!"
Hu Qing still wanted to see clearly what the black shadow was, but he knew the time was up.
He stumbled back, a tearing pain in his eyes. He covered his eyes, blood seeping through his fingers.
"Ahu!" Gu Yang held him and asked, "What did you see?"
Hu Qing rubbed his sore eyes and told everything he had seen:
"Touching the ice wall won't hurt you for now... but there's something inside the wall, a dark shadow of some unknown nature..."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Zi's scales immediately exploded and she stared vigilantly into the depths of the ice wall.
Gu Yang frowned and looked at the rat man: "So this rat was ambushed by the thing in the wall?"
"Very likely." Hu Qing nodded. "The shadow appeared too quickly, and my foresight couldn't fully capture it."
The three of them fell into a brief silence.
The light from the spirit stone lamp cast a swaying shadow on the ice wall, and the ratman's frozen, greedy expression looked particularly strange in the changing light and shadow.
"How about..." Gu Yang suddenly showed a ruthless look, "Why don't we just smash this broken wall?"
Then, he no longer hesitated, and a dazzling golden light condensed in his right fist. The spiritual power of the Dust-Breaking Stage formed a small vortex at the tip of his fist.
"Breaking the air!"
With a loud shout, Gu Yang slammed his fist hard on the ice.
At the moment of collision, violent spiritual energy shock waves exploded in all directions, shaking the entire ice cave violently.
The icicles hanging from the cave ceiling broke and fell one after another. The sharp icicles pierced into the ground like swords, and the deepest one sank more than half a meter.
Gu Yang gasped and retracted his fist, his pupils suddenly contracted - not even a scratch was left on the ice!
"This is impossible..." He stroked the ice in disbelief. "Even a top-grade spiritual weapon would have been dented by my punch."
Hu Qing's eyes had recovered by then, and seeing this, he immediately signaled Xiao Zi to try.
Xiao Zi took a deep breath, his chest puffed up, and then he exhaled a fiery purple dragon breath.
The flames hit the ice surface, and the high temperature caused the nearby ice cones to vaporize instantly, forming a thick white mist.
One minute...two minutes...
Xiao Zi continued to spit out dragon breath for a full five minutes until she was exhausted.
However, when the white mist dissipated, the ice wall was still as smooth as new, and even the temperature had not risen!
"This is troublesome." Hu Qing's face was solemn. "This is indeed not ordinary ice..."
Hu Qing tried to swing out several sword energies, but these sword energies hit the ice wall without even a trace of ice chips being splashed.
The dark blue ice surface was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting all the sword energy back and leaving deep cuts on the walls of the cave.
"Damn it!" Hu Qing gritted his teeth and put away his sword. Just as he was about to try his method again, he heard Gu Yang let out a suppressed cry of surprise.
"Ah Qing, look... behind..."
Gu Yang's voice was terribly dry, and his trembling fingers pointed towards the depths of the ice behind the rat man.
"What the hell is that?"
Hu Qing looked closely and saw a vague human-shaped black figure emerging from the inside of the ice wall.
The figure was too slender to be human, and its arms were of strange proportions, twice as long as those of an ordinary person.
It maintained a hugging posture, holding the rat man in its arms, as if absorbing something.
What’s even more creepy is that the black shadow’s head has no facial features, but it gives people a sense of greedy “gaze”.
"The things in the prediction..." Hu Qing broke out in a cold sweat on his back.
At this moment, the dark shadow deep in the ice suddenly turned its head.
Although it had no eyes, the three of them felt a piercing chill running up their spines at the same time - it had discovered them!
Xiao Zi's scales exploded all over his body and he let out an almost shrill dragon roar.
Under the vibration of the sound waves, the entire ice cave began to tremble violently, and countless ice cones fell from the top and exploded into sharp fragments on the ground.
"Retreat quickly! Find a way to rescue the rat people later! It will be too late if we don't leave now..." Hu Qing grabbed Gu Yang's collar.
But it was too late——
Ripples suddenly appeared on the surface of the ice wall, and human-shaped black figures emerged from the depths one after another.
They maintained the same strange posture, like awakened ghosts, silently "swimming" towards the ice.
The shadowy figure in the front row had already extended its arm above the ice. Its slender fingers were actually composed of countless thick black mists, slowly expanding and contracting...
The rat man's stiff body suddenly twitched, and the black lines under his transparent skin began to wriggle wildly, producing a strange resonance with the black shadow's fingers.
What’s even more terrifying is that the blue scales on Xiao Zi’s body are also flashing synchronously, as if they are being forcibly controlled by some force!
Hu Qing and Gu Yang felt themselves entering a series of cold embraces, and their energy was constantly draining away.