Yang Yi finished buying all the items he needed.He then went to the ship's hold and used 150 cloth to craft three sets of thick cotton coats, just in case. After getting that sorted, he headed for Suna's room. Their preparations were nearly complete; it was time to set out.Just as he neared her room, he felt the temperature plummet, dropping by about 10 degrees. He saw Suna standing outside her door, wrapped in clothes, a bright, basketball-sized fireball materializing near her fingertips."A fireball spell?" Yang Yi was dumbfounded.With a flick of her wrist, Suna hurled the "fireball." It smashed into the glacier below the Nyxstar, and a cloud of steam instantly billowed up with the sizzling sound of vaporizing seawater, as if a red-hot branding iron had been plunged into the ice.When the steam cleared, a crater about thirty centimeters deep was left in the glacier, filled with boiling meltwater. It didn't punch all the way through, but if that thing hit a person, it would probably roast them half-cooked.After casting the spell, ice crystals had already formed on her slightly damp hair. Without another word, she darted back inside her room, leaving Yang Yi to stand alone, adrift in the freezing wind."Why do you get a fireball spell, while I get self-immolation?"No one could answer him.He sighed and walked slowly to Suna's door. He knocked twice, but the door was unlocked. The panicked sound of splashing water came from within."I'm still in the bath!" Suna's voice called out.Yang Yi had no intention of pushing the door open. He simply stood outside and told her that everything was ready and it was time to leave, advising her to do one last check of her supplies.An hour later, they met at the bow, conducting a final inventory of their equipment and provisions: fresh water, food, firewood, necessary potions, Scorched Wine, weapons, sleeping bags, and a tent. The supplies also included two hundred crude molotovs Suna had made from grease, which had consumed 100L of their stock. The remaining 800-plus liters of grease would be more than enough to help the Nyxstar break free, assuming no more Ice-nest Worms interfered.Inventory complete, they prepared to depart. Suna was equipped with her Hunter's Bow (Degraded), armor-piercing arrows, a longsword, and a small round shield, wearing a down jacket over her fire-fleece sweater. Yang Yi had his usual loadout of weapons and potions, clad in his thick cotton coat and sweater. His webbed gloves, unfortunately, had been burned away while he was reading the Scorched Book. They had about a week's worth of food, figuring the Ice-nest Worms' hive couldn't be too far away, otherwise they wouldn't have been so relentlessly targeting the Nyxstar.With a final confirmation, Yang Yi gave his skeletal arms their orders: add wood to the Life-hearth every three hours to ensure the fire never went out. That way, any approaching Ice-nest Worms would be incinerated.Arrangements made, the two of them climbed down the ladder and set off toward the northeast.They hadn't gone a hundred meters before Yang Yi stopped, holding Suna back. He'd spotted a swarm of Ice-nest Worms.They were swarming from the northeast at incredible speed.Yang Yi and Suna dropped low, watching as the worms swarmed the Nyxstar and plunged directly into the Life-hearth. When a fire or high-temperature object was present, the worms would prioritize it. Only in the absence of fire would they attack a 37-degree human.Five minutes later, the entire swarm had been cremated, turning into a gray snow that drifted slowly from the sky. Yang Yi recalled the timing of the previous attacks and calculated that the swarms appeared at intervals of roughly 22 hours. Based on that pattern, they could try to avoid the worms by simply staying off their direct flight path to the ship. Between a 37-degree body and a distant, unquenchable volcano, the volcano was clearly the more urgent target.They continued on.Ten hours later, they had traveled about 40 kilometers northeast, taking one break along the way. To Yang Yi's surprise, Suna hadn't slowed him down at all. Her base stats had likely all reached the adult human average of 5, with her agility possibly even hitting 6. It turned out dissecting aberrations was physically demanding work. Between moving heavy equipment and stirring giant cauldrons, her workout regimen was intense and constant, leading to rapid stat growth.Yang Yi checked the temperature. It had now dropped below minus forty degrees. A powerful current of cold was flowing from the northeast, a palpable presence. The wind itself was just a light breeze, but the chill was bone-deep. In this environment, the cotton coat and fleece sweater alone weren't enough to stop the shivering.Fortunately, the Scorched Wine was incredibly effective against the severe cold; if you drank too much, you'd actually start sweating. Suna, who hated the cold, had taken to drinking it as well, despite her dislike for the taste. At first, not knowing its potency, she'd downed a huge gulp, causing her face to turn beet-red and her skin to sting as if it were being roasted. She had immediately dropped into a crouch, only recovering after taking off her jacket and rubbing her face with snow. After that, she was careful to only take a small sip whenever she felt the cold biting.They pushed forward.After another two ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) kilometers, Yang Yi suddenly stopped, holding Suna back. He had been using his third eye to scout every two thousand steps or so. Just now, he had spotted several rows of human ice sculptures at the very edge of his vision, roughly 17 kilometers away.Due to the distance, he couldn't get a total count, but there were over a hundred of them visible, arranged in neat rows. They were all naked, squatting in the frozen wasteland, their bodies covered in strange, deep-blue tattoos. They were all in the exact same pose: hugging their knees, heads buried between their legs, shuddering every so often, shaking loose a fine powder of frost."What did you find?" Suna asked. Holding a torch, her visibility was limited to a dozen meters. Only Yang Yi could see through the white fog to the far distance."There are a lot of frozen people up ahead. They're still alive…" Yang Yi's voice was grim. He observed them for a full minute, confirming they did nothing but crouch and tremble. He then retracted his vision and put his eyepatch back on, his expression heavy."Those frozen people… they must be the Ice-nest believers…" he concluded. It fit his theory perfectly: a bunch of madmen who reveled in the extreme cold, naked in the middle of a frozen hellscape. Their behavior was no different from the fire-worshipping lunatics who were always trying to set themselves ablaze. One side loved heat, the other loved cold.It was safe to assume the temperature up ahead would be extraordinarily low, otherwise the believers wouldn't be gathered there. It could even be below minus 100 degrees. In that kind of cold, a single breath could cause frostbite to your respiratory tract. Even the carbon dioxide you exhaled would freeze. He had no idea if the Scorched Wine could stand up to that."What's the plan? Rest here, or keep moving?" Suna asked. She looked to be in decent shape, but Yang Yi had seen the crew panel; her stamina was in the low 40s. Resting was the safer option."No need to rush," he replied. "We'll rest for a bit, eat something, then find a suitable place to make camp. We'll proceed once our stats are full."From this point on, neither of them planned on using a torch or lighting a fire, lest they attract the worms.

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