Chapter 74: The Guardians
The sky over the snowfield darkened. When it turned a hazy gray again, it meant the second day of the Ten Strongest Battle Royale had begun.
The Ten Strongest Battle Royale had a time limit of five days. Less than a day in, three participants had already been eliminated.
A pale green aurora appeared overhead, making the snowfield look breathtakingly beautiful.
Aside from Su Xiao himself, only six participants remained: Twin Stars, Mond, Nameless Saint, Hugh, Quan Yu, and Afuni.
Although it was nighttime, Su Xiao did not set up camp to rest. Instead, he trekked north on foot. The blizzard behind him was catching up fast, and for some unknown reason, its contraction speed was increasing.
Walking on the snow, Su Xiao heard the crunch, crunch of his footsteps. White mist puffed from his mouth. The temperature at night on the snowfield was even lower, around minus 50 degrees Celsius—cold enough to freeze water instantly.
After dealing with the Night Temptress Witch, he hadn't encountered any other participants. Not only was the snowfield still vast, but the current situation also greatly reduced the likelihood of running into others.
Based on Su Xiao's speculation, Afuni from Holy Light Paradise had a 40% chance of escaping Nameless Saint using some ability or item, and a 60% chance of having already allied with him. Therefore, Su Xiao assumed Nameless Saint and Afuni were a team.
Not only them, but from a video clip he had obtained earlier, Su Xiao learned that Hugh from Arcane Eternal Star had already teamed up with Quan Yu from the Feather Race. This was the Void team.
Mond was likely still wandering around searching for other participants, and the Twin Stars were probably in a similar situation.
Among these people, the most troublesome combination was undoubtedly Hugh and Quan Yu. Individually, they were already hard to deal with. Together, they were a disaster waiting to happen for anyone they met. At the very least, Su Xiao didn't want to encounter the Void team.
The sound of wind reached Su Xiao's ears. He stopped and looked back. Under the aurora's glow, the blizzard behind him looked like a wall of white and green, pushing forward at a steady pace.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang barked, then took a snow sled from the team storage space, implying, "Master, save your stamina."
Su Xiao sat on the sled. Among the team, Bubu Wang had the most stamina since it rarely fought, mainly handling tracking or stealing [Strongest Medals].
With Bubu Wang pulling the sled, their pace quickened slightly, gradually widening the gap from the pursuing blizzard.
Unnoticed, the sky began to brighten. The second day of the Ten Strongest Battle Royale had arrived. Unlike the first day, which was full of battles, the second day was peaceful.
The locations of the other participants were temporarily unknown. The ice elf who wanted to "save her homeland" had also fled beyond the tracker's maximum range.
This ice elf had previously returned to the ice cave, gathered her courage, and destroyed the signal transmitters inside. She had been prepared to sacrifice her life to defend her home, ready to die. But after destroying those signal devices, nothing happened. This filled the ice elf girl with a strong sense of pride, and she had now run off somewhere unknown.
The only change on the second day of the Ten Strongest Battle Royale was that the blizzard behind them contracted faster. It wasn't until the second night that the blizzard suddenly stopped advancing.
Su Xiao stood before the blizzard. In front of him seemed to be an invisible barrier, stretching straight up to the sky, blocking the blizzard.
Su Xiao reached his hand into the invisible barrier. Instantly, he felt a bone-chilling cold on his hand. The temperature inside the blizzard had plummeted. Even with Su Xiao's soul strength, he couldn't stay inside for long—at most 10 to 15 seconds before his soul would freeze, rendering him immobile and ultimately killing him within the blizzard zone.
If Bubu Wang or Amu were caught in the blizzard zone right now, their souls would freeze instantly.
This was only the second night. If the blizzard zone was this terrifying now, by the last two days, it might take only an instant to freeze any participant's soul.
Realizing this, Su Xiao continued traveling through the night. The top priority now was to get far away from the blizzard zone and reach the Peak Mountain Range as quickly as possible.
...
Ten Strongest Battle Royale, Day 3, Morning.
The monotonous snowscape changed. Ahead appeared a large expanse of white, raised shapes. Upon approaching, Su Xiao found it was a forest draped in silver, trees encased in frost, with icicles hanging down.
[Prompt (Reincarnation Paradise): You have arrived at the Frost Forest.]
This was a prompt from Reincarnation Paradise, not an announcement from the Void Tree. Seeing this, Su Xiao had Baha scout from high altitude to see if there was a way around the Frost Forest.
An hour later, Baha returned. It had flown far along the edge of the Frost Forest, and the result was that, before the blizzard behind caught up, it was unlikely they could bypass it.
Su Xiao walked at the front of the team, with Bubu Wang and Beini in the middle, and Amu and Baha at the rear.
As they delved deeper into the Frost Forest, the surrounding wind sounds disappeared. It was quiet, cold, and carried a hint of eeriness.
After traveling five kilometers into the Frost Forest, Su Xiao spotted two sets of footprints in the snow. The owners of the footprints seemed to be in a hurry, not even bothering to cover such obvious tracks.
Su Xiao pondered for a moment, then began tracking the footprints. Over an hour later, two figures appeared ahead.
Su Xiao stopped, looking at the dense footprints in the snow ahead.
The Twin Stars brothers stood about fifty meters ahead. They also spotted Su Xiao and simultaneously raised a finger to their lips, making a shushing gesture. Strangely, both brothers were bare-chested.
The younger Twin Star had blood on his face, and a wound from a sharp weapon on his left arm was covered by a web-like layer that had stopped the bleeding.
'There's something nearby. This place isn't suitable for fighting. Cooperate and retreat first.'
The elder Twin Star gestured with sign language, signaling Su Xiao to withdraw quickly.
Why would the Twin Stars be so kind in this situation? Remember, the Twin Stars were from Death Paradise. Calling them killers who didn't blink was a compliment. These two youths would eat people without spitting out the bones.
Su Xiao took out a mechanical bee. Instead of letting it fly, he tossed it toward the Twin Stars.
'Damn!'
The Twin Stars made the same mouth shape and turned to retreat.
The mechanical bee wasn't activated; it fell into the snow.
Creak~
The younger Twin Star stepped on the snow, making a very faint sound. That subtle noise caused a "frost mark" to appear on his back.
Five humanoid creatures crawled out of the snow. Their skin was deathly pale, they wore gray ice armor, curved arm blades were embedded in their forearms, and their pupils were dark blue.
The Apostle's Eye floated beside Su Xiao. He needed to know what these creatures were. Their combat power was terrifying.
[Comparing intelligence attributes... Due to interference from the Frost Forest, only 7% of the enemy's data is obtained.]
Name: Frost Guardian
Health: 100%
Heterogeneous Source: 95000/95000 points
Strength: ??? (True Attribute)
Agility: ??? (True Attribute)
Stamina: ??? (True Attribute)
Intelligence: ??? (True Attribute)
Charm: 1 (This is a high-risk neutral unit)
Skill 1, Oath of Soul Guard (Passive, LV.72): ???
Skill 2, ???
Skill 3, ???
...
...
Skill 11, ???
...
Conservative estimate: the combat power of the Frost Guardians was on par with Brother Axe. The difference was that, as long as you didn't actively provoke them, they weren't dangerous. Clearly, the Twin Stars had provoked them.