Chapter 84: Ice Prison

Zhang Jun's spirit refreshed, he exerted his last strength and thrust upward!

Splash—!

Snow and shattered ice flew up as the two finally broke free from beneath the thick ice layer, crashing heavily onto the snow‑covered slope.

Blazing sunlight shone on the snow, reflecting dazzling light.

The biting cold wind swept up snow particles, stinging the face like a knife cut.

Looking around, endless snow‑capped majestic peaks stretched in every direction, the heavens and earth a vast desolation with no trace of human activity.

They had escaped.

They were temporarily safe.

Zhang Jun gulped the freezing, piercing air, his chest burning with pain.

He set Lin Xue down; she remained weak, leaning on him, barely opening her eyes to gaze at the unfamiliar white world, her face blank.

The recent explosion and collapse had utterly destroyed that ice cave, also Lin Yan, the beacon, and even the crystal core that held the crucial information.

They had survived, yet completely lost their bearings.

Lin Xue moved her purple lips, her voice barely audible: "We… where are we?"

Zhang Jun narrowed his eyes to scan the surroundings; sky and land were a blank white, with no discernible boundary.

Lin Xue leaned softly against him, light as air, almost weightless.

Cold… pain… consciousness sinking…

"Hold on!" Zhang Jun growled low, not knowing whether he shouted for her or for himself.

He held Lin Xue tighter, half‑dragging, half‑carrying her, walking with a vague sense of direction from the heat within his body, stepping deep then shallow.

The wind and snow grew fiercer, Zhang Jun's legs feeling as heavy as if filled with lead.

Lin Xue's breath grew ever lighter.

【No… we'll freeze solid…】

Zhang Jun slipped, nearly dragging them both down.

He clenched his molars to steady himself, then strained harder to drive the heat within, hoping to share some warmth with her, but the effect was negligible.

Her body was cold as ice, still leaking chill that easily swallowed the little heat he passed to her.

He didn't know how long they had walked when Zhang Jun's vision began to darken; just as he was about to collapse, he made out a dark recess beneath a huge ice cliff ahead.

A cave!

The mouth was small, just enough to block the outside wind and snow.

Zhang Jun had barely let out half a breath when he saw Lin Xue slip completely into unconsciousness.

"Damn!" Zhang Jun cursed, fumbling to feel her pulse—so faint like a spider's thread, almost imperceptible.

He tried again to channel that heat, but the yin‑cold force within her even showed signs of fighting back against his warmth.

What to do?

His mind went blank; he had never panicked like this before.

Acting on instinct, he reached out, guided by a vague urge, and pressed his fingers to several spots on her icy nape and shoulder blades,

his fingertips just touching a slightly indented point.

Hum—!

Countless images and characters flooded his mind—yellowed bamboo slips, flickering candlelight, strange herb diagrams, dense human meridian charts, and sets of secret formulas……

【Yin‑Xuan backlash, cold qi flowing backward, yang channels exhausted……must be guided by the utmost yang substance, aided by Snow Lotus to solidify the foundation, Fire Velvet Grass to dispel cold……follow the meridians, circulate the qi, solidify the root and nurture the essence……】

When the hell did I learn this stuff?!

Zhang Jun was dazed; this heat within him had not only made him stronger, it had also awakened some dust‑sealed hard drive in his brain?

He suddenly lifted his head to look at the raging wind and snow outside the cave.

Snow Lotus? Fire Velvet Grass? Where the hell am I supposed to find those in this god‑forsaken place?

Screw it! Desperate times call for desperate measures!

He gently laid Lin Xue flat, tore off his own tattered outer garment to cover her, gritted his teeth, and plunged into the howling wind and snow outside.

Relying on his now‑sharper perception and the strange knowledge that had surfaced in his mind, he indeed found a few stalks in a wind‑sheltered crevice of a nearby ice cliff.

One was pure white, its petals layered like a lotus, icy to the touch—this was the Snow Lotus; the other had crimson leaves edged with fine down, warm in his grasp—this was the Fire Velvet Grass!

He really had them! Zhang Jun felt both shocked and delighted, not pausing to think, sprinting back to the cave at top speed, he found a relatively flat stone, crushed the herbs, and carefully applied the juice to Lin Xue's chest and several vital points; at the same time he pressed his scorching palm once more against her icy back.

This time he did not blindly brute‑force it; instead he tried to guide the scorching power with his will, following the meridian routes in his mind, letting it seep in bit by bit, extremely slowly.

Sweat that appeared instantly froze into ice chips in the cold air, his arms trembling violently, his focus intense. Under his control the heat became like a tiny fire dragon, winding cautiously through her frozen meridians.

Lin Xue's tightly knit brow, under the combined effect of medicine and heat, finally eased. Her formerly pallid, paper‑white face showed a faint blush; the fresh frost on her body ceased spreading, its edges beginning to melt into tiny beads of water.

In a haze she sensed an indescribable warmth. Dimly she seemed to "see" Zhang Jun's focused, somewhat frightening profile, the veins on his forehead bulging from exertion, and the steady stream of domineering, vital heat flowing from his palm.

This was worlds apart from the hot‑tempered, loud‑mouthed oaf she remembered.

Some ineffable emotion quietly cracked open a tiny fissure in the ice‑sealed depths of her heart.

Zhang Jun also sensed the change. The extreme yin‑cold force within Lin Xue's body, which had previously resisted fiercely, now began to weakly and tentatively absorb the heat he passed to her.

At the same time a cool, gentle breath issued faintly from her body, seeping into his palm, letting the scorching heat that had been tormenting him stabilize considerably, no longer so wild and unmanageable.

When Lin Xue's breathing became smooth and long, Zhang Jun finally released his grip, flopping onto the icy ground and gulping air.

The person, at least for now, had been saved.

Zhang Jun caught his breath and looked for something to burn.

By chance his hand struck a lump of metal buried in the frozen soil.

He pulled it out—it felt heavy, like a kettle but not quite. Its design was ancient, yet the metal looked strange, neither gold nor iron, cold to the touch yet with an odd warm smoothness.

The vessel's surface was covered in fine scratches and dim rust spots; near the base a weird, twisting symbol was etched, half‑character, half‑picture, exuding antiquity and mystery. Zhang Jun could tell he'd never seen anything like it before; he tossed it aside and kept searching for something to start a fire.