Lin Li's heart stirred. He stopped and tilted his ear to listen.
"Could the snow have melted?"
He guessed inwardly that, logically speaking, the snow in this frigid land should never melt year-round. Something capable of melting it had to be a heat source of some kind.
Following the sound of flowing water, he quickened his pace. The snow beneath his feet grew thinner and thinner, until he could even see the exposed black rock below.
Before long, a winding river appeared before him.
Surprisingly, the river gave off a faint white steam that spread through the cold snowfield, like a silver ribbon winding between the snowdrifts.
When the steam met the cold air, it condensed into tiny droplets that fell onto the surrounding snow, forming a thin layer of frost flowers.
Lin Li hurried to the riverbank, squatted down, and lightly touched the water with his finger.
Contrary to his expectations, the river water was not piercingly cold. Instead, it carried a trace of gentle warmth, seeming to be around twenty or thirty degrees Celsius.
He looked upstream and saw the river disappear ahead at a rounded mound of earth. The mound was not particularly large, its smooth form covered in snow.
The unending flow of water was surging from an opening at the base of the mound. The current was swift and carried a faint smell of sulfur.
"There must be some heat source inside." Lin Li pondered inwardly. "Given the sulfur smell, perhaps this is a naturally formed geothermal hot spring?"
The river was about three meters wide. Its water was not deep and was clear enough to see the pebbles on the riverbed.
For Lin Li, crossing it was effortless.
He rose, took two steps back, bent his legs slightly, and then leaped. His figure traced