Bitter Winter Northern Territory.
Goose-feather snow fell from the sky, while the icy wind swept up the accumulated snow, tearing through the air with a wailing howl.
Lin Ran carried the unconscious Yin Ling on his back and trudged north toward the areas densely packed with Domain Fields.
At this time, the Northern Territory's six-month Polar Night had only just passed its halfway point. In this environment of short days and long nights, temperatures could drop to around minus forty degrees Celsius at their coldest.
Lin Ran's strength lay in his spells; his physique was not particularly strong.
After spending so long in the freezing environment, his cheeks had turned red from the cold, and even his eyelashes had crystallized into ice.
He had no idea how long he walked, but Yin Ling never woke up.
Looking up at the road ahead, he could not see a single living creature in the deathly still landscape. Everything within sight was obscured by a hazy curtain of falling snow.
Perhaps there were creatures such as krill beneath the thick ice, but the surface was like a Life Forbidden Zone.
When he looked up at the sky, countless stars glittered brilliantly, their radiance the only source of light during the Polar Night.
Unaffected by light pollution, wisps of faint mist drifted across the sky like green ribbons that were half-real and half-illusory. They seemed within reach, yet also distant and unreal.
Even in such a harsh environment, there was a natural beauty difficult to find in the cities.
But Lin Ran had no heart to admire the scenery before him. His teeth chattered from the cold as he struggled onward.
Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet gave way. Lin Ran pitched forward and crashed to the ground.
He hurriedly climbed back up and