Commander in the Blizzard

The massive soul-engine aircraft soared into the air like a silent steel behemoth, plunging into the gray sky.

Inside the cabin, the atmosphere was somewhat strange.

The members of Light of Truth looked at Huo Yuhao with expressions that mixed respect, scrutiny, and barely concealed curiosity.

With just a few words, this youth had overturned the organization's decades-old research direction and earned President Xu's heavy trust.

Just who was he?

Vice President Mo Li sat diagonally across from Huo Yuhao, holding a thick ancient tome in his hands, yet he had not read a single word.

Out of the corner of his eye, he remained fixed on the youth resting with his eyes closed.

"Consultant Huo," Mo Li suddenly said, his voice carrying a scholar's rigor, "the theory of the 'main server cooling zone' you proposed is certainly novel. But I have a question. If it is for cooling, why has the Extreme North Land produced so many powerful ice-attributed soul beasts?"

It was a pointed question.

It directly targeted what appeared to be a contradiction in Huo Yuhao's theory.

Everyone pricked up their ears.

Huo Yuhao did not even raise his eyelids as he replied blandly, "Vice President Mo, you've confused a computer's cooling fan with a refrigerator's cooling compressor."

"One expels internal heat to maintain stability. The other actively creates a low-temperature environment."

"The Extreme North Land is the former."

Mo Li's expression stiffened.

Computer? Fan? Compressor?

What were all these nonsensical terms?

He felt insulted, yet he could not find an angle from which to refute him, because the other party's logic seemed... internally consistent?

"Hmph, deliberately mystifying things." Mo Li snorted and stopped making a fool of himself.

Huo Yuhao ignored him and quietly extended his spiritual power, linking it to Lin Mu not far away.

"Are you scared?"

"A little." Lin Mu's voice trembled slightly through their spiritual connection. "The way they look at you, it's like they want to eat you alive."

"Don't worry. The bait has already been cast. Now we just wait for the fish to take the hook themselves." Huo Yuhao reassured her. "Remember our signal. When the critical moment comes, act according to the plan."

"Mm!"

After severing the connection, Huo Yuhao's consciousness sank into the [Thought Palace].

Before him, a massive three-dimensional sandbox of the Extreme North Land rapidly took shape.

Wind speed, air pressure, temperature changes, soul beast population distribution... countless streams of data converged into clear curves.

[Simulation One: Encountering a millennium-level blizzard, survival rate 91.3%]

[Simulation Two: Accidentally entering the territory of a ten-thousand-year Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, survival rate 17.4%]

[Simulation Three: Encountering a geomagnetic storm, soul tools malfunctioning, survival rate... 3.2%]

Huo Yuhao's brows furrowed slightly.

The Extreme North Land was even more dangerous than he had imagined.

He opened his eyes and casually said to a black-robed person beside him who was responsible for recording, "I once read a legend in a damaged ancient book."

"Oh? Please tell us, Consultant." The man immediately perked up.

"The legend says that the storms of the extreme north are the breaths of the 'world's lungs.' With every breath, they exhale the most primitive ice elements while drawing away the continent's 'dry heat.'"

Huo Yuhao's voice was not loud, yet it carried clearly throughout the entire cabin.

"The world's lungs?"

"Drawing away dry heat?"

Mo Li's ears twitched, and a thoughtful look appeared on his face.

Why did this brat's "legend" sound so much like his theory about "server cooling"?

Could there really... be some ancient secret behind it?

Just then, a piercing alarm abruptly rang throughout the cabin!

Beep—beep—beep—

"Warning! Encountering a powerful convective storm! Energy shield consumption is rapidly increasing!"

"Port-side stabilizer wing number three has failed! The aircraft is losing control!"

The aircraft began to jolt violently, like a leaf tossed about amid raging winds and towering waves.

The cabin erupted into chaos, cries of alarm rising one after another.

"Hold it steady! Quickly, hold it steady!" the pilot shouted in panic from the cockpit.

Mo Li's face turned deathly pale as he clutched the armrests of his seat. "What's going on?! Why wasn't there any warning in advance?!"

"Reporting to the Vice President! This storm appeared suddenly! Our detection soul tools showed no response at all!"

"Trash!"

The aircraft was about to be swept into the heart of the storm and torn to pieces.

"Descend eight hundred meters. Enter the third airflow layer."

A voice so calm it seemed unreal cut through all the noise.

It was Huo Yuhao.

At some point, he had already risen to his feet. One hand braced against the cabin wall, his body stood as steady as a mountain.

"What?" The pilot froze. "There's a turbulence zone below us. Going down is suicide!"

"If you don't want to die, do as I say." Huo Yuhao's tone carried not a trace of emotion. "Your aircraft has a design flaw. The energy circuit is linked to the stabilization system; shield overload will cause the stabilizer fins to fail. Now, immediately cut the energy supply to the left-side third stabilizer fin!"

The pilots in the cockpit were dumbfounded.

Who was this kid? Was he teaching me how to fly an aircraft?

"Do as he says!" Mo Li suddenly roared.

They had no choice but to try anything!

Gritting his teeth, the pilot shoved the control lever forward.

The aircraft let out a teeth-grating metallic groan as it plunged sharply downward!

A sensation of weightlessness hit them, and everyone felt as though their hearts were about to leap out of their throats.

Yet just as they reached a certain critical point in the descent, the violent shaking... miraculously vanished!

The aircraft seemed to have plunged into a calm channel of water. Though the winds still howled wildly outside, the craft itself stabilized.

"Ste... stabilized?"

"We broke out of the storm!"

Cheers of survival erupted through the cabin.

Everyone stared at Huo Yuhao as if he were some kind of monster.

How had this guy done it?

Huo Yuhao showed no hint of pride. He merely sat back down and resumed resting with his eyes closed, as though the one who had turned the tide just now had not been him.

Several hours later, the soul-tool aircraft landed on a relatively level ice field.

Clang.

The cabin door opened, and an icy wind carrying shards of ice rushed in at once, making everyone shiver.

As far as the eye could see, there was only desolation.

Between heaven and earth, nothing remained but pure white and the ceaseless howl of the wind.

The sliver of confidence they had built aboard the aircraft was instantly crushed by the brutal environment.

"This damned place..." one team member could not help cursing.

Huo Yuhao was the first to descend the boarding stairs. His boots sank into the thick snow with a crunching sound.

He paid no attention to the others' emotions. Closing his eyes, he spread his immense spiritual power outward like spilled mercury.

At the far edge of his spiritual sea, he sensed a faint yet incomparably pure pulse of life.

Warm, lazy, and carrying a hint of... grievance?

Sky Dream Iceworm!

Huo Yuhao opened his eyes and pointed northwest.

"That way. The flow of energy is most active over there."

After the team finished resting, they began proceeding on foot.

Huo Yuhao walked at the very front. His pace was not fast, but his rhythm remained constant, as though he knew this ice field intimately.

After roughly half a day of walking, a man with a face full of flesh and a vicious scar across his left cheek approached Huo Yuhao.

He was the captain of the guard squad for this operation, Tu Feng.

"Advisor," Tu Feng said in a rough, hoarse voice. "We've been walking for four hours. There's nothing but snow everywhere. Are you sure we're going the right way?"

"We are," Huo Yuhao replied flatly.

"Based on what?" Tu Feng pressed. "The lives of dozens of brothers are in your hands. We can't just rely on your 'feeling,' can we?"

His words voiced the thoughts of every guard.

The group stopped, and everyone looked at Huo Yuhao, waiting for an explanation.

Huo Yuhao halted and turned around.