The sky darkened bit by bit, as if someone had yanked a deep-blue curtain straight down from the heavens and slammed it onto the snowfield. The temperature dropped even lower.
The murky twilight filled them with dread.
Finn lit a bonfire in the very center of the research station. The fuel was the wastepaper scattered all over the floor, a few chairs with broken legs, and some rotten planks left behind from who knew what year.
The flames licked at these last remnants, crackling as if giving one final sigh on behalf of the abandoned building. Firelight illuminated the room, and shadows leapt across the walls like a crowd of restless ghosts.
He crouched beside the polar bear and began to butcher it.
The bear was much harder to process than he had imagined. Its fur had a texture like dragon scales, and the density of its muscles far exceeded that of a normal animal.
Generally speaking, this kind of Dragon-Blooded Creature was not edible. Dragon Kind genes could potentially accumulate through the food chain, just like those Dragon-Blooded Creatures in the hatcheries that slaughtered, devoured, and evolved by feeding on one another. If someone ate too much of it, their bloodline might become unstable, and in the end they could lose control and turn into a Dead Servant.
But the reality was that they were short on food. In these circumstances, they could not worry about that much. Only by surviving first could they consider anything else.
Besides, Caesar was badly injured. He needed enough nutrition to recover.
Finn worked with crisp efficiency. He skinned the entire bear, his movements as practiced as a professional hunter's. After he finished, he tossed the bloody hide to Chen Motong and said, "Give me a hand, will you? Go clean this up,