Hope

It was night.

The sun vanished beyond the horizon, and darkness enveloped the land.

The survivors rested where they were, each gnawing on what little dry food they had left.

In this world of ice and snow, they could not even find materials to start a fire.

Lu Hanxue stood among the crowd.

As she activated her ability, walls of ice rose from the ground.

In an instant, a house made of ice enclosed everyone.

Much of the cold was driven away at that moment.

Every survivor looked at Lu Hanxue with gratitude.

Without Lu Hanxue, they probably would not have survived this frozen world.

After finishing all this, Lu Hanxue walked toward Li Jie's vehicle, her face expressionless.

"Has he been like this the whole time?"

Lu Hanxue looked at Lin Yi sitting on the roof, then turned to Li Jie beside her.

"Yeah." Li Jie nodded. "I don't know what hit him so hard."

"Got it."

Lu Hanxue asked no further questions and returned to her own vehicle.

Holding the alarm clock that concealed their presence, Li Jie glanced at Lin Yi on the roof but said nothing.

He turned to Wu Ke. "Wu Ke, our Guide is gone. It might not be safe tonight. Tell Hawkeye to keep an eye on our surroundings and warn us in advance if there's danger."

"Okay." Wu Ke nodded and hurried toward another modified off-road vehicle.

In its back seat, a young man with long hair and a black jacket was playing with an eagle.

Seeing Wu Ke approach, he looked up and asked, "What's up?"

"Our Guide is gone. You're in charge of keeping watch," Wu Ke said.

"No problem." Hawkeye nodded. The eagle perched on his shoulder screeched and swiftly flew out of the vehicle, leaving the ice house and soaring into the sky.

Lin Yi jumped down from the vehicle. Without greeting anyone, he turned and went outside the ice house.

He crouched by a corner of the wall and took a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes from the Blood Ring.

Click.

A red flame burned in the windproof lighter.

"Hiss..."

Lin Yi took a deep drag. It was his first time smoking. As he felt the tobacco smoke move with his breathing, some of the agitation in his heart subsided.

"Phew..."

He exhaled a deep breath of smoke.

Lin Yi gazed up at the starry sky.

He kept drawing in and breathing out smoke.

The morning sun lit up the land.

Yet the sky looked gloomy today.

People began waking from their sleep.

"Is he okay?" Li Jie looked through the ice house wall at Lin Yi by the entrance and could not help asking Hawkeye, "You're saying he actually smoked by the door all night? Does he have iron lungs?"

"That's right. All night." Hawkeye pointed at the pile of cigarette butts beside Lin Yi. "What on earth happened to this guy..."

"Uh, I'm not really sure either..." Li Jie spread his hands. "Wu Ke, go tell everyone we're getting ready to leave."

After giving the order, Li Jie took out a map and pointed at a small town. "Hawkeye, scout this town first. If there's nothing too powerful there, we'll head over to gather supplies today."

"OK." Hawkeye made a hand gesture.

The eagle circling overhead changed direction, becoming a black shadow as it vanished into the distance.

The eagle was a product of Hawkeye's ability, so naturally, it did not need rest.

As long as Hawkeye was well rested, the eagle could keep circling in the air.

"Lin Yi, we're leaving."

Li Jie called out, then returned to the modified off-road vehicle.

Lin Yi stood, the snow piled on him tumbling off, and walked back into the modified off-road vehicle.

"Lin Yi, you seemed off yesterday, so I didn't disturb you."

Li Jie turned toward Lin Yi, then held out a hand. "I found this near you. I don't know if it's yours. It doesn't seem to be an Anomaly..."

When Lin Yi saw the object in Li Jie's hand, a little light immediately returned to his eyes.

It was a golden hair.

More precisely, it was a golden monkey hair.

Lin Yi snatched it up and clenched it tightly, then looked at Li Jie with great sincerity. "Thank you."

"It was nothing, nothing. Haha." Li Jie scratched his head. "It's the young lady you should really thank. She's the one who saved you."

"Yes. I'll thank her properly." Lin Yi nodded.

Li Jie fell silent for a moment before continuing, "The injuries the young lady suffered in her last fight with the Blood Ghost still haven't healed."

"Without a Guide, the convoy's chances of encountering supernatural horrors will increase greatly."

"I just hope you can lend the young lady a hand when we run into them."

"The young lady cares about saving face..."

Lin Yi waved a hand. "I understand."

"Heh, just like the young lady." Li Jie raised his eyebrows and muttered under his breath.

Vroom, vroom, vroom.

The convoy's engines roared, and the surrounding ice walls began to melt.

As the convoy and the survivors departed, Lu Hanxue had already melted the house of ice.

Lin Yi looked at the monkey hair in his hand, then at Li Jie. "Do you know of any sequence that can bring people back to life?"

"Bro, how would I possibly know..." Li Jie was rather speechless.

"Then do you think one exists?" Lin Yi pressed.

"Probably. With the world the way it is now, there are all sorts of crazy godlike sequences." Li Jie pursed his lips.

Lin Yi tightened his grip on the monkey hair and put it into the Blood Ring.

"All right, don't be so sad. Give us a smile. Hahaha." Li Jie spoke with a laugh, trying to liven up the mood.

"Heh, heh heh..."

Lin Yi gave a dry laugh.

"Forget it. You'd better not smile. Has anyone ever told you your smile looks worse than crying?" Li Jie immediately lost interest.

Progress through the snow was slow.

The greater reason was the snow blocking the road.

By now, it was more than half a meter deep.

Lu Hanxue had to clear it as they advanced.

This greatly slowed their progress.

They probably would not even reach the town Li Jie had mentioned today.

" sob, sob, sob..."

" sob, sob, sob..."

The convoy had not traveled far when faint sounds of crying drifted over from ahead.

At the far end of the road, a Long-Tongued Wraith slowly approached with its head lowered.

Whoosh.

Lu Hanxue darted out of the modified off-road vehicle. The snow beneath her feet solidified, and she closed in swiftly, sword in hand, like an agile snow leopard.

Lu Hanxue was fast.

Someone was even faster than her.

Space rippled beside the Long-Tongued Wraith.

Lin Yi appeared, using Otherworldly Walking.

A flash of blood-red light flickered, and before the Long-Tongued Wraith could even register what was happening, its head was savagely shredded by the Blade of Greed.

Before the dead Long-Tongued Ghost's body could fall, threads of blood emerged from the Blood Ring.

The Long-Tongued Wraith's body turned into blood-red light and was devoured by the Blood Ring.

Not even an Anomaly fragment remained.

The Long-Tongued Wraith became one of the Vengeful Ghosts in the Sea of Blood.

Lin Yi vanished, and when he reappeared, he was already back inside the modified off-road vehicle.

"Awesome, bro."

Li Jie gave him a thumbs-up.

Lu Hanxue had not expected Lin Yi to finish it so cleanly. She paused in surprise but said nothing more.