Battlefield

Consciousness slowly detached itself from the stagnant warmth.

There was no hangover grogginess, nor the abruptness of waking up suddenly; only a feeling of extreme relaxation in his limbs and bones. Lu Heng slowly opened his eyelids, his gaze not falling on the familiar stone bed and bedding, but on the rough, cold stone bricks.

He paused for a moment, his mind blank for two seconds.

Last night, after drinking and relaxing, I leaned against the rock wall to rest, and before I knew it, I had rolled onto the floor.

The cave's Geothermal radiated warmth continuously, isolating it from all the harsh cold outside. Even sleeping on the hard stone surface all night, I didn't feel the slightest bit chilly, and my limbs didn't feel any discomfort from the cold or numbness. The only awkward thing was that the hard stone bricks pressed against my back and spine all night, leaving a stiff, aching feeling in my bones. It wasn't painful, but it was extremely uncomfortable.

Lu Heng slowly got up, supporting himself on the ground. He stretched his arms and rotated his neck to loosen his shoulder bones.

The moment the muscles and bones began to move, a warm and lingering medicinal power flowed slowly along the meridians, permeating the entire body.

He was secretly surprised.

I've seen countless people drink in real life before, and whenever they drink to their heart's content, they inevitably suffer from headaches, dry mouths, and general weakness the next day. Even low-alcohol drinks leave them with lingering discomfort. But last night, he ate meat on an empty stomach and drank most of a bottle of strong Tiger Bone Wine. Now, his mind is clear and lucid, his thoughts are not muddled at all, his internal organs are at peace, and his meridians are unobstructed. He has no alcohol-related side effects whatsoever.

The Black Iron Tier trial wine is ultimately worlds apart from ordinary mortal goods.

Fragments of memories slowly surfaced as my thoughts began to awaken.

Last night, in a state of half-drunkenness and relaxed consciousness, he vaguely heard a series of loud noises coming from the depths of the Frost Forest. It was not the howling of ordinary wind and snow, but a mixed roar of giant beasts colliding, rock layers cracking, and branches breaking. The noise was deep and violent, and could still be faintly heard through layers of wind, snow and rocks.

He was intoxicated and extremely relaxed, too lazy to get up and investigate. He assumed it was just a fight between wild beasts in the forest and drifted off to sleep.

Looking back now, I realize that the commotion was far beyond anything an ordinary beast fight could have caused.

Lu Heng raised his hand to activate the Survival Bracelet, and the dark blue screen lit up, displaying a line of cold, real-time data.

The outdoor temperature is minus forty degrees Celsius.

The numbers are glaring, a full ten degrees lower than yesterday.

The world outside the cave was already an extremely cold inferno. The cold wind, carrying blizzards, relentlessly swept through the entire forest day and night, causing the temperature to plummet with no sign of warming up.

Staring at the string of numbers, a lingering doubt arose in Lu Heng's mind.

The Frost Forest, shrouded in the Seven-Day Trial, is a completely separate Trial Domain. He didn't know if there were any other surviving trial participants in this area. If there were indeed others, all in the same forest, with different trial progress and completion statuses, how would the system's extreme cold assessment be applied?

Does this mean that those who are behind schedule and haven't completed the trial must endure temperatures even more terrifying than minus forty degrees Celsius?

In the same space, two or more sets of environmental rules are inherently contradictory.

Fragmented doubts lingered in his mind, but no clues led to any answers. Lu Heng remained silent for two seconds, then simply shook his head to suppress his distracting thoughts. The underlying rules of the trial world were inherently mysterious and unpredictable; dwelling on these unverifiable questions was simply asking for trouble.

Composing himself, he straightened his protective suit.

The extreme cold of minus forty degrees Celsius would be enough to freeze an ordinary person to death instantly, but after being nourished by the flesh and blood of the Forest Rock Tiger and the Tiger Bone Medicinal Wine, his physical resistance was already far beyond that of ordinary people. Such a low temperature was not enough to damage his bones and muscles; at most, it would only bring a superficial chill.

The moment the stone door of the cave was pushed open, a biting cold wind rushed in.

Snowflakes swirled in all directions, the fine particles pattering against the protective suit with a soft, rustling sound. As far as the eye could see, everything was a vast expanse of pure white; the branches of the trees were bent and frozen under the weight of the thick snow, and the entire forest was deathly silent, devoid of any sound of life.

The extreme low temperatures froze all life in the world, leaving only the endless ravages of wind and snow, desolate and cruel, weighing heavily on people's hearts.

The Seven-Day Trial period had long since ended, and the Wristband no longer provided any trial coordinates or area guidance. Lu Heng looked up into the vast white forest and, relying on the memories etched into his mind from the days of trial camping, fighting, and exploration, steadily moved forward in one direction.

Despite the wind and snow whistling in his ears, his steps were steady.

As they ventured deeper, the surrounding landscape grew increasingly desolate. The thick snow reached above their calves, and each step required crushing the frozen crust, creating immense resistance. The biting wind seeped in through the gaps in their collars and cuffs, chilling their bare faces and eyes. This land was utterly dominated by extreme cold; no new vegetation grew, no birds or beasts roamed, only endless snow and cracked permafrost, exuding a desolate and oppressive sense of desolation.

About twenty minutes later, Lu Heng suddenly stopped walking.

The snowfield ahead had completely changed its appearance.

The once smooth and thick snow had crumbled, rolled, and sunken, leaving the ground covered with huge scratches, claw marks, and impact craters. The permafrost had been forcibly ripped open, mixed with the remaining snow that had frozen into hard ice shards. Large swathes of trees were snapped in half, their breaks violently torn and jagged. Frozen dark blood ice was scattered all around, the stench of blood long since dissipated by the cold wind, leaving only the horrific and chaotic traces of the battlefield.

A heavy, fierce, and not yet completely dissipated aura of killing intent hung heavily over this area.

A glance across the ground revealed several enormous beast carcasses scattered across the snow.

Lu Heng raised the Wristband, aimed it at the giant wolf that was closest to him and the most severely damaged, and activated the Wristband's built-in Appraisal.

Pale white text appeared in mid-air.

[Silver Moon Wolf Leader, Bronze Tier]

The leader wolf's corpse was horribly mangled; most of its chest cavity was ripped open, with bone fragments mixed with frozen flesh and blood plastered on the ice. Half of its head was missing, and the edges of the wound were smooth and sharp, as if it had been cleaved open in one go by an extremely powerful wind blade.

He moved to look at the snow on both sides, and then used Appraisal on the remaining corpses. The entries that popped up were all [Silver Moon Wolf, Black Iron Tier].

These ordinary Silver Moon Wolf, robust and ferocious by nature, lay lifeless in the snow. Some had their skulls shattered, their skulls shattered and frozen into blocks of ice; others had their torsos torn apart, their tendons and bones exposed, the wounds clean and sharp, clearly not the result of ordinary wolf fights; still others had their bodies mutilated, as if they had been torn apart and crushed by an extremely violent force.

Corpses littered the ground; a scene of utter desolation and horrific death.

Lu Heng frowned slightly, his initial thought unconsciously resurfacing.

Could it be that this pack of Silver Moon Wolf ganged up on the trial beasts, only to be wiped out instead?

But as his gaze continued to sweep forward, he quickly dismissed this conjecture.

Countless enormous black feathers were scattered among the snow and broken branches across the battlefield.

The feathers are long and hard, with dense patterns and a strong bony texture. Each feather is far larger than that of ordinary birds, a unique characteristic of giant birds.

It's a feather from Giant Plume Eagle.

Lu Heng's heart trembled.

The Giant Plume Eagle he had encountered in the previous trial was a mirror image generated by the system, with formidable combat power and unpredictable movements. But the real, heavy feathers before him, bearing the marks of battle, could not possibly be preserved by a mirror image.

Even more bizarrely, the entire battlefield was littered with wolf carcasses and in complete disarray, yet not a single Giant Plume Eagle carcass could be found.

Only the feathers were scattered; the original remains were nowhere to be seen.

The answer is already clear.

The Silver Moon Wolf was never the mastermind behind this great battle.

It is the true form of the Giant Plume Eagle.

Lu Heng slowly walked into the center of the battlefield, his gaze carefully sweeping over every trace, mentally reviewing the secret battle of the previous night.

The mirrored Giant Plume Eagle born from the trial is a "bootleg" phantom creature of this realm. But the one that descended last night was the true, original Primordial Giant-Feather Eagle from the outside world.

When the two met, a deadly battle erupted.

The reason is unknown. Perhaps it was a conflict of territorial rules, perhaps the original could not tolerate the existence of its mirror image, or perhaps it was an inherent rule of this Trial Domain that destined only one of the original and the pirated to exist. No one knows the specific cause, only the tragic traces left behind, proving the ferocity and danger of that battle.

The true master, the Giant Plume Eagle, ultimately triumphed, destroying the Trial Mirror.

However, this fierce battle between the behemoths attracted a large pack of Silver Moon Wolf lurking nearby.

This pack of wolves was extremely cunning. They sensed that one of the two Giant Plume Eagle was bound to be injured in the fight, so they gathered together with the intention of taking advantage of the weakened Giant Plume Eagle after the battle to hunt down the wounded one and reap the benefits.

Greed ultimately led to destruction.

The victorious Giant Plume Eagle was incredibly powerful, and even after the great battle, it was far beyond the reach of the Wolf Pack. Provoked by these ant-like beasts, the Giant Plume Eagle was completely enraged and began a massacre. The Bronze Tier wolf leader was the first to fall, followed by a large number of Black Iron Tier Silver Moon Wolf, all of whom were killed on the spot.

Lu Heng continued to look around and discovered even more hidden details.

The number of wolf carcasses here is limited, but the layers of footprints and crush marks on the ground prove that the scale of the Wolf Pack involved in the battle was far greater than what is seen in the picture.

A large number of corpses disappeared without a trace, and the marks were fresh, unlike those caused by wind and snow burying them.

It was most likely dragged away by the Giant Plume Eagle after the battle, or taken out of this battlefield.

The dangers of this Frost Forest extend far beyond the trial monsters marked by the system.

Creatures lurking in the shadows, the battle between the original and its mirror image, the self-destruction of greedy beasts—layers upon layers of hidden crises have always been lurking within this pure white, desolate, and frigid inferno.

Upon realizing this, Lu Heng felt a deep sense of shock and vigilance. His previous trials and battles had only touched the tip of the iceberg of this world.

Just as he looked down to examine a claw mark, a black card with a faint metallic sheen lay quietly in a crater in the snow, nestled among the remaining snow.

The card is hard, with a surface shimmering with fine, wind-like patterns, making it stand out against the pure white snow.

Lu Heng bent down and picked it up; it felt slightly cool to the touch and had a heavy texture.

He immediately raised his hand to activate the Appraisal, Wristband scanned the card. The pale white system entry popped up instantly and appeared clearly before his eyes.

[Giant-Feather Crossbow - Bronze Tier]

Materials: Primordial Giant-Feather Eagle main feather, bone and muscle core, wind-element crystal silk

Quality: Bronze Tier

Features: Forged from materials from the Giant Plume Eagle, it possesses a built-in wind-tear effect, extremely high firing rate, and extremely strong penetration; the arrows also inflict a slight wind blade cutting damage.

Holding the heavy weapon card, Lu Heng gazed at the devastated battlefield and the frozen wolf carcasses scattered on the ground, his heart still unsettled.

Last night, without a sound, a fierce battle between top-tier behemoths and the annihilation of the Wolf Pack pack quietly came to an end in this snowy forest.

The legitimate will punish piracy, and the greedy will ultimately perish.

In dire straits, there is no room for luck. Only absolute strength can allow one to survive in this Frost inferno.