Chapter 12

Book 9 Chapter 12 – Torment

Song Qiao stood at the center of the room . “You lot stay away . ”

Lei Xinfeng, Miaolin, and Xiao Diya all ducked away .

The temperature inside the room continued to drop without stop . No matter how much they wore, they still shivered non stop .

“Let’s put up our defenses, or we really won’t make it,” Lei Xinfeng suggested . His body began to glow, producing little sparks of lightning . He felt much better, but such defenses exhausted Lun Yin energy rapidly . Not that he had a choice in this situation .

Miaolin just buried herself in the pile of fur, not even showing her head . Xiao Diya was even worse off . Even pulling out all stops on his power couldn’t keep him from shaking violent like a leaf in the autumn window . His face white, he began stuttering . “F…f… . f… . ”

“F . . ? What?” Lei Xinfeng asked .

Xiao Diya managed to calm himself for an instant . “F… fuck!”

Lei Xinfeng was speechless . “Ah, you don’t need to try so hard . Cover yourself with some pelts . Learn from elder sister Miao a little . At least you won’t be so cold . ”

Xiao Diya managed to roll his eyes . “No, no…no…”

“No more pelts?” Lei Xinfeng asked .

“No…no, problem!” Xiao Diya gasped .

“Damn it! Stop talking a word at a time!” Lei Xinfeng snapped .

Xiao Diya was frozen half to death . He made a face, shivering all the time, giving Lei Xinfeng a pitiful look, making Lei Xinfeng take back his words . “Alright, alright . You’re cold, and it’s not on purpose . ”

Xiao Diya was so cold he couldn’t speak properly, so he just nodded his head violently . He was indeed so cold he stuttered, and it wasn’t on purpose .

Xin Zhaolun looked over . “Xiao Diya, don’t just stand there . Maybe you’ll be warmer if you moved about a little . ”

Hearing the tip, Xiao Diya began to jump and up and like a great frog . His entire body was wrapped in fur, as a matchstick wrapped in cotton . His feet was like it was outfitted with springs, and he bounced up and down rapidly .

Lei Xinfeng watched him . “That works?”

After jumping a lot, Xiao Diya actually felt a lot warmer . Lei Xinfeng was also so cold he couldn’t stand it, so he began to jump too . The two of them jumped in place like two zombies .

Crack crack .

The ice wall began to show signs of cracking . Although a gap hadn’t formed yet, it was still unsettling .

Lei Xinfeng and Xiao Diya jumped wildly, and then they saw a large crack creeping toward the ceiling in the back wall . Lei Xinfeng pointed at it . “Quick! It’s cracking!”

A thin wisp of frosty air drifted in from the crevice . Xin Zhaolun immediately soaked a pelt with water and slapped the pelt onto the crack . By the time the newly soaked pelt touched the wall, it was frozen solid . After some water, it became an effective seal .

The crack continued to crawl up and Fengying slapped on a seal as well .

The tense period of repairing the walls as cracks appeared began . The bunch of people were like a bunch of ants in a heating pot, ranning about all the place, plugging in leaks as soon as they saw it appear . The two biggest offenders was the back wall, as well as the wall that’s connected to the corridors . The other two had much less problems .

While he jumped, Lei Xinfeng commented, “If we knew in advanced, then I’d have created more houses to the left, right, front, back, and above . The central house is the safest . ”

Xin Zhaolun cursed . “Who knew it would be this bad this time! This was sufficient before!”

“There’s just a bit of time left, and the most dangerous period is almost upon us! Everyone hang on!” called Chuizi .

No one lowered their guard, and everyone kept there eyes on the two problem walls .

Suddenly, there was a loud cracking sound that got louder and louder, as well as a whistling that signified the entering of the outside air . Finally, with a loud boom, a section of the corridor collapsed .

After listening for a bit, Xin Zhaolun signed in relief . “It’s not our section . It should be the section that Senior Song damaged that collapsed . ”

“Good thing that Senior came in from the other side . If it had been on our side…” He couldn’t hold back a shiver . At least two or people would have died, and even he wasn’t safe .

Song Qiao laughed drily . “Well, I didn’t really have a choice to pick and choose a path . If I didn’t act quickly, I’d probably have become a man-shaped ice sculpture . ”

“Your luck is good,” Lei Xinfeng said, smiling bitterly .

“Don’t think too much . We must get through this first!” Song Qiao said .

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Countless sounds came from above and everyone’s faces changed . Even Song Qiao’s face turned white . He yelled, “Hell! It’s coming from the ceiling!”

A few people immediately flew up with large pieces of pelt, read to fill in holes .

If the ceiling collapsed, none of them will survive, with the possible exception of Song Qiao .

The cracking sounds followed the shriek of the wind, growing louder . Everyone held their breath, and all was silent inside the room except for the rough breathing of a few .

Then all of a sudden, all the sounds from the outside vanished .

No matter if it’s the thin whine of the violent wind, or the continuous cracking of the ice, all the sound that had become familiar suddenly disappeared . For that instant, it was as if they’ve arrived to an unfamiliar world . Lei Xinfeng and Xiao Diyi halted their jumping .

Xiao Diyi stared suspiciously at the others, half talking to himself . “Did I die?”

Then, they heard the hearty laugh of Chuizi and Futou . “Hahaha! The frost is past! Haha, hahaha! It’s over!” To the natives, every occurance of the frost was a process of natural selection . If you weren’t strong enough, you died . To the natives, this was very normal .

Of course, surviving the frost was cause for great celebration .

Lei Xinfeng sat down, suddenly weak, while cold sweat poured down his body . “Damn it, I’m never coming back here!”

“This place is too scary! Never again!” echoed Xiao Diya .

Even Miaolin popped her head out of the pelt pile to offer her agreement . “I’m never coming here again either! Even if I don’t get scared to death, I’ll freeze to death!”

Xin Zhaolun smiled . “Alright, it’s all my fault . I shouldn’t have brought you guys here . ”

“Don’t worry, elder brother . I’m not blaming you . There were many gains from here, but it’s a bit cold, and a bit scary . ”

Song Qiao smiled . “It’s worth it to come here . The main thing about this place is that it has both quality and quantity, including a few materials needed in the construction of Hidden Doors . All the powerful Sages that come here are here for this purpose . Even I came here despite the dangers . ”

Lei Xinfeng suddenly thought of a question . “Strange, why is the frost suddenly gone?”

Chuizi smiled . “Its a strange thing about this land . The frost disperses quickly, and it only takes a while to completely vanish . As for the reason, we don’t know ourselves . However, right after the frost, the weather lightens up significantly, and the temperature rises quite a bit too . ”

“How long until we can go out?”

“Maybe around ten minutes . It doesn’t take long . ”

“Huh? That fast?” asked a surprised Lei Xinfeng .

“It’s not strange . The reason why it’s so cold is because of the wind . Without the wind, the temperature will rise very quickly,” Song Qiao said .

Lei Xinfeng nodded . “I’m going out . This room is making me feel claustrophobic . ”

“Wait a little,” said Xin Zhaolun .

The room began to heat up . The weak embers in the brazier flared up in strength, and the remaining oil wood in the tray started to burn through much quicker than before . Soon, even Miaolin crawled out from under the pile of pelts, forehead beaded with sweat . “I want to take a bath! I stink!”

Hongjie offered some consolation . “Don’t be impatient, you’ll get your chance soon . ”

After some more time, Xin Zhaolun nodded . “Alright, we can go out now . ” With that, he smashed his fist into the wall . With a large rumble, the ice chunks crumbled . After quite a bit of commotion, what remained of the wall was just the steel frame, which he took into his Hidden Lun space . Only then did he walk out of the room and into the corridor .

Lei Xinfeng hurriedly followed him, while Song Qiao accompanied them . “I want to see the part of corridor collapsed,” he said, following .

The walls of the corridor was torn to shreds, some parts thicker than others . The right side of the corridor was completely collapsed . Even the steel was utterly bent out of shape . The floor was filled with scattered chunks of ice, and covered with a layer of frost .

Chuizi came out, carrying his precious hammer . He swung at the corridor walls and the wall exploded into pieces like glass . After the freezing it went through, the ice because extremely brittle, unable to withstand the force of the hammer strike .

Their view of their surroundings clear up .

Lei Xinfeng pointed inside the yard of the house . “What the hell is that?”

Note: Xiao Diya does not actually say ‘Fuck,’ though it’s still a curse . His version goes from “他” to “他妈的 . ” Lei Xinfeng actually asks who Xiao Diya was talking about, because the first character is Chinese for ‘him . ’

There’s actually a more cursing than I’ve been putting, but I don’t like writing them out personally .

Now, I forgot note it in the previous chapters, but Song Qiao and Xin Zhaolun is literally Kool Aid Man, breaking those poor walls .

I’ve decided to forgo an editor because I’m an impatient person, and I’m willing to forgo a little grammatical and logical correctness to have my chapters out faster .