Published: February 11, 2025
There was no howling cold wind, no blinding snow, only a bone-deep chill.
This was Ye Zhongming's first impression after he landed. Even with his current strength, he couldn't help but shiver at the cold.
Feeling a slight struggle in his arms, Ye Zhongming relaxed his grip.
Garan was still feeling dizzy.
No one knew how much she had sacrificed over the past dozens of hours, not even her good friend Mina.
Mina could only see the exhaustion of her physical and mental strength, and the wounds covering her body, but she couldn't see Garan's persistence.
The cold in the Cat Ear Cave was something that those who hadn’t experienced it would never truly understand.
This cold seemed capable of freezing one's soul directly, numbing the body and hardening the mind, making one endure endless pain in a state of paralysis.
Even after returning to the surface, it felt as if millions of tiny knives were continuously slicing every inch of her skin.
Garan's shivering was not only due to the cold but also because of this pain.
She recalled a term she had only seen in novels and on television—cold poison.
She felt that anyone who had stayed here would inevitably be affected by this toxin. Although it would fade over time, one would still have to endure the torment until recovery.
But she could only endure. She wanted to confide in Mina, but she knew it wouldn't do any good aside from worrying her friend.
Her repeated descents here were not because Garan believed she could succeed, but rather because she didn't want failure to come too easily.
She wanted to fight desperately, hoping for a stroke of luck that might lead her to a solution for the problems here.
This was akin to praying to a Buddha or believing in God, a sort of comfort sought from the depths of her heart when all other options had been exhausted, and a lingering hope for a miracle.
But the cruelty of reality shattered all of Garan's fantasies.
She knew that even if she came down here countless times, even if she invested everything from the nalan battle team, it would still be in vain.
If it couldn't be done, it simply couldn't be done.
Ye Zhongming's appearance indeed gave her a glimmer of hope, but this hope was as faint as before. It was as if he didn't recognize her at all, showing no response even when others insulted them.
This was not the behavior of someone who wanted to help.
So when Ye Zhongming finally jumped down while holding her, Garan was completely taken by surprise.
It wasn’t until the familiar chill invaded her body that she truly felt ‘alive’ again.
"Did I agree to this? Why did you bring me down? You big shots, do you ever care about others' thoughts? Are we just playthings in your hands?"
Garan exploded suddenly, wildly pushing Ye Zhongming away.
In her agitation, her hair had completely fallen loose, and the blanket she had been wrapped in dropped to the ground, revealing a green-grade battle armor underneath.
But it was now covered in cracks, with at least a dozen sizable ones, suggesting that it wouldn't hold up for much longer.
Green-grade equipment was considered valuable now, and for a team like nalan, it was probably not the only one they had.
This outburst had a hysterical flavor to it, a kind of desperate surrender.
Although Garan had heard Ye Zhongming promise to give them a share of the rewards, she was not a child who would believe everything she was told.
In her view, it was simply Ye Zhongming using this method to gain a larger share for himself.
Even if everyone else agreed, he would likely take nalan's share for himself, and bringing her down without her consent only confirmed her suspicions.
She could imagine how Ye Zhongming would do it—he would let Garan die here, then let Mina and the others die as well.
After completing the exploration, he would naturally seize that share of the rewards.
Knowing that death was inevitable, she thought it best to meet her end quickly, at least she could vent her frustrations against one of the top players in the country’s region.