Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
There was something inside the icicle?!
Yang Dingtian excitedly rushed for a closer look. He still couldn’t see it clearly. This was the only piece of ice that was blue, rather than transparent, in the entire cave. Although Yang Dingtian had melted a large portion, it still wasn’t clear enough to see through.
Yang Dingtian wrapped himself around the icicle and began to tremble. He would have frozen by now if his Nine Yang body weren’t as hot as a stove.
He got colder and colder until he could barely stand it.
He hugged the icicle just like that for a couple of hours, taking a short break every half hour. The icicle melted inch by inch. As Yang Dingtian got closer to the core, it grew agonizingly cold.
Yang Dingtian shivered continually after five hours, and he nearly blacked out for a moment. He was tenacious despite knowing that being wrapped around the ice for so long would risk his life. Yang Dingtian had a strong character, and he would never give up until he achieved his goals.
“There’s a person inside?” Yang Dingtian was ecstatic. Finally, the icicle had almost completely melted, and it was crystal-clear.
It was odd to find a person frozen in a thousand-meter deep cave.
The ice had a white-haired old man with a beard as tangled as weeds inside. His true age seemed impossible to judge under all the wrinkles. He looked like an old dirty beggar, though his clothes weren’t torn. His exposed hands were thin and dry like a dead tree’s branches. He had a gloomy aura.
Yang Dingtian found it disappointing that this person could have been frozen and dead for a long time. The reason he was sealed in the ice remained unknown.
Eventually, Yang Dingtian decided to get the old man out of the ice although he might already be dead by now.
Yang Dingtian endured the cold that spread deep down into his bones and hugged the cold icicle that he was terrified of that his entire body started shivering.
Towards the end, this melting mission really challenges one’s determination towards the extent where the ice cold feeling can no longer be described by words. Finally, Yang Dingtian couldn’t stand it that he blacked out and nearly fainted.
“Crakkk…”Just right before he fainted, there was a cracking sound. The final layer of the ice that was covering the old man has cracked completely that the huge thick icicle had disappeared.
The piercing cold was gone and Yang Dingtian gradually regained his heat energy. The only thing was that he couldn’t move at the moment. Yang Dingtian lay on the old man just like that, smelling the old man’s indecent smell. Though it wasn’t extremely smelly, it was sufficient to make a person uncomfortable.
Suddenly! The old man that was right in front of him opened his eyes! Yang Dingtian was frightened.
Was he faking his death? Wasn’t he already dead?
Just then, this gloomy old man stuck out his thin, dry hands and strangled Yang Dingtian ‘s neck. His long nails were as of sharp knives poking through his major arteries. His eyes looked cold and lost while his old face was filled with anger. He shouted something at Yang Dingtian.
His voice was so sharp that it sounded like the knife scratching the wall. However, Yang Dingtian couldn’t understand a single word he just said. It was a language that Yang Dingtian had never come across.
The old man became extremely angry when Yang Dingtian did not respond to him. He then repeated what he said previously, but this time, it sounded like he was forcefully questioning Yang Dingtian.
“I, I can’t even understand what you are talking about?” Yang Dingtian replied.
After listening to Yang Dingtian ‘s reply, he became excited and continued asking several questions. Then, he placed his old and ugly face closer to Yang Dingtian and questioned him non-stop. At that moment, his nails were deeply pierced into Yang Dingtian ‘s neck.
Yang Dingtian instantly felt the pain and fresh blood dripped down from his neck. Yang Dingtian had already used up all of his energy and couldn’t even move at the moment.
Right then, the old man asked another question.
Yang Dingtian smiled painfully and said, “Old gentleman, I really really don’t understand what you are saying?”
The old man became angry again that he scratched Yang Dingtian ‘s neck again, instantly leaving a deep wound that exposed his flesh and caused him to bleed. Then, he undoubtedly asked something again. Yang Dingtian still couldn’t understand.
The old man got even angrier this time. He strangled Yang Dingtian and asked him again with a much colder tone.
Although Yang Dingtian couldn’t really understand what the old man was saying, he could roughly understand what he was trying to express. If he still refused to speak, he might end up being strangled to death by the old man.
Yang Dingtian instantly showed a bitter smile. “I risked my life to save you, and you are about to strangle me to death. Why did I even do this?”
The old man also couldn’t understand what Yang Dingtian was saying, but it was obvious that it wasn’t the answer that he was looking for. He let out a cruel laugh and then tightened his hands around Yang Dingtian’s neck even harder.
Yang Dingtian struggled to breathe. His eyes were protruding, and his tongue stuck out of his mouth. He barely managed to save the old man and was now about to be strangled to death. He didn’t even have the energy to regret.
“I can die but definitely not in this unexplained situation while feeling vexed. Yang Dingtian bit his teeth, not knowing where the energy came from. He raised his leg and kicked at the air randomly.
“Bang…..” He kicked the old man in the chest.
“Crakk…..” There was a clear sound of something breaking that resembled the sound of broken branches being stepped on. It was the old man’s ribs that had just broken from the kick. Yang Dingtian wasn’t that strong, but the old man’s bones were already so crisp and dry that they were broken easily from the kick. It seemed like the old man had used up his remaining strength to strangle Yang Dingtian. When he fell down due to the kick, Yang Dingtian was set free.
Yang Dingtian immediately stepped back and kept his distance far from the old man. Finally, he leaned back against the cave wall, gasping for air. He looked at the wounds on his body and cautiously kept his eyes on the terrifying old man.
Several wounds on his body had stopped bleeding, but he still felt the burning sensation. However, the cave was way too small so it was impossible to completely get away from this crazy old man.
Yang Dingtian wheezed while he recharged his energy, but his eyes never left the dangerous old man. He was no longer going to be polite if the old man attacked him again, Yang Dingtian thought.
But, after the old man was being kicked by Yang Dingtian, he spat out two mouthfuls of dark red blood. He tried to sit up straight using his hands, but he failed after many attempts, probably because his chest was deeply injured from the kick.
It seemed like he could only move his hands which was why he couldn’t sit up no matter how hard he tried.
After many attempts, the old man still failed. He became furious and started yelling. He kept hitting the ice on the ground with his hands angrily, and the wound on his chest worsened. He spat out some black blood from his mouth, causing his hands and the ice on the ground to turn bloody as well.
Then, he gave up, laid his back on the ice, and started yelling. Of course, Yang Dingtian couldn’t understand what he was yelling about, but it sounded full of hatred and grief that Yang Dingtian couldn’t help but be affected.
“This old man is also very pitiful.” Yang Dingtian felt a burst of sympathy.
In the end, the old man stopped yelling and just lay on the ice quietly without making a single sound. The broken ribs on his chest might have pierced into his flesh as his chest became swollen. At first, the old man was still breathing. One could see his chest move up and down. Then, it looked like he finally stopped breathing.
Although Yang Dingtian knew how dangerous it was, he still couldn’t hold back and walked over to the old man slowly.
Yang Dingtian gently prodded the old man with his foot from a distance, but there wasn’t any response. He then took another step forward and touched the old man’s neck artery. There was still a heartbeat, but it was already extremely weak.
Yang Dingtian went up and lifted the old man. Then, he unbuttoned his shirt to check out the wound on his chest.
His right chest ribs had broken after his kick. Two broken ribs could be seen clearly as he was as thin as a human stick with only a layer of skin covering his bones. One of the ribs had pierced into his flesh, and his right chest had swollen up a few inches. It appeared both green and purple, looking terrible.
Yang Dingtian used his vague first-aid knowledge to help the old man and barely managed to set the broken bones. Throughout the entire process, the old man had trembled several times due to the excruciating pain, but he didn’t wake up.
Fortunately, the two broken ribs did not break into many pieces. However, Yang Dingtian had a rough time adjusting his broken bones. In this snowy ice-cold place, Yang Dingtian exuded fine sweat.
Suddenly, Yang Dingtian ‘s eyes felt somewhat painful. All he could see was two long, sharp nails right in front of his eyes. The moment he moved a little, these two sharp nails would pierce straight into his eyeballs, blinding him completely.
He did not know when the old man had woken up. As soon as he met Yang Dingtian’s eyes, he let out a cruel laugh. At the moment, Yang Dingtian’s flesh and blood were still on those nails. Coupled with the old man’s cruel and brutal face, it became even creepier.
Yang Dingtian was so nervous that he held his breath, looked down, and continued adjusting the old man’s bones as if he didn’t know that the old man was about to make him blind.
However, both of his hands were trembling at the moment. Yang Dingtian took a deep breath and continued adjusting the old man’s broken bones once his hands stopped trembling.
He received nothing in return from such act. Instead, the old man gave him a cruel sneer as if he were laughing at Yang Dingtian’s cunning act.
Even so, Yang Dingtian ignored him and continued to treat the old man carefully.
The old man’s sharp nails slowly pierced into Yang Dingtian ‘s flesh just like a sharp knife piercing through millimeter by millimeter.
The nails had pierced through nearly a centimeter and had pierced the outer layer of skin. Soon, they would reach Yang Dingtian’s eyeballs.
Yang Dingtian made a fist with his right hand and was about to slam his fist at the old man’s broken bones to pierce through his heart and kill him once and for all.
However, the old man suddenly stopped and removed his nails from Yang Dingtian ‘s flesh. He closed his eyes and left everything to Yang Dingtian.
Yang Dingtian took a long deep breath, calmed his heart down, and continued treating the old man.
Finally, after he finished treating the broken ribs, Yang Dingtian carefully wrapped the wound with his clothes. Although it was not that gentle to the wound, there was no other choice as there wasn’t a single piece of wood in the cave.
After everything was done, Yang Dingtian kept his distance from the old man again. He sat down far away against the cave wall.
As for the dangerous old man, his eyes were completely closed, and he didn’t move.
