socalfunplaces Chapter 576 Exiting the North Wind Barrier
Chapter 576 Exiting the North Wind Barrier
Lin Tian stepped into the portal of light.
Golden light surged in from all directions, enveloping his body, warm and gentle, as if he were being gently lifted up by an invisible hand.
The feeling wasn't like teleportation; it was more like drifting in a warm current. Light flashed past, alternating between bright and dark, like day and night accelerating their cycle. Occasionally, blurry fragments of light and shadow would flash by, as if glimpsing a piece of a distant world.
When my feet touched solid ground again, the scene before me was completely different.
The wasteland north of Starmoon City.
Behind us, the massive ice wall still stood, but it was no longer the same as when we arrived.
The cracks on the ice wall's surface had completely disappeared, the runes had relit, and a pale blue light flowed within the ice wall like glowing blood vessels, pulsating rhythmically. The North Wind Barrier was completely repaired; it was no longer a crumbling ruin, but a true and solid defensive line.
Zhao Hao tumbled out of the portal.
His posture wasn't very graceful—he stumbled, took two steps forward, and almost landed face-first. He frantically swung his arms in the air a few times, barely managing to steady himself, but he still swayed several times before finally standing up straight, his boots leaving a shallow mark on the ground.
"They're out...they're finally out..."
Zhao Hao took a deep breath and then coughed violently.
The air in the wasteland wasn't as cold as inside the barrier, but it was mixed with the smell of earth and withered grass, and a faint astringent tang of rotting wood from afar. He had spent two days hiding in that ice cave and half a day inside the barrier, his lungs filled with the taste of ice shards. When he suddenly inhaled the warm air, his trachea couldn't adapt, and he coughed so hard he bent over, his shoulders trembling violently.
He coughed for a while before he recovered, straightened up, wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, and rubbed his chest vigorously.
"Lin Tian, I have to go."
Zhao Hao turned around and looked at Lin Tian.
His expression was complex, a mixture of gratitude, reluctance, and an indescribable sense of helplessness—like finally finding a place to catch his breath, yet having to leave. His fingers unconsciously clenched the empty pouch at his waist—where supplies had once been stored.
Lin Tian looked at him without saying a word.
"I've run out of supplies, and my equipment needs repairing." Zhao Hao glanced down at his tattered armor, which was covered in cracks and dents, with several plates sticking up to reveal the worn lining underneath. "I plan to go to the nearest level 3 main city. I couldn't use the return scroll while I was inside the barrier, but it should work now that I'm out."
He pulled out a scroll from the inside of his belt, held it in his hand, and you could see that his fingertips were slightly white.
Zhao Hao held the scroll, hesitated for a moment, and then looked up at Lin Tian.
"Um...we've added each other as friends, so...can I contact you in the future?"
His tone was cautious, as if he were testing an uncertain boundary. He wasn't sure if Lin Tian added him as a friend out of pity or because he genuinely thought he was valuable, so he asked carefully, leaving himself an escape route—if Lin Tian said "try not to," he wouldn't bother him again.
Lin Tian glanced at him.
"able."
One word, but concise and to the point.
Zhao Hao's lips curved slightly, not into a loud laugh, but a gentle, relieved smile. His previously tense shoulders also relaxed quietly.
"Okay," he said.
Then he tore open the scroll.
A blue light burst forth from the scroll, enveloping him like a pillar of light. The light spread upwards from his feet, first engulfing his legs, then his body, and finally his face. Even as the light engulfed him, Zhao Hao's face retained that smile, his eyes slightly curved, as if he were saying thank you.
The beam of light shot into the sky, then exploded, scattering into countless tiny specks of light, like a brief, silent firework display.
Zhao Hao disappeared.
Only a few footprints left by his bare feet remained on the spot—his boots were long worn out—and a few drops of blood, frozen into ice crystals, dripping from his wounds, which stood out starkly against the frozen ground.
Lin Tian withdrew his gaze, moved his wrist, and his knuckles made a slight clicking sound.
Celia emerged from the shadows behind him, her silver eyes sweeping over the spot where Zhao Hao had disappeared before turning towards the northern wasteland. Her black robe fluttered slightly in the wind, like a silent flag.
"There are also monsters," she said.
"Mm," Lin Tian replied.
As he traveled south from the North Wind Barrier, he encountered far fewer magical beasts than on his way there—most of the high-level magical beasts retreated into the depths of the barrier after the giant beasts died, but some scattered overflowing magical beasts remained outside.
These monsters are between level 70 and 72, mostly remnants of the Ice Armor Rhinoceros and Frostclaw Beasts. Without their leader's command, they wander the wasteland like headless flies, occasionally letting out low, bewildered roars.
Lin Tian didn't take a detour and walked straight towards them.
In the distance, two armored rhinoceroses were gnawing on the carcass of an unknown beast. Their armor gleamed grayish-white in the sunlight, and as they tore at the flesh, their icy teeth dug into it with a crunching sound, mixed with the muffled cracking of bones.
Little White flew off Lin Tian's shoulder.
The dragon's body stretched out in the air to over two meters long, its ice-blue scales gleaming brilliantly in the sunlight, each scale resembling a polished gem. It hovered above the heads of the two ice-armored rhinoceroses, its head slightly raised and mouth open.
[Ice Dragon's Breath]
A column of icy blue energy shot from its mouth, sweeping across the ground in a fan shape. The air crackled slightly in the extreme cold, and a layer of white frost instantly formed on the ground.
Both ice-armored rhinoceroses were hit simultaneously. The extreme cold energy exploded on their ice armor, and the armor originally designed to protect them from the cold was as fragile as paper in the face of the little white ice dragon's breath. The ice armor shattered, disintegrating from the inside out, with cracks radiating outwards from the point of impact, covering their entire backs in the blink of an eye, and shards of ice flew everywhere.
The first ice-armored rhinoceros's health bar dropped to zero. Its corpse remained frozen in place, head down, still munching away, before slowly rolling over and crashing to the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust.
The second ice-armored rhinoceros lost most of its health, and half of its ice armor shattered, revealing the grayish-white skin underneath, which was slightly steaming. It struggled to escape, its four short, thick legs frantically pawing at the ice, but its body was too heavy and the ice too slippery. After several attempts, it couldn't muster any strength and let out a terrified hiss.
Celia appeared from the side.
Her black robes slid silently across the ground as she moved with the speed of a black lightning bolt. She didn't use any skills, just a simple strike—her fingers, brought together like knives, precisely pierced the gaps in the scales on the Ice Armor Rhinoceros's neck.