Survivors, disregarding their ongoing struggles, rushed towards nearby buildings.
Behind them, a visible white frost rapidly spread across the ground.
Dark clouds slowly enveloped the city from above.
Countless sharp wind blades, like knives, howled and wantonly destroyed everything.
Advertising signs, vending machines, cars parked by the street, lampposts...
All were sliced into several pieces.
As the lampposts fell to the ground, the brittle steel plates instantly cracked into fragments scattered everywhere due to the cold.
The frost began to creep up the building surfaces from the ground.
Many of the glass windows that the frost passed over developed cracks to varying degrees.
Some survivors, unable to take shelter inside buildings, were blocked out by doors locked by their companions.
In just over ten seconds, a living person had their energy drained, turning them into ice sculptures with expressions of agony.
Survivors who fled into buildings fared no better.
The building doors could not withstand the intrusion of the cold.
The frost lingered by the door gaps for a moment before quickly continuing its crawl inside...
One male survivor was slow to retract his hand when closing the door.
His hands were immediately frozen to the metal handrail by the frigid air.
"Save me, please save me!"
The man's voice was filled with hysterical wails.
"No, don't go near him! Unless you cut off his hands, you can't save him, and others might get caught in it too!"
The team captain yelled, retreating further into the building.
"Captain, don't leave me behind! I took a knife for you before, and you said you'd repay me!"
"You bastard, you traitor!"
The man twisted his head, watching the captain disappear down the corridor, and roared with furious eyes.
A moment later, the captain suddenly ran back.
"Captain? I knew you wouldn't abandon me..."
However, the man's gratitude lasted less than two seconds.
He saw the captain pull out two gasoline bottles from his ring, ignite them with a lighter, and throw them at the man's feet with a whoosh.
"I can't repay your kindness in this life, perhaps in the next!"
"Since you're going to die anyway, you might as well be fuel to help us survive with a higher probability!"
"Thank you for your hard work!"
The captain said, and left without looking back.
The man cried out in agony while cursing loudly.
The coldness in his hands, coupled with the heat from his legs, caused him immense pain, yet he was helpless.
Suddenly, a gust of biting cold wind blew through.
The man, along with the flames behind him, had all his energy instantly sucked away, freezing him into a sculpture.
Even the shape of the flames was fixed in place.
The survivors in the city were indeed too weak; their awakening levels made it difficult to endure this blizzard.
Meanwhile.
Deep underground, 30 meters below the surface, in an underground palace.
Zhang Chen lay on a soft, comfortable large bed, shirtless and wearing comfortable shorts, gazing up at the ceiling.
The ceiling itself wasn't particularly special, only possessing some decorative textures and beautiful lighting fixtures.
However, Zhang Chen's absolute vision allowed him to see through the ceiling, and even the earth, to the world above the surface.
Though this seeing was different from ordinary vision.
The perspective after penetration lacked color, showing only rough lines.
It was like a painting that had just had its sketch completed.
But even this was enough.
Zhang Chen could basically see what was happening in the outside world.
He could even see what was happening inside buildings.
A dark red energy network of coldness was continuously absorbing the biological energy from nearby buildings and the air. Wherever it encroached, the blue biological energy rapidly extinguished, replaced by a similar dark red energy grid.
At this point, a prompt slowly emerged beside the dark red energy grid:
[Dark red biological energy grid signifies a negative energy state. After the blizzard passes, the residual negative energy grid will continue to absorb surrounding biological energy until it returns to a normal state, indicated by blue.]
Zhang Chen understood the prompt's meaning.
In simpler terms, even after the blizzard passed, it wouldn't be safe to go outside immediately.
Because everything around was desperately absorbing external energy.
If a survivor's internal energy was insufficient, stepping outside would immediately result in them being absorbed into ice sculptures or mummified.
The dark red energy grid was also slowly seeping from the ground towards the underground.
However, the underground palace was deeply hidden. Based on the penetration progress of the dark red energy grid, it would take at least three to four hours to reach the underground palace.
Zhang Chen adjusted his vision's focal length, retracting his gaze slightly.
A layer of blue energy grid surrounded the underground palace.
Including this, the power for the palace's temperature control system, lighting system, and so on, were all driven by the [Core Energy].
As long as the core energy was not depleted, it could continuously release heat to maintain the normal operation of the entire palace.
Furthermore, the progressive faction had achieved near-maximum development of crystal core energy through technology.
The energy produced by one [Energy Crystal Core] was enough for the underground palace to operate safely for a day.
Therefore, this amount of energy consumption was almost negligible for Zhang Chen.
"Master, as you instructed, I have placed Researcher Xu in the warm water pool. However, she herself has no body temperature, so it will likely take a considerable amount of time for her to fully recover!"
Shirley stood by the bed and reported.
"Mm, alright. With the blizzard preventing us from traveling, we have ample time. You go down and rest as well!"
Zhang Chen said, drinking a bottle of chilled cola.
"Yes, Master!"
Shirley nodded and withdrew.
Little White was also asleep, curled up beside Er Pang.
Only Zhang Chen remained in the room.
The world underground was exceptionally quiet, not a single sound could be heard.
Zhang Chen, somewhat bored, examined the items in his storage ring.
Suddenly, he had an inspiration.
He then quickly went to the underground palace's "outdoor plaza," which was actually a wide underground area, separate from the palace.
All the clones were resting, and now Zhang Chen was alone here.
He placed the Spider Queen's egg from his backpack on the ground.
Then, he slowly took out the [Containment Jar of Gromos].
Following the method taught by Xu Ruina, he released the limp Gromos.
Afterward, Zhang Chen took out a roll of tape and tightly bound the Spider Queen's egg to the very center of Gromos's large eyeball.
Then, he brought Gromos's eight tentacles behind its back.
He stepped on two with his left foot, two with his right, and grabbed the remaining four with his left hand.
Then, Zhang Chen took a deep breath and pointed at Gromos's acupuncture points with his right hand.
Release pressure points!