As the two finished speaking, Qin Chuan casually tossed the small steel ball in his hand.
As the steel ball rolled continuously on the ice, cracks appeared on the ice surface that had not been frozen.
Qin Chuan walked forward without looking back.
Xu An, watching Qin Chuan’s departing back, pulled Zhou Haimei along.
“Look, Qin Chuan is already ahead. We should follow him. It’s definitely safe if he’s leading the way.”
Zhou Haimei was persuaded and followed Xu An after Qin Chuan, but her eyes were still fixed on the surrounding ice, afraid that the ice would crack and they would fall in before she could react.
Even though they had placed heat patches on the soles of their shoes when they set out, walking on the ice was still bone-chillingly cold.
Every step felt like stepping on ice, and soon Zhou Haimei couldn’t stand it anymore.
“An’an, how much further? My feet have gone numb from the cold.”
Xu An looked at Zhou Haimei’s increasingly pale face and felt a pang of guilt, but she had no immediate solution.
Both her and Qin Chuan’s bodies had been modified. Even so, facing the severe cold was difficult, let alone for Zhou Haimei, a “normal person” with average physical fitness.
Xu An took out a few more heat patches from her pocket, placed them on a piece of oiled cloth, and wrapped Zhou Haimei’s shoes with it.
After wrapping both shoes, she stood up and looked at Zhou Haimei, “Is it a little better now?”
Zhou Haimei’s feet were already numb from the cold, but seeing Xu An fussing over her, she didn’t want to say anything. She just nodded mechanically, her doubts growing even larger.
Since the weather started to get cold, among the three of them, she seemed to be the only one complaining about the cold every time.
Xu An and Qin Chuan never mentioned being cold.
At first, she thought Xu An and Qin Chuan were just more tolerant of the cold and weren't afraid of it.
But the last time the two of them went out to chop wood, they stayed in the snowy field for more than half a day.
When they returned, their feet were only slightly red from the cold.
She, however, had only gone out to fetch some snow water, and in less than half an hour.
When she returned, her feet were already bruised and purple from the cold.
After they finished, and looked up, Qin Chuan had already walked a considerable distance.
Xu An quickly pulled Zhou Haimei along to catch up.
The place they were in was a submerged reef. The reason it froze was also due to this. As they walked further in, the ice would become thinner, and the seawater would become deeper.
After another ten minutes of walking, Qin Chuan led them through winding paths until they reached a place full of reefs.
Xu An helped Zhou Haimei keep up with Qin Chuan’s pace. Looking at the devastation before them, her eyes dimmed.
“They might have already met their demise.”
Qin Chuan froze in place, speechless, but as far as the eye could see, there were severed limbs and unrecognizable bloody flesh.
Looking around, one could tell what had happened here.
How tragic it was.
Xu An looked at everything before her and felt a pang of sympathy, carefully patting Qin Chuan’s shoulder.
“My condolences.”
But then Qin Chuan turned around, his face devoid of any emotion, his expression merely a little cold.
“This blood looks fresh. Those monsters must not have gone far. You guys look for survivors nearby, and I’ll go see if the equipment is still there.”
Xu An knew that Qin Chuan’s mention of looking for survivors was just an excuse. The entire reef was filled with the smell of blood.
Some of the warm blood was still steaming, gradually melting on the freezing ice surface, spreading out and forming a misty haze.
It was like Qin Chuan’s expression at the moment, as if shrouded in a layer of misty confusion, making it impossible to know what he was thinking.
Zhou Haimei was about to tell Qin Chuan that there were no survivors here when Xu An tugged on her sleeve.
Xu An gave her a look, and Zhou Haimei understood what she meant. She glanced sheepishly at Qin Chuan and said nothing more, obediently following behind Xu An.
As they walked, they looked around, examining the already lifeless bodies, whose corpses were torn apart and incomplete.
Zhou Haimei followed behind Xu An and muttered softly, “I thought he seemed indifferent, and I thought he didn’t care at all.”
Xu An listened and didn’t rush to refute Zhou Haimei. She simply said leisurely, “Some people’s emotions are reserved. Not everyone’s joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness are written on their faces.”
Qin Chuan looking at everything expressionlessly did not mean he didn’t feel any sadness.
Although the people who came down this time were not Qin Chuan’s confidantes, they were still living human beings.
Within just a few days, dozens of people had met their deaths here. Anyone would feel shocked and saddened.
Xu An also saw a trace of sadness in Qin Chuan’s calm face.
“But, An’an, according to Qin Chuan, didn’t these people have temporary resting places? How were they wiped out so completely, and how were they cornered here by these sea monsters?”
The tide flats, stained red with blood, besides human limbs and remains, also contained bloody, unidentifiable creatures.
Based on Xu An’s knowledge, she couldn’t name the monster before her. It looked like an octopus, but its head was covered with countless pairs of vertical pupils.
Even though the sea monster was dead, its eyes were still moving, rolling around.
It was as if it was searching for the next target.
Just then, Ze Yuan, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke.
“You’d best stay away from those eyes. That thing is parasitic. Once infected, you’ll end up the same way as that octopus.”
Xu An was surprised by this. “You mean that monster that looked like an octopus was really an octopus? It mutated because it was infected?”
“Yes, where do so many mutated monsters come from in this world? Their gene sequences are different, how could they mutate so easily? Most of them are infected, or their genes have mutated due to external factors, like those monsters you collected that were possessed by small mushrooms.”
“Those mutated because of the power of the small mushrooms, and thus possessed the power that originally belonged to the small mushrooms.”
Ze Yuan spoke briefly, and Xu An took it to heart.
While searching the surroundings, she did not forget to remind Qin Chuan and Zhou Haimei.
“Don’t touch these monsters. Those eyes on them are problematic.”
Zhou Haimei initially asked Xu An how she knew this, but seeing that Xu An didn’t want to answer, she gave up the idea.