TSIAGBICATMWI Chapter 176

Chapter 176 Blizzard

That day, which was the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, at five o’clock in the morning, after everything was packed, Gu Tangyue took out all the fireworks from her space and arranged them neatly in the courtyard, densely packed and filling most of the yard.

The five people stood on the roof. A shower of sparks fell like a scattering of flowers from a celestial being, uniformly igniting all the fireworks. Gu Tangxi nodded secretly in satisfaction. “Well, not bad, not bad. She’s getting more and more precise with her ability.”

“Whoosh! …Whoosh! …Whoosh whoosh! Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh…” As the bangs rang out, increasingly dense explosions followed one after another, followed by fireworks bursting into flowers that covered the sky. The colorful and dazzling colors illuminated the night sky. The fireworks that were happily collected at the beginning finally bloomed at this moment.

As the last bunch of fireworks ended, this short period of warmth and happiness came to a perfect end. The snow stopped, but the snowfield was still frozen for thousands of miles without end. Xie YunChuan and the others drove away from Muxi City, heading towards Li City at full speed.

The closer they got to Li City, the more mountains there were. The high and low snow-covered mountains hindered the people trying to reach Li City for refuge. Xie YunChuan and the others had encountered more than a dozen groups of survivors, a rare sight in the apocalypse, along the way. There were many or few people in these groups. Some were one or two people acting alone, while others were dozens of people banding together for warmth. Often, the smaller the team, the stronger its strength, especially those who could make it here alone were at least level three or four ability users.

It had been almost a year since the apocalypse broke out, and most of the survivors Xie YunChuan and the others encountered only had abilities around level two, with the occasional level four ability user being considered strong.

Most of these people were disorganized escapees scattered outside. Even if they awakened their abilities, they only thought about saving their lives. Most of them were ill-informed, not knowing how to upgrade their abilities, let alone actively hunting zombies to seize crystal cores for upgrades.

The news that Li City was a safe haven had spread almost everywhere. If not, they wouldn’t have encountered so many groups of people within a few hundred miles of Li City in just a few days.

That day, near dusk, a heavy blizzard suddenly began. It was freezing cold and difficult to move an inch. Xie YunChuan and the others had to stop and find a sheltered place nearby to avoid the snow.

Fortunately, more mountains and trees meant more shelters. Gu Tangyue put the car into her space, and the group left the mountain highway and explored the mountains. After struggling for about half an hour, they finally found a pit under a large rock in the mountains that sheltered them from the wind. Several ingenious boulders stood staggered, and the tilted angles happened to come together to form a depression. Most of the depths even remained dry.

The group hurried to the front of the boulder, carefully helping each other to enter the cave. Passing through the entrance between the rocks, they discovered that the cave pit, which appeared to be pieced together by several stones, was actually much larger than they had imagined. The cave extended several meters into the depths. The thick snow covered the terrain. This shouldn’t have been built by several fallen rocks, but a pit formed by the natural landform.

The raging wind and snow were blocked outside the cave. Gu Tangyue rubbed her hands as she walked deeper, feeling that she could finally relax and take a breath. If she didn’t cover her nose and breathe outside, she would simply inhale countless ice shards with every breath. She was almost frozen to death outside.

Xie YunChuan walked to the entrance of the cave. Countless vines swished to the outside, instantly dragging back several large trees to block the entrance. Chaotic ice blades flickered intermittently. In a moment, the original complete trees turned into three neat piles of firewood placed in a dry corner.

Gu Tangxi quickly hugged a pile and threw a fireball into it, igniting it with a whoosh. Gu Tangyue stomped her feet and leaned closer, wishing she could stick her hands into the fire. Gu Tangxi slapped her back a little. “What are you doing? Want to eat barbecued claws?”

A dozen seconds later, Gu Tangyue, who had been driven away, silently moved forward again when Gu Tangxi wasn’t paying attention. Gu Tangxi saw it in the corner of her eye and didn’t bother to care about her anymore. She wasn’t a three-year-old child anymore. She was just afraid that her hands would be frozen stiff and numb, and she would really bake herself.

Xie YunChuan stood at the entrance of the cave, gazing outside for a long time. The snow was getting heavier and heavier. He couldn’t help but frown and said, “It looks like we’ll have to take refuge here for a few days.”

The fire was burning not far from the entrance of the cave to prevent the smoke from dissipating. The people sitting around the fire could also see the scene outside the cave at a glance. Gu Tangxi said, “Fortunately, we reacted quickly and got out of the car to find such a haven.” Otherwise, if they braved the snow to enter the mountains to find a place to hide now, they would lose half their lives even if they didn’t die. Staying in the car was even worse. Surrounded by ice and snow, and unable to make a fire inside, they would freeze stiff in the car.

Gu Tangyue finally felt alive again. When she was outside just now, she felt that she was frozen like a zombie, with uncoordinated limbs and difficulty moving. Now, exhaling a breath of stale air, she was also grateful. “Fortunately, I have a lot of food in my space. It doesn’t matter. We must wait here until we are sure that the blizzard has completely passed before we continue on our way. Otherwise, it would be bad if we encountered a snow disaster halfway.”

Gu Tangxi nodded in agreement. “Yes, yes, yes, we must not leave this big pit that we found so hard.”

The sky completely darkened, and the heavy snow was still falling non-stop. The people in the cave happily ate dinner, not affected at all by the raging wind and snow outside as they chatted after dinner.

Gu Tangxi said, “Didn’t you say that Li City won’t accept everyone unconditionally? And the conditions for admission are extremely harsh. Why are there so many people risking their lives to come?”

Xu Yuzhe said, “Among the people we met, those with lower strength are probably just people from nearby trying their luck. Otherwise, with their abilities, they wouldn’t have been able to walk here alive. Those level three and four ability users, or even higher levels, are confident that their strength is high enough to be accepted.”

Gu Tangxi sighed, “Alas, the weak are prey to the strong, and the strong are respected. I wonder if the order in Li City also follows the principle that whoever has the bigger fist has the right to speak.”

Xu Yuzhe said lightly, “Boss, it’s not necessarily the strongest, but it must be the most powerful.”

Gu Tangyue said blankly, “Isn’t that the same thing?” Can you have power without being strong? Can you not be strong if you have power?

Xie YunChuan said, “What he means is—the product of class. Class exists everywhere, at all times, in all species. Li City is originally a place where the economic lifeline is controlled by several major families, and now in the apocalypse, this distinction between the upper and lower classes will only become more significant. Various resources will be tilted and flow into these upper classes. One person’s strength cannot change anything, nor can it control anything. You need a team, an organization, a group that respects you, to be able to compete with other forces.”