Chapter 229: Three is a Crowd
Translator: Double_L Editor: Hitesh_
The three of them rushed towards the ice-capped mountain at full speed. Fortunately, both Ma Xiaoru and Li Ruo-Er possessed decent stamina, or else, Wang Tong’s energy would be completely drained. Throughout the whole journey, all Wang Tong did was navigating in front, and thankfully, both of them were strong enough to keep up.
Wang Tong immediately noticed that there was no entrance to the cavern> However, it would be impossible for them to search for another hiding place now. So in the end, Wang Tong had no choice but to use his chopping attacks to hack up an entrance. Wang Tong would rather lose an arm than freeze to death under this raging blizzard.
Wang Tong gathered all of his strength and unleashed more than ten strikes to the thinner parts of ice in no time. Wang Tong remembered that he did hack up a cavern once during his time on Norton. However, he didn’t expect that this layer of ice was way thicker than the rocks on Norton.
Nevertheless, he was lucky enough to smash off chunks of ice, and then the trio immediately crawled into the cavern.
It was still daytime, yet the whole area was completely covered in darkness, Aurora City had completely vanished from their line of sight. The three of them were absolutely on their own. If it weren’t because of Wang Tong’s precise judgment, Li Ruo-Er and Ma Xiaoru would’ve already been lost in the middle of the blizzard.
Anyhow, all of them were safe for the time being despite the horrible situation out there. This ice cavern was the perfect shelter for such extreme weather.
Wang Tong sighed in relief. He was really lucky enough to smash off that huge chunk of tough ice, or else they would be in deep trouble.
Wang Tong took out his bone knife and infused it with GN Force, then began to widen up the space. After all, it was quite tight to fit the three of them.
"Thank you." Ma Xiaoru said as she stared at the land of darkness. What happened earlier was indeed a close shave. Wang Tong smiled back. It seemed like Ma Xiaoru was still as polite as she used to be.
Ma Xiaoru then turned towards Li Ruo-Er. Honestly, Li Ruo-Er was also traumatized by the raging blizzard, yet she said in an unyielding manner, "Hmph, this is just a piece of cake. Nothing can stop me!"
"Ruo-Er!" Ma Xiaoru pulled Li Ruo-Er by her sleeves. She knew that Li Ruo-Er was talking about the super METAL Suit inside their Space Crystal. Actually, the Soul Energy of both ladies had already reached Level Five, yet they were taught by their families to keep it a secret from others for their own good. Their level of Soul Energy was good enough for them to equip the METAL Suits for not more than half an hour, and with those powerful METAL Suits, they would be able to make it through this blizzard without much problem.
However, it would still be too dangerous for the both of them, as the only way to make it through this blinding snowstorm was to equip the super METAL Suits and race towards Aurora City. Yet, this method was extremely risky because they could be in grave danger once their energy was completely drained.
Nevertheless, Wang Tong didn’t pay much attention to Li Ruo-Er. After all he was not that kind of person who would like to entertain a bossy and arrogant girl like her, and he wouldn’t be bothered by her words. Still, Wang Tong wasn’t spiteful. After all, she was just a spoiled kid who was lucky to be born into a wealthy family.
Wang Tong’s hacking process had sped up a lot by infusing GN Force into his bone knife. Even though it wasn’t razor sharp, it was hard enough to shave off boulders of ice in no time. Within minutes, Wang Tong had widened up the space inside the cavern. Since the interior of the cavern was bigger than the entrance, Wang Tong could even make it windproof by stuffing the entrance with a block of ice.
Li Ruo-Er was surprised to notice that her Skynet had no signal in this area. She didn’t expect that the blizzard had even affected the magnetic frequency. It seemed like they had no choice but to wait for this blizzard to die down. However, most of the time, blizzards were very unpredictable. It could last for a short while, or it could last for months. If it lasted that long, they would be doomed for sure.
Moreover, only bigger air vessels in Aurora City would be able to take off in such extreme weather condition.
Aurora City itself was not affected by the blizzard due to its tough energy barrier. However the people from House of Li and House of Ma were busy looking for ways to rescue the young ladies, yet all search and rescue activities could only be carried out when the blizzard died down a little.
"Well, looks like we will be staying here for quite some time. Any of you brought any food?" Wang Tong asked and then continued saying, "If you ladies don’t mind, I have some here for us to share."
Wang Tong would always prepare some water and nutrient pills in case of emergency. After the incident at Paradise Island, he had learned the lesson regarding the importance of food.
Li Ruo-Er rolled her eyes when she saw that all Wang Tong prepared were just some cheap mineral water and pills that she had never seen before. After all, she had been living the life of a princess and had never been in such miserable situation before.
"I brought something." Ma Xiaoru then took out some water, a good amount of delicious food, and even some daily necessities from her Space Crystal.
"Xiaoru… are you planning to move out?" Li Ruo-Er was surprised to see what Ma Xiaoru packed, because she would only store a few necessities and some weapons in her Space Crystal.
"Honestly, I dunno. All I remember was someone had once told me to be prepared for emergencies, and it seems like the person was right." Ma Xiaoru smiled and replied.
Wang Tong felt bad as he stared at Ma Xiaoru’s gentle smile. He was the one who taught her about that. Wang Tong was surprised to find out that she remembered this even though her memories were sealed off. Apparently, she was still left with faint memories of those things that she had once held dearly, for instance, some important words or advice.
"Wow, I wonder who’s that person." Li Ruo-Er laughed, and immediately knew who said that after noticing Ma Xiaoru’s puzzled face and Wang Tong’s weird expression.
"I believe that it would be my brother. He’d say things like that from time to time." Li Ruo-Er gave Wang Tong a funny glance while lying to Ma Xiaoru that it was Li Shimin’s idea. She knew Wang Tong was not bold enough to tell her the truth.
"Perhaps. It seems like the blizzard is still raging. Looks like we have no choice but to be prepared for a longer stay. Since we’ve got enough food and water to last for a couple of weeks, I think we should widen more space and make each of us a room." Ma Xiaoru said.
The three of them were able to remain calm in such critical situation because they were strong enough to survive. Moreover, they knew that the people in Aurora City would be looking for them in no time.
"Yea let’s do it, but I think two rooms are more than enough. Let’s begin then!" Li Ruo-Er said as she arrogantly glanced at Wang Tong.
Wang Tong chose not to bother Li Ruo-Er, because he knew that she was just trying to mess with him. Now that Ma Xiaoru had already lost her memories, Wang Tong was afraid something bad would happen to her again if he tried to tell her what happened in the previous months.
She was lucky to recover from her berserk state by sealing off a part of her memories, and Wang Tong couldn’t imagine what could save her if she were to go berserk again.
In the end, all Wang Tong could do was to pretend to be okay. To him, faking his emotions was way harder than fighting against a horde of Zergs.
Meanwhile, Ma Xiaoru and Li Ruo-Er were busy hacking the wall of ice with their high-quality swords that they had been storing in their Space Crystals.
"Hey Wang Tong, why don’t you come over and help us? Didn’t anyone teach you about ladies first?" Li Ruo-Er seemed to be enjoying her "ice-sculpting" project. However, she needed someone else to do the cleaning up.
In the end, Wang Tong began to help both of them to clean up as the ladies carried on with their hacking. Honestly, Wang Tong would never give a damn about Li Ruo-Er’s taunts. He remembered that Old Fart had once told him that a real man should never be spiteful against women.
But to be honest, Old Fart was quite spiteful himself.
Nevertheless, Wang Tong didn’t complain much since it was a place for Ma Xiaoru to stay.
Since they were not trying to stay here for too long, both ladies had managed to hack up a space that was about ten square feet wide. As soon as Wang Tong finished cleaning up, Ma Xiaoru then took out her warming mat from the Space Crystal and placed it on the floor. Then, she said, "I only have one warming mat. Why don’t you stay here and share with us?"
"No, I disagree!" Li Ruo-Er exclaimed.
Wang Tong replied with a smile, "I’ll be fine. This temperature is okay for me."
"Please let me know if you’re cold, Ruo-Er might be rude, but she’s actually a kind-hearted girl." Ma Xiaoru said softly.
"Hmph, this is who I am!" Li Ruo-Er said while resting in her room. Ma Xiaoru shook her head and smiled helplessly.
"Xi… Ms. Ma Xiaoru, why don’t you go get some rest. I’ll be fine by myself. Meanwhile, you can try sending a message back to Aurora City. After all, we shouldn’t be staying here for too long."
"Alright, let us know if you need anything then." Ma Xiaoru nodded.
Wang Tong then began to hack up his own room as quickly as possible. He didn’t mind how big or small was it. All he wanted was a place to rest.
To be honest, he was quite thankful for this unexpected blizzard, or else, he would’ve never been able to spend time with Ma Xiaoru again.
As soon as Wang Tong finished hacking and cleaning his own room, Li Ruo-Er and Ma Xiaoru had already finished turning their room into a cozy little hut. Both Wang Tong and Ma Xiaoru had brought along quite a decent amount of useful items, yet Li Ruo-Er’s Space Crystal was only filled with stuff that wouldn’t do any good in this situation.
The temperature was rather cold, yet the three of them were still able to handle since they were all fighters. The three of them stared blankly at the raging blizzard as they ate some food. They had no other methods to make contact with Aurora City, hence their only option was to wait for the rescuing team. However, they knew that the search and rescue party would not be able to work in this situation, not to mention it would be extremely risky to perform a search in this weather.
Li Ruo-Er had no intentions to share anything with Wang Tong. Even though they were stuck in this mess together, she had been busy chatting with Ma Xiaoru while signaling Wang Tong to keep his distance in order not to trigger any unnecessary happenings.
"I’m going to sleep. Wake me up if there’s anything. Remember to initialize your tactics from time to time in order to maintain your body’s condition." Wang Tong knew what Li Ruo-Er was trying to tell him. After all, he was afraid that something would happen if he got too close with the girls. After all, it was best for him to keep his distance from Ma Xiaoru for her own good.
"Ruo-Er, I think we should be more kind to him. After all, he did save us from the blizzard."
"Yea, yea I know, actually I’ll know what to do in this situation even if he’s not around." Li Ruo-Er would never thank Wang Tong, "Anyway, I believe that this blizzard will die down soon."
"Fingers crossed."
Both girls were extremely exhausted after spending the past four to five hours saving themselves, and they began to feel sleepy due to the warmth from the mat. In the end, they decided to take a quick nap since it was boring in the cavern.