Age of Evolution#

Chapter 698: Chapter 701: Quietly Waiting for the Flowers to Bloom

Dragging the carcass of a wild wolf, Lin Zhen returned to the cave.

He cut off a piece of meat, and while it wasn’t completely frozen, he chewed on it raw, drinking the blood and gulping down the fur.

For a Martial Artist, enduring such hardship was nothing in order to survive.

However, Lin Zhen’s heart grew heavier and heavier; as he chewed on the wolf meat, he couldn’t even taste its rawness.

His stress didn’t come from the foul taste, nor from the cold and injuries, but from loneliness.

He wouldn’t last much longer like this, and currently, Lin Zhen hadn’t found anything that could give him the strength to keep going.

He couldn’t find any fire or warmth in this place to heal himself, and Chris estimated that he could only live for less than a month. To persist, he had to tap into his life potential.

It wasn’t easy to stimulate life potential. He needed something or an event to give him strength, and Lin Zhen was well aware of this.

Night fell, and once again, the howling of wolves echoed across the snowy plains in the distance.

This night was particularly long. Lin Zhen had already finished eating the wolf’s blood, yet the darkness outside persisted.

On the plains, apart from wolves and bears, there were also swift deer, but Lin Zhen couldn’t catch them. Only wolves and other aggressive beasts could potentially become his food.

During past nights, the dark snowy plains had been whipped by gale-force winds and drifting snow, creating an extremely cold place. Lin Zhen would curl up at the entrance of the cave, shivering.

But this time, Lin Zhen didn’t want to stay in the cave any longer.

He wanted to venture out into the dark night. If he stayed here, he would only be waiting for death. If he was going to die, he might as well go and see places he had never seen before. As the long night descended, if his calculations were correct, it should be the polar night.

The polar night was the coldest time in the Polar Region and could last for months. He couldn’t just wait for death here.

“Since the voice told me that this is the northernmost point of the Divine Punishment Star, it should be similar to Earth’s North Pole, which has the extreme point,” he thought.

“I need to head towards the North Pole instead of staying in this wind-sheltered cave!”

This was an incredibly difficult decision; very few people would dare to leave the relatively warm cave and step into the pitch-black snowy night in search of an unknown hope.

Wrapping himself tightly in the wolf skin, Lin Zhen went to the other side of the cave instead of the snowy plain at the entrance. He noticed the wolves and other animals heading for the back of the cave, so the other side of the mountain should be the distant north.

The cold stone in his hand gave him some strength. Dragging his battered body, Lin Zhen began to climb over the mountain.

***********

“What? The Queen has disappeared?” Hearing Shi Xiaomao’s report, Liang Zhihuan was stunned.

“Your Majesty, she didn’t disappear. She left the palace three months ago, but we were all kept in the dark, and no one knew anything about it.”

As he spoke, Shi Xiaomao took out a video recording. This happened three months ago, the day after Lin Zhen disappeared. Ning Qingxuan closed the palace gates and said she wouldn’t see anyone as she wanted to cultivate in seclusion. Liang Zhihuan was also informed of this back then.

Liang Zhihuan didn’t say much, as long as Ning Qingxuan was safe.

However, to his surprise, that day, Ning Qingxuan left the Imperial Palace. The guards were immobilized by her from a distance, and only a high-magnification camera in one corner captured the image of Ning Qingxuan leaving.

She rode her Five-Colored Deer, leaving the palace alone.

Later, another image of Ning Qingxuan was taken by a planetary explorer. She rode the little deer through the stars and headed straight for the depths of the galaxy. No one knew what she went there for.

“The Endless Star Sea? She went to the Endless Star Sea?”

Liang Zhihuan didn’t speak for a while. The Endless Star Sea was also part of the Original World, but in the minds of the people of the Original World, it was a separate world full of risks and unknowns, perhaps even home to extraterrestrial tribes. People who lived on the ground had some fear toward the Endless Star Sea.

It was so vast and wide. What did Ning Qingxuan go there for?

After thinking for a while, Liang Zhihuan asked Shi Xiaomao, “Did you discover any clues during your investigation?”

“Your Majesty, it seems that Her Majesty reviewed a lot of materials the day before she left, and she even borrowed books from the royal library, such as star maps. It looked like she was searching for something or a planet, but I can’t guess which particular planet she was searching for.”

Liang Zhihuan’s face grew darker the more he listened. Finally, he coldly snorted, “No need to guess. She was looking for the Divine Punishment Star!”

“What? How can the Divine Punishment Star be found?” Shi Xiaomao was shocked.

“There is nothing difficult in the world, only those who are determined. Since she dared to leave, maybe she found some clues. What I don’t understand is, even if she finds the Divine Punishment Star, what can she do? Can she find the missing Lin Zhen?”

Shi Xiaomao didn’t speak. This subject was difficult to discuss. Was the Queen going to cheat on the Emperor?

“We must find the Queen.”

Liang Zhihuan spoke decisively, then closed his eyes, “This can’t be done by ordinary people. Go to the Qingye Sect and invite the Queen’s Master, Iron Granny, over. Nowadays, only her master can find her and restrain her.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

************

Another month had passed on the Divine Punishment Star.

Out of the hundred million people who started, now only a little over thirty million remained.

Divided among the four hundred small battle regions, each region had less than a hundred thousand people. Compared to the original million-strong regions, it was a world of difference.

Jun Mo, who had just killed several undead knights, answered the phone.

“This is Qin Jianfeng!”

“Ah! It turns out to be His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Da Qin. Hello, I don’t know what you want from me?”

“Jun Mo, your Fire Phoenix clan’s territory is adjacent to our Da Qin, and we are neighbors. In this battle of the Divine Punishment Star, I did not actively kill members of your Phoenix clan. But you’d better restrain your Saintess. I don’t care how she behaves, but she can’t mess with my Da Qin martial artists, or she will force me to take action.”

“Ah! Qing Luan actually made a move against Da Qin martial artists?”

“That’s right, just now, she ambushed one of our teams, killing more than a hundred people. Jun Mo, I don’t like killing women, but if there’s a next time, I hope you can make a decision and not bring trouble to your Phoenix Clan!”

After hanging up the phone, Jun Mo’s face was uncertain. He liked Feng Qingluan, but as the young master of the Phoenix Clan, he had to consider the interests of the entire clan and couldn’t let her continue like this.

*********

With the help of the bar-shaped rock in his hand, Lin Zhen finally climbed over the last high mountain and stuck it fiercely into the ice and snow.

With his hands on the edge of the mountain peak, Lin Zhen revealed his face.

It was still dark, but this night was different than before.

Ahead, green, blue, and cyan lights were pouring down from the sky, falling on the distant ground.

Aurora! This is the North Pole Aurora!

Unlike the auroras on Earth, the landing points of these lights seemed to be at one location, no matter how they twisted in the sky, they would eventually fall at the same point.

“What is that? What is attracting the aurora?”

Lin Zhen grabbed a handful of ice and snow from the ground and put it into his mouth. The cold made his lips numb, and his hands and mouth were cracked with frostbite. The pus-filled wounds showed that his physical condition was extremely poor.

His skin was a sickly bluish color, and he seemed close to freezing. Lin Zhen couldn’t even feel his own blood flowing.

But he persisted. Chris said he could only hold on for twenty-five days, but he persisted for a month. During that time, he walked out of the vast snowy mountains and saw the North Pole Aurora.

Underneath the North Pole Aurora, there might be something amazing waiting for him.

He stumbled and walked on. The ground was no longer snowy but thick ice. As he stepped on it, a single toe broke easily, making a crisp sound of fracture.

Lin Zhen continued with no expression, as if he couldn’t feel it at all. He had suffered too many injuries and didn’t care if there were more or fewer.

He walked this path for another ten days or so.

When the scene where the aurora fell appeared before his eyes, Lin Zhen was so frozen that he couldn’t even blink.

His whole body was covered in a thick layer of frost, and his steps made mechanical cracking sounds.

Bathed in the North Pole Aurora, Lin Zhen looked at the incredibly beautiful flowers on the ground.

It was a Snow Lotus!

The beauty of this flower transcended the concept of ordinary flowers. It seemed to be made entirely of ice and snow, with streaks of light swirling on its surface. Even though it hadn’t bloomed yet, its breathtaking beauty was undeniable.

“Ice! Light! These two elemental energies are perfectly demonstrated on this flower.”

As he approached the flower, Lin Zhen felt an extreme coldness unto his internal organs were about to freeze.

The North Pole Aurora moved slowly on the flower buds, and the pure light elements made Lin Zhen’s heart palpitate.

“It’s so beautiful, this flower is a perfect combination of the spiritual beauty of heaven and earth, the extreme cold, and the integration of pure light elements, representing the extremes of two powers.”

“One is the speed of light, and the other is absolute zero!”

“Since I have come here, I must ensure the successful blooming of this flower. As for whether I can comprehend the power of ice and light, it’s up to fate.”

Lin Zhen quickly found an excuse for himself. He had to see this miraculous Snow Lotus bloom, and he wouldn’t die without witnessing that scene.

A crevice opened in the ice, and a writhing ice worm appeared.

Its target was the Snow Lotus. It quickly crawled over.

As it approached, an ice sculpture next to the Snow Lotus suddenly moved, and a piece of rock slammed the ice worm onto the icy surface!

At the moment of its death, the ice worm bit the person fiercely, injecting a powerful toxin. But the ice sculpture-like person didn’t move at all.

Breathing exercises, a basic skill that novice martial artists used, now became Lin Zhen’s life-saving method.

Protecting his vital organs with one breath, Lin Zhen didn’t care about the pain and injuries on the rest of his body.

He stayed here, guarding and waiting for the moment the flower bloomed!

…

In the blink of an eye, more than nine months had passed since Lin Zhen went missing!