Trembling At A High Altitude

"Are you okay?" Li Teng lay above and couldn't look down, so he could only shout out to Liu Hui.

"I'm still alive!"

Dangling below, Liu Hui looked around and up and down in a circle, feeling utterly desperate.

This was a crack between two cliff faces, over a hundred meters deep and several meters wide.

The base had become a huge block of ice due to the long-term snow accumulation, its surface fused together; it was completely undetectable when walking from above.

But this wasn't what made her feel most desperate.

The most desperate thing was...she could clearly tell from the length of the rope between them that Li Teng was no longer on the main body of the mountain but was situated on a protruding block of ice formed by the snow!

This meant that the block of ice beneath Li Teng could fracture again at any time due to their combined weight.

Then, both of them would plummet into the deep chasm.

"Can you climb up from below?" Li Teng asked Liu Hui.

The distance between them was several meters; they had to shout very loudly to be heard. This seemed to risk triggering an avalanche, but there was no other choice.

"I'm quite far from the cliff wall. The only way is to swing over, but that will put a lot of strain on you. You must secure yourself even tighter," Liu Hui replied to Li Teng.

"I'm trying to figure something out." Li Teng took out a rock wedge and hammered it into the ice below him.

"Stop hammering!" Liu Hui shouted loudly.

From below, she could clearly see that as Li Teng hammered, terrifying cracks formed on the ice block suspended beneath him. If Li Teng kept hammering, the block of ice beneath him would eventually break off from the cliff.

"What's wrong?" Li Teng stopped hammering.

"The block of ice beneath you is hanging in midair! It could break at any moment!" Liu Hui told Li Teng the truth and immediately regretted it.

Telling Li Teng this in such a situation might lead him to take out a knife and cut the rope between them, as that would be the only way to ensure he wouldn't be pulled down by Liu Hui.

The two of them fell into silence for a while.

Now, Liu Hui's life was entirely in Li Teng's hands.

"I've hammered in a wedge. Try swinging toward the rock wall," Li Teng's voice called out from above.

"Okay, I'll try."

Liu Hui adjusted her posture, pulling her legs in and shifting her center of gravity back, then stretching her legs out to swing forward.

She repeated this several times but still couldn't get close to the cliff wall.

The ice block under Li Teng, however, made a terrifying cracking sound again due to her swinging, with the cracks becoming bigger and more visible!

Suddenly, Li Teng shouted from above, the ice block beneath him broke abruptly, and his mountaineering hammer was pulled out from the ice; most of his body dangled outside the broken-off block of ice.

After the broken-off block of ice fell down, Liu Hui happened to swing to the inside of the cliff wall, narrowly avoiding being crushed to death by the massive block of ice.

When the block hit the ground more than a hundred meters below, it landed on some other blocks of ice, shattering with a 'bang!' and breaking into pieces.

The two were now hanging in midair, completely reliant on the rock wedge that Li Teng had just hammered into the ice; they hadn't fallen.

Liu Hui trembled all over and didn't dare to swing anymore.

Any more swinging would pull Li Teng down with her.

"How are you doing? What should I do now?" Li Teng shouted to Liu Hui. He didn't dare use the mountaineering hammer on the ice in front of him; if he didn't secure himself properly and broke the ice instead, he would be doomed.

Liu Hui clung tightly to the rope, her eyes fixed on Li Teng above, her face full of fear, unable to speak a word.

She had never been through anything like this and didn't know what to do.

In fact, what she understood even more clearly was that, in this situation, the best choice for Li Teng would be to cut the rope with a knife.

If they didn't cut the rope, both would die together, cutting it meant only she would die.

She didn't know if he had thought of this yet, and that's why he hadn't done it.

"I won't cut the rope! Tell me quickly, what should I do now?" Li Teng shouted down several times, as if he had guessed what Liu Hui was thinking at that moment.

"I don't know!" Liu Hui began to cry.

"Damn!"

Hearing what Liu Hui said, Li Teng's heart went completely cold.

Novices leading novices, all ending up dead.

The two fell into a deadly silence once again.

"You should cut the rope."

Several minutes later, Liu Hui spoke up.

Although she didn't want Li Teng to do that, she knew he would eventually, and rather than living in fear, it was better to be decisive, especially since there was no other way out.

There was no need for her to die and take him down with her.

"I can't cut it, if I do, I can't explain it to Little Bunny!" Li Teng sighed deeply.

"She wouldn't care if I live or die!" Liu Hui cried again.

"How can you say that? Little Bunny cherishes the lives of animals so much, she would definitely value family and relationships even more. Stop having wild thoughts and start thinking of a way out!" Li Teng yelled at Liu Hui.

"There's no way! Just cut it!" Liu Hui was desperate.

"Are there any rocks where you can set your foot on below you, or a place to hang the mountaineering hammer?" Li Teng asked Liu Hui.

"I'll look... there are, I guess..." Liu Hui answered Li Teng.

"I'll try to climb up with the mountaineering hammer in a bit and hammer in some more rock wedges into the ice. If the ice doesn't break, I'll secure myself and then pull you up. If the ice breaks off from the cliff edge, we'll both fall. Try to get close to the cliff and secure yourself on it, can you do that?" Li Teng explained his plan to Liu Hui.

"I'll try." Liu Hui agreed, steeling herself.

She knew that Li Teng was now risking his life in an attempt to save hers.

If he cut the rope, he could make it back to the summit on his own without much trouble.

But forcefully hammering rock wedges into the ice could easily cause it to shatter, sending them both plummeting into the abyss.

Li Teng didn't say anything more and began to hammer rock wedges into the ice, ignoring the cracking sounds the ice made.

After hammering in three rock wedges, the ice still hadn't broken.

Li Teng secured his body and continued to hammer more wedges above him, using those to slowly pull most of his body back onto the ice above.

Liu Hui grasped the rope tightly with both hands, her eyes fixed on Li Teng and the ice above.

The block of ice hanging both of them could break at any moment; it was a matter of life and death within an instant.

Taking a risk on the ice, hammering in rock wedges, Li Teng bit by bit pulled his entire body back onto the ice surface.

Just half a meter more, and he could hammer the rock wedge into an ice block on the cliff with a point of support!

Li Teng took out another rock wedge and smashed it into the ice with his mountaineering hammer.

Unexpectedly, this was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Under Li Teng, the ice block emitted a terrifying 'crackling' sound and then broke away completely, collapsing downwards.

Accompanied by Liu Hui's scream from below, Li Teng's body also fell down.