Death Train: SSS-level talent right from the start!

Lu Qingchuan swallowed the last bite of the compressed biscuit and patted the crumbs off his hands: "This is not good. The Frost Bear I killed yesterday was already quite strong. If a large number of monsters of that level gather around the Frost Lord, it will probably be much more difficult for us to get close to the core area than we expected."

Chen Ye nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the snow-covered mountain ridges surrounding the basin: "So we need to hurry and get there as soon as possible to check the situation."

After saying that, he turned around and walked to the tent behind him, squatted down and patted the tent flap: "Get up, get ready to go."

Qin Zhaoyang's mumbled response and the rustling sound of fabric rubbing came from inside the tent.

Immediately afterwards, several tents next to it also started to move, with the sound of zippers clicking one after another.

In less than ten minutes, both teams had finished packing up, and the tents were put back into the storage space one by one, leaving only a compacted pit on the snow.

Chen Ye glanced at the two teams in the distance.

Yang Zhen's team had already packed up their tents next to the ice platform, and the three of them were standing still, looking in this direction.

On a more distant ice rink, Zhongxiu's team was also packing up their final gear.

Chen Ye didn't wait for them, but simply looked away and said, "Let's go."

The two teams, one in front of the other, walked towards the central area of ​​the Ice Abyss Mountains.

Yang Zhen stood there watching the two groups of people's figures gradually disappear at the end of the snow slope. After a moment, he turned to the young woman beside him and said, "Follow them."

The three then set off, maintaining a distance of about seventy or eighty meters behind.

Zhong Xiu's group then moved as well. She led her people down from the ice platform and landed at the back of the group, maintaining a distance that was neither too close nor too far from Yang Zhen.

Unlike yesterday when they were chasing the Frost Bear, the three groups were now moving in the same direction, but there was a long gap between them. No one was closing the distance or falling behind.

At the forefront, Chen Ye's team and Lu Qingchuan's team marched side by side.

As the snowstorm subsided and visibility improved, numerous crisscrossing footprints appeared on the snowfield ahead. There were not just one footprint, nor were there more than one type of footprint.

Large, small, wide, narrow imprints of all sizes overlapped each other, all pointing in the same direction: the central region of the Ice Abyss Mountains.

Zhao Hai squatted down and reached out to touch the edge of one of the deepest indentations. The snow his fingertips touched had been compacted. He stood up and patted the snow off his hands: "The mark is quite fresh."

Chen Ye also squatted down, his gaze sweeping over the wide indentation.

The snow layer at the edges had not been completely smoothed by the wind; the tiny snow grains still retained their angular shape after being compressed, and the gaps were not filled with newly fallen snowflakes.

Gu Qinghuan closed her eyes slightly, and after a moment she opened them: "I can't sense the monster ahead, it must have gone far away."

Wen Ning walked up from behind and stood beside Chen Ye, her gaze sweeping over the overlapping marks: "But judging from the number of marks on the ground, there are quite a few."

Qin Zhaoyang shrank his neck, exhaling a puff of white breath: "What kind of nonsense is this, gathering so many big guys together? Is it an annual party?"

Wang Zekai turned his head from Lu Qingchuan's group and added, "They're probably going to be bodyguards for that Extreme Cold Ice Lord. I knew the trial missions wouldn't be that simple."

Chen Ye didn't reply. His gaze remained fixed on the direction the footprints extended. After a moment, he looked away and quickened his pace through the snow: "Speed ​​up, we'll know when we get there."

Chen Ye and his six companions quickened their pace almost simultaneously, their boots making a series of fine, rapid crunching sounds in the snow.

Lu Qingchuan glanced at his team, and the four of them quickened their pace without saying anything more.

The two teams moved forward side by side at almost twice the speed they had before.

Behind them, Yang Zhen's team maintained a distance of about seventy or eighty meters.

He noticed that the two groups ahead of him had noticeably quickened their pace, and he also increased his speed accordingly.

Further back, Zhong Xiu's team gradually closed the distance during this period, reducing the gap from several hundred meters to less than two hundred meters.

The team traveled for about two more hours across the snowfield.

The terrain beneath our feet began to rise gradually, the layers of rock under the snow became more and more apparent, and the slope slowly tilted upwards, transforming from a gentle slope into a gradually steeper ridge.

Chen Ye climbed up the ridge and looked down.

The rock strata beneath our feet fractured here, forming a steep cliff.

Below the cliff, a vast ice field stretches out on both sides, and in the very center of the ice field, a magnificent palace stands quietly.

The palace was made entirely of blue and white ice crystals, and its outline was square and imposing.

At this moment, more than a dozen enormous figures, each with a different size and outline, were slowly converging on the palace from multiple directions.

Some resemble giant bears, with thick limbs and a raised back.

Some resemble upright human figures, over ten meters tall, with broad shoulders and heavy, slow steps.

Some of them walk on all fours, their bodies as long as giant lizards, dragging their thick tails as they plow furrows in the snow.

Looking down from the ridge, the monsters resembled a dozen slowly moving chess pieces, converging on the same chessboard in their respective directions.

"This is quite a show of force; these monsters seem to be guarding that palace."

Wang Zekai braced himself on his knees, catching his breath, and glanced down at the giant beasts that were gathering below.

Gu Qinghuan's gaze fell on the ice crystal palace, and her mental perception had spread out, covering most of the space below.

After a moment, she withdrew her gaze: "There are also many monsters in that palace. The Ice Lord of Extreme Cold should be among them. I can sense that aura, and it's on a completely different level from those outside."

Lu Qingchuan frowned slightly and stared at the palace below for a while: "Each one below is a BOSS-level monster, and with the monsters inside the palace, we probably can't handle it with just our two teams."

Just as Chen Ye was about to speak, he heard the sound of footsteps on the snow behind him.

He glanced sideways at the direction he had come from.

Yang Zhen and his two companions were slowly walking up the ridgeline they had just come up from.

The three of them slowed their pace slightly, clearly indicating that the climb had taken a toll on their energy.

Yang Zhen stopped a few meters away from Chen Ye and Lu Qingchuan, without approaching them directly.

He first glanced at the ice field and the palace below, his gaze lingering on the ice crystal structure for two seconds before returning to Lu Qingchuan's face: "The leader of our train has also arrived."

After he finished speaking, he turned his head and gestured towards the other side of the ridge.

Chen Ye followed his gaze.

A group of five people was walking towards them along the ridgeline. Leading the way was a middle-aged man of about 40 years old, of medium build, wearing a gray-blue down jacket.

He was followed by four team members, three men and one woman.

The middle-aged man's gaze lingered for a moment on Chen Ye's and Lu Qingchuan's teams before finally settling on Yang Zhen.

Yang Zhen quickly went to meet him, stopped in front of the middle-aged man, and simply tilted his head slightly in the direction of Chen Ye and Lu Qingchuan's team before lowering his voice and saying a few words briefly.

The middle-aged man nodded slightly, without replying, and raised his gaze again, sweeping over Chen Ye and Lu Qingchuan's group once more.

Just then, footsteps sounded again from the ridgeline behind them.

Zhong Xiu led his team up.

She walked at the front, followed by Yang Lan and three young team members. After reaching the ridge, she first glanced at the scene on the ice field below, then her gaze swept over the people present, lingering for a moment on several unfamiliar faces.

The top combatants of the three trains gathered on the ridge, neither too close nor too far apart, and everyone could see the expressions and postures on each other's faces.