Snow Lotus headquarters was located deep within the glaciers of Antarctica, very likely inside a damaged super dreadnought. As for how vast this space actually was, Liu Shiheng still did not know to this day; he had never explored its outer bounds, as many areas were forbidden zones.
The entire interior was level and smooth. There were not many partitioned sectors, but they existed nonetheless. Dead iron walls divided the larger chambers, deep blue glass separated the smaller rooms, and overhead, light blue glass connected everything into a seamless whole.
Liu Shiheng had once secretly tried attacking these panes of varying shades of blue glass, only to discover that some of them were exceptionally tough. Though inferior to dead iron, they far surpassed ordinary steel.
Evidently, this place possessed technology distinct from human civilization.
Yet humans still had to eat.
The ceiling and surrounding walls of the bathroom had long since been papered over by Liu Shiheng. Inside the toilet's water tank, he had stashed a pack of compressed biscuits—something Young Master Shiheng would never deign to eat under normal circumstances, but from the perspective of surviving a famine, it was the ideal food to stockpile.
Flushing, washing his hands, and opening the door, Liu Shiheng walked over to the sofa while drying his hands and whispered, "Brother Ye, aren't you going to stash some away?"
"Stash my ass." When Ye Jian replied like that, Liu Shiheng assumed he would follow up with something like, *As long as I have source energy, I'll be fine,* or *Can't I just fight my way out when the time comes?*
Of course, using source energy as sustenance was really just a stopgap for the vast majority of people; it could never truly replace food. Setting aside rare exceptions like Rusty Sister, the sustaining power of source energy had limits for ordinary human bodies. Past a certain point, one still had to replenish with actual food.
"Can't I just eat yours? You're stashing things away every day anyway. God knows where you find so many spots to hide them." As Ye Jian spoke, he unlatched a long dead iron case.
A weapon gradually revealed itself within the case. It was a longsword roughly 1.5 to 1.6 meters in length, its hue resembling the deep blue glass of the walls.
Naturally, the materials could not be completely identical. This was likely Ye Jian's true weapon.
"No problem at all! Of course no problem—we're brothers, after all." Liu Shiheng sat down, sneaking a glance to read Ye Jian's expression. "Brother Ye, if the Great Spikes suddenly discover this place one day and a brawl breaks out, you'll take me along when you fight your way out, right?"
Ye Jian turned his head to look at him. After staring for a few seconds, the corners of his mouth curved up in a smile.
Huaxia had a style of coded conversation that once thrived among martial outlaws and royal courts—something that even foreigners fluent in the Huaxian language could never decipher.
On the surface, Young Master Shiheng appeared to be planning an escape route and laying the groundwork for the future, and perhaps he did have that in mind. But his true, hidden implication was: *Brother Ye, do you have a way to lure the Great Spikes in here?*
Not long ago, the two of them had seen a super-fortress of unknown purpose at Ne's place.
According to what Ne had implied, this place was now essentially a trap waiting for Azure, Qingzi, Plague Chicken, Tangtang, and the others to jump right in.
Thus, Young Master Shiheng was thinking of wrecking it first.
Nowadays, he indeed had the guts, but he lacked the strength and capability.
For over three—nearly four—years, Young Master Shiheng had spent his days either bumming around with Ye Jian or hanging out with Ne. Yet aside from a slight improvement in physical fitness, his combat power had progressed by approximately zero.
"No can do." Ye Jian shook his head slowly, leaving it unclear whether he was saying it was impossible or that he was unwilling to do it.
At the same time, he looked at Young Master Shiheng with a gaze full of admiration. Ne would know everything that happened here—that was almost a certainty... Which was why Ye Jian genuinely could not fathom how this guy could keep courting death like this and continually get away with it unharmed.
Clearly, every time he had left, he had repeatedly urged him to behave himself, to just eat, sleep, and chase girls.
"Then there's something I'm curious about." His suggestion rejected, Liu Shiheng wasn't discouraged in the least. He went on to ask, "Brother Ye, how strong is your combat power really? I mean compared to people at your level—like Qingzi, that guy Bochen, then the Legion Commander... and that fellow."
He pointed his finger into thin air, gesturing toward that fellow Ne.
"Didn't I tell you already? To help He Tangtang, I cut down a red-shoulder in one strike. Just one slash." Ye Jian set down He Tangtang's greatsword and picked up his own longsword, boasting proudly, "So naturally, I've got some serious chops."
"Oh. Then what about the gap between you and Ne? Is it big?" Liu Shiheng pressed.
Ye Jian lifted his head and looked upward. "Don't know."
On the previous Dome Leaderboard, Ye Jian and Shu You had been tied for seventh, but on the newest list, he had climbed to fifth place. During this period, Ye Jian had produced no major combat record known to the world; he had merely fought alongside Shu You for a few days, without even exerting his full strength.
Yet Shu You, as one of the contributors who compiled the leaderboard, had nonetheless discerned the true difference in their strength over those few days.
Just as Han Qingyu had said long ago, Ye Jian was one of the two most underestimated figures among humanity's peak combatants.
On the latest list, Shu You himself had slipped to tenth place. As for the former number ten, General Jiang Longchi of Huaxia, he had been missing for four years and had naturally long dropped off the leaderboard.
In truth, the latest Dome Leaderboard had stirred up massive controversy, with many believing it had lost all credibility.
The compilers candidly acknowledged this, explaining the reason: a fundamental disagreement had arisen over how to measure humanity's peak combat strength—namely, whether it should be evaluated based on human-versus-human combat or human-versus-Great Spike combat.
Some people might be formidable in clashes between humans, but due to the nature of their traits, they proved rather ineffective when facing high-end Great Spikes.
Ultimately, the compilers decided to lean toward human-versus-Great Spike combat.
As a result, the rankings fluctuated wildly. Among those affected was Shu You, as well as Azure's "Star of the Mediterranean," General Christine. While she might still be exceptionally strong, this time she plummeted directly from fourth place to ninth.
Because throughout the entire Zenith War, Christine's performance against high-end Great Spikes left everyone—including herself—feeling powerless and disappointed.
Beyond that, the leaderboard was fraught with numerous other controversies.
For instance, Han Qingyu's ranking, tied for third with Bochen. Some thought it was too low, or at least that he shouldn't be tied; after all, he was the one who delivered that strike at the Zenith. Others argued it was too high, citing rumors that the slash had not been a reflection of Major Qing's personal strength, but rather that he had borrowed the ultimate trait combustion of General Ivan.
Such arguments were swiftly refuted: if he truly did borrow it, and truly was capable of borrowing it, then couldn't he just borrow someone else's next time? Was that kind of ability not a part of his strength as well?
In short, neither side could convince the other. It had always been this way since ancient times: wherever there were rankings, there would be controversy and dissent. For instance, Amugulang of the Deep Sea organization had claimed on multiple occasions that he was confident he could defeat Major Qing, and that he would be more than happy to find a place for a duel.
Of course, Major Qing had been in a coma the entire time.
Recently, now that he had awakened, word from Amugulang had suddenly gone silent.
In truth, the controversy surrounding Han Qingyu was not even the biggest. No matter how much his ranking was debated, he could never fall outside the top five.
From the perspective of human-versus-human combat, he had slain Alphonse. From the perspective of human-versus-Great Spike combat, he and General Ivan had slain Daie together.
The truly greatest controversy stemmed from the sudden appearance of Wu Xu, another peak combatant of Stream Blade, whose debut placed him straight into a tie for seventh.
To the vast majority of people in the source energy world, this was simply too abrupt and far too exaggerated.
Even though Major Qing had long declared that Wu Xu was a severely underestimated peak human combatant, and even though he was rumored to already be capable of solo-killing red-shoulders, over ninety percent of people still believed it was impossible for Wu Xu to beat Pegmont and Wolf, those two super novae.
Yet Pegmont had previously taken a beating from Shu You, and not long ago, Wolf had lost to Amugulang during a spar.
Regarding the disputes among the three, the compilers did not issue a direct response, because it involved an unspeakable secret regarding one person's trait—a man named Pegmont.
An exceptionally brilliant mind had attempted to deduce his trait; upon reaching the conclusion, that person immediately destroyed all records and nearly took a knife to their own tongue.
On this matter, only Shu You's private remark served as an explanation:
If the three were to spar or ambush each other until severe injury, Wolf was undoubtedly the strongest. But if it were a battle to the death, Wolf would inevitably die at Pegmont's hands.
As for a life-and-death clash between Pegmont and Wu Xu, who would live and who would die was something no one could predict.
It was merely because Wu Xu currently demonstrated stronger combat effectiveness against high-end Great Spikes that he was ranked higher.
Regarding all of this, Wu Xu felt nothing at all and cared even less. He had no interest in comparing himself to others; he only wanted to be stronger than Han Qingyu.
Over the past two days since coming out, it was actually He Tangtang, Milla, and Yang Qingbai who frequently grew furious upon hearing these controversies and ran off to argue with people.
"What's there to argue about?" Wen Jifei laughed easily, tossing aside the leaderboard in his hand. "Now that Azure has launched full-scale conscription, just think about the difference in numbers between the past and the future. Very soon, humanity will usher in an era where super rookies explode onto the scene—so long as we still have enough time for them to grow."
...
Inside the little blue glass chapel, the air suddenly grew restless, like a brewing storm churning repeatedly within a confined space, cracking into ripples.
Just as Ye Jian had deduced, none of Young Master Shiheng's actions had escaped Ne's surveillance.
Such agitation in the air signaled an emotion of anger. In fact, that Ne would grow angry—even furious—over Young Master Shiheng's antics was something neither Liu Shiheng nor Ye Jian currently knew.
At the chapel doorway, Alice, who was holding a meal tray and preparing to leave, furrowed her brows sharply. She could sense that sudden surge of fury.
She stopped in her tracks.
Turned around.
"What number time is this? Well, I hope you won't be impulsive. Like I said, if you dare kill him, I'll take you down into oblivion with me. I promise."
Alice said, a faint smile curling on her lips.
Chapter 722