Ne could not leave this space, or at least he had no easy way to depart. This was something Ye Jian had known long ago, and even Young Master Shiheng had deduced it over the past two years.
A threat like Alice's was evidently not the first, and she had certainly proven, through some means, that she truly would follow through if necessary.
The agitated blue light in the air gradually subsided in helpless resignation, shifting from a furiously brewing storm into a slow, rolling surge like ocean water.
If it possessed physical form, its appearance right now would probably resemble a sinister young boy with a ferocious glare, clenching his fists in fury as his chest heaved.
The isolated void seemed like a petulant, ill-tempered brat—irascible and prone to rage.
Such emotions affected Alice. She strove to suppress the turmoil within her, waiting calmly and keeping a smile on her face.
To that end, she made herself think of other things.
Just a little while ago, as Young Master Shiheng was leaving, he had secretly reminded her in the corridor to remember to stockpile food and water. It was not the first time he had reminded her, either. Every time, he would wear a look of earnest sincerity while seizing the chance to lean in close behind her ear, pretending it was accidental as he blew warm breath against it.
That was just the sort of person he was—a shameless, roguish romantic gentleman.
"I do not understand why you would care about such a stupid, weak reptile, or view him as a bargaining chip to turn the tables," "Ne" mocked from the air, barely suppressing his fury.
This meant he had backed down. Alice smiled, turned around, and carried her tray out the door. "A bargaining chip? To tell the truth, being fun and endearing is also something very precious to me."
When Alice returned to her own room, a white saucer sat on her glass tabletop, holding a slice of chocolate nut cake.
No workshop capable of producing such a thing existed in Snow Lotus's subglacial headquarters—not because it was impossible to make, but because Alice had never yearned for or tried such confections before.
So, this was undoubtedly another one of Young Master Shiheng's girl-chasing "tricks."
He had always excelled at them. However, ever since Alice risked everything to help him steal the tenth-generation device, these tricks were no longer deployed on any other woman in the subglacial city, reserved exclusively for her.
"All right, then." Alice lifted the porcelain saucer with her left hand, took a bite of the cake with her right, and chewed gently... The taste was novel and delightful. The corners of her lips curved upward, and she thought to herself, *Thank heavens there are no knockout drugs in the subglacial city, or I wouldn't put it past him to slip some in.*
*Boom!* Suddenly, a surge of energy blasted into her mind.
With a sharp crash, the porcelain saucer fell and shattered on the floor, and the cake smeared across the tiles... Alice gritted her teeth, wiped away the blood from the corner of her mouth, and turned with a smile. "Why bother with this? Does it make you feel any better?"
When Alice was hurt, the Void was hurt as well. When she died, the Void would return to nothingness. Alice began to worry it might lose control, so she made an effort to intervene and take charge of the emotions.
Leaning against the wall, she sat on the floor, used her fingers to scoop up the parts of the cake that hadn't touched the ground, and popped them into her mouth...
Around the same time, on the other side, Liu Shiheng and Ye Jian's conversation was also nearing its end.
"Honestly, sometimes I feel like that guy might not actually be a bad person. He can be pretty funny at times," Young Master Shiheng said with a grin, leaning back on the sofa.
"Is that so?" Hearing him describe Ne as funny, Ye Jian's gaze turned solemn, and he looked over at him. "I once watched over three hundred people crushed into powder before my very eyes in a single instant by the compression of the air..."
The entire situation was shifting and had reached a critical juncture; Ye Jian had to warn Liu Shiheng to be more prudent.
Evidently, his warning achieved its purpose. Liu Shiheng could not help picturing the scene he described—the ground covered in minced flesh and purulent blood... A shudder ran through him, accompanied by a wave of nausea.
Ne did that? In an instant, many things became difficult to comprehend.
"By the way, you haven't seen Han Qingyu, Wen Jifei, and the rest for over three years—nearly four—have you?" Seeing Liu Shiheng's face turn ashen, Ye Jian changed the subject of his own accord. "Have you ever thought about why you still care so much?"
It was a difficult question to answer. Liu Shiheng's first reaction was to ask Ye Jian whether he had ever had friends who would go through life and death together, and whether he missed them even more during the lonely days that followed. His second reaction was to admit that over these past three-plus years, he probably cared even more than before.
"You know what, Brother Ye?" Young Master Shiheng whispered at last. "Those idiots are utter fools at heart. If they knew I was here, they really would come."
"Whether I haven't seen them for four years or ten, I know that for a fact." As Liu Shiheng said this, a trace of worry crept into his voice.
Liu Shiheng had always maintained that while he was not a brave man, he was not afraid of dying suddenly and without warning in a passive situation. What he feared was the agonizing terror and internal conflict of anticipating a known danger.
Yet he always found himself stuck in precisely these situations. From deserting on the Xilang Peak plateau, only to risk his life returning to find Squad 1777; to choosing to take the herdsmen's children along; to encountering a dying He Tangtang... all the way to the predicament he faced today, it had always been like this.
Sometimes Liu Shiheng thought: *If Ne suddenly flew into a rage one day and killed me off, that wouldn't be half bad either.*
"To be honest, I've never expected to leave this place alive," Liu Shiheng said, looking at Ye Jian.
His gaze was uncharacteristically earnest and sorrowful, which moved Ye Jian. Just as Ye Jian was about to speak—
"And isn't it all because of you, you bastard? You're the one who brought me here! Screw your uncle, Ye Jian—is your name actually pronounced in the fourth tone?!" Liu Shiheng suddenly erupted into curses.
Ye Jian gave a wry smile.
Back then, he hadn't expected Ne to suddenly summon Liu Shiheng for a meeting either. Had Liu Shiheng not met Ne and chatted with him, Ye Jian would actually have possessed both the authority and the means to get him out.
"Brother Ye."
"..."
Ye Jian was taken aback, turning to look at him. Young Master Shiheng had just been cursing up a storm, yet now he leaned in close, suddenly looking as if they were the best of friends again.
It seemed he had something very important to say... Ye Jian threw caution to the wind. In an instant, source energy surged, temporarily disrupting the airflow and light in this pocket of space.
Liu Shiheng seized the chance. "Do you know about the bones? You came to Snow Lotus looking for bones, right?"
Liu Shiheng did not realize that because he had heard Ne tell the story of Nikola with his own ears, he might well be one of the few people in the world who possessed the most clues regarding the Yanxiu remains.
Nor did he know why Ne had told him all this—unless Ne had simply been bored out of his mind.
Ye Jian, by contrast, knew none of this. He already knew of the Yanxiu's existence, but he was not clear on what the remains were.
"What kind of bones?"
"Bones—the skeletal remains of the Yanxiu. They make people like you stronger, but long ago they were hidden away by a Great Spike named Nikola. I'm guessing Ne might know where they are, or maybe he doesn't."
Guessing that Ye Jian was surely a Yanxiu as well, Liu Shiheng rattled this off in a rush. He had never mentioned this to Ye Jian before out of fear it would get him killed, but now, the moment had clearly arrived when a choice had to be made.
Because Ye Jian could no longer leave either.
Without speaking, Ye Jian nodded.
The surge of source energy subsided... and the conversation ended.
...
At Azure Headquarters, the underground conference room was heavily shielded from the outside. This barrier was not merely physical walls, but also communication jamming.
Fewer than forty people sat inside the conference room, each of them a figure of immense importance.
Han Qingyu and Wen Jifei were seated among them.
At that moment, an image appeared on the large wall screen. Taken from the air at a considerable altitude, it looked down upon endless glaciers below.
Amidst the glaciers, a colossal black structure resembling a steel colosseum revealed its unfinished silhouette.
"The Great Spikes have established an unprecedentedly tight defense in Antarctica, using source energy fluctuations to jam all signals. We paid a heavy price just to capture this photo," General Siglo said from the stage.
Chapter 723