When system cheat becomes rampant!-Chapter 624 - 461: The Person on the Snow Mountain

Xiang Beifei also paused slightly upon seeing these three people.

These three stood in the snow, their bodies stiff, not moving at all. Xiang Beifei initially thought they were alive, but soon realized that they probably were not.

Because there was no system interface, and they emitted none of the vitality typical of living beings.

"They seem to be frozen," Elder Luo said in a low voice.

The two of them swiftly approached and stood beside the three, closely examining them.

The trio wore black long sleeves, a style from at least a decade ago. From their posture, it appeared as though they were walking normally one second and then suddenly frozen the next, with one man's foot even suspended in mid-air, never coming down, only one foot on the ground, maintaining that pose as stably as a sculpture of a horse treading a flying swallow.

Xiang Beifei even thought about poking the man with a finger to see if he could knock him over.

Then he actually tried it, and the man did not fall.

The three were as if frozen in place—strictly speaking, they weren't even properly considered frozen.

Because if frozen to death in the snow, the entire body would be stiff, the skin would turn frost-reddened, even purplish. However, the three people before them bore no signs of frostbite; they just stood there, their skin smooth and lifelike, as if they were alive.

"They don't appear to have died from freezing, but it's strange that the bodies haven't changed despite such low temperatures," Elder Luo said.

"But their body temperature is terrifyingly low."

Xiang Beifei felt it with his Spiritual Power, and the temperature had to be at least minus seventy or eighty degrees. A normal person under these temperatures would turn into an ice stick, and even a martial artist would not survive without using Spiritual Power to maintain their body temperature.

Elder Luo carefully examined the three people, and the more he investigated, the more surprised he became, "I don't feel like they were frozen."

"It feels more like they were fixed in place."

Xiang Beifei involuntarily thought of his two bricks. If people were fixed with the bricks, the situation would look much the same, but the problem was that being fixed by the bricks came with various golden patterns, like array patterns, whereas these three were purely fixed into the icy and snowy landscape.

In this place, snowflakes continued to drift, but none landed on them, as if the snowflakes consciously avoided them.

Xiang Beifei looked up the slope and spotted several more figures.

"There are more people up there."

He quickly flew over and landed beside these individuals.

Here stood four more people, two men and two women, all facing different directions, their expressions panicked, all flailing as if to dodge something. One of them was rolling forward, another was propped up on the ground, and the remaining two were leaning forward while looking back.

If one were to analyze specifically, these four must have been together, and then suddenly something appeared among them, and to avoid it, they moved in different directions, but they were fixed in place before they could completely escape!

"This is truly bizarre."

Xiang Beifei found the pose of one of the frozen people particularly strange; his palms had just touched the ground, and his feet were still in the air, presenting a tumbling posture. From this angle, it seemed impossible for his center of gravity to support his body in that position.

If a martial artist might manage it with their supernatural abilities, but this person showed no signs of life, clearly dead, merely a corpse. That such a corpse could maintain such an abnormal pose was indeed rare.

"There are more people above."

Elder Luo and the others continued up the snowy mountain, and as they ascended, they encountered many people in various poses, hiding behind rocks or behind frozen stone columns, even gripping now-gone weapons in their hands, ready to strike forward.

They probably had gripped a knife or long sword, pulled out of the system, but because items from the system gradually turned into Spiritual Power and vanished over time, their hands remained in a clenched position.

"This person is wearing clothes from over a hundred and twenty years ago. Back then, these types of buttons were popular as they could defend against poison gas attacks," Elder Luo said, looking at one of them.

"You remember that clearly?"

"Because it was invented by a student I once taught."

"Eh? A student from over a hundred and twenty years ago, Elder Luo must be at least a hundred and forty years old?" Xiang Beifei was quite surprised, as he still didn't know from which era Elder Luo was. He hadn't found any information on Elder Luo even during his last visit to the Archives Building.

Elder Luo glanced at Xiang Beifei and said, "Is that all you can see?"

Could it be that Elder Luo was even older?

Xiang Beifei spread his hands.

"Speaking of which, do you think these people were Unrestrained?" Elder Luo asked.

"I don't know."

"Then we'll have to confirm by extracting the heart."

A cold glint swiftly flashed in Elder Luo's hand as he slashed towards the heart of a man in front of him—

Splat!

A small cut instantly appeared in the man's heart area, but Elder Luo suddenly lightened his touch.

Xiang Beifei also noticed something was wrong!

They did not find a Beast Pill in the man's heart, but beneath the skin they had cut, there was no blood!

It was as if the blood in their bodies had vanished, and in their veins, replacing it, flowed streams of cold qi!

This cold qi was precisely what had attacked Xiang Beifei and the others in the canyon; the cold qi seemed to have a life of its own as it flowed within these people's bodies, maintaining their blood vessels and their physical form.

When Elder Luo cut their skin open, the chill burst out as though they were bleeding, and it immediately lunged at Elder Luo.

But Elder Luo flicked his fingers, and those chills were deflected away.

"There is something very wrong with these people," Xiang Beifei said.

This scene was indeed eerie. He saw wounds that didn't bleed but emitted chill, something Xiang Beifei had never encountered before.

"I didn't find the Beast Pill," Elder Luo said.

Upon confirming that there was no Beast Pill inside the man's heart, he withdrew his Spiritual Power. At that moment, the man's wound emitted a burst of chill again, which covered the wound and healed it.

"If there's no Beast Pill in the heart, it means that he is not Unrestrained, so who are they after all?"

Elder Luo looked over the few people he could see, deep in thought.

There were no plants on the mountain, but he did see many ice spires sticking slantwise into the snow. After walking a bit further, however, he discovered a strange ice tree.

This tree was quite magical. It wasn't a green plant but was composed purely of ice crystals. Yet, the tree leaves, branches, and the veins in various parts looked just like those of a real plant, as if it was a piece of ice sculpture art.

"Are these plants, man-made sculptures?" Xiang Beifei exclaimed.

Not only did he see the ice tree in the snow, but also other thorn-like ice sculptures. These thorn bushes grew there, and each tiny spike was distinctly visible.

Looking around, it seemed all the plants he could see were made of ice crystals.

"Something is odd, let me check," Elder Luo said.

Suddenly, a powerful aura burst from Elder Luo's body, quickly spreading over the entire snowy mountain. This was his Orifice Perception, using his powerful Perception to search every corner of the snowy mountain. The vastness of the mountain did not hinder his probing.

Soon he suddenly discovered something, and said, "This way."

He grabbed Xiang Beifei and quickly headed up the mountain. As they flashed past, they could see countless people, all standing in various postures in different corners of the snowy mountain.

By the time they stopped, they had already reached the top of the mountain!

And on the mountain, there stood a huge red tree!

The tree looked like a Bodhi tree, not more than three or four meters tall, but every branch, every leaf was vividly red, almost dripping blood. Inside the trunk, red liquid was faintly flowing.

But Xiang Beifei quickly understood what that red liquid was.

Blood!

The appearance of this tree seemed no different from other ice crystal trees, as if it was carved from ice blocks. However, while the other trees and plants of the mountain were made of transparent ice crystals, this particular tree seemed to have absorbed blood.

Xiang Beifei realized something.

"A blood altar!" Xiang Beifei whispered.

"Blood altar?" Elder Luo frowned.

"Yes, there is a huge blood altar beneath this snowy mountain."

Xiang Beifei provided a brief explanation. In fact, others also wanted to investigate the blood altar just now, but Xiang Beifei didn't let them go because Xiaohei was still there.

"So the Unrestrained hunt the pioneers, and then bring their blood here?" Elder Luo said gravely.

"It should be like that. The people we encountered along the way, their blood was probably drawn to this tree."

Xiang Beifei's gaze fell on several people next to the Bodhi tree; they seemed somewhat familiar. Then he remembered something and took out the information Zhao Ruizhong had collected earlier.

Since last December, there had been frequent shakes, and a chill would subsequently freeze an Unrestrained into ice shards; pictures of these people were available.

Xiang Beifei compared them and felt very surprised!

"How could those Unrestrained attacked by the chill have ended up here?"

Among the more than ten people present, eight faces were exactly the same as shown in the information!

"I remember you said that those attacked by the chill would turn into ice shards?" Elder Luo asked.

"I thought so."

Xiang Beifei furrowed his brow.

"Could it be that these people, after being frozen into ice shards, didn't disappear but instead reassembled here?" Xiang Beifei exclaimed.

"So does that mean the chill erupts every month to freeze people into ice shards and bring them here, and then extract their blood for this ice tree?" Elder Luo said.

The situation was so strange, even Elder Luo, who was experienced and knowledgeable, had never heard of such a thing before.

Or perhaps, the people on Zi Hou also belonged to a strange race?

Xiang Beifei couldn't help but recall the withered forest near Mao Hou from before.

Every tree in that withered forest could transform into a mobile Youmeng!