He took several deep breaths, and after careful consideration, he felt that while pressing forward meant certain death, retreating meant absolute annihilation. Fang Senyan therefore doubled back toward the pine forest, using the weapon carried by the Orc to chop down a pine tree. In a flash, with rough shaping, he fashioned a makeshift ladder that could just barely lean against the rock face to provide footholds.

This snowy gorge, constantly battered by blizzards and possessing poor visibility to begin with, already took up a considerable amount of Fang Senyan's time just traversing the scree slopes. Coupled with all the miscellaneous incidents that had occurred, the sky was already darkening. With this task completed, Fang Senyan dared not rashly proceed further to seek out the reef. He leaned against a flat stone to rest, pausing only to chew on a few pine nuts to quell his hunger.

Though lying down, Fang Senyan couldn't help but recall the sheer strangeness of his experiences lately; even with his capabilities, his thoughts were a tangled, overwhelming mess. He sighed, then thought of the peculiar stone he had found earlier, unable to resist pulling it from his embrace for another closer inspection. Yet, as Fang Senyan reached inside and retrieved the object, he instantly sucked in a sharp breath, completely stunned.

A faint glimmer of light leaked through the gaps between Fang Senyan’s fingers. Within that light was a searing, fierce heat. In this deep, cold place, it offered a distinct sense of warmth. The source of this radiance was unmistakably the interior of that ordinary black stone.

Fang Senyan considered himself well-traveled and had never encountered anything so bizarre; the inside seemed to be a small world unto itself! The fact that this thing could spontaneously emit light like glowing charcoal—this was truly astonishing, making him marvel at the strange workings of creation and the mysteries of the world.

Under the illumination of this light, Fang Senyan’s drowsiness began to creep in. He knew well that this place was riddled with peril and unknown threats lurking in the shadows, and he absolutely should not succumb to sleep. But the urge to doze was like an unstoppable tsunami, overwhelming him, a consequence of severe depletion in both physical stamina and mental energy.

Fortunately, Fang Senyan possessed basic survival instincts. In a jiffy, he selected a tall pine tree, climbed up with the Elven girl on his back, and secured himself and her to a sturdy branch high above. The pine's canopy was already dense, and Fang Senyan didn't feel the cold—he rested his head against the trunk and fell into a deep sleep, with only the faint glow emanating from the black stone in his arms warmly enveloping them both.

………………

Meanwhile, down in the snow valley where Fang Senyan and the others had fallen, numerous Half-Orcs had begun to appear. Most of these Half-Orcs were terribly emaciated, scantily clad, mere skin and bones, shivering in the cold wind. They carried large bundles of firewood on their backs; even among Orcs, there was a hierarchy.

The elite Uruk-hai sent out earlier to hunt Fang Senyan and his companions presumably belonged to the higher echelon, while the Half-Orcs appearing now were clearly cannon fodder. These Half-Orcs walked slowly, their eyes filled with immense fear, carrying their burdens as if a great danger lay ahead.

When they passed through the bottleneck of the snow valley and spotted the patch of withered pine forest ahead, they stopped dead. No amount of whipping or verbal abuse could move them forward. Even when several were beaten to death, their blood splashing across the snow like spilled ink, the other Uruk-hai refused to budge a single step. After waiting a while longer, several hundred elite Uruk-hai slowly marched into view through the swirling snowstorm.

These Uruk-hai were physically formidable, each carrying a spiked mace, appearing to be nearly as powerful as the group that had pursued Fang Senyan earlier. Escorted among them were five Tentacle Beasts.

The five Tentacle Beasts were also massive in size; the gray skin on their heads was layered with wrinkles. The light in the circle of malevolent eyes around their heads, while dispersed, would sometimes focus intently, almost tangibly, indicating exceptionally profound mental strength—they were clearly prepared.

As soon as the Tentacle Beasts appeared, the thin Uruk-hai standing idly in front began to tremble violently, clearly terrified to the extreme.

Centered on the five Tentacle Beasts, ripples of psychic energy spread outwards. The firewood-laden Uruk-hai immediately walked forward woodenly, depositing the vast piles of firewood into the dead pine forest ahead before setting them alight. Pine wood is naturally rich in oils, and once ignited by the kindling, the flames immediately roared skyward, staining the entire night sky red.

By then, the large numbers of Tentacle Beasts and Uruk-hai had retreated deep into the snow valley, covering their mouths and noses with animal hides. The five Tentacle Beasts had even moved into a hastily excavated snow cave to shelter. All the Uruk-hai who had passed through the withered pine forest were gathered together and heavily guarded; it was evident the Tentacle Beasts had some understanding of the anomalies in this location.

The great fire ravaged the pine forest, and viewed from the distant snow peaks, a layer of eerie, dark blue hue shimmered within the dense smoke and flames.

…………

Fang Senyan awoke just as the fire reached its peak intensity.

That deep slumber, though spent high in a tree, had indeed restored a large portion of his exhaustion and pain. Fang Senyan let out a long sigh, for it was not the smoke and fire that had startled him awake—but rather the merciless prompt from the Nightmare Imprint once more: "Scanning: Execution Team Mission Number 1018: Survival has once again reached a time-related critical threshold!"

"Warning: Execution Team Mission Number 1018: Survival has once again reached a time-related critical threshold!"

"Warning: The difficulty of your stay in this world will increase again. Effective immediately, all your equipment will be removed and automatically placed into the Nightmare Imprint storage space! If the Nightmare Imprint storage space is insufficient, items will be placed into your private Nightmare Space."

"Hint: The Team Mission: Survival has multiple critical thresholds. Each time you reach one, the survival difficulty will increase accordingly." Seeing this series of alerts, what could Fang Senyan do but sigh in dismay?

Only then did Fang Senyan notice the half-night sky stained crimson by the firelight, and, of course, the strange abnormality within those flames. Thoughts raced through his mind; he immediately realized a massive crisis was bearing down on him: only the Orc tribe led by Saruman’s avatar, who dominated this desolate snowy valley, could possibly organize such a large-scale operation. Their massive act of setting the forest ablaze probably signaled their absolute determination to capture them, the escapees!

With this realization, Fang Senyan took a deep breath and immediately slid down from the tree. He hastily gathered anything that might be useful, took the "wooden ladder" he had fashioned, and with the still-unconscious Elven girl on his back, headed into the chaotic rocky valley.

During this time, he checked the Elven Blessing on his body and found it was due to vanish in a few hours, meaning he needed to quicken his pace.

Although the Orc tribe had mobilized extensively, after burning the forest, the Half-Orcs’ thick hides meant they would still have to wait until the flames subsided and the ground temperature cooled enough for passage—this bought Fang Senyan at least a few hours. Next, they would have to cross the lake where the bizarrely mutated fish lived before the true pursuit could begin.

However, judging by the presence of an Uruk-hai camp near the lake, Saruman had likely attempted explorations here before but suffered a major setback, probably losing all survivors. This time, he had made a drastic decision, adopting a steady, measured approach of advancing step by step.

But after deep reflection, Fang Senyan still felt a huge mystery lay beneath it all… If Saruman had mobilized his entire force just to hunt down a few fugitives like them, it seemed utterly preposterous! There must be some profound secret or truth behind it, one he hadn't yet deciphered.

Thinking this through, Fang Senyan proceeded unhurriedly into the rocky valley. Especially now, without the advantage of his equipment bonuses, he absolutely had to maintain his peak condition to possess the ability to deal with any danger after scaling the immense boulder blocking the path.

Along the way, Fang Senyan successively discovered several more of those round "black stones." However, upon crushing them, he found that most of these "black stones" had rotted, emitting a putrid odor. Two of the un-rotted ones, when broken open, yielded only a few drops of viscous liquid, entirely lacking the bluish core.

Not long after, Fang Senyan arrived beneath the massive, dam-like rock formation. Knowing the danger ahead, he wasn't in a rush to climb using the wooden ladder. Instead, he closed his eyes to rest, regulated his breathing, and brought himself to optimal readiness—the essence of 'sharpening the axe doesn't delay the chopping.' But just as Fang Senyan was about to ascend, he suddenly opened his eyes in utter astonishment, because on the path far behind him, an incredibly dense, rustling sound of footsteps echoed!

"Damn it!!" Fang Senyan's pupils contracted violently. To have his retreat cut off in such a desperate place was to be trapped like a turtle in a jar, with nowhere to flee! He couldn't fathom what method the Orc tribes had employed to traverse the fire and cross the lake with such incredible speed to reach this location!

The rustling footsteps approached with alarming speed, moving from distant to near within mere moments, stopping about ten meters from Fang Senyan, obscured by the rocks and darkness. Fang Senyan lowered Whisper, positioning her behind him, slightly stooping his body, his eyes gleaming with a wolfish intensity. Having reached this dead end, he cast aside all extraneous thoughts; his sole focus was to delay them for even one more moment.