Chapter 283: White Frost

In the frozen world, Zhao Yi slowly opened his eyes.

The first thing that came into view was a trash can covered in filth, with a thick layer of white frost covering its surface, as if even the sky-high stench had been frozen. He struggled to turn his head, and a pile of trash clattered down from beneath him.

“Where… am I?”

The scene before Zhao Yi gradually became clear, and a sharp pain appeared in his mind. He tried to recall what had happened… He only remembered being pushed into the laboratory and then losing consciousness in intense pain.

He vaguely remembered having a very long dream. In the dream, he stood on a mirror-like, calm sea. Looking down, the deep seabed was filled with countless bizarre creatures growing incantations—some looked like octopuses, some like seaweed, some like swimming snakes…

When he looked up, above the sea, there seemed to be streams of aurora flowing in and out of existence.

He seemed to have stood there for only a moment, but that moment felt like ten thousand years. After that, he vaguely heard someone whispering in his ear. The voice was too close, so close it felt like it was right beneath him.

He was awakened by that voice for a while. In a daze, he seemed to be running with difficulty, as if trying to escape from somewhere.

When he woke up again, he was here.

“Did I… get out of the laboratory?” Zhao Yi lifted his heavy head and looked around the empty alley.

After signing the form to donate his body, Zhao Yi had already prepared himself for death. He didn’t expect that not only would he not die, but he would also escape from the laboratory by some stroke of luck… He didn’t know what had happened in the process, but perhaps this was the miracle that belonged to him.

Zhao Yi struggled to move his body and slowly stood back up from the pile of trash. His peripheral vision landed on the hands he was using to support himself, and he was suddenly stunned.

At this moment, as if remembering something, he began to desperately search for something in the alley.

Finally, he found a puddle frozen into ice. Zhao Yi stumbled to the puddle and, through the mirror-like smooth ice surface, saw the reflection of a monster that was neither human nor beast…

It was a creature difficult to describe in words. Although it had the outline of a human torso, its skin was almost completely covered by black incantations. These incantations moved across the surface of his skin like living things, and even within his eyeballs, incantations crawled from time to time. The sight was bizarre.

Zhao Yi was startled by his own appearance. He knelt by the puddle, his eyes filled with disbelief.

“How could this be… what did they do to me?”

Zhao Yi sat blankly in place for a long time, not knowing what to do… He didn’t know if this was temporary or if he would be like this forever? How could he live on in this state?

No… having become like this, could he even live on? This looked like a mutated monster. Wouldn’t he just die if he woke up tomorrow morning?

“Find something to cover it first……”

Zhao Yi’s gaze swept around, and then he ran back to the trash can, quickly rummaging through it.

After dragging out a pile of strange trash, Zhao Yi finally found a mottled piece of cloth, like a discarded blanket or curtain. He wrapped his head with it, leaving only his eyes exposed, and shoved his hands into his pockets. Only then did he lose the frightening appearance he had just had.

However, even so, if one looked closely, one could still see incantations crawling from beneath his eyes, which forced him to squint while walking.

Having barely escaped death, Zhao Yi was not willing to just die by a trash can… At this moment, there was an urgent impulse in his heart.

He wanted to go home.

Perhaps because he had experienced hell, the desire to go home in Zhao Yi’s heart became stronger. At this moment, in his subconscious, only that place was warm and safe… even if it was just to take a look from afar.

Zhao Yi wrapped his body up and walked slowly toward the low building where the people from District 3 lived. He couldn’t fully adapt to this body yet, so his walking pace wasn’t fast; he could only stumble forward like a patient in rehabilitation training.

But as time passed, Zhao Yi began to gradually master the power and speed of this body. His movements became faster and faster, and by the time he came to his senses, his figure was already like a gust of wind, whistling across the earth!

“I am…”

Zhao Yi felt an unprecedented sense of power in his body, and his eyes gradually lit up!

Although his appearance was a bit ugly, this body seemed to have given him extraordinary power, which was definitely an unexpected joy for him!

When he was fleeing from District 3 before, Zhao Yi had envied Chen Ling’s power. He had thought more than once that if he had power, his father wouldn’t have died, and he might have been able to change everything on his own!

Now, his dream seemed to have come true!?

Although this power came a bit late, he could still rely on it to protect Ling’er and the people of District 3… Thinking of this, Zhao Yi’s heart was filled with joy, and even his disgust for his own appearance dissipated quite a bit.

As long as he could have power, as long as he could protect the people he wanted to protect, what did it matter if he was a little ugly?

Zhao Yi’s speed became faster and faster, leaving trails of afterimages on the frost-covered road. Not long after, he returned to the front of the small building.

He rushed up the stairs quickly and called out loudly:

“Ling’er!”

“Uncle Xu!!”

Zhao Yi arrived at his own door and used the spare key in the corner to unlock it. Just as he was about to push the door open, he found that the entire door had been frozen shut by frost.

Zhao Yi was stunned for a moment. He exerted a little force with his palm and pulled the door away from the ice, with a few shards of ice scattering on the ground.

“……What’s going on? Is it this cold?”

Seeing the frost on the door, Zhao Yi realized that the temperature around him must be extremely low, but with his current body, he wouldn’t feel the cold; in fact, he even felt that the temperature was quite refreshing.

That’s not right… on such a cold day, why wasn’t the heating on?

“……Ling’er?”

Zhao Yi called out tentatively. There was no one in the empty room, and no one responded.

His brows furrowed involuntarily, but after thinking about it carefully, it was very likely that Ling’er had been called to live next door by Xu Chongguo. After all, with him not at home, it was too dangerous for a young girl to live in a room by herself.

Thinking of this, Zhao Yi immediately went to the door of Xu Chongguo’s house.

This time, Zhao Yi didn’t rush to open the door, but politely knocked first.

“Uncle Xu? Are you home?”

“……”

There was no response from behind the door.

For some reason, an inexplicable chill surged into Zhao Yi’s heart. He always felt that something was not quite right…

“Uncle Xu, I’m coming in.”

Zhao Yi gripped the doorknob and pulled hard. Under his terrifying strength, the frozen door was forcibly pulled open!

Cold air like that of an ice cave drifted out from the room. The narrow living room was actually packed with more than twenty figures. Thick blankets and quilts were scattered around them, and they were huddled together in a disarray around a long-extinguished brazier, motionless…

The light from outside the window shone on them, as if they were plated with a thin layer of white frost.