"No wonder the gacha machine wouldn't take 'em. These damn things are basically just seawater. A bit on the cheap side, huh…?"Yang Yi griped internally as he left the lab and stepped onto the deck. A layer of frost still clung to everything, and it wasn't going to melt anytime soon in this godforsaken cold. Looked like his skeletal arms were in for some overtime.He walked to the edge of the ship and peered down. The ash-snow below had been cleared, too; the bony arms could extend from the hull to sweep the perimeter. With the snow gone, he could clearly see the Nyxstar's hull frozen solid into the glacier. Thawing it out was going to be a bitch and a half, especially with how massive this ice field was.He activated his third eye and scanned the surroundings. The nearest open water was to the southwest, about three nautical miles away. Which meant the Nyxstar had to bust through three goddamn miles of solid ice to escape. Fat chance.He went to the bow and had the ship activate its twilight curtain. As ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) he turned, he ran a hand over the octopus-head gacha machine."Weird… I can't feel any heat or cold from it… and there's no frost on its surface, either." It was truly bizarre. Only the monster gacha machine seemed completely unaffected by the insane cold.After another quick inspection, he returned to the captain's cabin. Thanks to the Life-hearth, the temperature inside was much more manageable. He warmed himself by the fire while he organized the information he'd gathered on the Ice-nest Worms. He could probably sell this data to a major news agency for a nice pile of Conch Coins. No point in sitting on it; if he waited too long, someone else might beat him to the punch.Fifteen minutes later, he had everything compiled, including photos. He'd had a skeletal arm hold up a relatively intact Ice-nest Worm for a picture, a frozen eyeball clearly visible inside it, glowing with a faint blue light."Perfect."He then contacted Song Yingwen, the leader of the Major News Agency, to peddle his intel."Brother Song, I've got some explosive intel for sale!" he sent in a private message."What kind of intel?" The reply was almost instantaneous."The truth behind that 'zzzt zzzt' electrical sound!""Oh? If it's about that, I already know. It's a bunch of blue, glowing ghosts, right?""Ghosts?""Yeah, someone else provided a tip on that not too long ago…"Song Yingwen went on to detail the intel and even named the provider, who apparently hadn't asked for anonymity. The source was the New World Fleet. They had given the information to the news agency for free, their only request being a prominent feature that clearly credited them.But "blue ghosts"… that was ridiculously vague. It didn't explain what the ghosts actually were, only that they were blue, froze everything, and were attracted to fire. And there were no pictures to back it up. It couldn't hold a candle to the intel Yang Yi had.He couldn't really blame the New World Fleet, though. Captain Zhao Tietou of the Iron Head had been too busy running for his life to gather details. He'd simply noticed that the blue lights were attacking his bonfires, kicked them into the sea, and managed to escape. Of course, the teammates he'd left behind as cannon fodder had also played a crucial role in his survival.After getting the full story, Yang Yi sent over his entire, neatly compiled dossier on the Ice-nest Worms, pictures and all.The other end was silent for a good ten seconds before a reply came through."You really know how to bring me surprises. And heart attacks!"The agency's weekly issue was already complete and waiting for release. Who would've thought such a bombshell would drop at the last minute? Pictures of crystalline ice-worms were a hell of a lot more convincing than some invisible, intangible "blue ghosts." He decided to postpone the issue's release to revise the layout and content.A few minutes later, 20,000 Conch Coins were transferred to Yang Yi's account—the highest payment he'd received yet. It made sense; intel on the Ice-nest Worms was incredibly hard to come by, seeing as most people who encountered them didn't live to tell the tale.With the sale complete, Yang Yi decided to get some food and then rest. He was in bad shape. His hand was reattached, but his health, stamina, and sanity were all in the red. His stamina was especially low, hovering in the low thirties. Any lower and he'd risk passing out. Everything else—salvaging the Courage, dismantling the ship, and finding a way off this goddamn glacier—would have to wait until he recovered."Suna, I'm gonna make some food. Want to try some?" he sent her a message.Several minutes passed with no reply. He checked her sanity level and saw it was at 51. That wasn't good. She needed to put her research on hold.He got up and walked to the witch's lab."Suna, you should probably take a break too!" he called out from the doorway.Suna was completely engrossed, using a pair of tweezers to piece together fragments of human skin she had found inside the Ice-nest Worm. She'd noticed what looked like writing on the skin fragments and was trying to reassemble them to decipher the message. Though the skin was from different individuals, the characters were repetitive, allowing her to make sense of it by cross-referencing."Suna!" Yang Yi called again, louder this time.She stopped what she was doing and looked up.Yang Yi was standing there, dragging the nearly three-meter-long Skeleton Fish behind him. "Care to try this 'delicacy'?"………………..Twenty minutes later, a campfire crackled in the mid-deck of the Nyxstar, a large pot sitting over it. Yang Yi had to add extra wood and grease to the fire; it wasn't burning hot enough, likely due to the ambient cold.Bubbling away in the pot was the Corpse-Worm. A tangle of black, hair-like threads roiled in the boiling water, with pieces of bone floating alongside them. He’d found the worm too difficult to peel, so he'd just gutted it, broken it into pieces, and thrown it all in to boil. Cooking it made peeling the black threads much easier.Suna sat to the side, a frown creasing her brow. She was peeling the threads as well, but clearly had zero expectations for the "meal." His previous attempt at bread-paste had left a lasting psychological scar.But this time, Yang Yi wasn't going to screw it up.After pulling out all the black threads and the worm's skin, he noticed they'd shrunk considerably. It looked like there was just enough for one meal. He set a fresh pot of water to boil and dumped all the edible parts in. He seasoned it with salt and brought out a bowl of jellyfish-goo for a dipping sauce."Care to try?"He looked at Suna. She didn't move, just stared at the black, thread-like things swirling in the pot."Well, don't mind if I do!"Yang Yi picked up a piece of the black worm-skin, which was still covered in the threads, blew on it twice, and popped it in his mouth. It was an explosion of gelatinous texture! The mouthfeel beat pig trotters and beef tendon by a country mile—soft and glutinous, with just a hint of sweetness. The black threads snapped cleanly between his teeth, like the cartilage in a pig's ear, making a satisfying crunch.After finishing his piece, Yang Yi didn't bother waiting for Suna and just kept eating. After he'd devoured several more pieces, Suna finally picked up her chopsticks. Seeing how enthusiastically he was eating had piqued her curiosity. She tried one piece… and then she couldn't stop.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.