“Everyone, no talking, not even a whisper,” the fat man said in an extremely soft voice. “Let’s see if there are any protruding rocks or ice crevices nearby; we might be in trouble.”

“It’s impossible,” Lang Feng said, stunned. “I calculated the weight…”

Hua the monk covered Lang Feng’s mouth, signaling him to hold his tongue for now. A few of us were sweating profusely, glancing at the overhead snow while carefully strapping on our gear and looking for a place to take cover. The layer of snow above us wasn’t thick, so even if an avalanche occurred, it would likely be a small-scale collapse. However, our position was quite precarious, too close to the fracture line. If the snow poured down, we could easily get swept away, and below us was a steep slope with no escape route.

At this moment, the best course of action was, as the fat man suggested, to find a protruding rock to hide under or look for an ice crevice. This idea probably came from the movie “Vertical Limit,” and I wasn’t sure if it would work in reality.

The bare rock we were on was too flat; hiding underneath wouldn’t protect us from the snow’s direct impact. The fat man pointed to a massive rock nearby, shaped like a walnut. There was an angle between it and the mountain rock that seemed suitable.

The snow slope between us and that rock had completely disappeared, leaving only the glacier’s ice surface, which was extremely slippery. There was no time to change into ice shoes; we just had to tough it out. The fat man tied the rope around his waist, handed one end to us, and then stepped onto the ice.

One step, two steps, three steps—each time I lifted my leg, it felt like stepping on an egg, and I was just waiting for the ‘crack’ that would send the yolk flying. But the fat man always surprised me; after three steps, he had steadily climbed onto the rock on the opposite side. He tugged on the rope around his waist, looked up, and waved for us to come over.

We held onto the rope, first Panzi and the Silent Oil Bottle, then Lang Feng carrying Chen Pi A Si on his back, followed by Ye Cheng who was carrying Shun Zi. I was last. Seeing them all make it safely gave me a bit of relief. At that moment, large snow blocks the size of watermelons began crashing down, and the snow crevice could no longer hold. The fat man waved for me to hurry.

I slapped my face, tied the other end of the rope around my waist, and stepped onto the ice. I steadied myself for a moment.

I had always been poor at balancing; I needed to fall and get hurt countless times while learning to skate or ride a bike. Now I was even more anxious, feeling as if the ice beneath my feet could vanish at any moment, and I couldn’t help but start to tremble.

The fat man could tell I was the most difficult one to deal with and whispered, “Don’t think too much; it’s just two steps. You can jump over if you want.”

I looked at the distance between me and the fat man. Indeed, if I could muster enough strength, I could definitely jump across. With that thought, I gritted my teeth, took a preparatory step, twisted my waist, and tried to leap up.

But unexpectedly, just as I exerted myself, my foot suddenly sank. The piece of ice I was standing on had cracked under the weight of too many people before me. My foot slipped on the slope, and then I started sliding down uncontrollably.

I was flailing my arms and legs, but there was nowhere to grip on the ice. Suddenly, I fell directly onto the taut rope, hanging on the ice cliff. I heard a click from the climbing carabiner, and when I looked down, I saw that the clip had actually opened. I could feel my body about to unhook.

I cursed inwardly, thinking, “Damn it, this cheap gear must be a freebie!” The fat guy pulled me, almost yanking me off the rock. Luckily, Panzi grabbed his belt, and several people managed to hold him back, preventing any disaster. They pulled on the rope with all their might, trying to hoist me up.

But with every pull, the rope loosened a little. I was anxious and desperate, trying to find a foothold to reattach the clip, but the ice was just too slippery. Each time I managed to step on it for a few seconds, I would slide right off, unable to gain any leverage.

I could see the clip was about to come off, and in utter desperation, I pulled out my ice axe and struck it hard into the ice cliff, anchoring it firmly. Then I stepped on it with my left foot, finally finding a spot to support myself. I hurriedly looked down to change the climbing clip, but before I could secure it, a strange vibration suddenly came from above my head.

I looked up and saw a few people above me staring at me with a bewildered expression. Before I could process what was happening, in an instant, a cloud of white snow exploded into the air, almost blocking my entire field of vision.

An avalanche!

There was no scream, no time for surprise. In that moment, I didn’t even know what I was thinking. I just heard the fat guy shout beside me, “Grab the ice axe! Stay close to the ice!” Suddenly, everything around me went black. My body felt as if it had sunk, as if a dozen people were pulling down on my clothes. The rope around my waist dug painfully into my flesh, and a massive amount of snow gasped into my lungs.

Then, I fell into a chaotic state. A tremendous force struck every part of my body. I couldn’t even lift my head. Soon, my throat began to tighten, an extreme feeling of suffocation surged from my lungs. I felt like I was thrown into a chestnut-roasting machine, with countless cold objects piling up and smashing into me from all sides. In an instant, my nose and mouth were filled with the taste of snow and foam.

At that moment, I remembered that ice is an excellent conductor of vibration, especially very thick ice, which has a strong resonance. That strike with the ice axe had finally catalyzed the avalanche.

I almost wanted to slap myself, but it was too late for regrets. My body was spinning around like a top, and I tried to grab the ice axe, but I couldn’t even feel where my hands were.

Just when my mind was blank and I didn’t know what to do, suddenly, I felt the rope tugging me up a bit. Then, my body was actually being pulled upward slightly.

I was startled; it was the fat guy and the others pulling me from the other end. Hope surged within me. The rope still had some tension, which meant the amount of snow from the avalanche wasn’t too thick, and their strength could still reach me.

I quickly started to push away the snow around me, trying to dig my body upward. After a few stumbles, thanks to the pull of the rope, my ears suddenly rang, and my vision brightened as I broke through the surface of the snow.

The fat guy and his companions were hiding in the crevice of a rock, where a snow flow rushed over the stones, forming a snow waterfall in front of them, and they were all safe and sound. The fat guy and Lang Feng were pulling a rope, and when they saw me being pulled out, they shouted, “Are you okay?”

I gasped for breath and nodded, while snow and mist continued to pour down on me. I pulled on the rope with all my strength, trying to move toward them against the snow flow. However, the force of the snow was too strong, and I couldn’t stand up at all; no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move an inch. The fat guy had no choice but to pull me and wait for the snow flow to pass.

The avalanche came quickly and left just as fast. In less than half a minute, the snow flow rushed by me, leaving behind a large amount of broken snow. I looked down and saw the entire valley below was shrouded in white mist, and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread. If I had been swept away, I wouldn’t have survived.

I was pulled under the rocks, and everyone was panting with lingering fear. The fat guy patted me on the back and said, “You really are lucky. Fortunately, this was just a collapse with a small amount of snow; otherwise, not only would you have gone down, but I probably would have been pulled down with you too.”

I didn’t know what expression I had; my climbing hat had fallen off, my ears were red from the cold, and I couldn’t hear anything clearly. I could only pat him on the back and turn to look at the surface of the glacier nearby.

The entire snow slope had poured down into the valley below, exposing a large section of a steep glacier in front of us. Occasionally, chunks of broken snow would roll down from above, reminding us of the danger of a secondary avalanche.

The surface of the glacier was made of snow that had been compressed into ice over thousands of years, what we commonly refer to as “glacial ice.” This type of ice forms naturally and can cover entire mountain ranges in high-altitude areas, forming glaciers. Generally, snow mountains have this type of ice located between the snow layer and the mountain body, and it isn’t too thick. There was also a lot of broken snow on top of the ice layer.

Aside from the fat guy, none of us had ever seen a real glacier before. To see such a massive ice cliff exposed in the snow mountain valley, illuminated by the setting sun, was like witnessing a giant sculpted soap bar; it was truly a breathtaking sight, and we all stood there in a daze.

Ye Cheng murmured, “Lang Da’s shot really did yield some results.”

After a moment of staring, everyone gradually came back to their senses. Huaheshang turned on several flashlights and shone them into the ice, trying to find traces of a burial site. The inside was murky and bottomless; typical snow mountain glaciers are usually only about twenty meters thick, but this glacier seemed unusually thick.

The fat guy had sharp eyes. Suddenly, he exclaimed as if he had discovered something, snatching the flashlight from Huaheshang to shine it over.

We strained to follow the direction of his flashlight. In the faint light, I saw that where the fat guy was shining, deep within the dark blue, translucent glacier, there appeared to be a huge shadow that was almost half the ice cliff. Judging by its shape, it looked like a curled-up giant-headed baby.