Five Frozen Centuries - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The Weather Was Getting Colder
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The weather was getting colder, and the temperature was dropping non-stop. There was ice on the surface of the water every morning, and every day there would be a Tree-Man who either collapsed or never woke up again and became an actual tree.
Tree-men did not have natural enemies, but they were no match for the cold weather.
Wei Huo began coming up with solutions for them. He started using hay to make mats and wrapped the Tree-Men with them. Before humans experienced the time halt, they used that method to protect London Plane Trees1.
On top of that, he could brush lime water on them as well but where could one find limestones at that moment?
The Tree-Men would light up bonfires every night. Otherwise, the water in them would become frozen. 4
The leaves on the Tree-Men’s canopies continued falling, and it was as if they were balding like middle-aged men. The condition was serious as the leaf loss decreased their photosynthesis efficiency. It was just like tooth loss for humans. That was a serious situation.
Wei Huo was determined in finding solutions, but the Tree-Men were never the kind of moving plants that were suitable for long journeys.
Fortunately, Tree-Men had a stronger determination than humans. Regardless of what happened even if there was only one Tree-Man left standing, they would continue traveling to the south until they arrived at the southernmost part of the Northern continent.
That was only wishful thinking. There were Tree-Men dying every day, and Wei Huo estimated that they were about a year away from arriving at the southernmost part of the continent. Moreover, the temperature continued dropping to only 10°C in the middle of the day and up to -30°C at night. 1
When the Tree-Men woke up every morning, they would find one of their companions became an actual tree. However, they believed that these Tree-Men would come back to life if the weather became warmer.
The last Tree-Man eventually collapsed. It was not dead yet, and they were still moving with Wei Huo dragging it forward!
“Don’t die!” Wei Huo continued encouraging the Tree-Man who had lost a lot of weight while carrying it over his shoulders. 5
Though that was the case, it seemed like Wei Huo was dragging a fallen five-story building forward. Every step he took left a footprint on the frozen ground. The training he had done throughout the hundred years made Wei Huo extraordinarily strong. The human limiter was lifted, and his strength was growing without limits. There were no longer limits to what humans could do. 4
The Tree-Men were different from animals. If one had survived, their species could eventually multiply into a community. Unfortunately, the Tree-Man over Wei Huo’s shoulders did not survive in the end. 1
Wei Huo dug a huge pit and buried it in the soil upright. He hoped that things would turn out exactly how the Tree-Men had imagined, that all of them would come back to life when the weather got warmer. 1
Wei Huo took dozens of seeds from the Tree-Man and packed it into a small bag. He eventually continued his journey to the south. 5
It was snowing heavily, and the beasts put another layer of straw mats on themselves. Wei Huo’s Qi-Training Skill not only increased his lifespan but also made him unaffected by both heat and cold. At the very least until he had exhausted his Qi energy, he would have continued to feel nothing amidst the freezing temperatures around him.
The ground was covered in snow, and the leaves had all fallen. Despite that, they continued traveling.
There was another reason why the Northern continent was freezing, it was currently winter.
Hunting gradually became tougher as many animals lost their lives from the low temperatures. They had all suffered from hypothermia. In the face of extremely low temperatures, death was inevitable without sufficient energy and thick fur protection to keep them warm.
If one knew how to light bonfires and sew clothes, he could resist the cold to a certain extent.
Wei Huo found a group of monkeys who lit their own bonfires and sewed their own clothes. It was as if they were humans pretending to be monkeys.
Wei Huo met polar bears and arctic wolves as well.
The polar bears and arctic wolves made it clear that the north is getting too cold. They had decided to run towards the south as well. 9
Meanwhile, Wei Huo’s beasts showed off their skills at this moment. They detected the smell of some dead beasts from time to time and pulled the frozen animals out of the snow.
The dead animals did not rot at all under the extremely cold temperatures. They were edible after being thawed with fire.
Nonetheless, the panda and tiger were on the brink of collapsing, and Wei Huo basically carried all the luggage by himself. He wrapped both beasts with thick animal fur as well, but they were still about to collapse from the cold.
They rarely snarled to conserve energy, and barely ate as well. Their moods were pretty bad too without apparent reason.
They were after all animals of temperate climate, barely holding it together as the temperature became cold.
They eventually collapsed on that day when the highest temperature was only -1°C. 4
Hypothermia was the horrifying disease that threatened all animals and plants on the Northern continent. Apart from Wei Huo and the humans who were in the time halt, no living creatures were spared by it. 2
Wei Huo could no longer continue his journey. He stayed and cut up snags to build a cabin. It was impossible for Wei Huo to build a house for the Tree-Men due to their size, but both beast’s sizes were still manageable. 1
“You have to stay alive!” Wei Huo built the cabin for his beasts and started a bonfire in the cabin before going out to hunt on his own.
It was snowing heavily outside the cabin, and the snow was knee-deep. Hunting had also become tougher than it previously was.
Wei Huo thought about the movie ‘Life of Pi’ which he had previously watched. A young man and a tiger were drifting across the ocean on the same boat where they were eventually rescued. 4
However, Wei Huo’s situation was different from that young man in the movie. Wei Huo was no longer young, and he was used to the life and death of living beings. He was just trying his very best to save the beasts at that moment.
If they died in the end, Wei Huo might be sad about it but he would not be crying over them.
“What a shame! It’s impossible to teach the Qi-Training Skill to you guys.” Wei Huo said as he patted both the beast’s heads.
The Qi-Training Skill was a system skill. As long as a player’s posture was right, the skill could have been unlocked and obtained. However, when it came to teaching the skill to others, it was impossible to do so for humans, let alone animals.
Both beasts were dying. The fat tiger and fat panda had both become skinny.
They had collapsed in the cabin and did not move. Their tongues were out, and they were panting heavily. It seemed like they were having an asthma attack. They also seemed like they were suffering greatly.
Wei Huo would prefer them to howl if they were in pain, but they could not react to the pain as humans do. They were quiet as they stared into space. They only reacted a little whenever Wei Huo patted them by looking over at Wei Huo or wagged their tails at him. 6
Even if Wei Huo placed food in front of them, they could only sniff and licked it. They did not want to eat at all. Wei Huo had no choice but to force-feed them and made them swallow it.
Wei Huo walked out of the cabin and stared at falling snow from the grey sky. He could not help but sigh. “Damn! It’s still long before winter comes to an end!”
It was a torture for both beasts every night. The temperature continued falling, and the low temperature at night was even more terrifying. Adding more firewood to the bonfire continuously throughout the night was a futile effort as it had barely brought any warmth to the cabin. COMMENT