Card Room

Chapter 384 - Hell of Ice

The eighth level was the hell of ice and the entire room was frozen. Before entering through the door, everyone felt a burst of cold air that drilled straight into their hearts. It was colder than entering a morgue.

There was ice all around them. The ground, the ceiling… the entire space was white and the icy surface was very slippery, making it difficult for them to walk. The extremely low temperature made everyone stand at the door, their teeth chattering from the cold.

They didn’t find any dangerous mechanisms in this room but it was uncomfortable to walk through. Moreover, the time flow rate of the hell realm was deliberately compressed. They stayed in the ice room for one minute but according to the rate of their body metabolism, they had actually been in here for one hour.

Xiao Lou thought up to here and hurriedly summoned Bai Juyi.

Bai Juyi’s first skill, Old Charcoal Seller, could generate a charcoal fire in any environment. Previously, he didn’t think that this fire was of great significance. Now in this freezing cold ice room, the charcoal fire that Bai Juyi lit was simply ‘sending charcoal in snowy weather’. (Idiom=providing help in one’s hour of need)

Lu Jiuchuan didn’t want to evaluate Xiao Lou’s cards anymore.

Bai Juyi actually came out and lit charcoal for everyone. Xiao Lou quickly took out the compass and made four warm charcoal stoves according to the previous method, filling them with the charcoal fire that Bai Juyi had lit. He gave one each to his teammates and said, “Everyone, take a stove and move through the hell of ice as soon as possible. This space has time compression so after a while, our bodies will get frostbite.”

Yu Hanjiang took the lead. “Let’s go.”

It was only when they really entered the ice room that they realized the cold outside was just a small fraction of it. Once in the room, the blood in their bodies almost froze. There happened to be some drops of water on Xiao Lou’s eyelashes and they froze almost instantly, making blinking strenuous. The sweat on Lu Jiuchuan’s hair also formed a thin layer of ice and he looked like a person with white hair.

Everyone was trembling from the cold and they were frightened. If it wasn’t for Xiao Lou’s stove, it was estimated that they would quickly lose consciousness and become ice statues. Tang Ci released a drone for investigation and quickly came to a conclusion. “The ambient temperature is -50 degrees Celsius. Humans can’t survive here at all. We must hurry!”

They had just taken a few steps and everyone’s legs were almost frozen while their teeth were chattering.

Lu Jiuchuan was forced to summon the vermilion bird again. The divine beast’s skill was Vermilion Bird Heavenly Fire, which cast flames in a wide range. The Vermilion Bird Heavenly Fire might not be able to completely melt this ice room but it could at least alleviate the low temperature of the environment.

The vermilion bird flapped its wings and large flames spread through the surrounding area. This was the first time Xiao Lou had seen the power of the vermilion bird. This should currently be the team’s strongest group attack card.

Lu Jiuchuan deliberately left a passage in the middle. The group quickly escaped from the hell of ice while the flames were flowing and the temperature rose.

Xiao Lou was originally worried that there might be unexpected surprises in this hell of ice such as ice falling or collapsing beneath them. He didn’t expect the keeper to be so kind to them. This level was just the extreme cold and there were no other dangers.

They passed through the hell of ice and arrived at the ninth level.

It was the hell of oil cauldron. Contrary to the extreme cold just now, this place was extremely hot. It was said that people who committed a lot of evil in their lifetime would be stripped naked and placed into the oil cauldron to be fried after death… The long and narrow room was arranged like a huge bathtub. There was no way to stand. Unfortunately, the thing boiling underneath this ‘bathtub’ wasn’t a hot spring but hot oil!

The consequences were unimaginable once they accidentally fell into the cauldron. The air was filled with a weird burnt smell. The thought of it being the smell of fried human flesh made everyone feel nauseous.

In the hell of the mountain of knives just now, Old Mo could pave the marble floor because the knives underneath could be used as a support point. However, the oil cauldron couldn’t support the marble. The weight of the marble meant it would sink the moment it was placed in the oil.

Lu Jiuchuan said, “The passage here is only one meter wide. The vermilion bird can’t fly here.”

There were only two ways to get through here.

First, fly through the air. Second, use cards with effects like ‘immune to damage’ or ‘no fear of high temperatures’ to swim across the oil cauldron.

If it was the first method then it was easy for Liu Qiao. She could transform into the white swan and fly over. However, the Light as a Swallow card didn’t allow them to fly for a long time and they had to find a landing point within 10 seconds. How could there be a landing point in the oil cauldron? Once their feet touched the hot oil, their feet would be instantly useless. Therefore, the Light as a Swallow card couldn’t be used in the hell of oil cauldron.

For the second method, they could use Tang Ci’s mechanical armor to swim past but it only lasted for 30 minutes and could only be used once every 24 hours. They had already used it in the hell of steaming, so it couldn’t be used now. As for other cards with similar invincible effects, only Xiao Lou’s compass circle was currently available. Unfortunately, the compass set a range for the invincibility. Once out of that range, they would still be turned into fried human flesh.

What should they do? Swimming across the oil cauldron obviously wouldn’t work. They could only find a way through the air. Xiao Lou fell into deep thought.

Floating… paving the way…

Suddenly, an item that often appeared in sports games, the balance beam, came to mind.

The balance beam was used in gymnastics to balance in the air. Old Mo happened to have the Solid Wood Flooring card. Moreover, this wooden board could be cut into any desired shape. It could be cut into narrow wooden strips and placed together to form a wooden bridge.

The question now was how to float the wooden floor. Putting the wood directly into the high temperature oil cauldron wouldn’t work. There must be something to support it.

Xiao Lou thought carefully and some images emerged in his mind. A long time ago in the Spades secret room, he used the compass to draw circles and used the floating rings as hidden weapons. One or two rings couldn’t support the weight of the wooden planks and his teammates but what about hundreds of them connected together?

Xiao Lou thought of this and hurriedly said, “I have a way!”

Everyone looked at him and saw him taking out the S-grade Compass to draw circles on the ground earnestly. He drew circles with diameters of one meter. Every time a circle was drawn, a metal ring would appear on the ground like magic.

Lu Jiuchuan watched curiously as Xiao Lou worked busily. It took one second to draw one circle and in the blink of an eye, Xiao Lou had drawn hundreds of circles. The metal circles piled up like a mountain beside him before he finally stopped his movements and raised his hands gently.

They saw that the circles seemed to have their own consciousness and floated into the air according to Xiao Lou’s instructions! Then they connected and stacked together one by one, quickly extending out 50 meters over the oil cauldron. Every one meter, there were dozens of floating rings stacked on top of each other. The visual effect was like a series of disks floating in the air.

Lu Jiuchuan found that Xiao Lou’s operation was awesome. Even the magicians in games weren’t as cool.

Yu Hanjiang understood Xiao Lou’s intentions. “Do you want Old Mo to use the rings as support points to build a wooden bridge in the air?”

Xiao Lou smiled and nodded. “Yes, give it a try. Old Mo, split apart your wooden planks.”

If the rings were densely stacked in order of diameter from small to large, they could actually be made into solid circles suspended in the air for his teammates to step on. However, the workload for Xiao Lou was too big and it would probably take an hour for him to finish it. He only drew some circles of the same size and stacked them together as support points to make it easier for Old Mo to build a bridge.

Old Mo took out the Solid Wood Flooring card. This solid wood floor was enough to cover a 140 square meter house. Therefore, if Old Mo cut them according to a length of 10 meters and a width of 1 meter, it would be possible to lay a wooden bridge.

Mo Xuemin was familiar with his furniture cards. He quickly cut the boards and placed them on Xiao Lou’s circles.

Xiao Lou said, “Once the wooden bridge is completed, everyone will walk over.”

He and Old Mo cooperated with each other and a wooden bridge in the air was officially completed.

Lu Jiuchuan laughed. “We will soon become a construction team.”

They went to the hell of the mountain of knives and paved a marble path. They went to the hell of oil cauldrons and directly made a wooden bridge in the air. Was there a better construction team than them?

Everyone followed Yu Hanjiang onto the wooden bridge in a complicated mood. The boiling oil cauldron was under the bridge. On the wooden bridge, everyone calmly lined up to move. They looked as if they were crossing a small river that wasn’t frightening at all.

TL: Hey everyone! To celebrate CG almost reaching 10,000 members on discord, we will be holding a fanart or fanfiction event. There is no voting or judging. Anyone who enters has a chance to enter a lucky draw pool and win! The lovely translators and authors have contributed prizes. There are 50 prizes and 50 chances to win! Be sure to check out the details here.

CG 10K event

Proofreader: Paranoid Kitten & Fictional Reality