Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste-Chapter 914 - 142: The Frozen Temple of Safra

The cold wind carried fine snow particles as it howled over the vast dunes, making a sound like sobbing.

Perfikot stood on the sand ridge, her black cloak flapping wildly in the wind. She gazed at the snow-covered lowland ahead—according to the comparison of the star maps provided by the chiefs and ancient maps, Safura's Temple was buried beneath this sea of shifting sands.

The distant dunes appeared in an eerie blue-gray as dusk settled, as if the entire world had been frozen in time.

"Regent, the Energy Tower has been set up, and the snow melting operation has commenced." An engineer clad in heavy protective clothing briskly walked over to report, his goggles already frosted.

As he finished speaking, a small mobile Energy Tower unfolded at the edge of the depression, its massive body slowly extending, emitting the sound of metal friction.

Scorching steam gushed out from the top of the tower, forming a white plume in the cold air.

The thermal field quickly expanded, enveloping the area around the Temple. The surrounding temperature began to rise slowly, still below freezing but no longer at a deathly cold that would prevent the thawing of the earth.

Workers operated steam drilling machines to start the excavation; these custom drills could emit high-pressure, high-temperature steam.

As the drill bit penetrated the ground, white steam burst from the drill holes, gradually melting the deep layers of ice.

The melting ice water seeped into the sand, carrying away the loose particles. The sand and ice that had once buried the Temple were peeled away like a heavy veil.

Gradually, the outline of the buried structure began to emerge—first the tops of two twenty-meter-high statues of Safura sitting, then their downcast faces.

The stone surfaces covered in ice crystals glowed with a ghostly blue light at dusk, the statue's eyes seemingly inlaid with some special gem, reflecting eerie lights under the lamps, as if the sleeping goddess coldly watched the uninvited guests.

"It's here," Perfikot said softly, her breath condensing into frost in the air, quickly scattered by the cold wind.

Her voice was delicate but made everyone present hold their breath.

The scholars behind struggled to contain their excitement; one elderly scholar tremblingly raised a copper lantern, the dim light illuminating the ancient inscriptions gradually revealed at the statue's base.

Those twisted cuneiform characters were precisely the doomsday warnings recorded in the "Heliopolis's Frost Book of Prophecy," each symbol seemingly filled with chilling cold.

Workers swiftly constructed temporary camps around the Temple, erecting tents supported by steel frames and piling snow bricks mixed with sand and gravel as the base, soon building several igloos.

The thermal field from the Energy Tower extended to the Temple's entrance, continuously dispelling the cold that relentlessly invaded from the Temple's interior.

As the first shovel of sand was removed, the true appearance of the Temple gradually came into view.

The massive stone door had long been sealed by thick ice, its surface etched with twisted runes, these symbols flickering with eerie blue light under the lamps.

Perfikot reached out and touched the stone door, instant sharp pain piercing her fingertips; she quickly retracted her hand, finding a thin ice layer forming on her fingertips.

"It seems these inscriptions aren't merely decorative but rather some ancient low-temperature curse, still effective after thousands of years." Perfikot studied the runes, casually shook her hand, and coldly ordered, "Break it open directly."

The steam drilling machines roared to life again, and the workers adjusted the nozzle angle, concentrating high-temperature steam on the ice in the door seam.

White steam fiercely clashed with the blue ice, hissing noisily.

When the stone door finally slowly opened under mechanical brute force, a cold wind of centuries swept over, carrying fine ice crystals that hit the protective suits with a rustling sound.

Several workers standing too close turned pale instantly, quickly retreating within the thermal field range of the Energy Tower.

Inside the area known as Cold Wind Corridor, twelve crystal-clear ice columns stood eerily, each containing the frozen remains of an ancient priest.

The priests' attire remained intact, the ornate crowns and golden threads on the robes still clearly visible.

Their faces were lifelike, some with hands crossed on the chest, others gazing upwards with mouths open as if still silently chanting prayers.

Most unsettling was that all the bodies' eyes remained open, pupils seeming to retain the fear of their last moments of life.

"Don't touch the ice columns!" a scholar urgently warned, his voice echoing within the empty Temple: "Legend has it that staring for too long induces hallucinations; these priests might have willingly become Guardians."

Several workers carefully observing the ice columns immediately stepped back a few paces, someone rubbing their eyes, seemingly indeed seeing something they shouldn't have.

Perfikot ignored the warnings, walking directly to the main hall, her boots clicking on the thin ice-covered ground.

Her aim was clear—to find the complete prophecy.

The dome of the main hall was inlaid with a massive meteorite, under the spotlight's illumination, the black meteorite, the meticulously carved patterns on the dome, and the surrounding embedded crystals formed a stunningly grand star map.

But upon closer inspection, it became apparent this star map wasn't a depiction of the real night sky, but an artistic rendering of the doomsday prophecy.

When Perfikot observed the meteorite in relation to the other murals inside the main hall, she suddenly understood everything.

The meteorite represented the "White Star" mentioned in the prophecy, and the surrounding murals depicted White Star descending on the earth, Safura releasing Ice Divine Power, bringing eternal winter to the world.

"Looks like we've finally found the right place, start digging! We must find the original Book of Prophecy!" Perfikot ordered loudly, her gaze sternly fixed on the meteorite representing the White Star on the main hall's dome.

These ordinary workers, even the scholars around her, perhaps didn't know that White Star had already returned, and the world was truly facing a doomsday winter.

With the return of the prophesied Ice and Snow Goddess, the whole world faced an end; earth's life span now less than three hundred years, and if the problem was not solved, humanity would completely perish within decades.

Human civilization would, in the future, resemble the ancient priests trapped in ice columns, becoming a permanently frozen relic until one day the earth regained warmth, perhaps melting the ice layer and reemerging on the surface.

Just as Perfikot stared at the ice columns, pondering whether humanity's future would turn out this way, one of the ancient priests seemed to move slightly within the column.