Fortunately, this time the blizzard came with such ferocity that it passed relatively quickly. Two days later, the snow and ice stopped, and the sky cleared. However, after crawling out of the cave, William Carter had almost no energy left in his body, and the remaining thousand-plus li would have to be completed purely by willpower.

Four days later, William Carter had run a thousand li, but the energy from the flame pill was completely exhausted. William Carter had nothing to eat and could only consume snow and ice. His body grew weaker by the day, running turned into walking, and eventually his body became completely numb, his vision gradually fading. He knew that if he lay down, he would never be able to stand up again.

Just as he was about to collapse completely, he saw the first great tree—a towering giant that soared into the clouds.

He was instantly overwhelmed with joy and burst into tears, summoning his last bit of strength to howl at the sky.

"Ah..."

It had been a whole month, but he had finally finished running over 5,700 li and left this damned ten-thousand-li glacier. At last, something other than white appeared in his field of vision.

He finally got to eat something. Although the tree seeds tasted terrible—bitter and astringent—he still ate dozens of them, until his entire tongue and mouth were completely numb.

After eating his fill, he slept soundly. Upon waking, William Carter continued eastward. The further east he went, the more numerous and dense the trees became, until eventually he was in a lush, dense forest. The forest was filled with gigantic trees, each spaced dozens of meters apart, so it wasn't difficult to walk through the woods.

William Carter fantasized about the animals in the forest—he could finally eat meat.

But he was disappointed! In this vast forest, there wasn't a single animal—not even a bird.

It shouldn't have been like this. When learning about this world, William Carter knew that the Hanmu Forest was supposed to be full of wild beasts. The Maori barbarians outside the forest often came here to hunt, but now there wasn't a single sign of life in the woods. For over a thousand li, the forest was deathly silent, and William Carter was on the verge of collapse.

Still, William Carter managed to improve his diet. He no longer had to eat the bitter, spicy tree seeds, and switched to another kind of tasteless, starchy tree fruit.

Five days later, William Carter emerged from the thousand-li forest and saw rolling mountains. It wasn't easy, but he finally saw mountains—after thousands of li of endless plains, he was almost at the gathering place of the Maori barbarians, and he would finally see other humans.

Sure enough, two days after leaving the forest, he saw the first house—a sturdy little wooden cabin. Overjoyed, he rushed inside. But there was nothing inside; the wooden furniture remained, but everything was covered in thick dust, with no food or clothing to be found.

At the time, William Carter wasn't discouraged, because this was likely a hunter's cabin. If the hunter had left, it was normal for no one to be living there.

But then, the second cabin William Carter encountered, the third, the fourth—all were uninhabited.

Finally, William Carter discovered a densely packed village with dozens of wooden houses, but without exception, all were empty. The furniture inside was neatly arranged, but everything was covered in thick dust.

Moreover, William Carter still hadn't seen a single animal—not even a bird.

And the further east he went, the more villages he passed, even going through two or three towns with large stone buildings, but still not a single person lived there, nor was there any sign of living animals.

What on earth had happened here? Why was there no sign of life?

By the end, William Carter's heart grew colder and darker with every step. It had been over a month since he left the glacier, and in that month he had traveled more than three thousand li, seen countless houses and uncountable towns, but not a single human, not a single bird or beast.

In the thousands of li of bitter cold near the glacier, there should have been hundreds of thousands of Maori barbarians and countless birds and beasts, but now it was as if they had all vanished from the world.

According to his master's words, this place should have been inhabited by the extremely cold-resistant Maori people, who were skilled with axes and born as mighty warriors.

Not seeing any humans could be explained—perhaps the harsh environment had forced the entire tribe to migrate—but not finding a single bird or beast, with nothing but endless trees, was simply unnatural.

William Carter knew that if he kept heading east, he would reach the vast ocean. He could even smell the scent of the sea on the wind.

Previously, William Carter had worried he wasn't moving fast enough, but later he became increasingly afraid to go on. He feared that if he kept walking all the way to the seashore and still didn't see a single human or animal, he truly wouldn't know what to do.

In the end, William Carter walked slower and slower, eventually covering only a dozen or so li each day, then randomly finding a house to rest in, as if dreading the moment he would finally reach the sea.

At this point, William Carter was still eating tree seeds, because there was simply nothing else to eat. He was still completely naked, because there wasn't even a scrap of clothing or animal hide to be found. There were leaves, but for some reason, every kind of tree here had leaves that were hard and sharp, completely unsuitable for wearing. And since there wasn't a single person in sight and William Carter wasn't afraid of the cold, being naked didn't matter to him.

……