CHAPTER 1515: CHAPTER 1515: ICE AND SNOW GEM

Town area

The sword with a faint red glow pierced into the body of the transparent figure, emerging from its back.

Hiss—

Accompanied by a soul-shaking screech, the transparent monster filled with countless arrows and broken swords swayed slightly, then fell backward onto the ground.

Thin cracks spread outward from where the weapons were inserted, resembling shattered ice, eventually forming a complete web that completely enveloped the monster.

"General." Several soldiers immediately rushed forward, supporting the figure that had fallen from the sky.

"I’m fine." Kaster raised his hand, declining the soldiers’ assistance.

He bowed his head, looking at the transparent monster lying in front of him, less than the height of a person, and exhaled deeply.

"This guy is probably the cause of those recent disappearances," a nearby officer resembling a deputy walked over to Kaster, gazing at the motionless transparent monster ahead, "even though we used magic weapons, we lost so many people."

"Yes," Kaster nodded slightly, "I really don’t know where these monsters came from; I’ve never seen them before."

He looked around, seeing the narrow streets littered with the bodies of soldiers, blood staining the thin ice and white snow on the ground crimson, surrounding the shattered transparent monster, like bloody flowers blooming in the snow.

"Cough—" Then he lowered his head and coughed up a mouthful of blood, "If there were one more of these monsters, we would all die here."

"Indeed." The deputy nodded gently, with deep agreement.

Boom—

While they were talking, a violent tremor seemed to come from afar.

Immediately, a fierce wind suddenly rushed at them, followed by violently scattered snowflakes.

The piercing chill penetrated the skin, seeping into the bone marrow.

A sharp howling sound rang in everyone’s soul.

Kaster looked up, his gaze piercing through the snowstorm overhead, "Fox’s Fire?"

——

The white-haired girl leaning against the fireplace slowly opened her eyes. She slowly stood up, walked to the window, and looked outside.

The fierce snowstorm covered the earth and city, also obscuring the seemingly never-setting sun, turning the entire world into a white expanse.

And at the top of this white sky, ribbons of brilliant light were hanging from the horizon, illuminating this intense snowstorm.

——

Aurora?

He Ao glanced at the glowing ribbons in the sky, then at the transparent figures rushing towards him.

This city clearly has polar day phenomena, so it should be within the Arctic Circle, with a relatively high latitude. The appearance of the aurora isn’t surprising.

But theoretically, in such severe snowstorm weather, it shouldn’t be possible to observe such clear auroras.

The cold wind and snow blew in through the roof’s opening, with brilliant lights showering down from the sky, merging into the fierce storm.

Under this light, the ’ice blocks’ inside the transparent monsters seemed to be ’growing,’ with sharp ice spikes spreading outward from inside, piercing through their flesh and covering their bodies.

These spikes caused their bodies to hunch, extended claws, even their heads were torn open from inside, transforming into grotesque figures.

All these changes happened in a very short time, in the instant when the brilliance from the sky rushed down.

The massive monster behind He Ao tore open an even larger aperture in the roof.

And the monsters flooding in were like a fierce tide of ice, tearing apart the walls on both sides, attacking He Ao.

They opened their sharp teeth, producing more beast-like growls.

Solid stones were easily cut like ice and snow, buildings collapsed in the wind and snow.

The howling wind brushed against everyone’s ears.

In the blink of an eye, these figures reached He Ao.

The brilliance in the sky dimmed slightly, as the claws of the massive shadow behind him covered the light overhead.

He Ao calmly gazed at the fierce ice monsters filling the sky and ground, raising his hand to gently cover the lightly trembling eyelids of the little girl in his arms.

Whoosh—

It seemed like the howling wind’s sound or perhaps the world itself was gently rippling beneath.

With this ’ripple’ passing through, the monsters that were roaring, raging, and charging, each seemingly made of transparent solid ice, paused under the cold snowstorm.

Time seemed to stand still at this moment, everything halted, even the snow in the air seemed to slow down.

The monsters just stayed there, like frozen, exquisite yet terrifying ice sculptures, with the pale snow falling on their solid ice, adorning their heads and shoulders with some white.

Then, in the next instant, as if a light hammer had tapped from the depths of time and space.

Boom—

These ’ice sculptures’ shattered simultaneously, turning into scattered ice crystals, drifting away with the wind and snow.

In a blink of an eye, only an empty space remained.

At this time, the little girl in He Ao’s arms stretched her body, opening her eyes.

The eye outline embedded in the inverted triangle behind He Ao’s head slowly receded and disappeared.

The little girl fully opened her eyes, raised her head, somewhat confused, looking at the snowstorm overhead and the aurora glittering within it.

Then she slightly shifted her gaze towards He Ao, who was holding her.

"Have you thought it over?" He Ao raised his hand, gently swiping forward.

The invisible wind followed the movement of his palm, blowing away the scattered ice crystals around, swept into the corners of the room.

This entire wide stone house had collapsed in the recent battle, with only some corners remaining.

This invisible wind reached a wall corner stacked with debris in front.

The stacked stones, meeting this wind, split swiftly to the sides like blown foam props.

Soon, a relatively intact corner emerged beneath the drifting snowstorm.

Two children rested below this corner, peacefully asleep.

The collapsed debris happened to stack up, forming a narrow space, protecting the two children within, even the hem of their clothes untouched by dust.

This was something He Ao had casually shaped by sending a divine sense over just before the mutation began. This sense had been persisting on the two children, protecting them.

At this moment, the little girl in He Ao’s arms was fully awake, recalling He Ao’s earlier question of ’whether she could open the box to see.’

She looked at He Ao, then at the two still unconscious children a short distance away, hesitated for a moment, and slowly raised the small wooden box in her hand, "Don’t break the box, okay."

"Why not open it yourself?" He Ao placed her on the ground, smiling as he watched her.

The little girl looked down at the box in her arms, thought for a moment, and gently nodded, "Okay."

As she spoke, she placed the wooden box on the ground and gently opened it.

The drifting snow and wind around seemed to quietly stir at that moment, the howling wind growing slightly louder.

The space-time of heaven and earth also seemed to show signs of disturbance.

The contents of the box gradually came into He Ao’s field of view.

It was a small lump of ’snow,’ half of which had formed into solid ice, with unusual colors shimmering on it, resembling a brilliant gem.

A faint orange-gray light flashed across He Ao’s field of view, and the structure of the ’Ice and Snow Gem’ unfolded before his eyes.

This ’gem’ itself was merely a purely frozen block of snow, and its radiance came from the extraordinary power it contained.

However, the essence of this extraordinary power was unstable, filled with madness, distortion, hunger, and savagery.

Theoretically, this thing should not exist stably; the moment it was born, it would explode directly, leaving widespread devastation and horribly distorted pollution.

But an inexplicable, faint force suppressed these mad powers, uniting them to prevent an immediate explosion.

This inexplicable force seemed strongly related to the little girl; when she opened the box and gazed at its contents, the force entered a sort of ’distracted’ state, creating gaps in its suppression.

The suppressed powers would then partially leak out, affecting the surrounding space.

The temporal fluctuations He Ao had sensed earlier were likely caused by the little girl opening the box, resulting in the leakage of the powers.

From this, it seems that this box could probably only be opened by the little girl.

If something were to happen to the little girl, or if someone else forcibly opened the box, the suppressing force would likely go berserk, detonating the power of the Ice and Snow Gem, taking down everyone nearby.

However, He Ao was not surprised by this.

When he saw the box being carried by the little girl and vaguely felt the power inside it, he realized that the contents of the box were probably strongly linked to the little girl.

So, he didn’t try to make the little girl give him the box; instead, he let her choose to open it herself.

"Was this left by your father?" He Ao asked softly, looking at the little girl.

"Uh-huh," the little girl nodded heavily, "that night I felt Dad had come back, but when I got up, I couldn’t see him,"

She held the box, "so this must be something left by Dad."

The surrounding space-time slightly rippled because of this swaying.

He Ao gazed at these Ice and Snow Gems. The sealing power of the gem contained a force that could disturb space-time, although it did not show any historical influences.

But the intertwining of ice and space-time had already provided enough ’clues.’

"Did your father go hunting in the northern mountains that night?" He Ao asked quietly.

"Uh-huh," the little girl nodded excitedly, "My dad’s really amazing; everyone says he’s the greatest hunter. He goes deep into the snowy mountains and returns with lots of prey every time, and he always comes back on time."

"Indeed." He Ao glanced at the wooden box clutched tightly in the little girl’s arms, then at her pale cheeks, nodding gently, "He loved you very much."

The Ice and Snow Gem in the box was disturbing space-time, affecting the extraordinary, and subtly corroding the little girl’s body and soul.

The power suppressing the pollution inside the box was gradually weakening.

Soon, this uncontrolled pollution would seep out.

The body of a mortal child cannot withstand such high-grade pollution.

"Close the box," He Ao smiled, "I’ve seen it; it’s beautiful."

"Hehe," the little girl nodded, "My dad’s the greatest hunter, and the things he brings back are sure to be the best."

Thud—thud—thud—

At that moment, a sound of orderly and urgent footsteps came from afar.

He Ao stood up, looking outside.

On the street opposite the original main entrance of the stone house, a team of fully armed soldiers was swiftly approaching.

Their footsteps echoed as they stepped on the stone bricks of the street, producing crisp sounds.

On both sides of the street, many doors opened, and some people resembling servants peeked out, cautiously watching what was happening on the street.

Clearly, although the battle just now was brief, it made a loud enough disturbance to alarm the surrounding ’neighbors.’

"Mr. Hein, what’s going on?" The leader of the armed soldiers was Kaster, whom He Ao had just met.

He saw He Ao standing in the house and quickly walked over to ask promptly.

And at that moment, the little girl behind He Ao was just about to close the box and, when moving the box, noticed the Ice and Snow Gem inside emitting a faint glow.

She looked up in some confusion and saw that the sky was filled with ice crystals.

He Ao had just raised his hand to clear the ice crystals formed by the broken monsters; the area where the little girl was now was in this zone free of ice crystals.

But just a short distance from her, faint ice crystals were floating.

The little girl held up the box and brought it closer to the ice crystals, noticing that the closer it got, the brighter the gem inside the box became.

She looked at the ice crystals in some confusion, scratching her head as if unable to understand what it meant.

"There seems to be some kind of monster lurking here," He Ao said naturally as he looked at the approaching Kaster and then glanced at the servants and ’neighbors’ observing from the street, "They’re capturing kids from the poor district for food."

"Is that true?" Kaster was slightly startled.

Then he stepped forward, approaching He Ao, and whispered, "Mr. Hein, are you sure of what you’re saying? This is the nobles’ district of the city-state, and those living here are all prominent nobles. The place you’re at now is a noble’s residence and is connected to several major noble families,"

He paused, speaking cautiously, "Even if you’re Queen Kela’s friend, slandering a noble could cause a lot of trouble."

Then he lifted his gaze, scanning around, "Where is the noble living here? Have you seen him? He’s an old man, probably thin and frail; did you protect him?"

He Ao looked at Kaster before him, shrugged, "I told you, the ones in this house were all monsters; they’ve all been dealt with."

Kaster’s smile froze at that moment, his face turning dark and tense, unable to hold his expression steady.

Right now, the soldiers outside were about to move in, and Kaster immediately raised his hand, shouting, "Don’t come in yet."

The soldiers’ movement halted.

Kaster withdrew his gaze, looking at He Ao with a somber expression.

After a brief pause, he took a deep breath, his voice a bit cold, "Frankly speaking, Hein, you’ve gone too far this time. If it were any other time, I would have killed you immediately, but the city-state’s current situation is poor and needs Xiqilelan’s help,"

He took another breath, "In light of Queen Kela, you come to the Governor’s Palace with me immediately."

Faced with these threats, He Ao merely observed him calmly, smiling as he shook his head, "Wait a moment."

Saying this, he turned around and looked at the little girl behind him.

Then he paused for a moment.

The little girl was holding the open wooden box, aiming it at him, or rather, at the figure behind him.

The gem inside the box was emitting a dazzling light at this moment.

The red sword behind him was raised high.