Chapter 1516: Chapter 1516: Fox’s Fire

Governor’s Palace

Rote raised his head, his gaze passing through the narrow window, looking at the howling blizzard outside and the bright radiance falling from above the storm.

“Fox’s Fire?” He watched that radiance, slightly furrowing his brow.

The wrinkled animal skin paper was naturally placed aside, and he stood up, looking to his side.

The fireplace was ablaze with roaring flames, the warm firelight crackling in the silent space.

In the places where the radiance could not reach, in the shadows between the walls, the world seemed to be sinking into a dim silence.

Invisible darkness seemed to be emerging from those shadows, waving its monsters, swallowing the dim firelight.

The roaring flames suddenly flickered, as if brushed by the cold wind outside the window, suppressing the firelight.

“Bertha?” Rote raised his head, calling the maid’s name into the shadow.

But the entire room remained so silent, as if the eternal night had already descended.

——

The little girl raised her head, her eyes wide as she watched the sword cleaving down from above.

She opened her mouth to scream, but the sword was so fast that just as she opened her mouth, the sword light had already fallen on He Ao’s back.

Boom——

The sword, glowing with a red light, shattered like ice striking solid rock, scattering into countless pieces.

But He Ao seemed completely unaware of what happened behind him, raising his hand to signal the little girl to close the wooden box in her hand, and gently said, “This box can’t be opened often.”

The little girl widened her eyes, her brain somewhat unresponsive, her body instinctively following He Ao’s instruction to close the wooden box.

It took her a while to react, stuttering, “Brother, behind you…”

“It’s fine.” He Ao shook his head, turned around with a smile, looking at Kaster behind him.

And Kaster had already withdrawn his hand, staring at the broken sword in his hand, his mind momentarily dazed.

As if he hadn’t realized what had just happened.

He Ao gently dusted off the ashes on his clothes, calmly watching him, smiling, “General Kaster, do you have a problem with me?”

“You ask if I have a problem with you, why don’t you ask yourself?” Hearing this, Kaster snapped back to reality, looking at He Ao, his figure slowly retreating.

Meanwhile, he put his hand behind his back, making a gesture to the army behind him, and the fully armed soldiers behind him slowly approached.

At the same time, he stared into He Ao’s calm eyes, continuing, “You kill our nobles in our city-state, wantonly trampling and destroying the order and rules of the city-state, and now you ask if I have a problem with you?”

His voice grew deeper, his gaze icy, continuing, “I also want to ask you, do you have a problem with Rock City State, do you have a problem with us Roke people?”

“I have no problem with your city-state,” He Ao calmly smiled, “and no problem with the Roke people either,”

He looked at Kaster before him, glancing at the entire damaged stone house, “But you, are you human?”

“What makes you say we’re not human?” Kaster’s face stiffened, showing an angry expression, “I am a general of Rock City State, standing before you, and those just killed by you, are all nobles of Rock City State, we follow noble virtues, born with noble status, are we not human? Then who is? Those weed-like commoners?”

“Actually, everyone’s heart holds an answer,” He Ao gently raised his hand, and the two children sleeping in the corner slowly floated up, landing behind him, nestling beside the little girl holding the wooden box.

He calmly gazed at Kaster before him, and the soldiers gathered around Kaster, “Everyone has their own, definition of ‘human,’ my definition of ‘human’ is indeed different from yours,”

He smiled as he looked at Kaster, “But whether you meet the so-called ‘virtue’ and ‘nobility’ in your heart, whether you should rightfully consider yourself human, you also know in your heart.”

“Nonsense, Hein, I think you’re crazy,” Kaster’s face completely darkened, anger etched across his cheeks, now, already standing among the dense soldiers who had picked up bows and arrows,

“You should pay for your arrogance and stupidity, I think Queen Kela will also understand our judgment upon you.”

He raised his hand, calling out coldly, “Fire the arrows!”

The surrounding soldiers immediately raised their hands to draw the bowstrings, releasing the arrows strung on the wooden bows.

At such close range, the dense barrage of arrows pierced through the wind and snow, heading straight towards He Ao.

The little girl behind He Ao widened her eyes, dumbly watching all this, holding the wooden box tightly.

These arrows all glowed faintly, a faint red glow, drawn on them, seemingly sketched with a blood Array.

But He Ao did not gaze at these arrows, instead, his gaze lifted upwards, looking at the brilliant aurora hanging in the sky.

The aurora was high above everyone’s heads, the faint white radiance seemingly, indistinctly dotting in the pupils of every soldier, and also dotting in Kaster’s pupils standing among the soldiers.

Whoosh——

The howling wind and snow passed through the land, this blizzard seemed to grow even fiercer.

But amid this fierce blizzard, the arrows more densely packed than the blizzard, shooting towards He Ao, paused at this moment before He Ao.

The faint red glow shone on those arrows, transmitting an aura of violent frenzy.

But no matter how this glow shone, as if a formless barrier had formed between heaven and earth, blocking the advance of these arrows.

“Fire the arrows! Keep firing!” Kaster shouted angrily.

One by one the arrows were once again strung on bowstrings, released in an instant.

The densely packed arrows passed through the void, stopping at the region where the original arrows calm, suspended in the void.

And behind these arrows, the archers still relentlessly continued, new arrows constantly inserted into the previous arrows, stacking with the earlier ones.

Soon, all the soldiers had fired the arrows from their quivers, and those arrows floating in the air also piled up, forming a wall of arrows in the void.

Their shafts covered with blood marks, glowing with dazzling red light, almost illuminating the white snowflakes bright red.

Boom——

A slight sound came from the blizzard, seemingly the sound of a certain arrow shattering.

Immediately after, this slight sound quickly chained together, forming a series of crackling noises.

These crackling noises accumulated, turning into a booming thunder shaking the blizzard.

The stacked arrow wall collapsed in an instant, exploding into complete dust.

Kaster saw this scene, angrily raising the broken knife in his hand, “Charge! Charge! Unleash your power, kill him! Kill him!”

The surrounding soldiers raised their heads, faint white light filling their pupils.

Without hesitation, they discarded the wooden bows in their hands, drew the swords at their waists, and charged towards He Ao.

Fine cracks spread across their skin, and with this relentless charge, something within them gradually stirred.

At a certain moment, slender, ice-like spikes pierced from within them, from the inside out, penetrating their skin.

Then, these ice spikes rapidly expanded, translucent light and shadow faintly revealing from beneath their skin.

Those indistinct colors, like bursting through clothes, stretched their skin from the inside.

However, the soldiers seemed unaware of the mutation in their bodies, continuing to charge forward with their heads held high.

Until the transparent bodies inside them completely surged out, like insects breaking free from a cocoon, struggling to draw themselves out of their bodies, and then reabsorbing the ‘cocoon’ they had shed.

The brilliant aurora descended from the sky, shining upon these ’emerged from the cocoon’ transparent monsters, causing their bodies to grow further, expand, tear apart, transforming into even more twisted and terrifying monsters.

Having retreated to the last place of the soldiers was Kaster, who gazed upon this bizarre and grotesque scene, watching the soldiers charging forward beside him, constantly transforming into strange transparent monsters, becoming more twisted and terrifying.

He did not find anything wrong with it; all of it seemed right and natural.

He only felt his head itching a bit. He discarded the broken sword in his hand and reached back to scratch the itchy spot on the back of his head.

It seemed to be some kind of fragile skin, emitting an unbearable itch.

The itch was so unbearable that Kaster had to scratch harder, striving to scratch those itchy spots thoroughly.

Until he scratched forcefully.

Zip—

With a crisp sound, he felt as if he had torn something covering him off.

The itch vanished completely at that moment, and his body had never felt so light, as if he had been released from shackles, gaining complete freedom.

His body swiftly expanded, like compressed cotton breaking through its bonds, naturally puffing, stretching, and expanding.

He lowered his head to look at what he had just torn off; it was a piece of facial skin with hair, resembling his own appearance.

His emotions were so calm, as if all this was meant to be.

So it was, he was indeed no longer human.

He inserted this face skin into his semi-transparent body, allowing it to completely melt and disappear with the other skin.

The ease of breaking free quickly dissipated, replaced by a profound hunger carved into his soul.

This hunger naturally caused him to lift his head, looking at He Ao standing ahead, along with three children behind him.

The dazzling aurora shone upon him, drawing out the ice within him, causing his body to rapidly undergo mutation.

In an instant, he became a massive transparent solid ice monster, towering twenty to thirty meters high.

He opened his sharp, ice-spike-like teeth, crawling on the ground, slowly inching toward He Ao with the other monsters around him.

——

“Bertha?”

Rote slowly descended the dim staircase, the oil lamp casting faint light as its fuel neared depletion, illuminating the darkened area.

“Bertha!”

He raised his head, gazing into the surrounding darkness, shouting loudly once more.

It had been a long time since he ventured into this back area, and it seemed even darker than the last time he visited.

Creak, creak—

At that moment, a subtle chewing sound seemed to emanate from the depths of darkness.

Rote followed the source of the sound, looking ahead, only to see a chubby, blurred silhouette.

He walked forward slowly, coming up behind the silhouette and whispered, “Bertha, you’re here. Did you see anyone else?”

The chewing sound abruptly stopped.

In the dim darkness illuminated by the oil lamp, the wide, chubby figure turned around to look at Rote behind her.

A dull glow was cast on her face, mostly hidden in shadow, revealing her moist, crimson lips.

She grinned, baring two rows of teeth stained red, “No, sir.”

Witnessing this, Rote was briefly stunned, then immediately reached out to grasp the servant’s body, “What are you doing?!”

His speed was extremely fast, bursting with fierce force.

His strength was immense, confident he could restrain the servant before him.

Boom—

In the next moment, his figure was struck by an invisible force, flying backward, crashing into a stone wall nearby, creating fine cracks upon impact.

“Cough—” Rote spat out a mouthful of blood as he pulled himself from the wall, glancing at the servant who slowly retracted her hand. He immediately turned, running up the stairs, shouting, “Guard! Guard!”

——

The howling snowstorm brushed against his face as He Ao silently watched the mutated guards, now monsters, charging toward him.

A thunderous sound echoed between heaven and earth, emitted by a giant transparent monster stepping on the ground.

That was the monster Kaster had become.

In fact, when He Ao first met Kaster, he probed into Kaster’s mind, recognizing him as the typical arrogant, greedy, and opportunistic noble.

He could also vaguely sense Kaster’s memory, presumably intact.

At the time, he hadn’t yet seen these transparent monsters, so he didn’t perform a deeper ‘check’.

However, after encountering that emaciated elderly stewing meat, he became more vigilant.

Though the elderly man’s soul appeared intact on the surface, He Ao could normally view his memories. However, upon delving into the depths of his soul and memories, he saw blanks within.

Therefore, when Kaster arrived here, He Ao, erring on the side of caution, took a deeper look at Kaster’s soul.

That’s when he saw the voids within Kaster’s soul.

At that moment, he realized that these ‘transparent monsters’ were not a mere coincidence.

And it was then that he knew Kaster had long been ‘mutated’.

However, he did not explicitly state this. He wanted to know if Kaster would make a move on him, and what fundamentally drives these transparent monsters.

According to Kaster’s human reasoning, he really shouldn’t make a move on He Ao, as he initially stated.

Even if he were to act, it would be to secretly assassinate once He Ao had left the city.

But the way he made his ‘decisions’ did not seem to rely solely on human reasoning.

And he himself, indeed, was unaware that his mind had been influenced.

He Ao looked at the transparent monsters in front of him.

Each monster had a transparent line, disappearing into the depths of the void.

He lifted his head to look upward.

The brilliant aurora still hung high above the firmament, its light piercing through the blizzard, covering the entire city in ice and snow.