Chapter 127: Blood and Snow

Chapter 127: Chapter 127: Blood and Snow

Are the Northern People resistant to the cold?

Everyone was taken aback.

It was a good question.

Good in that it was completely redundant.

Most of those barbarians wore little more than scraps of animal hide, their arms and legs exposed. Of course they were resistant to the cold.

But soon, Goddalir, who was in the know, seemed to understand something and asked in surprise:

"Gai, you intend to act personally?"

"It’s about time I tested the results of my training on the snowy mountain. Besides, I haven’t really done much this entire trip."

Wang Xi smiled at Cinderella.

"I’ll be the main force this time. You all can provide support."

He immediately gave the order for the Mechanical Puppet Legion and the Monster Legion to spread out and silently encircle the Northern Army’s temporary encampment.

He himself led Pinocchio, Goddalir, the two Witches, and over twenty young men and women straight toward it.

During this process, Wang Xi summoned "Encouragement Meow" Liuli. The calico cat did a somersault and landed on his shoulder, which didn’t arouse anyone’s suspicion.

After all, the walking cat was a Cat Elf; using Magic to "dismiss" and "summon" it was perfectly reasonable.

As they drew closer, two patrolling Northern soldiers were the first to notice something was amiss and stopped in their tracks.

The two turned their heads, stared blankly for a moment, and then broke into identical savage grins, muttering to each other in their guttural language.

Wang Xi’s group was composed entirely of handsome men and beautiful women. They were dressed in fine clothes but wore no armor, looking like a bunch of powerless young nobles on an outing.

Just then, one of the Northern People took out a horn, about to sound a warning, while the other had already drawn the Hand Axe from his waist and was striding toward them.

His gaze was vicious, fixed on the young nobleman in the lead. ’First,’ he schemed, ’I’ll chop this leading punk down with one swing of my axe to intimidate this group of delicate Kingdom masters and misses. Then I’ll have my fun with them.’

But before he could take two steps, he saw the young man in the lead raise a hand toward him at a forty-five-degree angle.

’What’s he doing?’

’Some unique salute from the Kingdom?’

The thought had just flashed through the Northern Warrior’s mind when he heard a dull THUD—a sound that came from his own forehead.

Intense pain followed, and his consciousness sank into darkness.

THUMP! THUMP!

The two patrolling Northern Warriors collapsed in unison, each with a bloody hole in their forehead. The blood and brain matter froze solid before they could even spill out.

They had no time to react before Wang Xi’s raised hand shot out Ice Arrows that pierced their skulls, killing them on the spot.

Without a single glance at the corpses, Wang Xi continued to lead the group forward.

Along the way, they encountered several more pairs of patrolling soldiers, but without exception, a mere wave of his hand was met with the dull thud of bodies hitting the ground.

His Ice Magic had grown so powerful now that the Ice Arrows he casually fired had extreme piercing strength and their trajectories were difficult to track. Dealing with these Whiteboard One Star humanoid units was basically an instant kill every time.

Before long, Wang Xi arrived before a courtyard occupied by the Northern People. The wooden house was dilapidated, the surrounding fence was crooked, and what was once a tranquil country home had now been converted into a temporary military camp.

A fire was lit inside, where a dozen or so Northern Warriors were eating, drinking, and laughing. Bloodstains were visible everywhere; it was clear the original family who owned the house had long since been killed.

"Hm?"

One of the bald Warriors, who was sitting facing the entrance, suddenly looked up and saw Wang Xi’s group.

He let out a harsh, guttural shout.

He tossed aside the chunk of meat in his hand, grabbed the axe beside him, and stood up.

Wang Xi understood him. He was shouting, "Kingdom People have broken through the perimeter!"

In an instant, all hell broke loose.

Not only did all the Northern Warriors in the courtyard grab their weapons and jump to their feet, but even those resting, preparing food, or counting spoils inside the house all came rushing out.

Twenty to thirty Northern People, their faces murderous and their eyes bloodshot, stared at Wang Xi’s group with the savage, greedy, and desperate eyes of a wolf pack that had just spotted a wild rabbit.

They reveled in slaughter, obsessed with the wails and screams of their prey just before death, after being toyed with and tortured.

Most of the Kingdom’s people here had been tortured to death. It was just a pity for them that Randall was now almost entirely devoid of life; they couldn’t even find a single living farm animal.

And now, a new batch of young Kingdom People had shown up, leaving the Northern Warriors present both surprised and delighted.

With a great RUSH,

they swarmed forward.

The bald man in the lead let out another guttural roar, warning his companions not to use lethal force.

But what met them was a great shower of thin Ice Crystal flakes. The palm-sized, snowflake-shaped crystals, as thin as a cicada’s wing, spun at high speed as they swept through the crowd.

The sound was like a swarm of venomous hornets rushing toward them, a BUZZING vibration that sent a chill down their spines and made their scalps tingle.

SWOOSH—

SHIIINK!!

With a series of tearing sounds, like blades ripping through cloth, the charging Northern Warriors cried out in agony as blossoms of blood erupted from their bodies.

Ice Blades slit throats, plunged into eye sockets, and pierced through hides to bury themselves in chests...

One by one, the Northern Warriors fell mid-charge, as if they were being subjected to death by a thousand cuts. In the end, only a few remained, and they reached Wang Xi drenched in blood.

The bald man was among them.

「Northern Raider Captain (Slightly Darkened) · Owa (Mortal Enemy/Three Stars/Elite)」

The three beside him were all Two-Star Elites.

The four of them were utterly horrified, their faces twisted in shock. Only now did they realize this group was not a flock of lambs for the slaughter, but powerful enemies who possessed Extraordinary Power.

"Guh... Shaman!"

The bald man shrieked, his eyes red as he raised his axe and charged.

Wang Xi’s expression was impassive.

The man had shouted "Kingdom Shaman," his tone laced with a hint of fear.

The Northern Captain knew full well that there was no escape from the courtyard; the only exit was blocked. To survive, his only choice was to fight to the death.

However, his full-force axe swing was caught with a single hand—a hand coated in white frost, which firmly gripped the falling axe blade without suffering a scratch.

CRACKLE...

Ice Crystals spread from the axe, instantly freezing the bald man’s arm. In his rapidly constricting pupils, the reflection of the black-haired young man raising his hand appeared.

SHING—

A slender Ice Sword materialized in Wang Xi’s hand and instantly pierced the bald man’s throat.

With another casual flick of his wrist, the frosty glint of the sword flashed past, and the other three Northern Elites, who were just raising their axes to strike, were all decapitated.

Blood spurted like a fountain as heads rolled to the ground.

Having killed all four in the blink of an eye, Wang Xi stood with his hands at his sides.

The Ice Sword in his hand dissipated into an icy mist.

The entire courtyard of twenty to thirty Northern Warriors had been wiped out by him in a single clash!

Behind him, the Witches, Goddalir, and the others all wore expressions of astonishment. Gai’s strength had progressed by leaps and bounds after half a year of arduous training on the snowy mountain.

He had now even learned the Ice and Snow Queen’s unique Ice Elemental Magic. Even the proud and haughty Wolf Witch, Sofia, couldn’t help but give him a second look.

「Target killed!」

「Capture the abilities of "Owa"?」

「...」

Four consecutive kill notifications appeared.

But Wang Xi only captured the bald man’s Card, choosing to forgo the other three.

He was now a Five-Star Elite; killing targets so much weaker than himself yielded minimal returns. At best, he would only get a White Card that would pollute his Card Pool, making the cost-effectiveness far too low.

A ball of green light floated up from the bald man’s corpse and entered the space between Wang Xi’s eyebrows.

Just then, the hurried sound of footsteps crunching on snow suddenly came from all around, drawing closer and closer. Accompanied by the clamor of a crowd, more men were rapidly closing in on their position.

Wang Xi glanced left and right.

In this area of stone and wood houses, a dark mass of Northern People swarmed in from both ends of the main road. A rough estimate put their numbers at over a hundred.

Evidently, the sounds of the earlier fight had finally alerted the nearby Northern Warriors.

"Good, this saves me the trouble of hunting you down one by one,"

Wang Xi said.

He took a step forward, Magic Power surging from his body, and in the blink of an eye, he was clad in a suit of Ice Crystal Armor.

Before the Northern People could charge, Wang Xi made the first move. He gathered a ball of ice and snow in his palm and abruptly raised his hand.

SHING—

A spiraling ice pillar burst forth like a lance, extending over ten meters and boring through the crowd in front of him.

With a series of SQUELCHING sounds, it skewered four or five Northern Warriors through the chest, lining them up like candied haws on a stick.

They didn’t die instantly. They grabbed at the arm-thick spiral of ice protruding from their chests, screaming and wailing in terror.

—「Frost Beak」

This was the ultimate move contained within the 「Snow King」 Card, its original form being 「Tidal Blade」.

"Explode,"

Wang Xi whispered softly, clenching his five fingers into a fist.

SHING SHING SHING!!

Irregular, densely packed icicles suddenly sprouted from the spiraling ice pillar he had created, like the thorns of a rose, blooming from within the bodies of the Northern People.

With a BANG,

the ice pillar shattered, turning into a sky-filling mist of blood.

It left behind a ground splattered with blood and littered with severed limbs, terrifying the surrounding Northern Warriors into retreating.

Someone in the crowd roared in that guttural tongue again, repeating "Kingdom Shaman."

Wang Xi deduced that "Shaman" was most likely the Northern People’s term for a Casting Unit. From their terrified expressions, he could tell that such powerful individuals were both rare and deeply feared among them.

"Everyone, I’ll leave the enemies at our rear to you."

Wang Xi tilted his head, his voice echoing from beneath his Ice Crystal Helmet.

"Liuli, you go help too."

"Yes, Master!"

The calico cat leaped from his shoulder, completing its transformation the instant it landed.

Wearing a round, flat iron helmet and greaves on its legs, it grabbed the large chainsaw from its back and charged into the crowd, leaving a trail of roaring noise and smoke.

Goddalir, Pinocchio, and the others acknowledged with a word and turned to deal with the Northern People behind them.

Only the two Witches, Bev and Sofia, did not move, remaining where they stood—these weak Northern People were simply not worthy of their attention.

...

...

In less than ten short minutes,

not a single living Northern Person could be found in the entire area. The snow-covered ground was littered with severed limbs and conspicuous crimson bloodstains.

In the dead silence,

Wang Xi walked slowly through the piles of corpses.

The Ice Crystal Armor on his body faded away, revealing his original black cloak, which remained spotless.

Just now, using only Ice Magic, he had single-handedly slaughtered his way through the Northern Army on the road ahead, effortlessly killing over sixty men.

It wasn’t that the Northern Warriors hadn’t thought of fleeing; it was that they had absolutely no way to escape.

The Mechanical Puppet Legion and the Monsters that had long since surrounded the area blocked every path. A dozen or so unlucky ones died to the Fire Salamanders’ Fireballs, the Kobolds’ stealthy Arrows, and the goblins’ Long Spears.

When they turned back to fight Wang Xi to the death, the Arrows and Flying Axes that landed on his Ice Crystal Armor didn’t leave so much as a scratch.

Getting close to him was even more impossible.

With a casual wave of Wang Xi’s hand, showers of Ice Blades rained down and volleys of Ice Arrows swept forth, cutting down the charging Northern Warriors like stalks of wheat.

It was a one-sided slaughter!