Chapter 1899 - 1898: The Northern Borders Queen’s Protection

Northern Ice Field

The fierce snowstorm obscured the road ahead.

The snow-armored vehicle halted amidst the fierce snowstorm.

Boom—

The top of the armored vehicle was opened, and a young man in standard military attire emerged, gazing at the swirling snowstorm outside the window.

He raised his hand, retrieved a mechanical pocket watch from his chest, glanced at the time on it, and then looked behind him.

The densely packed armored forces sprawled behind him, stretching into the vast and boundless snowy terrain, almost completely buried by the snowstorm.

He raised his hand and pulled out a walkie-talkie from the armored vehicle’s interior, "Another snowstorm—can we still arrive at Wint City on time?"

"Captain Yvo, I’m afraid we can’t," a rough voice came through the walkie-talkie from the other side, "The snowstorm is too severe. Our troops must rest, otherwise everyone will get lost in the storm."

"If we wait for the snowstorm to stop, the people in Wint City will likely be all dead." Yvo shouted into the walkie-talkie, "Is there any way for us to advance quickly through this storm?"

"Allowing a small number of elite armored forces to proceed in the snowstorm is possible, but it’s very slow," the rough voice responded loudly, "But with so many troops, it’s simply impossible to march quickly in a snowstorm."

Upon hearing this, Yvo remained silent for a moment, then shouted, "What about the mecha units? Can they make it through?"

The rough voice paused, seemingly assessing, then quickly replied, "The mecha units can, but it might result in significant losses of mecha."

"Then bring out the mecha units," Yvo leapt out of the armored vehicle right away, "Order all mecha pilots to assemble; we’re going to assist at Wint City first."

"Captain Yvo, this plan is not feasible!" the rough voice shouted loudly, "It’s the elite forces of Rockville Energy Group and the Federation Central attacking Wint City. Sending only the mecha units is a suicide mission."

"Then do we just stand by and watch Wint City fall, doing nothing to help?!" Yvo shouted, "Who’s the captain here, you or me?!"

"Captain, the foreman explicitly warned when he came out, we mustn’t act recklessly," the rough voice from the walkie-talkie shouted back, "Our newly formed unit consists of old comrades from the mine; do you want to send them to die in vain?"

Yvo was momentarily speechless.

Just at this time, some kind of intense sound faintly echoed from deep within the storm.

Yvo turned his head, looking behind him.

Vaguely, some kind of aircraft seemed to be approaching and had stopped amidst the troops.

Soon after, a scratchy sound came from the walkie-talkie, "Captain, there’s a message from Rock City."

"What message?" Yvo asked, slightly taken aback.

"Rock City received an email," the voice from the walkie-talkie quickly stated, "It says there’s a ritual that might calm the snowstorm."

"Who sent it?" Yvo was puzzled.

"No signature," the other side of the walkie-talkie quickly replied, "but the foreman and Mayor Wright think it might be from ’K’."

"K?" Yvo paused, rasping, "Bring that method over!"

The sound of aircraft whistling through the snowstorm seemed to reach from behind.

After a brief wait, a small aircraft carried several soldiers over; they swiftly took out equipment and drew a camellia emblem on the ground.

"What does this mean?" Yvo jumped down from the armored vehicle, looking at the camellia on the ground, shouting.

"It’s the ritual pattern for seeking help from the Queen of the North," a rough officer nearby handed Yvo a document, "These are the ritual ’prayers’; the method says praying in the snowstorm is more effective."

"What does this mean?" Yvo hesitantly accepted the document, "Who is the Queen of the North?"

"It’s said to be the deity worshipped by Xiqilelan during the Era of the Great Cataclysm," said the officer, "holding authority over the wind and snow."

"Can we really believe this?" Yvo glanced at the text on the document and then at the camellia emblem on the ground, "Is this really effective, or are they just deceived?"

"Do you want to try it?" The officer raised his head, looking at Yvo, "The camellia emblem we drew is about to be buried!"

"We’ll know if it works once we try," Yvo took a deep breath and walked into the emblem, once again unfolding the snow-battered document in his hand, carefully examining the text before raising his head and gazing at the swirling snowstorm.

"Great, merciful, noble Queen of the North, in the name of Hein, we pray to you, implore you to calm the storm’s fury, and to carve out a path directly leading to Wint City for us."

His voice fell, everything remained unchanged, the fierce snowstorm continued to rage, and no changes occurred around.

He glanced at the officer and soldiers around him, who seemed equally confused, then took another deep breath and shouted aloud.

"Great, merciful, noble Queen of the North, in the name of Hein, we pray to you, implore you to calm the storm’s fury, and to carve out a path directly leading to Wint City for us."

After speaking, he didn’t pause, repeating the words once more.

Still, everything remained unchanged, the fierce snowstorm brushing against his cheeks and hair.

"I told you they were deceived," Yvo set down the document in his hand, glanced at the rough officer beside him, and handed the document back to him, "This thing is useless; my plan for the mecha units to act alone is more realistic."

Listening to his words, the rough officer was about to say something when he suddenly raised his head, looking behind Yvo with his eyes wide.

"What is it?" Yvo asked, somewhat confused.

At this point, he vaguely felt the icy snow brushing his cheeks had seemed to lessen.

He turned around, looking behind him.

Behind him, in front of the entire force.

A radiant light was gradually brightening.

The light shone like a sword splitting the heavens, parting the fierce snowstorm to both sides, ripping open a colossal snowy gorge as bright daylight pierced through the gorge, illuminating the ground below and making the gorge, along with the snowy terrain on its sides, shine brilliantly.

Soon, the gorge ceased to expand, leaving a width slightly wider than the entire force.

On the sides of the gorge, there was the raging snowstorm, drifting snowflakes, and a dim sky.

Whereas within the gorge, it was bathed in radiant sunlight, a tranquil passageway.

As if two invisible barriers had isolated the snowstorm, opening a wide avenue across the land for them.

The sunlight streamed upon the slightly exposed camellia emblem on the ground, flowing with peculiar hues.

"Wow." Yvo stared at the scene dumbfounded, eyes widened.

He turned back and glanced at the officer and soldiers beside him.

Everyone widened their eyes in shock, clearly stunned by the miraculous scene.

They had considered that the blizzard might suddenly cease due to some circumstance, paving a way for them, but they never expected it to ’open’ a path like this.

"Thank you, Queen of the North! Thank you, Queen of the North! Thank you, Queen of the North!"

Yvo quickly bowed in all directions, then bowed again to the camellia emblem on the ground, "Thank you, Queen of the North."

Then he leapt onto the armored vehicle and shouted, "Notify the entire army, advance at full speed!"

With the roaring machinery echoing under the bright light, the armored vehicles charged forward along the sunlit path.

——

Vissen Otherworldly Space Plain

"What?" The towering red giant Sulan seemed to sense something as well. He withdrew his gaze from the massive armor debris in the sky and looked downward.

A black smoke had unknowingly spread across the entire area covered by the array, nearly completely obscuring the crimson and purple glow of the array.

At the very center of the smoke, the coffin locked with purple chains, full of countless cracks, shattered with a roar under Sulan’s gaze.

Pieces of debris scattered into the black smoke, and the purple chains tightly enveloping the black coffin suddenly tightened at this moment.

But this time, the chains found nothing to bind. Accompanying the shattering of the coffin, the chains lost their target. Their glow passed through the black smoke, then intertwined fiercely, forming a purple ball of light.

At this time, a wrinkled, withered hand stretched out from the black smoke, grasping the purple ball of light.

Following the hand, the wrist, arm, and body emerged.

The fragments of the shattered black coffin gathered from all directions towards the hand’s location, instantly coalescing into an elderly, withered figure.

The elderly lifted his head, looked at the nearby red giant, and smiled faintly, "Sulan, we meet again."

Boom—

The surrounding black smoke surged like a tide, pouring in from all directions towards the elderly, absorbing into his body, filling his muscles, gradually propping up his emaciated body.

"Don’t even think about it!" Sulan immediately raised his hand. The array’s crimson and purple glow lit up again, forming invisible barriers in an attempt to cut off the black smoke, sealing it away.

But as these barriers formed, the smoke always found ways to circumvent them, ultimately converging on the dry, elderly body at the center.

The dry, aged skin quickly plumped up as the smoke gathered, and even the skin-and-bones head rapidly grew ’flesh’ and ’hair.’

The final black smoke enveloped the elderly’s body, forming a silk-textured black robe adorning his body.

He Ao withdrew his gaze, looked at the purple light in his hand, then at the array that had formed into a wall of light.

"Impossible, how did you do it?" Sulan stared at him and shook his head, "Are you really Denos?"

"I told you," He Ao calmly gazed at him, his fingers closing to pin the purple light at his fingertips, "read more books."

When he was inside the coffin, he had already thoroughly understood the array’s structure. Sulan could not possibly use this array to block him.

"How did you break the Divine Being’s seal?" Sulan gazed at He Ao, "You’re not Denos! Denos isn’t this formidable! You can’t be! How could you break the Divine Being’s seal! How could Denos be stronger than me!"

He Ao looked at him, shook his head slightly, his fingers resting on the ball of light, "As I said, you need to read more books, the seal wasn’t broken."

He never broke the seal; it’s just that the seal lost its ’target.’

The seal left by the Grim Reaper was designed to lock the Coffin of Time, but at that moment, the Coffin of Time had fully fused with him. The seal lost its target, rendering it powerless, plunging into chaos.

He Ao seized this gap, circumvented the seal’s determination, and redirected the seal’s power to ultimately grasp the seal’s strength.

As for how He Ao fused with the Coffin of Time, it was quite simple.

He referenced Ai Luoti’s previous ’escape’ method.

In the Ilotan strip club, all the staff had striking resemblances to Ai Luoti, being her kin or offspring.

When He Ao ’bludgeoned’ Ai Luoti, she used a secret technique to sacrifice all her kin in an instant, escaping, effectively letting these kin die in her place.

At that time, He Ao vaguely grasped the structure of this secret technique and made modifications.

However, his method wasn’t to die in someone else’s place, but to use the secret technique to activate the aura of the kin, disguising the amplification structure of the secret technique, misleading the seal into misjudging his power, thereby increasing its force.

Then he could turn around and use the enhanced seal to forcibly infuse the power of the Coffin of Time into his own body, expediting the fusion with the Coffin of Time.

As for where Denos’s ’kin’ came from.

He Ao turned to look at Anke.

Anke was a descendant of Denos.

He Ao didn’t know how they survived, but clearly, Anke’s ancestors weren’t in Kovotra when the disaster struck, thus escaping the calamity.

After Kovotra was completely destroyed hundreds of years later, they returned to live in Kovotra.

Of course, it might also have been the mysticism of Denos’s bloodline that attracted them back.

He Ao originally planned to take some of Anke’s blood when he escaped, but he never expected Anke to commit suicide.

However, the activation of this blood and life, to the greatest extent, deceived the seal, accelerating He Ao’s fusion process.

At this moment, he’s entirely unrestricted by the seal and the Coffin of Time.

And at this moment, Anke, almost completely silent, seemed to sense something, raised his head, and looked at He Ao, he slightly opened his mouth, and smiled, "Old man—"

An invisible light quietly spread over Anke’s body.

"Impossible, you couldn’t have achieved this." At this moment, Sulan still seemed incredulous; he stared at He Ao, roared, "You must have borrowed other power!"

But He Ao just looked at him calmly and smiled, "Are you stalling for time?"

His fingers pressing on the purple ball of light exerted a little force, and the power within the ball began to destabilize.

Above in the sky, the giant armor about to descend suddenly trembled, with clouds circulating around it, seemingly about to cover the descending armor again.

Sulan’s expression stiffened, and he immediately shouted without hesitation, "Ai Luoti, kill him! If you don’t kill him, he’ll kill you! I need to conduct the ritual, I can’t leave!"

Controlling Anke, Ai Luoti took a deep breath, then without hesitation abandoned Anke and rushed towards He Ao.