Chapter 614: Snow Realm Knocker

On a wind-swept, snowy night inside Wan’an Pass.

In a small building in the Northwest District, a few soldiers were gathered in a decent-sized lounge, clearly waiting for something.

As the current commander of the Cyan Mountain Army, Captain Cheng Border looked slightly agitated. Despite being over forty, he seemed uncharacteristically impatient, pacing back and forth in the brightly lit room.

Xu Yiyu stood at the far side of the room, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. Still wearing her jet-black lower-face mask, her icy eyes followed Cheng Border as he paced.

Although she was a standard member of the Snow Burning Army, the way her cold eyes tracked Cheng Border’s movements was enough to send a chill down one’s spine, befitting her reputation as a cold-hearted assassin.

In fact, there were a total of three “assassins” in the room. Besides Cheng Border and Xu Yiyu, there was also a middle-aged soldier named Yi Xin.

He was the one who, along with Snake, had escorted the rare Soul Beast—the Snow Devourer—back to the pass ahead of schedule. As a result, he hadn’t taken part in that near-fatal encounter.

Later, Yi Xin heard the story of what had happened in the Outer Region.

While he had been fraught with anxiety for his surviving teammates, he had also deeply etched the name Rong Taotao into his mind.

Rong Taotao, son of Lady Xu Fenghua.

Cadet of the Pine Soul Soul Martial Junior Class, number one in the Outer Region, national champion, official member of the Twelfth Squad, codename: Pig.

This young man, not yet eighteen, held a long list of titles and had accomplished a series of astonishing feats during his tenure with the Twelfth Squad!

The Poacher Organization had run rampant, plaguing the northern Snow Realm for decades. However, after Rong Taotao joined the army, everything changed.

He was even the main catalyst for the complete downfall of the Qian Organization.

In fact, it wasn’t just Yi Xin of the Cyan Mountain Army; the entire Three-Wall Guard Army knew that someone like Rong Taotao was coming, and most of them were aware of his history.

This was a young man destined for the history books. During the Battle of the Three Cities, he had been the crucial turning point in the Songjiang battlefront. Even more astoundingly, in the encounter just a week ago, Rong Taotao had once again been the pivotal figure in the conflict!

Everyone had to admit that Lady Xu Fenghua had only appeared because of Rong Taotao’s presence, and this in turn had drastically reduced the defensive pressure on the entire Three-Wall Area!

Clearly, the Soul Beast Army was genuinely afraid. They knew who they could afford to provoke and who they couldn’t.

In the long history of warfare in the Snow Realm, the Soul Beast armies had initiated thousands of battles, large and small, yet the number one Soul General of the Outer Region, who stood vigil by the Dragon River, had seldom made a move.

As long as you didn’t go raising a clamor at her feet, she wouldn’t bother with insignificant insects.

Time and again, the number one Soul General of the Outer Region had remained indifferent.

And time and again, the Snow Realm Soul Beast Army had grown bolder.

But this time, she acted!

And it was this single, simple action that had suddenly brought stability to the otherwise perilous Three-Wall Area.

On any other night of raging blizzards, such a situation would have been unthinkable.

So far, at least, the soldiers of Wan’an Pass hadn’t seen any sign of the Soul Beast Army—only a few scattered Snow Realm Soul Beasts, blown in and cast down by the storm.

Watching the figure pace back and forth, Yi Xin suddenly spoke, his muffled voice emerging from behind his lower-face mask. “Captain Cheng.”

“Yes?” Cheng Border stopped pacing and turned to look at Yi Xin.

Yi Xin and Xu Yiyu, once considered prodigies, were now in their thirties and gradually entering middle age.

Normally, younger warriors would be more likely to perish on dangerous missions due to their lack of experience and comparatively weaker abilities.

But it was precisely because of their youth that they were assigned to missions of relatively lower difficulty.

The experienced veterans, one after another, had died or been maimed by the sharp teeth and claws of Soul Beasts, or had been lost in the depths of a Snow Realm Vortex. Yet, the younger Yi Xin and Xu Yiyu had ironically survived with all their limbs intact.

Yi Xin began, “The men on the wall heard that people were joining the Cyan Mountain Army. When I came over from my post just now, they were all wishing me well, wishing our squad well.”

It would be difficult for an outsider to understand Yi Xin’s feelings at that moment. As the man in his thirties spoke, the rims of his eyes actually began to turn red.

The Snow Burning Army was vast, and wherever you have people, you’re bound to have politics.

But one must not forget that these soldiers were different from ordinary office workers. They were men who put their lives on the line every day, brothers-in-arms who had endured years of hardship together in the boundless, stormy snows.

Thus, with the blade of death constantly hanging over their heads, the camaraderie forged through shared adversity was unquestionable. The hugs and well-wishes the City Wall Guard Army gave Yi Xin were all utterly sincere.

Hearing this, Cheng Border couldn’t help but sigh.

Yes, this was a team that had essentially been condemned. Not taking on new members meant a slow, inevitable demise.

So for two new members to suddenly join—and on the personal order of the Snow Burning Army’s commander-in-chief, no less—what could that possibly mean for the surviving members of the Cyan Mountain Army who were just waiting for their own “deaths”?

It was no wonder, then, that the few members of the Cyan Mountain Army in the room were so deeply moved.

As they were speaking, several figures appeared in the wide-open doorway.

There was Fu Tiance in his dragon-head mask and Chen Bingxun in his tiger-head mask, followed by two younger, unmasked figures.

The captain and vice-captain of the Twelfth Squad, personally escorting them. Rong Taotao and Gao Lingwei certainly had clout…