Chapter 131: Idiots

Inside the palace, Axe, who had been leaning against the wall, suddenly grinned.

"Heh... Idiots. Not all have my brilliant brain!"

"You were also bouncing," Lupine reminded him mercilessly.

Among all the caves, only Lupine didn’t leave a single thing inside his leftover place.

Only the Yang array remained for fun.

Moon glanced at them once and almost laughed out loud.

.

.

.

The last path belonged to the Snow Valley.

This one had also been contracted later. There had been no time for a full restriction earlier. While Ghost Master was busy sealing the Xirang soil, the Snow Master had been slowly handling the frost path himself.

He was almost done.

The boundary was just about to close.

But this group that entered this cave was faster than the others.

They were mostly Vesper people, and their Shadow Lord was still relatively steady despite the residual poison.

Just as the last restriction seal fell into place, the vast frozen valley flickered once.

For a single fraction of a second, the real Snow Valley appeared before the first person entered the place—the Vesper Shadow Lord.

When he stepped on the edge of the snowy cliff, for a fraction of a second, he saw an endless white glacier, cold wind, and the distant pool.

The air that hit his face was sharp and pure, nothing like the damp poison that had been eating at his lungs. White snow stretched farther than his eyes could reach. A soft blue light glowed under the ice, and somewhere far away, a pool reflected the rising sun like a mirror.

It was only a breath.

Then the scene changed rapidly. The space folded inward, so fast that the Vesper lord experienced the brief illusion that what he saw was all just his hallucination.

Because before he even shifted his gaze, in front of him was only a small frost cliff and a small patch of frost land underneath.

The sudden change made his heart skip once.

He stood frozen at the edge, eyes fixed on the ordinary rock and thin layer of ice that now covered the ground.

Most of the poisoned generals and sentinels were too weak and dizzy to notice anything at all.

Many of the low-level warriors were already collapsing to their knees, gasping for breath as the bitter, frosty air worsened the dark poison lines burning through their bodies.

Their faces had turned a sickly gray-blue. Some clutched their chests. Others leaned against the cold walls, coughing up black-stained spit.

They only saw a few Frostbite Grass clusters scattering here and there through their hazy, bloodshot vision.

But the Vesper Shadow Lord had seen it.

His pupils shrank for a moment. He stood still for a few breaths, staring at the ordinary frost cliff and land in front of him, and thought he was really sick from the poison and from the illusion they had faced earlier.

Maybe it was another residual illusion from that array.

"Damn illusion!" He muttered the word under his breath, but there was still something he felt was strange.

The rest of his people, those who could still stand, had already started harvesting the remaining Frostbite grass and mushrooms, frost ore, and some arctic roots, eager to gather anything to justify their suffering.

Their hands shook as they pulled the plants from the cracks.

Some of them argued in low voices over who would carry the frost ore. Others just stuffed whatever they could reach into their limited storage bags, faces twisted with both greed and remaining fear.

The lord kept looking at the space where the valley had briefly appeared, and his mind was settled in deep thought.

Something was wrong with these caves.

Very wrong.

He didn’t share the feeling with anyone. He only narrowed his eyes once more at the empty frost cliff before turning away.

Inside the Flaming Garden, Xiao Hong clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"Unlucky. That one was too fast."

Moon’s expression turned a little serious as he watched the Vesper Shadow Lord’s face in the mirror. The man had seen something he shouldn’t have. And Moon already knew this would become a problem later.

Regardless, they would get some breathing time.

Later, when all of the groups tried to return toward the cavern’s main entrance, they found out there was a massive landslide, and the roof had collapsed, closing all the entrances behind a rock wall.

The groups’ faces became dark with tension.

The half-dead common warriors began to panic. Their strength was depleted by the toxic, rotting poison and the continuous labor of digging.

Many of them could barely lift their arms anymore. The air inside the sealed paths had grown suffocating with every passing breath.

How would they not panic?

They would die if it was too late.

"How will we get out?"

"Fuck! This must be that gutter mutt’s black witch and the defectives’ work!"

"How will we get out?"

"I feel suffocated."

Chaos erupted once again across the separate cave paths.

Some warriors started clawing at the rock with their bare hands.

Others tried to use weapons, only for the blades to spark uselessly against the solid stone.

A few of the weaker ones simply sat down and stopped moving, eyes empty.

But Moon didn’t have the mood to see them anymore.

He knew that by the time they could leave, there would be less than half the people alive.

But this is what they got for going against him.

Lupine put down the mirror and scolded the Snow Dragon in his heart.

If it were not for his laziness, Vesper Lord would not see the snow valley.

"Now let’s go out and leave the gorge before they come out," Moon suggested.

"How? Outside, there are more guards," Ugo reminded him.

"Didn’t we collect all the caves? We should be able to go into our home in the Lost Realm. Let’s finish the work there first. Chika is still there waiting. We need to give him work too," Moon smiled.

"Let’s go then," Ugo said, standing up.

"Wait!"

Axe lifted his hand.

"Darling... Can we just spend a day here and rest? This bed feels very good."

As he said, he lay down on the bed. The soft red mattress sank a little under his weight.

He stretched his arms behind his head and closed his eyes like a man who had already decided the matter was settled.

And Moon knew he would not leave this place until he got what he wanted.

A playful smile played on Moon’s lips. "You want to rest only?"

Axe opened one eye and looked at the very interested Lupine and Xiao Hong.

He waved his hand lazily.

"Go, go, go... You guys just met. Go out and play. Leave your fathers and mother alone."

"This place is mine," Xiao Hong protested, flipping her long red hair with a huff.

But soon they both were kicked out.

The cabin door closed with a soft click.