Chapter 350: The Road up the Northern Snowy Mountain Range

Looking at his fourth son normally originally the most dandy, caring about his appearance the most in the family now actually turning into a three-year-old Half-Snake little boy with chubby cheeks sitting hugging a huge folding fan on the tabletop, Kaelen could not hold back anymore but burst out laughing aloud.

He stepped quickly to the tea table, brushed aside Finnick’s hand currently intending to poke his younger brother’s forehead, then bent down scooping the Half-Snake boy Oliver entirely up into his arms.

Unlike the warm fluffy fur coat of the leopard cub Finnick the other day, Oliver’s deep purple snake tail when touching the hand actually felt cool, smooth, and soft like a premium silk strip. Kaelen amusedly both kissed a really loud "smack" onto the pure white steamed bun cheek of his fourth son, and used his hand to stroke along the sparkling purple scale layer on his short tail:

"Oh my, truly each kid has a separate adorable look! It’s been a very long time since Papa newly got to carry Oliver back when he still wrapped his tail like this you know!"

Oliver being kissed on the cheek by his Papa in front of his Daddy and third brother was embarrassed to the point of only wanting to sink into the ground immediately.

The little boy used the white jade folding fan to cover completely his tiny face, his purple snake tail curled up hiding into under Kaelen’s shirt flap, his tender soft milky voice issuing from behind the fan sounding aggrieved with nowhere to put it all:

"Papa stop touching my tail already! Why when third brother was shrunk he turned into a leopard cub, while I was actually turned back into the Half-Snake form from when newly hatching from the egg like this?! My voice has also been turned into a child’s voice too here look!"

Sane sat down on the sofa beside Kaelen, extended two fingers unceremoniously flicking lightly once onto the purple tail tip currently sticking out outside his wife’s shirt flap, smirking sneering coldly:

"Who told you when at home you kept liking to show off. The Orbit of this world operates following the order from beginning to end. The third link is my War in the North which is still being half-blocked by that battle halberd fragment, you are the fourth link standing behind me yet dared to leapfrog to the front, the world rules not forcing you to turn backward back into an egg is already giving a lot of face to the faith amount you just gathered out at the dock you know."

Hearing the two words "an egg" mentioned, Oliver’s whole body immediately shivered once.

Back in the Beastman Continent in the past, he had once due to using the God Possession spell excessively been turned backward into an egg for a long time, being brought to be incubated by his brothers and the beastman crowd to the point of becoming a lifelong psychological trauma. Compared to the matter of having to crawl back into the perfectly round eggshell having no arms no legs, then the current three-year-old Half-Snake boy appearance seemed to be still plenty lucky!

Thinking through this point, Oliver newly reluctantly lowered the folding fan down from his face, sat with his back straight up on Kaelen’s lap, trying to regain a serious expression to discuss official matters using his tender milky voice:

"Papa, Daddy, earlier when erecting the seven Rule Steles out at the dock, I already sensed the situation of the Rule link on this continent Sir. Currently in the Southern region and the seven East coast cities, thanks to the Lyra Covenant the rules have begun to form, helping me retain about nearly two-tenths of Divine Energy for self-defense when necessary. But in the vast majority of the remaining lands, especially in the Three Northern Kingdoms and the continent region on the other side of the bay, order and rules have almost been destroyed completely!"

Finnick sitting in the opposite chair nodded continuing his younger brother’s words:

"Exactly as Prince Marcus declared this afternoon, throughout the past fifty years in the Three Northern Kingdoms, because of the influence of the killing lust blood fog in the Red Iron valley so the humans there only know how to use fists and hacking killing to resolve all matters, completely not having any laws or contracts existing anymore. If this time we bring even fourth brother along going up to the North, after Daddy recovers the battle halberd fragment and eradicates the blood fog, fourth brother can directly erect Rule Steles for all three of those kingdoms right on the spot!"

"Killing two birds with one stone, both completely clearing the third War link, and simultaneously expanding the fourth Rule link." Kaelen smiled stroking Oliver’s head: "Then it is decided like that. Tomorrow Oliver will also go along with us up the Northern snowy mountain range too!"

Right in the early morning of the next day, before departing to the North, Kaelen had taken out from his space pocket a warm cotton children’s outfit having a design with the lower flap widely slit reserved exclusively for the Half-Snake form that he had once tailored for Oliver when he was little in the Crimson tribe to dress him fittingly for his son.

When stepping out of the mansion gate to get onto the carriage, Oliver resolutely demanded to personally slither on his own using his tail to preserve the final bit of dignity of a True God.

However Kaelen looked at the rugged crushed stone road and the freezing cold weather of the Northern mountain region then flatly refused immediately:

"You look at your short tail and see, slithering on the snowy mountain stone road for not even half a mile then the belly scales will be completely scratched and even frozen into solid ice cream now. Be good, get inside Papa’s carrying basket and sit!"

Thus defying the gloating eyes of his third brother Finnick currently riding a horse walking beside, Oliver had to bitterly sit neatly tucked inside a large rattan basket lined with pure white sheepskin hung right in front of Kaelen’s horse saddle, his two tiny hands hugging the white jade folding fan, on his head even being put on an extra rabbit fur hat covering tightly both ears by Kaelen!

After handing over entirely all the administrative management work of Silverport and the six East coast cities for Brian along with half of the Crimson tribe warrior squad to stay behind guarding, the convoy consisting of Kaelen, Sane, Finnick, Oliver, the girl Ivy, Godfrey along with Prince Marcus leading the way immediately spurred their horses leaving the coastal region, advancing straight toward the direction of the giant snowy mountain range in the North.

Unlike the road going into the Eternal Forest full of rocky hills and woods, the road leading up to the Three Northern Kingdoms only had a single path crossing the year-round frozen snowy mountain range named Howling Wind Pass.

The convoy traveled exhaustingly throughout four days’ journey on the mountain slopes covered full of stark white ice and snow.

Arriving at noon on the fifth day, when the magic mounts just crossed over the towering high peak of Howling Wind Pass to look down at the vast plain region of the Three Northern Kingdoms located on the other side of the mountain slope, everyone in the convoy all had to simultaneously rein braking to a halt.

Looking down from the high pass peak, the sky above the territory of the three kingdoms Frostgard, Ironpeak and Stormhold completely did not have the clear blue color or the white color of ordinary snow clouds.

Instead, an entire sky region thousands of miles wide was all dyed with a faint rusty iron red fog layer, looking exactly like someone had just dissolved millions of barrels of dry blood into the snowy wind!

All the way in the far distance where the three large glaciers intersected at the center of the plain, was exactly the Red Iron valley. From the position of that valley, an irritable, brutal and bloodthirsty aura stream unceasingly radiated out following every north wind gust, blowing spilling across all the citadels and villages of all three kingdoms.

Even the carefully tamed magic mounts of Kaelen’s convoy when just breathing in a few breaths of wind carrying that rusty iron red fog also began to become restless, their two eyes slightly bloodshot, continuously snorting and using their front hooves scratching forcefully into the thick snow layer as if wanting to charge in ramming each other!

Finnick sitting on the horse back beside Kaelen only lightly flicked his finger once, a pure fragrance stream from the leaf on Chloe’s head flew out helping the mount herd immediately calm down again.

"Only just all the way out at Howling Wind Pass over two hundred miles away from the Red Iron valley yet the killing lust aura stream in the wind is already strong to the point of making mounts go crazy." Finnick frowned looking down at the pass foot: "Ordinary people living in this atmosphere throughout fifty years then how can they manage to preserve their sanity huh?"

Prince Marcus walking in front hearing that smiled bitterly a smile full of bitterness:

"Supremes, that is exactly the suffering of our Northern citizens throughout the past half century you see. Children born here not yet learning how to speak have already learned how to hold knives stabbing each other, old people die because of hunger and cold, while strong young men then just growing up reaching fourteen, fifteen years old are incited by that blood fog stream, volunteering or being forced to hold spears going out to the battlefield hacking killing until death then finally stop!"

The convoy skirted following the snowy slope going down to the foot of Howling Wind Pass, entering the territory of the first village belonging to the border of the Frostgard kingdom.

The scene appearing along both sides of the road made the girl Ivy walking behind have to sorrowfully droop her pointy ears down.

An entire riverside plain region originally capable of growing winter wheat now was abandoned stark white without a single human figure plowing and planting.

The wooden houses in the village had up to more than half collapsed their roofs because for a long time not having men’s hands repairing, inside the village completely not seeing any healthy young man at all, only entirely emaciated old people and women skinny exposing bones currently using iron hoes chopping every hard ice layer under the water ditch to dig dry grass roots bringing back cooking porridge.

However, right at the moment Kaelen’s horse convoy just went arriving at the empty land plot at the village head, an ear-piercing screaming sound accompanied by clashing metal "clank clank" sounds suddenly rang out from the front of an old grain storage barn!