Ice Mountain City is the seat of the King of the Northern Region Foreign People.
Over tens of thousands of years, the Northern Region Foreign People, using simple tools and their bare hands, hollowed out a giant mountain deep in the Northern Region, transforming a mountain into an impregnable giant city.
The Northern Region royalty and the most elite Imperial Guard of the Foreign Tribe, who protected him, were stationed here.
The significance of this giant city's existence was especially important for the entire Northern Region.
The King of the Northern Region was the strongest person on the entire Northern Region snow plain, and his existence also signified the most excellent bloodline among the Northern Region warriors.
Ice Mountain City was built in the furthest place from the battlefield, in the safest depths of the Northern Region, precisely to protect the safety of the most excellent and powerful bloodline on the Northern Region snow plain.
The King of the Northern Region was both leader and ruler, and also the spark of the Northern Region.
As long as Ice Mountain City was not breached and destroyed, the spark of the Northern Region would not be extinguished.
In the past years, Ice Mountain City's defensive strength had never undergone actual combat testing, because no enemy could ever traverse the blizzards of the ice and snow plain to reach it and touch the gates of this giant city.
Countless generations of Northern Region kings had marveled and wondered what the ancestors' wise men had intended by expending the tribe's strength for over a thousand years to create this invincible fortress.
However, at this moment, this magnificent city, forged with ice mountain solid walls, finally displayed its value, but the strength of the enemy was something even the wise ancestors of the Northern Region probably did not anticipate.
The fifty-meter-high stone carved city gate on Ice Mountain City exploded into thousands of shattered stones with a violent tremor. This icy stone gate, frozen for countless years in the extreme cold of the Northern Region and harder than diamond, was directly pulverized in a single blow!
Ironically, this was the first time this gate, painstakingly built by the Foreign People/Tribe of the Northern Region with immense manpower and resources, and the efforts of several generations of command and labor, had been attacked by an enemy. The result was its direct, one-hit destruction.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!..."
Accompanying the footsteps that broke through the city, the entire Ice Mountain City trembled slightly. What entered the city was not some gigantic creature, but merely a beast close to the size of a bull, resembling a Qilin but with sharp horns and fangs, a ferocious beast. On the back of this peerless demon beast sat a young girl dressed in Imperial military uniform.
Black Qilin. This was the first time Lin had deployed this ferocious beast in combat. Using yatsufusa to drive this top-tier Super Danger Beast was the limit of what yatsufusa could achieve. When driving Black Qilin, yatsufusa could not manipulate any other corpses to fight, not even a single corpse soldier, otherwise yatsufusa would be damaged.
However, the fact that Lin had to deploy Black Qilin to breach the city could be considered an acknowledgment of the Ice Mountain City gate's sturdiness. Even a gate that Lin, wielding the Avalon while clad in Demon God Dragon Armor, couldn't break, ultimately had to be destroyed by Black Qilin's ability to dilute the density of matter.
With each step Black Qilin took, the hard ice-stone ground would crack, but it ultimately withstood the weight of Black Qilin after its extreme compression. Only Lin and Black Qilin entered Ice Mountain City; the Seventh Expeditionary Force's assembly time had not yet arrived. The two Little Ones had already been compressed and shrunk by Black Qilin's ability and swallowed into its belly. Lin might not be able to account for them in the upcoming battle.
Yes, Lin was currently besieging the city, a single person attacking the capital of a nation!
The moment the city was breached, a cold wind, mixed with ice crystal particles, spread radially through the city. Wherever the wind, below negative two hundred degrees Celsius, swept, everything was frozen in an instant. People, events, and objects were all enveloped in a thick layer of frost before they could even perceive it. In just a moment, the entire city transformed into a frozen city.
A single strike to slaughter a city! This was something even an Ice Phoenix, the raw material for Essence of the Demon, could do, so how could Lin not? If this power were displayed before people, it would surely be feared by the world and the Empire. The series of reactions that would follow would be inconsistent with Lin's objectives. Therefore, Lin would not display this power before the world, but if she was alone, it didn't matter.
Black Qilin carried Lin, strolling step by step through this magnificent city, carved out of the mountain. It was hard to imagine that this was a city built by the Northern Region Tribe, known for their brute strength and ignorance.
The pedestrians on the street maintained their walking postures, and through their faces, covered with thick ice crystal particles, one could discern their expressions of shock and surprise as they looked towards the city gate. The elders were still gathered, seemingly discussing glorious past histories; the children were still running and playing; the women… Everything had fallen into silent stillness, like a specimen museum city of the Foreign People/Tribe of the Northern Region.
With each step, Black Qilin's body gradually grew, its hundreds of meters fully unfurling. Its massive body's giant claws inevitably stepped on something, leaving a trail of shattered ice chips.
Ice Mountain City housed the Northern Region royal family and the sixty thousand Northern Region guards protecting him. The common people living here were the relatives and family members of these guards. In form, it was somewhat similar to the Seventh Legion City constructed by Lin.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!..."
Black Qilin's giant footsteps echoed throughout the city. The ultimate Danger Beast carried Lin deeper into the city, finally stopping before a rugged, simple yet majestic palace complex. This palace was carved and excavated from the mountain rock of Ice Mountain City itself. In the Northern Region, where tents and stone cave dwellings were still the primary living arrangements, only the King of the Northern Region could possess such a large palace complex.
"Oh? A bit interesting."
Lin jumped off Black Qilin, a hint of surprise in her voice, muttering to herself with some interest. She then released the two Little Ones from Black Qilin's belly, restoring them to normal size, and then recalled Black Qilin into the yatsufusa space.
Little Najenda and Little Esdeath looked with full curiosity at this city covered in ice and snow. Whether it was the houses, pedestrians, walls, or even the ground, everything was frozen with a thick layer of ice crystals. This deathly, silent scene had none of the bloodiness of a battlefield; instead, the shimmering ice crystals gave it a dreamlike quality.
Finally, the two Little Ones turned their attention to the frozen palace that Lin was observing. Little Najenda couldn't help but ask:
"Mommy, is there anything special here?"
"Hmm, inside here is the last target of our trip. After this, we can go home."
Lin then led the two bewildered Little Ones into the palace. The closed palace stone gate was pushed open directly by Lin.
"Huh? Isn't this a palace? Why is there no one here?" Little Najenda, who had visited the Imperial Capital City several times, couldn't help but look at the empty palace courtyard with confusion. Although it lacked the gardens, landscapes, and intricately carved pavilions of the Imperial Palace, there shouldn't even be a single frozen Imperial Guard.
Lin did not answer Little Najenda, but instead, with a serious and solemn expression, led the two children towards the core main hall of the King of the Northern Region's palace.
The entire way was empty, with nothing but ice-crystal-covered mountain walls. It wasn't until Lin reached the end of her destination and pushed open the main hall's door that she finally saw one person in the palace, the last person.
A rugged, tall, middle-aged man, dressed in luxurious animal skins, sat on a massive stone throne. His serious and calm face exuded an aura of authority that commanded respect without anger. He watched Lin and her party, who had directly pushed open the door. Around the man, scattered ice fragments lay on the ground, clearly indicating that the cold current that had frozen the entire city had failed to affect him. Little Najenda and Little Esdeath, intimidated by this aura, were somewhat timid and dared not step into the carved stone palace. Lin did not force them, walking in by herself.
The King of the Northern Region, the man known as the strongest in the Northern Region, sat there, waiting for Lin's arrival.
"I was wondering why I swept through the entire city so easily. It turns out all the experts had already evacuated."
Lin walked step by step towards the King of the Northern Region, speaking as she went.
"That's right."
The King of the Northern Region replied calmly, and at the same time, he picked up a bone spear leaning against the side of his throne and stood up.
"Where are your sixty thousand Imperial Guards?"
"They have already left this place with the embers of my tribe, heading to a place your Empire cannot reach."
"The Ice Circle (Death Forbidden Zone)? That place is a bit troublesome."
The so-called Ice Circle (Death Forbidden Zone) was a place further north from Ice Mountain City, akin to the Arctic Pole on Earth. The storms there would even make a Wind God Winged Dragon feel tricky, and the hidden dangers were such that even Lin, who had once approached it while riding a Wind God Winged Dragon, had not easily stepped into it.
However, if even Lin was unwilling to easily step into that place, how many of those who entered would be able to come out? Lin could even sense that there were Danger Beasts there no less powerful than Black Qilin.
"To so easily give up resistance and choose for an entire tribe to seek survival in death, that doesn't sound like a decision a Northern Region warrior would make."
"A strong individual and powerful army capable of easily annihilating all the main elites of my tribe is no longer something the Northern Region, which I rule, can resist. Because I knew you would come sooner or later, I waited for you here, but the strength of the enemy still exceeded my expectations."
The King of the Northern Region held his bone spear, looking at Lin, and said solemnly:
"The Northern Region Tribe perishing at the hands of a strong individual like you is no injustice!"
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