Chapter 251: The Enduring Zhenbing Tribe

Luo Yiqi and Catherine set off again with Gao De, and for the second time, they changed their route.

The destination had shifted from the initial Snowfield Guardian headquarters, to the former site of the Snowfur camp, and now, to the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe.

Having adjusted his mindset and accepted reality, Gao De found that a sense of anticipation was gradually growing within him.

In truth, he had always been filled with interest regarding the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe, the most powerful and ancient tribe in the Northern Realm.

It was like visiting a country; one is always willing to see its capital, otherwise, there is a lingering feeling of having come for nothing.

It was only because Gao De had been anxious about planting trees that he naturally wouldn't have wasted time on such things.

But now that the die was cast, a visit to the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe was unavoidable.

Since that was the case, he might as well treat it as a small group tour filled with novelty.

Luo Yiqi provided the mount and was responsible for carrying him forward; how could he not be considered a "hired driver"?

Furthermore, the entire journey featured various exotic prey as food; how could that not be considered "local specialty cuisine"?

"From here to the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe, even if everything goes smoothly, it will take nearly a month," Luo Yiqi said, carefully comparing the map while speaking to Gao De.

The Northern Realm is vast; even at their speed, travel time is usually calculated in months.

Gao De nodded and made a mental calculation. With his current progress in self-adaptation, it seemed he would be able to completely adapt to the Law-Forbidden Ice Needles within his dantian before reaching the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe. At the same time, his gaze naturally drifted toward the map in Luo Yiqi's hand.

Luo Yiqi didn't mind and let Gao De look.

The map in his hand came from the Snowfield Guardians.

As the oldest sect in the Northern Realm, the map drawn by the Snowfield Guardians was naturally far more detailed and covered a much wider range than the maps of the Snowfur clan.

The area covered by the map not only included the western region, which held over ninety percent of the Northern Realm's population, but even mapped parts of the sparsely populated central region.

Gao De watched and tried his best to memorize it.

As a magic user's rank increases and their mental power grows, their memory also improves accordingly.

Therefore, even with such a complex map, by expending a bit more energy, it was still possible to commit it to memory.

After all, memorizing a map is much simpler than memorizing data and text.

"Just look at it yourself; don't spread it," Luo Yiqi said after a while, rolling up the map and putting it back into his robes before adding a casual warning to Gao De.

Maps are extremely secret and precious knowledge for every faction in the Northern Realm; there is nowhere to buy them even with money.

Luo Yiqi's willingness to let Gao De see it was already an extra favor born of guilt; if Gao De were to try to copy the map and sell it for resources, that would be absolutely forbidden.

Gao De naturally understood this logic and nodded in response: "Naturally."

"They say the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe is the most powerful tribe in the Northern Realm; just how powerful are they?" Out of curiosity, Gao De asked one more question.

Back then, Chief Ximo of the Duo'erbian tribe had introduced the general situation of the Northern Realm to him, but Chief Ximo was ultimately just the leader of a small tribe with limited knowledge, so the introduction had been very rough and simple.

As a hunter for the Snowfield Guardians, the oldest sect in the Northern Realm, Luo Yiqi's knowledge was naturally incomparable to Chief Ximo's.

"The Enduring Zhenbing Tribe has a population of over half a million, and the number of hunters among them who possess the Ice-Born bloodline alone exceeds ten thousand." This wasn't a secret, and since Gao De asked, Luo Yiqi didn't mind answering.

In Northern Realm tribes, there is no such thing as professional soldiers.

So-called professional soldiers are not just anyone with combat power; they require strict training and well-equipped gear.

And Northern Realm tribes, which struggle even to ensure an adequate food supply, absolutely cannot afford to support professional soldiers.

Because professional soldiers do not participate in productive labor.

Their daily existence not only fails to bring a single cent of profit to the tribe, but on the contrary, they consume a vast amount of the tribe's resources.

In the Northern Realm, the armed forces within a tribe are usually called hunters; in most cases, they play the role of producers, and only when combat is needed do they transform into a military role.

Ten thousand hunters meant ten thousand Ice-Born magic users. This power was indeed formidable.

"Regardless of overall strength, in terms of top-tier combat power alone, they are also the best in the snowfield. In the entire Enduring Zhenbing Tribe, the number of known Fourth-Circle magic users alone exceeds five."

"And although the new War Mother of the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe, Su Naifa, is also only a Fourth-Circle magic user, because she wields the Enduring Zhenbing magic weapon, the weapon of Boreas himself, 【Blizzard】, and has awakened Enduring Zhenbing spells, her combat power is almost invincible among Fourth-Circle users; there are even rumors that she is capable of fighting a Fifth-Circle magic user."

"However, no one knows if it's true or false," Luo Yiqi paused here before explaining: "Because in the Northern Realm, there has long been no existence of Fifth-Circle magic users, so the rumors naturally cannot be verified."

Gao De fell slightly silent upon hearing this, then sincerely remarked, "That is powerful enough."

Never mind Fifth-Circle magic users; even a Fourth-Circle magic user was an unattainable existence for him.

To be more precise, a Second-Circle magic user would be enough to crush him as easily as crushing an ant.

The world of magic users, with its clear-cut ranks, was completely different from the novels Gao De read in his past life.

In novels, cross-rank challenges and the weak overcoming the strong are often the most normal things.

If you can't overcome the strong, you wouldn't dare claim to be a genius when you go out; some even exaggerate by claiming to defeat enemies two major ranks higher.

But in the world of magic users, cross-rank challenges are almost impossible.

First, the difference between high-circle spells and low-circle spells is simply too great.

Second, every rank advancement is accompanied by a transformation, an awakening of a specialty, and the existence of rank-up spellcasting.

The combination of these two is enough to make the combat power gap between circles extremely wide.

Just like Gao De now; even though he has only just advanced to a First-Circle magic user, if he were to face a magic apprentice, there would be no reason for him to lose.

Although the behemoth is called a tribe, the top-tier combat power of the Enduring Zhenbing clan already exceeds that of the Saint Xi En Duchy.

Comparing it this way, the power of the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe is evident.

A "primitive" tribe that struggles even to survive is more powerful than a duchy; all of this stems from the Ice-Born bloodline, and an Ice-Born bloodline that has been decaying for many years at that.

One can imagine how powerful the Northern Realm was when the Ice-Born bloodline was at its peak.

After dinner, Luo Yiqi and Catherine began their cultivation as usual.

Gao De, who had nothing to do but wait for the two to rest and silently trigger the Law-Forbidden Ice Needles, suddenly remembered that he still had two drops of First-Rank Ice Marrow.

He thought for a moment and activated the Mandora Magic Eye.

A circle of deep, ghostly blue fluorescence immediately emerged in the pupil of his left eye.

Gao De tilted his head back, took out the Ice Marrow, and dripped both drops into his Mandola Magic Eye.

That rich ice-elemental power quickly merged into his magic eye, nourishing and growing it.

A moment later, the power of the Ice Marrow had been completely absorbed by the Mandola Magic Eye, and his pupil emitted a clear, crystalline luster.

According to Gao De's classification, the rank of the Mandola Magic Eye at this moment should be: First Rank (3/72); it was still a long way from advancing.

But reality is not a game; it's not as if you won't have any changes if you don't level up.

In fact, throughout the entire advancement process of the magic eye, every bit of "experience" growth brings a slight improvement to the Mandola Magic Eye.

For example, now that Gao De uses the Mandola Magic Eye to look into the distance, his visual range has clearly increased, roughly equivalent to the focal length changing from 10x to 10.3x.

If it could evolve to the Second Rank, besides the increase in visual range, there should also be some essential improvements.

It was just that he was still short 69 drops of First-Rank Ice Marrow; where could he obtain those?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 252 =====