Chapter 289

This "war" was neither a sectarian struggle nor a matter of mortal enemies, and the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe was not some evil organization, but a prominent and respected major tribe of the northern realm.

Therefore, apart from a very small number of people who still harbored other thoughts, most of these high-circle mages of the Icefield Temple really did not have much psychological resistance to the idea of submitting to the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe.

Their only worry was how Gao De and Su Nai would treat them after they were incorporated by the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe. After the mages remaining at the Icefield Temple chose to submit, Gao De and Su Nai walked openly into the Icefield Temple.

This ancient structure stood on a patch of extremely flat snow; while called a temple, it was not actually a single building, but a massive complex of interconnected structures covering a vast area.

The Snowfield Guardians were the oldest sect in the northern realm. Because of their doctrine of guarding the snowfield, they had almost never been at odds with any power in the northern realm before Ryan practiced forbidden necromancy and slaughtered the northern tribes.

According to the normal pattern, they should have been able to continue this legacy for many more years.

But since someone chose to make a change, they naturally had to pay the price.

It was just that this price was a bit high.

"This is our sect's library; most of our sect's classics are here," Luo Yiqi said, leading Gao De to a black stone building and introducing it to him: "Including doctrinal texts, as well as magic, cultivation methods, and various miscellaneous knowledge texts."

This was Gao De's request; the first thing he wanted to see was the Snowfield Guardians' library, not their treasure vault.

Inheritance was the thing Gao De valued most on this trip.

It was just that the Ice-born mages of the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe didn't care much about this—whether it was cultivation methods or magic, theirs all came from bloodline awakening, and they had no need for such things at all.

This method of relying on bloodline inheritance, while powerful, was clearly a very backward concept.

Outside the northern realm, the first of the three major principles for mages was: Knowledge is power.

However, correcting the deeply ingrained concepts of the Ice-born mages was not a task that could be accomplished overnight, and Gao De did not force it.

Because although the people of the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe might not necessarily understand the importance of inheritance, they would certainly do as Gao De instructed.

At least for now, that was enough.

Luo Yiqi used a secret command to open the door to the library, then led Gao De and Su Nai inside.

The library was vast, with stone shelves arranged along the four walls of the room; these shelves were sturdy and ancient, which was the only way to withstand the harsh cold of the northern realm and the erosion of time.

On the stone shelves were "books" made of various materials.

Some couldn't even be called books, as they were made of animal hide, and there were even stone slabs and bones with characters carved into them.

It couldn't be called anything but primitive, but it also reflected the long history of the Snowfield Guardians' inheritance from the side.

Gao De went through these classics with great interest.

He glanced at the doctrinal texts and tossed them aside; these were essentially political books aimed at consolidating faith and unifying thought, used for "brainwashing," and to Gao De, they were the most useless knowledge.

Then there were the miscellaneous knowledge texts, which were closely related to life on the snowfield, covering everything from the natural environment to flora and fauna.

There were dozens of thick animal hide scrolls in the same series, detailing the appearance, habits, and other aspects of common creatures on the snowfield.

Gao De flipped through them and found that they contained not only descriptions of geomorphic creatures like snow wolves, but also records of small mammals and birds, and even insects were not overlooked.

Dozens of animal hide scrolls on another stone shelf were all introductions to snowfield plants, including medicinal plants, edible plants, and even magical plants, detailing their appearance, harvesting methods, growth environments, and other details.

In addition, there were some books that recorded practical skills for living on the snowfield, such as how to find suitable campsites and how to find food; these were all experiences accumulated by the Snowfield Guardians over thousands of years.

Many of these things were understood by the people of the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe, but they relied more on oral tradition rather than compiling them into books like the Snowfield Guardians.

"Very good, collect all these books and transport them to Phoenix," Gao De said, his joy growing as he read, as he solemnly instructed the elder of the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe beside him.

"As you command, my King."

"Mage, are books very valuable?" A small head poked out of Gao De's pocket.

When she was bored and had nothing to do, Fu Luo La was too lazy to move, so she simply hid in Gao De's pocket to sleep.

"Not really," Gao De thought for a moment and said truthfully.

"Then why is the Mage so happy?"

"Because books are the ladder of human progress."

"Who said that?"

"Not me, Gorky said it."

Fu Luo La tilted her head and looked at Gao De, wondering what he was thinking.

But Gao De knew what she was thinking.

"They are also the ladder of progress for Lady Fu Luo La."

"Lady Fu Luo La doesn't want to progress." The small head shrank back in.

If it were before, she would certainly have been full of enthusiasm.

Fu Luo La had always been a child with a strong sense of curiosity.

But now everything had changed.

Because after leaving Phoenix, the hateful Mage started teaching her "arithmetic."

The Mage told her that if you learn math, physics, and chemistry well, you can travel the world without fear.

Perhaps it was true... but arithmetic was so hard, harder than magic.

Although she didn't quite understand what "physics" and "chemistry" were, she had already deeply experienced the terror of "arithmetic."

Lady Fu Luo La was not afraid of traveling the world; Lady Fu Luo La was afraid of arithmetic.

Of course, she only thought this in her heart and didn't say a word of it.

Because the Mage had always praised her for having a wise heart.

If she were to say that she was afraid of learning "arithmetic," would the Mage think that her wise heart wasn't actually that wise?

Being a smart person is so tiring... Lady Fu Luo La thought sorrowfully.

After finishing the miscellaneous books, the next thing to look at was the main event.

In a corner of the wall, there was another small room.

The door was opened with a secret command as well.

Inside were the mage inheritances of the Snowfield Guardians; these precious books recorded the sect's core cultivation methods and skills.

The inheritance of the Snowfield Guardians actually consisted of two paths: Guardian and Hunter.

Hunters were adept at tracking and hunting, and were also proficient in various combat spells.

As for Guardians, they were better at survival and perception.

In addition, beast taming was a common strength of both Hunters and Guardians.

Ninety percent of the mages who chose to submit outside the Icefield Temple today were Hunters. Because among the Snowfield Guardians, only Hunters were stationed in the sect, responsible for daily management and external affairs.

They only went out to perform missions after receiving assignments from their superiors.

Guardians were the exact opposite; they spent most of their time patrolling the vast, boundless permafrost of the northern realm, only occasionally returning to the sect.

"This room was previously only accessible to Archbishop Lu En, Saint Arbiter Ryan, and Chief Kunxi Ese." Luo Yiqi stepped aside, not intending to enter.

This was the confidential area of the Snowfield Guardians. Now that the Snowfield Guardians had been incorporated by the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe, he could not look at the things inside without the permission of Gao De and Su Nai.

Gao De and Su Nai looked at each other, and then the two walked in together.

Compared to the outside, this room was much smaller.

There were only two stone shelves, on which were scrolls made of fine parchment.

Gao De flipped through the stone shelf on the left, while Su Nai looked at the one on the right.

"Wilderness Secret Arts," "Beast Spirit Walker," "Natural Secret Arts"... the stone shelf here contained cultivation methods, but there weren't many of them, only six in total.

It was just that each cultivation method had a lot of content, and combined with the summaries of cultivation points left by the sect's elders, there were that many scrolls.

As for the right stone shelf, it should be spell formulas, as expected.

Although most Snowfield Guardians were also Ice-born, compared to traditional Ice-born mages, they often also practiced cultivation methods of the "Hunter" or "Guardian" schools, and also needed to learn and master additional spells.

Of course, they were still primarily based on Ice-born magic, with these self-learned spells as a supplement.

Coupled with the fact that many spell materials were unavailable in the northern realm, the Snowfield Guardians didn't actually have that many spell formulas left.

But what was certain was that they should all be spell formulas that could be prepared using locally sourced materials.

"My King, this is the unique spell of the Snowfield Guardians, and also their signature spell; it was improved from the spell 【Ice Blade】 that all Ice-born can awaken."

Su Nai handed the scroll in her hand to Gao De.

Gao De looked at it and was overjoyed.

【Ice Blade】 was a 1st-circle conjuration spell, a very common ordinary spell. The spell effect was: create an ice crystal shard and shoot it at a creature within range (120 feet). If it hits, the target takes piercing damage.

Regardless of whether it hits or not, the shard would explode afterward, and the target and every creature within 5 feet of the target would take cold damage.

But the 【Frozen Blade】 improved by the Snowfield Guardians was an absolutely rare spell.

【Frozen Blade】 (Conjuration, 1st Circle):

Create a permanently existing ice crystal shard. After this, the spell can be cast again at any time to shoot this ice crystal shard at a creature within range (240 feet). If it hits, the target takes piercing damage and cold damage.

Spell damage can be increased by improving the quality of the ice crystal shard.

This created ice crystal shard was the Frozen Blade.

This was actually a growth-type spell.

Among the spells Gao De knew, there was never a spell that could grow infinitely; however, 【Wild Agility+】 possessed this ability after being upgraded by the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow.

On the 【Frozen Blade】 spell formula, in addition to the corresponding spell model and spell potion formula, there was also a detailed record of how to improve the quality of the ice crystal shard.

The method was also very simple: collect Ice Sha and integrate it into the ice crystal shard to continuously increase the strength of the Frozen Blade.

The so-called Ice Sha was actually a type of gas formed naturally.

Sha energy only formed in dangerous, dark places, commonly found on battlefields and execution grounds. Because too many people died in these places, too much negative energy accumulated, and after this negative energy gradually condensed, it became Sha.

Ice Sha was formed on the basis of Sha energy with the additional condition of an extremely cold place.

Gao De didn't stand on ceremony and directly accepted the 【Frozen Blade】.

This should be the first 1st-circle attack spell he mastered.

Gao De, whose heart was itching from the 【Frozen Blade】, simply put down the cultivation methods he couldn't use and seriously flipped through the spell formulas collected by the Snowfield Guardians.

There were two 4th-circle spell formulas, five 3rd-circle, six 2nd-circle, and nine 1st-circle spell formulas.

He couldn't use high-circle spells yet, so he ignored them for now. The 1st-circle spells were: 【Sense Emotion】, 【Frozen Blade】, 【Wild Agility】, 【Arcane Chorus】, 【Tidal Capture Net】, 【Wolf's Speed】, 【Speak with Animals】, 【Hunter's Mark】, and 【Beast Link】.

Except for 【Speak with Animals】, the rest were actually rare spells that Gao De had never seen in his general magic classes.

This made him excited.

Without a doubt, these cultivation methods and spell formulas would also have to be taken away and transported back to Phoenix.

After leaving the library, the next place to go was the treasure vault.

The first thing that caught his eye was all kinds of spell materials, basically all the materials needed for spell potions.

Because the spell materials needed for high-circle spell potions were of higher rank and rarer, there were still some shortages.

But as 1st-circle spells were the most basic, and every member of the Snowfield Guardians mastered a few of them, the "stock" of materials needed for these spell potions was particularly complete.

Gao De carefully compared them and easily gathered the spell materials needed for nine 1st-circle spell potions, and all of them started at ten sets.

Compared to the 1st-circle spell formulas that the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe brought out which could only be looked at but not used, the ones here at the Snowfield Guardians were much more reliable.

Not only was the quality high, but they also came with matching spell materials.

In other words, he could immediately prepare spell potions and start trying to build spell models.

Thinking of this, Gao De couldn't help but smile.

Who said this sect was no good? This sect was fantastic!

In addition to these spell materials, there were also more than twenty bottles of Ice Sha of varying quality in the treasure vault.

"The sect has a total of seven ice caves that can continuously produce Ice Sha," Luo Yiqi honestly reported to Gao De: "Four of the ice caves produce 1st-rank Ice Sha, two ice caves can produce 2nd-rank Ice Sha, and there is one ice cave that produces 3rd-rank Ice Sha."

【Frozen Blade】 was the signature spell of the Snowfield Guardians.

And the Snowfield Guardians had been passed down for so long.

So it was impossible for the Snowfield Guardians not to have a way to obtain the Ice Sha needed to strengthen the Frozen Blade.

"A 1st-rank ice cave can produce one bottle of Ice Sha per year, a 2nd-rank ice cave takes five years to produce one bottle of Ice Sha, and a 3rd-rank ice cave takes twenty years to produce one bottle of Ice Sha."

Calculated on a twenty-year cycle, the seven ice caves in the hands of the Snowfield Guardians could produce one bottle of 3rd-rank Ice Sha, eight bottles of 2nd-rank Ice Sha, and eighty bottles of 1st-rank Ice Sha.

"However, if there is an urgent need for low-rank Ice Sha, one can collect unformed high-rank Ice Sha early; for example, the 3rd-rank ice cave can collect one bottle of 1st-rank Ice Sha every six months."

"A newborn Frozen Blade is considered 0-rank; integrating three bottles of 1st-rank Ice Sha can strengthen it to 1st-rank."

Gao De looked at the twenty-plus bottles of Ice Sha in the Snowfield Guardians' inventory; only two of them were 2nd-rank Ice Sha, and the rest were all 1st-rank Ice Sha.

(End of chapter)