Chapter 392

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Protagonist:

Lin En

Lena

Dominic rubbed the sapphire ring on his middle finger, and the judgment in his heart grew clearer.

If the Frost Dragon were a Chaos Evil God, then even with the best disguise, after months of faith's influence, the wildmen tribe could not possibly maintain such a normal mental state.

They would become bloodthirsty, paranoid, or lost in some extreme emotion; they would never live as calmly as they do now, working in order.

Even the children's laughter was as clean as the wind on the Ice Plains.

It neither harvests souls nor feeds on negative emotions; indeed, it even protects this stretch of Ice Plains.

Then what exactly is its purpose?

A giant native xenos? But what native creature could possess a legion of followers and establish contact with the Human Governor?

The mystery was like thick fog on the Ice Plains—the deeper one went, the denser it became.

The Silent Sister beside him lightly touched his arm and made a gesture.

A patrol team is ahead.

Dominic immediately stilled his thoughts, pressed against the ice wall, and held his breath.

Three wildmen warriors carrying ice spears marched past in formation, their steps steady, their expressions focused, yet they never noticed the intruder right beside them from start to finish.

The optical camouflage device combined with the Silent Sister's Untouchable Force Field made this nearly an unsolvable stealth combination in such a primitive settlement lacking high-end detection equipment.

The three continued advancing deeper into the ice city.

The closer to the core they went, the more exquisite the buildings became.

Fine carvings began to appear on what were originally rough ice walls, mostly coiling dragon shapes and wind-and-snow patterns, with ancient, flowing lines that carried a primitive religious beauty.

There were more patrolling warriors now, each burly and alert; clearly, the Core Area was heavily guarded.

Dominic's target was clear: find the place of worship.

A tribe's core of faith is always hidden in its temple.

The truth of the Frost Dragon, the secret of the Cold Soldiers—most likely both were hidden in the most central place of worship in Tooth City.

Indeed, after going further for about half an hour, a sealed-off ice valley appeared at the end of the field of vision.

At the entrance to the ice valley stood two ice pillars over ten meters high, their surfaces carved full of dragon totems, guarded by exactly twenty elite warriors at the entrance.

They wore snow-white beast skin armor, had blue patterns painted on their faces, and held steel spears that only modern industry could produce.

They stood ramrod straight, and when their gazes swept around, not a detail escaped them—not even details in the ice cracks.

There were no markings at the valley mouth, but whether it was the strict guards or the religious patterns on the ice pillars, they silently indicated:

This place is one of Tooth City's temples.

Dominic made a gesture, and the three climbed upward along the ice ridges on the side of the ice valley.

The ice wall was wet, slippery, and steep—an extreme situation for ordinary people—but not difficult for an Imperial Major General and a Silent Sister who had undergone strict training.

Taking cover behind the ice ridges, they silently crossed the blockade line at the valley mouth and landed in the shadows within the valley.

Inside the valley was colder than outside.

The cold qi drilled through the gaps in their cloaks like needles into their bones, and even the water vapor from their breath could condense into fine ice shards.

A straight ice road led to the deepest cave in the valley, with neat ice sculptures lining both sides of the road.

Half were dragon-shaped, half were armored humanoids, in various poses, but all facing toward the cave, as if on pilgrimage.

"Something's not right."

The Silent Sister on the left, Kasaduo, suddenly stopped and made a gesture.

She raised her hand to press behind her ear, her brow slightly furrowed.

As an Untouchable, her perception of psyker fluctuations was far sharper than ordinary people's.

Dominic lowered his voice: "What's wrong?"

"The psychic residue here..." Kasaduo quickly signed, her expression somewhat puzzled.

"It feels familiar, very similar to the aura in the Bottom City Purification Sect outpost."

Dominic's pupils shrank slightly.

The Purification Sect?

He instantly thought of those Gene Thieves, and of the apostles in gray robes in the Bottom City Monastery.

Could the Frost Dragon's temple on the Ice Plains and the Purification Sect in Bottom City be the same thing?

The thought had just surfaced when he forcibly suppressed it.

Impossible.

Gene Thieves are the vanguard of the Tyranids; they always hide in the dark to parasitize and breed, never openly conduct primitive worship, and would never incarnate as a "Dragon God" to protect a region.

Their purpose is to disintegrate civilization from within and pave the way for the Bug Swarm's arrival; there is no reason for them to help humans purge Green Skins and maintain order.

But Kasaduo's perception had never been wrong.

Dominic suppressed his surprise and doubt, making a gesture to continue forward.

The three moved forward silently along the ice road and soon reached the cave entrance.

There were no guards at the mouth; a heavy curtain of ice beads hung down, blocking the view inside and out.

Lifting the ice curtain and stepping inside, a deeper chill swept over them.

The cave interior was spacious; instead of the imagined scene of swirling incense and halls full of believers, it was terrifyingly quiet.

Murals covered the ice walls on both sides, depicting giant dragons soaring through wind and snow, and soldiers charging across the battlefield.

The brushwork was rough, the colors monotonous, yet they carried a primal impact.

After walking dozens of steps inside, a stone platform appeared in the center of the cave, with dried dark-brown bloodstains remaining on it, and several beast bones and ice crystals scattered nearby—clearly a place where sacrifices were held.

Blood Sacrifice.

Dominic glanced at the shape of the bloodstains and judged that the scale of the sacrifice was not large, using beast blood rather than human sacrifice.

This further confirmed his earlier judgment: though this faith had a primitive and savage side, it was not evil.

Kasaduo's brow furrowed even tighter.

The familiar sensation of Psyker Fluctuation grew stronger and stronger.

It was as if... as if they had stepped into the core outpost of another Purge Plague Sect.

Only the Psyker Fluctuation here was colder, more silent, as if sealed beneath ice.

Dominic did not stop his footsteps.

His gaze fell upon the ice wall at the deepest part of the cave.

It looked no different from an ordinary ice wall, but careful observation revealed that the texture of the ice wall was out of place with its surroundings.

And the seam was extremely hidden; if not for his years of studying warships and his extreme sensitivity to structural details, he would never have discovered it.

It was an Escape Tunnel.

He stepped forward, pressed his hand against the ice wall, and exerted slight force with his palm.

A slight vibration came from the ice layer; inside was clearly empty.

Two Sisters immediately stepped forward, and the three of them worked together, exerting force along the seam at once.

The heavy Ice Gate let out a muffled creaking sound, like a giant beast sleeping for a thousand years slowly opening its eyes, as a dark crack slowly widened on the ice wall.

Cold Qi surged out from the crack, carrying a chill close to Silence.

Dominic drew the Flashlight from his waist, adjusting the beam to the lowest brightness to illuminate the world behind the door.

The moment the scene in his vision became clear, his breath caught sharply, and his back felt a slight chill.

Behind the door was a vast underground Ice Hall so immense it was suffocating.

The dome rose over a hundred meters, with countless ice spikes hanging down like a frozen rain curtain.

On the dome at the very center hung a giant Ice Lotus several meters in diameter, its petals layered upon layer, crystal clear.

At the heart of the lotus was embedded a cluster of pale blue Flame, its radiance not brilliant, yet steadily illuminating the entire Hall.

The faint blue light poured down, coating all things in a clear and cold glaze.

Beneath the Ice Lotus, on the floor of the Hall, over a thousand figures sat cross-legged in neat rows.