Chapter 207

The outpost gate was shut tight again, the mess outside the walls left unattended for now, and everyone's attention focused on Blake.

He evidently had more information about the Black Blade and the forces behind it, which might reveal the tip of the iceberg.

In the temporarily cleared stone house used for meetings, Blake seemed a little nervous; he took a few deep breaths before speaking under Li Qingxuan's calm gaze.

"Sir, the leader of the Black Blade, nicknamed Poison Fang, is a ruthless bastard."

"But about a month ago, he seemed to suddenly become a different person." Blake recalled, "Before, the Black Blade did loot, but they still had some scruples, taking only supplies and rarely killing. After that, though, they became… without any limits, and their strength shot up rapidly."

"Our Frost Wolf Outpost has clashed with them a few times, and we captured one of their fighters. That guy, delirious before death, muttered things like 'Shadow Blessing,' 'the glory of the New Ruler,' 'clearing the remnants of the old era,' and other nonsense." Blake's voice carried a hint of dread, "He also said… they'd received orders to create as much chaos as possible, to weaken all sizable survivor forces, especially… someone like you, sir, who possesses special abilities and vast resources."

"Shadow Blessing? Glory of the New Ruler? Clearing the remnants?" Li Qingxuan narrowed his eyes; these terms vaguely matched fragments of information from the Shadow Hall, but their stance was completely opposite!

The Shadow Hall calls itself Orthodoxy, resents the New Ruler, while the Black Blade appears to be serving the New Ruler?

What on earth is going on?

Could the Shadow Hall itself be split into factions?

Or perhaps the force behind the Black Blade is not the Shadow Hall, but a faction directly under the New Ruler?

The mist seemed to grow thicker.

"Anything else? About the ice glacier, or those green monsters?" Li Qingxuan pressed.

Blake strained his thoughts, then said, "Once, our squad was scouting the northern edge of the ice glacier when we saw Black Blade members far off, seemingly conducting some kind of ritual right beside a huge fissure in the glacier. It was too far to make out details, but we saw green light spilling from the crack, and then those Black Blade folks became extremely… fervent."

The glacier fissure, the green light, the ritual… this unmistakably points to a possible core area where the Corruption Root might exist.

"Do you still remember the approximate direction?"

"I remember! It's from our outpost, heading north-northeast, about a day and a half's walk away, where there's a particularly steep ice tower forest, and the fissure lies deep within it."

Li Qingxuan noted the direction; this will be the primary target for the next round of scouting.

After comforting Blake and letting him and the other Frost Wolf Outpost survivors rest first, Li Qingxuan alone climbed onto the wall.

The night was deep, the distant ice glacier shimmered with a cold light under the moon, but the dark green speck at the end of the canyon, like a demon's eye, refused to fade.

The Shadow Hall's overture and the hostility behind the Black Blade, the threat of Ice Wraiths and the green veins, and the Corruption Root hidden beneath the ice glacier—something even the Shadow Hall fears—wove together into a vast and dangerous net.

He again tried to initiate contact with that mysterious liaison, conveying his question: "Behind the Black Blade, is it you, or the New Ruler?"

After a long wait, just as he thought there would be no reply, a more fragmented message, mixed with intense anger and contempt, came through in bursts:

"... lackey of the False Emperor… maggot that desecrates the Former Lord's glory…"

"... they… have twisted the power of the 'Root'… to create chaos… merely to please that Usurper..."

"... find… the true 'Core'… destroy the False Emperor's tendrils… otherwise… everything… will be… consumed…"

The message remained fragmented, but its direction became clearer!

The Shadow Hall and the Black Blade, along with the forces behind the New Ruler, are mortal enemies!

They both want to use or oppose the Corruption Root beneath the ice glacier, but their goals are utterly different!

The Shadow Hall seeks to find and destroy the "true Core" to strike at the New Ruler.

Meanwhile, the New Ruler's forces are using the power of the Corruption Root to sow chaos and purge dissenters!

Li Qingxuan felt as if he stood on the edge of a great storm's eye, two terrifying forces waging an invisible struggle over this ice glacier as their stage, and he and his Light Tank Alliance had already been inevitably drawn into it.

He must quickly boost his strength, uncover the truth about the Corruption Root and the Core, so he can seize the initiative in the coming storm rather than become a pawn.

The next morning, Li Qingxuan summoned the core members and announced his decision.

"I intend to go personally to that ice tower forest Blake mentioned." Li Qingxuan's gaze swept over the crowd, "We must quickly clarify the situation there and find the so-called Core."

"Too dangerous!" Huang Rong was the first to object, "That place is likely a heavily fortified enemy zone, and it also has those strange green monsters."

"Precisely because it's dangerous, we must go." Li Qingxuan's tone was firm, "Passive defense will never let us uncover the truth; we'll only be slowly worn down. I have the Divine Realm protecting me, so I can safeguard myself at critical moments. Besides, this isn't a full assault—it's reconnaissance."

He looked at Huang Rong, Li Jing, and Chen Xiulan: "Rong'er, you'll go with me, handling scouting and support. Xiulan, you'll stay at the outpost, responsible for watch and command. Jing, as liaison officer, you'll keep the outpost and rear supply lines open."

He also told the Boulder Engineer and Xila: "The outpost's construction and defense are yours to handle. Hurry to reinforce the fortifications, especially against underground infiltration. Blake and his crew know the surrounding terrain well; they can take part in patrols and defense."

With the arrangements settled, Li Qingxuan and Huang Rong delayed no further, took the necessary supplies and equipment, and quietly departed from the North Wind Outpost, heading toward that unknown ice tower forest that hid greater secrets.

Both were agile experts, making their way across the snow plain at great speed.

The closer they got to the ice tower forest, the more biting the cold in the air became, and the surrounding terrain grew ever more rugged and bizarre.

Countless ice towers, like swords thrust straight into the sky, formed a vast maze; light refracted within, creating a bizarre, otherworldly spectacle—and it was extremely easy to lose one's bearings.

Following Blake's described direction, the two weaved through the ice tower forest for nearly a day.

During that time, they dodged several patrols of Ice Wraiths and, from afar, saw traces of battles left behind—shards of Ice Wraiths, as well as broken human weapons and frozen bloodstains.

Finally, as the setting sun stained the ice towers with a lurid orange-red, they arrived near their destination.

Concealed behind a massive ice tower, Li Qingxuan and Huang Rong gazed into the distance.

Before them lay a relatively open icefield, where a massive, bottomless fissure in the ice glacier stretched like a scar across the land.

Along the fissure's edge, indeed lay a thick, pulsing dark-green fungal mat, denser and more extensive than what had been seen in the canyon before.

At that very moment, along the fissure's edge, a dozen or so figures clad in black leather armor and wearing half-face masks were moving about—these were members of the Black Blade!

They had formed an eerie circle, with something placed in the center emitting a faint green glow. They chanted low, obscure syllables, and the air was suffused with an unsettling energy fluctuation.

Behind them, deep within the fissure, that unsettling dark-green light pulsed rhythmically, like the breath of some vast entity.

Li Qingxuan's pupils contracted slightly; he could sense that the energy fluctuation emanating from the fissure's depths shared the same origin as the Corrupted Nest Mother he had encountered before, but it was far larger, far older, and also… more twisted.

It seemed as if something beneath the ice glacier was slowly awakening.

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