Chapter 3290: The Ice and Snow Castle

The unicorn, Ellie, also knew about the plan to depart today and search for its "home"; it wanted to return to its own home more than anyone else.

Therefore, upon seeing Amelia and Xia De appear, it cried out "Ah~" with great excitement, the light radiating from the horn on its head clearly visible even under the midday sun; this was one piece of evidence that its body had recovered quite well.

Among the five Grand Elders, Elder Harald, Elder Velda, and Elder Sorin all came to see them off. Elder Harald looked quite uneasy about this operation and kept urging Xia De to take good care of his granddaughter.

"Grandfather, do I need to remind you that I am the one with the higher rank? Moreover, in our last duel, I won."

The Witch had to emphasize this, but the old man still believed Xia De was the stronger one. He stood very reluctantly at the town gate, waving as he watched the group walk further away along the path up the mountain, and finally could not help but sigh:

"Truly, I do not know how much trouble awaits them in the future."

Having left the small nest where they had lived for half a week to return to the wild, the unicorn bounced along, looking quite energetic. It could carry the non-flying Miss Larson, and the group quickly circled from the bottom of the snow mountain to the place where Xia De had met the unicorn last week. After a brief preparation, the Witch released the first signal according to the agreement with the Church.

Then, the impatient unicorn led them all the way toward the direction of the southern coastline, but before exiting the snow-cedar forest at the foot of the snow mountain, it suddenly turned back north.

It seemed to be leading the group wandering all over the snow-cedar forest; fortunately, Amelia could perform "Unicorn Language Translation":

"Ellie says the way back keeps changing, so she also needs to look for it, but she will find it soon. She has lived alone these years and studied for a long time how to return safely and how to escape quickly... poor child, that demon is truly wicked."

The group wandered around at the foot of the mountain for more than half an hour before finally entering the snow mountain area again. This time, they did not take the same path at the foot of the mountain; it led the group through the mountain entrance, flew up the towering cliffs, climbed over dangerous snow slopes, and finally arrived in front of a rock wall in a remote area at the foot of the mountain.

Xia De and Miss Reinhardt released fire together to melt the thick snow on the rock wall, but the wall was utterly ordinary; even Xia De's "Enhanced Spatial Perception" failed to detect any anomaly.

"Ellie says everyone should wait a moment; it still needs five minutes, oh, four minutes."

The waiting time was not long. The unicorn, with its blue eyes staring at the rock wall in front, suddenly rammed forward after the countdown ended. Its glowing golden horn touched the cliff face; as the sound of shattering glass rang out, the rock wall in front was actually smashed open by it, revealing a black cave entrance.

"A unicorn's horn has the function of piercing through space... it is one of those caves on the snow mountain that appear suddenly at unknown times!"

Xia De suddenly understood. The Elders had said that the part of the Fatumunster Snow Mountain that could be observed by people actually accounted for only a small fraction of its total volume, and that "Ice and Snow Castle" was obviously hidden in the part that currently could not be observed.

This was not a hidden space like "Green Island," but purely "unobservable"; in fact, it was still part of the material world. And these caves that mysteriously appeared on the snow mountain seemed to be the passages connecting the "observable" and the "unobservable"... Xia De somehow thought of the "Infinite Ring."

"How long can this passage be maintained? Will the Church's team be able to arrive in time to enter?"

Xia De asked the unicorn. The unicorn, eager to go home, immediately cried out "Ah~". Amelia, whose pointed ears were covered by ear muffs and who wore a leaf-green scarf around her neck, immediately translated:

"This was pierced in advance by Ellie's horn, so it can be maintained for a quite long time... at least half an hour."

"Then if this disappears, how should we return?"

Miss Reinhardt also asked, and Amelia translated again:

"Ellie says that no matter where in the snow mountain, as long as one walks toward the foot of the mountain, one can definitely leave the snow mountain.

Entering different parts of the snow mountain requires passing through such caves, but to leave, no matter where one is, one just needs to go down the mountain."

Xia De's "Enhanced Spatial Perception" could detect that the cave led deep into the mountain body, but it could not "see" what the situation was on the other end of the cave. But since the unicorn confirmed this was the path "home," the group left a mark at the cave entrance and walked in together.

The cave was wide, and the inner surface was relatively smooth; according to Xia De's guess, it indeed looked like a cave drilled out by a giant snake.

The unicorn walked in the very middle, side by side with Amelia and Miss Larson, while the others protected them from the front and back respectively. Of course, there was no light source inside the cave. After Xia De summoned the cold moonlight to illuminate the surroundings, he failed to see any traces like snake scales on the rock walls around.

Instead, Amelia tripped over a stone on the ground as she walked, and then saw that the stone was shaped like a snake scale; this was the "Snake Scale Stone" that Mr. Sargent, the potion merchant, had given Xia De yesterday. But now Xia De did not lack this; if he wanted to mix ink, what he lacked now was "Tear Fern" and "Philosopher's Stone."

After walking in the cave for about ten minutes, light appeared ahead. Then, as if in the very next second, everyone walked out of that cave.

Cold wind mixed with snowflakes blew against their faces; the Fatumunster Snow Mountain, which had been sunny before entering the cave, was now actually snowing.

Standing at the cave entrance and looking around, the surroundings were a quite normal snow mountain scene. Xia De's "Enhanced Spatial Perception" confirmed that they were currently at some location on the eastern slope of the snow mountain, while Miss Reinhardt, who was very familiar with the local area, was surprised that she had never been here before.

Traces of demonic power had not appeared for the time being, and the unicorn Ellie was already so happy it seemed ready to jump up; it had confirmed it had found the right way home.

Because it was too excited, Amelia even had to comfort it:

"The more it is now, the more cautious we must be; otherwise, we will be driven away by that detestable demon again."

Next was advancing toward the upper part of the snow mountain. Although it looked like there was no path, the unicorn could always find routes that both four hooves and two feet could climb.

After another twenty minutes, it led the group down along a snow slope, then slid down another steep snow slope like skiing. After circling around a large ice wall and passing through the forest belt on the side of the slope, the group finally entered a mountain valley terrain.

The entrance to the valley was quite narrow, but the further one walked inward, the wider it became. This road was not straight, so they, heading forward against the biting cold wind, could not see what was at the end of the valley. But when they finally entered the open area inside the valley, everyone looked forward in surprise.

The sky of the valley was covered by a semi-transparent blue ice cap; dreamlike and illusory light shone through the ice cap onto the space inside the valley, which suddenly unfolded to a size of more than ten football fields.

Ice layers that had not melted for tens of millions of years intertwined overhead, forming ice layer scratches resembling a net-like structure; the deep blue sky light even pulsed in rhythm with the frequency of breathing.

And beneath that ice cap, at the very deepest part of the valley, a huge ice crystal palace and seven surrounding spire-like buildings rose from the ground.

This was not a single building but a complex of buildings; on the eaves and bracket sets carved from ice crystals hung curtain-like drapes resembling crystals, and every ice prism was flowing with a seven-colored halo. In front of the castle was a series of towering steps and a city gate tower once mentioned by the old forest keeper, and the highest point of the castle was fully sixty meters high from the ground.

On the surface of every block of solid ice constituting the complex, strange ancient runes floated under the sunlight; this magnificent and grand Ice and Snow Castle was absolutely not inferior to any great building anyone present had ever seen.

The unicorn cried out "Ah~" with excitement but also some fear. Amelia showed a smile, thinking in her heart that she would properly show off this experience to Ajelina after returning. Xia De frowned and gripped the "Witch Detection Badge" hanging around his neck; after entering this area, the badge had suddenly lost all its temperature for some reason.

The Great Witch of the Sun, the Witch Apprentices, and the Witch Followers beside him were all real; at this moment, the badge absolutely should not have no temperature. But he looked at the Ice and Snow Castle in front of him, and then suddenly realized that ancient witches must have had methods to counter such detection means.

If this was indeed the castle once belonging to a demigod Great Witch like Chloe, then the Witch Detection Badge failing near the castle was not an abnormal thing.

"Be careful; our enemies may be right ahead."

Xia De warned everyone in a low voice, reached out to take the long sword that Miss Larson had been helping him hold, and then took out the 【One-Shot Hit Pistol】. The gun was now loaded with the special bullets given by the doctor—hitting a weapon could temporarily prevent the demon from using that weapon, and hitting a demon could allow the doctor to know its location within thirty days.

The others also all made combat preparations; then Xia De asked everyone to wait a moment to give the Church, Vanessa, and Danistert behind them time to catch up.

After the subsequent people could arrive here in about five minutes, the group formally walked toward the depths of the valley.

From their current position to the steps in front of the palace city gate, the estimated distance was between one thousand and one thousand two hundred meters. In this stretch of road, only thick snow blocked the way ahead, but as the snow was gradually melted by the fire summoned by the crowd, ice sculptures standing in front of the castle appeared between them and the castle.

Some of these ice sculptures were truly just ice sculptures, but a very small number looked like living people frozen by ice. Judging by their clothing, these should be ordinary people from past eras who had accidentally entered here; after being frozen, they had been standing here ever since. Looking at it this way, the old forest keeper from back then was actually lucky; at least he survived safely thanks to the unicorn leading the way.

(End of this chapter)