Winter Lord: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 116 Slaying the Snake
Lambert led twelve elite knights, trudging through the snow.

They were extremely careful with every step they took, not daring to make a sound.

As the lair of the Ice Serpent drew closer, a suffocating sense of oppression filled the air.

The giant serpent's breathing sounded like deep thunder, echoing rhythmically through the valley.

Each of its breaths carries a unique chill, lowering the temperature of the surrounding air by several degrees.

Its massive body twitched slightly, as if it could sense the approaching threat even in its slumber, which made one's heart tremble with fear.

Suddenly, a faint sound of ice breaking broke the silence of the valley.

A young knight stepped on a thin layer of ice on the surface of the ice, making a slight sound that would normally be almost imperceptible.

But in this tranquil atmosphere, it sounded as jarring as an alarm bell.

"Shh." Lambert immediately turned around, his eyes filled with a hint of coldness.

The knights immediately held their breath, remaining as still as ice.

Once Lambert was certain that the Ice Serpent hadn't noticed the faint sound, he nodded slightly, signaling everyone to continue.

The group moved slowly again, this time even more carefully, each movement as light and silent as a ghost.

The figures of the thirteen people melted into the ice and snow like shadows as they approached the enormous ice serpent.

Although they slowed down to avoid making any noise, elite knights were still several times faster than ordinary people.

Before long, everyone arrived at the designated location.

Lambert nodded slightly to Louis, signaling that everyone was ready.

At the mouth of the distant valley, Louis's hand slowly fell, like a horn in the wind and snow, instantly reaching the eyes of every knight.

"Throw!"

The thirteen knights moved almost simultaneously, their spears flying out of their hands and piercing the air.

Each spear, accompanied by a resounding crack of air, hurtled towards the giant ice serpent.

"boom!"

The vulnerable spot on the neck of the giant ice serpent suddenly burst open.

The shockwave scattered ice shards and snowflakes, and huge scales rained down like a storm. The explosion was deafening, as if the entire valley was boiling over in that instant.

The trembling ice serpent began to struggle violently, its massive body seemingly resisting the approach of death.

The entire valley trembled from the giant snake's struggle, and even the rock walls cracked from the tremors, creating towering waves.

"Retreat!" Lambert shouted, but his voice was almost swallowed up by the roar.

All the knights immediately turned around and fled at top speed.

Several knights were grazed by the flying ice shards, their skin bleeding, but no one stopped; they all quickly moved away.

The giant ice serpent opened its mouth and let out a piercing roar, and the cold air swept in like a storm, instantly freezing several rock walls.

Its tail swung violently in the air, almost sweeping everything away.

But its movements became increasingly slow, eventually stiffening.

In fact, its neck had already been completely blown apart, and its central nervous system had been destroyed, so it was already considered dead.

These powerful counterattacks were, in reality, nothing more than instinctive struggles before death.

Finally, the giant ice serpent collapsed in the snowstorm.

Its tail was still twitching, but its life had already ended.

Its massive body lay silently in the snow and ice, surrounded by white smoke.

Since no one could be sure whether he was completely dead, the valley remained silent, the air heavy and oppressive, making it hard to breathe.

After a while, the elite knights finally mustered the courage to step forward, cautiously approaching the corpse of the Ice Vein Serpent. Every step was taken with extreme care, for fear of triggering the remaining threat of that behemoth.

They gently poked the giant snake's scales a few times with their longswords, their eyes fixed on the slightly trembling body.

He then went to the snake's head and looked down into its cold eyes, confirming that the giant snake's life signs had indeed completely disappeared.

He finally couldn't hold back any longer and shouted in Louis's direction, "Lord Louis! It's not breathing! It's dead!"

This shout instantly shattered the oppressive atmosphere around them.

The knights erupted in cheers, their excitement bursting forth like a dam breaking through a dam.

"Haha! We did it!"

"It went so smoothly!"

"It's so simple, I can't believe it!"

Joyful laughter and excited shouts echoed through the valley.

Even Lambert's face showed a barely perceptible smile. Although he maintained the composure of a knight, the pressure in his heart was instantly relieved.

"I have accomplished my mission." Lambert bowed to Louis.

Louis's face remained calm, but his eyes gleamed with joy: "Lambert, well done."

This terrifying behemoth was thus easily destroyed.

But what no one saw was that Louis had already made thorough preparations before setting off.

He had investigated or arranged everything beforehand, including the armor-piercing and explosive spears, the weaknesses of the ice-veined giant serpent, and even the surrounding terrain.

Of course, he knew very well that even with thorough preparation, he could not be careless when facing such a powerful magical beast.

That's why he brought so many knights, just in case.

Once the cheers subsided, Louis waved to signal everyone to calm down: "Now, let's start dealing with its carcass."

As soon as he finished speaking, the knights immediately got into position and began to divide the tasks and cooperate.

Most of the knights quickly examined the corpse of the Ice Serpent and, after confirming that it could no longer pose any threat to them, decided to proceed.

They began peeling off the giant snake's scales, cutting its flesh, and extracting magic crystals and other useful parts.

A small group of knights were responsible for clearing the surrounding environment to ensure that no further avalanches or other accidents were triggered.

The corpse of the Ice Vein Serpent was enormous and time-consuming to handle, but none of this deterred the knights.

They quickly dispersed and got to work.

The giant serpent's magic crystal contains powerful magic; extracting this crystal can not only bring enormous resources to the territory.

It's also an extremely precious alchemical material; let's give it to Hilko and see if he can make some more bombs.

The giant snake's skin, scales, flesh, and other parts also have extremely high medicinal, edible, and equipment value.

In fact, the giant snake gall was the most valuable thing to him, as it was rumored to be able to greatly purify blood and increase cultivation speed.

Especially for someone like him whose talent is inherently lacking, it might bring unexpected breakthroughs.

They saw the snake gall being carefully removed, and then meticulously wrapped in leather and cloth by the knights to ensure it would not be damaged.

He breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Lambert, saying, "Send a few more knights with me to take a look in the north."

Lambert didn't think much of it, assuming that Louis was just bored and wanted to go out for a walk.

No one could have imagined that Louis was planning to travel all the way north to find a legendary archmage.

“Okay, I’ll go and gather them right away,” Lambert replied, turning and walking away.

(End of this chapter)