Void Beetle Evolution Guide

As soon as they reached the shore, the group eagerly jumped off the icy lotus platform, their expressions grave and extremely cautious as they began to survey their surroundings. They were terrified that a group of ferocious bear-men might suddenly leap out from some hidden corner, initiating a fierce battle.

As far as the eye can see, an endless expanse of majestic snow-capped mountains stretches before you. The peaks are all completely covered by thick snow, radiating a cold and desolate light in the dim sunlight.

In the sky, dark clouds hung low like leaden blocks, seemingly within reach, pressing heavily on this desolate land, giving a strong sense of oppression, as if the whole world was imprisoned under this gloom. Even breathing became heavy and difficult, and it felt as if a huge rock was blocking one's chest, making it feel suffocating.

Streaks of lightning tore through the clouds intermittently, like ferocious dragons surging in the sea of ​​clouds. Each flash illuminated the surroundings as bright as day, followed by deafening thunder that rolled in and echoed for a long time. The sound waves seemed to shatter one's soul, making one tremble with fear and causing one's heart to beat violently involuntarily with the thunder.

There was not a trace of life in sight; no birds flew across the sky, and no beasts left their tracks. The entire world seemed to have been stripped of its vitality, leaving only this desolate place dominated by snow-capped mountains, dark clouds, and lightning, exuding an endless sense of desolation and coercion.

The cold wind whistled across my face like a knife, sending chills down my spine. It seemed as if every inch of air was filled with the scent of danger, warning any intruder that this was no place to be trifled with.

"This is... terrifying..." Talia's voice trembled, tinged with fear.

In all her previous life, all the thunder she had ever heard combined did not equal the amount she heard in those short ten minutes.

The thunder here seemed to have a physical form, with extremely strong penetrating power. Even though she covered her ears tightly with both hands, the roaring sound was still like a surging tide, wave after wave, without diminishing at all.

"Don't be afraid, we're not going to fight Volibear, we're just helping the Winter's Claws take Ornn's urn." Kai'Sa calmly comforted Talia, then turned to Ashe and asked, "Ashe, I heard that you once wandered into the bear-men's territory when you were a child. Do you remember the way?"

Aisha frowned slightly, lost in thought, and slowly said, "I only remember that the sky here wasn't always so overcast and thunderous. At first, it was no different from other places, until the storm gathered and I realized that this place was different."

She shook her head vigorously. Those memories were too distant, and the details had long since blurred. She only remembered that she and Sejuani had desperately fled from the deathly silence and fear brought by the Bear Spirits. She couldn't remember anything else clearly.

Just then, the hawk Ashe had released earlier flapped its wings and hurriedly returned with a message. Upon seeing this, Ashe quickly raised her arms to meet it steadily.

The hawk landed lightly on her arm and exchanged a brief conversation with her. Afterwards, Ashe relayed the message it carried back to everyone: "Several wolf ships are anchored on the northeast coast."

“That should be Winter's Claw’s ship. Let’s go check it out first,” Kai’Sa decided immediately.

Whether blocked by the mountains or from the wrong landing spot, they didn't see the sky stained red by the power of the Ornn's Great Jar. That was the target of the Winter's Claws; if they found that place, they would definitely run into them.

Furthermore, they also failed to see the mountain peak imbued with storm patterns, which was the place Nera and her group were heading to, and would likely become the battlefield between Osiris and Volibear.

If the hawk hadn't brought back the message in time, Kai'Sa might have first found a towering mountain peak, climbed it to get a better view, determined the location of the two peaks, and then planned her next move.

Upon arriving at the location of the wolf ship, Kasha saw four black ships moored on the shore, chained to jagged rocks.

These black ships have a unique design, with keels cast from black iron and specially shaped like blades, clearly designed to cut through the ice. The front of the keel curves upwards, connecting naturally with the hull to form a lifelike wolf's head, which is presumably the origin of the name "wolf ship".

Kasha's gaze swept across the hull, noticing a ring of diamond-shaped iron plates inlaid around the gunwales. The edges of the plates were polished extremely sharp, resembling a ring of sharp canine teeth protruding from a distance.

On

Even the iron chains connecting the ships to the rocks were made of interlocking diamond-shaped black iron rings, giving them a sharp appearance that could easily cause scratches and tetanus if one wasn't careful.

Winter's Claws seemed to have been here for some time, as most of the chains were buried deep in the thick snow. The deck was also covered with a thick layer of snow, and the wolf's head slept soundly in the cold, frozen saliva dripping from its mouth.

The ships were empty, without a single person in sight; it seemed that all the members of Winter's Claw had evacuated.

They were certain that no one would dare to risk venturing into this storm-ravaged birthplace, let alone take the opportunity to attack their ships, so they simply transferred all the crew members to replace them with combat personnel.

Kasha stood at the bow of the ship, gazing into the distance. All around her was a vast expanse of white, and apart from the messy footprints they had left when they first arrived, not a single other footprint could be found.

Such a large group of people could not possibly disappear into thin air.

Undeterred, Aisha's sharp eyes searched every nook and cranny until she finally found a mark smeared with blood on a nearby rock, with a few coarse hairs still clinging to it.

“The Winter's Claws must have gone in this direction.” Ashe pointed to the mark and said confidently, “This is a guide mark they left to prevent them from getting lost here. The mane on it is from the Juvask Boar; the Winter's Claws tamed this beast as their mount.”

"I wonder how long they've been walking. We need to pick up the pace." Kasha leaped off the wolf's head and quickly walked to the front of the group, leading the others up the large snow slope ahead.

After crossing the rolling snow-covered slopes and standing on the ridge, everyone's view suddenly opened up.

Kasha looked up and her gaze was instantly drawn to the churning thunderclouds on the horizon.

On the precipitous mountain peak, a magnificent pillar of light shot straight into the sky, piercing through the surging sea of ​​clouds. The pillar of light emitted an eerie glow, turning the entire dark cloud into a shocking blood red.

A crimson hue spread out, as if raging flames were hidden deep in the clouds, or thick blood was churning in the sky, creating an apocalyptic scene, and everywhere there was an indescribable sense of shock.

“Old Ornn, look at what you’ve created… No wonder Volibear wouldn’t allow it to fall into the hands of the Freljords.”

Ashe stared in shock as she watched the thunder, accompanied by a deafening roar, strike down from the blood-red clouds, yet it could not budge the pillar of light an inch.

She stood there, motionless, and even the biting wind mixed with snow whipping her face couldn't pull her gaze, which was firmly fixed on the pillar of light.

Chapter 305 Accidentally Entering the Hunting Ground

The crimson beam of light, like an eerie beacon, guided the group forward in the sunless, stormy area.

Each bolt of lightning that ripped across the sky made the crimson color appear even more intense, as if blood was flowing from a wound in the heavens.

Kasha and her group moved forward silently for a long time in this oppressive atmosphere, until the ground beneath their feet changed from rugged snow to a smooth, flat ice surface.

In the center of the ice, several totem wooden stakes stood out abruptly. Several disemboweled human corpses were tied to the stakes, and in the middle of the stakes lay the carcass of a wild boar.

This wild boar was enormous, estimated to weigh at least a ton. Several spears were stuck in its body, suggesting it had fought a fierce battle before its death. A cold wind blew by, carrying with it a lingering smell of blood.

“This is a Juvask wild boar…” Aisha narrowed her eyes, an ominous premonition swirling in her mind.

"That person seems to still be alive." She caught a glimpse of one of the corpses' arms twitching out of the corner of her eye, and without thinking, she spoke up and walked towards the wooden stake.

"You all stay here and don't move. I'll go check it out." Kai'Sa ordered the group to stop where they were. This place looked strange no matter how she looked at it, and she didn't feel comfortable letting Ashe approach alone.

When Ashe walked up to the front of the corpse and looked closely, she realized that the slight movement she had seen earlier was just an illusion created by the howling cold wind in this cruel place.

The corpse was no different from the others; its internal organs had been completely cut open and exposed, frozen solid in the bitter cold like a rock, and it was beyond dead.

Even the blood of the Frostblood lineage, which is said to never freeze, could not escape the erosion of the severe cold. It had long since solidified into dark red ice shards, which slowly dripped down from the stiff, purple toes, staining the ice surface with a shocking bloodstain.

The faces of the dead were distorted with pain and fear, their features as if pulled and deformed by an invisible, powerful force, and crimson tears of blood seeped from their empty eye sockets.

When their eyes met, Aisha felt an intense despair strike her heart. Like a tidal wave, it carried the endless suffering and resentment the deceased had endured in life, instantly engulfing her.

She felt a chill run through her body, her heart clenched, and she involuntarily took half a step back, trying to escape the nightmarish and terrifying gaze.

Despite the physical and mental discomfort caused by the bloody scene, Ashe frowned and scanned the corpses, paying particular attention to the tattoos on their bodies.

One, two... Ashe's heart was in her throat the whole time, and she only breathed a sigh of relief when she confirmed that Sejuani was not among the corpses.

She knew that guy wouldn't die so easily.

"Did you figure something out?" Kasha approached from behind, her voice low.

Ashe straightened her slightly trembling body and answered with a face as pale as paper, "These corpses all belong to the Winter's Claw. They fought with the bearmen, died, fled, and then left these corpses behind, which the bearmen hung on the stakes... I don't know if this is a sacrifice to the gods? Or a warning to us outsiders?"

Her worried and thoughtful gaze wandered among the horrific scene around her, and inadvertently landed on the relatively intact carcass of the Juvask wild boar in the center of the ice. In an instant, her eyes sharpened, as if struck by lightning, and those long-buried fragments of memory suddenly unfolded before her eyes.

"Wait, step back... Don't touch these corpses, they're bait, this is the bear-men's hunting ground!" Ashe shouted in terror, her voice filled with urgency.

She remembered being lost on the ice field, starving and dizzy, drawn by animal carcasses on the ice, and then falling into a terrible trap.

"I didn't touch it."

Kai'Sa was startled by Ashe's sudden shout and instinctively raised her hands, palms facing outward, to indicate that she had not made any move on the corpse.

However, the ice beneath their feet began to shake violently the next second. Caught off guard, the two were suddenly pushed to the ground by the tilting ice.

With a loud crash, the enormous black shadow burst forth from the ice like a cannonball fired from the depths of hell.

A gigantic eel monster appeared before the two, opening its long, narrow mouth, filled with countless needle-like teeth and everted, like a giant, open bear trap. Its bright red masseter muscles were exposed, and its atrophied eyes flashed with a terrifying crimson light like laser beams, radiating endless bloodlust and brutality.

The monster's body was distinctly segmented, each segment seemingly containing boundless power. It was covered with a thick layer of scales, a murky gray color resembling that of a blue crab. Behind its wrinkled gills, the fins had evolved into short, stout forelimbs, shaped like a frog's webbed feet, but with incredibly sharp tips, like poisoned rakes.

The monster let out a deafening roar, and a nauseating stench swept over us, like foul air rising from a rotten abyss, almost suffocating us.

"We've been on the ice for too long!" Ashe thought to herself, realizing something was wrong. She turned to look and saw two enormous eel monsters...

It repeatedly crashed through the ice, poking out its ferocious head and trapping the two of them in the middle.

"How come there are sea monsters here too?" Seeing the sudden change, Saifei frowned and clicked her tongue in disgust.

However, she had no intention of intervening; this was on land, not in the sea, and she believed Kasha could handle these things.

The sea monster opened its massive maw and lunged down, biting down hard. Ashe was about to nock her bow and retaliate when Kai'Sa grabbed her arm and pulled her away. The giant maw tore through the ice, sending countless ice shards, larger than bricks, flying everywhere and grazing her back.

"Don't just stand there, run!"

The ice surface is constantly breaking apart due to the activity of the sea monsters, and staying on it will only make things worse.

Kaisa grabbed Ashe and charged through the forest of sea monsters, dodging left and right, avoiding countless fangs and gaping mouths that attacked from all directions, as well as attacks that suddenly erupted from beneath the ice.

What seemed like an extremely dangerous situation was actually handled with ease. Ashe was thus unknowingly led away from the ice by Kai'Sa and back to the hillside.

The sea monsters didn't catch up with the land. After roaring a few times from afar, they rushed back to devour the corpses. They even fought each other fiercely, biting each other until their heads bled.

Before Ashe could recover, Portil urged from the hillside, "Hurry up! I saw bearmen coming from the north. If we don't leave soon, we'll run into them!"

The two quickly returned to the main group, and then Talia pulled out the rocks by the roadside like radishes, using them as slabs to carry the group to safety.

After this thrilling interlude, Ashe rallied and embarked on her journey again, continuing her advance towards the sky imbued with divine power.

Along the way, Ash noticed that a biting north wind was constantly blowing through this barren land.

Under the relentless onslaught of the north wind, countless enormous ice spikes, growing diagonally upwards, sprouted across the land.

They all lean to the same side, each one enormous, densely distributed across the earth, forming a thicket of thorns that seems to be made of sharp ice blades.

Fearing a collision due to their high speed, the group switched to walking. As they moved through the area, Aisha felt a chill run through her bones; the palpable sense of impending doom was palpable.

"Why would Volibear live in a place like this?" After walking for a while and looking at the unchanging scenery, Ahri couldn't help but complain, "This place is deserted and looks so boring."

“They say this is where the storm is born,” Ashe replied. “But I heard that Lissandra feared Volibear’s existence would destroy order and bring endless war and sacrifice. So, while Volibear was sleeping on the west coast, she split the land to create an island, isolating him in the icy sea.”

“Even if he’s been marginalized, Volibear can still summon himself to Freljord; the Frozen Sea can’t hold him back at all,” Wild Hunt corrected. “Besides, Lissandra doesn’t have that kind of power. Changing the landscape is something only a demigod can do. This must be a ‘rumor’ she spread. She doesn’t dare to face the giant bear directly, so she can only weaken Volibear’s faith through this method.”

"Who knows? The grudges from thousands of years ago can't be explained in just a few words."

As they were talking, a strange mountain peak appeared in front of them.

Chapter 306 The Storm Is Coming

Kasha and her group came to an abrupt halt, their gazes all fixed on the strange mountain peaks ahead.

At first glance, this mountain peak bears a striking resemblance to the well-known Phoenix Wing Mountain, with its body split in two, forming a deep ravine.

However, upon closer inspection, one can still discern quite a few differences.

The mountain stream was so straight it looked as if it had been precisely cleaved by a divine craftsman with a giant axe, a stark contrast to the winding and meandering Phoenix Wing Mountain Gorge. The mountain was covered with jagged rocks, and huge ice spikes grew like comb teeth all over the mountain, making it look extremely dangerous.

The frozen river flows down from the mountain stream. The smooth ice surface is free of ice spikes. To the left is rugged mountain terrain, and to the right is a steep cliff. It has become the only relatively easy path in the vicinity.

Like a glimmer of hope left by nature in a desperate situation, it exudes a cold yet alluring glow under the dim light, beckoning everyone to muster the courage to embark on this unique journey.

"The mist in that mountain stream is glowing; something feels off," Kasha muttered, her gaze fixed on the swirling mist, her expression full of vigilance.

"If they can't fly, this mountain ravine is practically the only way to seize the jar. If the bear-men set up defenses high on the glacier, the Winter Claws, moving upstream, will have almost no chance of breaking through the barrier."

Wild Hunt's words proved prophetic. As soon as he finished speaking, Ashe spotted several blurry black figures on the glacier. The leader was riding a Juvask Boar. Who else could it be but Sejuani, the Warmother of Winter's Claw?

On their only route, in the misty mountain stream, thunder suddenly roared, illuminating one burly figure after another—the bear-men guarding this place!

……

Sejuani, the Warmother of Winter's Claw, reined in the exceptionally robust Juvask Boar, stopping it at the very front of the group, and looked back to see if anyone had fallen behind.

Thick clusters of ice spikes pierce diagonally from the cliff, like the hair of the icy earth, each one as large as a mast. Blown by the north wind, they could break off overhead at any moment, instantly killing someone or turning into deadly boulders, rolling down the sloping ice surface.

The fanged behemoth with its mane disheveled tensely snorted, a puff of hot air turning into mist that condensed into a layer of white frost on its pink nose. The menacing feeling of lightning and thunder made it uneasily slam down the ladder, and a ring of cracks immediately appeared on the frozen surface of the river beneath its feet.

"Good boy, Steelmane," Sejuani commanded in a stern voice, giving it a sharp kick to quiet it down.

Sejuani is a ruthless and experienced war mother who has achieved countless bloody victories.

However, after only a few days in this barren land, she tasted the bitterness of failure.

In their quest to seize Ornn's Great Urn, the warriors she brought fell one after another to the bear-men.

After several fierce battles, the Frostclaws' initial force of fifty men and four wild boars has been reduced to a quarter of its original size.

The giant beast Sejuani is riding now is called Steelmane. She rescued it from the Noxian slaughterhouse after breaking up with Ashe, and raised it from a young age as an emotional anchor.

Its shoulders were twice her height, and it weighed more than ten people. No one expected that it, which was initially thin and small, would grow to be much larger than other Juvask animals after she took good care of it.

Steelmane is fierce but also more humane; otherwise, it too would have perished in the previous fierce battle.

As the only person in the raiding party riding a mount, Sejuani had to stop from time to time to observe her surroundings and look back to see if any of the other hikers had fallen behind.

The bears' ambushes are impossible to defend against; their white fur can perfectly conceal them in the snow and ice, and then they suddenly launch a terrifying lightning attack.

“A storm is coming,” Udyr, in his snow leopard form, spoke in human language, something everyone was already used to.

This Beast Spirit Walker does not have the bloodline of ice; his way of resisting the cold is by transforming into various animals and using thick fur to keep warm.

Upon hearing this, Sejuani squinted and gazed into the distance. The horizontal scar on her nose gave her a dignified appearance, but it was difficult to make out anything in the increasingly harsh weather.

"I've heard this so many times. Every time, a group of people die, but you never tell us which way the enemy will come from!"

The speaker was a warrior wearing a hood, his voice muffled by a fur collar; Sejuani could only see a pair of bloodshot eyes.