Asura in Arknights

Under Magellan's leadership, they had successfully evaded the Sami blockade and returned to the correct path of the mountain sacrifice. Now, with the map left by Professor Nauman as a reference, their progress was much faster, and they would soon reach the first location deliberately marked on the map.

It should be a forest there, but strangely, Professor Nauman had marked a symbol representing ice and snow next to it for some reason, and I don't know what his intention was.

When the sensor scanned in that direction, all it observed was a forest whose shape was no different from ordinary trees.

When they were still some distance from that location, Li Ang signaled everyone to stop, rest, and then continue.

"Where is the person who was following us?" Jingzhe asked.

"There's still no action, but he should have a way to pinpoint our exact location."

Li Ang had already tried it before. No matter how they changed their direction of travel, Jonah could still hang firmly behind them. After everyone checked, they couldn't find anything to track him. In the end, they could only conclude that Jonah was not a simple ordinary person. He had mastered some kind of special skill.

Although Jonah's threat level has increased by one level as a result, it has not yet been taken seriously by Li Ang and the others. What is more important now is the 'forest' in front of them.

Simone and the Snow Ritualist must have known the details, but Simone changed her attitude after they embarked on the path of the Mountain Ritual.

Although she would follow Li Ang's instructions, she remained silent no matter what questions Li Ang asked, adopting a non-violent non-cooperative attitude.

This gave Li Ang a slight headache. Although he didn't mind using violence, Simone's situation was indeed somewhat delicate.

As a reserve Snow Priest, she certainly wouldn't know more secrets than the real Snow Priest. In addition, her special status as a survivor of a previous ritual also made Li Ang hesitant to use excessive force against her.

However, besides Simone, they had another target they could make a move on.

After thinking for a few seconds, Li Ang said to Jingzhe, "I think it's time to release him."

Li Ang was referring to Xue Si, whom they had imprisoned and whose five senses had been sealed off.

Now, it's time for him to make a difference.

Chapter Seventy-Six: The Ice Crystal Forest

None of them were skilled in torture; at most, they could only use pain to break a person's will.

This method might work well under normal circumstances, but given Simone's current physical condition, she probably wouldn't be able to withstand their interrogation.

Simone's condition was very strange. She had even had an attack on the way forward, but Xuan Cheng used a special talisman to heal her injuries. Such a fragile body could not withstand any form of harm, and it would be difficult to deal with if she were killed.

And that is the significance of bringing another Snow Ritualist with them.

They each possess irreplaceable unique qualities, and problems might arise if any one of them were missing.

So, as Li Ang had said, Xuan Cheng tore off the talisman that sealed off Xue Si's vision, hearing, and speech, temporarily releasing part of the seal on her.

It was clear that the seal was very powerful. After it was lifted, Yukishi did not regain her senses immediately. Instead, she remained dazed and confused for a long time before gradually recovering.

"What am I doing..."

Xue Si felt a splitting headache. He wanted to touch his head to see what was wrong, but he couldn't feel his limbs at all.

After the excruciating pain in his head subsided slightly, Xue Si saw Li Ang and the others gathered in a circle in front of him.

However, Xue Si's gaze did not linger on them for long, and quickly swept past Li Ang and the others, focusing on the environment behind them.

Upon seeing the familiar scenery around her, Xue Si was taken aback, then exclaimed in surprise, "You've actually gotten here already?"

There's no mistake, this is the road where the mountain festival is held. He has participated in the mountain festival more than once, and the scenery along the way has long been deeply etched in his mind.

Who brought them here? Simone?

But when Xue Si saw the dejected Simone beside him, he quickly dismissed this guess. Simone was able to distinguish between what was important and what was not, and knew what to say and what not to say. If what she had said before were all unimportant details, then the specific route of the mountain sacrifice was a secret that she would rather die than tell anyone else.

Unfortunately, before Yukishi could even communicate with Simone, she was arrested.

When he rushed to Simone's residence, he saw a strange man coming out of the house. Xue Si thought something had happened to Simone and started fighting with Li Ang without thinking, which led to this awkward situation.

“However, this should be the first checkpoint of the mountain sacrifice. Could you tell me what will happen when we enter?” Li Ang asked slowly.

"Wishful thinking," Xue Si sneered. "How could I possibly betray the secrets of my clan?"

"Too."

Li Ang nodded, not at all surprised by Xue Si's refusal. "However, our goals are not in conflict. We are just here to retrieve some things and do not intend to interfere with your inheritance ceremony."

At this moment, Jingzhe chimed in, "Yan Kingdom is tracking down a fugitive. If we can find his whereabouts, I will immediately leave with my men."

Do you think I'm an idiot?

Upon hearing Jingzhe's words, Xuesi was immediately enraged. "What kind of fugitive would dare to run into our Sami's forbidden territory? Yan people, don't go too far! If you want to start a war, then come on! We Sami are not afraid of you."

Jingzhe was also somewhat helpless. If the evidence wasn't conclusive, she wouldn't have risked venturing into Sami's forbidden area. It was normal for Xuesi not to believe it.

The conflict between the two sides has now reached a point where it is almost irreconcilable, and Xue Si has no intention of listening to their explanations.

“Xuancheng”.

A cold glint flashed in Jingzhe's eyes; she had no intention of delaying any longer.

As Jingzhe's most capable assistant, Xuancheng understood Jingzhe's meaning simply by calling his name.

Just as he stepped forward, ready to teach Xue Si a lesson, Li Ang preemptively snatched the talisman that Xuan Cheng had just removed from his hand and slapped the one that sealed his language ability onto Xue Si.

The once aggressive Xue Si suddenly became mute, only able to glare fiercely at Li Ang.

"Very well, since you're not going to help, then just stay on the sidelines and watch."

Li Ang ignored Xue Si's fierce gaze. What use was a fierce gaze? Even if the seal on Xue Si was completely broken, he still couldn't beat her. Within the territory of Sami, Li Ang's strength was enough to make him invincible. Unless the Queen of Sami herself came, no one could be his match.

"What are you doing?" Jingzhe frowned, somewhat puzzled by Li Ang's intentions.

“This guy isn’t a spineless coward, there’s no need to waste time on him,” Li Ang said.

Those who can become Snow Priests must have extraordinary abilities. This can be seen from Simona, who remained silent despite suffering such severe injuries. Even if the Snow Priest's willpower is not as strong as Simona's, it is not much weaker.

It would take a long time to break down his psychological defenses, and they didn't have that much time to waste here.

Moreover... once that happens, there will be no room for reconciliation between them and Sami, so it's best to avoid that situation if possible.

“Let’s go there and take a look first,” Li Ang suggested. “If there really is some unsolvable problem there, we can interrogate him about it later.”

Jingzhe thought about it and didn't object to Li Ang's suggestion. "That's fine, let's go take a look first."

Now, her every move represents the Yan Kingdom. Unless absolutely necessary, Jingzhe is not keen to take action against Xuesi.

Just now, Li Ang only used a talisman to seal Xue Si's ability to speak. He could still see and hear everything around him. Li Ang and Jingzhe's conversation fell into his ears word for word.

Ke Xuesi showed no signs of anger, but simply looked at them all coldly, her disdainful gaze carrying a hint of mockery, as if she firmly believed that none of them could pass the first test.

This made Li Ang even more interested. What was so special about that forest that made Xue Si so confident?

If... he were to completely destroy that forest, would he still be able to show that expression? Although it would be somewhat strenuous, it wasn't something Li Ang couldn't do.

With this in mind, they finally arrived at the mark on the map.

Before them lay a magnificent forest, entirely composed of ice crystals.

Chapter 77 Dazzling Light (1/6)

"So beautiful..."

Someone in the group let out a soft sigh.

The forest before them was so beautiful that even the usually aloof Jingzhe couldn't help but show a hint of excitement upon seeing it.

The sunlight refracted through this ice crystal forest, creating a halo of seven colors. From a distance, it looked as if countless colorful flowers were blooming on the crystal trees.

Beneath this beautiful exterior, there is absolutely no indication of what kind of danger is lurking.

At this moment, Magellan had already started his drone and was frantically taking pictures of the forest in front of him.

Even though Magellan had traveled to many places, she had never seen such a beautiful place; the scenery here was worth photographing and preserving.

Unfortunately, to Li Ang's perception, this place was just a large expanse of simple black and white lines, with nothing particularly beautiful about it.

"Are these trees made of ice?"

"Hmm...that seems to be the case, but I can't be sure."

Adele wasn't captivated by the beautiful scenery before her; she only glanced at it with slight envy before quickly snapping back to reality.

She had more important things to do than admire the scenery.

"I see."

Nodding slightly, Li Ang walked over to the silent Simone and asked, "You should know about this forest, right? Can you tell me the details?"

Upon hearing this, Simone's eyebrows twitched slightly, as if she was about to speak, but before Li Ang could ask further, Simone suddenly changed her mind for some reason and became resolute.

pity……

After sighing inwardly, Li Ang also felt a little strange.

These two Snow Priests... did not harbor complete hostility towards their actions; they seemed to be secretly observing Li Ang and his group, their intentions unknown.

Undeterred by the lack of information from Simone, Li Ang believed that the inability to obtain accurate information did not mean they were helpless in dealing with the forest.

Back beside Jingzhe, Li Ang asked, "So, did you notice anything?"

Jingzhe shook his head, then waved his hand and summoned a golden bolt of lightning, which struck towards the direction of the Ice Crystal Forest.

The lightning pierced the air, leaving behind a strong smell of ozone, before striking an ice crystal tree and disappearing into the ground along its trunk.

The ice crystal tree struck by lightning showed a slight sign of melting, but in this low-temperature environment, it quickly froze again.

"As you can see, this looks like a very ordinary block of ice; at least I can't see anything special about it."

Following the movements of Jingzhe, Adele also threw a small fireball, which, apart from melting a small section of a branch, did not cause any special changes.

Li Ang pondered for a moment, but did not rush to a conclusion.

This ice crystal forest was definitely not formed naturally, as naturally formed ice crystals could not possibly exhibit such regular shapes.

However, if we're talking about man-made ones, this number seems a bit too much. If it were just one or two trees, it could be something that some bored guy created using ice-attribute Originium Arts. But this vast ice crystal forest has no end in sight, and there are probably hundreds of thousands of such ice crystal trees.

To create such a forest, one can only imagine the amount of manpower and resources required... It couldn't possibly have been created one by one by the snow sacrifices of the Sami people over the past few hundred years, could it? Their energy would be far too abundant.

Having gained nothing from this area, Li Ang turned his attention to Xuan Cheng and Magellan.

They were much bolder than Jingzhe and Adele. While Jingzhe and Adele only dared to probe from a distance, the two of them had already managed to get a branch from an ice crystal tree and observe it closely.

Of course, they operated using magic and machinery, and never touched these branches throughout the entire process.

"Did you find anything?" Li Ang asked.

At this moment, Magellan was using the camera on the drone to zoom in and carefully observe the detached tree branch. After hearing Li Ang's question, Magellan replied without turning his head, "How strange. This looks like an ordinary block of ice. There's nothing strange about it at all."

"Of course, drones don't have that many functions, and we might need to go to a laboratory to analyze the problem."

There's no time to go to the lab these days...

Li Ang thought to himself with a hint of helplessness, then asked Xuan Cheng beside him, "And what about you, Xuan Cheng?"

"My lord, I did not find any trace of magic on these trees."

The fact that no one present noticed the problem with these ice crystal trees already speaks volumes. Could it be that this is just a facade, and the real problem lies elsewhere?

After tapping his helmet gently and pondering for a while, Li Ang ordered, "Get ready, everyone. We're going into this forest now."

Even if they can't see any problems, Li Ang and his group can't stay here indefinitely. As long as they are careful when they go in, nothing unexpected will happen. None of them are weaklings.

After a short preparation, they stepped into the forest made of ice crystals.

They slowed down their pace to be able to respond to any potential crisis.

Xue Si continued to sneer on Simone's back, while Simone remained expressionless. However, deep within their eyes, a strange expectation lurked, as if they were waiting for Li Ang and his companions to break through the current obstacle.

At first they were quite cautious, but after walking nearly a kilometer through the forest in one go, they gradually relaxed.

No monsters suddenly jumped out of the forest to attack them; instead, the surrounding environment gave them quite a hard time.

The iridescent light refracted by the ice crystal tree looked beautiful, but once they ventured deeper inside, they realized just how troublesome it was.

Before long, they were made dizzy by the colorful glare and could not even make out their direction. This was not just snow blindness. Magellan, a seasoned adventurer, would not make such a basic mistake. She had prepared sunglasses for everyone, but the sunglasses seemed to have no effect on the refracted glare.

The only ones unaffected were Li Ang, who was blind, and the two Xue Si who were prepared in advance.

A sinister smile crept across the face of the snow spirit on Simone's back.

So... how will you solve the current predicament?

Chapter 78 Polar Night (2/6)

By the time they noticed the unusual nature of the light, it was already too late.

"What the hell is this thing...?" Magellan complained loudly while wiping away his tears.

Who would have thought that such light could penetrate the protection of sunglasses?