The story of the black silk female knight

Therefore, this mission from Franco to America was less about arranging a blind date for Princess E and more about a large-scale social event between young people from Franco noble families and the American aristocratic families.

So far, this large-scale social gathering has been quite effective.

Many young men and women from noble families, after sleeping together, gradually deepened their relationship, moving from simply talking about feelings to discussing both feelings and cooperation.

Some of the more efficient noble families and aristocratic clans have even signed preliminary cooperation agreements through the emotional connections among the younger members of their families.

It is foreseeable that trade between Franco and America will only become more prosperous in the future.

Valensa and Tia have never been very interested in blind dates and social events.

What they were more concerned about was that after the large-scale matchmaking event ended, the hunting operation against the hibernating Netherworld Ghost Clan on the ice plains was finally about to begin.

In terms of sheer danger, the Netherworld Ghost Clan, which is also a natural disaster, is more dangerous than the Wild Beast Clan.

In the more than a thousand years since America founded its nation, nearly a hundred towns have been reduced to ruins by the Netherworld Clan, with no survivors among the inhabitants—a truly tragic situation.

Fortunately, just as the Wild Beast Clan only raids Fran's food supply every autumn, the Dark Ghost Clan also has a hibernation period of about eight months each year. This gives the Americana people a chance to breathe; otherwise, this country probably would never have been established, and all the humans north of the Wild Ridge would have been wiped out by the Dark Ghost Clan long ago.

Just as the Frans spent a thousand years building a northern defense line consisting of dozens of fortresses, America also had ways to minimize the threat of natural disasters.

Unlike Fran, who chose to defend, America chose to take the initiative. Every year, during the Netherworld Clan's hibernation period, they would actively enter the ice plains to hunt the hibernating Netherworld Clan.

In Fran, many young nobles consider going to the front lines to slay wild beasts the highest honor.

America also has a similar cultural heritage.

Many scions of noble families who embark on the path of cultivation take pride in participating in the Icefield Hunt after reaching the Lighthouse level.

If you're lucky enough to personally slay a ghost, you'll be extremely popular in social circles.

This cultural heritage is, of course, the result of the joint efforts of the powerful families who control America.

Although America is still somewhat different from the capitalist countries of Valencia's previous life, many aristocratic families have already taken on a capitalist air.

The biggest difference between the two is that America does not yet have the concept of a company or conglomerate, its financial system is relatively backward, and many chambers of commerce have a relatively simple business scope. There are no behemoths that are involved in multiple industries at the same time.

In this respect, the Nora Chamber of Commerce in Fran is actually more capitalist, and it now resembles a super-large conglomerate.

However, France was, after all, a feudal country, and no matter how wealthy a merchant was, his voice and influence were not as great as those of the royal family and nobles.

The businessmen in America who have become the rulers of the country, even if they are not quite as big as the capitalists in Valencia's previous life, are not far off; they are all very smart.

They are very clear that a merchant's wealth and power come from human society itself... Without people, no amount of wealth or power is meaningful.

Therefore, although the Chamber of Commerce is not exactly a benevolent people-loving organization, it knows that it must unite and fight against the natural disasters of the Netherworld Clan, which often massacres cities and towns. It also knows the importance of education and inheritance.

The cultural tradition of noble families taking pride in hunting the Netherworld Ghost Clan was born from this.

Actually, about 170 years ago, if Valensa and her companions wanted to secretly hunt some Netherworld creatures to collect their spinal cords, they wouldn't have needed to go through all this trouble; they could have simply sneaked into the ice plains and started doing it themselves.

At that time, the Merchant Alliance had no restrictions on entering the Icefield.

Every year during the Netherworld Clan's hibernation period, many young masters from noble families would lead hunting teams into the outer reaches of the ice plains to minimize the number of Netherworld Clan members.

Until that major disaster occurred about 170 years ago.

Just as a large forest has all kinds of birds, a large human population will naturally produce all sorts of oddities, including some antisocial and inhumane lunatics.

There was once a man named Wordsworth, an excellent ice hunter. Every year during the hibernation period of the Netherworld Clan, he would be hired by some noble families to go hunting in the ice fields as a guide.

Finding the hibernating lairs of the Netherworld race on the ice plains is no easy task; it often takes more than ten days or even dozens of days to find one.

As an ice field hunter, it was normal for Wozniak to be away working for months at a time before returning home.

On one occasion, a young man from a noble family who had already hired Wordsworth had to cancel his ice hunt due to unforeseen circumstances and returned home a few days later.

When Wordsworth returned home, he discovered that his wife was having an affair with their neighbor and was having a great time.

This kind of thing is unavoidable in any world, any era, and any country.

When men encounter this kind of situation, they usually argue with their wives and get a divorce, or at most, they beat the adulterer and their wife to death.

But Wordsworth was still not satisfied after killing his wife and her lover. He was very dissatisfied with the fact that he had worked so hard to hunt ghosts and protect his country, only to be betrayed by his wife, and he resented society because of this.

So Wordsworth went into the ice field again, but instead of hunting ghosts, he woke up the dormant ghosts ahead of time.

At that time, America had been studying the dormant period of the demons for many years and never expected to be invaded by demons during that period. Many cities were poorly defended and the people did not stockpile food even though they had built shelters in their homes.

Finally, centered on Wordsworth's hometown, six cities in the vicinity were transformed into ghostly realms by the onslaught of the ghosts, with a total death toll exceeding 50.

Since then, the Merchants' Union has imposed strict restrictions on entering the ice fields for hunting.

Not only is an official hunting permit required, but each hunting team must also have at least five members, and there must be a professional ice field hunter in the team.

As foreigners, Valensa and Tia would face significant difficulties participating in the Icefield Hunt, even with their status as Paladins and Sage Apprentices.

But it's much easier now.

Princess Elsers personally led a group to participate in the Icefield Hunt to demonstrate the friendship between the two countries, and the Merchant Alliance naturally opened the door wide to facilitate the event, issuing many hunting permits.

Valensa and Tia quickly obtained a hunting license. All they needed to do was hire three more ice field hunters to form a five-person team before they could set off.

The two will not join Elser's hunting party.

The power of the Netherworld Clan is extremely dangerous, so the Merchant Alliance has long had strict regulations prohibiting the collection of any materials from the Netherworld Clan after a hunt, and the corpses must be destroyed immediately.

Elsers's participation in the Icefield Hunt was clearly more symbolic than anything else; it was more of a diplomatic activity than a hunting expedition.

That team probably won't even encounter many Netherworld Ghost lairs... Even if they do, there are still many members of the Merchant Alliance in the team, making it extremely difficult to secretly collect the spinal cord of the Netherworld Ghosts. If they are discovered, it could even cause a diplomatic dispute.

Therefore, Valensa and Tia must act alone.

Fortunately, many young noblemen from the Franco family and scions of the America family were in love, and many of them planned to participate in the hunt together, each leading a hired hunting team into the ice field.

Noble ladies like Valensa and Tia, who act alone, are not particularly conspicuous.

However, when hiring Icefield Hunters, one must be careful in selecting them.

According to Friggia, to forge a sword that can control the undead, the spinal cord of a single ghoul is definitely not enough; at least three are needed, and preferably five or more, or even more.

This is a bit difficult... The dormant Netherworld Clan is not hard to kill, the real difficulty is finding their hidden dormant locations.

Generally speaking, if a hunting team can find two dormant Netherworld Ghosts in a month, it's considered highly efficient; if they can find more than three, they're considered an elite team.

Valensa didn't have much time to spend entirely on the Icefield Hunt; she still needed to thoroughly humiliate the champion in the dueling arena in order to complete her deal with the great collector and acquire the Rainbow Giant Chicken.

Therefore, it doesn't matter if the Icefield Hunters Valensa and Tia hire are a little weak in combat, but they must be particularly good at searching for the hiding places of the Netherworld Clan.

Chapters 160-162 Suitable Candidates

Besides being exceptionally skilled at locating the hiding places of the Netherworld Clan, the Ice Hunter that Valensa and Tia wanted to hire also had to meet another condition.

They are just quite sensible—they can be bribed to pretend not to see certain things, or they can find some leverage to threaten them.

With these two requirements combined, it becomes very difficult to find a suitable candidate.

After returning to Arant and spending two days eating, drinking, and having fun with Princess Yu and the others, Valensa and Tia started going to the Hunters' Guild in Arant every day.

Five days have passed, and we still haven't been able to find a suitable guide.

The Icefield Hunt had officially begun. Not only had Elser led the Wave Knights and an elite force from the Merchant Alliance set off for the Icefield three days prior, but many young nobles and scions of noble families who had fallen in love, pursued honor, and were confident in their abilities had also set off with their guards and hired Icefield Hunters.

Many of the local aristocratic families had acquaintances with excellent ice field hunters, and these excellent ice field hunters had already been booked by their regular clients before the hunting expedition even began.

By the time Valensa and Tia wanted to hire them, the top hunters in the Hunters Guild had either been recruited by the Merchant Alliance into Princess Tia's team or already had employers.

Among the remaining hunters, there were quite a few excellent ones, but none of them dared to agree to Valencia's requirement that they find a new hiding place for the Netherworld Clan every 10 days.

In just five days, Valensa had become familiar with many of the Hunters' Guild staff.

After all, she had three years of adventurer experience, was a hot and beautiful paladin in black stockings, and was a foreign noblewoman. Gaining her favor was incredibly easy.

The hunters and staff all knew she was engaged and a noblewoman, so they wouldn't have any unrealistic fantasies. But who wouldn't like to chat and boast with a noblewoman?

While chatting and boasting with people in the Hunter's Guild, Valensa also managed to glean some information about the Netherworld Clan.

First, of course, is the combat strength of ordinary Netherworld Ghosts.

Valensa and Tia had certainly consulted relevant materials before, but the experience of frontline hunters was equally important, and the conclusion drawn from comparing the two was the most reliable.

The specific division of strength among the Netherworld Ghost Clan has always been a subject of debate.

Because the abilities of the Netherworld Clan are truly unique.

They possess a talent similar to an aura effect. Once activated, this ability can affect at least hundreds or even thousands of creatures within a radius of thousands of meters, directly transforming those with insufficient resistance into undead under their control.

This ability is definitely at the level of a Radiant-rank secret technique; even a Star-rank necromancer like Savat Landon couldn't achieve this.

However, as long as one can resist this transformation and successfully get close to the Netherworld Clan, it often only takes two or three Lighthouse-level beings working in perfect coordination to kill a single Netherworld Clan member.

From this perspective, the Netherworld Ghost Clan is far inferior to the Radiant Rank powerhouses, so there has always been controversy regarding how to classify the strength of individual Netherworld Ghost Clan members.

This information largely matched the materials she had previously consulted and the firsthand experiences of frontline hunters, so the facts were unlikely to deviate too much, which relieved Valensa slightly.

Valensa is quite confident in her current strength. She can already protect herself when fighting against a true Star-level expert, and she has no problem fighting against multiple ordinary Beacon-level experts.

Valensa was confident she could solo the Netherworld race, which only required two or three Lighthouse-level units to defeat with perfect teamwork.

As for the Netherworld Ghost Clan's innate ability, it's even simpler.

In fact, most cultivators with strength above the Pearl level can resist the Netherworld Ghost Clan's innate ability, as long as they are prepared.

The true power of that innate ability lies in its use in densely populated towns, where it can instantly create a massive number of undead. Caught off guard, even high-level adventurers in the town often struggle to turn the tide of battle; many times, they don't even find the Netherworld race before being overwhelmed by the endless undead.

However, this ability is less effective on the extremely cold Arctic ice fields where there are almost no living creatures. As long as humans don't make the foolish mistake of sending a large number of cannon fodder there, it will be fine.

Besides the specific strength of the Netherworld Clan, another thing Valensa asked the hunters about a lot was how to efficiently kill the Netherworld Clan.

Although the abilities of the Netherworld race are very similar to those of high-ranking undead, and they also have many characteristics of undead, they are not actually undead, but living beings.

All spells, weapons, and skills designed for the undead are not very effective against the ghouls.

With the same energy consumption, the Holy Light spells are far less effective against the Netherworld race than fire and lightning.

However, fire and lightning can only be used to deal with the Netherworld race that has invaded America; they are almost useless in the Icefield Hunt.

Due to the climate of the icy plains, magical elements are extremely concentrated and explosive. Water-based spells are much more effective there, but other elemental spells are only about one-tenth as effective.

Therefore, when facing the Netherworld Ghost Clan, the most effective and effortless way to attack is actually through physical attacks by warrior-type cultivators.

However, the Netherworld Ghosts are not undead, but they have many characteristics similar to the undead. They do not have the fatal weaknesses of ordinary creatures, and neither beheading nor piercing the heart can kill them quickly.

The best way to deal with the Netherworld Demons is to first attack their limbs and joints with sharp blades or piercing weapons to render them unable to move, and then use heavy blunt weapons such as double-handed hammers to completely smash them to pieces before killing them.

This is why a hunting team needs at least two Lighthouse-level warriors with excellent teamwork... The best choice is to pair up an agile warrior skilled in swords and a strength-type warrior skilled in heavy blunt weapons.

These firsthand experiences from frontline hunters are invaluable lessons, and Valensa silently took notes of them all while they were chatting and boasting.

The hunters would say these things to Valensa not only because men have an instinct to boast in front of beautiful girls, but also because they wanted to get closer to her and hopefully she would lower her standards and hire them.

Unfortunately, Valensa never agreed.

She knew she wasn't good at business negotiations, so she set a bottom line from the beginning: if the requirements weren't met, it wouldn't work.

The hiring price is negotiable, but the ability is non-negotiable.

The hunters were somewhat disappointed, but they didn't say anything more.

It wasn't until the ninth day that things finally took a turn for the better.

Valensa and Tia spent the day at the Hunter's Guild, but gained nothing. However, when they were leaving that evening to return to their hotel, they were followed.

"Ladies, please wait a moment."

The person who followed Valensa and Tia made no attempt to conceal himself, and boldly called out to them on a secluded street some distance from the Hunters' Guild.

Valensa and Tia, who had anticipated this, exchanged a smile and turned to look at the newcomer.

This is a man who looks to be in his early thirties. He has gotten to know Valensa and the others over the past few days.

The man is the head of the Hunters' Guild reception staff, a position similar to Melina's previous one.

If this were a branch of the Hunter's Guild in a remote small town, this position would be the head of the branch. However, this is Arant, the administrative center of America, and the Hunter's Guild is also the headquarters. There are many people in the guild with higher positions than this man.

"Is there something you need, supervisor?"

Valensa asked with a polite smile.

"Is such that……"

It's clear the man is still somewhat hesitant, but since he's already decided to chase after her, he made up his mind after a moment's hesitation.

He took a deep breath and looked Valensa intently into his eyes: