The story of the black silk female knight

However, the girl in military uniform was not kicked out from under the ice by Valensa. Instead, her figure shrank considerably and appeared on the flying ice shards. She moved across the surface of the countless ice shards at a very fast speed, almost instantly returning to the ice surface and putting distance between herself and Valensa.

Then, with a click, the girl in military uniform cocked her gun and aimed at Valensa.

At this moment, Valencia had just used her stunning black-stockinged legs to dodge the attack, with most of her legs still stuck in the ice. Her body was also in a brief state of stiffness, making it difficult for her to immediately change her posture and dodge.

She could only hold the alloy round shield in front of her and activate the Holy Light Shield for defense.

"do not want!"

Upon seeing this, old Winston's expression changed drastically. He immediately spoke up to warn her and threw an ink ball that would explode, trying to support Valensa.

Unfortunately, the two sides were too far apart at the time, and before the ink ball could reach its target, the girl in military uniform fired without hesitation.

boom!

The gunshot was loud; it was the sound of an old-fashioned smoothbore shotgun like the ones Valensa had in her previous life.

This type of gun has very low accuracy at long distances, incomparable to rifles, but within a range of twenty or thirty meters, it possesses a powerful lethality that is said to be able to "equalize all beings."

Of course, the so-called equality of all beings applies to technological civilizations. For cultivators, a shotgun can easily kill those below the Pearl level at close range, but those above the Pearl level are more likely to survive.

Valensa was a female knight with high defense and high health, and she also had triple defense from a shield, holy shield magic, and divine particle armor. She shouldn't be afraid of a mere shotgun.

But the truth is that as the gunshot rang out, Valencia fell backward, her expression one of great pain, and the lace shirt under her silver armor was quickly stained red with blood.

Her shield was intact, and the Holy Shield still shone with golden light. There was no sign of being hit on her silver armor, but a bloody hole had been blasted between her left chest and abdomen, and even half of her chest had been blown apart. It was a terrible sight.

The girl in military uniform showed no mercy, cocking her gun again with a click, ready to finish off Valensa.

Fortunately, the ink ball thrown by old Winston finally arrived, exploding above Valensa's head. The scattered ink instantly covered the ice around Valensa's body, also erasing her reflection on the ice.

The girl in military uniform remained expressionless, but she lowered her gun with a gesture tinged with helplessness, as if the target had vanished from her sight.

She then completely ignored Valensa lying in the ink and continued chasing after Winston and his two sons.

Chapters 175-177 Return to Arant

"Oh dear, this is really..."

Seeing the girl in military uniform chasing Winston and his two sons away through the ice, Valensa finally stood up, grimacing as she clutched the spot where she had been shot.

With half her chest shattered by a shotgun, Valensa's current level of healing magic would make it very difficult to heal her in a short time.

She could only unleash the chaotic divine power stored in her left eye, actively enter the evil god mode, and then use the super-fast regeneration in the evil god mode to heal her wounds.

"That must have hurt a lot, right?"

Tia arrived beside Valensa at this moment. She first reached her hand through the gaps in Valensa's silver armor and touched the spot where Valensa had been shot, confirming that the wound had mostly healed. Then she rolled her eyes reproachfully.

"When you encounter an unknown opponent, you directly confront them head-on. Where is your caution?"

"I really didn't expect that guy's abilities to be so bizarre..."

Valensa pressed down on Tia's hand, which was touching her gunshot wound, and gently rubbed it with Tia's hand, a bitter smile appearing on her face:

"My defenses were completely useless..."

"There are many secret techniques in this world, and many of them can be used to attack without being able to defend against defenses."

Tia said seriously:

"For example, our family's linking technique can directly link to the enemy's heart and brain, etc., to achieve a one-hit kill... So never be careless just because you have high defense."

"oh, I understand now."

After a brief exchange, Valensa and Tia boarded their flying cards again to chase after the girl in military uniform and Winston and his son.

The situation for Winston and his son remains the same. They can't escape as quickly as the girl in military uniform, but with those exploding ink balls, they should be able to protect themselves if they don't make any mistakes.

Valensa was naturally furious with the blue-haired girl in military uniform who had shot half of her chest in the ice.

If she acted out of curiosity and a desire to help Winston and his son before, now it's purely for revenge.

Having learned her lesson earlier, Valensa was less likely to act rashly this time. She instructed Tia to control the flying cards to maintain altitude and attack the ground from the air in different ways.

They tried everything – alloy floating blades, divine magic, spells, firearms, compound bows – blasting the ice surface into craters, but none of them could cause the girl in military uniform the slightest harm.

Tia also tried using several spells, both control and damage spells, but they had no effect on the girl in military uniform.

Although the girl in military uniform always had a blank expression, she was clearly not one to back down. Several times she raised her gun and aimed it at the sky, trying to shoot Valensa and Tia down.

However, the smoothbore shotgun is as powerful in close combat as it is in long-range combat.

Unlike the others in this world, Valensa and Tia had a good understanding of smoothbore shotguns. Tia controlled the flying cards to stay outside the effective firing range of the smoothbore shotguns, and the girl in military uniform couldn't do anything about them.

So the girl in military uniform raised her middle finger to the sky, completely ignoring Valensa and Tia, and focused all her attention on chasing after Winston and his two sons.

Valensa was furious and vented her anger by bombarding the ice surface. She even tried to bite off a large chunk of the ice where the girl in the military uniform was standing with the mouth of the evil god, but it was all to no avail.

That girl in military uniform seemed just like a two-dimensional character; even if three-dimensional people smashed or destroyed their screens, they couldn't truly affect the two-dimensional character.

Valensa was quite helpless as this was the first time she had encountered such a bizarre enemy.

Tia was much more perceptive at this point. She persuaded Valensa to stop her futile attacks and took out the image crystal to record the girl in military uniform. She planned to go back and ask Friggia, the great witch who was once the goddess of the Eve civilization, if she knew anything.

Time passed little by little, and the sky gradually darkened.

There is a high probability of storms on the ice field at night, and the storms will contain a large number of ice blades and ice needles, so staying in the air any longer will be very dangerous.

Although she was very unwilling, Valensa knew that this time she probably wouldn't be able to get revenge on the girl in military uniform for the half of her chest that had been blown apart.

She first had Tia speed up and catch up with Winston and his two sons, and obtained more than twenty exploding ink balls from Big Winston. Then she had Tia prepare a long-distance teleportation spell, while she once again took the initiative to meet the girl in military uniform.

Although the ink ball could not cause any harm to the girl in military uniform, the method of covering the ice with ink to affect her movements was very effective.

With the help of more than twenty ink balls, Valensa successfully held off the girl in military uniform for a few minutes, while Tia took the opportunity to open a portal to Arant and leave with Winston and his two sons.

As Winston's figure disappeared into the portal, the military-uniformed girl, who had always been expressionless, showed an expression for the first time... it was anger.

She glared at Valensa, whose ink sac had run out, and raised her smoothbore shotgun to fire continuously.

Having already learned her lesson, Valensa dared not take the bullets head-on again. She dodged a few times rather awkwardly, then gave the girl in military uniform the middle finger before activating Moon Kiss's exquisite magic sword once more. She vanished from her spot and teleported to Tia's side.

The Winston father and his two sons were all surprised to find themselves back in Arland from the dangerous ice field in an instant.

They had long recognized that Valensa and Tia were both capable, but they hadn't expected them to be this capable.

Teleportation spells are not uncommon; many powerful and wealthy people possess teleportation scrolls for self-preservation.

However, opening a portal is something that only a Radiant-rank spellcaster can do, and even then, it must be a Radiant-rank spellcaster who specializes in spatial magic.

Although Kotiya is just a lighthouse, she can still open portals, and her portals are even faster and more stable than those of many Radiant-rank spellcasters.

And Valensa is another one... She may look like just a beacon, but her actual combat power is definitely at the level of a Radiant Rank.

Both Winston and his son are quick-witted individuals who have become ace members of the Hunters Guild.

They knew very well what the likes of Valensa and Tia meant... either they were once-in-a-century super geniuses, or they had special identities and incredibly powerful backers.

In front of such a person, let alone a former ace hunter who has been dismissed, even a current ace hunter would find it difficult to go against the other party's wishes.

So when faced with Valensa's seemingly gentle dinner invitation, the Winston father and his two sons simply exchanged wry smiles and agreed.

In the luxurious hotel restaurant where she and Tia were staying, Valensa requested a private room, ordered a lavish spread of food, and opened two bottles of fine wine.

"Tell me about it."

After personally filling all five glasses, Valensa looked at Winston and his two sons, her expression still smiling, but her eyes brooking no argument:

"what is going on?"

"This……"

The three Winstons exchanged helpless glances, their faces revealing no intention to hide or make excuses, but they seemed unsure how to begin.

Seeing this, Valencia picked up her glass and took a small sip of her drink.

"It seems your thoughts are a bit confused for now... How about this, I'll first share my and Tia's guesses, and you can correct and supplement them if there's anything wrong, okay?"

The tone was one of negotiation, but Valensa gave Winston and his son no chance to discuss it at all.

Instead of using the exaggerated descriptions often used when bragging to adventurers, she presented her and Tia's speculations as objectively as possible.

Valensa revealed everything, including speculations about Winston's origins, the truth of what happened two years ago, and Winston's ability to sense ghosts.

With each guess she made, the wry smiles on the Winstons' faces deepened.

Old Winston was covered in cold sweat by the end.

"You two are indeed remarkable... I never expected that the secret we've painstakingly concealed for so long would still be discovered by you."

"So we guessed correctly?"

Tia chimed in at the opportune moment. She wasn't particularly interested in drinks, but to ease the tension, she casually peeled a piece of fruit from the table and elegantly put it into her mouth.

After spending more than 20 days together, Valensa could tell that the Winston father and his two sons were good people at heart, and the Winston father and his two sons naturally also gained a general understanding of Valensa and Tia's personalities.

In addition, compared to interrogation in the interrogation room, the atmosphere of eating and chatting like friends at the dinner table was more relaxing, and old Winston eventually broke through his psychological defenses.

"The two gentlemen's ideas are basically correct, but there are slight differences in the details."

Seemingly to bolster his courage, or perhaps to demonstrate his resolve, old Winston downed all three glasses of wine, including those for his two sons, in one gulp before sighing and slowly recounting his story:

"This matter... well, let's start from three years ago. That was the first time we encountered the strange woman on the ice. Today is only the third time."

Valensa and Tia both looked like they were listening intently.

Old Winston filled his glass to the brim, but didn't drink any more. Instead, he raised the glass to his lips, inhaling the aroma of the wine as he continued to reminisce:

"At the time, we didn't pay much attention and thought it was some kind of unknown ice field monster... Although there are very few monsters living on the ice field, they are all rare species. Basically, a new monster will be discovered every few years."

As you can probably guess, the woman in the ice had incredibly strange abilities. We were caught off guard and suffered a great loss, with several members of our team being injured or killed in an instant.

Perhaps we were lucky, because our employer happened to have an octopus-like monster that could move on land, which taught us that covering the ice with ink could affect the strange woman's movements to some extent.

But it's just an influence; we have no way to truly harm her, so naturally we can't eliminate or repel her. In the end, we'll definitely be the ones who lose.

Fortunately, the employer at the time not only owned an octopus-like monster but was also very wealthy. She equipped us guides and her own guards with life-saving teleportation scrolls. Seeing the enemy's strange abilities, she decisively ordered a retreat. We all used the teleportation scrolls to escape, and the losses weren't too great.

"Then you prepared the ink balls you used today?"

Valensa chimed in curiously with a question.

"Ah."

Old Winston, quite enjoying the aroma of the wine in his glass, nodded slightly.

"Unlike you two gentlemen, who possess extraordinary talent and can make a living in the icy plains, we rely entirely on experience and thorough preparation."

Considering the possibility of encountering that eerie woman in the ice again on my return to the ice plains, I commissioned an alchemist to create a batch of ink bombs… and unexpectedly, they came in handy very soon.”

At this point, old Winston's face clearly darkened, and he finally stopped just smelling the wine and drank it all in one gulp.

Old Winston seemed to be the kind of person who was both a light drinker and a heavy drinker; after only four drinks, his face was noticeably red, though he was still fairly lucid, though his tongue was a little stiff when he spoke.

"The second time we met that woman was two years ago when we were expelled from the guild... It was during that encounter that we realized that meeting that woman was not accidental; she came specifically for my youngest son."

Unlike our employer when we first encountered that strange woman, our employer back then was much weaker in both strength and wealth... His guards were no match for the strange woman, and he was unable to equip all of us with teleportation scrolls for escape.

To avoid the complete annihilation of my employer's team, my two sons and I had no choice but to run away in order to lure that strange woman away... After all, we had experience dealing with that strange woman, and we also had ink balls prepared in advance for self-defense. If we were careful, we could still escape.

And that was indeed the case; the three of us, father and sons, successfully escaped from the ice field, and the strange woman did not attack the employer again.

Unfortunately, the employer's team was relatively weak. After losing the three of us guides, they lost several lives on the return journey due to the harsh environment of the ice field.

The employer was furious and came to the guild to cause trouble for us as soon as he returned... You two probably know what happened next.

"So that's how it is... You didn't run away to abandon your employer, but to draw the danger away and save your employer's life."

Valensa nodded slightly, yet seemed somewhat puzzled:

"But if that's the case, why didn't you explain when the guild was investigating you? If you had explained it clearly, the guild definitely wouldn't have fired you, right? Even that employer might have thanked you for saving his life."

"Perhaps... but we can't tell the truth."

As old Winston finished speaking, he reached out and patted his youngest son's head, whose expression was somewhat guilty, his eyes filled with fatherly love.

"Because once we tell the truth, we also have to tell about my youngest son... otherwise it's hard to explain why that strange woman only chased us."

Hiding it is useless. The Hunter's Guild and the Sage's Tower have deep ties and there are too many ways to force us to tell the truth.

I don't want my son to be looked at differently, I don't want him to be coveted by others, and I certainly don't want him to become a research subject in the Sage's Tower research lab.

So, in order to let the matter pass as quickly as possible, we simply admitted all the mistakes, so that the employer and the guild would treat it as a simple accident.