The story of the black silk female knight

Like two fawns being chased and hunted by nobles and their retainers, Valensa and Seraya were both doomed to fall under the guns if things continued this way.

Unless they stop worrying about energy consumption and use burst mode to consume all the Netherworld Ghosts first, and then continue to use ink bullets to interfere with Qingyi's attacks and actions.

However, that would damage their winter clothing, forcing them to maintain a high-energy-consumption state for the subsequent exploration.

Until they achieve their goal, or freeze to death on the ice field like the corpses before them.

No choice.

Just as Valensa had made her decision and was preparing to take action, she found herself a step too slow.

The scorching power of the Yang Flame God erupted violently from Seraya's body. The high temperature instantly evaporated all the surrounding liquid air, and smoke rose up, as if one were inside a steam boiler.

"go!"

Seraya shouted very loudly, her meaning being simply a single word.

Valensa understood what she meant.

Seraya intends to break through the current predicament herself, giving Valensa the opportunity to continue her exploration in a low-consumption state until she uncovers the secrets of the Netherworld.

This is the most correct choice under the current circumstances... After all, Valencia is now famous and it is truly possible for her to quell the calamity of the underworld forever.

But this choice could very well leave Seraya here forever, just like the bodies of the pioneers we saw before.

Valensa disagreed.

She planned to ignore Seraya's choice and stand with her through thick and thin. At worst, she would abandon this exploration temporarily and run away, returning next time when she was better prepared.

However, Seraya anticipated Valensa's actions. She disagreed with Valensa's objections and acted again without Valensa's consent.

Seraya remotely imprinted a divine rune that Valensa recognized but wasn't very familiar with onto her body. Then, Seraya drew her bow and nocked an arrow, but instead of aiming at the horde of ghosts and the blue-robed figure, she aimed deeper into the core of the ice plains.

"go!"

Seraya shouted again and released the arrow without hesitation.

Several ghosts who guessed Seraya's plan immediately flew to block it, but how could ordinary ghosts block the arrows that had already used the power of the Sun Flame God?

The fate of someone trying to stop a chariot with their bare hands is utter annihilation.

The woman in green tried several times to shoot down the arrow, but the arrow was flying too fast, and its reflection on the ice was fleeting. The ornate musket didn't have time to aim.

An arrow soared 6000 meters, followed by a burst of holy light, but instead of damage, it teleported the user.

Among the auxiliary divine spells, there are also teleportation techniques... Seraya used this technique to send Valensa directly off the battlefield, to a distance of 6000 meters.

As Valensa turned around to go back and provide support, Seraya's solar flare erupted even more intensely and fiercely, like a sun rising from the ice.

Valensa halted her steps as she tried to rush back to help, suppressing the divine power that was about to erupt. Her tightly clenched lips betrayed her deep resentment.

"What a willful fellow... When we meet again at Her Majesty's place, I'll definitely give you a good spanking!"

After saying that, she never looked back again, and seizing the opportunity created by Seraya, she continued to rush deeper into the core area of ​​the ice field.

Seraya is beyond saving.

She had once again anticipated Valensa's actions, knowing that even if she used teleportation magic to send Valensa far away from the battlefield, Valensa would most likely still come to rescue her.

To dissuade Valensa from wasting her chance to save someone, Seraya directly activated a self-destruct-like move from the Sunfire Divine Art... This could grant immense Sunfire Divine Power for a short time, but once used up, she would return directly to her divine kingdom, beyond saving.

This technique is quite famous within the church; no clergy member is unaware of it, and everyone knows the resolve of a fellow practitioner who uses it—to ensure that their sacrifice is not in vain.

"But you really don't need to sacrifice yourself! I am the famous Sunflower Duchess, why can't you have a little more trust in my legend? I can save you!"

Valensa was still gritting her teeth and muttering to herself, but she didn't let her emotions get the better of her and seized the opportunity created by Seraya's sacrifice.

Seraya's sacrifice was indeed very effective; with her self-destruction, nearly a hundred ghosts were almost completely annihilated.

This meant that when Qingyi caught up with Valensa, she had no ghosts protecting her with their telekinetic powers, and she was helpless against the ink bullets that Valensa kept throwing, so she had to take detours multiple times.

The two raced each other in the ultra-low temperature liquid air, but the one that was running away was actually running in the opposite direction, constantly getting closer to the very center of the ice field's core area.

That must be where all the secrets are, and also the most important place for Qingyi... For the first time, anxiety appeared on the usually expressionless face of that two-dimensional girl.

She wanted to send out another batch of ghosts to help surround and intercept Valensa, but the nearly one hundred ghosts she had just seen were all the ghosts in the area.

They thought everything was foolproof, but they never expected that Seraya would decisively self-destruct and wipe them all out.

The remaining ghosts would need some time to get here to provide support, and there was no way they could stop Valensa before she arrived.

Valensa soon spotted the place as well.

Another boundary line, and like the previous one, the environments on both sides of the line are visibly vastly different.

But this time Valensa didn't hesitate and just rammed into it.

Because the environment beyond this boundary line did not become colder; instead, it suddenly changed from an extremely low temperature where even the air could only remain in a liquid state to a warm, spring-like temperature, or even somewhat hot.

It's much warmer than the outer ice fields, roughly the same temperature as Arante in late spring.

"This is……"

Valensa made no attempt to hide her surprise.

Before coming here, she never imagined that the center of this ultra-low temperature region of liquid air would be like this.

She had clearly prepared herself to face absolute zero, but it was completely unnecessary.

In contrast, the buildings in the heart of this warm, spring-like ice field, which were clearly man-made but completely different from the style of the civilization on the Frenoa continent, did not stir any emotion in Valensa.

Because these buildings share the same style as the underground ruins, they belong to the ancient If civilization.

Since this is most likely the location of Qingyi's server, it's perfectly normal for the ruins of the ancient Eve civilization to exist here.

And speaking of Qingyi...

Valensa looked back at the boundary line she had just crossed, her expression strange.

The woman in green stood on the ice, staring intently at her, but did not chase after her.

Why did she stop pursuing him?

Whoosh whoosh!

Just as Valensa was about to call out Friedeja to ask her a question, the sound of arrows piercing the air rang out, heading towards various vital points on Valensa's body.

The arrows didn't seem very powerful, but Valensa didn't dare to be careless. She honestly swung her sword and knocked down all the arrows that came at her, while looking in the direction from which they came.

Then she was surprised again.

The new enemies who shot at her with arrows were not ghosts, but ordinary undead, and they were wearing uniforms that were different in style from those of the three countries on the Frenoia continent.

They look a lot like the armies of the Eastern continent.

Chapter 56 Encounter

How could soldiers from the Eastern Continent appear in the very center of the Icefield Core Area?

Although those soldiers were all undead, they must have first arrived here alive before becoming undead and remaining here after death.

Valensa was very surprised by this, but soon she was less surprised.

After all, Eve is round, and the ice field is Eve's Arctic Circle, a place that you will reach by traveling north from any continent.

However, of the three continents, only Frenoia is connected to the Arctic Circle. The northern parts of both the Eastern Tianxuan Continent and the Western Shenjuan Continent are separated from the ice fields by a sea.

The sea wasn't very wide, but crossing it, landing on the ice field, and reaching its depths was still feasible for the Eastern Continent.

The most important questions now are: Are those soldiers from the Central Continent Empire? When did they arrive at the heart of the Ice Plains? Could it be part of the Dragon Emperor's conspiracy? Is the calamity of the Netherworld that America has suffered for centuries related to them?

Thinking this, Valensa suppressed her body's instinctive reaction to use Holy Light Slash to purify the undead in the distance and rushed towards that direction.

When Valensa knocked down the arrows with her longsword, she realized that those undead soldiers were just ordinary undead soldiers who could be easily destroyed with divine magic, leaving nothing behind.

But that would also destroy all the clues on them, so they must be defeated using slightly gentler methods.

This was easy for Valensa.

The distance of several hundred meters flashed by in an instant. The dozen or so undead soldiers couldn't even catch a single sword strike before Valensa severed all their limbs, rendering them unable to move.

At the same time, Valensa understood why Qingyi had stopped pursuing her.

Because the central area of ​​this ice sheet core region has a very high temperature.

Just now near the border, the temperature was like that of Arante in late spring—somewhat warm, but the ground was still covered in ice and snow.

But now Valensa has only gone a few hundred meters deeper, and the temperature is already like that of France in the height of summer, so hot that people don't want to wear anything.

At this temperature, there would naturally be no more ice or snow on the ground, nor would there be a flat surface for reflection, leaving no place for Qingyi to stand.

For the time being, there's no need to worry about the threat from Qingyi.

Valensa breathed a slight sigh of relief, squatted down, and carefully examined the undead soldiers.

Their flesh and blood had long since decayed and rotted, leaving only bones, making it difficult to discern any clues. Therefore, Valensa focused her observations on their armor and clothing.

It is indeed in the style of the Eastern Continent, but not the Central Plains Empire.

With one foot planted on one of the undead soldiers whose clothing and armor were best preserved, Valensa took out her small metal rod, pressed it against her forehead, and searched the Sun Church's database to find out the true origins of these soldiers.

The answer was found quickly.

This clothing and armor all belong to a small country called Chu Shang Kingdom in the Eastern Continent. This country was once located in the northern part of the Tianxuan Continent, facing the Ice Plains across the sea.

However, the State of Chu Shang was destroyed more than 1400 years ago.

The specific reasons and process of the destruction of the country are not recorded in detail in the database. It is only said that it should be related to the three major sects of Tianxuan Continent. People from Sword Pavilion and Holy Gate participated in that war of destruction.

Valensa put down the small golden rod, observed the undead soldiers again, and frowned slightly.

Then another question came to her mind.

These undead soldiers would undoubtedly be elite if placed in an army, but they would only be elite soldiers.

How did they manage to cross that extremely cold region where even air remains liquid to get to this place before they died?

They absolutely cannot come.

Then there is only one possibility.

Before they arrived, that extremely cold region did not exist... It was something these soldiers from the Chu Shang Kingdom did here that made it become what it is today.

“I have some impression of this place.”

The shadow at Valensa's feet suddenly twitched a few times, and a voluptuous witch emerged from it. She showed no interest in the undead soldiers lying on the ground, and instead carefully examined the ancient ruins of the Eve civilization:

"There's no mistake... This is the research center of the Eve civilization that was originally responsible for the plan to turn the entire race into undead. It was later completely abandoned. So this is where it was."

"Has Sister Friggia never been here before?"

Valensa no longer paid attention to the undead soldiers and casually shot out a holy flame to purify them.

"No, this plan was abandoned before I was born. I only saw the records and research notes in the Eve civilization's archives, and I never came to investigate in person."

Friggia gently shook her head and looked towards the center of the ruins:

"However, this confirms our previous guesses... There is likely a game server here that stores Qingyi's data. It was restarted for some reason after the catastrophe, which awakened Qingyi, who had lost her soul, and made Qingyi and that abandoned plan to turn everyone into the dead. That's why the so-called Netherworld Calamity happened."

"That should be it."

Valensa agreed with Friedia's assessment and also looked towards the center of the ruins:

"The answers and solutions to all of this should be found there."

Friggia slipped back into Valensa's shadow, while Valensa continued toward the center of the ruins.

Along the way, she encountered several more waves of undead soldiers from the Chu Shang Kingdom, but none of them posed a threat, as she easily purified them with her holy light.

Until we reach the entrance to the central building of the ruins.

A very burly man, whose muscles were still visible even though he was dead, blocked the way.

The burly man was also wearing Chu Shang Kingdom armor, only more ornate, and the halberd in his hand exuded a sharp and scorching aura, far superior to the weapons of ordinary soldiers.

It was a divine weapon painstakingly crafted by skilled artisans, and also a treasured possession of the strong man in his lifetime.

Whoosh!

Without any intention of verbal communication, when Valensa approached within about 200 meters, the burly man launched an attack, his entire body engulfed in flames, as he charged towards Valensa.

Flaming Halberd, charge!

Valensa was completely focused. This burly man was undoubtedly a top-level undead, capable of preserving his skills from his previous life almost perfectly. She absolutely could not be careless.

More importantly, Valensa vaguely sensed that the formidable enemy here was not only a burly man, but also a faint killing intent gathering in the shadows, ready to launch a sneak attack at any moment.

So Valensa didn't rush to use Nana to ambush the strong man. Instead, she unleashed her power and twisted her body to escape from the strong man's aura lock and dodge to the side.