Chapter 1519: Chapter 1519: Reunion

The sled in the sky rapidly accelerated, and Rote instinctively clutched the sides of the sled.

At this moment, Kela seemed to have discovered something. The previously smooth forward-moving icy path suddenly changed its direction and began descending rapidly.

Moreover, the slope appeared to be quite steep.

Rote’s gaze was fixed straight ahead, watching as the ice-reindeer in front stepped down and seemed to drop vertically, disappearing from his field of view.

While Rote was not afraid of death, the place they were in now seemed at least as high as twenty or thirty buildings stacked together.

He had never been this high before; looking down from such a height was a bit intimidating.

But actually, it’s not a big deal; it’s just a bit high.

He comforted himself inwardly.

Suddenly, the sled seemed to fall into emptiness below.

“Ah!!!!”

Accompanied by Rote’s scream, the sled began to slide rapidly down the steep icy path.

——

In the clouds below, dense monsters blocked the streets, revealing themselves.

He Ao lifted his head and looked ahead.

The transparent monsters covered in cracks rapidly collapsed in front of him, turning into scattered ice crystals.

But soon, the narrow street was filled again with new monsters.

The little girl clutched the wooden box, nervously watching everything around.

In the void, a faint contour of an eyeball seemed to be engraved in the center of an inverted triangle.

As the monsters rapidly approached, their bodies quickly filled with cracks, and as they reached the little girl, they shattered explosively, transforming into scattered ice crystals.

These ice crystals drifted in the air, mingling with the snowstorm, emitting a faint aura of hunger.

Alongside this batch of monsters breaking into ice crystals, new monsters filled in from behind, closing in on He Ao and the little girl.

He Ao lifted his head, gazing at the monsters approaching from both sides, a glow of orange-grey shining in his eyes.

The monsters were instantly covered in cracks.

This was He Ao directly erasing their cores.

But this did not signify the monsters’ deaths. Even with their cores erased, the monsters covered in cracks continued moving forward until even the concept of their cores’ existence was erased, only then would they completely shatter into ice crystals.

And this ‘existence concept’ came from the inexplicable force infused in them.

The entity controlling these monsters from behind had already ‘updated’ its methods to deal with He Ao.

The ability previously exclusive to Kaster was now ‘allocated’ to ordinary monsters.

The core of these monsters actually had two layers: one was their real core, and the second was a certain special power hidden deep within.

When the first core was destroyed, the special power of the second would extend, faking the concept of an existing core, keeping the monsters active.

So He Ao needed to first break the core and then the false existence concept of the core to completely shatter these monsters.

In a way, these monsters have activated some kind of ‘blood lock,’ requiring to be killed twice.

Of course, He Ao wasn’t entirely without options.

He could completely destroy both the core and its conceptual power in one go.

But the way these monsters’ cores were constructed was peculiar, acting as some buffer, relieving the force of the hidden power inside.

Thus, for He Ao to destroy both from the outside at once would require ten times more power than breaking them separately.

If He Ao chose to penetrate the core, destroying internally first then externally, it would take four to five times more time than breaking them separately.

Thus, attacking the same monster twice and enduring its blood lock was actually the most economical and effective strategy for He Ao.

Those behind the scenes, connecting the lines and seemingly controlling these monsters, clearly didn’t think these monsters could truly harm He Ao.

They were simply annoying He Ao, relying on these small monsters to continuously consume He Ao.

Of course, He Ao was somewhat curious about how many ‘monsters’ there actually were.

The intensity and density of monster attacks had experienced several increases, indicating that similar monsters existed in other areas and were being ‘allocated’ over.

Bang——

As a new batch of monsters broke out from the snowstorm, shattered, the concentration of ice crystals around He Ao was nearly as thick as mist, obscuring vision.

And the faint pollution carried by these ice crystals, due to the increased concentration and stacking, gradually began forming a stronger pollution effect.

He Ao shifted his gaze down, glancing at the little girl clutching the wooden box by his side.

The Ice and Snow Gem inside the box emitted a faint glow, forming an invisible barrier dispersing the approaching ice crystals.

Though the gem itself carried some pollution, it was considerably lighter than that of these ice crystals and was consciously controlled by the force covering it.

And merely during the brief period when He Ao shifted his attention, the wave-like monsters had already charged again.

The dense light covered the monsters, bringing their rapid collapse.

The ice crystals thickened once more between the heavens and the earth.

Boom——

In the depths of this dense snowstorm, a vague sound of massive structures collapsing was heard.

The little girl was drawn to the sound and lifted her head to look ahead.

Only to see, within the phantom of the snowstorm, a slender pillar seemingly reaching toward the sky was rapidly forming.

Then it quickly approached towards them.

The pillar formed swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, it spread to not far in front of them.

And the density of monsters around them seemed to have increased another level, as if new monster reinforcements had gathered from afar, launching even more intense attacks.

This batch of monsters had doubled compared to before.

He Ao lifted his hand, bringing the little girl closer to him, his gaze calmly watched the monsters charging around.

Orange-grey light flickered in his eyes as the monsters in the front quickly filled with cracks and then shattered.

But the monsters from behind still fearlessly continued forward, their bodies passing through the shattered ice crystals, closing the distance with He Ao.

He Ao raised his eyes, looking towards the front’s hazy mist.

Deep within the mist, countless monsters, akin to water streams, surged towards the narrow street.

Relying on sheer numbers, these monsters fearlessly charged towards him.

Every time He Ao shattered a batch of monsters, new ones rushed forward, using the time He Ao needed to kill them to further close the distance with him.

He quietly watched everything, until the monsters nearly pressed up against him, the Eye of Truth above him slightly lifted, its phantom outline becoming more substantial.

Yet, he did not act but instead lifted his head to look to the sky.

In the sky covered by the snowstorm, faint howls were heard but soon disappeared.

Just as the claw of a crack-covered monster was about to touch his cheek, a beam of ice and snow light suddenly descended from the Heaven, like a sweeping snowstorm, quickly clearing the entire street.

All the monsters were turned into solid ice sculptures at that moment.

And those crack-covered monsters close to He Ao, upon solidifying into ice sculptures, shattered with a roar, scattering into scattered Ice Crystals.

These Ice Crystals were even larger than those normally formed from the monster’s collapse, reflecting a glistening white under the faint light, indistinguishable amidst the snowstorm.

Amidst the dense ‘Snowflakes’, pillars quickly formed between the Heaven and earth, followed by an ice path rapidly forming in the Vacuum from top to bottom.

An ice reindeer was quickly galloping down along this ice path.

This ice path did not pierce directly into the ground but, upon nearing the ground, drew an arc along the edge of the street, swirling around He Ao like a spiral slide.

What was being dragged behind the ice reindeer also appeared in He Ao’s field of view.

There were two sleds rapidly slowing down.

The figure sitting in the back sled seemed to not have adapted to the drastic change and was about to flip over from the side of the sled.

At this moment, the ice rope connecting the rear sled to the front suddenly broke, preventing the fate of the rear figure rolling out.

Instead, it carried him together, sliding out of the ice path, into the land covered with Ice Crystals and snow.

So, on this ice path, only the front sled remained, dragged by the ice reindeer, slowly reaching the ground, stopping in front of He Ao.

Kela’s delicate face, with a hint of baby fat, appeared in He Ao’s field of view.

Sitting in the sled, Kela also slowly stood up from the sled, looking at He Ao.

The ice path and the sled shattered simultaneously at this moment, turning into a sky full of Snowflakes.

Bang, bang, bang—

But before she could speak, violent noises came from both the front and back of the street.

Those were rows of new monsters, stepping directly on the frozen bodies of other monsters, quickly closing in towards the center.

Some monsters broke the ice on the ‘predecessors’ frozen in ice sculptures ahead.

This ice, along with parts of the monster’s shells and limbs, shattered together, but most monsters still retained complete limbs.

They opened their eyes, writhing their bodies, continuing forward.

“Freeze them!”

He Ao shouted quickly.

Hearing He Ao’s words, Kela did not pause in her actions, she rapidly raised her hands, and an intense chill spread outwards, freezing the monsters rushing on both sides of the street into ice cubes almost instantly.

At this moment, the Eye of Truth outlined in an inverted triangle above He Ao’s head flashed once.

The monsters just frozen, stepping on top of the ice-sculptured monsters in the front and back, instantly shattered, turning into scattered Snowflakes.

Indeed.

He Ao’s gaze swept down over the first batch of frozen ice sculptures, whose shells hadn’t been shattered yet, and at that moment, those ice sculptures shattered with a boom, scattering into Snowflakes.

Kela’s freezing did not actually kill these monsters; it just suppressed their cores, eroding their bodies, temporarily controlling them.

If these monsters had enough power themselves, or with external assistance, they could break the outer layer of ice in a short time and scrape off the eroded parts to ‘revive’.

However, this ice also had another effect. When a monster was frozen into an ice sculpture, the lines connecting it to the Vacuum’s depth would break.

He Ao didn’t know how Kela achieved this, and maybe Kela herself didn’t know, but it wasn’t important.

Because the reason these monsters could maintain their mobility even after their cores were shattered was due to the power transmitted by those illusory lines.

The power that maintained the ‘core’ as still ‘existing’ also needed some sort of ‘positional’ support from these lines to sustain it.

So after Kela froze the monsters whose positional outline He Ao shattered, those monsters didn’t turn into ice sculptures but shattered directly.

Before, He Ao needed to destroy those lines to destroy the conceptual powers maintaining ‘existence’.

Afterward, those lines would collapse directly, and these monsters would collapse simultaneously.

And after being frozen by Kela and the lines breaking, this entire step could be ‘skipped’.

No matter how bizarre those conceptual powers were, without a controller, they were dead and wouldn’t activate.

So now, He Ao only needed to directly destroy the core, and these monsters would instantly shatter.

Simply put, Kela’s freezing could save He Ao one attack, and even more so, because the freezing fixed the location, He Ao didn’t need to spend effort on aiming and could just direct a sweeping attack.

While Kela’s freezing was an area attack and didn’t need to lock onto anything.

While thinking, new monsters had already rushed in.

This time, before He Ao could speak, Kela raised her hand directly and froze the monsters on both sides.

The orange-grey brilliance in He Ao’s eyes flashed by, and the frozen monsters instantly shattered.

Then new monsters charged in again.

This time, without any verbal communication between the two, they acted almost simultaneously, one after the other.

The monsters surging forward and backward were first frozen in an instant, then rapidly crumbled, turning into a sky full of Snowflakes.

The waves of surging monsters came one after another but quickly turned into ice sculptures, then crumbled, scattering into a sky full of Snowflakes.

This batch of surging transparent monsters was much larger than before, but in a very short time, they were entirely cleared, leaving only an empty street.

The Eye of Truth sketched above He Ao’s head also slowly faded into obscurity at this moment.

There were still many monsters in the distant snow, but they killed so fast that the outside ones hadn’t yet had a chance to fill in, creating a temporary ‘monster’ Vacuum region.

The little girl beside glanced at the Ice and Snow Gem in the wooden box which had dimmed in radiance, scratching her head.

She looked up, glancing at Kela and He Ao, who had already withdrawn their hands.

“What happened here?” Kela looked up, asking He Ao.

“You already saw it,” He Ao pointed to the flying snowflakes in the sky, then softly asked, “Did you come from the Governor’s Palace side? How’s the situation?”

“Not good,” Kela shook her head, “The Governor’s Palace is already empty; Guards and servants have mutated. Along the way here, everywhere we passed was filled with monsters.”

“From here to near the Governor’s Palace should all be the core of this city,” He Ao said softly, “This area should have undergone a citywide mutation.”

When looking for the little girl, he roughly wandered around the city.

The Governor’s Palace area seemed the tallest and densest, the city’s core region, but the further out, the lower the buildings became, and on the outermost sides were mostly wooden or rudimentary stone houses, even shanties.

But those simple houses made up the majority of the entire city.

The area he was in now was actually the edge of this organized architectural core zone.

From the memory of that elderly, this should be the ‘aristocratic district’.

“At least the entire aristocratic district had experienced mutation.”

Interlocking orange-grey circles embedded in his eyes, a phantom Eye of Truth sketched in an inverted triangle above the Firmament, vanished into the clouds, He Ao turned his head to look at the sled crashed against the wall.

Rote was shakily getting up from the sled.