A blizzard roaring like a dragon roared out from the left palm covered with steel gauntlet, and the griffin cloak fluttered in the opposite direction.

One can vaguely see a group of multi-legged arthropod monsters rushing out of the cave in a panic.

The first moment the dwarves saw them they called out their names: "Kikimo!"

Qichimo, classified as [insect-like creatures], are alien creatures that came to the continent after the intersection of the celestial spheres. They have organization, discipline, and class that are rare among monsters.

Some scholars believe that the Qichimo are ant-like creatures from another world. A Qichimo colony is ruled by a [Qichimo Queen], and the tribe has [Qichimo Engineers] who are responsible for hunting and [Qichimo Warriors] who are responsible for guarding the territory. After dissection, it was found that the brain of the Qichimo is very small, and scholars even suspect that these monsters may have a common consciousness.

This kind of monster is a creature that witchers absolutely do not want to encounter, and it is also a creature that witcher mentors warn apprentices not to hunt alone. The degree of danger is even higher than some [dragon-like creatures] and [remnants] - because not only do they travel in groups like water ghosts, their bodies are the same size as calves or even horses, they have hard shells, and are even poisonous.

But now, these dangerous, deadly monsters that caused headaches for human soldiers, dwarves and demon hunters have all turned into ice sculptures, their lives frozen at the moment they rushed out of the tunnel.

Since it was his first time encountering a creature like a Kikimo, Lan couldn't help but take a few more glances, but he soon turned around and accepted the greetings from his soldiers.

"Your Excellency the Duke!"

Lann nodded towards them: "Thank you for your hard work, soldiers."

"For Cintra! For Lannister! For the Duke!"

"Remember to collect the materials of these monsters after the battle. I specially used freezing instead of burning them." Lann instructed, "Of course, all actions must be based on ensuring your own safety. You are Cintra's most precious assets."

"Yes! Your Excellency the Duke!"

Lan nodded to the dwarf leader again, turned around and disappeared in the bright emerald light.

The dwarf leader looked at the axe in his hand, then at the cold and hideous ice sculptures, and finally at the high-spirited and enthusiastic Cintra cavalry. He suddenly felt that he was a little redundant.

…

The dwarves had deployed teams at every exit of the Davor Abyss, and each dwarf team had Cintrians following them. Lann used them as coordinates to visit every corner of the battlefield, and truly demonstrated his combat power in front of the Fuchs clan.

The dwarves in these teams may not know that half of them will go to Cintra to live and fight for Cintra. Let them plant the seeds of Lann's powerful back in their hearts at this moment, so that when Tomor announces orders and selects warriors, there will be much less resistance.

Even these short-legged and bearded guys will actively sign up.

Lann [teleported] back to the edge of Davor Pond for the last time. At this moment, the mine had completely turned into an ocean, and the artificial reservoir behind the dam was almost dry.

Lan cast the seal for the last time towards the gap in the dam he had created.

[Alder Seal·Bone-piercing·Magic Explosion]

Chief Tomor had not left the place, eagerly waiting for Lann to come back. At this moment, he stared with expectation as if he had witnessed Lann's seal for the first time, watching Lann's left palm continuously whistling out a blizzard of dozens of breaths, forcibly filling a piece of solid ice at the gap in the dam and stopping the endless flood.

"That's all right, it will make it easier for the Fuchs to repair the dam later."

Tomor Fuchs nodded repeatedly. Lane had already helped to such an extent, what else did he have to say?

Lan added: "But now it is the beginning of spring in Mahakam, and perhaps my seal will not last long. You still need to start repairing the dam as soon as possible."

"Don't worry." Tomor patted his chest like a war drum. "We know the weather in Mahakam very well. Your strength is definitely enough to last for more than a week. This time is enough for us to wait for the flood in the mine to recede and re-count the property inside."

The Fuchs clan had to move, so they naturally had to pack up all of the clan's luggage. The mine had been suddenly occupied by monsters because of a sneak attack, and in addition to the explosives warehouse, there were a lot of unprocessed raw ores and mining tools, all of which were still underground in the mine and had not been moved out.

After the flood recedes, these can still be rescued and used to contribute to the construction of the new tribal land.

"After we have counted all these things, we will build a dam together to prevent any damage caused by us. After that, we will relocate the entire clan to Polo Pass." Chief Fuchs shook his head. "We originally planned to complete this plan in more than a month. If the Sieglin family gets involved, it will take even longer."

"Thank goodness for your help, Lord Lannister," Tomer said sincerely.

Lann nodded slightly, accepted the other party's thanks, and turned back to the main topic: "How long will your operation take? In other words, when can I get the promised soldiers?"

"At the earliest, it will be seven days later." Tomor said without hesitation, and was not vague about the business at all. "By that time, those slow guys like Sieglin will definitely not have finished the cleaning. You will definitely not have left yet, so it won't waste your time."

"It doesn't take so many young men to build the dam. I'll gather all of them and you can choose any one you want. Those who can go to the battlefield are definitely the best young men!"

Lan nodded with satisfaction and looked towards the dam: "Is there anything else you need my help with?"

Tomor burst into laughter, thanked Lann again, and then declined, "You have already helped us the most. If we still need you to protect us like a nanny, we will look down on ourselves!"

…

Now that Fuchs's issues were resolved, Lane planned to return to the Sieglin clan to see how their "spring cleanup" was progressing.

As the mines and the living quarters were flooded, the Fuchs could only live in tents and could not keep Lan and his party for long. So, with Tomor's apologetic eyes, they prepared to return to the territory of the Sieglin clan to live.

However, Tomor's basic thoughts were still very simple. He felt that it was very unkind to ask people for help and then "drive" them away, especially when he still owed them something, which seemed a bit like cheating.

So he sent Petrit to follow Lane as a liaison to ensure that Lane would not be at a loss when he wanted to contact Fuchs again.

"Petrit once served in Carbon Mountain, and his highest rank was captain," Tomor said proudly, "but he didn't want to stay in Carbon Mountain, so he came back to open the mines. He is the best warrior in our clan, and he will be the leader when we send the boys to Cintra in the future."

Lan nodded. He had seen Petrit commanding the battle in the previous battle. He was indeed a trustworthy warrior.

"Besides, Petrit is also a diplomat of our clan." Tomor added, "I also promised to help you contact the Ferenczi clan and use my connections to get more reinforcements for you. I haven't forgotten."

"Leave this to me, Lord Lannister." Petrit said loudly. He looked at Lann, and his eyes sparkled with admiration as he had witnessed the lion's heroic deeds many times. "I have always been responsible for communicating with the Ferenz clan. When the matter with Sieglin is over, I will take you there!"

Lan touched his chin. He had also sent a team to the Ferenz clan, but he didn't know how their work was going. And if he could get more support, he would be happy to see it.

"I'm looking forward to it," Lane said with a smile.

…

When Petrit was with Lann, he attracted the attention of many Sieglin dwarves. As a clan that had been hostile for many years, the Sieglins were no strangers to the celebrity Petrit.

But after all, he was following Lann, so the Sieglin Dwarf didn't say anything, but just silently looked away.

Lann frowned slightly, noticing that there were more dwarf warriors here than the last time he came here. Lann even suspected that Ziglin had called back all the people who were out hunting and mining.

Did the hunt just end? Impossible. He and his companions had used a trick to accomplish their goal in one go in Fuchs. The monsters around Sieglin were scattered, so they would definitely not be cleared out so quickly.

So they are preparing to launch a general attack on the monsters?

"Lann, something is wrong." After seeing Lann, the first sentence Geralt said made people involuntarily serious.

"I went out hunting monsters with the Sieglin clan, but their reactions were very abnormal." Geralt frowned. "Each time, they either only killed about two-thirds of the monsters in a nest, or only wiped out two-thirds of the nests in an area."

"In short, they will choose to leave a small number of monsters alone, even if we have the ability to wipe them out completely."

Inside the huge tent, Lann listened to Geralt's words with a thoughtful look in his eyes. The candlelight swayed in the wind caused by Geralt's walking, but it was far less than the swaying of the White Wolf's inner anxiety.

"When I wanted to destroy those nests, Luca Sieglin stopped me many times and told me something about the balance of nature and the food chain," Geralt said ridiculously. "He is a good fighter, but not a good liar. He hesitated when he spoke, and even he didn't believe it himself."

"You mean, the 'spring cleaning' here is over?"

Geralt nodded. "It ended yesterday. I've been waiting for you to come back."

"But the soldiers here are gathering more and more. It doesn't look like the spring cleanup is over, but rather like a war is about to begin." Lann sighed.

"I asked Kuba. According to them, they want to set up sentry points nearby to prevent the cleared areas from being occupied again." Geralt sneered, "But this is full of contradictions compared to their previous behavior of preventing me from clearing out the monsters."

"I...have a bold guess, Lan."

Lann sighed, "Me too."

Lann knew that in the original history, the Fuchs and Sieglin clans would eventually have a battle that would shock Mahakam.

Although there was no celestial sphere intersection caused by Lann at that time, there were already a large number of monsters in the Davor Abyss. The Fuchs clan failed to resist the monsters many times and almost lost all the dwarf warriors who participated in the battle. They were seriously injured and eventually migrated back to the Polo Pass almost as a refugee.

The Sieglin clan took advantage of this moment and gathered a large number of dwarf soldiers to attack Fuchs who was licking his wounds, completely wiping him out. They then attracted a large number of underground monsters to eat the bodies of Fuchs' dwarves, creating the illusion that they were killed by monsters, thus deceiving the great elder of the Carbon Mountain.

Although the truth of this bloody tragedy was finally revealed after a series of twists and turns, the dead cannot be resurrected, and the Fuchs clan was eventually expelled from Mahakam.

Unexpectedly, after all the changes, the Sieglin clan still seemed to have made the same choice as in the future. The rioting monsters gave them an opportunity, just like in the future.

"My guess is that Sieglin gathered the clan's dwarves not to destroy the monsters, but to drive them away and then raid Fuchs with them."

Geralt said heavily. At this moment, he showed a keen intuition, which was almost close to the truth: "It's just that I can't figure out now. Why do Sieglin think they can control these monsters and eliminate Fuchs without losing too many clan members?"

Lann rubbed his brows and said, "No, I don't think they want to kill Fuchs together with the monsters, but just use the monsters to cover up their traces of killing Fuchs. As for how to eliminate Fuchs without causing too many casualties, I think I know roughly..."

Lann quickly told Geralt how he had cleared out the monsters in the Davor Abyss in the past three days, and then gave his own guess.

“If it’s really as you said.” Geralt took a deep breath. His expressionless face was also moved at this moment. “That’s terrible.”

So, now there is a problem facing Lann and Geralt.

Should he help Fuchs, who had already decided to send half of the young and strong men for support, or Sieglin, who was a relative of Yarpen and had a certain emotional foundation with Cintra?

"If it was before, I might have hesitated." Lann took a deep breath, "It's a pity now, but I have to give up Zieglin."

"The internal fighting has reached this point and there is no bottom line. Even if we bring these dwarves back to Cintra, there will be endless troubles." Lann said firmly.

It was a helpless move to choose the lesser of two evils. If possible, Lan would actually like to try a method that would have the best of both worlds, but time was running out.

"Well, what we'll do next..." Lan was about to say something when he suddenly paused.

Geralt seemed to sense something and immediately looked towards the door of the tent.

"Your Excellency the Duke, Mr. Gabo is here to visit."

The guard standing guard outside reported in. Then a sturdy dwarf came in with familiar short legs.

"Lannister...Duke." Garber's mouth corners raised politely, but it looked like he was forcing a smile.

"We heard that you're back. It looks like Fuchs' problem has been solved. Sieglin appreciates your team's efforts. Geralt helped us a lot. We won't trouble you with the rest. We're sorry... No, we really appreciate your help."

Gabo is a diplomat from Mahakam. He speaks much more fluently than Kuba, but at this moment he is still hesitant, and the guilt on his face is almost visible to the naked eye.

"What's the problem, Gabe?" Lane asked quietly.

Garber was silent for a moment, then shook his head vigorously. "Thank you for your concern, Lord Lannister. I am just worried about the life after my clan's death."

"If there's any problem, I can help."

"No. We don't want to trouble you anymore, nor do we want to involve you, Duke." Gabo said in an almost pleading tone, "The clan leader has written a letter to the Ferenczi clan, hoping to lend you more young men. However, the situation there seems to be not very good recently because of the Red Dragon, so they hope you can leave as soon as possible."

Lann did not respond to Gabo's words. He looked at the dwarf in front of him, with whom he had been getting along for quite some time, and said without disguising, "I do plan to lead the team out, and the Ferenz clan is indeed on my schedule. But that's not where I'm going now."

Gabo's lips moved a few times, the smile on his face gradually fell, and he lowered his head and dared not look at Lan again.