Chapter 201 200. Devil Descendants
The Arctic ice field, the end of the world.
The wind is the only king of this frozen land.
Everywhere you look, it's pure, suffocating whiteness - the ice field stretches to the horizon until it merges with the lead-gray sky.
This is the desolate tomb of elements. Apart from the wandering cold spirits, there is no trace of any living creature.
However, in this dead world, there is a group of demons who do not belong here and survive in an ancient underground city.
At this moment, on the ice, two figures were carrying a huge creature forward. It was a snow-white worm several meters long.
The two men were wearing tough armor tanned from monster skin, tightly wrapped around their sturdy bodies.
Between the cracks of the armor plates, a faint blue light flickered with the heavy breathing - that was the cold-resistant magic pattern growing on the flesh and blood, a sign that it was running all the time.
"Hunting!" Qiong, who was walking behind, suppressed his excitement in his voice, "It's been a long time since the tribe hunted a Fimbul fat beast of this size? We are really lucky!"
Shou also had a rare smile on his face: "Looking at its size, its cold resistance must be level eight. I'll ask the elders to infuse it into the 'Cradle', and we'll be able to add a new member after a long time!"
"Oops!"
"What?!" Shou tensed up instantly and grasped the handle of the bone spear on his back with his backhand.
"My horn... got poked in! Ah, body fluids are flowing out! It's sticky and disgusting!" Qiong said angrily.
The hunter relaxed and looked up. In the distance, the outline of the tribe's wall made of huge ice and rocks was faintly visible in the wind and snow.
"Just bear with it, it's almost there."
…
"Such a big fat beast!" The guard who climbed down from the observation deck pushed open the heavy ice rock door with all his strength and looked at the two people in surprise, "Shou, Qiong, did you go to the lower level?"
"How is that possible?" Shou put down the burden on his shoulders, "We don't have the ability to pass through the middle level. It was pure luck that we ran into him on the upper level."
The guard smacked his lips and raised his frosty eyebrows: "Tsk, what luck..."
"Stop chatting!" Qiong's exasperated voice came from behind, "Come and help! My horn is stuck!"
The guard looked out and saw Qiong trying desperately to pull his head out of the worm's body. His head was completely stuck in the fat worm's flesh.
He stepped forward, grabbed the slippery body of the insect, and pulled hard, separating the insect from the dome. He then said jokingly, "Who told you to have horns taller than those of a mountain goat? How dare you use your head to butt this thing?"
"What is it to you!" Qiong finally broke free and shook off the sticky liquid on his arm in disgust.
After handing the heavy prey to other tribesmen who had arrived, Qiong immediately rushed to the pool of melted snow to clean it up.
Shouze wiped the ice off his face and came to the entrance of the "cradle" alone.
The so-called cradle is the only stone house in the tribe built with black stone.
The heavy stone door blocked out the bitter cold and silence of the outside world. The elders spent a great deal of effort to set up a magic circle in it, barely maintaining a small space with rich magic power and a pleasant temperature as a place to nurture new life in the tribe.
There was a silent tribesman guarding the door. When he saw Shou coming, he just nodded slightly and stepped aside to make way.
The stone house was warm and quiet, and the air was filled with a dry scent.
In the center of the ground, a complex magic circle composed of exotic metals and glowing minerals was emitting a soft, pulsating blue light.
The core of the magic circle is a half-human-high groove, which is now filled with fragments and powder of some kind of crystal.
Shou walked straight to the edge of the magic circle without stopping. He untied the straps of the leather armor on his chest, revealing his chest covered with complex magic patterns.
In the center of the chest, a pendant-sized dark blue crystal was deeply embedded in the flesh and blood, emitting a faint, rhythmic pulsating light. The source of all magic patterns was connected to this place.
Shou took out a file, and with his wrist extremely steady, he placed it close to the surface of the crystal, carefully scraped off a very thin layer of powder that shimmered like stardust, and put it into the groove.
The demons are not a naturally born species, they are a subordinate race created by the previous demon king. They are not pure flesh and blood creatures, and there is no gender distinction.
This is how they reproduce - the trace essence powder naturally precipitated from individual magic cores, or the fragments of the magic cores of their deceased compatriots, are accumulated layer by layer in places rich in magic power.
The new magic core will quietly condense and grow under the nourishment of pure magic power, and eventually new members of the tribe will be born.
"Can't you let me in to take a look?" Qiong's complaining voice suddenly came from outside the house.
Unfortunately, the cradle was one of the most important places in the tribe, and not everyone was allowed to enter. The guard stood in front of Qiong without saying a word.
"Qiong, stop messing around." Shou pushed open the heavy black stone door and walked out with the warm atmosphere of the stone house.
"I really envy you for being able to worship the dust!" Qiong immediately turned to him and spoke quickly, "I'm not kidding! It was the elder! He sent someone to look for you, and the messenger ran all over the tribe but couldn't find you, so I guessed you were here!"
"Elder looking for me?" Shou frowned slightly.
"Yes! Not just you, all the senior soldiers have been summoned to the main tent a long time ago. The atmosphere seems to be wrong, but no one else knows what it is." Qiong took a step closer and lowered his voice.
Shou's expression froze, and he said no more. He turned around and strode towards the main tent. Qiong immediately followed behind him like a shadow.
Shou glanced at him sideways, and Qiong immediately grinned, a little cunningly: "Don't worry, I know the rules! I won't go in, I'll wait outside the tent."
It was obvious that he was looking for an opportunity to eavesdrop, but Shou was too lazy to expose his little trick, so he just withdrew his gaze and quickened his pace.
…
"The group of snake people in the south have been recruited by the empire! Now that piece of land is empty, we should fill it up immediately!" A rough voice exploded in the tent, with unquestionable urgency.
"Fill it in? The permafrost in the south is just as painful as it is in the past! Can the resources there really compare to the underground city next to us?" The objector slammed the stone table, his voice hoarse.
The third man stood up suddenly, his shadow stretched long under the swaying campfire: "Don't you know what the situation is in the Stone Castle Dungeon now? The magic power is getting thinner and thinner, and there are fewer and fewer monsters. It's hard to hunt a slime in the upper level! The power of the thing trapped in the middle level is also weakening! When this broken dungeon is completely shut down, those things crawl out, and we will all be snacks on them!"
"He's right!" another figure wrapped in thick fur said, "Go south, at least the wind won't be so harsh on the flesh! In that case, the cold resistance level of the prey needed to produce new members can be relaxed a bit!"
Yan Yan, who had been watching coldly, suddenly sneered and swept his sharp eyes over the soldiers who advocated moving south: "After saying so much, I think you just want to smell the warm air of the empire and want to come over and wag your tail to ask for a safe meal, right?"
"Yan Yan! Do you dare to say that again?!"
When Shou opened the heavy animal-skin door curtain and stepped into the main tent, this tense scene was what hit him.
The core of the tribe was crowded in the small space, and the campfire reflected several faces distorted by excitement or anger.
In a tribe of hundreds of people, there are only seven senior warriors including myself.
"Hunting." A low and old voice came from the main seat, drowning out the noise.
The elder was wrapped in old fur, with only a pair of eyes that shone surprisingly brightly in the shadows. "They told me that you hunted back an adult Fimbulb Fat Beast. Very good... Cradle, you can finally shine again."
"Elder." Shou bowed slightly, his voice steady.
His eyes quickly scanned every face in the tent, and finally stopped on an empty seat, which was right next to Yan Yan, but at the moment, there was no one there.
"Where's Yao?"
As a member of the new generation who is less than a hundred years old and still has a single-word name, Yao is the same as Shou. He is a senior warrior among the new generation and the future pillar of the tribe. His absence is particularly conspicuous to Shou.
"Yes! Where did Yao go?" Someone immediately responded, his voice filled with confusion.
"He's dead!" Yan Yan said suddenly.
"What?!" Exclamations and doubts exploded instantly, "The superior soldier died! Why didn't you tell us about this from the beginning?"
Yan Yan remained calm and said, "This is exactly what I want to say this time. His death brought him something more important than his life."
He looked around and spoke word by word, "His partner risked his life to bring back the news - we found the location of Chiss's 'brain', lurking in the middle level of the Stone Castle dungeon!"
(End of this chapter)
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