A black meteor streaked across the sky, its radiance all the more dazzling beneath the semi-transparent canopy of ice.
"It seems Alvin's fall has triggered some kind of chain reaction!"
Amid the blazing light, Leylin periodically sent out pulses of soul force, scanning for biological fluctuations in his surroundings.
Within his range of perception, disturbances of varying intensity had erupted across the Frost World. Many ice-dwelling intelligent species — the Ice Clan and others — and even creatures like ice leopards and frost dragons had begun rising up of their own accord to rebel against the Ice Empress's rule, clashing fiercely with her Ice Guards and even gaining the upper hand in many places.
"Mm! Understandable! After all, even Alvin has been defeated and killed. It's only natural that these non-human races can no longer stomach the Ice Empress's rule and want to fight back!"
Leylin patted the pouch at his waist. Alvin's Ice Breath had been entirely extracted to treat the emotional instability in Leylin's own bloodline, and even his physical materials and bloodline remnants had not gone to waste — everything was now stored safely in his pouch.
With the Morning Star no longer around to suppress them, it was hardly surprising that the various ice races were revolting. Many survivors of the Ice Clan had witnessed Leylin defeat Alvin, and the news had spread with remarkable speed.
"Still... the Ice Empress has maintained her rule for so many years. For it to crumble this dramatically all at once is rather peculiar!"
A strange gleam flickered in Leylin's eyes. Even with Alvin dead, the Ice Empress's guard forces should not have collapsed so swiftly — it was almost as though their command structure had descended into chaos, as if their headquarters had been destroyed.
A thought suddenly surfaced in Leylin's mind: "Could it be that something has gone wrong at the Ice Empress's headquarters?"
Whoosh, whoosh!
The instant the thought formed, Leylin's meteor-form accelerated even further, leaving behind only afterimages in the sky.
Even the third-tier ice creatures that witnessed him hurtling past were overwhelmed by his terrifying speed and pressure, dropping to their knees in frozen terror, not daring to move a muscle.
The Ice Fortress stood at the very center of the Frost World. When Leylin arrived, he found that the area around the fortress was already wreathed in the smoke of battle on all sides.
The masses of previously oppressed ice-race species had once again formed a coalition army, its vanguard pressing upon the Central Ice Plains.
A handful of surviving Ice Guards, led by several Ice Knights, were holding the line behind the natural defensive advantage of the Great Ravine — but their defeat was already sealed. It would not be long before the coalition forces could fight their way straight to the walls of the Ice Fortress.
"Tsk, tsk... Alvin dies, and the entire Ice Fortress is suddenly left with no one capable of putting up a fight!"
Leylin gazed at the clamoring coalition camp, a cold smirk curling at the corner of his mouth. "I wonder what expressions they'll make if, after all their painstaking efforts to breach the fortress, they find the Ice Empress waiting for them — someone even more terrifying than Alvin?"
Leylin's gaze did not linger on the battlefield. He flew straight toward the fortress.
Along the way, a few loyal guards attempted to intercept him, but they were no match for him at all, unable to delay him for even a few seconds.
Yet what struck Leylin as strange was that the closer he drew to the Ice Fortress, the less resistance he encountered. By the time he finally arrived above the fortress, the guards merely watched from a distance, none of them daring to approach — as though the fortress harbored some unspeakable danger within.
"Is this the Ice Fortress? There's not a trace of Life Energy to be found, and this bizarre absorbing force...?"
Leylin hovered above the Ice Fortress, gazing down at its exquisite and magnificent frozen architecture, his eyes filled with grave solemnity.
Here, the ice radiation had intensified to its absolute peak, its concentration hundreds or even thousands of times that of the outside world, constantly fluctuating and amplifying in a state of perpetual, nightmarish distortion.
"I'm afraid! No ice creature below tier three could survive here..."
The radiation was so overwhelmingly powerful that even ordinary native creatures couldn't withstand it. When beneficial substances accumulated beyond a certain threshold, they would ultimately transform into lethal toxins!
But what truly surprised Leylin wasn't the radiation concentration—it was the eerie draining force rising from the ground below.
Through his senses, it was as though a terrifying black hole lurked beneath the Ice Fortress, ceaselessly siphoning the life force of every living creature on the surface. And the range of its pull was only expanding.
A thick layer of white frost dust had accumulated on the ground—he couldn't tell which unfortunate ice clan members had left it behind.
"No! What's being drained underground isn't Life Energy—it's the ice energy and the cold-natured bloodlines within the ice clan's bodies!"
Blue luminescence shot from Leylin's eyes, and moments later, he couldn't help but cry out in alarm.
Rumble!
As though it had sensed Leylin's arrival, the entire ground of the Ice Fortress began to tremble.
That obscure aura he had detected earlier was slowly awakening, its intensity climbing steadily higher.
"Mmm..." A woman's soft murmur suddenly echoed across the entire Ice Fortress.