Chapter 405: The Strange World of Ice
* * *: I'll start making up for the missing chapters of the festival today, though it might drag on until midnight.
Uti threw a tantrum in the Golden Tent, leaving his subordinates at a loss. Before he finished speaking, Uti suddenly turned and left, going to find High Priest Ryun to discuss countermeasures. He left them all where they were, neither telling them to wait nor to go back. Thus, the several dozen bigwigs from the various insectoid departments could only awkwardly stay where they were.
Everyone understood that this was Uti's disguised punishment. It seemed that Uti no longer had any intention of trusting these bigwigs by his side and had turned to seek help from the high priest.
The crowd sighed, but only the guildmaster of the Sacred Guild, Duabi, had a relaxed expression. This narrow escape from death had greatly affected him, especially when his warship had been instantaneously teleported to a lethal exotic beast gathering area. It made Duabi understand that there really was a superpower in the universe, or else there would be no way to explain what he had encountered. Traveling millions of lightyears in a matter of seconds had long since surpassed the scope of science. If he really had to sum it up, Duabi was more willing to classify it as mysticism.
Looking at Laresh, who had lost an arm but remained loyal, as well as the frowning ministers and chieftains, Duabi suddenly realized how laughable he was. Was all this hard work not for the sake of a better life? The truth could not be any clearer. Xia Fei was very mysterious, and he might have grasped some ultimate power that surpassed everyone's understanding. No matter what, he would never make an enemy out of this person again. After all, he only had one life, and preserving his own life was more important.
'Let's find a chance to retire.' While the insectoid elders were discussing countermeasures in low voices, Duabi smiled faintly and muttered to himself inwardly.
…
Eight hundred kilometers south of the Golden Tent was Goldshard Lake, where Qingyan lived. The air here was humid and the climate was warm, and the scenery was as beautiful as an oil painting. It was most suitable for a peerless beauty like Qingyan to maintain her skin, take a stroll, and express her leisure.
However, Uti's golden warship did not fly south but instead headed north.
The north was a land of bitter cold, with towering mountains and precipitous ridges everywhere. Heavy snowflakes danced in the sky, and the mountains on the ground were like daggers stabbed into the snow, sharp and savage. The wind blowing from the valleys caused the warship to sway gently, and the sky was gloomy and gloomy.
This was a forbidden zone for life. Other than a few animals and plants that could adapt to the harsh cold, no one would dare to come here.
Uti looked through the porthole at the treacherous mountainous region covered in snow and wind. Though it was very warm inside the warship, the world of ice and snow outside still gave him a chill.
The guard handed Uti a white fox fur coat, but Uti rejected it after some thought. He ordered someone to find a soft and light antelope fur undershirt and put it on the coat. High Priest Ryun had an eccentric temperament, and Uti did not want to appear weak in front of him. It was just a cold, and he would just have to endure it for a while.
* Whoosh! *
The battleship was parked on a landing pad halfway up the mountain. It was not accurate to call it a landing pad. It was just a platform that had been dug out by the mountainside. It was covered in ice and snow, and there was no signal device or intelligent guidance system. The pilot of the battleship could only rely on their experience to take off and land.
Opening the cabin door, the biting cold wind mixed with snowflakes instantly turned the warship, which was originally as warm as spring, into an ice cave. The wind and snow were so strong that they couldn't see anything.
Uti frowned, refusing the guard's help to disembark the warship with much difficulty. He wore a pair of windproof goggles on his face to avoid being hurt by the wind and snow.
In order to train himself and his subordinates to be able to endure hardships, Uti had set up the Golden Tent in the cold plains, but compared to this mountain range, the plains were practically heaven.
At the edge of the platform was a bottomless abyss. Uti sneaked a glance and broke out in a cold sweat. His sweat was blown away by the wind, and the chill seeped into his bones. Thus, he quickened his pace and climbed up the narrow and steep mountain path.
The guards carefully guarded around Uti. Not only was the mountain path long and narrow, there were no guardrails on either side, and a single slip would cause him to fall into the valley.
However, though these guards were protecting Uti from afar, none of them offered him a helping hand. This was also a rule set by High Priest Ryun. Anyone who wished to see him would have to walk over by themselves, and even the master of the Golden Tent was no exception.
Uti walked for a full two hours on the three-kilometer mountain path, falling seven times and losing all feeling in his body from the cold.
Finally, there was no longer a steep mountain path ahead, but a bridge covered in ice and snow, connecting two mountains.
Uti dusted off the snow on his body and stood by the side of the bridge. This bridge was like a giant log spanning across a valley. The widest part was no more than a meter, and the narrowest part was no more than forty centimeters.
The guards all stopped here. Further ahead was High Priest Ryun's residence, and lowly characters like them had no right to enter.
Fini, one of the Seven Champions, came forward and bowed. "My king, why don't I accompany you?"
The cold wind made it hard for anyone to stand steadily, let alone cross this bridge that was more than six hundred meters long, so Fini was very worried about whether Uti would be able to make it across.
Uti shook his head. "The one on the other side is High Priest Ryun, the number one expert of the insectoid race, the number one Saint. Do you want me to be unable to raise my head in front of High Priest Ryun?"
Fini was slightly taken aback, but he quickly retreated. High Priest Ryun had an extremely eccentric personality, and if he escorted Uti over, the high priest might really fall out with Uti, and that would be very bad. Uti had spent a great deal of effort to invite the high priest back, and he could not afford to make any mistakes at this time.
His frozen fingers lightly tapped on his combat boots, and the spikes, which were originally less than a centimeter long, suddenly grew to three centimeters. This length would make walking very difficult, but it would provide a better grip on the ground. In order to cross this long and narrow bridge, Uti had no other choice.
"All of you wait here. If you're cold, go to the col to take shelter from the wind. I won't be back for a while," Uti said with a wave of his hand.
The guards cried tears of gratitude. This was Uti's cleverness. He was very good at managing people, knowing when to punish and when to show concern. With just a few words, he had won over the hearts of many people.
The key to managing people was not how to bestow kindness but how to suppress it. Only when a person had been suppressed for too long would they be happy with a small favor. If they were always bestowed kindness, they would become numb to it. Of course, one could not be overly suppressed, for too much would cause one to become depressed and lose the motivation to move forward.
In short, Uti was definitely a master at managing people, and the entire insectoid race was obedient under his rule.
Uti staggered across the bridge, trying his best to keep his center of gravity as low as possible. His feet took small, fragmented steps as he slowly made his way across the bridge. The guards behind him felt their hearts break, wishing that they could rush forward and use their lives to block the wind and snow for him.
People like Uti were most afraid of taking risks. Aside from High Priest Ryun, perhaps even his own parents would not be able to make him take risks.
Priests were prophets responsible for worshiping the heavens and earth, offering sacrifices to the gods.
In the insectoid race, aside from the two gods, High Priest Ryun was the most respected. He was different from Uti. Uti was the king of the mortal world, while Ryun was the existence closest to a god.
Not only did he not need to appear to offer sacrifices to the Black and White Gods, but many places would also offer sacrifices to High Priest Ryun. This was because he was the spiritual leader of the entire insectoid race, the hope of the insectoids, a living god.
Around seven hundred years ago, there was a rumor that High Priest Ryun might be able to transcend mortality and become a god, but for some reason, even after seven hundred years, High Priest Ryun still remained in the insectoid race, unable to become a god.
Perhaps it was precisely because he was unable to ascend that High Priest Ryun's temperament became stranger by the day, and he increasingly disliked interacting with his own people. Even when Uti had racked his brains to invite him back to the imperial capital, he had chosen such a secluded and strange residence, setting up harsh rules that kept everyone outside the door.
In truth, Uti did not believe in gods. He speculated that the so-called ascension was perhaps a place where only the strong had the right to live. Evidently, High Priest Ryun believed that he already had the strength to enter this circle, though he had yet to receive an invitation. At present, this could be considered a good thing. Once the high priest left, the insectoids would lose their only supreme expert.
Just as he was thinking about this, Uti finally crossed the bridge that could be considered a natural stronghold. Uti's forehead was covered in sweat despite the cold weather. He hurriedly took out a warm handkerchief from his bosom and wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead. Sweating in such cold weather was very easy to catch a cold.
The handkerchief was casually tossed into the valley because it immediately turned into a lump of ice the moment it came into contact with water. It was no longer suitable for wiping sweat, but it was more suitable for slashing people.
The bottomless valley made Uti dizzy. He hurriedly turned around and continued forward, no longer willing to take another look at the natural stronghold he had just crossed.
This mountain was much taller than the one he had just crossed. It was like a candle on a birthday cake, reaching all the way into the clouds.
Dazzling flames shot out from the top of the mountain, illuminating the white land between bright and dark.
Uti knew very well that before High Priest Ryun came to this mountainous region, there had never been any mountain that had ever spouted such beautiful flames. In short, after the old man arrived, everything changed. The platform, the mountain path, and the bridge had all appeared overnight, and even High Priest Ryun's residence was no exception.
Strange, indescribably strange. This was how Uti felt about everything. High Priest Ryun was such a terrifying existence, and no one knew the reason behind it.
Fortunately, after crossing the bridge, it was a flat plain, and there was no need to tread on the mountain path again. Otherwise, Uti's small frame might not have been able to withstand it.
Vaguely, a three-story building appeared in front of him. The red wooden structure was sturdy and exquisite, with richly ornamented beams and waterside pavilions. Though this building stood tall in the middle of the blizzard, it was not disturbed by the wind or snow at all. The ground was clean white marble, and not a single snowflake could be seen on it. No matter how heavy the snow was, it would automatically circle around this building and fly to the side.
At this time, Uti had long been frozen into an iceman. His eyebrows were like icicles, and his mouth was constantly trembling, turning purple.
Picking up his pace, Uti braved the wind and snow to move forward.
The moment he stepped into this strange building, he was completely dumbfounded!
The snowstorm that filled the sky had completely disappeared. Above his head was a blazing sun, and he could hear the chirping of insects. All around him was a boundless green grassland!
That mountain, that snowflake, that bone-chilling wind, everything had disappeared. It was as if he had suddenly entered another world from one world!
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