IRM Chapter 122

The Northern Snowfields were covered in white snow year-round. Its four seasons were quite different from other places on the continent, and the locals preferred to call them the Wind Season, Snow Season, Fog Season, and Peaceful Season.

Ji Chi had arrived at the snowfields during the Wind Season. The land he had walked upon had gone through three seasonal cycles and arrived at the fourth Wind Season.

At the same time, the crimson moon shrouded in blood mist had hung at the summit of Beast God Mountain for a full three years.

Near the Ice Fortress, at the Snow Plains Expeditionary Army camp.

A soldier responsible for delivering messages was hurrying through the military camp. Following a familiar route, he came before a red military tent and rushed inside. “General—”

The soldier’s unfinished words caught in his throat. At this moment, there were no figures of the two generals in the tent. Instead, a young man sat in the beast hide chair in the center.

The young man had a head of flamboyant red hair that had grown somewhat long and was casually tied behind his head with a ribbon. Straightening his back, the man removed the blood-stained armor from his body, loosened his clothing, revealing skin covered in scars beneath, and silently picked up clean cloth strips nearby to bandage himself.

Seeing someone enter, he raised his eyes. His cold and severe gaze made the soldier tremble slightly, lips moving but unable to speak.

“Are you looking for Silvia or for me?” The Countess pushed aside the heavy tent flap and walked in. A bone-chilling cold wind penetrated through the gap. “Silvia is at the front line making arrangements. You can tell me directly if there’s anything.”

Since the final beast tide could arrive at any time, the Countess had not returned to the Saint Trilley Empire as usual, but instead, in her capacity as the second general, was staying before the fortress together with the expeditionary army.

The soldiers had initially thought this general was soft-spoken, gentle, and easy to talk to, but after being drilled by her several times, they wanted to shiver just hearing her voice.

The messenger soldier was the same. His body involuntarily shook, and he immediately turned to press his hand to his chest toward her. “General, the King sent word saying that according to the High Archbishop’s prediction, the final beast tide is about to arrive. The royal capital has already dispatched people from the Church and envoys toward the border to support the expeditionary army through this crisis together.”

“Get through this together? Why do I feel like it’s a threat…” After listening, the Countess laughed coldly and waved her hand, saying, “I understand. Don’t go tell the General. I’ll talk to her about it later.”

The soldier answered in a small voice, hunched his neck, and withdrew from the tent. Before dropping the tent flap, he secretly glanced back at the young man from before. The man had already put on his armor and was bending down to pick up a long and heavy greatsword.

The soldier didn’t dare look any longer and quickly ran off.

The military tent fell silent for a moment. As the Countess brushed past the man, she asked him. “Why don’t you drink some potions? Don’t your wounds hurt if you leave them?”

He stopped in his tracks, indifferent. “Wasteful. I’ll just sleep tonight and be fine.”

The curt refusal made the Countess gently close her eyes and ask wearily, “Brandon, are you still blaming me?”

Brandon’s footsteps paused. He turned to look at his mother. He no longer resembled the naive, pampered young master of years past. Three years of frost and blood had been enough to temper him into a warrior with a heart as firm as iron.

His voice was somewhat hoarse. “Mother, I’ve never blamed anyone. I understand Ji Chi. Whether you stopped him or not, he would have gone beyond the fortress… I just want to make myself stronger. At least, when needed, I’ll have the ability to protect the people I want to protect.”

He spoke with a self-deprecating smile. “Before, I was still mocking Evan for looking down on himself too much… Only when I truly encountered things I couldn’t change did I realize how powerless I was.”

Brandon glanced indifferently at the Countess, said nothing more, and walked out of the military tent with his greatsword, his figure tall and straight.

The Countess squeezed the space between her brows and exhaled. She had been working continuously for many days and was already exhausted, but there was no time to rest now. She went directly to the front line and found the figure wearing white armor among the soldiers.

Silvia saw the Countess through the gaps between soldiers and walked forward to touch the crease between her brows. “What’s wrong? Did word come from the royal capital again?”

The Countess nodded. “That old fellow has completely gotten in bed with the Church. He wants to send Church people and envoys over.”

After listening, Silvia had the same reaction as her sister, both of them laughing coldly. “Envoys? Is the fortress another country? Does it actually need the King to send an envoy over? And what are the Church people coming to mess things up for? What, they still haven’t given up on that stupid idea?”

As early as a year ago, the King and the Church had repeatedly come to pressure the expeditionary army, telling them to tear down the Ice Fortress and go directly beyond the fortress to slay the berserk beasts.

This absurd proposal left Silvia without even the desire to persuade. She directly threw out anyone who came, which also greatly angered the King far away in the royal capital.

When Silvia mentioned the King, the resentment in her eyes never dissipated. “What exactly is he afraid of? Isn’t forcing you away from the Northland enough? What exactly do we need to do to satisfy him?!”

The Countess fell silent for a while, unwilling to dwell on this topic. She raised her eyes to look at the increasingly crimson moon at the summit of Beast God Mountain and said, “We’ll ignore the rest, but they’re right about one thing—we don’t have much time left.”

The Countess used her sword to prop up the ground, as if supporting a spine about to collapse, and murmured to herself. “What exactly has happened beyond the fortress? Are Ji Chi and the others… still alive?”

Not only was the Countess questioning this, Snow Wolf Valley at the foot of Beast God Mountain was also surrounded by this question.

Starting from a month after Ji Chi disappeared, every day after Reize finished treating the wounds of the Snow Wolf clansmen, he would go to the cave where the chieftain was.

Today was the same. He had just arrived at the entrance of the chieftain’s cave when a melancholy sigh came from inside. The chieftain’s answer was the same every day. “Go back. The Wolf King hasn’t responded to me for a long time. I don’t know when he can return either.”

Reize stood silently at the cave entrance. Only after the cold wind had blown his body ice-cold did he offer quiet thanks and lift his stiff legs to walk back.

The chieftain seemed unable to bear watching him become so despondent any longer. He lifted the beast hide at the cave entrance, leaning on his walking stick to call out to Reize.

His face carried some hesitation, but in the end he still spoke vaguely, “Don’t worry. He won’t come to harm.”

Reize clenched his fists, his body trembling from how tense it was. He slowly turned around, the edges of his purple pupils tinged with red. “Why won’t he come to harm? He disappeared on the snowy mountain for three years! A full three years! No shelter! No food! And no one able to help him! What responsibility does he have to solve all this alone!”

Reize roared at the chieftain in a low voice. “He’s only twenty years old even now! Even if he has the ability, he’s still a child! Not some god who saves everything!”

A trace of sorrow arose in the old chieftain’s heart. This god, he’s just a child, what can I do…

Actually, the old chieftain was also very worried. He tried to contact the Wolf King every day, but the Wolf King had also unprecedentedly lost contact. If not for the fact that its protection over Snow Wolf Valley still remained, the old chieftain would have gone mad by now.

He drooped his brows and eyes, looking up at the blood moon, thinking: Young deity… where exactly are you?

At the summit of the snow peak, Ji Chi, whom everyone was thinking about, was indeed not doing well. He wore a gloomy expression as he turned the roasted meat in his hands.

The Beast God most enjoyed watching his expression while eating.

They had never seen such a strange person. No matter how arduous or difficult the training, Ji Chi could persist with a calm expression, but when it came to the cooking segment, his whole person wilted like a small cabbage growing in the snow.

The Beast God lay on the Wolf King, smiling as they watched Ji Chi sit cross-legged on the ground, skillfully skinning and bleeding a rabbit, finding a tree branch to skewer it and placing it over the fire to roast.

The Beast God was in a soul state and could neither smell nor taste the roasted meat. They stared very curiously at the gradually golden-colored roasted meat, finding it quite magical.

“It looks quite good! Why would it taste bad?” The Beast God simply couldn’t understand.

Ignoring the scalding heat of the roasted meat, Ji Chi tore off a bite. After only chewing a few times, he swallowed it down, revealing an expression of complete despair. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be in such agony.”

The Beast God stroked the Wolf King beneath them who was napping with closed eyes and asked, “You can taste the flavor, right? How is it? Is Ji Chi’s roasted meat actually good?”

The Wolf King recalled that indescribable taste and instantly woke up, shuddering all over and curling up. It didn’t elaborate, only sighing wistfully, “Fortunately I can survive on the power of ice and snow…”

Ji Chi glared at it with bitter envy and quickly stuffed down the remaining food.

After the meal was a few minutes of rest time. He pulled up his interface and noted down today’s date in the game’s notebook.

Ji Chi pulled up his previous records and calculated. Then he leaned back, lying on a piece of soft beast hide.

He had stayed at the summit of the snowy mountain for a full three years. During this time, the Beast God borrowed the Wolf King’s power to set up a domain in the vicinity. It was very similar to the domain Hephaestus had set up in the Weiss Sea back then. Living creatures could only enter, not leave.

Within this domain, the Beast God could use power to freely transform into various magical beasts to attack Ji Chi, and what Ji Chi needed to do was ceaselessly fight and kill them without a moment’s rest.

Ji Chi looked at his interface again. Three years of high-intensity training had caused his various stats to surge rapidly, far exceeding the level when he had first arrived in this world.

These stats were truly too gorgeous. The attack power reflected in reality was also astonishing. The magical beasts the Beast God transformed into couldn’t even withstand one of his ordinary attacks.

Ji Chi was somewhat troubled. He turned his head to ask the Beast God. “What exactly are You still dissatisfied with? With such high attack power, You won’t even nod once in approval?”

The Beast God was even more troubled. They glanced coolly at Ji Chi. “I’d also like to know how you obtained such abnormal power… But true warriors aren’t measured by strength.”

The Beast God frowned. They themselves couldn’t quite describe it. “Butchers also have powerful strength. They hold sharp weapons, dominating the prey they kill, always existing peacefully and numbly.”

“But warriors are different.” The Beast God stood up, a magic sword manifesting in their hand. “Warriors are brave men struggling between life and death. They wield the swords in their hands for the purpose of achieving something beyond life and death.”

The Beast God held the magic sword horizontally and slashed forward with a strike as magnificent as a rainbow. The sharp sword light cleaved through space, but in the end it gently lifted a snowflake about to fall onto the flames and let it fall toward the snow beside them. “What warriors use is not weapons, but their will.”

Ji Chi listened quietly. He extended his hand to the side and caught that snowflake. Looking at the crystalline yet fragile hexagonal crystal in his palm, only after a long time did he exhale a long breath. “I think I understand.”

The Beast God dispersed the magic sword they had manifested and turned back to look at him. “What do you understand?”

Ji Chi smiled at Them and raised his hand to clasp at his collar. “I understand how to find my will.”

Amulet, armor, armguards, rings, emblems… all the legendary equipment was slowly removed by him and placed beside the fire.

The Beast God seemed to understand what he was going to do and shook their head with a sigh. “It’s useless. With your strength, these things weren’t really useful to begin with. That you could wear them for so long is cautious enough—”

Their words stuck in their throat halfway through. They stared blankly at Ji Chi’s movements, murmuring, “You… are crazy?”

Ji Chi slowly withdrew the bloodied blade that had pierced his abdomen. His cold eyes watched as the health bar shortened inch by inch. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead from the severe pain. He clenched his teeth and said, “Of course I have to be cautious, because I can die too…”

Just as his health bar was about to empty, he quickly bandaged the wound properly, eliminating the bleeding debuff.

Finally, Ji Chi looked at the bright 1 point behind his health bar and revealed a weak smile. His complexion was extremely pale from excessive blood loss, but his black pupils were brighter than ever before—

He smiled and asked the Beast God, “Am I still powerful now?”

The Beast God looked at his tottering body, moved their lips, unable to speak.

“Does this still need thinking?” Ji Chi smiled with raised lips. “According to Your viewpoint, warriors struggling between life and death are the most powerful people.”

“And also…” Ji Chi glanced at the pure white snowfield, a trace of helplessness flashing through his eyes. He didn’t know if it counted as coincidence, but before coming to this world, he had died on a snowy mountain. But not anymore. Each of his struggles would bring brighter hope.

Ji Chi drew out his dual swords, listening to the roar of frenzied beasts in the distance, and said to the Beast God, “Release Your domain. It won’t be needed anymore from now on.”

The Beast God silently raised their hand. The hemisphere-shaped domain enveloping the mountain peak dispersed like foam. The crimson moonlight overhead shone on the summit, like a blood-stained battlefield.