The moment for the guard shift arrived, accompanied by an increasingly violent blizzard.
The flickering torchlight of the patrols in the camp was shredded by the swirling snow, and visibility dropped to its absolute limit.
At the entrance of the cellar, the sound of iron boots crunching on the accumulated snow rang out.
“Damn it, they’re finally here. I’m freezing to death.”
“Let’s go, let’s go. Time for some hot wine.”
The two guards stood up grumbling, stamping their frozen feet. Before leaving, one of them, still frustrated, walked over to the iron cage and kicked the bars hard, producing a dull “clanging” sound.
“Stay quiet, you little bastard. When His Majesty arrives, you’ll have a lot coming for you!”
The curled-up figure inside the cage remained motionless, as if already frozen solid and devoid of all sensation.
However, in the depths of the shadows where no one could see, those tightly closed eyes suddenly snapped open.
There was no trace of fear or despair within them, only a deathly silent snowfield that was burning fiercely.
The plan had begun.
The moment the figures of the two guards disappeared into the snow-filled entrance and the heavy stone door was shut, Moyin moved.
Her small, bruised and purple hands, frozen from the cold, pressed steadily against the keyhole of the brass rune lock.
The silver fire seed, which had lain dormant deep within her bloodline for five days and nights, tempered repeatedly by extreme cold and tyrannical Dragon Flame, was instantly activated.
There was no expected blazing fire, nor any light.
Only a highly condensed surge of energy pierced into the lock core through her fingertips.
“Click.”
A crisp sound, even fainter than a snowflake landing on the ground, flashed past amidst the howling wind.
The rune lock, claimed to be indestructible, snapped at its strongest core.
Moyin did not hesitate for a single second. She slid out from the gaps of the cage, making not even the slightest sound when she landed.
Not far away, the two newly rotated guards had their backs to her, rubbing their hands around the only alchemical stove, complaining about the wretched weather, completely unaware of the death descending behind them.
In Moyin’s mind, her Master’s emotionless teachings flashed coldly.
“Against heavy-armored units, brute force is the most foolish choice. The carotid artery, the armpits, and the gaps in the lower back joints are all weaknesses for a one-hit kill.”
She did not use any Dragon Flame.
That would create energy fluctuations and trigger the alarms in the camp.
She simply leaned down and picked up a shard of ice that was frozen as hard as steel.
Her figure flashed.
The complaints of the two knights came to an abrupt halt.
The two knights didn’t even have time to let out a muffled groan before their throats were precisely slit.
Warm blood splattered onto the snow, emitting a faint wisp of white steam before being frozen by the severe cold.
The two of them slumped softly to the ground. Until the final moment of their lives, their eyes still reflected the dancing warm light from the stove.
Moyin looked at the blood on her fingertips.
This was the first time she had killed someone in this manner.
There was no trembling, nor any discomfort.
There was only the pleasure of revenge, and a sharp, heart-tightening sting caused by utilizing her Master’s teachings.
Master… am I becoming the way you wanted? Or am I becoming the monster you loathe the most?
She shook off this weakness and, under the cover of the blizzard, crept silently toward the center of the camp.
The wind direction, the shape of the snowdrifts, the rhythm of the patrol’s footsteps…
Everything Shen Luolin had taught her now became her blades of vengeance.
Time and again, she brushed past the patrolling knight squads. Those fully armed soldiers didn’t notice at all that a deadly ghost had already passed through their defensive lines.
Her goal was crystal clear—the most magnificent tent at the very center of the camp, surrounded by imperial banners.
The Emperor’s tent.
However, just as she was about to approach the inner defensive circle, an extremely subtle magical fluctuation made her stop abruptly, pressing herself tightly behind a snow pile filled with supplies.
There seemed to be something invisible in the air.
She could feel invisible webs composed of frost runes interlacing ahead, sealing off all paths forward.
This was a high-level warning barrier, countless times more advanced than the runes in the cellar, something she had never seen before!
The way forward was completely blocked!
In this desperate situation, Moyin instead became extremely calm.
She did not choose to retreat, nor did she think about forcing her way through.
She crouched down and gently pressed a finger onto the snow. A trace of Dragon Flame energy, so weak it was almost non-existent, seeped from her fingertip—not to attack, but to “listen.”
She felt the flow of the barrier’s energy within the earth’s veins.
She discovered that although this barrier was suffocatingly powerful, in order to maintain this level of stealth, its energy flow was not continuous but existed with an extremely brief pulse interval.
That gap might only be a thousandth of a second.
Now!
At the moment the barrier’s energy flow dimmed, Moyin captured that fleeting gap!
Her entire being turned into a blurred afterimage. With a speed that the human eye could not capture, she passed through with extreme peril!
She succeeded.
But she didn’t know that this barrier had been a trap set by Aila from the very beginning.
Its true killing move was never to block.
But to “mark.”
The moment Moyin passed through the barrier, a wisp of a spiritual imprint had silently attached itself to her.
—
Almost at the same time.
Inside the command headquarters tent at the highest point of the camp, Aila was standing before a massive sand table. On the sand table, within the miniature model representing the camp layout, a piercing red light suddenly lit up on the outskirts of the Emperor’s tent!
“It seems there are some unexpected gains.”
Aila harmlessly took off her monocle and silently wiped it.
The next second, an alarm so shrill it could tear eardrums echoed through the entire snow-swept camp!
“Wooo—! Wooo—!”
Dozens of massive alchemical searchlights suddenly lit up from all directions of the camp. The snow-white beams of light instantly tore through the darkness and snow, like spears of judgment cast by a god, firmly locking onto that petite figure that had just crossed the barrier and hadn’t had time to hide again in the middle of the snow!
Moyin’s pupils suddenly constricted.
She was exposed!
From behind the shadows of the tents, from the towering snow piles, from the disguised supply crates… countless elite knights holding frost halberds and dragon-breath crossbows swarmed out, surrounding her so tightly that not even water could leak through in just a few breaths!
Outside the encirclement, the captain of the knights looked at Moyin, who was surrounded in the center, and roared loudly, “Capture her! Don’t kill her! His Majesty wants to use her to sacrifice to the flag!”
Sacrifice to the flag?
Looking at those faces that appeared hideous and greedy under the searchlights, Moyin instead smiled.
Slowly, she straightened her body.
Her messy long silver hair danced wildly in the gale. In those silver eyes, all disguises, all endurance, and all fear vanished completely.
What remained was only the determination and killing intent sufficient to incinerate the entire world.
A sacrifice?
No.
I am here to harvest.
Facing the knights surging from all directions like a tide, Moyin did not retreat half a step.
She slowly raised her right hand.
A small flame, yet so solid it looked like a silver diamond, quietly bloomed in her fair palm. That ultimate radiance illuminated her pale face like a descending deity, holy yet lethal.
She whispered softly, her voice so light it seemed it would be scattered by the blizzard at any moment, yet it rang clearly in the depths of her own soul.
It was as if she were speaking to the enemies charging at her, yet also to herself.
“Master, watch closely…”
“This is what you taught me.”
The next moment, the flames exploded!