[Vol. 9] Chapter 19: The Extreme Cold Zone and the Pioneers
The new emperor was firm in his wish for peace. Princess Carinvega Frederick, known as the [Empire’s Two-Colored Lotus], personally went as envoy to the Holy Empire. After several rounds of negotiation with the Three Saintesses, the two sides finally reached an agreement. Taking advantage of the common enemy, they signed a united front treaty, minimizing the negative impact of war.
Thus, the civil war in the Origin Realm, started by the Austre Empire, ended with Austre’s decision to make peace. From then on, the focus shifted fully to fighting against the foreign invaders.
Half a month later, a cold wind from the north suddenly swept across the land. The Northern Calamity, which had not appeared for a hundred years, once again raged across the endless ice fields. The northern countries were in crisis. Nolan Sinong, the High Priestess of the [Eternal Winter Temple], personally led troops to suppress it. After several battles, they still could not fully subdue the disaster.
Panic spread through the northern lands. The revival of the Northern Calamity not only brought great destruction but also caused a sudden surge in demand for grain and other survival supplies. The north was already poor and cold, its food production always low. With the disaster raging, the losses grew worse, and in many places large-scale famine broke out.
The sharp rise in food prices promised enormous profits for merchants. Meanwhile, as spring gradually warmed the world, the temperature of the Extreme Cold Zone, which stretched between the north and south, began to rise. Under such timing and conditions, a once-in-a-century opportunity appeared.
“Crunch… crunch…”
Boots sank deep into the snow, more than a foot thick, then pulled free with difficulty. The icy wind, sharp as knives, whipped against heavy coats and fur clothing. A group of several dozen people, leading wagons, slowly advanced through the vast frozen wilderness.
Large snowflakes, like goose feathers, fell from the sky, blurring the label “Xavier” carved on the wagon’s canopy. A brown-haired girl, carrying an old longbow on her back, rubbed her frozen, bluish hands together and once again looked toward the white, snowy wilderness ahead, as if hoping to see something.
Finally, several blurry figures appeared in the snowstorm and gradually grew clearer. Her eyes lit up, and she shouted loudly.
“Stop moving! Rest here!”
Hearing the order, the group let out a sigh of relief. They quickly stopped, shook off the thick snow piled on their clothes, and sat down in small groups against the wagons. They lit magical heating stoves and took out their hard, frozen bread, chewing it slowly with sips of water.
The food didn’t taste good, but in the freezing cold, where even layered clothes were useless, just walking outside could mean freezing to death. In such an extreme environment, they had to keep their bodies full of energy to survive unexpected dangers.
This was hard-earned knowledge, passed down through countless lives.
Meanwhile, the young woman leader with a ponytail saw the scouts returning from the snowstorm. She had sent them out earlier to find the way. In this Extreme Cold Zone, heavy snow covered everything, blurring the roads. Even compasses were disturbed by mysterious forces, maps were unreliable, and visibility was pitifully low. The only way was to send scouts to avoid dangers ahead of time.
“How is it? Did we go off track?” she asked.
Unlike the ordinary members, these scouts had strong, vigorous auras. Their clothing was lighter and specially made in pure white, blending with the snow to make them harder to notice, which greatly improved their survival chances while exploring.
But after seeing something, the scouts’ faces turned stiff, and their pale expressions showed that they had just been frightened. Soon, one of them spoke.
“The direction is fine, Miss Sasha, but there’s a big problem ahead. We might have to think of another way around.”
Hearing this, the young leader called Sasha raised her eyebrows slightly.
“What kind of problem? Tell me clearly.”
“Beasts. High-level beasts! Just a few kilometers away, there are two huge groups of snowfield creatures fighting each other. Altogether, there are probably close to a hundred of them! You didn’t see it, Miss, scary as hell. If we walk straight into them, we won’t even have a chance to escape!”
One of the scouts seemed badly shaken and blurted out loudly, but no one mocked his fear or his loss of composure. Even Sasha, who was usually optimistic, became serious when she heard this and rested her chin in her hand, thinking deeply.
The Extreme Cold Zone was not only a natural barrier that cut off the north and south of the world, nearly impossible to cross, but it was also home to living creatures and even whole species. Because the environment was so harsh, the creatures that lived here were unusually strong.
Although it was rare to see beings that reached the “mythical” level, fifth- or even sixth-tier creatures were nothing strange here. Most of these groups were very unfriendly toward outsiders. If we say the dangers of the Extreme Cold Zone can be counted as ten parts, at least five of those would come from the native creatures alone. The rest were things like temperature, blizzards, and lack of resources.
In this situation, the only option was to avoid them.
“This is really troublesome. The species in the Extreme Cold Zone are indeed aggressive, but most of them stay in their own territories and don’t interfere with each other. Why would such a large-scale battle suddenly break out? … Did you see clearly what species they were?”
“That’s not too hard to recognize. They should be Ice Apes with Demon Eyes and Dragon-Sleep Crawlers.”
“What the—!?”
Even with Sasha’s usually steady personality, hearing these two names made her curse under her breath. Both the Ice Apes with Demon Eyes and the Dragon-Sleep Crawlers were overlords of the Extreme Cold Zone, powerful races they absolutely couldn’t afford to provoke. They weren’t quite at the mythic level, but an adult from either species already had strength equal to legendary human warriors.
And within every such group, there was always at least one king of even higher rank. Just that one alone would be enough to wipe out their entire caravan.
But the route their caravan was following had been carefully chosen by many who came before, adjusted and tested again and again. It was supposed to pass through a narrow stretch of land rarely touched by the local creatures. Why would something like this happen now?
“Miss Sasha, what should we do? Should we take a detour?”
Hearing her subordinate’s question, the leader’s mind began racing quickly.
Their caravan was already the fourth one the Xavier Merchant Guild had sent north. Since the start of the calendar, the climate had shifted from cold to slightly warmer, and the world’s situation had changed greatly. The return of the Northern Calamity had brought widespread famine to the north. In order to seize this rare chance, Chairman Xavier had invested a huge fortune, starting from the Northern Ten Thousand Demon Mountains of the Human United Kingdom, to push their trade routes further into the north.