Accompanying Shajina and the others to Ice Blade City was merely incidental. Our true mission here is to find the Imperial Commander of the Old Empire, Audemus, who is gradually awakening. Normally speaking, as a military officer, Audemus should seek out his Emperor to report after awakening, rather than us personally going to receive him. But I’m bored anyway, and when the Mother Star facilities are operating automatically, I always look for something to do. Moreover, Audemus isn’t fully awake yet, and he can’t leave the Northern Icefield for now. To start the upcoming work as soon as possible, I naturally don’t mind making the trip myself—though the main reason is, well... I’m just bored stiff.

We’ve already left Ice Blade City and are standing on a barren, human-desolate rocky wilderness about ten kilometers away from the city. Orelia and Alaya have lifted their invisibility, with the former "looking" in the direction of the icefield, concentrating intently. The cold wind blowing from the icefield gently lifts her wings and hair. Here at the border, not yet into the icefield area, with layers of mountains blocking, the force of the cold wind has greatly lessened. It’s relatively the last "warm" place in the far northern region. Beyond the strange atmospheric pressure belt known as "Storm Wall" lies the land of Storm Giants, the Northern Great Ice Field that mortals find hard to traverse. Audemus’ signal is coming from that direction. According to Orelia, the signal is very unstable; it seems he has suffered grievous wounds.

"We can only pinpoint the approximate location. He seems not to have reorganized all of his information yet," Orelia finally stopped "listening," her tone containing a trace of confusion. "I don’t know what went wrong at which stage. He seems to have been seriously wounded. I saw him sink into dormancy, and all commanders were intact at that time...the problem must have occurred in the tens of thousands of years after I went into slumber."

"Let’s go find him. No matter how he got hurt, healing him first is paramount," I slowly said, looking at the silver-white line at the horizon’s edge, then turning to see the two Half-Dragon girls following me. "I’ve heard that beyond the Storm Wall, temperatures fall to levels mortals can’t fathom. Do you still want to follow?"

Shajina hesitated, her smooth-scaled tail swinging uncontrollably with her indecisive mood, accidentally touching a cold stone on the ground. She instantly bounced up with a shiver, grimacing as she said, "But I don’t want to give up halfway. If I just return to Angel City, I’m worried the Dragon God will reprimand me."

No, that soft Dragon God is inherently the one being reprimanded. There’s no need for you to worry—though I didn’t voice this thought, just glanced at Sona, who made up her mind, prayed softly for a few moments, and then surrounded herself with a faint golden halo: "Let’s go. If we can’t even bear this low temperature, there’s no point in considering the Half-Dragon peoples’ resurgence—Shajina, stop making that face, don’t become a pampered young lady just because we’ve been living comfortably lately."

"I am not!" Shajina’s tail instantly straightened, then she mimicked Sona by casting a shield on herself.

After a short-range space transmission, we arrived directly at the border line and stopped in front of a wondrously strange sight: the Storm Wall, a test and barrier placed by the Storm Giants for mortals, according to legend.

The Storm Wall is a boundless, twisted air curtain separating the icefield from the outside, crossing this layer of distorted air, the icy and snowy Great Ice Field is right in front of everyone, close to the touch. Qianqian cautiously touched the barrier that showed no visible thickness: "Hey, it feels like a layer of water."

"This is a barrier fixed by an Eternal Technique," Orelia immediately recognized the nature of this thing, "The function of this magic is very singular, used to obstruct airflow and heat exchange. Without it, all humans here would be devoured by the cold wind. Audemus must have unconsciously created this during his dormancy, to imprison his Storm Giant incarnation... By the way, this magic is essentially invisible, this layer of distorted light curtain is merely a marking layer over the magic array, its purpose is to show mortals the location of the barrier line to prevent accidental trespass."

I nodded, pretending to understand, and took a step forward.

The feeling...is really just like passing over a soft, undulating watery surface, almost without any obstruction. This distorted air layer indeed has no protective function, merely weakening the cold air coming from the icefield. After crossing this barrier, it seemed as if I suddenly stepped into another world, greeted by the piercing cold wind absent on the other side of the barrier.

The temperature seemed to drop ten degrees further, the ground hardened with frozen soil, and the biting cold wind blew fiercely. Just a thin, seemingly non-existent air barrier separated two completely contrasting worlds. Though everyone present doesn’t mind the temperature change, I still instinctively rubbed my hands: "Wow, now I understand why this place is called the Life Forbidden Zone."

"So cold!!!" Despite the Dragon God’s power protecting her, Shajina bounced on the spot, exclaiming softly, then heartachingly looked at her tail, "It feels like my tail is frozen stiff. It would be great if there was clothing for tails..."

"I’ve heard that the Gudel Royal Family are the only mortal race living behind this Storm Wall," Lin Xue said, "They receive the Storm Giants’ grace and can disregard the chilling wind here. The deeper you go into the icefield, the lower the temperature, and the harsher the storms. The Gudel Royal Family, according to their rank and status, have their core members living closest to the Storm Giants’ throne—I find this race quite peculiar, enduring the chilling low temperatures below minus one hundred degrees in the icefield is one thing, but what do they eat here?"

"Perhaps..." Qianqian suddenly pointed at a whirlwind not far ahead, "They don’t need to eat anything..."

The whirlwind blew fast, growing faster, no one noticed when it appeared, but it didn’t seem to be naturally occurring. Our attention was drawn to it, and we watched as it swept up the ice debris and snow on the ground, gradually forming a blurry humanoid shape at the core. A few seconds later, the whirlwind subsided, and a crystal-clear human-shaped "ice sculpture" made of shattered ice and snowflowers appeared before us, faintly discernible as a sturdy male figure.

"You are the Honorable ones spoken of by God."

Inside the "ice sculpture," a voice mixed with the sound of crystals clinking came through, this bizarre being bowed down to us—though he wasn’t wearing a hat, so he took off half of his head and held it to his chest in lieu of a hat, "Please follow me, the manifestation of God is waiting not far ahead."

Orelia nodded to me, indicating that she too received Audemus’ communication, and the odd ice sculpture before us is evidently the messenger sent by him—it turns out this messenger looks quite unconventional.

"Are you from the Gudel Clan?" Lin Xue curiously eyed the figure, unable to help but glance repeatedly at the half skull on the latter’s chest, "Well, go ahead and reattach your head, it looks unsettling like that."

"Yes," the crystal-clear Shattered Ice person rustled and repaired his head, "Apologies, the Gudel people always struggle with the etiquette and behavior of tangible persons. When appearing outside, we rely on rigid illusions or puppets, you are the first strangers to see our true appearance."

"You’re actually elemental beings... Ah, I think I understand what is happening with these northern countries now. Turns out they’re governed by a bunch of elemental beings. It looks like Audemus has a lot to explain properly to us." Lin Xue patted her forehead and followed the crunching Shattered Ice person. We exchanged glances and followed behind.

The Gudel person leading us walked quickly, dropping ice shards as he moved. Not far, he whittled himself down to just his groin, then apologized and summoned a small whirlwind again, drawing crystal-clear ice shards from nearby ice layers and frozen soil to repair his legs, explaining while repairing, "Gudel people are adept with the power of ice and storm, but not used to movement. Were it not for the necessity of maintaining control over mortal nations outside the barrier, we wouldn’t step outside even once... Alright, let’s catch up while walking."

We followed behind this peculiar elemental being, watching him drop ice shards while asking, "By the way, what’s your name?"

"Gudel, we are all called Gudel," the Shattered Ice person rustled.

"You maintain a loose nation outside the barrier... Is this also the will of the Storm Giant?" Lin Xue asked curiously, then pointed to the Shattered Ice person’s body to remind, "Hey, your right hand’s fallen off."

"Oh, oh, doesn’t impact things—almost completely detached—Storm Giant? People outside indeed call our god that name, and it was indeed he who instructed us to establish the order outside the barrier. But it is merely to maintain a certain thing, it requires resources from the outside world. Gudel people aren’t adept at this; always, we would command comparatively smart beasts beyond the icefield to achieve this task. Later, mortals came to the icefield, and God taught us knowledge, established order, using mortals to collect tribute."

I can’t help but think of the legend I’d heard about the Gudel: a powerful race secluded and introverted, establishing a loose nation at the icefield border, demanding all sorts of peculiar tributes from the city-states. They sustain this arrangement with the power from Storm Giants, but nobody knows exactly what these tributes are for: after all, Storm Giants are just elemental beings, who do not require material offerings. And now, this Gudel seems poised to reveal the secret.

I’m not sure if it’s intuition, but I’m intrigued by their peculiar behavior: "What is it that you’re maintaining?" 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The Shattered Ice Person stopped in their tracks, and after a few seconds of silence, they said, "A seal. That’s all I can tell you. Only the God himself knows the specifics."

The other party seemed unwilling to continue explaining, and I didn’t press further: after all, Audemus is almost about to fully awaken, and they will surely tell us everything.

We advanced through the icefield for about half an hour. The further we went, the stronger the piercing cold winds became, and snowflakes began to swirl in the air—interspersed with ice particles. The temperature had dropped to one hundred degrees below zero, or perhaps even lower. Such temperatures clearly weren’t naturally occurring on this star, which could only mean one thing: we were nearing the range of the Storm Giant’s power. Just after rounding a small cliff, a dome-shaped frozen structure suddenly appeared before us.

If this was the "palace" of the Gudel "Royal Family," then it was indeed quite... humble.

The domed structure spanned only a few dozen meters in diameter, resembling an Eskimo’s igloo but larger and flatter—this latter characteristic likely intended to withstand the howling winds. Surrounding the icehouse, we saw no other man-made traces or any other Gudel; everything was starkly simple, abrupt, and greatly contrasted with our previous expectations. Yet our guide, the Shattered Ice Person, pointed at the door to the icehouse: "The God is inside, please enter."

Lin Xue stuck her tongue out at me: "Things made by elemental beings, how much can we really ask of them?" She then stepped into the icehouse, and we followed in single file, with Shajina and Sona, nearly unable to keep their eyes open, bringing up the rear.

The inside of the icehouse was as simple as expected. In fact, aside from its exterior shell, there was hardly any structure within. The only furnishing in sight was a set of crystal-clear table and chairs in the center of the room, with a two-foot-wide crystal cube resting on the table, projecting a vague image.

As soon as Shajina entered, she quickly ran to a corner of the room, pulled out a few charcoal logs, and prepared to start a fire: finally, there was no wind here, and she and Sona could warm up a bit.

"Audemus? How did you end up like this?" Orelia exclaimed in surprise, "looking" at the crystal block on the central table. Her words startled everyone.

"Huh? This is really Audemus?" I was completely taken aback, pointing at the crystal on the table, "Isn’t this a projection device?"

"Due to some unexpected circumstances, I can only sustain activities at very low intensity for now," a deep, powerful male voice suddenly emanated from the crystal block, "I sincerely apologize for not being able to report to Angel City immediately. I’ve learned all the details from Orelia and extend my respects to you, Emperor, Lady Vanna, and Lady Reiji. It’s a pleasure to see you all again."

"Uh, hello," I said awkwardly, realizing it might have been quite rude to call them a projector. However, since they were already familiar with most of the situation, this saved us a lot of trouble in communication, at least sparing us from unnecessary introductions, "I heard from Orelia that she sensed something was amiss with you, and it seems... it’s worse than we anticipated. Where is your body?"

"Please rest assured, my body will soon recover. I am currently in this state to minimize disturbances to the seal, sustaining system operations without diverting too much power externally."

"Seal? System?" I suddenly felt that there seemed to be many things unknown to us, things even Orelia might not know about, "What do you mean?"

"The seal, the Heart of the World’s seal, the Heart of the Capital Universe is stored in the far north," Audemus’s voice rang out, "This is a secret mission known originally only to three, the Emperor, Lady Reiji, and myself..."

"As of now, only you remain aware of it, as Chen Qian, your former Emperor... and I have both lost our memories from that time," Lin Xue said while pulling me to sit by the table and then immediately jumped up, "Wow! It’s cold! Is this really made of ice?"

"...The Gudel are incomplete creations and are elemental beings not well-acquainted with races outside of themselves," Audemus’s voice sounded rather awkward, "I too was surprised to find that they still maintain a civilization from tens of thousands of years ago after awakening."

"Tens of thousands of years ago?" I keenly caught onto a phrase, "So, before you went into hibernation, these Gudel already existed?"

"I created them; that too was part of a secret task," Audemus explained slowly, "to hide the Heart of the World; as long as the Heart of the World doesn’t leave this world before the situation stabilizes, the mission is accomplished."

The Heart of the World... The Heart of the World... these words echoed in my mind, then abruptly, another concept flashed like lightning in my brain: Fallen Apostles!

So far, the only connection I could think of with the Heart of the World and related to the Empire is the Fallen Apostles. Only they would continually gather the Heart of the World, only they would scheme to use the Heart of the World to complete their unspeakable "Grand Undertaking", yet I never expected to hear such news in this world, a world completely isolated from the Fallen Apostles. This... doesn’t make sense in terms of logic!

This world resembles a snapshot, preserving the situation before the Empire’s fall. To this currently closed universe, the Fallen Apostles are entirely unknown. Audemus couldn’t have known that his peers would become Fallen Apostles, nor could he have known he would one day have to protect the Heart of the World from the Fallen Apostles. So how is this secret mission...

A thought struck me, and I looked at Lin Xue.

"This is an extreme confidentiality confided by Lady Reiji before entering slumber at the Mother Star; even I don’t know the specific reasons, but she explicitly said that we must prevent a dark future, and the Heart of the World must never fall into potential enemies’ hands."

"And my current state is for completing this mission,"

Audemus supplemented.

I quickly calmed myself down, organizing the information Audemus provided. Clearly, his knowledge is limited as well, for the Prophet couldn’t share everything they saw. But one thing is certain: before the concept of the Mother Star was split, the chief predictor of the Fifteenth Day Zone, Lin Xue’s past self "Reiji", had already foreseen the birth of the Fallen Apostles—perhaps she couldn’t confirm their situation, but she knew at the very least that the Heart of the World would be employed in a dark and dangerous plan. Therefore, she informed her Emperor and secretly entrusted Audemus with an extremely confidential task, which was to hide the Heart of the World—a task so secretive that even other Xyrin Apostles had to be kept in the dark, including Orelia!

In other words, regardless of whether or not the cause of the Fallen Apostles’ existence was known, Reiji, at the very least, felt that her peers would no longer be trustworthy...(To be continued. If you like this work, please vote and give monthly tickets on qidian.com. Your support is my biggest motivation.)