Chapter 491: Deus Ex Machina

Chapter 491: Deus ex Machina

As Li Wei pondered the true identity of the Ice Queen, lost in contemplation.

The Ice Queen had already made her decision.

She issued an order: "Valkyries and Ice Guards, starting today, spare no effort in preparing for the construction of the divine altar. The ritual must be completed before the arrival of the Ice Emperor."

"As you command." "Yes, my queen."

Monis, leader of the Valkyries, and Lina, commander of the Ice Guards, accepted their orders and withdrew from the chamber.

They departed to carry out the Ice Queen's directive.

Li Wei looked at the Ice Queen with some surprise, not expecting such decisiveness from her.

According to what the Ice Queen had said, when the residents of Freyrad City began to worship deities, she would lose control over the city.

To her, it would be more convenient to simply abandon the city altogether.

There was absolutely no need to go through the trouble of holding a divine ritual and offering the entire Freyrad City to the gods.

However, under Li Wei's persuasion, the Ice Queen also realized that fleeing was not a solution to the problem.

In the end, she still couldn't bear to see the Freyrad City she had built from nothing being destroyed.

Nor could she bear to see its people displaced and homeless.

Given the current situation, Li Wei had no way to ask the Ice Queen whether she truly was an ice elf or not.

The Ice Queen turned to look at Li Wei and said, "I have something very important to entrust to you."

"What is it?"

"I hope you can help monitor the location of the Ice Emperor," the Ice Queen replied.

After speaking, seeing that Li Wei did not respond for quite a while,

She continued, "I know this is dangerous, but it's extremely important to me and to Freyrad City."

She glanced at Gusewei and added, "Currently, aside from you, there's no one else suitable for this task. Gusewei has even more important matters to attend to."

Upon hearing this, Gusewei showed a look of surprise, extremely curious about what these more important matters mentioned by the Ice Queen might be.

Li Wei remained silent for a moment before nodding and saying, "Alright, I accept."

The Ice Queen expressed her gratitude, "Thank you."

She continued, "Of course, I won't let you take on this risk without compensation. Here are some heavenly treasures I collected from the Far North Ice Plains. They will greatly benefit you."

A spatial ring of icy jade color appeared in the Ice Queen's hand.

She handed the spatial ring to Li Wei, completely unafraid that he might flee with the items.

Since Li Wei and Gusewei returned, she could tell that their relationship had changed.

Li Wei would definitely never abandon Gusewei and run away alone.

The Ice Queen kept Gusewei behind alone to discuss important matters with her privately.

Li Wei and Saint Xi left the Ice Jade Palace, and he took Saint Xi to eat roasted meat.

Additionally, he had also invited Guze to join them.

When Guze arrived, Li Wei and Saint Xi were already eating, with Saint Xi doing most of the eating.

After sitting down, Guze looked at the blonde girl beside Li Wei who was diligently eating, showing curiosity. "Who is she?"

Li Wei smiled and said, "My sister."

Saint Xi snorted upon hearing this, not even lifting her head.

Guze felt very puzzled inside. He knew Li Wei was an orphan—where did this sister come from?

This girl's demeanor also seemed extraordinary. She might be a princess from some kingdom.

Could it be that Li Wei had kidnapped someone else's princess?

In terms of status, Saint Xi indeed qualified as a princess, but not a princess of a human empire—rather, a dragon princess.

Seeing that the blonde girl didn't seem to have been forcibly abducted, and instead appeared quite intimate with Li Wei,

He didn't say anything further.

Guze asked, "How is my sister doing?"

Upon hearing this, Li Wei felt inexplicably embarrassed.

Guze was more than ten years older than him, yet Gusewei was only about three years older.

In terms of age, there wasn't much difference between Li Wei and Gusewei. But the problem was that Guze was Li Wei's teacher—pursuing his teacher's younger sister somehow felt...

Li Wei pushed aside these extraneous thoughts and said, "She's fine. Not only did she return safely, but she's also become a sixth-rank archmage now."

"Eh? How many days have you two been gone? And she's already a sixth-rank archmage?" Guze was extremely surprised.

Li Wei explained to Guze what had happened within the Time Secret Realm.

Guze looked at Li Wei in astonishment, "You mean, you and Vivi stayed in the Time Secret Realm for eight years before coming out?"

"But it's only been twelve days since you left Freyrad City."

Li Wei thought for a moment. Aside from travel time and an unclear period spent in the Extreme Cold Abyss,

That meant eight years passed within the Time Secret Realm, while only two or three days had passed outside.

This matched up with their encounters with enemies.

Those people didn't look like they had found the slumbering place of the Ice Emperor long ago.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have waited until Li Wei and Gusewei arrived to hastily set up the awakening ritual formation.

It was just unfortunate that neither Li Wei nor Gusewei managed to see through the enemy's real method of awakening the Ice Emperor.

They were fooled by the awakening ritual formation the enemy put up.

The awakening ritual formation might have worked, but it certainly wasn't the key.

Li Wei nodded and said, "Yes, that's how it is. The flow of time inside the Time Secret Realm is completely different from outside."

Guze sighed deeply, "Sigh, I wish I had gone too."

Li Wei knew he was troubled by his own weak strength.

He took out an ice essence and handed it to Guze, saying, "Teacher, this is for you."

"Hmm? This is... an ice essence!"

Seeing what Li Wei held in his hand, Guze showed a shocked expression.

An ice essence was the ultimate treasure coveted by ice-elemental mages.

Li Wei had obtained six ice essences, five of which he gave to Gusewei.

He kept one for Guze.

For Guze's level of power, one ice essence would suffice for use over a considerable period.

Guze felt somewhat awkward accepting it and said, "This is too precious. You should take it back."

Li Wei directly shoved the ice soul crystal into his hands and said, "Master, why are you being so polite with me?"

"Do we really need to stand on ceremony with each other?"

"Besides, I didn't just get one ice soul crystal, so go ahead and use it without worry."

"Just moments ago, the Ice Queen gave me a whole pile of wonderful things, so you don't need to concern yourself with me."

Seeing this, Gu Ze could only accept it.

He looked at Li Wei and said, "With the assistance of the ice soul crystal, I should be able to break through to the second tier this year."

It had already been a year since Gu Ze broke through the first tier to become a formal mage.

Judging by his cultivation speed, his progress was actually not slow.

It belonged to the normal rate of power enhancement for a mage.

Someone like Li Wei, who jumped several levels in a single year, was the abnormal one.

Li Wei simply hadn't told Gu Ze that he was about to break through to the sixth tier.

Otherwise, Gu Ze probably would have been so shocked he couldn't eat.

After meeting with Gu Ze and having a meal,

Li Wei departed from the Ice City of Velred together with Saint Xi.

They sped off at lightning pace toward the direction of the Frozen Abyss.

Saint Xi transformed into a giant dragon, carrying Li Wei as they soared through the wind. Li Wei sat behind her, examining what wonderful treasures the Ice Queen had given him.

(End of Chapter)