Chapter 514: Trap

Chapter 514: Trap

Li Wei gazed down at the scene below, utterly perplexed.

The Valkyrie squad clearly held the advantage—so why had they fired signal flares for help?

Just as Li Wei was lost in confusion—

The Valkyries fighting on the ground suddenly collapsed en masse.

Li Wei froze for a moment. “Poison?”

He saw someone raise a weapon to behead one of the unconscious Valkyries.

Without hesitation, Li Wei descended and intervened with a spell.

Ice Storm!

A vortex of ice and snow appeared above the battlefield, spinning rapidly and launching countless icicles the thickness of fingers.

The attack covered the entire field.

Under Li Wei’s precise control, not a single icicle struck an ally.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The icicles pierced through beast hides, dyed red by blood.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The enemies frantically swung their weapons to block the relentless hail of ice.

Some icicles deflected and accidentally struck the Valkyries—that was beyond Li Wei’s control.

Twenty or thirty enemies were suppressed by Li Wei’s Ice Storm, unable to harm the fallen Valkyries.

Li Wei landed from the air, preparing to capture one of the enemy leaders to find out what exactly had happened.

Suddenly, a chilling sensation raised every hair on his neck.

Almost instantly, his mental perception spread toward the source of danger.

An arrow, silent and swift, appeared in his mind’s eye—moving faster than sound.

Not silent—it had simply surpassed the speed of sound.

In his perception, runes of top-tier anti-magic inscription adorned the arrowhead.

It could easily pierce through the magical shield of a sixth-rank archmage.

This was a trap specifically laid for Gusewei.

Li Wei understood everything in an instant.

If he hadn’t come, then upon seeing the signal flare, it would have been Gusewei who arrived.

Faced with such an arrow, she might not even react in time to dodge.

Taking it head-on meant only one outcome—being pierced through by the anti-magic bolt.

Mages’ bodies were inherently more fragile than those of other professions of equal rank. Struck by a supersonic arrow? Likely death on impact.

Li Wei suspected that the arrow wasn’t just anti-magic—it probably carried deadly poison too. He wouldn’t be surprised.

Even for him, the anti-magic arrow posed a real threat.

That’s why his instincts screamed danger.

It was a natural ability gained after strengthening his spiritual power.

However, once Li Wei’s mental perception detected the arrow, its sneak attack effect was rendered useless.

Whoosh!

The anti-magic arrow struck Li Wei mid-air.

He plummeted into the snow, his figure buried beneath the white drifts.

Seeing the arrow hit its mark, the attacker smirked confidently and rushed toward the battlefield.

The Ice Storm above began to dissipate… The few remaining active enemies approached where Li Wei had fallen, searching for his corpse.

“Found him yet?”

“The boss is over here.”

One of them shouted loudly, pointing at a nearby snow pit.

“Good. Bring the body over. Hit by an anti-magic arrow—he’s definitely dead.”

The leader spoke with full confidence.

At his command, a subordinate walked toward the body.

As he drew near and saw Li Wei lying in the snow, he paused in confusion.

Because there wasn’t a single wound on Li Wei’s body.

Li Wei winked at him, and only then did the man realize he wasn’t dead.

Swoosh!

With a flick of his finger, Li Wei launched the anti-magic arrow he’d caught, piercing straight through the enemy’s chest.

The man was instantly killed by the poison on the arrow, collapsing face-first into the snow.

From the beginning, Li Wei had never been hit.

He had caught the arrow barehanded, feigned being struck down, and lured the attackers close.

Li Wei wanted to personally capture the assailant—to learn why he had ambushed Gusewei.

Her safety was at stake. He had to get to the bottom of this.

Now, the attacker had stepped into his mental perception range—he was like a fish in a barrel.

Time to reel him in.

The leader, seeing his subordinate collapse in the snow, assumed he had simply slipped and shouted from a distance.

“Hurry up and drag him over! Can’t even walk without falling—what use are you…”

Suddenly, the leader noticed a flicker of firelight before his eyes.

The next second, he felt searing heat engulf his entire body.

Though standing in a frozen wasteland, he felt as if he were roasting over a blazing fire.

His body burned with unbearable heat, strength quickly draining away.

Plop! Plop! Plop!

All the enemies collapsed.

Their bodies poured with sweat, dehydrated and overheated.

Li Wei stood up and walked toward the attackers.

They had already fallen within his Flame Domain, completely immobilized.

This was the power jointly unleashed by the Advanced Flame Rule and the Advanced Flame Domain.

Within the scope of the flame domain's coverage, the body temperature of all enemies instantly rose, causing severe dehydration and rendering them unconscious, collapsing to the ground.

The leader barely raised his head, seeing a shoe pass before his eyes, then he lost consciousness entirely, falling into complete oblivion.

Li Wei walked up to the attacker. Despite his assault, the attacker still retained some clarity of mind.

Seeing the other’s face, Li Wei revealed a look of surprise. “Adi?”

When Li Wei first arrived at the Frozen North Plain, he had assumed it was an uninhabited wasteland. It wasn’t until he encountered several hunters that he learned of the existence of the Ice City.

Adi was the sharpshooter among that group of hunters, possessing an extraordinary long-range capability. Adi himself was also deeply shocked, unable to comprehend why it was Li Wei.

According to the original plan, his arrow should have struck the Holy Maiden.

An even greater mystery was—how could Li Wei still be alive?

He had clearly hit him.

Li Wei sensed Adi’s strength level and frowned with confusion.

A month ago, Adi had only been a second-rank sharpshooter.

Now, he had become a fourth-rank sharpshooter.

Li Wei furrowed his brow, carefully perceiving for a moment, and detected a faint abnormal energy on Adi.

“This aura… the power of a Demon God?”

“No, this is far weaker than the power of a Demon God. Did you accept the Demon God’s power?”

Adi kept his head lowered, saying nothing.

Li Wei shook his head. “Forget it. It doesn’t matter where you got this power.”

“I just want to know one thing—why did you set a trap to attack Gusewei?”

Adi glanced at Li Wei in bewilderment.

Li Wei quickly realized that most people in the Ice City didn’t know the name of the Holy Maiden.

Clearly, Adi was among the majority.

Judging from his expression, Li Wei knew he couldn’t be the mastermind behind this.

The true culprit would never be unaware that Gusewei was the Holy Maiden.

Li Wei asked directly, “Where are your accomplices?”

Adi seemed to come to his senses. He pressed both hands into the snow, kneeling as he cried hoarsely, “Don’t kill me! Don’t blame me! They forced me… If I didn’t do what they said, they’d kill my family…”

Li Wei’s gaze sharpened, and he spoke calmly, “Tell me who threatened you, and I’ll help you save your family.”

Adi suddenly lifted his head to look at Li Wei. Snow clung to his face, making him appear utterly disheveled.

“Really… Commander… it was the Commander…”

Adi trembled as he spoke.

Hearing this, Li Wei frowned.

“The Commander? You mean the Valkyrie Commander?”

Adi hurriedly nodded. “Yes, the Commander granted me great power and weapons, telling me to wait here for the target.”

His face twitched as he continued, “She told me that the target would be a mage with ice-blue wings on her back, and ordered me to kill her.”

Li Wei felt somewhat speechless, yet also slightly relieved.

Fortunately, Adi had mistaken him for Gusewei.

Otherwise, if Adi saw that the arriving person wasn’t the Holy Maiden and gave up the attack, it might have taken much longer to uncover this hidden threat.

“Monise?”

Li Wei turned to look at the fallen Valkyries behind him.

With his mental perception sweeping through the crowd, he indeed found no trace of Monise.

Why would Monise want to kill Gusewei?

Li Wei glanced again at Adi, and a deeper question arose in his heart.

What connection did Monise have with the Demon God?

Li Wei cast a spell, conjuring a massive arcane hand that seized Adi and carried him over to the unconscious Valkyries.

After a quick examination, he discovered that the Valkyries had likely been poisoned, which caused their sudden collapse during battle.

Fortunately, the poison wasn’t fatal—it seemed to induce only unconsciousness.

The poisoner probably intended for the Valkyries to faint mid-battle, ensuring they would be killed by the enemy.

That’s why they hadn’t used a more potent, easily detectable toxin.

Li Wei raised his hand and summoned a blizzard, enclosing everyone within a magical cabin and bringing them back to the Ice City.

Without the Tears of the Goddess, he had no means to dispel abnormal statuses.

Nor did he possess the relevant spells.

Most of Gusewei’s ice-based magic consisted of offensive spells; she had few supportive ones, let alone any capable of curing unconsciousness.

Thus, Li Wei decided to simply bring everyone back.

Upon returning to the Ice City, Li Wei headed straight for the Jade Ice Palace atop the snowy peak.

“Li Wei, you’re back. What happened?”

Gusewei rushed out upon seeing Li Wei descend.

Li Wei first found a place to set everyone down.

He dumped the attackers in one pile and placed the Valkyries aside.

Seeing so many people brought back by Li Wei, Gusewei looked surprised and concerned. When she noticed the unconscious Valkyries, worry filled her eyes.

Li Wei said, “Don’t worry. They’re just unconscious. No danger to their lives.”

Gusewei nodded and called for the Ice Guards to take away the attackers for imprisonment.

Then she summoned maidservants to carry the unconscious Valkyries off for treatment.

Only after completing these tasks did Gusewei ask Li Wei again about what had happened.

Instead of answering her question, Li Wei asked, “Have you seen Monise?”

Gusewei replied, “I sent her to lead troops against the rebels.”

Li Wei said, “Those people *are* the rebels.”

“What?” Gusewei looked astonished.

“Really? But they don’t seem strong at all. That’s not what Monise described at all,” Gusewei said doubtfully.

Li Wei glanced at her and asked, “What exactly did she tell you?”

Gusewei answered, “Monise said the rebels were numerous and extremely powerful. The Valkyrie squads sent to suppress them suffered repeated defeats.”

"Have you seen it with your own eyes?" Li Wei asked.

Guthvie shook her head. "No, I haven't."

Li Wei's gaze flickered, and a faint smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Then, let's summon Monis here, and we'll confront each other face to face to see who the real rebel is."

(End of Chapter)