Chapter 467: Legend of the Extreme North Icefield

Xiong Er stared at the goblin thief held before him by the Mage’s Hand.

His face was filled with delighted surprise.

"Li Wei, thank you so much! You’ve been a huge help."

With that, Xiong Er grabbed the scrawny goblin thief.

The goblin looked like a hairless, skinny monkey, its skin a dull gray.

Held in Xiong Er’s grasp, it wore a pitiful expression, tears of fear welling up in its eyes.

"Spare me, milord! Spare me! Don’t kill me..."

The goblin thief begged for its life.

Xiong Er’s eyes went wide as he glared at it and roared, "Hand over what you stole! Now!"

Ten minutes later, Xiong Er had recovered the items the goblin thief had stolen.

He looked at Li Wei with immense gratitude. "Thank you so, so much. If it weren’t for you, I’d never have gotten these back."

Li Wei smiled and asked, "Do you have time to tell me about that legend now?"

Xiong Er glanced at the tall igloo beside them. Wisps of white smoke still curled from its chimney.

He said, "No problem, of course. We can talk while we eat."

The two of them walked toward the restaurant.

Food was extremely scarce in the Extreme North Icefield, so the restaurant was nearly empty.

But since the restaurant could operate here, it must have had a way to turn a profit.

Xiong Er said, "Order whatever you want. They have a lot of things you can’t get anywhere else—specialties of the Icefield."

"Oh, is that so?"

Li Wei picked up the menu and glanced at it, discovering that the prices were absurdly high.

The cheapest dish cost One Silver Coin.

For him, however, it was still affordable.

He casually ordered a few items. As Xiong Er listened, his face twitched, and he trembled inwardly.

When Li Wei handed him the menu, Xiong Er could only make a token gesture of ordering a few cheap but tasty dishes.

While they waited for their food, Xiong Er began telling Li Wei the legend that circulated throughout the Extreme North Icefield.

"There’s a legend—no one knows when it started—that in the deepest part of the Extreme North Icefield, within the Extreme Cold Abyss, there’s a magical region. If you spend a dozen years inside, only a few days will have passed on the outside."

Hearing this, Li Wei’s heart stirred. ’Could this be the treasure of the Time Dragon?’

With time involved, it was hard not to make the connection to the Time Dragon.

Li Wei pressed curiously, "Has anyone actually seen that place?"

Xiong Er shook his head. "No. If anyone had, it wouldn’t be just a baseless legend."

"But I heard from a Witch Priest that there really is a magical place inside the Extreme Cold Abyss. It’s also extremely dangerous. It’s the territory of the legendary Ice Emperor, who is said to have lived for a hundred thousand years. Outsiders can’t get anywhere near it."

"The Ice Emperor?" Li Wei asked, confused.

He hadn’t heard anything about that before.

Xiong Er said, "It’s normal that you don’t know about the Ice Emperor. He’s a terrifying being known only to a very few keepers of ancient traditions, like the Witch Priests. Before the ancient era, the Ice Emperor was the ruler of the Extreme North Icefield. It wasn’t until the Ice Emperor fell into a deep slumber that the Ice Queen established the Ice and Snow City and became the new master of the Extreme North Icefield."

"According to the Witch Priest, no one has ever seen the Ice Emperor and lived. Once the Ice Emperor awakens, blizzards will engulf every place he goes, turning them into ice that won’t melt for a thousand years, and all traces of life will vanish."

Li Wei remained highly skeptical of the legends Xiong Er recounted.

Xiong Er kept saying no one had ever entered, that no one had ever witnessed it.

’But if no one truly knows, then how did the legends get passed down?’

’Is it all just rumors?’

False rumors can’t withstand the test of time; they eventually disappear into history.

Legends that manage to survive usually have some form of verification or evidence, however small.

Li Wei felt it was simply that Xiong Er didn’t know, not that nobody knew.

He became interested in the Witch Priest Xiong Er had mentioned.

If all of Xiong Er’s legends came from the Witch Priest, then he would surely know more details.

"Your dishes are all here, sirs. Please enjoy."

Li Wei had just been about to ask Xiong Er about the Witch Priest.

The waiter walked over with the last dish and said with a smile.

Li Wei politely said to the waiter, "Thank you."

Xiong Er was getting impatient. He picked up his utensils and urged, "Let’s eat first. We can talk about whatever else after we’re done."

A meal was for eating, not for talking.

Li Wei and Xiong Er picked up their utensils and silently savored the delicacies of the Ice and Snow City.

After they had been eating for a while, Xiong Er suddenly collapsed, his head slumping onto the table. His face plunged into the bowl of soup in front of him, smearing greasy broth all over it.

Li Wei froze, his hand stopping mid-air. He stared at Xiong Er, completely baffled.

’Did he just... fall asleep?’

Li Wei checked on Xiong Er and found that he had fallen into a deep sleep.

He quickly realized that something was wrong.

This wasn’t sleep.

He was unconscious.

The food was poisoned. Xiong Er had eaten the poisoned food and passed out.

Because Li Wei possessed the Holy Dragon Body and the Favor of the Flower Goddess, he was immune to the vast majority of poisons in the world.

Thus, the poison that had rendered Xiong Er unconscious had no effect on him.

Li Wei calmed down and spread out his Spiritual Perception.

He discovered the waiter who had served them standing behind a wall, eavesdropping and monitoring their movements.

It seemed he was waiting for Li Wei to be poisoned and fall unconscious.

His Spiritual Perception extended further, and he saw several figures huddled together on the kitchen floor.

Two people stood beside them, apparently holding weapons.

If he wasn’t mistaken, the people squatting on the floor were likely the restaurant’s original waiters and cooks.

The waiter hiding behind the wall and the two men guarding the cooks must be the ones who had administered the poison.

Li Wei looked at Xiong Er, falling into a brief silence.

’I don’t know who they’re after.’

’Xiong Er? Or me?’

After a moment’s hesitation, he decided to feign unconsciousness and slumped onto the table.

THUD!

Li Wei had crashed down onto the table.

Hearing the noise, the waiter cautiously peeked out. Seeing that both of them were unconscious, a triumphant look appeared on his face.

He waved over his two accomplices from the back kitchen.

The three of them walked up to Li Wei and Xiong Er’s table.

"This is the guy the boss is looking for?"

"Should be. There aren’t any other outsiders in the city."

"Then let’s take him. What do we do with the one next to him?"

"Take them both. The boss can deal with them."

"Alrighty."

One of them took out a rope and a sack, preparing to tie Li Wei up and stuff him inside.

Suddenly, Li Wei sat up straight, his eyes fixed on the three men.

The three of them were instantly scared stiff, their faces a mask of shock.

"You... you... you... How are you not unconscious?"

Li Wei stared at the three men and demanded, "Who is this boss you mentioned? Why are you looking for me?"

The three exchanged a look, drew their weapons, and said, "In that case, we’ll do this the hard way. Take him!"

One of them said arrogantly, "A Mage might be powerful, but at such a close distance, what good is that power?"