Demon King: Hero, don’t run away!

”That magic wand is quite peculiar.

I’ve heard before that there exist tools capable of enchanting the human mind.

That magic wand must be one of them...

Yang Yu surely noticed this, that’s why he kept reminding me repeatedly at the time.

Absolutely must not be enchanted by that wand.

There must be some way to discern the situation in the palace.

He will certainly be fine.

Rely on your own strength.”

Repeating these words internally, Bai Jin shifted her focus away from the wand and resumed exploring the entire Cold Ice Palace.

No matter how many times she explored, the result was the same. The magic power composing the ice bricks was too dense; even if she condensed her own magic into fine needles, they couldn’t penetrate at all.

Powerlessly flying back to Iyas, Bai Jin glanced at the corridor blocked by the ice and clasped her hands together, silently praying.

A white centipede, unnoticed until now, crawled out from the Magic Wand Sigh Seed, stepping on the snow and arriving at Bai Jin’s side.

The silently praying Bai Jin was once again struck by the earlier voice in her heart:

”Praying to the goddess is useless.

The goddess is our enemy, completely untrustworthy.

The only ones we can trust are each other.

I have always stood with humans, and this hasn’t changed since the moment of my creation.

How long has it truly been since then?

The magic power here is overly deficient, and your understanding of magic is too impoverished.

This is the inevitable impact brought by magic power decline.

With me around, there’s no need to fear.

As long as you make a contract with me, I can not only grant you strength but also teach you many magics you’ve never seen before.

Young girl, do you crave power?

Only with sufficient strength can you protect yourself and your comrades.”

Before the white centipede could finish speaking, Bai Jin’s foot came crashing down on it.

Facing Iyas, Bai Jin asked, ”Iyas, do you know how to perform exorcism? My wand seems to be possessed by some evil spirit. Can you help me?”

”Sure, although I don’t know exorcism, ghosts seem to be quite afraid of the Holy Light in me. By doing something like this… it should have some effect.”

Iyas, who was originally anxiously waiting, galloped to the wand after Bai Jin’s call, using Holy Light to envelop it in an attempt at purification.

But the white centipede beside Bai Jin didn’t vanish, instead it continued its incessant chatter deep within Bai Jin’s heart:

”A futile effort, I’m not like those ghost byproducts. Silly goddess apostle, wasting your time foolishly.

I tell you, if you truly are human, then you should find out what our race truly ought to do.

Our battle is far from over.

This world doesn’t have so-called ’betrayers’. As long as we can reunite our lines, we are allies.

Only those who don’t understand our deeds are our enemies.

Make a contract with me, and I’ll tell you who your real enemies are...”

Before the white centipede could finish, the ice blocking the corridor showed signs of collapse, countless cracks spreading out from the center.

Upon hearing the commotion, the white centipede lingered by Bai Jin for a moment, murmuring, ”How could it be... how could he return so quickly when his opponent should clearly be...” then swiftly darted into the Magic Wand Sigh Seed.

Seeing this, Bai Jin’s inner anxiety vanished without a trace.

After a while, a blue drill emerged from the ice wall, spinning and falling to the ground, transforming into a blob of blue jelly.

Seeing He Meng, Bai Jin and Iyas were overjoyed, barely waiting to inquire about what transpired in the Cold Ice Palace, when a dull knocking sound came from the other side of the ice wall.

After a few bangs, the ice blocking the corridor began to massively collapse, with Yang Yu wielding a large hammer carving a path through the blocked corridor.

Before leaving the Cold Ice Palace, Yang Yu investigated it thoroughly.

Yang Yu attempted to smash several walls, looking for a new exit, only to discover that the walls were absurdly hard, not budging even slightly when struck.

Examining a room, he found several pieces of furniture made of ice, casually smashing a few, easily reducing them to white mist.

The quality of those pieces was not on par with genuine magic ice blocks.

Ultimately, Yang Yu gave up the thought of acquiring any magic ice blocks from this Cold Ice Palace.

The only discovery from exploring the Cold Ice Palace was a corpse on a bed frozen into an ice block deep within the palace, beneath which lay a treasure box.

Upon opening it, inside was a set of thermal underwear and a quilt.

The texture of the thermal underwear extremely resembles that of the Luo Ze Empire brand thermal underwear Yang Yu seized on the Sailuomen Plain, but the effect is vastly different.

This thermal underwear can increase Defense and Magic Resistance by 10%, and nearly immune 60% of ice attribute attacks.

Though its style is somewhat unsightly, with the shape of ordinary, plain thermal underwear, after a bit of modification by an equipment craftsman, it could potentially become a simple T-shirt.

As for the quilt, it’s just a normal thermal quilt with printed patterns, revealing the owner’s aesthetic...

Beyond that, Yang Yu found nothing else.

A place like this Cold Ice Palace, yet penniless, perhaps the owner left his treasures elsewhere, or perhaps someone arrived first.

Possibly this is just a place for rest, vacation.

If that’s the case, there’s no need to bring any valuables.

Returning to the hall, Yang Yu carefully examined the deep pit left by Dragon Breaker NO.001.

The pit was empty, exposing the frozen soil, showing that this Cold Ice Palace lacks any basement structure.

Knocking on the fragmented ice surface, Yang Yu is sure that the ice making up the floor isn’t magical ice blocks.

Judging by other rooms, the hall’s floor should reasonably be made of magic ice bricks.

Only here is an exception; did the magic ice bricks not cover the entire hall, or did someone take all the magic ice bricks from here...

Yang Yu dares not make any conclusions.

He cannot even definitively say whether what he defeated was the Goblin Emperor.

NO.001... definitely implies something.

There’s much more here to think over.

The ice composed of white cold air is far weaker than magic ice bricks. Without much hesitation, Yang Yu began chiseling the ice blocking the corridor, lifting his hammer and striking out a tunnel.

Finally reuniting with his companions once more, he greeted them with reassurance:

”I’m back.”

No sooner did Yang Yu appear than Bin Luo excitedly rushed to meet him:

”What happened exactly? Did you encounter anyone from the adventure group? Did the monster escape, or...”

Yang Yu presented an answer most unbelievable:

”It’s dead.”