With her power alone, she subdued the entire court of civil and military officials.
After this, regarding the war declared by Luotendo, the Illusory Snow Queen did not mention a single word.
After all, whether these people advocated for war or surrender, did it have any relevance to Huan Xuezhi? Did it have any relevance to Weilin?
In a war of this level, one of them more or less didn’t matter. Huan Xuezhi just needed to keep the military power firmly in the hands of her own people.
Just now, Huan Xuezhi stopping Weilin from completely tearing away their pretense and making them lose face was already the ultimate act of leniency.
Huan Xuezhi wouldn’t feel gratified if someone stayed to sacrifice their life for the country, nor would she be saddened by their betrayal. Whether to stay or leave was entirely up to their own hearts’ choice.
“Court is dismissed.”
The civil and military officials departed one by one, heads bowed in fear and trepidation.
Thus,
the final court assembly between Huan Xuezhi and the officials she had known for three years concluded in such an unexpectedly calm and peacefully fractured manner.
?
Before long, the vast Cold Dove Hall became cold, clear, and desolate again.
Outside Cold Dove Hall, the Frost Trap, like an abyss of polar ice, had its mana converted back and was reclaimed by Weilin. Warm sunlight poured down once more.
“By the spirit of ice, shoot the frosty hole—Frost Trap! By the spirit of ice…”
Weilin, with a face full of exasperation, watched Airi, who had turned her back and was frantically casting Frost Trap. “What are you doing…?”
Airi turned around, pointing to the five or six Frost Traps on the ground, each only a quarter of a square meter in size, her face full of indignant feeling of being cheated. “…You tell me! Why is our Frost Trap different?!”
Weilin thought for a moment and analyzed seriously, “That might be because your proficiency level isn’t high enough. If you want to reach my level, try using the Frost Trap magic a million times first.”
“…Really?”
Weilin looked at the foolish Ranger staring at her with such sparkling, earnest eyes. After pondering for two seconds… she nodded inexplicably.
“Weilin…” The Young Majesty had risen at some point, stepping towards the outside of Cold Dove Hall. Her ethereal voice came, “A great battle is imminent, and you have just taken control of the military. Let me directly lead you to familiarize yourself with the most elite army of my Illusory Snow City.”
“Ah…” Weilin was stunned for a moment, then immediately nodded solemnly, “Mm, I was just about to suggest that.”
“You are now the Illusory Snow Princess. From today onwards, you need not address yourself as a subject.”
The Young Majesty’s lotus steps paused momentarily, and her voice hesitated slightly. “…Also, there’s no need to be so serious and rigid with formalities in the future. Just use your normal way of communicating.”
“Eh… is that okay?”
“Mm…”
Before the atmosphere could freeze, “Let’s go,” Huan Xuezhi said flatly, leaving first.
Perhaps, even Huan Xuezhi herself didn’t know why she was “indulging” Weilin.
If she had to give a reason, maybe she was just “tired.” In the eyes of the world, the brilliant, supreme Illusory Snow Queen… had always been a heavy yoke for her. Now that the Empire was at the doorstep, and today she had made the final “peaceful break” with her former ministers, she didn’t want Weilin, her last remaining subordinate, to communicate with her in that restrained, oppressive tone.
…
Illusory Snow City, Training Grounds.
The three sections of the command tally Weilin received from those three men could be perfectly pieced together into a tiger tally shaped like a snowflake.
With this tiger tally, Weilin could freely command the ten-thousand-strong Ice Snow Guard.
And now, this vast, imposing army was divided into three squads, arranged in perfect order on the training grounds.
Perhaps because standing on the reviewing platform was the peerlessly beautiful, deeply beloved Illusory Snow Queen, every soldier below wore an especially resolute expression, their backs ramrod straight.
Unlike those ministers who clung to life and sought personal gain, these soldiers, who had long ago sworn their lives to their motherland, were true warriors ready to face death and fight with desperate courage.
Even if they weren’t that strong.
“How is the organization?” Weilin asked.
A warrior with the rank of general stood before Weilin, the holder of the tiger tally, and the Illusory Snow Queen he admired most. Even his resolute expression seemed somewhat terrified.
“Responding to Your Highness. Among the ten thousand Ice Snow Guard, there are five thousand mages, forty-seven hundred warriors, and three hundred elite troops proficient in both magic and martial arts.”
“Strength levels?”
“…Among the mages, Advanced Mages and Magisters are roughly half each. There are over thirty Archmages, and… five Legendary Mages.”
“The situation in the warrior corps is almost identical. There are over twenty Brilliant Warriors, but only two Legendary Warriors. Among the elite dual-cultivators, there are fifteen at the Brilliant rank and six at the Legendary rank… Of course, that means they’ve reached the Legendary rank in either magic or martial arts.”
The Snow Kingdom was a nation leaning towards magic, thus the proportion of outstanding individuals among mages was better than among warriors.
“Weilin… what do you think?”
Huan Xuezhi looked sideways and asked. Uncharacteristically, our Young Majesty’s voice carried a hint of diffidence.
She knew in her heart that, to a mysterious girl like Weilin, whose wealth and magic far exceeded her understanding, this army… was probably not worth mentioning in her eyes.
Legendary ranks were few, and there were no Saint Realm experts.
The only Saint Realm experts in the Snow Kingdom, besides Huan Xuezhi herself, were a few old monsters in Frostwinter Magic Academy… and Wu Gu, who had transformed into a Snow Giant, also counted as one.
Weilin was silent for a moment, then looked at her and asked, “Your Majesty, do you want to hear the honest truth?”
“Speak freely.”
“The minimum requirement to use Paradise Armament is being a Platinum Warrior or a Magister. After using the Armament, a Platinum can surpass Brilliant… and a Brilliant can almost rival a Legendary. With Luotendo’s resources, it wouldn’t be a problem for two hundred out of a thousand people to be Brilliant or Magisters. Meaning, we would be using an army with 13 Legendary-rank combatants to fight against Luotendo’s 200 Legendary-ranks…”
“This is just a conservative estimate… It seems our forces outnumber theirs ten to one, but Your Majesty surely knows that sometimes, a chasm in quality cannot be filled by any amount of quantity.”
“I still have eleven Snow Maidens…” Huan Xuezhi, as if unwilling to accept this terrifying gap, brought up the Snow Maidens, her absolute guards, trying to salvage the situation.
“That’s only eleven more, isn’t it? Even adding the Snow Maidens, that’s only 24 Legendary-rank combatants… Moreover, I haven’t factored in Luotendo’s Legendary experts. Legendary strength combined with Paradise Armament is far more than just adding wings to a tiger.”
“Then what do you propose?!” The Young Majesty asked coldly, her voice carrying a faint, barely perceptible urgency.
What Weilin said were the cruel facts that had to be directly confronted now.
Despite Huan Xuezhi’s usual cold-as-ice demeanor, faced with this despair-inducing power gap, she was truly… starting to feel panic in her heart.
She didn’t want to see the so-called most solid barrier of the Snow Kingdom torn apart effortlessly by Luotendo…
And the only method Huan Xuezhi could think of to fight was to bear the infamy of being the continent’s eternal sinner. Even if hunted by all living races, she would bring out the Genesis Artifact and fight the Empire to mutual destruction!
If things truly reached an irreversible point, Huan Xuezhi would definitely do this.
And Weilin had come to the lonely Young Majesty’s side precisely to prevent this.
Remember in the game, after the boss Huan Xuezhi destroyed the Divine Crystals and retrieved the Sigh of Ice and Snow from the Island of Illusory Snow and Flowing Ice… in the game’s timeline, 200 years passed, and “snow” truly never appeared again.
To prevent Fate from repeating…
“So, leave everything to me, Your Majesty.”
Faced with the Young Majesty’s icy words, the girl instead revealed a dazzling smile that filled one with absolute reassurance.
What exactly was she basing this confidence on, to take upon herself this task a million times harder than resolving Huan Moxi’s inner demon… an almost impossible mission?
Huan Xuezhi looked at Weilin’s smile. Beneath that still indifferent expression, in the icy heart that she thought could no longer be stirred by anything… a ripple appeared for a fleeting moment.
