Chapter 948: The Arbiters of Ice and Fire

Hao Ren knew from the begining that trying to break through the Blood Wardens’ defensive perimeter would have drawn the attention of those from the Royal City. After all, the Royal City had the stranglehold to the primary entryway into the Furnace of the Ancestors. But he never thought that the first person in front of the mob would be Willy.

Well truth be told, Willy did not came running over as soon as he heard the Blood Wardens’ alarm. After leaving Hao Ren’s company for a while, the influence of Vivian’s blood magic had already faded away. While the young lad was weak and indecisive, he was not a fool. After going back to his room and pondered things for a while, he realised that his new friends were about to do something unimaginable. The boy then ran towards the fortress to inform Master Orrow before coming out alone. Along the way, the Blood Wardens rang the alarm and alerted by soldiers on that particular side of the royal city, and Willy was swept up by the rush of soldiers by chance.

The young noble bastard had ran his lungs out, but the moment he saw the manhandled Blood Wardens he was so shocked that he almost forgot to how to breath. “This…What have you done?!”

Hao Ren was already about to step into the gate, but he stop as he saw Willy running over and decided to leave the young man a few words. He rubbed his temple as he said. “You know what did we came here for?”

“You plan to destroy the place?!” Willy found it very difficult to accept the fact. While he had though his new friends to a little be eccentric, he never thought of them as villains. In the eyes of the locals, intruding upon the Furnace of the Ancestors was a crime so heinous it was beyond words. “Why are you doing this?”

“Not destroy.” Hao Ren looked straight into Willy’s eyes as he swung a karate chop towards a Blood Warden beside him that was getting up. “We are trying to save it. This process is complicated and cannot just be explained in a few words. You must know this. The Furnace is tethering at the edge of life and death, it is seriously damaged, and we may have a way to fix this facility.”

“You will destroy everything!” A middle-aged nobleman beside Willy shouted. “The Furnace of the Ancestors is a divine gift, it is eternal and doesn’t need any fixing! Leave at once, and then accept the judgement of the divine. The the ancestors are willing, your lives may still be spared!”

Hao Ren shrugged as he maintained his sight on Willy. An internal struggle was obvious from the boy’s eyes. He had been indoctrinated since young that these people were doing something heretical, but yet as Hao Ren mentioned the terms ‘damaged’ and ‘fixing’ planted doubt within him. In those ancient tomes, and when Master Orrow talked about those bizzare stories, Willy remembered those words appearing. And even though the mainstream thought was that the stories were simply heretical nonsense, Willy was very intrigued by it. This young man had the curiosity and adaptability not many of his kin has. And that was one reason he was so disliked.

Hao Ren smiled. “Willy, you remembered those stories that Master Orrow told you about?”

Willy nodded by reflex before his face darkened. “I’m a shame to my family, by engrossing myself in those stories.”

“The truth of the world is much, much more glorious than the one written in the books.” Hao Ren looked up at the dormant Furnace of the Ancestors.The metal leaves within heat-dissipating grid glowed slightly under the lamplight. “The world is not just this cramped domed place, and the edge of the world is not some dense metal wall. First we will get the city up and running again, then I’ll let you see what the real world is. Then you will know, your thirst for knowledge and improvement is not a negative trait, it is the most valuable one for your people.

Willy only half understood what Hao Ren tried to say, and the nobles from the royal city had already ran out of patience at what Hao Ren was trying to say. The noble lord only saw him and his crew as a bunch of barbarians trying to ruin the most sacred place in this world. With a motion of his hand, the soldiers behind him took a step forward.”

“Crossbowmen, ready-”

“You know, based on my experience, there’s another way around this when trying to negotiate with a primitive village or city.” Vivian’s eyesbrows ticked before tilting her head slightly towards Hao Ren’s ears to whiser. She then followed with a gentle snap of her finger, and the chillwinds howled.

A crimson glow eminated from Vivian’s eyes as a freezing mist with the scent of blood formed and started howling around here. Winter was here, and the rapidly falling temperature made everyone thought that they had fallen into an ice cavern. A visible layer of frost started forming with a speed one’s eye could see over the armor and weapons of the royal city soldiers, and frost was just what the denizens of this world feared the most. As the soldiers were thrown into a fit of panic by the sudden chill, Vivian’s voice broke through the chillwinds. “Then lets use something that you might understand to talk. The Ice Witch will pronounce her judgement of this world very soon! We shall be inspecting the new fuel that is in the Furnace of the Ancestors . Whether the world shall fall into an eternal winter, or to break out of this freezing cycle. It all shall be known today!”

While Hao Ren’s words may be effective towards Willy, Vivian’s posturing scared the wits out of everyone present. Screams of fear started coming from all over, and even the best soldiers of the royal city dropped their weapons shivering in cold. “The Ice Witch! The Ice Witch has come!””The Eternal Winter has come! The Eternal Winter has come!””Great ancestors… we are done for!”

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Hao Ren felt a soft vibration in his chest pocket as the MDT’s voice rang in his head. “You’re supposed to be this world’s realest of religious conmen and in a key moment like this you’re no better than the battie at home.”

“Shut it, I’m just a huckster but Vivian was worshipped as a god on Earth before. Our work experience alone is heaven and earth.” Hao Ren pouted. While he had reacted a tad bit slower than Vivian this time around, he had caught up with her train of thought. Giving Lily a push to the front, he whispered. “Flamejoy”

Lily was confused for a moment before summoning her flameclaw by reflex. Hao Ren grabbed her hand and raised it into the air, while Vivian too had adjusted the chillwind accordingly.

The crowd went into a furore again. “A Fire Witch? There’s a Fire Witch?!”

“The fate of this world shall be decided by them.” Hao Ren said with an omnious voice as his face stiffened, and that left the ignorant and superstitious nobles and soldiers no space to think. He then turned around and headed into the central control station.

As Vivian and Lily turned around, the fearful, confused, and agitated nobles and soldiers suddenly calmed down, and no one knew who started it, but one by one they started postrating themselves with fervent piety.

A bald man in a flowery patched-toegether robe suddenly raised his hand and shouted, as if receiving some sort of epiphany. “The Arbiters of Ice and Fire! These people bears the will of the gods. The ultimate fate of this world shall be known soon!”

Soldiers upon soldiers immediately went to their knees. “”The Arbiters of Ice and Fire! “The Arbiters of Ice and Fire!”

Nangong Wuyue was at the back due to her size, and as she heard the chorus of worship, the siren was stunned. Turning back, she summoned a small ice block on her palm, before shuffling her tail sheepishly. “I’m also pretty powerful. Look, I too can summon ice…”

The crowd broke into another round of furore before starting to knee and pray even more fervently. The nobles and scholars started hailing her at the top of their voice. “The Long Ice Witch! The Long Ice Witch!”

There was no snakes in this world, so everyone thought that she was a elongated Ice Witch.

“….”

The siren held slipped into the control station, her face almost green. She then slammed the metal gate with a powerful swipe of her tail. The noise from outside was totally cut off by the thick metal gate. Hao Ren caught a look at Wuyue’s expression and decided that he should not be using the word ‘long’ for the week.

“Shouldn’t we do this from the start?” Lily was still a little bit excited as she swung her Flame-effing-joy about. Having being the centre of attention had the husky very very thrilled.

“Never thought of that at first, and it wasn’t for the situation I won’t have that eureka moment.” Vivian pursed her lips and looked rather worried. “Hao Ren, you think we can hold them back?”

“The smart ones in the royal city may recover,” Hao Ren shrugged. “But that’s alright, didn’t you see those people outside totally stunned out of their minds?”

Lily and Vivian nodded in unison.

“Then that’s fine. There won’t be any more trouble for the time being and we have also past the radiation threshold zone, so no one else will be able to disturb us.” Hao Ren said as he walked ahead. “Let me see… If I’m not wrong, the control room should be over here.. Lets go have a look.”