Fukaloss exchanged one Soul Gold Bead for each member of the squad and kept the remaining points for now, to redeem something else if the need arose later.
Barn silently put his Soul Gold Bead into his spatial ring. He was already Godlevel, but that did not make him arrogant or greedy enough to demand more rewards.
In his eyes, every member of the Ice Blade 123 Squad was exceptional. With their talent, if they hadn't been trapped in the Gobada Plane, they would likely have already broken through to a higher level and soared into a wider world.
Even Declan, the relatively weaker member of the squad, ranked among the very best of the Spine-backed Iron-armored Dragons and, indeed, all the dragon clans on the Yulan Continent.
To Barn, the camaraderie forged in battle was a hundred times more precious than a few Soul Gold Beads, and nothing could replace it.
This time, the squad working with them on the mission was the Ice Blade 99 Squad. It was led by two Lowgods, a man and a woman, and included six Sanctuary Beasts. According to the introduction, they all belonged to the same family.
Their bloodline was known as the Moonflower Deer. They were Light Element Sanctuary Beasts, swift and skilled in healing.
The family had once produced a powerful Midgod. Thanks to that strength, the entire family had been granted permission to live in the Ice Prison Royal City.
But misfortune struck, and the family's strongest member was killed in battle. Without his protection, they lost their right to live in the Royal City. With no other choice, they formed a squad and took on missions to acquire resources for cultivation. They also hoped to break through their bottlenecks in life-and-death battles, so that one day they could lead the entire family back to the Ice Prison Royal City.
Wesker, who had antlers growing from his head, seemed to know Julia well and was also acquainted with Fukaloss. The two squads followed the mission envoy toward their destination, chatting as they went.
"We just completed a green-level mission, but the rewards were really poor for the effort." Wesker sounded a little resigned, though there was a trace of hope in his voice. "If we can complete this purple-level mission, even getting only half the points would be enough to redeem a defensive Midgod Artifact for my younger sister."
At this, Julia asked softly, "Your father was every bit as powerful as mine. Surely he left you some Divine Artifacts to protect yourselves?"
Wesker's expression darkened, and his voice grew heavy. "He did leave me a set of Midgod Artifacts, but the more powerful ones he wore himself were taken by our enemies from the Evil Royal City. He wasn't able to leave those behind."
Barn listened quietly to their conversation, thinking to himself, It seems that anyone who can break through to Midgod on their own in the Ice Prison Royal City is already a person of considerable standing. Midgod Artifacts must be even rarer and more precious.
Gideon couldn't resist joining in, his tone curious and respectful. "Sir Wesker, I recently broke through to Godlevel. Forgive me for asking, but how many Midgods are there in the Ice Prison Royal City?"
Fukaloss smiled and answered for him. "Why don't you ask me? There are 532 Midgods in the Ice Prison Royal City, but only thirteen Highgods."
A flicker of surprise crossed Barn's eyes, and he blurted out, "That few?"
"Is something wrong?" Wesker asked, looking at him with mild puzzlement.
"Ah, no." Barn quickly composed himself and followed up, "I'm just surprised there are only thirteen Highgods."
In his view, the Gobada Plane's "survival-of-the-fittest" environment should have produced tens of thousands of Highgods, given that it had nurtured top experts like Bluefire and the Evil King, who were at the Asura and Seven-Star Demon levels.
Wesker shook his head and explained solemnly, "A Highgod represents the peak of combat strength in the Gobada Plane. The only ones who can threaten a Highgod are other Highgods. And the five Royal City rulers are especially unfathomable. Even if every Highgod in a Royal City joined forces, they still wouldn't stand a chance against any one of them!"
"They're actually that powerful!" Barn said, pretending to be enlightened as he rapidly turned the matter over in his mind.
The three legions of the Ice Prison Royal City had around five thousand Lowgods in total, a ratio of roughly ten to one compared with the Midgods. That seemed reasonable. A little over five hundred Midgods had produced thirteen Highgods, a somewhat low ratio, but not an outrageous one. But for one of those thirteen Highgods to be a ruler at the Seven-Star Demon level—that ratio was downright bizarre.
Seeing this, Fukaloss quickly smoothed things over. "Barn and Gideon have both been Gods for less than a hundred years. It's only natural that they don't know much about the Royal City. Once we get back, you can look around, and you'll understand."
Barn and Gideon both nodded in agreement, and the group continued on its way.
The Ice Prison Royal City's territory stretched far from east to west. The journey from the Royal City to the southern front was much shorter than the route to the far eastern reaches of the Gobada Plane. The two squads traveled at full speed and reached their destination in just three days.
The resource site before them was far larger than the two Barn had visited earlier, spanning a full ten miles across—about the size of a baron's domain on the Yulan Continent. More than thirty vicious Ghost-faced Spiders roamed freely within it. And instead of a lone Midgod guarding the site, three Midgods led a force of ten Lowgods, keeping a close watch.
Fukaloss and Wesker went forward together to speak with the guards. After confirming everyone's identities, the Midgod in charge spoke.
"We belong to the Ice Thorn Legion. This resource site is too close to the southern front, so we need to move all the Ghost-faced Spiders as soon as possible."
Just as he said, when they looked south, they could make out dazzling yet violent halos of energy at the edge of the horizon. It was no sight an ordinary battle could produce. Only a large-scale clash between countless Godlevel experts could create such terrifying colors.
"Changes to the spatial weak points happen only once every hundred thousand years, and each time, they trigger large-scale Godlevel battles," the guard captain said slowly. "It'll take no more than half a year to move the resource sites. The fighting at the front will be especially brutal during that time."
Barn frowned slightly and offered his view. "If that's the case, why not secretly move all the resources out of the site and then fall back to the area around the Royal City? The spatial weak point is shifting, so the resource site's location is about to change. It seems pointless to hold the front line now."
The captain smiled faintly at his question. "You must have only recently broken through to Godlevel, right? In truth, in these battles that happen once every hundred thousand years, fighting over resources is only a secondary concern. We're already Gods, so we don't need ordinary resources much. The real reason we head to the front is that we've been cooped up for too long."
Barn raised his gaze. The captain's eyes, previously calm, suddenly blazed with a feverish, almost fanatical light, like flames smothered for tens of thousands of years that were finally about to burst free.
"The sealing array of the Ice Prison Royal City only opens once every several billion years, and the location is completely random." The captain's voice was slightly hoarse, tinged with an indescribable despair and madness. "The endless wait wears away at our souls day after day. Even though we're Gods with immortal lives, our patience still has its limits!"
He stared at Barn, his voice firm. "Do you think I'm stationed here because I couldn't compete with those old bones in the Royal City and got pushed out? No. I volunteered. I don't want to stay in the Royal City, circling that array day after day and counting the days with no hope in sight. This resource site is close enough to the front that enemies come to provoke us from time to time. And the great battles that come once every hundred thousand years are one of the few times in the Gobada Plane that can make our blood boil."
"Only when I'm fighting do I truly feel alive!"
The Midgod's words seemed less like an answer to Barn and more like a confession of feelings he had kept bottled up for tens of thousands of years. As he spoke passionately, the dozen or so Gods beside him also saw the same feverish light kindle in their eyes: a hunger for battle, and a defiance of their hopeless fate.
Seeing this, Fukaloss quickly and gently interrupted the fervent atmosphere. "Um... everyone, why don't we finish this mission first, and then talk about everything else?"
The Midgod snapped out of it and waved a hand carelessly. "There are thirty-seven Ghost-faced Spiders in all. You can take them with you."
Wesker sounded a little concerned. "That's a lot. If something happens on the way, we could easily lose some."
"Don't worry, nothing will happen," another guard explained. "We deliberately destroyed the minds of these Ghost-faced Spiders as soon as they were born. Now they can only survive and reproduce by instinct. They may have peak Sanctuary strength, but in practice they're no different from livestock. They can't even fly. Just release your God's Domains and frighten them a little, and you'll be able to drive them back without trouble."
Their minds had been forcibly destroyed at birth. Even Barn couldn't help feeling secretly shaken by such a ruthless and domineering method. The Gobada Plane's cruelty truly lived up to its reputation.
Sure enough, when Barn and the others released the pressure of their Godlevel strength, the thirty-odd Ghost-faced Spiders, each as large as a tiger, immediately cowered on the ground like frightened sheep, trembling and unable even to move.
At once, the two squads assigned five Lowgods to maintain their God's Domains and encircle all the Ghost-faced Spiders, slowly driving them toward the Ice Prison Royal City.
As they watched the two escorting squads gradually disappear into the distance, the thirteen Gods who remained behind exchanged glances. A restless, feverish look gleamed in every pair of eyes. Then, as if on cue, they sprang into motion and shot southward in streaks of light, toward the dazzling battlefield—the place where their lifeless lives could once again burn with passion!
Before you continue