The Purpose of the Siege

Ji Boxiao's move caught everyone completely off guard.

"How dare he! Who gave him the authority to manipulate the Safe Zone barrier on his own? What the hell are the military people doing?"

A hot-tempered Monster Hunters' Office hunter said this just as one of the military Spirit Martial Practitioners who had survived earlier approached from the crowd.

For a moment, everyone's eyes focused on the soldier.

"Don't look at me. I'm only following orders. The comrades inside are probably the same. The deputy commander of the Dry City Safe Zone Guard Army is from the Ji Clan. Tell me, would he dare?"

"What is the government doing? Since when has the military been allowed to be meddled with by noble clans? Does the Dragon Nation even still have its own army?" Someone in the crowd voiced the thoughts they all shared.

Still, that person's words were somewhat extreme. Dry City was merely a remote corner of the Dragon Nation.

The Ji Clan only had some influence in Longjiang Province, one of the three provinces of the North Frontier. They could be considered the dominant power in Riverside City, and their influence intimidated several smaller cities nearby.

Because the area lay in the far north, far from the emperor's reach, and bordered the Dark Forest where it connected to the Demon Clan, the government did not interfere much with its control of the region. That was how noble clans had come to meddle in the military.

"Stop talking about useless things. Cross the bridge first," Su Wuming reminded them. The Snowwhite Thunder Bear behind them was getting closer and closer.

Hearing this, everyone hurriedly accelerated across the bridge. Su Wuming stayed behind, as did Qin Ming. Qin Ming had something to say to Su Wuming.

"Did you sense it?"

"Sense what?" Su Wuming looked utterly confused, not understanding why Qin Ming would ask that.

"I mean Ji Boxiao's actions are abnormal. This doesn't fit the behavior of noble clan heirs. No matter how powerful they are, they still need the support of the people. Doing this is clearly a deliberate attempt to ruin his clan's reputation."

"Aren't you a noble clan heir too? In your eyes, ordinary people are nothing but ants you can discard at will. What's wrong with this?"

"Me? Forget it. Compared to the Ji Clan, our Qin Family is just a little brother. And can you put aside your misunderstanding of me for now? We fought side by side, after all." Qin Ming mockingly said the first part, then, seeing that Su Wuming did not snap back, continued.

"While we were waiting for you to advance earlier, I kept thinking about how strange it was for the Snow Demons of Frost Forest to come all this way to attack our tiny Dry City. Then, when I saw the second Troll, I suddenly had a bold idea."

"Keep talking. Don't stop," Su Wuming urged.

"You know Ji Boxiao's innate ability is the Golden Body. But do you know what ability the Frost Troll has?"

Su Wuming shook his head, indicating that he did not know. This question was already beyond his knowledge.

At present, he only knew about Demon Beasts up to Silver Tier. There were not many records online about those above that level; they seemed to be classified secrets.

Qin Ming seemed to enjoy the feeling of enlightening others, but when he saw Su Wuming's impatient expression, he quickly dropped the act and gave the answer.

"Golden Heart!"

Golden Body, Golden Heart—those two names clearly seemed connected, as though they had the same underlying principle.

This time, Qin Ming did not keep him in suspense and quickly explained the Golden Heart.

Su Wuming formed his own understanding as well. This so-called Golden Heart could perform Spirit Infusion on weapons, something akin to granting enlightenment. It made the owner's weapon no longer a lifeless object, creating something similar to a weapon spirit.

Simply put, a Spirit-Infused weapon could reach the Frost Troll's level of combat power. It was equivalent to the Frost Troll wielding a weapon as powerful as itself in battle.

This boost in combat power was no longer as simple as one plus one equaling two.

From this, Qin Ming inferred that Ji Boxiao was likely after the Golden Heart.

His Golden Body could only make his body as hard as gold, while his ability to control metal could not change the metal's strength. In other words, he could not perform Spirit Infusion.

The attack power of the metal objects he controlled depended solely on their hardness and durability. Their power was limited, nowhere near the Frost Troll's level, where casually swinging a weapon could unleash a Golden Rank's full-strength strike.

"That doesn't sound right. With a Frost Troll's size, its heart has to be as big as a house. How could he transplant it?" Su Wuming spotted the key flaw in the theory.

"A cub would work. A Frost Troll cub is only human-sized when it is born."

"Holy shit! Now that you mention it, this really does seem almost certain."

"That should be it. Suddenly activating the barrier was likely to isolate the cub's aura. He's probably performing the transplant surgery inside right now. Think carefully—along the way, we hardly encountered any Food Type Spirit Martial Practitioners. No, we didn't encounter a single one, aside from Lin Pangpang."

Since Qin Ming had been raised as an heir, he naturally knew far more than what was taught in school.

Moreover, Ji Boxiao and Li Yanan had suddenly transferred schools, and Dry City suffered its first Snow Demon riot that very night. Thinking about it now, none of this could have been a coincidence.

His family elders had also mentioned that Riverside City had dispatched a large number of monster hunters to the Dark Forest some time ago, apparently for some major operation.

Now, it seemed they had gone to steal a Troll cub.

And Frost Forest had a rule that most people did not know: Frost Trolls could not be captured.

After each Frost Troll reached the end of its life, its corpse would be taken away by the Frost Empress, the ruler of the forest.

Years ago, people overseas had once set their sights on Troll corpses. Their fate had been unimaginably tragic.

The city where they lived had been wiped directly off the map and completely ceased to exist. It had become part of Frost Forest.

Qin Ming's thoughts suddenly cleared, and he quickly pieced everything together. Even Su Wuming understood the entire situation.

They reached the same conclusion at the same time:

Ji Boxiao intended to use all of Dry City as a sacrifice for the ruler of Frost Forest to vent her fury, in exchange for a Golden Heart that would perfect his Golden Body.

In the past, Su Wuming had believed that the villains in novels would stop at nothing to achieve their goals only because the authors deliberately created such contrast.

Now, something similar was happening in reality before his very eyes.

For a moment, he found it hard to accept. He had no lofty ideals about saving the nation, the people, or the world, nor did he think he was qualified to consider such things yet.

He only wanted to cultivate quietly and think about those matters after becoming truly strong.

But Su Wuming was human too. Humans had hearts, and hearts had feelings. Though he had been in this city for less than a year, it was during this time that he had slowly integrated into this world.

He had made good friends, good brothers, and there were the regular customers who often supported their starch sausage business, as well as Sister Wu, the landlady, and the director.

These people were genuinely good to him. He could feel it, and he truly cared about them too, though he never showed it on the surface.

Besides, he had been single since birth in both lives! He had not used the Rubber Divine Spear even once.

So! Ji Boxiao, you little bastard, I really want to have a nice "heart-to-heart" talk with you!