A cold wind blew into the private room, the candlelight flickered and distorted the shadows. Dilong's fingers tightened around his wine glass, and the effects of the alcohol dissipated.
He chuckled twice and waved his hand, trying to change the subject.
"Hey, it's all just gossip among the guys, don't take it seriously, don't take it seriously..."
Villen, however, did not take the opportunity to back down. Instead, he poured him another glass of fine amber-colored wine, his tone carrying just the right amount of pressure:
"Nonsense? I don't think so."
"Governor-General Kerry was brilliant and courageous in last year's battle against the Forbidden Wall!"
"To withstand the charge of hundreds of millions of Orks troops with a force of tens of millions—that's a real achievement."
"But I don't believe that the Vanguard's conventional equipment alone could have wiped out the Orks so cleanly in a godforsaken place like the Ice Plains."
He stopped, leaned forward, and lowered his voice even further:
"Brother Dilong, we're both businessmen, so I won't hide anything from you."
"My master wants to mine a few plots of land in the Icefield, so he needs to understand the local situation first."
"If you know anything, just say it, and you'll be well rewarded."
As he spoke, he pushed a small, heavy bag of gold coins to the center of the table. The crisp sound of the coins clinking together was like a wind chime, resonating in the heart of the Dilong.
Alcohol mixed with greed surged to his head, gradually dispelling the hesitation on Dilong's face.
He glanced around to make sure they were the only two people in the private room before craning his neck forward, his breath reeking of alcohol and spittle.
"Sir, I'm only telling you this, please don't tell anyone else, or I'll lose my life on the frozen plains."
"You're right. We won the battle at the Forbidden Wall, but the Orks aren't so easy to wipe out," the Dilong said in a low voice, his face showing lingering fear.
"The area Forbidden Wall is all ravines and mountains; the terrain is fragmented like freckles on a face."
" The Vanguard's tanks can't get in at all, and if the infantry tries to get in, they're easily ambushed by the Orks soldiers who pop out."
"Those Orks bastards, though they've lost their leader, are indeed fighting fiercely among themselves."
"But you also know that if they keep killing each other, sooner or later an even more ruthless leader will emerge, and then they'll turn around and start gnawing at the Forbidden Wall. Who can stand that?"
Villen nodded in agreement. "So the governor subdued the savages of the Ice Plains?"
"That's right!" Dilong slapped his thigh.
"Wild animals are born and raised on the icy plains; they can find their way across any ravine to hide in and any valley to shelter from the wind, even with their eyes closed."
"Letting them clear out the Orks is the perfect solution."
"But then again, the savages' fighting strength is so meager..."
"To put it bluntly, those armed with stone spears and bone arrows would be lucky to get a seven-to-one exchange in a fight against the Orks. If we really relied on them to wipe them out, it would take a hundred years."
As he spoke, his voice became almost a whisper, and his eyes revealed a hint of awe:
"At the crucial moment, it was the Dragon of Frost who made the move."
"Just when the governor sent troops out of the wall to clear out the enemy time and time again, and the savages joined the battle, but all to little avail," Dilong swallowed hard.
Overnight, a horde of ' Frost Soldier ' emerged from the icy plains.
" Frost Soldier?" Villen raised an eyebrow, his hand holding the wine glass as steady as a mountain, but his heart sank suddenly.
"Yes, the Frost Soldier! The Dragon of Frost's retinue!" The Dilong's voice was tinged with excitement and fear.
"No one can say for sure what it looks like; most of the Ice Fang Clan savages have only Farsight."
"They said they were all like ice sculptures, emanating a chilling aura; a knife would only leave a white mark, making them impossible to kill."
"There were many of them, a dark mass, like they were emerging from a crevice in the ice."
"They appear and disappear without a trace. Today they're slaughtering Orks settlements on the eastern ice plains, and tomorrow they'll be in the western valleys taking over the Orks workshops."
"The savages don't have to do anything; their job is just to find the Orks hideouts, mark their locations, and then the Frost Soldier will charge straight there." The Dilong clicked its tongue twice.
"You wouldn't believe it, even those ferocious Orks creatures become completely docile when they encounter the Frost Soldier."
"In less than half a month, the Orks deep in the ice field were almost completely wiped out, with very few spores remaining."
Villen maintained a calm smile on his face, but his heart was already in turmoil.
Frost Soldier? The Dragon of Frost's Kin?
That's utterly absurd.
He had worked in the Imperium intelligence service for over a decade and had seen at least eighty to a hundred Xenos species.
I've never heard of any native giant creature that could "create" an entire retinue of dependents out of thin air.
Even the Tyranids rely on spore hatching and biomass consumption to expand their army.
The Chaos Gods had to tear Warp Rift to unleash their demons, and they had to pay a price.
He knew all too well what level the Orks was at.
Even without the Warboss commander or the Waaagh Field, an ordinary kid's physical abilities far surpass those of a human soldier.
They are tough and fearless; a fully equipped Imperium infantry platoon would have to be extremely careful when facing an equal number of these Ork Boyz head-on.
One wrong move and the whole team could be wiped out.
According to the Dilong, these Frost Soldier are not only numerous but also capable of crushing the Orks, and their mobility is so great that they can raid across vast ice fields...
These aren't just the retinue of native creatures; they're practically a well-organized elite army, with an astonishingly high level of mobility.
If what the Dilong said is true, then the threat level of this " Dragon of Frost " has to be raised several levels.
Warp creation?
This was Villen's first thought.
But then I thought, something doesn't seem right. Why would Chaos creation help humans kill Orks?
The Lord of Pestilence only spreads disease, the followers of the Lord of Change only stir up chaos, the creations of Slaanesh only indulge in pleasure, and the forces of Khorne indiscriminately slaughter friend and foe.
I've never heard of any evil god's demon army obediently helping the human governor to wipe out the Orks and following human commands.
What exactly is it?
He wanted to delve deeper into the details, but the Dilong had already spilled everything he knew, repeating the same few sentences over and over again.
When asked what Frost Soldier looked like, he said no one dared to get close enough to see.
When asked where Frost Soldier usually stayed, he said nobody knew.
When asked where the last of these Frost Soldier went, he shook his head vigorously.
"Master, is that all there is?" Dilong said dejectedly.
"The savages say that ice, like the Dragon of Frost, is an embodiment of the ice plains."
"They come out when the ice sheet is in trouble, and go back under the ice to sleep when things are peaceful, so no one can find them."
Villen stared at him for a few seconds, making sure the other wasn't hiding anything, before smiling and waving his hand, "Alright, I was just asking out of curiosity."
"Business will proceed as usual. Get back in touch with Chieftain Kuai as soon as possible; I need the first batch of goods urgently."
"Oh, don't worry!" Dilong quickly replied, a smile spreading across his face again.
That evening, Villen left the Cinder Inn under the pretext of "contacting suppliers" and boarded the airship back to Star Harbor.
The airship streaked across the night sky, Hive City outside the portholes resembled a flowing galaxy, but Villen had no interest in looking at them.
He leaned back in his chair, his brow furrowed, going over every word the Dilong had said in his mind again and again.
Frost Soldier, avatars of the ice plains, and Dragon of Frost's Kin.
These keywords kept flashing through his mind.
He had a strong premonition that the secret behind this was even more astonishing than the Genestealer of the Plague Cleansing Cult.