Lynn had previously thought that the Nine-Sided Spirit-Sealing Barrier was used to sever the insect swarm's consciousness link.
Unexpectedly, besides being able to trap Guyu's main consciousness, it could also manipulate the flow of time.
And instead of speeding up the internal time to quickly kill the target, it actually... slowed down time within the barrier?
Why?
Why did Luna go to so much trouble to set up this barrier? Wasn't it to kill Guyu as quickly as possible and dismantle the Decapitation Squad?
What benefits would it bring her to slow down time?
Delaying time...
These four words flashed through Lynn's mind instantly.
Luna is waiting.
What is she waiting for? External reinforcements? The completion of some ongoing ceremony?
Or are you waiting for external changes to force you to be distracted?
Countless thoughts flashed through my mind, but none of them had enough evidence to support them.
He took a deep breath, suppressing his doubts.
Thinking about these things now is useless.
Guyu is not in immediate danger, and her Psychic Power is stable. Those nine Chaos Knight won't be able to take her down in a short time. Boundary Core, destroy this damn thing.
"Pass down the order: advance across the entire front." Lynn opened his eyes, his voice carrying a ruthless decisiveness.
"No need to keep reserves. All assault teams will launch a simultaneous attack. I want to take the first basement level within six hours."
"Yes!"
Once the order was given, the Vanguard, which had been advancing steadily, instantly intensified its offensive.
The roar of the bombs suddenly intensified several times over, Plague-Cleansing Apostles charged fearlessly at the forefront, tearing through line after line of defense with their claws and Psychic Power.
Blood and flesh splattered in the tunnel, and wails and howls intertwined to create a hellish symphony.
Time passed by, second by second.
Eight hours later, with the last fanatic's head blown off by a bomb, the resistance on the underground level finally subsided completely.
The heavy stench of blood mixed with the smell of gunpowder filled the entire passage.
The metal floor beneath my feet was soaked in blood, sticky and slippery to the touch, and the walls on either side were covered with pieces of flesh and clothing.
The Vanguard suffered nearly three thousand casualties before finally breaking through this tough nut.
Lynn showed no intention of stopping to rest.
He stepped over the wreckage and walked to the blast door leading to the second basement level.
From behind the door, faint, sharp, eerie laughter and scorching heat waves could be heard.
It goes without saying that the demons on the second level will be more numerous and more difficult to deal with than those on the first level.
"Ten-minute rest, replenish ammunition," Lynn said calmly. "Ten minutes later, attack the second level."
He looked up into the depths of the blast door, his eyes cold.
Luna.
No matter what you're waiting for, I'll personally shatter your plans.
Meanwhile, deep within the Arctic ice sheet, biting winds whip up snowflakes and howl across the endless ice peaks.
A huge natural ice cave is hidden among the mountains, its entrance half-covered by a thick curtain of ice, revealing only a crack.
Looking through the cracks, the interior of the ice cave was jagged and irregular, with huge icicles hanging from the dome and protruding from the ground like the fangs of a beast, layered and arranged in a staggered manner.
This is the core settlement of the Ice Fang Clan — City of Teeth.
Deep within the ice cave, the campfire crackled, its red flames illuminating weathered faces.
Animal skin tents were set up along the ice wall, and savages dressed in heavy leather clothing moved back and forth. Children chased and played among the icicles, and the air was filled with the aroma of roasted meat and the rich flavor of animal milk.
"Waaaaah~~~~"
A long, drawn-out horn sound came from the cave entrance, carrying a somewhat muffled echo.
The people in the tribe all stopped what they were doing and looked towards the cave entrance.
A caravan has arrived.
In this time of trade disruption, every caravan that manages to brave the wind and snow represents a glimmer of hope for survival.
A modified small transport boat was the first to arrive, landing on the open flat ground at the entrance to the ice cave.
The hatch opened, and several merchants dressed in heavy coats stepped out first, followed by a dozen porters carrying boxes of grain, medicine, and tools.
Pace, the second-in-command of the Ice Fang Clan, led several clansmen to greet them, a rugged smile on his face, and gave the leading merchant a tight hug.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two sides began unloading and inspecting the goods.
The porters carried boxes back and forth, their footsteps echoing dully in the ice cave.
Unbeknownst to anyone, amidst the chaos of unloading, three figures draped in greyish-white cloaks silently slipped away from the loading team.
They clung to the shadows of the ice wall, like three wisps of cold air blending into the wind and snow, and in a flash, they disappeared into the icy path deep within the City of Teeth.
Beneath the hood, Dominic's eyes were resolute.
He glanced at the intersecting Ice Fang on both sides, certain that the answer he was looking for was there.
" City of Teeth, here I come."
The horn sounding at the entrance to the ice cave was still echoing in the dome when three figures draped in greyish-white cloaks took advantage of the chaos of unloading and slid along the ice wall into the ice path deep within the City of Teeth.
Dominic raised his hand to adjust his hood, the cold light from his optical cloaking device flowing along the edge of his clothing.
The three figures were completely blended into the icy blue shadows.
The ice beneath my feet has been smooth and warmed by hundreds of years of footsteps, making almost no sound when I step on it.
He originally thought that the so-called savage settlement was nothing more than a slightly larger ice cave, where thousands or tens of thousands of people were crammed together, barely surviving.
But once you really delve into it, you realize you've made a huge mistake.
The City of Teeth is far larger than I imagined.
The dome of the natural ice cave is hundreds of meters high, extending upwards into the dark depths of the ice layer, with the top almost invisible to the naked eye.
In addition to the huge main cave that is naturally located on the iceberg, layers of side caves and platforms have been carved out around the ice walls, which are connected by ice-carved steps and rope suspension bridges.
Deeper still, man-made passages meander downwards, dark and bottomless, clearly an underground space that the Ice Fang Clan has been continuously expanding over hundreds of years.
According to intelligence estimates, this ice city could accommodate over 100 million people at its peak, making it one of the largest settlements of wild men in the entire Arctic ice field.
What truly stirred Dominic's heart was not the sheer size of the place, but the orderliness of its people.
There was none of the filth and chaos he had seen in other wild worlds, no garbage and excrement everywhere, and no savage battles between tribes that were always drawing their swords against each other.
On the wide main ice path, hunters carrying animal skins returned in formation, their prey neatly tied to their sleds.
Blood dripped onto the ice, and soon people followed behind with ice shovels to clean it up.
On the ice platform, women sewed leather garments with bone needles, while children squatted in a circle around an old man, listening to him tell ancient legends in a deep voice, occasionally letting out a few clear laughs, but without making a fuss.
It was a scene of "the elderly and children alike enjoying themselves."
Further into the workshop area, the sounds of stone tools being polished and animal sinews being hammered were distinct, with craftsmen performing their duties in an orderly manner, even distributing stone and animal bones.
Peaceful, orderly, with an almost rustic harmony.
Dominic leaned against an icicle, gazing at the distant view with a slight frown.
Influenced by his grandfather from a young age, he developed a keen interest in the customs and culture of various star systems within the Imperium.
Having spent half his life on the battlefield, traversing hundreds of worlds, he has seen at least a hundred, if not ninety, primitive tribes.
Most primitive tribes either maintain order through bloodshed and violence or are driven to fanaticism and madness by extreme beliefs.
It is extremely rare for a clan like the Ice Fang Clan to maintain such a gentle and orderly operation within an almost primitive social structure.
This is by no means something that can be accomplished by a strong and benevolent leader alone.
The core of a people's spirit is often engraved in their beliefs.
If the people worship bloodthirsty gods, they will inevitably become violent and aggressive.
Conversely, if the worshipped deity is a licentious and evil god, the tribe will inevitably become decadent and corrupt.
The power of the Warp never bestows favors without reason; it always subtly distorts the minds of believers, dragging the entire civilization toward its corresponding abyss.
But in the eyes of the Ice Fang Clan, there was no corrupted madness, nor oppressed numbness, only the resilience and peace belonging to the ice and snow people.
This means that the legendary " Dragon of Frost " is almost certainly not a creation of Warp god.