Chapter 481: Chapter481-Snowbound Kingdom! Authority of the Frost Divine Empire

For a moment, Fiona felt that many of the Chaotic Artifacts she had treasured no longer seemed quite so dazzling.

The Divine Radiants such as the Prologue Sage also twitched slightly at the corners of their mouths.

Chaotic Artifacts were notoriously difficult to forge, and the divine materials required were exceedingly rare.

Only the Crossbridge Empire could be so extravagantly bold—producing them in piles as if they were nothing more than ordinary equipment.

Of course, all of these had been obtained by sweeping up the remnants of the Council of the Dark Order.

Josephine put the artifacts away without distributing them immediately.

Most of these powerhouses already possessed weapons well-suited to them. What she cared about more was how to use these treasures to their fullest potential.

Using Chaotic Artifacts as rewards for military merit would be far more motivating than simply handing them out.

For ancient Divine Radiants, a single Chaotic Artifact was enough to preserve one life under a Divine Oracle’s assault.

And generals like Hunter Harry, Tina, and Pippin were precisely those who lacked such top-tier equipment.

With a large stockpile of Chaotic Artifacts in hand, combined with the captured divine-puppet constructs, a bold idea began to take shape in Josephine’s mind—

To form a special elite legion equipped simultaneously with constructs and Chaotic Artifacts.

The calls for deploying the God Mountain Imperial Guard were growing louder by the day, placing invisible pressure on the front lines.

This legion, reputed to be one of the strongest in the entire Celestial Light God Realm, had earned its fearsome reputation for a reason. It had to be taken extremely seriously, and thorough preparations had to be made.

At the same time,

News of the Automaton Legion being instantly wiped out spread like a storm to the Chaotic Realm, the Starlight Colonnade, and even the Frostwinter Realm.

...

Frostwinter Realm

As far as the eye could see, the land was blanketed in silver—an endless expanse of snowfields.

Ancient snow forests lay frozen year-round, never melting, and in many regions, crystal-clear and breathtaking ice worlds had naturally formed.

The Frostwinter Realm was an independent and powerful domain within the Celestial Light God Realm.

Legend had it that when a supreme Sacred Realm existence departed in ancient times, a strand of ultimate ice authority was accidentally left behind, transforming into this realm.

That authority was imbued with the aura of the Sacred Realm and independently evolved into a complete and self-sustaining system of frost laws.

The Frost Shrine stood as the highest ruling institution.

Beneath it were forces such as the Noma Clan, the Frostwolf Clan, and the Kingdom of Lirus, all of which revered the Frost Shrine as their sovereign.

Whenever foreign enemies invaded, these powers would respond to the Frost Shrine’s call and unite in defense.

The capital of the Frostwinter Realm lay within a peculiar Permafrozen Ice Sea.

This was a vast ocean eternally sealed in ice, from whose frozen surface rose towering cities of crystal ice.

Along the edge of the ice sea stood a famous castle—the City of Vigil!

From there, one could gaze upon the full panorama of the Frostwinter Realm’s core: the Icecrystal Palace.

"I just heard—Olympian God Mountain’s Automaton Legion was completely wiped out by a mysterious empire called Crossbridge!"

"Is that true?"

"Absolutely true! Truer than this ice!"

"You might not believe it, but I heard the Automaton Legion didn’t even get a word out before it was completely gone."

"Hiss... that’s impossible, right?"

"Didn’t the Automaton Legion come to our Frostwinter Realm for exchanges back in the day?"

"That was the face of Olympian God Mountain! If this is real, won’t those God Mountain folks go completely mad?"

"No idea if they’ve gone mad, but the royal capital has already exploded. Daily marches and petitions, demanding the deployment of the God Mountain Imperial Guard to crush the Crossbridge Empire."

"What exactly is this Crossbridge Empire? That strong? Or is the news exaggerated?"

"Heh, who knows what their background is. But I heard Olympian God Mountain brought this on themselves."

"Originally, Crossbridge was just a lower-realm empire. God Mountain went through great trouble to open a passage to deal with them—only to get dealt with instead. They were worrying about how to come up, and now the door’s welded shut, and they still have to thank God Mountain for opening it."

"That’s ridiculous! Are lower-realm powers really this ferocious now?"

Inside the City of Vigil, such discussions could be heard everywhere.

Amid the swirling snow mist, the White Lady stood silently upon the frozen surface of Apex Icecrystal Lake, hearing every word.

She surveyed the familiar city, as well as the lake beneath her feet—completely frozen, yet with a crystal at its center shaped like a natural droplet of water.

But this was not the most astonishing sight.

What truly took one’s breath away was the Icecrystal Palace in the distance.

It was a breathtaking spectacle of colossal waves—billions of meters high—frozen forever at the instant they seemed to crash.

The waves surged inward from all directions, curling and converging to form an incomparably magnificent cluster of frozen spray.

At the highest and most central crest of these waves stood majestic and sacred ice-crystal palaces.

As if painstakingly carved by the divine power of a supreme god of ice and snow, they were so magnificent and beautiful that they made one’s heart tremble.

That was the legendary site where the ultimate ice authority had fallen.

Those seemingly frozen waves were far harder than ordinary matter, for they contained a complete Authority of Frost!

The White Lady’s gaze lingered for a long time on the palace at the very center of the wave cluster, her eyes filled with complexity.

After a long while,

She slowly took out an ice crystal that contained a fragment of an ice world within it.

She paid no attention to the quasi–Sage Lord assigned to follow and protect her.

Then, she began to perform an ancient secret art.

In an instant, torrents of unfathomably profound laws and mysterious origin power surged forth from the fragment of the ice world, pouring endlessly into the White Lady’s body.

Her aura began to rise at a shocking speed!

Divine Radiant, second level...

Divine Radiant, third level... fourth level...

Divine Radiant, ninth level!

Quasi–Divine Oracle!

Then, with almost no resistance at all, she broke through the barrier and officially stepped into the Divine Oracle rank!

This astonishing transformation made the quasi–Sage Lord beside her shrink his pupils violently, his face filled with disbelief.

Yet this was not the end.

After reaching Divine Oracle, the White Lady’s rank continued to surge forward without stopping.

In the end, it stabilized firmly at the quasi–Sage Lord level!

Cold mist swirled around her, rendering her figure even more mysterious and powerful.

At the same time, the White Lady’s aura continued to rise, far surpassing that of the quasi–Sage Lord beside her by several times!

Brilliant ice-crystal radiance surrounded her. Threads of law-origin fluctuations disturbed the order of the Snowbound Kingdom she governed, freezing even the noisy murmurs throughout the City of Vigil in an instant.

Many people sensed something amiss and looked around in confusion.

Icecrystal Palace

The Empress of the Snowbound Kingdom was summoning her ministers to discuss the matter of the Crossbridge Empire instantly annihilating the Automaton Legion.

Suddenly, the icy-blue eyes of the empress seemed to stall for an imperceptible moment, though her expression remained calm.

"The Celestial Light God Realm will not be peaceful from here on. The situation is about to grow complex."

"General Carmel, send people to Olympian God Mountain. Investigate the destruction of the Automaton Legion, and at the same time uncover the true background of the Crossbridge Empire."

The Snowbound Kingdom’s empress issued her decree to a beautiful woman clad in ice-crystal battle armor.

The woman bowed respectfully.

"I obey Your Majesty’s command!"

"Additionally, effective immediately, seal off the entire Snowbound Kingdom and deploy the Icecrystal Legions to guard the borders."

"Inform the Frostwolf Clan, the Noma Clan, the Kingdom of Lirus, and all affiliated forces to enter a state of war!"

The empress issued another order in rapid succession.

In an instant, every minister in the palace froze in shock.