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As the ice eagle took flight, Sejuani reined in her horse, halting her advance. The massive Juvask boar stopped on the snow-covered slope, its mane bristling as it snorted in protest, a puff of steam turning into a mist.

“Good boy, Steelmane, after we scout the surrounding area, I’ll take you in for a big feast. The Iceborn fled in a hurry, they must have left behind a lot of supplies,” Sejuani said. She gently patted her fierce mount, the bone amulets and totems wrapped around her wrists rustling, prayer items she had obtained from the Frost Sisters before this mission.

A snore reached her ears, and Sejuani turned her head to look. With a major battle imminent, the berserker Olaf actually had the mind to lie in his vehicle and sleep the whole way; only someone with a screw loose like him could be so relaxed.

Udir returned shortly afterward and reported what he had discovered.

"When the Iceborn retreated, they did not take the Orn Urn with them, and the Lost Ones did not take anything with them either. Now, there is only a Hunting Lord and a dozen bearmen guarding it."

"Great opportunity!" Upon hearing this, Sejuani kicked the steel mane beneath her, looking eager to try.

"Wait! Although there aren't many people inside the city, there are thousands of troops outside, eyeing us menacingly. Blood Warriors, heavy infantry, mammoth riders, and Frostbloods... they're all waiting for others to be sent to their deaths. I even saw Scarface Fryna inside, along with other Claws. They used to be your subordinates, and now they're all fat and strong, feasting on broth from large vats of meat. In comparison, our warriors are all starving and thin. If a fight breaks out, our chances are slim!"

To Udyr's surprise, Sejuani did not show any emotion after hearing such bad news.

Standing on high ground overlooking the entire city, she said with emotion: "Everyone knows that my mother, Kojiya, and the War Mother, Glenna, were old friends. I heard from Ashe that Glenna was killed because she plundered the Iceborn's herd on her way to find the Throne of Avarosa, which led to her being left all alone in retribution."

“Why bring this up all of a sudden?” Udyr felt a little ashamed when he mentioned Sejuani’s birth mother, Gorgia. He paused and then said, “Are you scared? Then why don’t you ask Ashe for help? Lissandra is too busy to take care of herself. As long as Ashe’s army comes out, they can definitely sweep this place away.”

Sejuani shook her head and answered resolutely, "I will take back the lost glory with my own hands."

"It's not too late to evacuate now." Udir sighed. Dozens against thousands, a hundredfold difference in numbers, he had already foreseen the bloodshed and sacrifice.

“I have nowhere to retreat. If I don’t take back the Great Urn, I will never be able to rebuild Winter’s Claw in this lifetime.”

"The resources in the North are limited, making it difficult to support large tribes of tens of thousands of people. Perhaps dispersing them would be a better option."

“But with the large urn, feeding as many people as you want won’t be a problem,” Sejuani retorted.

"Do you know why I suddenly brought up Ashe? Because she not only killed the Ice Child who was chasing her, but also successfully found the Bow of Avarosan. What Ashe could do, I can do too! And I will do it even better! Even without this incident, I made a vow to my people, and for their sake, I should fight to the death!"

Sejuani delivered a passionate speech, and her subordinates responded enthusiastically. The sudden burst of cheers even woke Olaf, who was snoring.

Seeing that he couldn't persuade his stubborn daughter to give up, Udyr sighed and finally made up his mind to risk his life with Sejuani.

Glenna and her blood allies used their deaths to slow down the Iceborn's advance, allowing Ashe to reach the throne of Avarosan. As for him, even in death, he would ensure his daughter took the Great Urn of Ornn, thus achieving his goal and retiring gracefully.

Chapter 804 The Bottom of the Abyss

Kasha plummeted downwards, the biting wind chasing after her with its usual howling wind.

The ice walls on either side of the abyss appeared and disappeared in the mist. As the light grew dimmer, Kasha noticed black veins crawling along the base of the ice walls, like black demonic claws spreading upwards. A faint crackling sound emanated from beneath the ice, like claws scraping at a brain. There was no sign of movement, but these black tendrils gave her the illusion of climbing upwards, as if they were trying to escape this cursed abyss.

The visual and auditory anomalies created an unsettling, maddening pressure in the mind, emanating from below and intensifying the agitation in the skin and nails.

After that, the climbing points left by the ice axe could no longer be seen. In addition, the ice fog became increasingly thick and oppressively enveloped her, forcing Kai'Sa to reduce her speed again and again.

When Janna told her that they had reached the bottom, Kai'Sa didn't understand what she meant before the icy ground suddenly appeared beneath her feet.

The moment she stood on the ice, the howling in the wind ceased instantly, and an unbearable silence descended, even the crackling of the ice stopped abruptly. (The last two lines appear to be unrelated and possibly machine-generated text.)

As soon as her toes touched the ground, Kasha felt a bone-chilling cold pierce through her second skin, stinging the soles of her feet. Frost spread up her calves, and when she looked down, she saw that a thin layer of ice had already covered the tops of her feet, making it incredibly difficult to even lift her leg, as if the ice beneath her feet was desperately trying to hold her back.

Her face was somber; the entire surface of black ice was a somber sight, and the long-term erosion by the Watchers had completely stained the bottom of the abyss.

Kaisa stood there for a while, letting her skin adjust to the burning cold of the True Ice. The chill enveloped her, making her skin feel as if it would shatter at the slightest touch. Even Ashe, being an Iceborn, couldn't withstand this level of cold for long; two or three hours would be the maximum, and stopping would be tantamount to waiting for death.

Fortunately, she didn't come down alone. With the Wild Hunt's help, her skin-clawed feet quickly grew fine spikes to anchor herself on the smooth ice and reduce her contact area with the ice.

The void is adapting; the void is evolving.

Kasha's steps quickened, and after taking two steps forward, she suddenly stopped. Before her lay a sheer cliff; the ice beneath her feet vanished, and the bottom remained unfathomable.

"Have we reached the other end?"

“We’ve only gone this far,” Wild Hunt’s voice echoed in my mind, but he lowered his voice as if he were mindful of something, “but the abyss is much deeper.”

"How deep?" Kai'Sa asked quietly, mimicking Wild Hunt.

“Nobody knows. It might go all the way to the center of the world, or even deeper. It might lead to the realm of those who dwell below.” The Wild Hunt said, “If we go another thirty feet in that direction, we’ll never reach the bottom. Let’s go.”

Guided by Wild Hunt, Kai'Sa jogged along the canyon, sometimes long strides, sometimes slow jogging. The two actions might seem contradictory, but it was to minimize contact with the ice and to keep her footsteps as quiet as possible.

The rift narrowed ahead, and just then, Kasha saw a figure appear in the mist ahead.

She stepped forward and pressed down on the person's shoulder, only to have the person's brittle red hair snap easily at her touch. Kasha immediately withdrew her hand sheepishly, and, trying to cover her tracks, preemptively asked, "Cassiopeia, what's going on up ahead?"

"We're almost at the Hall of Nine Venerables." Cassiopeia didn't seem surprised that Kasha had caught up with them, and turned to ask, "Is it very cold in here?"

"It's very cold, but why aren't you wearing a helmet?"

"I had a little to drink, and I'm a bit tipsy, but I don't feel cold." Cassiopeia, slightly drunk, produced a small leather pouch from somewhere and handed it to Kasha: "Want to try some?"

Kasha looked at Cassiopeia with a bewildered expression. What kind of wine could possibly withstand the extreme cold of Zhenbing? Was this person drunk?

She shook her head and declined, saying, "No, drinking will ruin things."

"Hey, don't say that. This wine is called Tears of God. It's a top-quality product that I got from the fortress. You'll know once you taste a little."

Cassiopeia opened the lid, and a strong aroma of wine immediately wafted out. Looking at the small wine sac she had just tasted, Kai'Sa, though somewhat disgusted, still removed her helmet, picked it up, and took a small sip.

The nectar burned her throat, and the tears that welled up in her eyes instantly froze on her face.

The potency of God's Tears far exceeded expectations. Kasha thought that the reason this wine was called that was not because it was made from God's tears, but because it could force out God's tears.

"How's it? This liquor's strong, isn't it?"

"Are you asking for it?!"

"Shh, keep your voice down!"

Kasha didn't dare drink much. Seeing Cassiopeia's smug expression, she raised her fist as if to punch her, then shoved the wine flask back with a look of disgust. Even she, a terrible drinker, couldn't stomach it; the taste was clearly awful.

After drinking the alcohol, she felt her whole body burning up, even her fingertips felt warm, and her face showed signs of intoxication, forcing her skin and nails to activate their powerful decomposition function.

After the little incident, the previously tense atmosphere lightened somewhat. With company and a drink to bolster their courage, they were less afraid than before.

The two arrived at the end of the rift, where the rift leading to the Hall of Nine had been sealed off by Lissandra.

"Once you cross the ice wall, you'll reach the Watcher's sealed territory," the Wild Hunt warned the two. "Once inside, try not to look down. It's right below us, looking up at us. Don't make eye contact with it!"

Kasha swallowed hard; the battle in the Abyss was still fresh in her mind. The Watcher, even in its nascent form, had brought them to their deaths. What was the full form of such a powerful creature…? She suddenly punched herself, interrupting her thoughts, realizing she was developing an uncontrollable and deadly curiosity.

Seeing Kai'Sa's strange behavior, Wild Hunt said nothing and silently opened a portal to the rift on the other side.

Without even crossing the rift, Kaisa could already see through it that the nine ice pillars were almost completely black, but there was something even darker moving within the darkness, lingering at the edge of her vision, bringing a fleeting sense of fear.

They swayed and poked outwards, desperately trying to break free of their prison. Kasha realized they were trying to touch her.

Most of the icicles could still resist the impact of the outside world, but three of them had been breached by the darkness—spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface of the icicles, heavy, damp mist hung on them, and several black, sharp tentacles emerged from the cracks, twisting wildly like insects stimulated by salt water, making one's scalp tingle.

"not good!"

These twisted, frenzied tentacles stretched to incredible lengths, piercing through the cracks like lightning towards Kasha. Fortunately, she was agile and pulled Cassiopeia aside to dodge the attack.

The first attack missed, but the ice pillar collapsed with a crash, and more tentacles emerged from it, twisting into a writhing black torrent that attacked the two of them with unstoppable force.

Just then, Wild Hunt decisively closed the void rift, and the tentacles crashed into the ice wall, causing the entire hall to shake violently.

Chapter 805 The Rampant Black Tide

The entire Hall of Nine Venerables was shaking violently. Even through the thick ice walls, Kasha could still see the swaying black shadows rapidly crashing against the entrance, making loud banging noises.

The ice Lissandra used to seal the entrance was brand new True Ice, not the eroded Black Ice. It was more translucent and made it easier to see what was behind the ice.

The watcher struggled to escape just beyond the ice, thrashing about, desperately trying to break free of its prison. From its frantic movements, she sensed its desire to keep them there, and its insatiable hunger to devour everything in its path.

An unnatural calmness flowed into Kasha's body. She stared intently at the ice wall, fearing that a crack might suddenly appear on it. She carefully protected Cassiopeia with her arms outstretched, retreating several steps until they were within the maximum visibility range of the mist, furthest from the entrance yet still able to keep an eye on the situation.

"Kasha, do you think that's the Watcher?" Wild Hunt closed the rift in time, and Cassiopeia, who was protected behind Kasha, was not in mortal danger, but she didn't see as much as Kasha.

"Although the view is limited by the crack, I think those tentacles are not the monitor itself, but rather void creations driven by the monitor."

“Kasha is right, those are just some conscious derivatives,” Wild Hunt added. Those tentacles weren’t even independent entities; they were more primitive than Voidlings, and almost like Earthgirth.

Then he changed the subject, warning, "Even if they are just low-level creations, don't underestimate them. They are driven by the Watchers, and who knows what changes might occur."

As they spoke, the noise from the Hall of Nine Venerables suddenly fell silent. A blurry shadow trembled, like a tongue licking across the ice, seemingly searching carefully for Zhenbing's weakness.

“Not good…” A sense of foreboding flashed through Kasha’s mind. A palpable tension hung in the air, like the urgency of waiting for thunder after a flash of lightning.

Then, through the ice, she saw the outline of the dark figure suddenly wriggle, like a leech that had sucked its fill of blood, growing several times larger, before bursting open with a snap.

Strange liquid splattered on the ice wall, and wandering black lines seeped into the ice without leaving any gaps, producing a faint crackling sound. Spiderweb-like cracks gradually filled the field of vision, as if the ice wall was being torn apart from the inside out.

"Zhenbing can no longer contain the Watcher; it's about to fully awaken! Get out of the way!" Wild Hunt warned again.

As Kasa and Cassiopeia retreated, the ice wall, only a few meters away, suddenly burst open, unleashing a torrent of black strands that surged along the Great Rift Valley.

"Quick, climb the wall!" The two had never seen a flood composed entirely of void creations before. At Wild Hunt's reminder, they quickly climbed the ice wall to avoid the torrent before turning to look at their feet.

This sight chilled me to the bone. The writhing black tendrils resembled some kind of gigantic worm, forming a surging, tumultuous tide, densely packed and overflowing, with hideous, monstrous void creatures mixed in with the spray. They appeared on the torrent, only to dissolve back into it.

Seeing this, the two quickly climbed up a bit more, afraid of accidentally falling. With their Void Skin Armor, they could survive for a while in the regeneration pool filled with liquid energy, but if they were careless here, they would probably be sucked up by these wriggling black tendrils in an instant, leaving not even a trace.

The black tide surged from the Hall of Nine Venerables, like putrid black blood from a wound in the earth, seemingly threatening to fill the entire Howling Abyss. Throughout the process, the black tide continued to rise, inch by inch overflowing the ice walls, forcing the two to climb ever higher.

"Heh, this is quite a commotion." Cassiopeia chuckled dryly; if she were to laugh, this was the only dry smile she could muster.

Are you still confident now?

"We haven't even seen the monitors yet; these are just cannon fodder to pave the way for them."

"I'm afraid even cannon fodder won't be easy to deal with."

Kasha looked grave. In this short period of time, the Black Tide had once again undergone changes.

Realizing their form was unsuitable for climbing, the black tendrils transformed right before their eyes.

Things without eyes or brains floated up like bubbles in boiling water, shouting and spewing.

The worm grew a chitinous carapace, and a vertical slit opened in its thorax, revealing a fleshy red cavity inside, from which it extended barbed tentacles and barbed teeth.

Their undulating movements were filled with malice; many of their limbs, each covered in sharp blades, pierced the ice wall rapidly as they raced toward the surface of the abyss.

In an instant, countless alien insects crawled across the ice cliffs on both sides of the abyss. The sound of hundreds of millions of insects breaking through the ice as they crawled completely drowned out the howling in the wind.

"The insect swarm is coming on strong, you two should avoid the fray for now. Go back to the bridge and figure out a way to wipe out the swarm in one fell swoop. By then, the Watcher should have shown up."

The two exchanged a glance and nodded, heeding Wild Hunt's advice, and urgently evacuated from the bottom of the abyss. However, even during their evacuation, they encountered numerous obstacles.

Countless black tentacles suddenly shot out from the ice walls on both sides, as if the black veins within them had all come alive, emerging from beneath their palms and wrapping around their limbs. Their intention was clear: to pierce their bodies and devour the fragile flesh protected within their outer shells.

These tentacles ranged in size from blue veins to hair strands, but their sheer number made them resemble black mold growing on an ice wall, or a swarm of blind spiders awakened at the same time. Their density was terrifying, leaving the two with nowhere to land.

Even though Kaisa's fist blades continuously spewed purple flames that scorched the black tentacles, she was forced to stop advancing by the relentless onslaught of tentacles and was about to be overtaken by the swarm of insects beneath her.

"Scatter!" the mad hunter roared, and the creeping tentacles immediately flattened themselves like a blanket, clinging tightly to the ice wall, no longer daring to move. The invisible divine power manifested itself at this moment.

"Damn it, I'm going to burn them all!" Kai'Sa angrily pulled out the Horn of Fire given to her by Ornn, intending to give the abyss, long corrupted by the Void, a thorough cleansing, but was stopped by Wild Hunt. (The rest of the text appears to be gibberish and unrelated to the previous sentences.)

"Don't act rashly. These tentacles are like tiny straws to the Eternal Flame. If the fire spreads too quickly, you'll only hurt yourselves. Listen to me, move to a safe place first, then deal with them. Compared to the impending calamity, this is nothing but a drizzle."

Kai'Sa's delicate features twitched uncontrollably, but she still obeyed Wild Hunt's command and jumped into the void rift he had opened.

Chapter 806 Wartime Mobilization

As soon as Kai'Sa returned to the Bridge of Sorrows, the others crowded around her, asking with concern what had happened. Even Volibear couldn't help but grumble at her, "Why haven't we started fighting yet? Are you all stalling for time, plotting to kill the losers I brought?"

There are always people who love a good show, and Volibear is one of them. He's supposed to be there to watch, but whether he actually makes a move depends entirely on his mood.

Kasha gave it a deep look, then shook her head at the others. "The Monitor isn't that reckless. It released a live black tide to force us back. Get ready, the first wave of attacks is coming soon."

After saying this, Kasha looked around again, feeling that the bridge's defenses were too weak compared to the surging black tide below. A brilliant idea struck her, and she came up with a way to strengthen the defenses.

She noticed a huge brazier placed every hundred meters along the bridge, so she took out Orn's horn and gently blew on it. She ran back and forth across the thousand-meter-long bridge in less than a minute, blowing on each brazier in turn.

Everyone watched her finish doing this with suspicion, and couldn't help but ask curiously, "Did you do something, Kasha? I feel like it's suddenly much brighter and hotter."

"Nothing much, just last-minute preparation. Seeing the bridge's defenses were a bit weak, we replaced the ordinary fire in the brazier with the Eternal Flame." (The rest of the text appears to be gibberish and unrelated to the initial statement.)

"I see. The Eternal Flame has a restraining effect on void creatures. You want to use flames to drive them away."

Lissandra approached one of the braziers; the flames burning within stirred her Frostblood, making her uncomfortable, but this only highlighted its lethality to Void creatures. The Frostblood was the blessing she had requested from the Watchers.

"She's quite a clever girl; no wonder Ornn favors her so much." The Eternal Flame is the primordial fire, and seeing the flame is like seeing the person. Sister Seal, recalling the stubborn ram, immediately cast an approving glance at Kaisa.

Volibear didn't like hearing this and snorted, "Why is he everywhere? So what if it's earth fire? I still have heavenly lightning."

"They're here."

The heat of the flames caused the icy mist in the abyss to recede slightly, allowing those on the bridge to see the deeper parts of the abyss below.

Rushing, dark shadows crept out of the thick, cold fog, revealing their slender bodies. Dagger-like claws gripped the ice surface, scaling it rapidly, slicing through the icy cliffs with a cracking sound. A sharp tail lashed behind them, and a malevolent purple light emanated from between the exoskeletons surrounding their hearts, illuminating their black fangs and prominent backs, making them appear forever as purple specks of light.

These purple dots were not few in number. After Syndra stirred up the mountain winds to dispel the mist, everyone could clearly see that these dots had completely filled both sides of the ice cliff, densely packed and stretching to the horizon. The waves of purple dots surged and undulated, seemingly turning the entire Howling Abyss into a distant, empty land.

"Lissandra, Lissandra, what terrifying being have you provoked?" Even the confident Volibear couldn't help but widen his eyes in disbelief. This swarm of insects could devour its entire army of the Lost Ones in an instant, leaving them no room to resist.