Chapter 564: A Challenge from the Iceflame Black Serpent Men
Chapter 564: A Challenge from the Iceflame Black Serpent Men
When the two ships finally came alongside one another, the Town Lord immediately crossed over to Marcus’s vessel, and the moment his eyes landed on the Golden Wolf badge pinned to Marcus’s chest, he clasped his hands respectfully and bowed.’So even a town lord ranks below a Golden Wolf Guardian...’ Marcus returned the greeting with a polite nod. "There’s no need to stand on ceremony, Town Lord. My companions and I may have to trouble your town’s hospitality for a few days."
Seeing the Town Lord’s respectful attitude and the villagers’ curious, admiring gazes, Marcus couldn’t help feeling a little pleased. Holding an official title certainly had its advantages.
Unfortunately, he had no idea that the title also came with responsibilities. Just as he was quietly enjoying the attention, Town Lord Hayes suddenly dropped to both knees with a heavy thud. "Guardian!" His voice trembled with desperation. "Please save Dragon’s Roar Town! Save the soldiers captured by the Iceflame Black Serpent Men! Protect the great Twin Wing Temple!"
Marcus was speechless. Only moments ago, he’d been feeling rather smug about his prestigious rank, and now he understood exactly why it carried so much prestige: with status came obligations.
"Please, Town Lord, stand up." Marcus quickly stepped forward and helped the middle-aged man to his feet. "Tell me everything that’s happened."
His pulse quickened; this was almost certainly a quest. More importantly, from the Town Lord’s plea, it seemed unrelated to the Storm Seal, and that was a relief; Marcus wasn’t ready to reveal the route through the barrier to anyone just yet.
"Guardian..." Taking a deep breath, Town Lord Hayes began recounting the island’s history.
Roughly thirty miles west of Twin Wing Isle lay Black Serpent Islet, and at its center was an icy cavern perpetually cloaked in black mist, home to countless Black Ice Serpents.
More than a thousand years ago, the king of those serpents discovered and consumed a millennium-old Blackflame Ice Flower hidden deep within the cave.
The flower transformed it completely, evolving it into a Level 70 Golden-tier Iceflame Black Serpent Man and awakening human intelligence, along with the ability to speak and think like a person. Having spent its entire life inside the cave, however, the newly evolved creature knew nothing of the outside world, and drunk on its newfound strength, it believed itself invincible.
The Iceflame Black Serpent Man left the cave and began rampaging across the surrounding islands before eventually reaching Dragon’s Roar Town, where it slaughtered countless people.
The naval garrison stationed on the island immediately launched a campaign to eliminate it. Unfortunately, Black Serpent Cave was a sprawling labyrinth filled with countless twisting tunnels and thick black mist, and even after searching for an entire day, they failed to locate the monster.
In the end, five Arch-Sorcerers joined forces to cast a powerful sealing spell, imprisoning the Iceflame Black Serpent Man deep inside the cave once more.
For over a thousand years, the seal held, but two days ago, without warning, the Iceflame Black Serpent Man broke free. Leading a vast horde of Black Ice Serpents, it emerged from the sea and launched another assault on Dragon’s Roar Town. There was little doubt that its strength had increased dramatically over the centuries, enough to finally shatter the ancient seal, and the situation was made even worse by another cruel twist of fate.
During the great war a thousand years ago, every elite fighter and naval force stationed on Twin Wing Isle had perished in the East Sea Counteroffensive, swallowed by a catastrophic storm. After the Storm Seal descended, Dragon’s Roar Town was cut off from the outside world, and only ordinary civilians remained.
The town had lost not only its strongest warriors but also nearly all of its martial arts inheritances; with no masters left to pass on advanced techniques, only a handful of basic combat skills survived from the old military garrison. Generation after generation, despite training every able-bodied citizen they could, the strongest warrior the town produced rarely advanced beyond Level 60.