Super Righteous Player
Chapter 330 - 328 Permafrost Blood of the Frostspeaker_1

Chapter 330: Chapter 328 Permafrost Blood of the Frostspeaker_1

"What is... this?"

The Four Dark Corners felt suffocated by the nearly cruel spectacle before them.

What presented itself before their eyes was an odd and extreme environment reminiscent of an icehouse or a snow park—

In a completely ice-covered, enclosed underground chamber, nine humanoid ice sculptures were seated around a round table.

Some stood up in anger, others calmly relaxed their bodies and spread their arms, some whispered closely with the person beside them, and some leaned back as if they wanted to distance themselves from the others...

Like works of art, the nine elves—four males and five females—each with different postures and expressions as if they were alive.

But it was distinctly different from sculpture.

The movements in sculptures are often exaggerated. To highlight a sense of power or fragility, or to maintain a physical or artistic balance... Maybe the movements and expressions of one or two human sculptures could be very similar to real people, but with multiple sculptures, one would immediately notice the difference, slightly discordant, from real people.

It felt like the difference between candid and posed photographs.

But what appeared before the Four Dark Corners was a "candid" scene.

He could even see one person whose eyelids were only slightly open, and it even looked a bit foolish, unclear whether they were opening or closing their eyes; he could also see the features of the angry man’s face were twisted and askew.

It was as if time had suddenly come to a standstill.

"...What’s the situation here?"

He murmured.

"They are all Frostspeakers."

Xitan Pulan, as the only interpreter for human spirits—or rather, a medium, translated Miss Bofis’s words to the other players, "But don’t be tense. They keep such poses not because they’ve triggered any traps... They all came to this underground chamber voluntarily, sacrificing their lives.

"Or rather, they were planning to hide within the public nightmares. This was just their way of utilizing their bodies one last time before their escape."

"...So, this is a ritual?"

The Four Dark Corners quickly caught on.

Xitan Pulan immediately replied, "Yes, exactly."

The location they found themselves in, even within this "sewer," was the lowest point.

They followed the sewer into the city, turning left and right, and walked for over twenty minutes before finally finding a structure that resembled a massive well.

The "well" opening was more than three meters above the ground. But it wasn’t difficult to climb... because there were stair-like steps leading to the mouth of the well. Moreover, the steps were spacious, not the narrow and short kind that seemed to require one to sidestep to climb.

This suggested that the designer had initially considered the possibility of someone running here from the sewers.

After they climbed to the mouth of the well, they found U-shaped steel pipes resembling staplers on either side, forming a ladder-like structure.

They climbed down—and it took nearly five minutes to finally arrive here. The deeper they went, the colder it became, and halfway through the journey, the steel pipes were already sealed with a layer of solid ice. Three-quarters of the way down, the surroundings had completely turned into a world of ice and snow.

Indeed, this place didn’t even have doors or windows on the horizontal plane.

And by following the ladders on both sides down, one could see that directly below the well’s opening was the wooden tabletop.

They stepped onto the tabletop and then jumped down from it.

The ground and walls were all covered with incredibly thick ice. Even after hundreds or thousands of years, the ice here had not melted.

Intense cold air, and even the tiny ice particles that could be seen dancing in the air with the naked eye. Defu was so cold that she curled up inside the chocolate’s clothes... and the Four Dark Corners couldn’t help but tremble, stomping on the spot to keep warm, barely able to maintain their voices without a quiver.

But Xitan Pulan... she could clearly feel the chill, but her body didn’t show any signs of shivering.

"Before their death, they donated their bodies to conduct a ritual. This ritual is called the ’Ninefold Visage of the Unburning.’ Nine Transcendents of the same profession ingest a deadly poison wrapped in honey pills, perform a mysterious play known as the ’Ninefold Sacrifice,’ and die within the play to forcibly terminate the ritual.

"It was not that they needed this ritual to achieve any particular aim. Rather, it was to obtain the byproduct of the ritual—in self-sacrifice rituals, the bodies of deceased Transcendents do not become nightmares... but turn into ’incompletely transformed cursed materials.’ All their curses and souls are sealed within.

"And after the ritual extracts their souls, what remains is a shell full of curses. Since this ritual uses nine Frostspeakers as the material, the overflowing and accumulating curses around will transform through the bodies of the nine Frostspeakers into pure cold."

Xitan Pulan translated.

Hearing this, the Four Dark Corners were somewhat puzzled, "They’re going through great lengths... What is this for?

"Just to make a refrigerator?"

"...It seems so."

Xitan Pulan paused and answered in a low voice.

These two sentences were not translations but her own thoughts: "It seems that all Elf technology is focused on curse energy... At least, that’s how it was for the Elves of the Third Era.

"They weren’t able to make refrigerators without curse energy. And actually, even for us, it’s not like a refrigerator could keep cooling without using some kind of energy..."

"...Kelvin closed the coffin lid with satisfaction and lay back down."

Defu complained on the forum: "This world always has unexpected science in the strangest places."

"Let’s collect it first."

Xitan Pulan instructed: "The light blue liquid inside this ice layer is the ’Frostspeaker’s Permafrost Blood.’ I don’t know how much Annan needs... Let’s start with half a pound."

"Half a pound is a bit much, isn’t it?"

Twisted complained.

"What can I do?"

Xitan Pulan said helplessly: "We didn’t bring any containers, did we? Who knew that ’Permafrost Blood’ would actually be liquid...

"Why not cut off an arm and take it away after it freezes? I see that Annan is already on his way. Hurry out and give it to him, and you won’t have to worry about it melting by the time it gets back."

"If it’s for the purpose of freezing, then you might as well cut off a head. At least that way the cross-section would be smaller..."

Defu complained on the forum.

"Wait a second?"

Twisted suddenly realized something: "If the Elves were planning to create an eternal refrigeration barrier... then what exactly were they trying to preserve?

"When we came down here just now, there was nothing on this table."

"Bofis did mention this."

Xitan Pulan shook her head and explained: "It’s not that there was nothing, but that it had been taken away.

"In some sense, this is indeed a well—it’s spacious enough that even if you avoid the U-shaped handles on both sides, the remaining space is sufficient to lift something out with a rope. And Bofis also said... The place where the relics of the saint were stored, and where the ’Frostspeaker’s Permafrost Blood’ was collected, were on the way.

"I speculate that this place was where the Elves originally intended to store the saint relics. This means that the Elves must have given up on the idea of signing a sacred contract with the saint relics, or perhaps they were unable to enter into an agreement.

"From a timeline perspective, this site must have been constructed some time before the Elves’ grand ceremony... or even, it might have been forcibly excavated using curse energy in creative mode.

"At that time, the Elves still believed that the saint relics would always be here. They created this ceremony to suppress the activity of the saint relics as much as possible, in order to prevent the curse from leaking.

"Since potion could anaesthetize the saint relics, it stands to reason that low temperatures could also reduce their activity. And potions always degrade at room temperature. But if stored in a cold environment, the storage time could be extended somewhat."

Xitan Pulan knew quite a bit about this area.

And now, there were no bottles for storing the saint relics here.

That is to say... after the ceremony was completed here, and some time had passed, Bofis’s mother took the saint relics that were stored here away.

And the discovery by Annan’s side further confirmed this speculation—

The bottles he found were the ones left behind after the Heart of Justice was removed.

And judging by the fact that they "already lost their potency," it’s quite likely that the bottles ended up there because they could no longer contain the saint relics after leaving the cold storage.

But these are all details.

Annan and the child did not go down, but waited for them at the only entrance and exit.

Whether it was an arm or a head, once it reached Annan’s hands, he definitely had a way to prevent the outer ice from melting.

If he couldn’t even manage that, it would be better not to advance at all.

The unused remainder might be used to make some equipment, which could then be sold back to the players... It was a good opportunity to practice.

Finally, it was time to advance...

Annan, holding the "Saint Relic Extraction Liquid" wrapped in his own coat, took a slightly nervous deep breath.

Finally... was it time to settle things with that painter?