Chapter 146: That Witch is Too Terrifying!

Depending solely on coal and gasoline, it was difficult to cook the tofu and vegetables stewed in the pot properly, so Su Miao added a small fireball.

A small fireball did not consume too much mana, posing no pressure on Su Miao.

She tightened her clothes and recalled the battle just now.

She was still quite terrified, to be honest.

However, necessary post-match analysis was crucial.

This could be considered a habit formed back when she stayed at home playing video games.

Every time after finishing a battlefield, arena match, or duel, Su Miao would review her performance, checking which step she got wrong, what could be improved, and how she should act next time.

No, wait, this should be the good habit formed back in elementary school when she would collect wrong answers into a mistake notebook and review them repeatedly.

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle...

The lid of the pot was lifted by the boiling steam.

Su Miao snapped back to reality. Without paying attention for a moment, her thoughts had drifted who knows where.

Once King Daxishi was completely dead and she returned, she must get a good night's sleep.

Thinking back carefully, Su Miao believed the timing of her entry into the battle had been very prompt, but her trust in the undead was insufficient. She should have moved to a better vantage point earlier. That way, she could have used Animate Dead at the critical moment to swarm King Daxishi, which might have worked out even better.

On second thought, however, she was afraid of these talking undead.

Even though they were clearly creatures she could control using the Animate Dead magic.

Secondly, there was a problem with the Animate Dead spell, but she must not hesitate when it was time to use it.

Look at this time: King Daxishi had already been severely wounded, but just because she delayed her attack for a moment, he managed to "revive with full health" during his battle with Lan Shaokong. Even afterward, when facing the siege of over ten thousand undead, he barely sustained any damage and at one point even advanced right up to her face.

If she hadn't practiced swordsmanship daily, rehearsing it countless times until it became instinctive, she would have been in grave danger this time.

This aspect was worth praising; she must continue to practice swordsmanship diligently in the future.

In addition, there were some other dangerous moments, such as King Daxishi attacking right up to her before she had time to deploy a magic spatial barrier for defense.

Defensive magic must be researched as soon as possible, and the defensive power of the mana-body-coating spell needed to be enhanced as well.

She jotted these points down in her notebook.

Furthermore, several months had passed since the apocalypse began, and powerful ability users were becoming increasingly numerous. She had to grow stronger.

"Your Highness, it's ready to eat."

Babu stood on a small stool, looking eagerly at the vegetables and tofu stewed in the pot.

"Oh, oh, hold on a second."

Su Miao took out some instant noodles and dried bean curd skins from her magic space, tossed them into the pot, and added some seasonings.

Immediately, a wonderful fragrance wafted from the pot.

"Dig in."

Su Miao ladled a portion for Babu, and the rest belonged entirely to her.

Reviewing and reflecting could wait until after she finished eating.

Perhaps sensing the aroma of the instant noodles, King Daxishi's miserable screams in the distance grew slightly louder.

However, King Daxishi could only lie in the freezing, snow-covered wasteland and continue to wail.

The high temperature left by the explosion of the large blue fireball was gradually dissipating under the coercion of the extreme cold. The rainwater formed by the melting snow around King Daxishi was freezing, trapping parts of King Daxishi's body in the ice along with it.

Yet the hallucinogenic poison on King Daxishi was truly potent. Under the continuous state of corrosion and suppuration, King Daxishi stubbornly refused to be completely frozen over.

While this delayed King Daxishi's death, it prolonged the duration of the agony he had to endure.

The golden-winged roc and eight gray rocs patrolled the vicinity and specifically came to report that there were no people nearby, nor any dangerous mutated animals appearing.

Su Miao blinked, took out nine small bowls, and shared a little soup with each of the rocs.

The golden-winged roc and the gray rocs ate very happily.

Glancing at the sky that was beginning to grow dim, Su Miao took some wood from her magic space and set up a campfire beside her.

"So warm."

Leaning against the large campfire, Su Miao felt the entire world grow warm.

Babu called out to the golden-winged roc and the eight gray rocs to start clearing the battlefield.

Although the battlefield had first endured the toxic torrential rain, Lan Shaokong's spatial slicing, King Daxishi's ferocious rampage, and the bombing of Su Miao's large blue fireball, leaving very little salvageable items behind, there were still some things left.

For instance, the life potions from the Four Seas Base.

Babu retrieved two well-preserved boxes of them.

"Your Highness, these are the potions that make King Daxishi wish he were dead rather than alive."

"Mmm."

Su Miao opened the box and inspected it.

There were about sixty bottles in this box. Judging by this scale, the Four Seas Base had prepared one bottle for every single person.

"Your Highness, I found a sniper rifle."

Babu dragged over a sniper rifle.

The golden-winged roc delivered a matching box of ammunition containing 1,200 rounds.

This was a sniper deployed in the distance by the Four Seas Base, who had been killed by a cannibal ability user during the engagement.

Su Miao had been fretting that the ammunition for her Type-36 sniper rifle was running low, and she hadn't expected to get a replenishment so soon.

This was a domestically produced Type-55 sniper rifle, decommissioned twenty years ago, and extremely reliable.

The gun had been found by the Four Seas Base in that sealed warehouse.

There were still many other firearms left behind on the battlefield.

However, considering that these guns might have been drenched in the toxic torrential rain or touched by the flesh and blood of toxic undead corpses, Babu didn't touch any of them.

"Your Highness, there are lots of gold and silver jewelry here!"

Babu found a well-preserved large box in the corner of the cannibals' camp ruins.

Several gray rocs worked together to carry these large boxes over.

The boxes were filled with various kinds of gold and silver jewelry, and some of the pieces still had fresh bloodstains on them.

Su Miao glanced at the jewelry and instinctively disliked it, feeling as though countless resentful souls were entangled around the ornaments.

Considering the daily habits of the cannibal King Daxishi, this was not surprising at all.

It was too filthy; she didn't want to touch it.

"Give it to those undead," Su Miao said.

Babu stood on the box, tilted its head to look at the jewelry inside, and said, "Okay, Your Highness!"

A dozen seconds later, Babu summoned the Undead Queen and had her carry the jewelry box aside, instructing her to transport it back to the ruins of the Vulcan Base after King Daxishi died.

"Thank you for Your Highness's bounty!"

The Undead Queen was extremely excited.

After the war ended, she had briefly worried that Su Miao would destroy all the undead. Not only had Su Miao spared them, but she had also bestowed so much gold and silver jewelry upon them, which was an affirmation of their worth.

Su Miao didn't pay much attention to this. She glanced at King Daxishi, who was still wailing in agony, though his voice had grown much softer.

Babu led the golden-winged roc and the gray rocs to continue searching for treasures on the battlefield.

"Your Highness, we found 200 kilograms of diesel and 60 kilograms of gasoline behind the temporary camp of the Four Seas Base. There are quite a few other supplies inside as well. They really knew how to hide things."

"Take me there."

Su Miao's eyes lit up.

Because the battle had been too fragmented and toxic hallucinogenic drugs remained, many things could not be used even if found.

Therefore, Su Miao hadn't held out any hope for looting the battlefield, and she hadn't expected Babu to find so much.

This reminded Su Miao of when she first met Babu, scavenging for supplies in the ruins of the Starry Base.

If the shelter's military hadn't arrived at that time, Babu would have found even more supplies.

Su Miao arrived at the spot where Babu had discovered the supplies.

Inside were not only diesel and gasoline, but also 2,000 catties of rice, 800 large flatbreads, 3,000 catties of coal, and a small amount of medical supplies.

These must have been the provisions prepared by the Four Seas Base for a desperate, do-or-die battle against the cannibals.

But the decisive battle had arrived too quickly, leaving them no time to use these supplies.

Now, they all belonged to Su Miao.

Su Miao raised her hand and stored all these supplies into her magic space.

Babu searched the surroundings again, but by the time night completely fell, no other recoverable supplies were found.

Thus, Babu flew back to the villa to add some wood to the fireplace out of habit and then flew back.

Su Miao sat by the campsite campfire to warm herself.

A gust of cold wind blew, prompting Su Miao to move a little closer to the fire.

The fact that she could feel a distinct chill meant the outdoor temperature had dropped to around minus 80 degrees Celsius, and her current mana-body-coating spell could no longer completely block this terrifying extreme cold for long.

"Should I take some time to build a small wooden cabin or something? Whenever I want to camp, I can just release the wooden cabin?"

Su Miao thought of a good idea.

However, wouldn't a wooden cabin lack security?

Su Miao searched her magic space and found quite a few alloy steel plates inside; perhaps she could use these alloy steel plates to build a purely metallic house.

With such a metal house, there would be no need to worry about safety issues.

Note it down; build it next time.

Time ticked away, and close to 11:00 PM, King Daxishi died.

With King Daxishi's death, the life potion ceased to take effect, and his body completely decomposed. Apart from a few withered bones, the rest turned entirely into foul-smelling liquid water that even the extreme cold could not freeze, looking extremely disgusting.

Su Miao walked over and tossed out a small blue fireball, burning the puddle of foul water and withered bones into ashes.

It was time to go home.

Wait, King Daxishi was so strong; would there be lingering soul resentment after his death?

Su Miao turned around to look at the remaining ashes on the ground, feeling a bit uneasy.

However, even if King Daxishi had a lingering soul, there was nothing she could do about it.

The strongest magic she currently knew was the explosion of the large blue fireball; did she need to trigger another explosion here?

Yet that would at most cause physical destruction; she wasn't sure if it would achieve destruction on a spiritual level.

What if King Daxishi wasn't thoroughly dead and came looking for her tonight? That would be terrifying.

After all, there was a precedent for this.

Take Chi Wanning, for example.

Since Su Miao hadn't found the *Blood Magic* grimoire, she hadn't noticed Chi Wanning's soul imprisoned within it, let alone subsequently using *Blood Magic* to destroy Chi Wanning's soul.

It was hard for Su Miao to judge whether King Daxishi or Chi Wanning was stronger, but if Chi Wanning could leave behind a soul, King Daxishi could too.

Scary~

Without thinking, Su Miao's hand twitched, and she cast a spell she rarely used.

Starlight Bloom!

In an instant, specks of starlight bloomed and scattered across the night sky, breathtakingly beautiful.

Babu, the golden-winged roc, the gray rocs, the Undead Queen, and others all looked over, seemingly captivated by the blooming starlight.

When the starlike points of light dissipated, the surrounding air seemed to have grown fresher.

And that lingering sense of gloomy haze was completely dispelled.

Huh? S

Su Miao was very curious about this.

Releasing Starlight Bloom previously hadn't given her this feeling, but this time it was very pronounced.

She cast it a few more times in succession, but the subsequent attempts yielded no particular sensation.

"It seems to really work."

Su Miao then released a large amount of tap water from her magic space to wash away the ashes on the ground.

"Alright, dismissed, let's go home."

Feeling the chill in the air, Su Miao spoke.

The Undead Queen led over thirty elite undead, carrying several boxes of gold and silver jewelry, and headed back.

The golden-winged roc and gray rocs let out soft cries and flapped their wings away.

Su Miao took out a snowmobile, and Babu stood on it as they drove toward the villa.

King Daxishi was dead, the cannibals were completely wiped out, and the Four Seas Base was crippled. Several months before the high-temperature natural disaster arrived, she could safely grow vegetables and research magic in her villa.

Well, first she would sleep for a day or two.

Perhaps due to consuming too much mana, Su Miao felt her upper and lower eyelids constantly wanting to fight, causing the snowmobile to swerve uncontrollably every once in a while, as if it were about to crash.

"Your Highness?"

Babu got startled once and fluttered into the air. "Your Highness, what game are you playing?"

Su Miao said, "This snowmobile is broken. Never mind it."

Babu asked in confusion, "Your Highness, then switch to another one."

Su Miao replied, "No need, I'll blow it up once we get back."

Babu didn't dare to ask any further.

Thus, amidst the snowmobile swerving from time to time—and once even almost plunging Su Miao and the vehicle straight into a snowdrift—Su Miao desperately fought off the war between her upper and lower eyelids and successfully returned to the villa.

Su Miao made up her mind: she would never drive a snowmobile at night ever again.

Even with the mana-body-coating spell protecting her, once the snowmobile got moving, the biting cold attacking her body was doubled. It was simply too brutal.

"Off you go."

Standing in front of the villa gates, Su Miao shoved the snowmobile down the mountain and tossed a small blue fireball after it, causing the snowmobile to explode with a loud bang.

Look, this snowmobile really was broken.

Back inside the villa, feeling the warmth within, every cell in Su Miao's body came alive.

Resisting the urge to sleep, Su Miao washed up simply, changed into her pajamas, crawled into bed, and fell asleep.

A soft bed, a cloud-like quilt—bliss!

...

So cold! So freezing!

In the snowy wilderness, Li Wei stumbled forward.

During the day, the chaotic battle among the Four Seas Base, the cannibals, the undead, and the witch had left him as possibly the only survivor to escape the battlefield.

At that time, he had dodged the Undead Queen's venom bombardment, avoided the terrifying shockwaves generated by the decisive battle between King Daxishi and Lan Shaokong, and witnessed the toxic torrential rain that killed over three thousand people. His state of mind had long since reached the absolute brink of collapse.

This was simply not a war humans were meant to experience.

Li Wei had wanted to talk to He Chao, but the moment he found him, he saw He Chao's tragic corpse, shattering his mental state completely.

Consequently, he fled northward without looking back.

Fortunately, there were wails echoing everywhere in the camp at the time, and everyone's attention was focused on King Daxishi and Lan Shaokong, so no one paid attention to a fugitive like him.

Only after fleeing for who knows how long did Li Wei suddenly realize a serious problem.

He had no dry rations on him. Aside from a little liquor, a lighter, a pistol, a few bullets, and an alloy saber, he had nothing else.

As night fell, the temperature dropped lower and lower. If he couldn't find a place to shelter from the wind and snow, even as a powerful ability user, he would still be frozen to death alive.

Yet in this boundless wilderness, where was there any shelter from the wind and snow?

Despair began to sprout in Li Wei's heart.

He even contemplated whether he should dig an ice cave on the spot, hide inside, and use his lighter, relying on the weak flame it provided to keep warm.

Looking at the flame, perhaps he could think of the happy times before the apocalypse began.

Would he not feel fear when he died then?

Suddenly, Li Wei saw a faint spark ahead.

His eyes lit up, and he hurried forward at a run.

Before long, he discovered an ice hut, and beside the ice hut was a snowmobile covered in snow.

Inside the ice hut was a dying campfire, and huddled around the fire were five people, maintaining their warming postures motionless.

"Hello, can I come in to get warm?"

Li Wei stood outside the ice hut and asked politely. "Your campfire is about to go out."

The people huddled inside the ice hut gave no response.

Li Wei grew even more puzzled. There was clearly some firewood nearby; why weren't they adding fuel?

Without time to think too much, Li Wei immediately picked up the firewood and added it to the dying campfire, letting the hearth blaze once more.

In such freezing weather, if one couldn't maintain the campfire, they would easily freeze to death.

The five people inside the ice hut raised no objections to his actions.

They simply maintained their warming postures.

It was only then that Li Wei noticed these five people were from the Four Seas Base, and he immediately drew his pistol.

Yet even though he drew his gun, these people still didn't react.

Li Wei approached cautiously and touched one of them.

It was only then that Li Wei discovered all five people inside the ice hut were dead.

Looking at these five frozen corpses, Li Wei fell silent.

After a moment of thought, he quickly stripped off their cold-weather gear and layered it over himself.

Much warmer.

Huh?

Li Wei fished a notebook out of a pocket; the notebook's owner was named: Lu Ge.

There were some writings on it:

"We encountered people from that mysterious faction, but they denied it. How could powerful ability users be assigned to do logging work like this? We decided to follow them."

"We encountered a mutated tree, and the people of the mysterious faction passed through it effortlessly."

"One of our brothers tried to force his way through riding a snowmobile and was instantly dismembered."

"That mysterious faction must control some terrifying power; I'm certain these mutated trees were planted by them in the freezing snow."

...

"There is a great terror in the ruins of the Vulcan Base. We arranged for five brothers to go in and explore. Not long after they entered, I heard their screams; they all sacrificed themselves."

...

"We waited all night with no results."

"I decided to lead the brothers back, but we got lost and didn't know where we were. One of the brothers went out to scout the path and never came back."

...

"Our supplies are running out; food and fuel are nearly depleted. I don't know how much longer I can live."

...

"We decided to leave our last wills first. My name is Lu Ge, and I have a younger sister named Lu Youyou. Please help take care of her; if there is any pension, give it all to her."

"I owe Old Li at the blacksmith shop 300 contributions, and this trip's mission happens to pay 500 contributions. Please help me repay it."

"Brother Huo's newly wedded wife is about to give birth; if possible, please help look after her."

"Old Duan has a 9-year-old son; I entrust him to the base."

"Old Shen has 1,200 contributions. If any fallen brothers have debts, they can be deducted from it. He said his family was wiped out when the flood came, leaving him with no attachments. I said we are his family. Old Shen smiled and left—the old bastard didn't even say goodbye."

"Xiao Chen has a girlfriend named Song Li; please have the base transfer all his contributions to Song Li and tell her to forget him."

"The other brothers left too hastily and didn't leave any last words. Sorry to trouble the base."

"If you are not from the Four Seas Base, please help deliver this to the Four Seas Base if possible. The Four Seas Base will surely reward you handsomely; this is the rule established by our director Lan Shaokong. Thank you."

"As personal compensation, you may take all our clothes, except for leaving one set to maintain our dignity."

"If you want to eat us, please eat me instead and spare my brothers."

"Four Seas Base Reconnaissance Squad Leader, Lu Ge."

...

Squatting by the campfire, Li Wei closed the notebook, his emotions extremely complex.

He glanced at the five people, stood up, dug out the hearts of all five, placed them in a pot inside the ice hut, and added some snow to stew.

Having done this, Li Wei dug a large snow pit beside the ice hut, placed all five of them inside, and buried them.

"I will deliver your last wills to the Four Seas Base," Li Wei said, standing before the graves. "As for your bodies, I will only eat your hearts. I want to live and walk to your base."

A cold wind blew past, as if responding to what Li Wei had said.

He returned to the ice hut and wrapped his body in the five heavy coats to keep himself warmer.

Whether from the smoke or something else, Li Wei looked at the hearts stewing in the pot, and tears welled up in his eyes, though he quickly wiped them away.

Crying in such freezing weather would result in frostbite the moment one left the campfire.

...

Meanwhile, in a far more distant region of the wilderness.

Over 600 people from the Four Seas Base had pitched camp here, erecting ice walls and ice huts, and lighting campfires.

Everyone gathered around the bonfires, watching the food in the stew pots.

The temperature was too low, and the food in the pots would be hard to cook properly without prolonged stewing.

Compared to other bases and wanderers drifting in the wilderness, they were fortunate; at least the stew pots they used were pressure cookers, which could lock in steam as much as possible during cooking, thereby raising the temperature inside the pot and accelerating the cooking of the food.

In the central ice hut, only Yu Yuangui and Pei Fu were present.

Like the ordinary members of the Four Seas Base, they sat by the campfire in silence.

"Will anyone else survive?" Pei Fu asked with complex emotions.

Yu Yuangui shook his head. "There won't be anyone left."

Pei Fu fell silent for a few seconds and continued, "Will King Daxishi die?"

Yu Yuangui looked out into the dark night sky. "He should be dead already. The sentries I sent out saw the patrolling Babu and the rocs, and besides, we all saw that terrifying explosion."

The explosion of the large blue fireball had directly dispersed the clouds above the battlefield.

Such a sight was something Yu Yuangui and Pei Fu would likely find difficult to forget for the rest of their lives.

Could King Daxishi have survived such an explosion?

It was utterly impossible.

Pei Fu asked, "Who could have caused this explosion?"

Yu Yuangui said, "Aside from that witch, I can't think of a second possibility."

Pei Fu asked, "Is this really something a human can achieve?"

Yu Yuangui shook his head. "I don't know."

The two fell silent again.

That witch was simply too terrifying!

He hoped they would never cross paths with her again.