A Crimson crack appeared across the surface of the half-moon hanging in the sky. As it spread outward, pitch-black shadows began climbing from within the moon.

A chilling wind carried their wails. The icy current swept across the flat land, coating every plant across the endless earth in frost.

Night Frost couldn’t help shivering. A thin layer of frost covered her Magic Armor and skin. She hurriedly wrapped herself in flames, which made her feel considerably better.

Using the flames, Night Frost descended safely to the ground. She then looked toward the full moon.

The shadows that had broken free from the cracks across its surface vanished within seconds—during the brief moment Night Frost stood stunned.

She withdrew her gaze and turned toward the battlefield. The orderly battlefield had become a complete mess.

The sudden cold had left many people frostbitten. The elves used scrolls to fend off the freezing current, while the Halfbeasts carried the injured humans back.

A well-trained human army couldn’t possibly have failed to consider a situation like this. That meant it had to be an unforeseen emergency.

Night Frost had no idea what those shadows were. She only knew that they couldn’t possibly be weak.

They had appeared behind her without a sound, and they had even managed to send her flying. Their strength certainly wasn’t low.

Night Frost shifted her gaze to the elven lady. Her position was easy to spot. After all, she was the only elf among them who couldn’t fly.

She did have transparent wings, but she couldn’t sense the wind. As a result, she couldn’t flap her wings and soar into the sky.

She used scrolls to move the wounded to the city gates, then took over other duties from the elves. She was so busy that she barely had a moment to spare.

Meanwhile, the Halfbeasts nearby were carrying the remaining corpses back into the fortress one by one.

The humans had suffered devastating losses. They had been relatively lucky against the mimic Monsters, losing only one or two people.

But the freezing current had left nearly every ordinary person present frostbitten. If they weren’t treated in time, many of them might end up paralyzed from the waist down.

“Should we go take a look?”

Night Frost looked at the Eye Orb. It nodded in agreement.

The battlefield was already so chaotic that even if Night Frost wanted to slip into the city, it wouldn’t be difficult.

With the Eye Orb’s approval, Night Frost stored the sleeping Li Dogegg in her spatial storage. Then she brought the Eye Orb and lightly made her way to the elven lady’s side.

The elven lady was genuinely startled by Night Frost. She hurriedly used Dragon Tongue to communicate with her.

Unfortunately, even after being translated, the Dragon Tongue only consisted of ordinary greetings. Night Frost didn’t understand a word of it!

So Night Frost had no choice but to drag the sleeping Li Dogegg out and make him work overtime again.

Li Dogegg looked at Night Frost, then at the elven lady. He immediately understood what Night Frost was plotting.

“We want to enter the city. We’ll have to trouble you later. (Dragon Tongue)”

Night Frost made her request first.

Before the elven lady could reply, Night Frost took advantage of the night and entered the pitch-black fortress with a human group.

Everything happened so quickly that the elven lady didn’t have time to react.

Night Frost stepped into the fortress and took in the scene within. At last, she understood why there wasn’t a trace of life in the fortress.

There were no streets here, only houses of various sizes. The wounded and the soldiers waiting to deploy lay in crude tents outside the buildings.

Inside the small houses were nothing but the elderly, women, and children.

This confirmed Night Frost’s guess. These people were exhausting every last ounce of strength just to stay alive.

The moment Night Frost entered the fortress, she felt her Mana suppressed another notch.

It was somewhat similar to wearing a Mana-sealing bracelet.

The effect didn’t come solely from the Obsidian Stone walls. The tiny patterns winding across them seemed to possess a Mana-sealing function as well.

However, the Obsidian Stone fortress covered too wide an area, weakening the effect. Night Frost was affected, but not too severely. She could still use her Mana normally.

This city wasn’t completely without shops. Most of them sold weapons, enchanted scrolls, and similar goods.

Only a small portion sold food and daily necessities. There were simply too few of them.

Night Frost walked for quite a while without seeing more than a few decent shops.

An injured soldier stood in front of one of them. He held a pitch-black stone carved with strange patterns and spoke in a language Night Frost couldn’t understand.

The person standing opposite him was probably the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper was pointing at a potion and arguing with him.

Night Frost had seen scenes like this many times in the Underworld. She had even done the same thing herself.

Bargaining was simply too common among the poor.

That pitch-black stone was probably the currency used inside the fortress. It could be exchanged for supplies and used to purchase goods.

Night Frost wondered what the prices were like here. What could one stone buy?

Judging from the scene just now, one stone wasn’t enough to purchase a potion. Still, the price probably wasn’t too different from what she knew.

In the Underworld, potions weren’t nearly so affordable. A single bottle cost several tens of thousands.

Because of the war, no one cared even when Night Frost swaggered through the streets. Besides, she had disguised herself to some extent.

After making two rounds, Night Frost gained a general understanding of the fortress.

She eventually returned to the entrance, where she found the elven lady waiting there.

The elven lady had clearly just finished calming the wounded. She was now waiting for Night Frost at the gate.

“You really are something. If I hadn’t come back, would you have waited here all night? (Dragon Tongue)”

Li Dogegg floated beside the elven lady’s ear and repeated Night Frost’s words.

When the elven lady heard Li Dogegg’s voice, her anxious heart finally relaxed. If the people in the city discovered that someone of unknown identity had entered, it would likely cause quite a commotion.

“I’m leaving now…”

Night Frost glanced at the city.

She didn’t want to cause trouble for the human forces here. After seeing the conditions inside, she decided to leave the fortress.

But she hadn’t gone far.

Before she could even step through the fortress gate, the enormous Obsidian Stone wall came crashing down.

The heavy stone barrier slammed into the ground and kicked up a thick cloud of dust. It made Night Frost’s throat burn, while the elven lady beside her coughed nonstop.

“Cough, cough…”

Covering her mouth, the elven lady walked over to Night Frost. She touched the hard Obsidian Stone wall with one hand.

“Looks like we won’t be getting out before tomorrow morning…”

She looked at Night Frost with a resentful, conflicted expression. She was probably wondering whether Night Frost had done this on purpose.

After all, she only needed to take a few steps to leave.

Night Frost helplessly waved her hand.

She had already planned to leave, but the wall had fallen too quickly. There was no need to fight the gate head-on.

It was an Obsidian Stone gate, after all. Getting hit by it would hurt like hell.

“What do we do now? (Dragon Tongue)”

Night Frost and the others had been trapped inside the city. They could only ask the elven lady and see whether she had a way to deceive everyone.

If Night Frost stayed too long and the powerhouses of the other races discovered this outsider, things would become troublesome.

The elven lady thought for a while. She used a scroll to disguise Night Frost, then pulled her toward her own little wooden house.

Night Frost took a mirror from her spatial storage and looked at her current appearance.

Her face hadn’t changed much, but her eyes carried a faint green tint. Her ears had become pointed, and her hair had curled slightly.

She now looked somewhat similar to the elven lady before her.

Even her Magic Armor had changed for the first time ever. It resembled the elven lady’s clothing in some ways, though its overall colors and structure remained the same as Night Frost’s original Magic Armor.

“We really do look alike… Your scent is familiar, too. (Dragon Tongue)”

The elven lady sniffed near Night Frost’s side.

As she sensed Night Frost’s current “scent,” she felt a strange familiarity. If she hadn’t known that Night Frost was human, she might truly have believed Night Frost was a genuine elf.

The elven lady looked at the scroll stuck to Night Frost’s palm, greedily absorbing the Mana there. She immediately understood that it was responsible for Night Frost’s transformation.

The elven lady told her that the scroll was single-use. It could temporarily alter someone’s appearance and aura. It could even transform a Monster.

An elder skilled in beast-taming had created it. It was meant to save lives, but for now, the elven lady could only give it to Night Frost to help her deceive everyone.

The scroll’s effect was extremely powerful. Aside from its creator and a handful of powerful individuals, no one would notice anything unusual about Night Frost.

Even if Night Frost stood beneath the Tree of Life, the Tree of Life might still identify her as a member of the elven race.

However, the scroll consumed an enormous amount of the user’s Mana. If the user was too weak, they would probably be drained dry in no time.

Night Frost, however, seemed capable of lasting much longer.

The scroll wasn’t the only thing the elven lady gave her. She also handed Night Frost a metal identification plate.

Even if someone inspected her, she could simply claim that she had lost her plate.

“This really is a useful item… But what will you do after giving it to me? (Dragon Tongue)”

The elven lady said it was fine. Once the scroll’s effect wore off, she could simply apply for another one from the elders.

She grabbed Night Frost’s hand and quickly ran toward her wooden house.

Many elves were entering and leaving their own wooden houses. Night Frost finally understood why this city—or rather, this fortress—had homes made from stone bricks, wooden planks, and other materials.

The different materials and structures were used to distinguish the fortress’s enormous and chaotic population of different races.

When they reached the wooden house, the elven lady told Night Frost to take out the metal plate. Night Frost inserted it into a mechanism beside the door, and they entered.

The wooden house wasn’t very large, but it was more than spacious enough for the two of them.

The elven lady was breathing heavily.

Night Frost hadn’t expected the elf, who stood half a head taller than her, to have such poor stamina. Her aim wasn’t very good, and her physical endurance was just as disappointing.

Still, it made sense. She had lost the protection of the elven deity and with it, the innate talents of the elves.

The elven lady took a leaf from the corner and brought out fresh spring water sealed beneath a blanket.

She used a scroll that sealed flames to boil the water, then placed the leaf inside.

A delicate fragrance soon drifted through the room.

This probably wasn’t cheap tea.

“This comes from the forest. Whenever they have time, every elf goes out to gather it… I picked some with them, too. Apparently, this is how it’s used.”

Night Frost took a small sip.

The natural fragrance filled her mouth. Her parched body felt as though fresh spring water had been poured into it.

For a moment, she seemed to be standing within nature itself. All her exhaustion melted away…