Chapter 1 The Huge Sky Fortress

The enormous sky fortress floated directly above the crystal mine. It was a miraculous facility that resembled a small town, with an inverted cone-shaped base and two layers of sturdy ring-shaped walls. Dozens of magic towers between the two layers of walls provided shield defense for the entire fortress. It was majestic and spectacular, but it also had many flaws. Even Hao Ren could see that the design concept of the fortress was very superficial: it simply moved a ground fortress into the sky and added a bunch of attack turrets. Other than that, there was no escort fleet, and the anti-aircraft fire was arranged in a mess. It could only be said to be very powerful on this planet, but far from invincible. This behemoth created by the Holletans was just the beginning of a certain idea, and it had a long way to go before it could be used as a mature strategic application. But in any case, this sky fortress was still an inspiring creation.

Under Ofra's introduction, everyone learned about the construction process of the sky fortress. The basic structure of Hordius came from the Dragonspine Mountains: after the main peak of that mountain range collapsed, the remaining peaks on the mountain were also crumbling. So the Pope boldly used divine magic to directly cut off the top of one of the peaks, turning it upside down as the base of Hordius, and then transferred the entire peak to the crystal mine for processing. The mine was sealed off for nearly a month, and countless skilled magicians entered the mine under the leadership of twelve Kingdom Archmages, renovating the mountain peak like the most ordinary masons. To ensure confidentiality, no ordinary workers participated in the entire construction process. A month later, a few days ago, the magical mist above the crystal mine was lifted, and Hordius rose into the sky, shocking the world.

It was precisely because of the ascent of Hordius that the huge impact it brought finally shook the high-level members of the Returnees, which allowed the cunning heretics to reveal their tracks, and the knights were finally stunned to discover that the heretics were hidden in the mountains to the west.

Perhaps even the Radiant Pope and the twelve archmages who created Hordius could not have imagined that the first battle the sky fortress would face after its ascent would be a holy war between the Radiant Church and the heretics, and that the battle would break out next to the crystal mine. This was once the Holy Lake, the place where Hordius was finally assembled, the western fortress of the Church, and at the same time, the edge of the werewolf tribal kingdom's holy land and the heretics' lair—who would dare to believe that these things would come together if they hadn't experienced it themselves? While the Church was shocked that a heretical lair was hidden right under their noses, Hao Ren also had deep doubts about the conspiracy of the Returnees and the brain monsters. In any case, hiding in such a place required great courage, and the risks were always equal to the rewards. The greater the risks the Returnees took, the more amazing their plans were—so after seeing Hordius, Hao Ren was not relieved by the abundance of combat power, but became even more worried.

Facing a floating city suspended above their heads without running away meant that the heretics' plans and reliance were enough to offset the oppression brought by the floating city.

The knights and officers stationed on Hordius were immersed in a state of high morale, and it was hard to say how many commanders could calmly think of these hidden dangers, but Ofra was certainly vigilant. After leading everyone on a brief tour of the fortress, she led the team to the floating city's command post to discuss matters related to the attack on the Holy Mountain. The structure of Hordius was simple: two layers of walls, a circle of barracks, a circle of anti-aircraft crossbows, and the inner layer contained facilities such as training grounds, griffin platforms, armories, and magic furnaces. The command post was located in the center of the floating city, overlooking two-thirds of the fortress from a high, artificial hill.

In the command post, Hao Ren and his party saw the commanders here, some of whom were familiar faces: the old werewolf Elson, Archbishop Auburn with his pixelated face, Prince Haverman, the chief strategist of the king, and several other kingdom leaders or high-level church officials with whom they had previously interacted. As for the unfamiliar faces, Hao Ren and his party nodded and greeted them one by one—anyway, they pretended to be familiar with everyone they met. This occasion was basically a place where people pretended to know each other and then pretended to enthusiastically support each other.

A meeting was originally being held in the command post, and when Hao Ren and his group of "outsiders" came in, the scene immediately quieted down. Ofra took the opportunity to point to a strong man next to the table and introduce him: "This is Chief Uruk from the werewolf tribe. He and his wolf cavalry must lead the way to enter the Holy Mountain."

Hao Ren's group's gazes immediately fell on the werewolf chief. He was already the most conspicuous person in the room, not only because of his burly figure, but also because he wore clothes that were very different from the Holletan style. The roughly structured clothes were decorated with leather, and a necklace made of animal teeth hung around his neck, making him look like a valiant and brave nomadic leader. Uruk was currently in werewolf form. The black, stiff hair on his cheeks and the wolf ears on his head made him look ferocious and rugged. After seeing Hao Ren, he grinned, revealing a row of sharp teeth that shimmered with a cold light: "So the people we've been waiting for have finally arrived—do you have a way to get ordinary people into the mountain?"

Hao Ren nodded: "I have a kind of protective crystal that can allow ordinary people to resist the mental control of the brain monsters."

Uruk nodded, stood up, and walked out: "Okay, let's go."

Hao Ren was originally waiting to discuss military affairs with people, but he didn't expect this person to be so straightforward. He was a little dumbfounded on the spot: "Hey, wait—are we leaving now? Aren't we going to discuss the details?"

"The details have already been discussed," Uruk pointed to the Holletans on the scene, "Speed is the most important thing in war, and it's the best way to solve all problems. Besides, we werewolves don't like outsiders staying in our Holy Mountain for too long. The sooner this matter is resolved, the better."

After saying this, Uruk walked out of the room on his own, leaving Hao Ren and his party looking at each other. Lily raised her hand to greet her fellow villagers, but couldn't find a chance to interject: "Why is he in such a hurry?"

"He's always like this," Ofra rubbed her eyebrows, "Don't mind him. Werewolves are actually quite easy to get along with, and so is Uruk, but he has some special circumstances. I've dealt with him a lot. He'll be waiting patiently outside."

Elson beckoned to Hao Ren: "Ignore that kid. His wife only gave him two days—come on, let me tell you about the route inside the mountain."

Hao Ren wanted to ask what "his wife only gave him two days" meant, but this was obviously not the right occasion, so he could only lead everyone over to look at the map obediently. A group of people stood in a circle around the conference table, and Elson patted the table. Immediately, a map in the center of the table came to life, like a miniature land with flowing clouds and distinct mountains. When Dou Dou saw this, she immediately jumped out of Hao Ren's collar—she thought the water on the map was real...

The little mermaid slapped the table with a thud. Hao Ren quickly picked her up and stuffed her back into his clothes, nodding awkwardly to the people around him: "Hehe, continue, continue..."

Elson waved his hand nonchalantly, pointing to the snow-capped mountains in the center of the map: "This is our werewolf's Holy Mountain..."

Hao Ren had heard the name "Holy Mountain" more than once, and he had naturally asked Ofra about it out of curiosity. He knew that the Holy Mountain was a very important holy land for the werewolf tribe. Many years ago, the werewolves migrated from the southern continent to the west due to a plague. After crossing the Holy Mountain, the plague that had spread among their tribe miraculously disappeared. So the werewolf ancestors at the time believed that this magical mountain had protected their tribe, and thus called it the Holy Mountain. As time passed, the plague of that year had become an unremarkable event in history books, but the sanctity of the Holy Mountain became increasingly unshakable among the werewolf tribes.

The werewolves did not allow outsiders to set foot on the Holy Mountain, because they believed that the Holy Mountain had been helping the werewolves to resist disasters for thousands of years, and that outsiders entering the mountain would destroy the "sacred barrier," allowing the various disasters that had been blocked by the Holy Mountain to make a comeback. In order to guard the Holy Mountain, the werewolf tribe maintained a strong wolf cavalry force, and this force had never relaxed for thousands of years—but they did not expect that there would be heretics who could escape the noses of the wolf cavalry and lie dormant in the depths of the Holy Mountain for so long.