Chapter 1 The Darkness Deepens

The far north, shrouded in eternal night, was sunk in darkness. The Ice Fortress of the Demon Hunters stood as a beacon, a solitary light upon the dark, icy plains. For millennia, regardless of how much the otherworldly hated these Demon Hunters, and regardless of whether these Demon Hunters truly deserved to be called “noble,” at least one thing was certain: these watchmen had, in fact, protected human civilization and ensured that fragile humanity survived its darkest ages.

Even without considering this historical significance, Hao Ren couldn't allow the Ice Fortress to fall, not when he thought about the consequences if those insane Elder Cults broke free from Colossus.

Led by several Demon Hunter masters, Hao Ren and his group traveled through the depths of the Ice Fortress. Beneath their feet was millennia-old, unmelting ice. Above them was the clearest sky on the planet. They could hear the howling wind from time to time, and black-clad hunters in full armor stood silently at their posts, guarding every point. A strange feeling welled up in Hao Ren's heart. He felt as if he were standing on a watchtower, a tower nailed to the Arctic, piercing the thick ice cap, piercing thousands of years of history, piercing all the races and cultures of this planet. It was the end of the age of myth, the end of magical civilization, and human civilization had grown up under its watch. Countless hunters of the night stood in this place, quietly observing the entire world...

Yet ordinary people knew nothing of all this.

Lily was still energetic in the cold wind. Or rather, she had been more energetic than anyone else since coming to the Arctic. The husky girl ran around Hao Ren with great interest, enjoying the feeling of the cold wind on her face and exclaiming, "So familiar, so familiar... Feels like coming home. But then again, this place is pretty harsh for ordinary people."

"It's the same for Demon Hunters," Bai Huo seemed to smile slightly. "I never thought of my hometown as comfortable. It's dry, it's cold, and it's just ice everywhere. You can't see any other colors every day, and the only things to eat are fish and seals. Other food takes a lot of effort to transport from the mainland. Life on the ice plains is very monotonous: training, patrolling, day after day. So when I was very young, my biggest dream was to become a ranger. Even though that's a low rank, even young hunters can have the chance to travel the world—but unfortunately, ancestral blood was detected in me, so I trained for twenty years more than ordinary Demon Hunters. So... I'm quite envious of those young hunters who were born outside the Arctic."

"You were born here?" Lily looked at Bai Huo in surprise. "I thought you were sent to headquarters to receive elite education. That's how it always is in the movies. By the way, are your parents also in this castle?"

"They passed away many years ago," Bai Huo said calmly, "when I was very young."

The atmosphere became a little awkward, because everyone instantly thought of the endless war between Demon Hunters and the otherworldly that had lasted for countless generations. Hao Ren awkwardly twitched the corners of his mouth. "It was... during a battle with the otherworldly, right?"

"Ah, no," Bai Huo waved her hands quickly when she saw that everyone had misunderstood. "My mom was sick, and my dad took too many magic potions and went to duel a volcano..."

As soon as she said this, the scene fell silent, and the atmosphere was even colder than the great ice plains outside. Even Lily, with her incredible reaction time, couldn't quite process it. Anyone who saw Bai Huo's background would definitely think she was the kind of girl burdened by fate, whose parents had died and whose whole family had been killed by demons. But who the hell would have thought that her dad died from overdosing on drugs... Why wasn't this girl following the usual script?

Bai Huo didn't realize that the atmosphere was strange and continued, "It was all a long time ago. I don't even have a deep impression of them... My mentor raised me all along. Why aren't you guys talking?"

Vivian opened her mouth. "...It's nothing. It just feels like your background... is a little different from what I imagined. I thought you were going to reveal a series of family feuds. That's the style of Demon Hunters in my mind."

"Are the Demon Hunters in your mind all burdened by deep hatred?" Bai Huo shrugged. "We have our own lives, with family and friends, with emotions and desires, with hobbies and personalities. 'Hunting' isn't our entire lives. My mentor likes chess, and I like reading manga. Do you find that unbelievable?"

Vivian said faintly, "How many Demon Hunters have ever thought that the 'demons' you hunt are actually pretty much the same?"

The topic suddenly became a little stiff, but before the atmosphere worsened, Master Kszuf, who was leading the way, suddenly coughed softly. "The overall situation is more important right now. Let's put this unimportant personal chat aside for a while."

If it were Vivian's usual habit, she would definitely have retorted to a "junior" who was lecturing her like this, but this time she just waved her hand indifferently and nodded lightly to Bai Huo. "No malice intended."

Bai Huo lowered her eyes. "Me neither."

Hao Ren, who had witnessed all of this, felt a subtle emotion in his heart. Demon Hunters and the otherworldly were originally no different in essence. Even the otherworldly who originated from Holletta were distant relatives of the Demon Hunters. However, the conflict that had lasted for ten thousand years had completely severed the connection between them, even more deeply than the contradictions between the otherworldly themselves. Since some unknown point in time, Demon Hunters had stopped regarding the otherworldly as sentient beings with emotions, instead crudely referring to them as "prey." The otherworldly also completely ignored whether Demon Hunters had emotions and desires, instead extremely viewing them as a kind of disaster and plague. This absurd contradiction and separation would eventually produce even more absurd results, which was that when a Demon Hunter talked about their family life, an otherworldly being would actually feel unbelievable.

Even if they knew from common sense that this was normal, they couldn't emotionally believe that the other party was a being of flesh and blood just like themselves.

When would this absurd state of division... truly end?

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Master Kszuf's voice. "Ahead is the Tower of Stars. The gate is closed, and the situation on the other side is not optimistic."

Hao Ren immediately woke up from his thoughts and looked forward with great curiosity. He had been wondering where the Tower of Stars was all along—because from the outside of the Ice Fortress, he couldn't see an obvious tower building clustered in the center. But according to Bai Huo's description, the tower should have been a magnificent facility, so there was no reason why he couldn't see it while walking on the streets.

After seeing the situation in front of him, Hao Ren finally understood why he couldn't see the "tower" from outside the fortress.

A huge pit appeared before everyone's eyes!

The pit was estimated to be a hundred meters in diameter, and its shape was a regular circle, extending down like a vertical shaft leading to the center of the earth. A chaotic darkness enveloped the vertical shaft, with thick fog filling its depths, as if there were other worlds within. Wide, spiraling stairs and a series of complex support and dividing structures were arranged on the pit walls, which should be the roads leading to the lower levels and the rest stops.

Around this vertical shaft was the largest square in the Ice Fortress. Countless fully armed Demon Hunters were stationed in the square, and patrolling warriors could be seen everywhere, making it heavily guarded.

This was the Tower of Stars.

"...Didn't you say it was a tower?" Hao Ren stared for a long time, feeling deceived. "This thing is a pit!"

"This is the Tower of Stars," Bai Huo nodded expressionlessly. "It extends downwards, all the way into the Arctic Ocean, but at a certain stage, it will 'go upwards' and pierce into the spatial entrance of Colossus."

"Normally, we call this thing a well..." Nangong Sanba's mouth twitched. "Are you sure the construction team didn't get the blueprints upside down?"

"You talk too much nonsense," Nangong Wuyue smacked her brother on the head with her tail. "In the eyes of us sea people, this thing is a tower!"

"Let's not worry about whether it's a tower or not," Hao Ren waved his hand and turned to look at Bai Huo. "Can you open the gate now?"

"Now?" Bai Huo was a little surprised. "Aren't we waiting for the main force? They'll be here soon."

Hao Ren nodded. "I'm not waiting. I want to see the situation on the other side first."

Bai Huo asked the old hunter beside her, "Master Kszuf, is it convenient to open the gate now?"

Kszuf placed his hand on the ice pillar beside him, and the ice pillar lit up with a faint light, emitting a subtle ringing sound. After a moment, the old hunter breathed a sigh of relief. "You can go in."

As the old hunter's voice fell, the strange chaos inside the Stars "Tower" suddenly disappeared like a phantom, and the thick fog in the depths of the giant pit also became thinner.

A passage appeared.