I can evolve everything

The next morning.

As dawn broke, a line had already formed beside the west gate of the Northern Fortress.

Twenty soldiers, dressed in gray-black cloth armor, carrying crossbows and longswords at their waists, stood there silently.

Most of them had some scars on their faces; some were missing ears, and some had horizontal scars on their faces.

No one spoke; they simply waited silently for Renn's orders.

These are the well-trained soldiers of the Northern Fortress.

Raine was dressed in full armor, with a black cloak over it. Ella stood beside him, her red hair standing out against the gray sky and snow.

"Patrol Team 22, assembled!"

A burly old soldier stepped forward and saluted Renn.

Renn returned the gift.

He did not give any rousing speech.

As Warren said, for these soldiers who had been through countless deaths, language was the most inadequate thing.

He simply nodded and mounted his horse.

"Check your equipment. We'll depart in ten minutes."

Raine's voice was calm yet powerful.

Ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

The heavy iron gate at the west gate slowly rose.

The cold wind howled in, stirring up the snow dust on the ground.

Outside the gate stretched the city walls to the horizon, the very path that Renn was about to embark on.

"Let's go."

Renn squeezed the horse's belly.

The horse's hooves crushed the snowdrift in front of the door with a crisp sound.

In the hazy morning light, this small team of twenty-two people went straight into the snowstorm.

Once outside the core area of ​​the Northern Fortress, the road became somewhat rugged and uneven.

The continuous city walls resemble a long, gray dragon winding along the border.

In some sections, the city walls are high walls built of black stone, wide enough to accommodate four horses galloping side by side.

In some areas, the terrain clings to steep cliffs, connected only by a few iron chains and wooden plank walkways, with a bottomless abyss below.

The longer you stay outdoors, the closer the wind gets to becoming tangible.

It's like countless invisible ice blades, carrying dense snowflakes, constantly polishing the armor and flesh.

"Hey, Ryan."

Ella rode up to Renn on her horse. The half-elf seemed to be quite sensitive to the cold, with a thick fur hood covering her red hair and elven ears, leaving only her ruby-like eyes and half of her nose, which was red from the cold, visible.

"If you don't slow down, my ear is going to freeze off. Are you going to buy me a new elf ear then?"

Although she was complaining, there wasn't much real complaint in her voice. After all, she had already mastered the breathing technique, and to freeze to death in this kind of environment would be a disgrace to a trainee knight.

These words seemed to suggest that the half-elf girl was restless and bored due to the long journey, and wanted to find something to do.

Ryan turned his head and glanced at her.

"Half-elves should be more resistant to the cold than humans," he replied casually, but he still unconsciously tightened the reins, slowing down the pace of the rye beneath him. "Besides, according to the information on the map, the road ahead is windy, so we really can't run too fast."

"Tch, he has absolutely no sense of humor."

Ella pouted, shrank back, and curled up on the horse's back like a quail.

"I really don't know what's so great about guarding this godforsaken place. It's all rocks and ice, you can't even see a decent rabbit."

Renn didn't reply; his gaze was fixed on the distance of the defensive line.

During this long journey of seventy or eighty kilometers, he truly felt the grandeur and desolation of the North for the first time.

Every few kilometers along the way, you can see a small beacon tower or outpost.

Most of the soldiers stationed there had gaunt faces, looking as if they had long been tamed by the wind and snow of the North.

Only when Ryan revealed the iron plaque would they slowly salute, then retreat back to the fire like a group of hibernating groundhogs.

"Sir Knight, this is the norm."

The veteran captain, a one-eyed man named Gru, who was walking behind, caught up on horseback.

"Staying on this line for too long will make you stupid. Every day you see the same snow, hear the same wind, and your only hope is the next meal and the next shift change."

Gru glanced at Renn, seemingly also secretly observing him:

"So, my lord, if I may be so bold, you must get used to this boredom. Here, boredom is a good thing; it means you're still alive."

Ryan nodded, ignoring the veteran's abrupt interruption without a salute, and said, "I've learned something."

By the evening of the second day, the wind and snow had become even more intense.

The visibility for Ryan and his team dropped to less than fifty meters.

The world was a vast expanse of white, and even the horses began to snort restlessly, their eyelashes covered in frost.

They had to stop and rest at a stronghold called the Gray Rock Watchtower ahead of schedule.

The space inside the watchtower wasn't large, and it was crammed with the twenty soldiers that Rein had brought and the ten guards who were originally stationed there.

Raine found a corner to sit down, without vying for the best spot near the stove.

He sat cross-legged and took out a piece of dry food from his pocket.

This kind of jerky gets so hard at low temperatures that it can break your teeth.

As he chewed, the breathing technique within Raine began to operate.

Streams of heat are pumped from the heart and flow through the blood vessels to the entire body.

Sitting next to him, Ella was holding a bowl of hot soup, carefully blowing on it. Seeing this, she couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"Are you a dire wolf? Can you eat that thing without roasting it?"

Although she complained, she naturally pushed her bowl of soup toward Ryan, saying, "Here, have a sip. Don't let yourself get sick and I'll have to carry you back."

Renn paused for a moment, then took the bowl of soup.

The soup was very thin, with only a few withered vegetable leaves.

Thanks.

He took a sip, and the warm liquid slid down his esophagus.

"You're welcome." Ella blinked, her crimson eyes gleaming in the firelight. "Just promise me that if we ever really fight, you'll be the one to hold the line, so I can focus on finding opportunities from the side."

"Deal," Ryan replied calmly.

Day three.

Although [Shattered Tooth Canyon] is only seventy or eighty kilometers away from the Northern Fortress, the weather is getting colder and the snow is incessant. It will take Raine and his group three days to gradually get closer to their destination.

As we get closer to [Shattered Tooth Canyon], the terrain becomes increasingly treacherous.

The once continuous city wall breaks off here.

Nature's incredible artistry has torn a huge rift in the mountain range.

On both sides are sheer cliffs hundreds of meters high, and in the middle is a canyon passage about two kilometers wide.

This place is where wind and snow converge, and it is also the easiest natural breach for monsters to break through.

To plug this gap, the Knights of the North built a fortress-like beacon tower partially embedded in the mountainside, as well as two city walls that cut across the valley.