Once upon a time there was a greedy snake

They need to learn to save themselves, after all, even the serpent god has his busy moments.

"Busy? I'm afraid he's run away."

Upon hearing the news reported by his subordinates, the king of the Icefields, Karosaan, shook his head repeatedly.

As the king of the Ice People, and also the one among all the Ice People who was closest to the gods, Kalosane knew very well that the gods were not the kind of things these Ignis people understood.

He didn't quite understand why these dwarves thought that so-called gods would save them, meaningless mortals, since in the eyes of the Ice People, gods wouldn't do that.

The cold north wind is the harshest father, and the god of the north wind, named after the cold wind, is the father among fathers.

Although all the people of the Ice Plains consider themselves to be offspring of the North Wind God, only those who are useful to the North Wind God are qualified to be his offspring—only by striving to become more useful and stronger can one gain the favor of the North Wind God.

As for those useless fools, those idiots who only know how to call upon the gods, they don't even need the God of the North Wind to take action; the freezing winds of the frozen earth will kill them all.

“These weak dwarves… if you throw them into the frozen ground, they might not even live to see the next day’s sunlight.”

Carlosan sighed even more.

So, these powerful Ice People have been fighting this foolish opponent for hundreds of years?

The dwarves are weak, and their so-called gods are probably just as weak. Just like now, even though they have already invaded the dwarves' so-called sacred mountain and the dwelling place of their gods, the so-called serpent god still has not appeared.

"Is it because you know the North Wind God will eat you?"

Carlosane thought to himself.

Yes, even gods have their own desires. Just as the strongest warrior must eat the most delicious part of his prey, gods also need to hunt down even more powerful beings.

For a deity, the best food must be another deity.

After all, only another god could possess such a massive size, comparable to that of a god, to allow the God of the North Wind to feast to his heart's content.

"However... this has become a bit troublesome."

Thinking about this, Carlosane had a headache.

The serpent god worshipped by the dwarves has run away, so he can only fill the god's belly with other things. Otherwise, he is considered incompetent, useless, and of no use to the god of the north wind.

The first person the North Wind God wanted to kill was him.

Fortunately, Carlosane, who comes from the frozen land, has no shortage of courage or ability to solve problems.

Moreover, the current problem doesn't seem to be that troublesome.

Although these dwarves had few livestock left, clearly not enough to satisfy the appetite of the North Wind God, they possessed a miraculous agricultural technique. They could produce fields of fruits and vegetables in just ten days and nights, a feat unheard of.

"If they are raised for a short period of time, the livestock will grow rapidly... and then we will be able to feed the North Wind God with a large number of livestock."

Karlosane suddenly felt a little dazed. As a native of the Ice Plains, he had only experienced the hardships of life. This was the first time he had felt what it meant for everything to go smoothly and to be completely satisfied.

The warmer areas to the south are surprisingly wonderful.

Even the air smelled sweet.

Chapter 40 no longer requires fighting.

The biting north wind forged the indomitable character of the people of the ice plains and also gave them strong and powerful bodies.

After all, those that are not strong enough or powerful enough simply cannot survive on the permafrost.

This also made many Ignis people realize for the first time what it means to be backward and vulnerable to attack.

This can't even be considered as the Ignis being backward. After all, most of the Ignis captured alive are civilians who have fled into the mountains. They don't have the agility of warriors and hunters, nor the ability of mages to start a fire with a clap of their hands. Their best skills are herding or planting fruits and vegetables in the ground, but these are not things they can use for fighting.

Facing a group of proper Icefield warriors, being beaten was practically inevitable.

Being beaten teaches them a lesson, and being captured alive is an unbearable humiliation. Regardless of whether they can win the fight, at least they have learned their lesson.

"I must become stronger... I absolutely must become stronger!"

These captured Ignis people thought to themselves, the humiliation of being powerless was deeply etched into their bones.

Only by mastering power, becoming stronger, and acquiring true combat strength can one avoid falling to such a state.

"I must become stronger!"

This is the cry from the depths of the hearts of the surviving Ignis.

Then, the whip lashed out at them.

It wasn't the Ice People who were whipping them, but the mages who had sided with them. These former royalty, after being massacred by the Ice People, had joined their side, just like their king.

They were responsible for supervising the work of the Ignis, which was the only thing they were useful to the North Wind God.

After all, they had been doing this before they became Ice People, when they were still Ignis.

Of course, nowadays they no longer distinguish between the Icefield People and the Ignis People.

"The Icefield people and the Ignis people are all human! We humans must unite!"

The former high-ranking mage, Sardok, who is now the foreman, said this to the Ignis people who were working.

To refine his theory, the overseer Sardok even created a hierarchy among the human races. In Sardok's theory, when humans conquered the beasts, they themselves replaced those beasts, creating different levels of the food chain. The Ice People were like saber-toothed tigers, the former royal family was like dire wolves, and the Ignis, skilled in labor, were like hardworking cattle and sheep.

The saber-toothed tiger defeats the dire wolf, and cattle and sheep are devoured by the saber-toothed tiger. These are all natural occurrences and manifestations of the principles of the world. Only by maintaining this cycle can nature be stable, and only then can the human race develop steadily.

The Ignis people naturally didn't believe in such slogans, since they were the ones who got beaten up, but the Icefield people liked them very much, seeing them as a symbol of these mages working hard.

Yes, they don't even need to put in any extra effort to manage these Ignis; the Ignis manage themselves.

Having won the war, they only needed to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

At this moment, the people of the Ice Plains seem to have everything.

"It went too smoothly, it really went too smoothly."

Not only the king of the Icefields, Casaloron, felt this, but at this moment, all the Icefield warriors felt an unprecedented sense of success.

This is unimaginable for them, who are native to the ice plains. After all, they were born into the ice plains and have to face the biting cold winds from birth.

But compared to the rest of their lives, the biting cold wind seemed almost kind, because as they grew up, they faced hunger day after day—finding food on the frozen ground was no easy task, and none of the wild beasts that could survive the biting cold wind were easy to kill.

Moreover, compared to their prey, they also had to face equally hungry competitors. The most dangerous thing on the frozen ground was not those beasts, but other fellow ice people.

Fighting wild beasts, fighting with one's own kind, nothing but fighting, and such days seem to have no end.

But is there really no end?

It seems they've reached the end. They don't seem to need to fight anymore. Having conquered the south, they don't even need to use force to get everything they want—they don't even need to wield their whips, since the Ignis, or the dwarves they call themselves, can manage themselves.

They were no longer hungry.

Hunger was a constant companion on the frozen ground. Despite their towering stature, they rarely had a proper meal. The resource-scarce frozen ground couldn't possibly fill the stomachs of every ice-dwelling person. Their very survival was a luxury.

That's why they wanted to go south. For hundreds of years, they had wanted to go south. The land occupied by the dwarves was their dream paradise. As long as they went to that place rich in resources, they could fill their stomachs.

And now, they have finally gotten what they had always dreamed of.

Although the Ice People thought that the so-called serpent god worshipped by these dwarves was too weak and incompetent, even choosing to flee in the face of the Ice People's offensive, they had to admit that this so-called serpent god seemed to have some merit.

That fertile land, where crops can grow in just ten days and nights, is something the people of the Ice Plains wouldn't even dare to dream of.

Fruits and vegetables are extremely rare in the permafrost, but right now, these people on the ice plains can eat their fill without restraint. As for meat, the livestock in the south are noticeably different from those on the permafrost. The tender, juicy texture and rich, fatty aroma make these animals seem as if they were born to be eaten.

And there's none of that biting cold wind here.

The warm climate means these people living on the ice plains no longer have to worry about never waking up after falling asleep. They can sleep anywhere without fear of freezing into a cold corpse.

They can eat and drink their fill every day, even at every meal, and no longer have to worry about the biting cold wind.

They have already gotten everything they wanted.

They no longer need to fight, or even do anything, to enjoy everything they've ever dreamed of.

If I absolutely have to point out any problems...

That is, they never thought about what they would do after they had obtained all of this.

Chapter 41: A scheme was set up.

Days passed by like this, dozens of days and nights went by in the blink of an eye.

At midnight, most of the Ignis people, exhausted from a day's work, would huddle in their shacks, gazing at the stars in the sky—although, in principle, they should be sleeping, they still wanted to stay up a little later and stay awake a bit longer.

After all, during the day, their time, their energy, and even their entire being belong to those people from the Ice Plains.

Only in the stillness of the night, when the people of the Ice Plains have rested, do they have a brief moment that truly belongs to themselves.

They didn't chat among themselves, and the overseers didn't allow them to huddle together. If two Ignis people ever got together to say anything, the former royalty would lash out with their whips without mercy—this wasn't even a demand from the giants, but merely a spontaneous act by the royalty themselves.

The long period of silence had even caused their language skills to deteriorate, but this prolonged torment only made them miss the days when the serpent god was still around.

At least for that time, they briefly had everything.

However, their good fortune was short-lived. They hadn't enjoyed it for long when the giants from the north attacked, and everything they possessed was taken away by these giants. All that remained for them from that time were some beautiful memories and the words of wisdom left to them by the Ancestor of the Way.

You need to find what you want to do, find your own path...

Even if we find it, what then?

Those Ignis who gazed at the stars shared similar sentiments at that moment.

Indeed, unlike before, they are now clearly aware of what they want—they want to gain power, to acquire combat strength, to defeat these Ice People, and to regain the possibility of controlling their own destiny.

But what good would it do to think of something like that?

Thinking about it doesn't mean you can do it. Even if they want to become stronger, they have no chance—after all, becoming stronger boils down to three things: plenty of food, enough rest, and equally plenty of training.

But now, they can't do any of these three things.

They had to work all day, which left them no time to train themselves. As for food, the overseers left them just enough to keep them from starving.

As for rest, there's not much to say. Just by looking at how they don't sleep at night, you can tell they're definitely not getting enough rest.

"The road is right in front of us, but we can't walk on it!"

This caused the Ignis people immense pain and even remorse.

It was only at this moment that they remembered that they had everything before, whether it was plenty of food, sufficient rest, or a lot of free time.

But at that time, what they were thinking about was not becoming stronger or mastering combat power, but eating meat.

This not only wasted their time, but also turned them into prisoners of these ice field people.

"And now, those Ice People have taken everything away... Hmm?"

It was at this moment that some of the Ignis suddenly realized something.

Yes, when they have everything, they waste it all, and their first thought is always to eat meat.

Now, those giants even have meat to eat.

What are those giants doing?

----------

East of the Holy Mountain lies the city of Ignis.

Although the city is currently occupied by the Ice People, they have no intention of changing its name—after all, coming up with a new name is always a hassle, and besides, names are only used to distinguish things.

At present, at least in their understanding, there is only one city in the world.

That was their city.

They already have everything, everything they could never have imagined before. They have enough to eat and warm shelter, and they don't even need to hunt or work; they receive a large supply of resources.

"Perhaps this is one of the benefits of war."

That's what they were thinking.

After centuries of war, the war finally paid off, and they got what they wanted.

The people of the Ice Plains have always believed in taking everything they want with their own hands.

And now, they have everything they wanted.

then……

It seems like that was the end of it.

In the beginning, they ate and drank to their hearts' content, as if trying to fill all the hunger they had endured for years. But as the days went by, this gluttony seemed to lose its appeal.

As for the warm climate... it is indeed quite pleasant, but the humid air has begun to make some people on the ice plains feel uncomfortable. Perhaps they have been in the permafrost for too long, and many people feel that it would be more comfortable to have the biting cold wind blowing on them.