“Mmm… Don’t worry, I’m just going for fun.
It’s not like I’ll actually get chosen.”
Chen Xing brushed off Lidi Xi’s worries with a casual laugh, not taking her concerns about the queen draining people dry seriously at all.
What a joke—Chen Xing wasn’t scared in the slightest.
She was a dark witch, after all.
When the time came, who would drain who was still up in the air.
She wasn’t worried about this secret at all.
She was just curious—how did a machine without emotions turn into a juicer? Actually, the answer was simple… A long time ago, the Snow Queen created a secret technique.
To have stronger descendants, after getting married, she would relentlessly drain her partner day and night, extracting all their essence.
This essence contained all of the partner’s power.
In the process, the partner would be completely drained, lose all their strength, and eventually die from weakness.
That’s why none of the queens ever had a father, and why it’s always been queens for generations.
The children born from this magic had to be girls, so the secret technique could be used again at their own wedding.
It was rough on the partner, but the benefit was that the queen’s descendants kept getting stronger, each generation surpassing the last.
But this led to a problem: the Snow Queen hadn’t been able to pick a partner for years.
Even though this was a closely guarded secret in the Snow Empire, word still got out.
Every king chosen for marriage died not long after, which was pretty suspicious.
Some powerful people still managed to find out a bit.
They were tempted by the queen’s beauty and the promise of riches, but in the end, staying alive was more important.
So, the strong heirs from big factions didn’t dare come to the selection, and the ones who did make it to the Snow Empire just weren’t strong enough to pass the final test.
“I heard your country has a witch’s relic?”
“Yeah, it’s a necklace.
To keep its evil aura from spreading, the kings in history sealed it in ten-thousand-year-old ice.
Only the queen can break the seal.”
Lidi Xi explained, since it wasn’t really a secret, so there was no need to hide it.
“Hmm.” Hearing this only made Chen Xing more determined to get close to the queen.
She’d originally planned to use Lidi Xi’s family to make connections, but now it seemed unnecessary.
This girl’s usefulness was running out.
“Up ahead is Frost City, the empire’s second largest city.
Once we get through here and travel a bit more, we’ll reach the capital.”
“Yeah.” The magic beast carriage was pretty fast.
The Snow Empire was huge, but in just a few days, Chen Xing and her group were already near the capital.
In this big city, all kinds of strange machines on the roads made Chen Xing feel like she’d stepped into a cyberpunk world.
There were car-like vehicles, all sorts of colorful neon lights, and lots of people with mechanical prosthetics…
According to Salina’s memories, the Snow Empire’s magic crystal technology was advanced, powering all kinds of machines with magic.
Under the queen’s rule, everything ran at maximum efficiency, so technology developed much faster here than elsewhere.
Everything looked orderly and high-tech on the surface, but what Chen Xing saw with her magic eye was the opposite.
Everyone here had a strong darkness in their hearts, like they were all suppressing something.
With people like this, it wouldn’t take much for a witch to stir up real trouble.
“Princess!?” Lidi Xi’s startled cry snapped Chen Xing out of her thoughts.
She turned to see Lidi Xi standing dumbfounded in front of the city wall’s notice board.
“What’s wrong?” Chen Xing glanced at the board.
The most eye-catching notice was about the princess being executed for colluding with a cult, with a painting of the dead princess below.
“How could… this happen?” Lidi Xi clenched her fists, trying not to look too sad.
If the patrol saw, it would only cause more trouble.
“A princess gets the death penalty just for colluding with a cult?”
“Yeah, that’s the law.
No matter who it is, if you break the law, you get punished.
Her Majesty the Queen… she won’t show any mercy, not even to her own sister.”
The princess was well-liked in the army because she always visited the soldiers.
Even if it was just a royal way to keep subordinates loyal, the soldiers really liked this lively, cute, pretty girl.
That’s why Lidi Xi was so upset when she heard the princess was dead.
“Pretty ruthless.
But if colluding with a cult means death, then a lot of people in this city are probably doomed.”
Chen Xing swept the city with her magic eye and spotted quite a few cultists.
There was one not far away, talking to a girl who looked a lot like the dead princess in the painting.
“…Wait a second! No way.” Chen Xing’s gaze snapped back to those two girls, and she watched them closely.
“Ice-blue hair, an ice mage… Could it really be that much of a coincidence?” Chen Xing didn’t know the princess, but the girl looked just like the one in the painting and was an ice mage.
It just seemed too unlikely.
“Better listen in on what they’re saying.”
“Princess, I thought you were already dead.”
The cultist’s tone was a bit mocking, and the princess didn’t look happy at all.
“It’s all because of you, you damn cultist!”
The princess was well-liked, so some people risked their lives to tamper with the execution.
The ice spike didn’t kill her, and they secretly smuggled her out of the capital.
After escaping, the princess met up again with the cultist she’d been in contact with.
“Princess, don’t be so angry.”
“Cut the crap.
Did you find what I wanted?”
“Princess, you have to give me some time.
My master has too many treasures, and what you want is really rare.
It’s not easy to find.”
“So you don’t have what I want at all, do you? Listen, because of you, I’m now a wanted criminal.
If you can’t get me what I want…”
Cold air radiated from the princess, and a thin layer of frost formed on everything in the room.
The cultist stayed calm and said, “Princess, things are what they are.
You have no choice but to trust me now, right? For your queen, your sister, your people…”
Hearing this, the princess’s icy aura faded a bit.
“I’ll give you one more month.
If you still can’t find what I want, then our cooperation ends here.”
“Don’t worry, Princess.
I’ll do my best to find what you want.
But Princess, can you really give me what I want? You’re a wanted criminal now—you can’t get near the witch’s relic, can you?”
