Lord of the Frozen Winter: Starting with Daily Intelligence Reports

The early autumn air in the northern reaches carried a dry, cold scent, and the low shrubs and yellowing grass ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) swayed gently in the wind as several warhorses quickly galloped past.

For magical beasts like the Frostmane Tundra Rabbit, which are not highly aggressive but extremely fast, having too many people can easily startle them.

Therefore, Louis only brought seven knights for this hunt.

A distance of five thousand meters was just a short journey of a few minutes for these knights.

Before long, everyone, led by Louis, arrived at the location indicated by the intelligence.

“There are magical beasts over there!” The Elite Knight at the very front suddenly stopped, whispering a warning, “Gray-brown fur, blue-gray fruits... It’s a Frostmane Tundra Rabbit, at least three of them!”

Upon hearing this, Louis immediately waved his hand: “Stop.”

Everyone immediately reined in their horses, led their warhorses to the bushes nearby, tied them up, and then quietly dismounted.

“Don’t make a sound,” Louis whispered, “These rabbits have extremely keen hearing.”

Thus, the seven knights moved with the steady and silent steps of leopards, quickly arriving behind a higher rock formation.

Louis crouched down, placing his hand on a rock, and looked through a gap towards the distance.

There, among a patch of un-withered weeds in the hills, three gray-brown Frostmane Tundra Rabbits were cautiously foraging.

Their short ears were perked up, their hind legs lightly pushed off the ground, and their limbs were covered with thick paw pads, allowing them to move silently across the dry, hard dirt.

What was most striking were the three clusters of “ice moss fruit” hanging from their spines, emitting a faint blue-gray glow, trembling gently in the early autumn sun.

“Adult rabbits... with fruit,” Louis lowered his voice, a hint of excitement flashing in his eyes, “Thanks to nature’s bounty.”

The ice moss fruit could enhance a knight’s battle qi, and for him, who was on the verge of a breakthrough, it was nothing short of a heaven-sent opportunity.

However, the Frostmane Tundra Rabbit’s vigilance was much higher than that of ordinary wild beasts.

They never moved in a straight line, always preferring to move slowly against the wind to sniff out danger in advance.

They also always avoided areas exposed to direct sunlight, hiding in the sparse shadows of grass and behind rocks.

Even the rustle of a single leaf could startle them into a swift escape.

This made the hunt less about courage and more about endurance.

“If we approach rashly, we’ll certainly miss,” Louis whispered, “Prepare to lay out the bait line.”

“Yes!”

The knights took out the pre-prepared “cloud moss powder” from their small bags.

This was a processed moss spice, highly favored by some herbivorous magical beasts, and the Frostmane Tundra Rabbit was one of them.

Louis always carried some with him on every trip, precisely for moments like this.

The knights carefully and quietly scattered a winding trail of bait on the ground along the direction the three rabbits were moving.

This bait line ultimately led to a slightly sunken natural depression.

The grass there was dense, and there were places to hide on all sides, making it an excellent ambush spot.

“Submerge in groups, surround the depression, and wait for them to approach,” Louis commanded.

All that was left was to wait; time passed little by little until the sun began to slant.

The Frostmane Tundra Rabbits were indeed slowly guided forward, cautiously sniffing the lingering moss scent on the ground, occasionally pawing at bits of broken grass with their front claws.

“They’re finally moving, prepare,” Louis’s eyes gleamed.

Three, two, one.

“Now!”

Hunting nets were quickly thrown from all directions, blocking the rabbits’ retreat.

Immediately after, several silver needles flashed, “Puff, puff” embedding themselves into the rabbits’ spines.

At first, these prey tried to struggle and jump, but the numbing liquid quickly took effect, causing their bodies to go limp and fall to the ground.

“All captured!” Louis breathed a sigh of relief.

Although it took a bit more time, the reward was definitely worth it.

Three Frostmane Tundra Rabbits, nine clusters of ice moss fruit.

Louis stepped forward, his gaze falling on the blue-gray ice moss fruit on the rabbits’ backs.

The fruit looked like some kind of berry formed from frost, its color almost like ice crystals, with a faint white frost floating on its surface.

But in reality, it was connected to flesh and blood, clearly not a plant structure, but a product of the magical beast’s unique internal energy.

“They say it’s a fruit, but it’s actually more like growing flesh.”

He reached out and touched one cluster; it was cold and elastic, as if containing some faint, pulsating power.

“It truly is a wondrous thing...”

The energy of this ice moss fruit was extremely concentrated; for a knight encountering a bottleneck, it was somewhat like lighting the fuse of dynamite.

“Take them to the camp and have the cook prepare them into a soup,” Louis ordered.

“Yes!” A knight immediately retreated with the spoils.

Soon, night fell, and only the crackling of the bonfire remained in the camp.

“Rabbit soup is here!”

Louis sat cross-legged inside his tent, taking the steaming rabbit soup from the cook’s hand.

The soup was almost ice-blue, shimmering faintly under the firelight, with a few fine bits of ice moss fruit residue floating on the surface.

He lowered his head and sniffed; it was a peculiar aroma, somewhere between frost and herbs, faintly mixed with a hint of wild beast blood, but not at all unpleasant.

He took a small sip; the soup melted in his mouth, leaving a faint sweetness.

But the next instant, that coldness turned into heat, and a surging energy, like a tide, rushed from his throat into every limb and bone!

Louis’s eyes narrowed, and he quickly gulped down the entire bowl, then immediately sat cross-legged, placing the wooden bowl aside, and closed his eyes to perform the “Tidal Breathing Technique.”

At this moment, the battle qi within him was pushed by a tide, constantly expanding, surging, and beating against the last gate that blocked him from becoming an Elite Knight.

One wave, two waves, three waves...

The energy within his body became increasingly intense, his bones emitted a slight tremor, and his muscles pulsed as if burning.

Suddenly, an invisible gate was violently broken through!

“Boom!”

The battle qi within his body burst forth like a flood breaking a dam, surging from his Dantian and rushing wildly through the meridians throughout his body.

Breakthrough! Elementary Elite Knight!

Louis opened his eyes, slowly exhaling a breath of white air, his breathing finally stabilizing.

Sweat soaked his clothes, and he felt as if he had been washed clean, renewed from inside out.

And the energy within his body became even more solid, with faint ripples of battle qi appearing on the surface of his skin.

“I finally broke through... So this is the world of an Elite Knight.”

This was an extremely indescribable feeling of lightness.

Louis felt as if he had shed some heavy burden; even his breathing became smoother.

In the past, when circulating battle qi, he always had to combine concentration, guidance, and exhalation into one step to maintain the cycle.

But now, as long as he wished, the battle qi would circulate spontaneously like a tide.

Even standing still, he could feel that power quietly flowing, nourishing his bones and flesh.

However, what surprised him most was not the breakthrough itself.

It was that at the moment of the breakthrough, a long-dormant ability within him was finally awakened by the torrent of battle qi.

“Is this... my bloodline... awakened?!” Louis murmured excitedly.