177: Could you please sign Chapter 177?

"So there are other experts, eh? I knew you slavedriving wizards were up to no good. Come on, then."

Xie Feng flicked his hands and dismissed the barrier.

Duni stood in the front row, his pale fingers extending from his sleeves as an off-white halo of magical power lit up at his fingertips.

He gave Uks Lodhan a swift instruction: "Go deal with that princess; her fragments are almost reassembled, don't let her finish the final step. Aivage! Go deal with that masked man, his magical power hasn't recovered yet, and he's at his weakest right now. I'll hold off these blade-wielding people from Jiuzhou."

Uks Lodhan nodded slightly, his figure flashing rapidly toward the ice sculpture.

Aivage rested his hand on his backpack strap and didn't move immediately.

Standing right in the center of the Barrier of Nak-Titer, Xie Feng froze for a moment when he heard Duni shout that name. Then, he abruptly turned toward Aivage, his voice squeezing out from his throat with completely unmasked shock and absurdity.

"What did you say your name was?!"

"Aivage." Standing at the edge of the ice shell, the young magician repeated his name, then turned his head, looked at Xie Feng, and added, "You know me?"

Xie Feng suddenly felt a bit like going up to ask for an autograph.

It wasn't that he was a fence-sitter; it was mainly because the protagonist of the novel was right in front of him!

If that name wasn't just a coincidence, this guy was probably the most badass human in the Cthulhu mythos world, likely without exception.

Under this worldview, everyone essentially relied on adopting Great Old Ones as their fathers. Even the knowledge of the Archmage Eibon, author of the book of eibon, came from the God of Toads.

This fellow was different.

Aivage, from the original novel The Coming of the White Worm.

The White Worm had many nicknames, like the Lord of Immortality or the Lord of Death. They sounded immensely badass, but in reality, it was pretty pathetic.

Rlim Shaikorth would modify mages with exceptional abilities to adapt their Physique to the bitter cold, bringing them to the moving iceberg Yikilth, promising them supreme knowledge. But this was merely a lie; these mages ultimately became its food.

However, Rlim Shaikorth had a fatal weakness: it would fall into a deep sleep during the new moon, at which time its power was extremely weak.

So what kind of story did the original novel tell?

It told of a brave, justice-hearted wizard who, upon hearing of the White Worm's atrocities, pretended to join The Chilling Ones, had an audience with the White Worm, and then slew Them with a single sword strike while They were in the new moon's slumber.

That's right!

Stabbed to death!

No Seal, no banishment—he just slaughtered Him directly!!

This was presumably the only Great Old One to be stabbed to death by a Mortal.

A dignified Great Old One, even according to subsequent expansions considered a lesser Great Old One, was just stabbed to death by this wizard with a single sword.

And the protagonist of this novel, the number one person to stab a Great Old One to death—

—was named Aivage.

No wonder those two wizards' names sounded familiar earlier! Weren't those the two wizards who tried to persuade Aivage to join The Chilling Ones?!

Xie Feng's brain spun at high speed. This timeline was all wrong!

Aivage should have killed the White Worm very early on, while the destruction of the Old Capital happened much later. However, the Hyperborea series of novels didn't mention a precise timeline. Could this actually be the correct timeline?

Then was this the exact moment when Aivage had just joined The Chilling Ones?

There was no time to think it through carefully; the enemy's Spell was already bombarding them.

Xie Feng cast a damage reduction Spell on himself and took the attack head-on.

Aivage on the opposite side was also secretly startled.

This person really didn't look like an ordinary wizard. Such profound and rare Spells came at the flick of a hand, and he didn't even need to chant?

In reality, Xie Feng couldn't chant. He cast Spells relying on the magical power given by the God of Toads—commonly known as a cheat. Using them was as convenient as clicking shortcut keys.

Both sides fell into a bizarre standoff.

Aivage figured Xie Feng must be some anonymous, super-powerful senior wizard, terrified that Xie Feng would pull out some unseen witchcraft the next second and one-shot him.

As for Xie Feng, he was wondering how to let Aivage know he wasn't an evil wizard, that he had just come to pull a thorn out for the Third Princess, and express that he was a fan of his while incidentally asking for an autograph.

He wasn't scared at all. Throughout Hyperborea, excluding gods, there probably wasn't any creature that knew more Spells than Xie Feng.

Suddenly struck with inspiration, Xie Feng activated the Yog-Sothoth mark and recalled:

"When you were back home before, was it like this? One day you saw that the garden, rocky ground, and sandy beach had all vanished, replaced by thick layers of ice, and soaring ice peaks stood like a fortress's defensive towers. At the edge of the ice sheet, you caught sight of the sea, distant and unreachable, while far off on the horizon, a coastline faintly appeared."

What Xie Feng recited was content from the original novel, and Aivage opposite him was utterly shocked upon hearing it.

"Who on earth are you?!! This kind of spacetime clairvoyance targeted at a specific individual is definitely not something a human can master!!"

Tu Ziguan was hesitating in the back whether to take a sneak shot, but upon hearing this, he turned his head to help the Imperial Guards instead.

At a glance, this guy had been doxxed by Xie Feng; he was probably some original novel character.

"Doxxing weapons—terrifying stuff."

Tu Ziguan shuddered. Fighting halfway through only for the opponent to leak your address was too terrifying.

"It's fine, I've just heard of you. Stop putting on an act, let's go slaughter those two people first, and I'll come back and tell you the White Worm's weak time window. Deal?"

Xie Feng spoke directly.

Aivage was even more shocked. This guy was this strong??

He opened his mouth and claimed to know the White Worm's weak time? Come to think of it, did a deity like the White Worm even have a weak time?

"How can I judge whether what you're saying is true?"

"Ah, I'm not asking you to judge that. You can choose not to believe me, but then I'll just have to beat you half to death." Xie Feng waved his hand. Although he was a bit excited to see an original novel character, if you stood in his way, don't blame Xie Feng for taking action.

"Why are you helping me?"

Aivage believed there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world, so he certainly wouldn't expose his identity just because of a couple of sentences.

"To get an autograph. If I beat you half to death, you probably wouldn't give me one."

Xie Feng confessed frankly.

"?"

Aivage suddenly felt like he understood.

This wizard must be one of those legendary, completely insane wizards of legend. His thoughts lacked rules and logic, and he operated entirely on incomprehensible mental circuitry.

Thinking of this, Aivage was able to accept Xie Feng's suggestion instead, because under normal circumstances, crazy wizards don't lie.

Aivage looked at the sewn-up mouth on Xie Feng's palm and the flashing red light beneath his robe.

Aivage became certain.

'This must be a completely insane, heavily corrupted legendary grand wizard!'

At this thought, the trains of thought of Aivage and Xie Feng serendipitously aligned.

"Deal?"

Xie Feng clutched a Wither Spell in his hand, ready at a moment's notice.

"Deal!"