263: Chapter 263 Winter's Oath Sword Technique Upgraded to Lv4! A New Ultimate Technique!

Gino City, Golden Flame Castle.

In the council chamber, a map of Gino County hung on the wall.

Rowan stood in front of the map, his brows slightly furrowed.

Portia was reporting the situation: "My Lord, scouts from multiple directions have returned with the same news. A large-scale army is encircling Gino City."

"Judging by their banners and the scale of the march, it should be the army mobilized by Duke Witton's Estate, numbering no less than fifty thousand."

"In addition, most of the border troops originally stationed on the border line have been transferred away, leaving only a small number of local troops to garrison."

"Meanwhile, a massive beast tide riot has occurred in the Mess Mountains. Many border towns have already been breached, and the beast tide is sweeping into the hinterlands."

Listening to the report, Rowan's gaze darkened slightly.

Using the army was something he hadn't anticipated beforehand.

He had originally thought that Duke Witton's Estate would first send people to investigate the situation in Gino City, and he could take the opportunity to ambush them.

But he hadn't expected the other side to be so decisive, directly mobilizing tens of thousands of troops to encircle them, and even inciting a beast tide to create greater chaos.

This move, while crude, was indeed effective.

He could feel that the speed at which the Seal of Andalas Strife in the sky was accumulating blood energy was becoming faster and faster.

That vast amount of blood energy was being drawn from all parts of Will Province, waiting for its final use.

For some reason, the enemy's pace had become noticeably urgent.

But regardless, the contingency plan he had originally formulated was now ineffective.

He pondered for a moment, then suddenly remembered something.

Sylvia had previously sent over a batch of magic scrolls, saying they were for the castle's defense.

He had always kept those scrolls under Elise's care. Except for a few high-level scrolls that Elise carried with her for emergencies, the rest had not been used yet.

Now, they could finally come in handy.

He turned around and said to Portia: "I have a batch of magic scrolls for you. When the time comes, take inventory and distribute the ones suitable for city defense."

"Also, have the City Guard officers increase their vigilance over these few days and be ready at any time."

"Yes, My Lord." Portia's eyes brightened, and she quickly cupped her hands in agreement.

After Portia left, Rowan returned to his study.

The room was very quiet.

He walked behind the desk and sat down. Instead of dealing with the documents waiting for approval on the table, he sank his consciousness deep into his mind and pulled up the system panel.

[born succubus more children more blessings system]

Remaining Free Attribute Points: 3644

[Class Skills]:

Winter Oath-Keeper Swordsmanship Lv3 (2468 / 5000)

Silent Pilgrimage Archery Lv4 (78 / +∞)

Previously, Flora's blooming had earned him a large amount of free attribute points. He had originally intended to save them to upgrade his Alchemist skill.

If he could upgrade the Deduction Spell to Lv4, he would be able to spend time deducing the various Breathing Techniques of the guard members to the perfect level.

But now, it was clearly too late.

The only place left that could increase his combat power was the Winter Oath-Keeper Swordsmanship...

Rowan took a deep breath, his gaze landing on the line for the Winter Oath-Keeper Swordsmanship.

The remaining free attribute points were enough for him to push this swordsmanship to the limit.

He no longer hesitated and silently chanted in his heart—

Come on! Winter Oath-Keeper Swordsmanship!

Start adding points!

The next second, the free attribute points began to pour in, and the proficiency of the Winter Oath-Keeper Swordsmanship began to skyrocket.

This time, the flow of information flooding into his mind was extremely turbulent and violent.

He felt as if he were in the middle of an overwhelming ice and snowstorm!

In that boundless ice field, amidst the swirling snow.

Countless figures were swinging their swords.

Some knelt on one knee, their longswords plunged into the frozen earth, guarding the tattered flag behind them with flesh and blood.

Some stood on the edge of a crumbling glacier, facing thousands of troops alone, the sword tip pointing forward, the wind and snow howling.

Some fell in pools of blood, still clutching their sword hilts tightly until their last breath turned into frost...

Each image was a memory of an Oath-Keeper.

Each strike carried the belief of never forsaking under the winter.

Rowan's body trembled slightly, and fine cold sweat seeped from his forehead, but his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

After an unknown amount of time...

He slowly opened his eyes, a flash of ice-blue passing through his pupils, like a frozen lake.

[Free Attribute Points - 2532]

[Winter Oath-Keeper Swordsmanship Lv3 → Lv4]

[Remaining Free Attribute Points: 1112]

Immediately after, he saw the changed line of text:

[Winter Oath-Keeper Swordsmanship Lv4 (1 / +∞)]

As expected. Just like the Silent Pilgrimage Archery, the Sky-level was the end of this swordsmanship.

But Rowan was not disappointed, because he felt a completely different, majestic power surging within his body.

He closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into the core of the swordsmanship.

The sound of wind and snow rose.

In his field of vision, a towering throne of ice and snow slowly emerged. A blurred figure sat on the throne, a longsword held horizontally across its knees, the blade covered with ancient oath inscriptions.

The ultimate ultimate technique of the Winter Oath-Keeper Swordsmanship was fully revealed at this moment—

[Eternal Winter Sovereignty · Extreme Cold Silent Prison]

Effect: Consumes a large amount of Battle Aura to unfold an [Eternal Winter Domain] centered on oneself.

Within the domain, the temperature can be dropped to the critical point of absolute zero at any location, and a Silent Prison cage can be generated at any location to imprison enemies.

After feeling the information in his mind, Rowan understood that the foundation of his Winter Oath-Keeper Swordsmanship was actually something called the Law of Eternal Winter...

One day later.

Gino City, on the city wall.

The horizon was just beginning to turn a pale white.

Rowan stood in the center of the gate tower, looking at the black tide slowly approaching from afar.

To his left and right stood Garuvi and Vanessa, respectively.

Both were from military aristocratic backgrounds and had received systematic military education since childhood, possessing rich theoretical knowledge and practical experience in defensive warfare.

In battles of this level, although high-level experts could influence local combat situations, if the opponent also had experts of the same rank, attacking first would easily lead to being spotted for openings or falling into a continuous war of attrition.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, it was soldier against soldier, general against general.

Unless it was certain that the opponent had no experts of the same rank to restrain them.

At this moment, the scene outside the city was shocking.

After the army outside completed their assembly outside Gino City, there was no surrender call, no communication, and they directly started the killing mode in silence.

Their first target was not to attack the city, but to clear out those refugees surrounding Gino City who could not enter the city and were unwilling to leave.

Those civilians had nowhere to run outside the city, and were chased and intercepted by cavalry like a driven flock of sheep, pierced by the spears of infantry, and shot down by the arrows of archers.

Cries, screams, and pleas for mercy were mixed together, spreading far in the wind, only to be blown away by the wind, leaving only a suffocating buzzing sound.

Blood was soaring to the sky!

Rowan stood on the city wall and could clearly feel that the speed at which the witch array in the sky was accumulating blood energy was getting faster and faster.

He somewhat understood the opponent's thinking.

But looking at the tragic sight outside the city, he could not help but frown slightly.

Previously, when Garuvi said Duke Witton was crazy, he didn't have much of a feeling about it.

Now it seemed, was the opponent really crazy?

However, he could not send the City Guard out of the city for field combat to save people.

The gap in strength and combat power between the two sides was there, and the border troops were inherently better at formation fighting and slaughter than local troops.

Moreover, those soldiers of the opponent had slightly red eyes, as if they had taken some kind of forbidden drug?

But such forbidden drugs usually have side effects, right!

Could it be that the opponent intended to achieve everything in one battle?!

Soon, after the refugees outside the city were cleared, the army outside did not stop at all and directly started the formal siege!