Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest

Chapter 58 - 58 27 Ancient Times, the Fall of the Gods

?58: Chapter 27: Ancient Times, the Fall of the Gods 58: Chapter 27: Ancient Times, the Fall of the Gods Certainly, here is the translated text:
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(Plot sidestory, feel free to skip) Time rewinds to more than a month ago.

At this moment in the Black Iron Land, the Spring Goddess is gradually awakening.

Her breath brushes against the roots of the trees, urging them to sprout new branches with endless vitality and gentleness.

Yet the Northern Land, due to the Wind Snow God’s affection, remains trapped in a long winter for a long time.

In such treacherous conditions, the giant eagle and Shasta must brave the bitter wind and snow to fly through the sky.

They have to traverse most of the Northern Land to find the new sisters prophesied by the Seer Witch.

No one knows how long the Seer Witch has lived.

Those who serve her say that in her youth, the Seer Witch had an audience with the great Conqueror and became one of his court witches.

Back then, the Conqueror was young and powerful, invincible wherever he wielded his sword, and even the Church had to yield.

When he decided to protect the witches, the Church could only pretend not to see anything.

Later, he set out on an expedition, leaving for the Nether Sea, never to return, which resulted in all the witches losing the Conqueror’s protection.

Even before the Church acted, the Seer Witch had already fled the court.

Now, in the Witch Forest, many witches suspect that the Magic Mirror is an artifact the Seer Witch took from the Conqueror’s Treasure Vault during her escape.

The Seer Witch neither denies nor admits these claims—she always maintains the appearance of a kindly old lady, as if nothing bothers her.

The Magic Mirror is an Ancient Divine Artifact, and it’s said that at its most powerful, it can reflect the entire land’s panorama.

Shasta has seen the Seer Witch’s Magic Mirror:
It is made entirely from a single block of radiant and clear Purple Crystal, intricately carved with lattice patterns of Fine Gold and Mithril.

Its back is inlaid with a fist-sized cat’s eye gemstone, which emits a faint green glow, with a long narrow black seam in the center, resembling an inner flame, possessing the divine ability to perceive human thoughts.

It is a truly priceless treasure; not even a thousand or ten thousand Gold Coins could buy such a supreme treasure.

Before the Magic Mirror, everyone is essentially naked, as the Purple Crystal bestows the mirror with powerful magical sensitivity—it can occasionally sense the mana emanating when witches awaken and provide approximate coordinates.

To this day, Shasta still doesn’t understand why that piece of Purple Crystal can achieve such feats.

The world believes that Purple Crystal has the power to reveal evil and devils.

But this is not the case; the Purple Crystal is merely exceptionally sensitive to mana, and will exhibit different anomalies according to different magical energies.

Not to mention mirror-sized Purple Crystals, even those the size of millstones can at most detect the mana naturally emanating from a witch several hundred meters away, and a piece as small as a pinky finger can only be effective at close range.

This has led Shasta to develop a sort of reverence for those distant myths.

Indeed, this land harbors powers beyond common comprehension, and even to Transcendent witches, the past of this land reduces them to mere ants.

And the Northern Land is just such a land.

Beneath the earth lies countless remains and large bones; the frozen remains speak of an ancient war between humans and non-humans that took place here long ago.

Only the subsequent, dreadful blizzard buried all traces, which the Seer Witch referred to as—”the Wind Snow God’s Fall.”
…

The Dawn Knight Keton, clad in Silver Armor, bearing a gilded Big Sword, and adorned with a Red Agate, gazes at the world before him.

What his vision beholds is all ice and snow.

The snowflakes that drift lightly in the air become hardened upon landing, as if they have been frozen for eternity.

He rides a highland horse from the east, a tall mount from the Highland Barbarians, robust in build, with powerful hind hooves, strong endurance, and great cold resistance and adaptability, not requiring a change of horse as long as long-haul pursuits are avoided.

Specially bred warhorses can carry hundreds of pounds of weight and move freely.

The harsh cold of the Northern Land also elevates their spirits.

The Barbarians rely on such horses to drive the Highland Kingdom to tears, losing large swaths of territory.

And now they continue to plunder villages, raid towns, secure constant victories, seize countless slaves and wealth, and under the leadership of the Highland Chief, show a tendency to continue pressing southward.

Thus, the Eastern Plateau war intensifies.

But the situation there doesn’t concern Keton.

He has received orders from the Archbishop that unknown evil is brewing in the Northern Land.

It is the territory of foreign races that requires the Conquest Knights for a crusade.

Having been trained by the Church since childhood, Keton accepts this order unconditionally.

He swiftly assembles and leads fifty Demon Hunting Knights northward, pressing deep across the long borders of the Black Iron and Wandong, arriving at this vast land.

The hooves of the highland horses are hard and sturdy, easily crushing the hardened snow layer.

Just like the scene of the Highland Kingdom shattering beneath the Barbarian iron hooves.

All the Demon Hunting Knights are elite, and the highland horses are also outfitted with visors and horse armor, the armor cast from black steel is hard and firm.

They require substantial supplies along the way but cannot plunder villages and civilians, as it would be too time-consuming.

Fortunately, the Church’s churches and monasteries are spread over most of the land, providing ample supplies.

This allows the Church’s knights unimpeded access.

When necessary, the Demon Hunting Knights can summon them and lower-tier believers to join the battlefield.

But they cannot do so, or they will be seen as a threat or provocation by the Nobles.

Especially the three Grand Dukes of the Black Iron Land—Fury, Oak, Riptide.

The three formidable Dukes would mobilize all forces, command all Nobles of the land, and confront the Church’s army, recreating the “Silent Valley bloodbath” from a century ago.

However, the elite squad of fifty Demon Hunting Knights would not trespass this line nor need any obstruction.

Thus Keton could lead his men straight to the Northern Land.

The Church has been preaching here for a long time, only later securing the right to levy tithes through a series of negotiations with the previous Winter King.

Since then, the Wandong Royal Family’s prestige plummeted, and to show respect for the Winter King and Wandong Nobles and due to the treacherous environment, the Church never displayed intentions of coveting this land, nor dispatched any armed forces to intervene in the Northern Land’s situation.

As a Sixth Rank Transcendent, hailed as the Dawn Knight, Keton knows more.

He knows the Church Court is very wary of this ancient and mysterious land, knows certain hidden forces flow beneath the snow-covered earth, and knows this land harbors an ancient great war—a place where countless bizarre forms of life fell.

Those ancient and terrifying Wandong legends are not less than the Dragon Clan legends of the North Ice Pirates.

The frosty foreign races venerate their ancestors, viewing the Northern Land’s flowing secret powers as their grandfather’s soul, and following the elusive will of the earth.

They are the descendants and remnants of that ancient war, with foreign bloodline flowing within, believing in unclean things.

Now.

The judgment moment has arrived!