The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns Chapter 344: Underground Castle

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“Aahh, well, it was just what we needed to do…” Icebloom sighed, looking a little embarrassed. “Anyway, please, let’s go. I want to finish this quickly… If the queen is alive, it’ll be a relief. I really need to know what I should do right now… Leading the people has never been my thing, but perhaps being given a position in the government would be nice.”

“You don’t want to come with me to explore the Tower?” Bing Xue wondered, as she began floating, her body surrounded by a golden aura made of small stars.

“T-The Tower?” Icebloom asked, her voice tinged with curiosity. “I never… really thought about it, but it does seem a little interesting. However… I don’t know. It would feel wrong to abandon my world now that the Unending Winter is over.”

“You’re not wrong but consider that offer. It’ll be active at any time. If you ever feel bored, just call me,” Bing Xue said with a gentle smile, taking Icebloom’s hand to help her fly.

“A-Ah… thanks…” Icebloom felt a flush of embarrassment, averting her gaze to avoid Bing Xue’s eyes.

Despite having smaller eyes than most of her species, Bing Xue’s were strikingly beautiful and bright, glowing with rainbow colors.

She had no antennae, but her long silver hair resembled many small antennae, which was quite beautiful too.

What was even more surprising, however, was her smooth skin—unlike anything Icebloom had ever touched with her hard, cold hands.

It was so comforting, the warmth of her hand.

“Hey, bro, I hope you didn’t take what they said seriously… I, uh, I’ve been meeting with a girl lately. She’s fine. A cute Red Ant…” Coldpincers muttered.

“W-What?!” Icebloom blurted, flustered for no apparent reason. “What do you mean I shouldn’t take seriously what they said? I never did! I only see you as a brother…”

“Phew, that’s a relief!” Coldpincers giggled.

The trio flew through the skies at rapid speed, thanks to Bing Xue’s aura encompassing their bodies, and soon reached the location of the underground depths they’d been told about.

There, they found an excavation zone with several camps established by Red Ants and a few Frost Ants.

It seemed the two groups were working together; the Frost Ants were soldiers who had surrendered to the Red Ants and were accepted surprisingly quickly.

“Ah, you must be the Player, Bing Xue, right?” an elderly Red Ant woman stepped forward, wearing a long red dress adorned with floral decorations. “We were originally tasked by the Ice Queen with mining Ice Spirit Crystals here, but once summer finally returned and she died, the ice melted, revealing those ruins right below our antennae this entire time.”

“Impressive,” Bing Xue nodded, gazing down at the ruins. “Hm… I can feel a faint presence. There’s definitely someone alive down there.”

“T-Truly?” the old ant asked, her voice trembling with hope. “So you’re going down there?”

“Yes, I’ve already freed someone dear to me who was sealed in that ice,” Bing Xue said. “It seems the death of the Ice Queen doesn’t release that seal, as it belongs to the power of another being entirely.”

“R-Really?”

“Another being?”

“Uuuh, what does that mean?”

Bing Xue chose not to explain further and swiftly leaped down, with Icebloom following. Coldpincers stayed behind, his large size preventing him from fitting through the crevices.

“Bing Xue, wait! You’re going too fast…” Icebloom sighed. “Coldpincers can’t come. He’s too big…”

“Well, don’t worry. This should be over pretty quickly,” Bing Xue said with a reassuring smile. “Do you want to see your old queen revived?”

“I do…!” Icebloom nodded eagerly. “Please, bring her back!”

“I’ll do my best,” Bing Xue replied warmly, as she navigated through the caves, finding an open wall destroyed by the excavators, leading to the old ruins of a castle. “There, I believe we can go through here.”

“A-Ah, okay…” Icebloom nodded, squeezing through with Bing Xue. “Eek…! My abdomen is so fat, I can barely… ugh…”

“Haha, come on, slowly,” Bing Xue giggled, helping Icebloom enter. “There you go.”

“Aah…!” Icebloom panicked, tripping over a piece of rubble and falling into Bing Xue’s arms. “S-Sorry…”

“It’s okay. Are you hurt?” Bing Xue asked with concern.

“N-No… thanks,” Icebloom muttered nervously, feeling increasingly flustered by their closeness. Her sense of smell, acute as it was, picked up Bing Xue’s sweet, floral scent—a fragrance most Insect People adored. “Your smell…”

“Hm?” Bing Xue tilted her head cutely, curious.

“N-Nothing…” Icebloom lowered her head, saying no more.

“Okay, come on then,” Bing Xue said, moving forward. “She should be close by…”

The two walked through the corridors, passing old paintings depicting a world before the Endless Winter—a world Icebloom had never seen.

Some paintings showed various types of people: not just ants, but dragonfly people, praying mantises, flies, large and bulky beetles, and even moth and butterfly people.

One particular painting depicted the Queen of the Red Ant Country alongside other rulers—kings and queens of old, now-forgotten kingdoms and empires—all standing regally in their shimmering clothes and ornate crowns.

“A world long forgotten…” Icebloom sighed, gently caressing the paintings. “These are precious fragments of history… Once we find the queen, we have to preserve all of this.”

“Well said,” Bing Xue nodded. “A museum for them wouldn’t be a bad idea, right?”

“Yeah, you just read my mind!” Icebloom nodded energetically. “Now… Ah! Bing Xue! I think I found her! Is this… is this her?”

“Yes, it’s her,” Bing Xue confirmed.

The two entered a room where a large icy statue, shaped like a giant ant, stood.

But this wasn’t a statue—it was a person, sealed in cryostasis for hundreds of years.

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