Lord: I have built a witch's sanctuary.

Chapter 123 The White Curtain Appears

Chapter 122 The White Curtain Appears

There are seven days left until the Winter Lord's army is fully restored.

Frostwolf City was hit by its first white blizzard of the year.

The sky was completely blocked by thick, leaden-gray clouds, and the gale-force winds carried snowflakes as large as goose feathers, which, like countless sharp steel knives, mercilessly cut through the city walls and streets.

As far as the eye could see, there was only a vast expanse of white, with visibility less than ten meters.

Inside the lord's hall, the firewood in the fireplace was burning brightly, crackling and keeping the chill out of the thick stone walls.

Lorraine sat upright in the lord's high-backed chair, his gaze calmly fixed on the mountain of parchment scrolls piled across the long table.

Olivia strode into the hall, her long, emerald-green hair gleaming in the firelight.

Olivia, the Tier 3 Abundant Earth Mother and Minister of Finance and Logistics of Frostwolf City, was holding a thick black ledger tightly in her hands, her brows slightly furrowed.

"My lady." Olivia bowed slightly, opened the account book, her voice revealing a hint of weariness from days of work, but more so a sense of reassurance.

"The twelve thermal power towers you ordered to be built have all been completed and successfully ignited. Currently, the thermal power transmission pipelines have been laid to the outer civilian areas, and the thermal power distribution in each area is very even."

Lorraine nodded slightly, his gaze falling on the data on the parchment: "How is the coal mining progressing?"

"It went very smoothly." Olivia's eyes lit up as she mentioned this. "The miners have completely drilled through the deep coordinates that you personally designated a few days ago."

"Now, a massive amount of high-quality coking coal is being transported up every day. Although mining has not been going on for very long, the coal reserves stockpiled in the city have already filled three large warehouses."

She closed the ledger and let out a long sigh of relief: "My lord, based on the intensity and duration of the White Curtain Snowstorms in previous years, our current coal reserves, coupled with the extremely high combustion efficiency of the thermal towers, are absolutely sufficient to weather this snowstorm."

"This means that no one in Frostwolf City will freeze to death from the cold this time."

For Guji, who had experienced a terrible famine and bitter cold in Black Iron City and even ate bread made by his adoptive father with blood and sawdust, seeing full granaries and piles of coal was the most reassuring thing in the world.

She looked at Lorraine, who was sitting in the first seat, her eyes filled with undisguised admiration.

If it weren't for the Lord's miraculous deep-mining technology, Frostwolf City would probably be in a state of panic due to fuel shortages by now.

However, Olivia's sense of security did not last long.

When she turned to look out the huge floor-to-ceiling window in the lobby, her expression suddenly changed.

The true form of the distant white blizzard, a ghastly white wall of snow, was advancing much faster than expected.

What made her even more uneasy was that, as a third-tier witch, she keenly sensed a chilling aura in the howling cold wind.

It wasn't just natural cold air, but a magical fluctuation filled with destruction, death, and rage.

Olivia abruptly closed her eyes and extended her mental energy outward.

A moment later, she suddenly opened her eyes, her emerald green pupils contracted sharply, and her cheeks, which had been flushed from the warmth, instantly lost all color, turning as pale as paper.

"No—something's not right!"

Olivia's voice trembled uncontrollably. She immediately reopened the account book in her hand, grabbed the quill pen on the table, and frantically calculated something on a blank piece of parchment.

The quill pen made a rapid and piercing screeching sound as it scratched across the paper.

Lorraine didn't interrupt her, but simply leaned back in her chair and looked at Olivia.

"I've figured it out—"

Olivia stopped writing, staring at the alarming data on the paper, her voice tinged with despair. "My lady, this snowstorm is far more intense than any previous snow season! The outside temperature is plummeting at an abnormal rate, and this level of cold has exceeded the power supply limits of conventional thermal towers."

Olivia took a deep breath, her body trembling slightly. "To maintain the city's survival temperature, the coal consumption of the thermal power tower will double! No, even triple! If this blizzard continues, our current reserves—absolutely won't last!"

Olivia felt a deep sense of powerlessness wash over her like a tidal wave.

She bit her lower lip, constantly sensing the terrifying magical fluctuations in the outside world, and a despairing guess took shape in her mind.

"My lord, this is definitely not an ordinary natural phenomenon." Olivia raised her head, looking directly into Lorraine's eyes. "This blizzard carries the oppressive aura of a fifth-tier demon. This seems—it seems to be a manifestation of the Winter Lord's domain—"

"That demon lord didn't wait seven days for the army to recover before making his move. He planned to use this blizzard, imbued with magic, to weaken our forces before the main force attacked the city!"

despair.

This was the only emotion Olivia could feel at that moment.

She looked at the coal reserves she had personally tallied, which she had originally thought were enough to withstand anything, but in the face of the overwhelming power of the Winter Lord, a monstrous monster, it seemed so laughable.

Even if the lord has dug out deep coal mines, even if they have done everything that humans can do, is it still impossible to deal with this snowstorm?

"My lady—" Olivia took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the bitterness in her heart. As the Minister of Logistics, she had to offer the most appropriate yet cruel advice at this moment. "If the coal runs out, the entire Frostwolf City will turn into an ice sculpture. We must make a decision. Cut off the heat pipes in the outer civilian areas and concentrate all the coal to supply the inner fortress and several core densely populated areas."

Olivia's heart was bleeding when she said those words.

This means watching helplessly as tens of thousands of civilians freeze into ice blocks in the snow.

But in order to preserve the core strength of the Tower of Babel, and to prevent everyone from dying in the snow season, she had to play the villain.

However, Lorraine didn't even flinch at Olivia's near-collapse and cruel proposal.

His dark eyes remained calm as an abyss, without the slightest panic, and he didn't even change his posture.

"Take your suggestion back, Olivia."

Lorraine spoke calmly, his voice not loud, yet carrying an undeniable authority, "I have said it before, the Tower of Babel will not abandon any of its people. Not before, and not now."

Olivia was stunned: "But sir, the consumption of coal—"

"With such an intense blizzard, there isn't enough coal to consume, so we need to reduce the snowstorm."

"Make the blizzard smaller?"

Lorraine didn't continue speaking, but calmly looked into the shadows on the side of the hall: "Catherine, it's your turn."

Accompanied by a faint crackling sound of static electricity, a burnt smell filled the air.

Catherine, dressed in a greyish-white coarse cloth nun's robe, slowly emerged from the shadows.

She wore a static veil on her face, her pale purple eyes were like a stagnant pool, and her hands were covered with black lace gloves. She exuded the suffocating pressure of a fourth-tier great witch.

"At your service, my lord." Catherine bowed slightly, her voice cold and hoarse.

Lorraine turned his gaze to the pale snowstorm outside the window, which was already approaching the city walls, and said calmly, "The Winter Lord wants to use the power of his domain to create an even stronger snowstorm to wear us down in advance. It's a good idea. But he doesn't seem to realize that Frostwolf City is not lacking in the ability to change the weather."

He looked at Catherine and methodically gave instructions: "Your witch-specific building, the weather controller, is just right to deal with this kind of extreme weather situation."

"While it's impossible to completely dispel the White Curtain Snowstorm caused by a fifth-tier demon, we don't need to."

Lorraine tapped his long fingers lightly on the table twice: "As long as it can weaken the blizzard and forcibly reduce its intensity by one level, even if it's just a partial reduction, combined with the city's existing thermal tower system, our coal reserves will be enough to last us for the next seven days."

Catherine had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

She has yet to make any outstanding contributions to the territory, and her relationship with the other witches is too distant.

But now, this is an opportunity to pledge allegiance.

She bowed slightly, her cherry lips beneath the veil curving into a smile: "As you wish. I will use the weather controller to tear open the white blizzard for you, to weaken it to a level the city can withstand."

"Very good." Lorraine stood up and turned to leave the lord's hall.

"Go preheat the weather controller. Start it precisely one hour from now. I want that monarch to see who's in charge of the skies over Frostwolf City now."

"Yes, sir." Catherine placed one hand on her chest, and her figure instantly transformed into a bolt of lightning, disappearing from the hall.