The Ice Spirit tide surged in layers from all directions. They ran on the ground, crawled on the walls, and drifted in the sky, with even the weakest possessing a Foundation Establishment cultivation. They lacked tactical intelligence and relied solely on physical strength, which was the only reason Lu Yan and his group had managed to survive this long without any casualties. Chen San's axe was no longer able to shatter several of them at once like in the beginning; every swing consumed a significant amount of his vital energy. The dark gold patterns on the axe blade grew thinner, flickering erratically. Despite the falling snow, a thin layer of sweat broke out on his forehead, droplets sliding down the tip of his nose and freezing into ice beads before they even hit the ground. Gritting his teeth, he swung his axe down again, splitting open an Ice Spirit's head and getting a face full of shattered ice.
“Buzz—” Tens of thousands of Ice Spirits emitted a low vibration from their chests. The overlapping sound waves pressed toward them like an invisible wall. Lu Yan felt a dull ache in his chest, as if he had been struck by a hammer. A sweet taste rose in his throat, and a trace of dark red blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. He raised his hand to wipe it, leaving a bloody streak on the back of his hand. He could not see; he only smelled the scent of rust. Gritting his teeth, he squeezed another thread of spiritual energy from his dantian and poured it into the formation plate in his hand.
The path ahead was blocked by Ice Spirits again. Du Qi grit his teeth and pointed toward a narrow alley nearby. “Change path! Turn right!” Chen San turned and hacked open a path to the right, with Su Li following closely behind, throwing fireballs. Her fireballs were no longer as large as they were at the beginning. They had shrunk from the size of washbasins to bowls, then to fists, and now they were only the size of chicken eggs, their color fading from bright gold to a dark red. In temperatures over ten degrees below zero, her body heat had dropped so low that her breath no longer even formed white mist. Fine ice crystals condensed on her eyelashes, her temples, and the tips of her hair, making her look like a sculpture in the process of being frozen solid. A layer of white frost crept up from her neck and onto her cheeks, adding a layer of grayish-white deathly pallor to her already fair skin. She raised her hand to brush off the frost, her fingertips touching her skin—it was freezing cold, like touching a block of ice.
Earlier, an Ice Blade Wielder had closed in on her. Although she wasn't cut, the Ice Spirit suddenly self-detonated, catching her completely off guard. The shockwave of the explosion knocked Su Li to the ground, sending ice shards piercing into her soft armor, allowing the chill to seep through the tears. Large patches of her skin were frostbitten, from her shoulders to her arms, and from her chest to her waist. Gritting her teeth, she raised her hand and threw a fireball, blowing away a group of Ice Spirits. The firelight illuminated her face, flickering once before dying down again. The cold seeped through the frostbitten skin and deep into her bones. Her spiritual energy was being devoured by the chill; she felt herself slowing down, and she felt her flames growing weaker. Gritting her teeth, she threw another fireball.
There was no absolute counter between ice and fire; whoever was stronger would suppress the other. Right now, the Ice Spirits were stronger than her. She glanced back and saw Yao Wu using vines to entangle an Ice Spirit that was lunging from behind, squeezing the last drops of spiritual energy from his dantian.
Du Qi stood in the middle of the group, his brush tip moving rapidly through the air, writing one ink character after another. The character for “Firm” fell onto Chen San's back; though his axe swings slowed by a beat, the Ice Spirits shattered more thoroughly when the blade landed. The character for “Swift” wrapped around Su Li's arm, making her fireball-throwing hand a split second faster. The character for “Spirit” drifted toward Yao Wu, making it less exhausting for him to grow vines. With every character Du Qi wrote, his face grew a shade paler. By the time he finished ten characters, his brush tip began to tremble. His ink had run dry long ago, so he bit the tip of his tongue and dipped his brush in blood. The characters formed from blood-ink were redder and richer than the regular ink ones, standing out starkly in the snowy night, but they dissipated much faster. His spiritual energy was also hitting rock bottom.
Looking at the seemingly endless tide of Ice Spirits before her, a sense of powerlessness welled up in Su Li's heart. Am I going to die here? She bit her lip, her eyes stinging. Father, Mother, your daughter ultimately failed to revitalize the Beast Taming Sect...
She pulled a fiery red calamity seed from her storage bag and clenched it in her hand, which was trembling. She did not want to die; she wanted to live. She hadn't reclaimed the Beast Taming Sect yet; she could not die.
A vine wrapped around her waist from behind and yanked her backward. Yao Wu's voice came from behind, hoarse and tight. “Don't daze off!” Pure spiritual energy mixed with vitality surged from the vine. It wasn't much, but it was enough to give someone at the end of their rope a moment to breathe. An Ice Spirit exploded where she had been standing just a moment ago, scattering broken ice everywhere. Du Qi's ink spread out in front of her, transforming into a shield that blocked a shower of ice spikes. The spikes struck the ink shield with muffled thuds. Du Qi patted Su Li's shoulder and shook his head. His face was transparently pale, like a sheet of paper about to be blown away by the wind. “It's not time yet,” he said. Su Li dazed for a moment. She looked down at the still-warm calamity seed in her hand, clenched it tightly, and then released it. She stuffed it back into her storage bag and took a deep breath of the freezing wind, her throat burning as if she had swallowed a handful of broken glass. Enduring the pain, she retreated two paces, casting a spell that was slightly more powerful than before.
They were very close to the city wall now. The southern wall was completely bare, without a single Ice Spirit on it. It wasn't that they couldn't climb it, but rather that they seemed to be avoiding something. They only knew how to mindlessly fight and kill, charging like armored cavalry... That was beside the point.
They had no tactics and no flexibility. If there wasn't a mastermind behind them, Du Qi would never believe they could surround Black Mountain Fort in such an orderly fashion. How could Ice Spirits penetrate so deep into the Northern Border's heartland? There were clearly so many other towns to the north, so why did they gather specifically in Black Mountain Fort, which was surrounded by mountains on three sides? A name surfaced in Du Qi's mind, but he did not speak it aloud; now was not the time. Nor was there any time. He bit his wrist, and blood gushed out. Instead of stopping the bleeding, he sliced the wound even deeper. As blood dripped from his fingertips, he raised his brush, dipped it in blood, and sketched a red-and-black interwoven chain in the air. As if it were alive, the chain surged from the brush tip and slammed into the city wall, pinning itself down and stretching into a taut line. “Go up, quick!” Du Qi clutched his wound as blood seeped through his fingers, dripping onto the snow and blooming into dark red flowers.
Jiang Ci was the first to step onto the chain, with Su Li following behind, and Du Qi at the rear. The chain was too narrow; three people were already the limit. Chen San, Yao Wu, and Lu Yan were still below. As Ice Spirits surged from all directions, Chen San let out a furious roar and swung his dual axes in a full circle, using his remaining vital energy to ripple out a ring of dark gold light. The light expanded outward, shattering the nearest ring of Ice Spirits, sending broken ice raining down from the sky. He panted heavily, bending over and supporting himself with his axe on the ground. “You guys go up first! I'll hold the rear!” Yao Wu dragged Lu Yan toward the chain. Lu Yan's fingers were still groping along the formation plate; blind, he did not know where the chain was or how high the city wall stood. He only knew that Yao Wu was pulling him, so he climbed along.
The Ice Spirits surged forward again. Chen San swung his axe, shattering one, two, three of them. His movements grew slower and slower, and the light patterns on his axe blade were almost invisible now. Gritting his teeth, he swung again, taking down another. His arms were trembling, not from the cold, but from sheer exhaustion.
An ice dart shot from the distance—no, it was more than that. The dart struck the blood chain with pinpoint accuracy, severing the taut chain right down the middle. The blood chain snapped, shattering into several segments before dissolving into specks of red light in the snowy night. Du Qi's pupils contracted sharply as he looked in the direction the ice dart had come from. At some point, a figure had appeared on the city wall. Clad in grayish-white robes, with grayish-white hair and grayish-white skin, she stood by the battlement, looking down at them. It was the gaze of someone looking at food, at prey. A smile played on her lips as she gently licked them.
“Did I say you could leave?”
Rate on N.U.
