by <unknown>
Hardly had the molecular mica threads interweaved when an orange claw of fire crawled out of the mist and snatch right toward Li Yao's abdomen, only to crash into the molecular mica threads precisely. It was almost cut in half!
A bellow echoed inside the mist, and the fiery claw suddenly disappeared. Soon, 'Heaven Battering King' Qi Changsheng slowly showed up in the mist again!
He looked entirely different from before. His previously dry skin had become half transparent orange, with deep purple cracks here and there. His beard and his hair were bouncing like scorching fire. His whole body seemed to be made of magma!
In the legends, the fiery fiend brought fire and drought everywhere he went.
Although it was an overstatement, the Heaven Battering King's indestructible body allegedly blessed by the fiery fiend clearly boasted a certain superpower to control fire.
Perhaps it was because the working mechanism of his mitochondria was different from other people!
Just now, Qi Changsheng had crawled into the mist and ambushed Li Yao, yet he had become the victim of his own scheme. His right hand had almost been cut in half by the molecular mica threads, and a terrible wound had been left there.
However, it was not blood that was flowing out of the wound but a thick material resembling magma that appeared to be some sort of powerful adhesive. The wound was being stitched up at a visible rate. In the blink of an eye, the hand was as good as new, without even a scar.
The so-called 'indestructible body' had been displayed in such a weird way!
Qi Changsheng performed a seal with his right hand. His Cosmos Ring glittered crazily, and a saber more than two meters long, made from Heavenly River Red Copper, slowly showed up.
Solemnly, he stared at Li Yao with his spiral eyes and said, one word after another, "Master Spiritual Vulture, we never had any grudges with each other. There's no reason for us to attack each other the moment we meet…"
Before he finished his small talk, Qi Changsheng turned into a streak of orange brilliance. A saber in his hand was like an army of thousands of soldiers when he slashed it right toward Li Yao's face!
Li Yao had long been prepared. After a snort, a bright green claw glittered and appeared on his right hand. He split into dozens of phantoms, avoiding Qi Changsheng's attack, and condensed again behind him!
"That's indeed so, Heaven Battering King!"
The sharp claw on Li Yao's right hand turned into a cluster of gray mist. More than ten holes appeared on every talon, and a molecular mica thread was passing through every hole. As if he was controlling a puppet, Li Yao manipulated a hundred molecular mica threads to attack Qi Changsheng's critical parts at the same time.
While launching the fatal attacks, he chuckled. "Not only do we have absolutely no grudges between us, there are also a lot of opportunities for cooperation between us! I'm told that you have been excavating relics in the northwest and are best at exploring the treasures below the ground. As for me, I know a thing or two about magical equipment and rune arrays!"
"Exactly!" Qi Changsheng sprayed an overwhelming tide of saber auras even when Li Yao's molecular mica threads were cutting thousands of wounds all over his body. He was even trying to melt Li Yao's molecular mica threads with the scorching fire inside his body, forcing Li Yao to pull the molecular mica threads and the needles back and to quickly retreat.
Qi Changsheng burst into laughter. "You and I are both here for treasures, not to kill each other. Although we belong to different sides right now, we are both clear that Han Baling, Wan Mingzhu, and Wang Xi are as unreliable as Qi Zhongdao, the goddamn emperor, and the six major sects on your side. When we are truly faced with the Cloud Qin Gold Statues, it will be hard to say who is a friend and who is a foe!"
Boom!
The two of them had another head-on clash in midair. Ripples were spreading out in the mist like a blowing storm.
Li Yao gnashed his teeth. "Are you more reliable than them, Heaven Battering King?"
"Nobody is reliable nowadays!" Qi Changsheng spat on the ground and said, "However, although I do have a good appetite, it is impossible for me to swallow dozens of Cloud Qin Gold Statues alone. I believe that you cannot take all the Cloud Qin Gold Statues by yourself, either, Master. Doing you a favor will be doing myself a favor. Is it not good?"
"It certainly is!" Li Yao narrowed his eyes and said, "After the few rounds that we've fought, we basically know how strong we are. A great price must be paid if one of us wants to kill the other!
"With that in mind, why don't we stop now and wait until the Divine Palace is opened and the Cloud Qin Gold Statues are found to see whether we should fight or cooperate?"
Shua!
Qi Changsheng's saber blew out a tide of flames.
When the 'tide' was minced apart by the freezing wind, he had already drifted hundreds of meters away to the other side of the mist. Retreating his saber, he clasped his fist toward Li Yao, implying that the deal had been made.
Right then, deafening cracks were echoing from mist—the very fact that the noises had passed through the thick mist to the sky almost a thousand meters above the ground was indicative enough of the mayhem at the source of the sounds!
Right then, the center of the mist abruptly sank, as if an enormous crack had appeared at the bottom of the mist into which all the mist was pouring. Very soon, the mist had already grown a lot thinner!
As the mist grew thinner, the two of them were finally able to clearly see what was happening down below. It was indeed a messy and disordered battlefield!
Because of the blockage of the mist and the scourge of the ice devils, both the Great Qian Cultivators and the subordinates of the Four Rapscallions had lost their way.
After fleeing in panic for a while, many of them had run into their enemies and fought them hard, their blood shed on the white snow!
At this moment, the mist gradually dispersed. Like a maze whose walls had been retracted, they finally discovered that they had been completely entangled with their enemies. While they surrounded part of the enemies, they were surrounded by other enemies, too. It was impossible for them to break from the battlefield!
After a brief, weird silence, the two parties unleashed roars and spiritual waves that were even fiercer than before. Without bothering about the ice devils that were still wandering around them, they battled to the death!
Wu!
Awe-inspiring horns were blown in the camp made of the flying boats of the Great Qian Dynasty.
The Fiery Phoenix Legion, in their crimson armor, marched to the center of the battlefield in a burning arrowhead under the lead of Emperor Phoenix.
It was the only organized troop on the Great Qian Dynasty in the mess. Obviously, it was going to play an important role in the battlefield!
Hiu! Hiu! Hiu! Hiu!
Far, far away, on the other side of the snowy world, a few alarm arrows were shot into the sky.
Accompanied by hundreds of violent howls, the elite Dragon Wolf knights commanded by Han Baling, the regent of Ghost Qin, began to trample on the vulnerable snow field with their iron hooves!
Chapter 1471: Snow Field Falls, Divine Palace Rises! |
Neither of the two troops had more than a thousand soldiers. Yet, none of their members were ordinary people. They were the tough soldiers at least in the Building Foundation Stage, equipped with the finest weapons and armor and riding the most ferocious animals. Well-trained, they truly gave the feeling that they were an unstoppable tsunami when they were rushing forward with their fighting will reverberating!
Even the high-level Cultivators in the Core Formation Stage and even the Nascent Soul Stage would not want to stand in the way of those two iron troops!
The two torrents almost discovered their opponent simultaneously. Like two attracted magnets, they crashed toward each other without dodging. Their unstoppable aura reminded Li Yao of two high-speed crystal trains that were running toward each other!
Shua! Shua! Shua!
The soldiers of both troops were adept at reining their mounts. While they were rushing, they cast spells, drew their bows, or summoned their swords on the back of the bumpy animals. Thousands of weapon auras, fire balls, and sharp arrows around which lightning was dancing drew devastating arcs in the air, brushed past each other, and landed upon the enemy.
Occasionally, some of the auras and arrows crashed in midair, resulting to the colorful balls of light exploding. The broken pieces that were rotating rapidly sprained down like flowers!
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
Hazy spiritual shields were rising around the battle formations of the two parties, but they could not block all the auras and arrows. More and more people were shot by the arrows. Half of their body was electrified and burnt, and some even lost their entire arm during the explosions. Yet, they did not say anything when they crouched on their Dragon Wolves and horses. Even if they were about to die, they were destined to make their mounts drag their bones into the enemy's chest!
Boom!
The two torrents finally crashed brutally!
There were few fancy tricks on the battlefield. The two parties barely stopped. After a brief stalemate like the dragonflies dipping on the water, they pierced through the enemy's formation and swapped sides with the enemy.
After the single encounter, hundreds of broken bodies were already left on the ground. The battle formations of both parties were significantly sparser than before. However, under the command of their leading generals, they soon regrouped and adjusted their direction, ready to launch the second wave of attacks!
The party that regrouped into a new attack formation and adjusted to the best direction for the next assault while maintaining the high morale would likely be the final victor in the battle!
Li Yao saw that Emperor Phoenix was leading the charge at the front of the Fiery Phoenix Legion on a horse that had wings on its back and colorful long tails behind the hindquarters.
Perhaps because he despised his feminine face, he was wearing a mask that had been shaped like a phoenix bathing in fire. The long beak and the bulging eyes, all made of crimson crystals, were emitting indescribable brutality. Together with the long spear in his hand, he was like a totally different person from when Li Yao had met him a couple of days ago.
At the front of the Dragon Wolf Knights, on the back of a tall and majestic Dragon Wolf whose hair was pure black, there was a Ghost Qin warrior with a typical look of his people. His cheekbones were high, his eyes looked like almonds, and the gold rings on his ears were dangling to his shoulders, producing clanging sounds. He was wearing a hat made of bear hide, but even the head of the bear had somehow been fashioned into the hat after being refined through special liquids. At first glance, he was like a great bear that had stood on its feet!
It was Han Baling, the leader of the Ghost Qin and the greatest headache for the Great Qian Dynasty!
There were barely any grudges between Li Yao and Qi Changsheng, but for Emperor Phoenix and Han Baling, they were the best example for 'sworn enemies'!
The flames of spiritual energy on them, one side red and the other black, were spreading out infinitely like fire that had been added with oil. The snow field below their feet was cracking nonstop, and gaps that looked like spider webs were appearing!
"Fellow Cultivator Spiritual Vulture!" Qi Changsheng grimaced. "Han Baling is dueling with your lousy emperor right now. Although I don't like Han Baling, I like the louse emperor even less. If you choose to help your emperor, I'll have to go and help Han Baling. The result will not be any different from right now, except that the two of us may have to blow each other's brains out. Why bother?
"I suggest we stay here and see which of them wins the battle. What do you say?"
Li Yao replied with a nod. He did not intend to interfere with the fight between Emperor Phoenix and Han Baling in the first place.
Although Han Baling was one of the ambitious Four Rapscallions, there might be even greater schemes behind Emperor Phoenix.
Before everything was clear, Li Yao's priority was definitely to preserve his strength.
He shifted his attention to search for the other super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators.
The super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were like fireflies on a dark night when they activated their astonishing spiritual energy for self-protection in the middle of the ice devils. He found them without any trouble.
Ba Xiaoyu and Master Bitter Cicada were confronting Wan Mingzhu, who was leading more than ten gold, glittering zombie kings, while Qi Zhongdao and Yan Liren were faced with Wang Xi and more than ten experts who looked like phantoms and seemed to be the elite assassins of the Ghost Character.
What surprised Li Yao for a moment was that Wang Xi had resumed his generally-known appearance. He looked like a true middle-aged scholar.
The two parties were all holding their weapons calmly and did not get into a fight right away.
After all, other than the few of them, there were dozens of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators on the battlefield. Those from the Grand Mystery Sect, the Purple Pole Sword Sect, and other major sects might not necessarily listen to their commands.
The Divine Palace and the Cloud Qin Gold Statues had not yet been seen. Except for Emperor Phoenix and Han Baling, who were each other's sworn enemies, nobody was willing to throw out all their trump cards.
The cracking sounds that pierced through the mist in the beginning and caused the dispersion of the mist were still echoing on the battlefield, attracting the attention of all the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators including Li Yao and Qi Changsheng.
The sounds came from the depths of the snow field.
It seemed like a bottomless gap had been created in the ground. The immense attraction force in the hole was absorbing all the mist nearby, producing a remarkable view that looked like a white tornado.
When the mist was almost exhausted by the gap, everybody was finally able to get a general picture of the snow field.
It was much more than a simple 'gap'; it was more like a splendid canyon with shining, translucent cliffs, leading to a dark, boundless underground world!
Crack! Crack!
The canyon in the ice that was thousands of meters long and hundreds of meters wide was still growing, as if a pair of invisible hand was still mauling the earth and tearing it half. The broken ice on the two sides of the canyon was collapsing and rolling into the canyon. But the feeble sound of collisions did not come over until more than ten seconds later!
"Not good!"
Floating at an altitude of hundreds of meters, Li Yao noticed before anyone else that, when the mist was dispersing, the snow field below him was perfectly round. The hundreds of square kilometers in the center was the flattest plateau, which was surrounded by a circle of towering mountains.
It was a very typical crater, caused by an enormous meteorite or something else when it hit the ground heavily.
The snow field at the center was as smooth as a mirror, without the slightest rumple. Also, its color was entirely different from the rocks around, suggesting that it was just a thick shell of pure ice that did not have the least solid rock!
It appeared that a long time ago, a meteor or some other artificial object had hit the crust here, leaving an enormous crater.
At that time, the Land of Eternal Night had probably not been so cold. The rainwater gradually gathered and formed a special lake in the crater.
Later, as the days went by, the temperature gradually dropped, freezing the crater lake into an enormous ice block.
But for some reason, only the topmost part of the ice block was frozen, and the remaining parts were all hollow!
The thunderous noise that they had heard at the beginning was the sound of the ice shell breaking apart.
It was a pity that the two parties were still attacking each other brutally and releasing their spiritual energy and magical equipment without any reserve. They were savaging the earth as hard as they were savaging their en
emy.
Hard as the ice shell might have been, it could not withstand the collective bombardment of thousands of Cultivators. Therefore, it broke apart from the middle!
When the raging cracks spread out nonstop and surpassed the tipping point, the avalanche began!
The ice shell almost a hundred kilometers in diameter fell apart in the blink of an eye. It rose high above first before it collapsed into the abyss helplessly like a ship that had an accident on the ocean.
Most of the Cultivators were still fighting on the ice shell. Few of them realized what was going on. Even if they did, they were hardly able to spurt spiritual energy and fly into the sky in time while in such a harsh environment!
Many of them fell into the abyss amid the broken ice. Some were rushing here and there in the middle of the ice that was sliding like a waterfall, trying to escape, only to be smashed by a few giant rocks of ice.
Some fell into the depths of the canyon while waving their hands and feet, and there was no telling what happened to them after the hazy white smoke they raised!
The heated battlefield was disrupted by the unexpected change. The fortunate Cultivators at the periphery of the ice lake all looked at each other in bewilderment, stunned by the enormous crater that had shown up in front of them out of nowhere.
Even Emperor Phoenix and Han Baling's troops were divided into two sides by the canyon almost a hundred meters wide. Restraining their respective troops, they looked at the canyon in suspicion.
The ice canyon was like a lake whose water had been pumped away. It was in the most precise circle.
Under the cover of the ice shell above, the rocks thousands of meters below the ground must have been blocked from the world for hundreds of thousands of years. They were releasing the glamorous bluish colors. Natural blue crystals were also growing in the middle of the crevices, making the place look like a gorgeous, splendid palace!
A silver, magnificent building was standing in the deepest part of the ice canyon. It was made purely of metal, yet there was no sign of rust whatsoever after such a long time. Instead, a layer of vague silver light was reflected on the surface, which was fluctuating unpredictably like the ocean. One could not help but feel the urge to worship it.
