"Won"t it be too early if we were to go now? We can just retreat when those demons get to the city," a heavily-bearded and disagreed.
A white-faced elderly man who had already sustained injuries retorted, "If we wait until then, it"ll be too late."
He was clearly in agreement with the beautiful woman"s opinion.
"Hmph, have you become a coward just from a single battle against these demons, Senior Martial Brother w.a.n.g?" the bearded man jeered.
In the face of the man"s jeers, the old man remained calm as he said indifferently, "You don"t know anything, Junior Martial Brother Tong; you haven"t seen the might of the Myriad Demon Flag with your own eyes. Even though it"s only a spirit treasure replica, it"s power won"t be inferior to the primordial Heavenwielding Seal by much. Thankfully, Old Devil Che arrived on the scene in person. Otherwise, even if I were to join forces with the palace master, it would still have been extremely difficult for us to match the enemy in power."
The bearded man"s expression wavered slightly, but he still shook his head as he argued, "Is it really that powerful? Even so, it definitely won"t be a simple matter for our enemies to break through the final few layers of restrictions we"ve set up. I feel like it would be a waste to retreat before we take advantage of that fact."
The beautiful woman"s brows furrowed upon hearing this. She cast her gaze toward the faces of the people around her and said in a slow voice, "Don"t forget that there are enemies who have already reached the city. If it weren"t for Junior Martial Sister Bai and Junior Martial Sister Ye luring the Ice Phoenix into the Illusionary Light Formation to trap it, we most likely wouldn"t even be here discussing this matter right now! That Ice Phoenix is a pureblood descendant of a heavenly spirit beast. It may only be a grade ten demon beast, but it possesses power almost comparable to that of a half-Deity Transformation cultivator; it"s definitely not something that late-Nascent Soul human cultivators like us can compare with.
"Even with two elders controlling the formation spell in person, they won"t be able to contain the beast for long. Under such circ.u.mstances, we should prepare for a retreat as early as possible. However, Elder Tong"s suggestion is not entirely unfounded. How about this? We"ll get the weaker disciples to hide in the Spirit Void Hall first; the more powerful disciples and I will use the final few layers of restrictions to deal the enemy a heavy blow. We"ll kill as many demon beasts as possible, but do not engage in prolonged battles and retreat back to the Spirit Void Hall at the first sign of the restrictions being broken. Please remember that our main priority is to conserve our forces, not to eradicate demon beasts."
Everyone felt like this was a feasible course of action, so they all nodded in agreement with her suggestion.
Thus, they began to implement her plan as everyone left the palace to rally the disciples, preparing for retreat as well as the final battle.
As for the beautiful woman herself, she remained in the hall and sat down in a chair, falling into deep thought with a hint of concern in her eyes.
"You"ve already made appropriate arrangements, so what are you worried about? Could it be that you can also sense that something"s wrong?" The beautiful woman was sitting in her seat, minding her own business, but a faint voice suddenly sounded in her spiritual sense. It was an unfamiliar female voice.
The woman"s expression remained unchanged, but she replied coldly in her spiritual sense, "Infernal Ghost Mother, you better not do anything out of line unless you want to experience the pain of having your soul pierced."She seemed to be aware of who this woman was.
"Hehe, if you feel like you can"t handle the Myriad Demon Flag, you can get me to help you out. If you remove the restrictions on my body, you and I can join forces and a mere Myriad Demon Flag will be nothing to us!" the woman cackled. She appeared to be very confident in her own abilities.
"Remove your restrictions? Keep dreaming," the woman chuckled coldly.
"I"m just looking out for you; no need to get angry. This time, the demon beasts clearly have another intention in mind. Otherwise, why would they have mobilized so many of their troops? You might not be safe even if you hide in the Spirit Void Hall. In my opinion, it"ll be very difficult for the North Night Palace to survive this ordeal," the woman cackled in response.
"I won"t remove your restrictions no matter what you say. Releasing a ghost cultivator as powerful as you into this world will result in catastrophic consequences. You can just stay in the Profound Ghost Badge." The beautiful woman wasn"t tempted at all.
The woman fell silent for a moment before screeching in an enraged voice, "You say that now, but think about it; without my help, how would you have been able to progress to the late-Nascent Soul stage in just over 500 years? I"ve also saved your life on many occasions. If I hadn"t, you would"ve died countless times; how could you have become the palace master of the North Night Palace without me?"
"You are indeed correct, but don"t forget that if I hadn"t extracted the Profound Ghost Badge out of that block of Myriad Year Profound Ice, you"d still be hibernating underground. You only helped me reach the Nascent Soul stage so I would have the power to lift the Simultaneous Birth Curse placed upon you, is that not the case? Don"t make it sound like you"re some kind of philanthropist; you only helped me to help yourself," the beautiful woman replied indifferently.
"But you promised me that you"d release me!" The woman was still furious.
"I did, but then I found a secret technique that allowed me to draw on your Profound Yin Ghost Qi to drastically improve my rate of cultivation. If you can help me reach the Deity Transformation stage, your Simultaneous Birth Curse would automatically be lifted and you"ll be able to leave then" "Help you reach the Deity Transformation stage? Do you actually think I"m an omnipotent G.o.d?! If I could progress to the Deity Transformation stage, would I have been forced to become a ghost cultivator?" The woman was thunderous with rage.
"If you can"t help me reach the Deity Transformation stage, then I"ll make sure to seal you again before I pa.s.s away," the woman said expressionlessly.
In an extremely frosty voice, the woman said, "Hmph! We"ll see if you can even make it through this ordeal first! You"ve almost exhausted your supply of spirit stones as well, right? Without those things, there"s no way you"ll be able to make me help you."
"I may not have any more spirit stones, but what you said earlier was nothing more than conjecture. What are those demons going to be able to do to the Spirit Void Hall? Your efforts won"t be required here; the North Night Palace can deal with this threat on our own!" the beautiful woman responded with a dark expression.
She made a hand seal, seemingly to activate some sort of Celestial Technique, and the voice of the so-called Infernal Ghost Mother was abruptly cut off.
The beautiful recomposed herself before making her way out of the hall.
Two days later, after all of the low-level disciples were evacuated, the demon beasts outside quickly reached city of ice.
The North Night Palace was planning on taking advantage of the final few layers of restrictions to engage in one final battle with the demon beasts.
The manifestation of Old Devil Che, that small child, had fully recovered from his injuries during the past few days. He and the old man were charging into battle with the other metamorphosized demon beasts.
Following an extremely intense battle, both sides suffered some casualties, but the demons were ultimately the ones that came out on top. The small child was able to use the power of the Myriad Demon Flag to engulf two North Night Palace elders in quick succession. As a result, the beautiful woman was forced to retreat while the final restriction kept the demon beasts at bay.
Upon seeing this, Old Devil Che immediately unleashed the full power of the Myriad Demon Flag. Countless demon beasts transformed into demonic Qi, creating a turbulent wave that was cras.h.i.+ng relentlessly against the final restriction.
All of the North Night Palace cultivators had retreated into the Hidden Arctic Dragon Border, entering the Spirit Void Hall for protection.
The restriction on the border was immediately activated at the beautiful woman"s behest.
The three halls that were positioned in a triangular formation began to tremor violently as the ground began to split open, revealing a super formation spell the encompa.s.sed the three halls at its center.
There were countless spirit stones embedded into the formation spell, and most of them appeared to be of the mid-grade or above. At the very core of the formation, there were even a dozen or so high-grade spirit stones that were exceedingly rare.
Runes tumbled within the formation, s.h.i.+mmering with a mysterious and profound light.
Moments later, spiritual light began to intertwine in the air above, creating a vast expanse of silver light that almost encompa.s.sed the entire border.
Right at this moment, faint spiritual light also began to emanate from the three halls, following which three thick pillars of light erupted from the top of the halls. Those pillars of light shot straight into the air before disappearing into the silver light above.
The sound of rumbling thunderclaps erupted as peculiar spatial fluctuations radiated from within the light. Immediately thereafter, the light began to tumble and churn urgently, following which a white arc of light several thousand feet in length began to slowly emerge.
As soon as the arc of light appeared, a gust of wind swept up within the border. Small stones and debris were flung into the air as a result and countless buildings were instantly toppled. The world"s origin Qi was cast into disarray and everything was plunged into chaos.
However, those three halls seemed to be somehow related to those spatial rifts. The light emanating from them brightened considerably as the white arc of light in the air above slowly elongated and widened, as if a demonic eye was slowly opening.
When the rift had almost encompa.s.sed half of the area in the air above the border, bursts of silver light suddenly erupted from within, enveloping the three Spirit Void Halls.
One of the halls tremored violently before slowly rising up from the ground, traveling toward the spatial rift. A silver light flashed and the hall disappeared without a trace. The second hall immediately followed suit.
However, just as the third hall was about to rise up from the ground, a white light flashed from somewhere within the Hidden Arctic Dragon Border, upon which a snowy white Ice Phoenix roughly 10 feet in size suddenly revealed itself.
A hint of surprise flashed through the spirit beast"s green eyes as it caught sight of what was happening within the border. It then turned its attention to the final hall that was rising into the air and opened its mouth, blasting forth a white streak of light, which abruptly disappeared.
The phoenix then looked on with a cold expression as that final hall was also sucked into the spatial rift, without doing anything to prevent that from happening.
After all three halls had been absorbed into the spatial rift, the latter began to slowly seal over. A flash of silver light erupted and the rift completely disappeared. All of the phenomena that had taken place within the border also vanished.
Only then did the Ice Phoenix let loose a clear cry before spreading its wings and disappearing amid a burst of white light.
Some time later, an earth-shattering boom erupted and the entire mountain tremored and quaked. The demons had finally broken through the final restriction and stormed into the city of ice. The old man and the small child then rushed directly toward the mountain.
However, right at this moment, Master Arctic Dragon, who was situated in the Profound Ice Cave, was at a critical final juncture of breaking through his bottleneck.
Within the formation spell, Han Li"s Purple Apex Flames had already been snuffed out and he was looking toward a certain direction with a surprised look on his face.
Not only him, but the old woman, Bai Mengxin, and the others also wore similar expressions as they stared at the ma.s.sive rock at the center of the formation spell.
This was because the ball of light atop that rock had completely disappeared, and had been replaced by a white lotus flower of light.
Master Arctic Dragon was sitting within that lotus flower and wisps of glacial Qi were emanating from its petals, making his figure appear indistinct and murky within the lotus.
There was a six-colored lotus flower insignia imprinted on Master Arctic Dragon"s glabella which was rather indistinct, and blinking in and out of existence in an extremely unstable manner. What was even more peculiar was that a faint fragrant scent was wafting forth from his body. It was like the scent of sandalwood or of medicine, and it was a very rich aroma, but there was a faint fishy odor intermingled within.
It was incredible!