Chapter Thirty-Seven: Eye of the Formation
In Changling, it was already a dark night, but among the glaciers, the sun seemed as though it would never set.
Being able to sense some of the traces that Spirit Void Sword Sect cultivator left behind did not mean being able to accurately sense it at any time. Zhangsun Qianxue had spent a lot of time. When the never setting sun seemed like it was going to disappear behind the horizon, she looked ahead and suddenly smiled.
She rarely smiled. While her smile was otherwise reserved, right now it was unusual.
Ding Ning had felt like falling asleep several times. Each time extreme tiredness came at him and his body was on the verge of losing consciousness, the invisible silk worms in his body would spit out silk-like energy, waking him up again.
But the Nine Death Silkworms that were in his body could not always release energy. From Changling to here, he had stored many years of energy, especially the pure energy that he absorbed during the spirit rain at the mountain of ancestors, but they had almost all been used up in his breakthrough previously.
Even more importantly, most of the power in his Nine Death Silkworm was being used to suppress the power of the elixir of life. And because of the appearance of the strange army, it would not be an easy time to get that sword.
So looking at Zhangsun Qianxue’s reserved smile, he sighed in relief, and said softly, “Almost there?”
Zhangsun Qianxue’s gaze landed on the flat glaciers ahead and nodded. Her smile grew bigger. “The elder from Spirit Void Sword Sect tried too hard to conceal and exposed it. I did not think that he would seal the lake’s surface into a glacier just to conceal this lake.”
Ding Ning shook and looked at the ice under his feet. “It is a lake under here?”
“The ice is a bit thick, but under it is a lake,” Zhangsun Qianxue looked at him, and said, “a hot lake.”
The old monk walking ahead hesitated and stabbed with a bit of force at the ice surface below. He did not appear to put much force. But when the tip of his staff was lifted again, there was a straight pinhole on the ice. A wisp of white hot energy sprayed out. But then the heat quickly disappeared, and the small hole was sealed again by the frozen steam.
There was a hot lake below.
A hot lake high up in such cold glaciers like this meant the ground here might contain a kind of power that was very different from other parts of the glaciers. That Spirit Void Sword Sect cultivator used powerful means to seal the surface of this hot lake with thick ice, because they did not want anyone to find what was odd about this place.
But for Zhangsun Qianxue who could trace his remaining presence, it was a bit ironic. He had used such means to seal the lake, and so the presence he left behind on the lake’s surface felt extremely strong to Zhangsun Qianxue. It resonated with her lifebond sword, like they had built a large bonfire here.
The three walked along the ice surface. There was a presence at the other end of the lake that resonated with Zhangsun Qianxue’s lifebond sword. It seemed to be the destination of this trip.
Small piece of ice cracked under their feet, creating creaking sounds. The sound did not seem any different from walking at other places, but considering that there was a hot lake under his feet, Ding Ning could not help but feel strange.
The surface of the lake was broad. When the light was dim, it was not possible to see the middle of the lake from one end.
When Ding Ning, Zhangsun Qianxue and the old monk were at the middle of the lake, and almost invisible in the dim light, from a side of the lake, many large black figures appeared.
They were still snow hou.
Even though the old monk had killed over fifty of the beasts, these rare and powerful beasts reappeared. There were over two hundred snow hou dragging along loads and flooding the side of the lake onto the thick eyes layer.
On the backs of these beasts and the loads behind them were cultivators in padded and heavy black robes. Even more spectacular and terrifying, and almost unbelievable, behind the snow hou herd was an army.
There were more than three hundred people in the army, all of them on foot, silent like ghosts. For cultivators that could travel long distances on foot rather than rely on mounts like the snow hou, realm six cultivation was needed.
But there was no army in the world that could possess over three hundred cultivators above realm six. Even during the era of the Ba Mountain Sword Field, no such army could exist.
Since it could not exist, there was only one explanation, that not all of the soldiers were above realm six.
They were not realm six but they could travel like realm six. This silent army looked more terrifying than the swarm of snow hou in front of them.
**
True night descended upon the glaciers. Just like how the sun previously felt like it would never set, the darkness in a place like this felt that it would be eternal like, and light would never come up.
The old monk stopped walking, as did Ding Ning and Zhangsun Qianxue. They had not yet reached the other side of the lake, and there was a long way off.
But there was a pillar of ice ahead of them. This ice pillar was only one to two feet tall, and did not seem unusual even on a flat lake. But Ding Ning and the old monk could clearly sense that this ice pillar had taken a long time to “grow.”
Originally, this place had also been flat. But the sword had interrupted some energy below, and connected this place to Spirit Void Sword Sect. The energies changed, and caused the ice surface here to slowly bulge up, and form an ice pillar like this. So this was the eye of the formation.
The sword was the thing that suppressed this place, and it was right under the pillar of ice.
Ding Ning turned around and looked at the inky black lake behind him. The ice layer was trembling slightly. They had found this sword, and the army had also followed. Clearly, they did not hide, and were directly mounting an attack.
After the initial skirmish, the army had not attacked again. Now, they were attacking drastically. This meant that the army’s target was likely the same as them, to search for this sword.
The cold wind coming down started to collapse, and the thin air started to tremble.
A ball of green flame suddenly appeared in the black night sky.
The green flame fell from high up in the sky. The long tail of the flame quickly went out because the air was too thin, so it looked like a moving demon’s eye in the sky. It caused the surface of the lake to shine like emeralds. There were many cold golden energies within it.
This was “Heaven Slaughter.” It was a powerful seal weapon from the Chu Dynasty, and it was powerful enough to cover the lake for many kilometers.
On the green glittering lake surface, the snow hou, that had unloaded their burdens, charged like enormous black shadows with gusts of wind.