Cold laughter came out of the formation. “You want to break my great formation with those little tricks? Keep dreaming!”
It went without saying that this was the Frost Fairy.
Sprites were born with intelligence. It was just that feasting on flesh and drinking blood made them sink back into ignorance, and it was only at Mind Opening that they regained their humanity. It wasn’t strange for her to be able to speak.
But this sprite had displayed an abnormal intelligence, much to the misfortune of the students.
Screams continued to rise and fall from the formation as the Frost Fairy continued to hunt down her prey.
At this moment, a furious roar came from within the formation. “Sprite, get out here!”
Boom!
There was an explosion of light in the distance, and the shockwave unsettled the icy fog.
“Senior Brother!” various students within the formation cried out.
“It’s Peng Yaolong?” Tang Jie was also startled.
He knew who this Peng Yaolong was. He was a sixth-year student at the Spirit Sea Tier, but his strength was infinitesimally close to the Mortal Shedding Realm, and it was said that it wouldn’t be long until he reached that realm. Among the students vying for the True Inheritor spot, he was considered the strongest and the one with the highest chance.
But in the mission to find Lin Lang, he hadn’t been able to make use of his prodigious strength. This expedition to the Valley of No Return was the perfect opportunity to display his skills.
While the illusion formation didn’t break under Peng Yaolong’s attack, it flashed with multicolored light as the fog was thrown into turmoil, and its effectiveness dwindled.
Another voice called out, “All schoolmates skilled in formations, seek out an opportunity to break the formation!”
It was An Rumeng!
In the face of this strong foe, the students finally put aside their divisions and attacked in unison. Various lights erupted from all parts of the formation, sending ripples through it.
Even so, the illusion formation managed to barely hold on. Even with all the students working together, they could only weaken it, not destroy it.
A cold and sinister voice rang out in the fog, carrying a frightening and smug growl and tinged with murderous joy. “A last-ditch and pointless struggle… Is the Basking Moon Sect on the decline? There isn’t even one Mortal Shedding Realm among you. Or are they hiding in the shadows, waiting for the right time to strike?”
“Sprite!” someone roared. “We didn’t come this time for you. While you’re strong, you can’t possibly deal with the more than one thousand students here. Let us go at once, and we’ll spare your life!”
“Oh? So you’re saying that you didn’t come to kill me?”
“Correct, we…”
Tang Jie roared, “Don’t tell her!”
But the student ignored him, shouting, “We came for the Iceflame Red Lotus!”
“Bastard!” Tang Jie stomped his feet in anger.
The icy wind carried along a mournful laughter. “The Iceflame Red Lotus? So it was for that… In other words, the valley was not opened this time for the purpose of slaughter? It was no wonder I didn’t see any Mortal Shedding cultivators. I see, I see! Haha, I can rest at ease!”
Her laughter became crazed as it resounded through the Floral Forest, and everyone’s hearts shivered.
This Frost Fairy had become cautious ever since it had reached Mind Opening, fearing that some expert could be hiding in the shadows. Now that that student had revealed the truth, she understood that this valley opening was different from the previous ones. In her delight, her killing intent rose.
She shrilly said, “Since that’s the case, all of you can stay here!”
As she spoke, the icy fog within the formation intensified, and the cold winds surged, bringing forth even greater waves of cold.
Countless snowflakes danced within the cold waves, condensing together in the sunlight and forming large chunks of ice that glistened like crystals.
First, a giant wall of ice rose up in all directions, and following that, giant pillars of ice flew out of the walls. There were eighteen in all, extending in the air and forming a giant ring of ice.
Frost continued to dance as the cold wave surged. More ice continued to form on the ice ring, ice walls rising, ice windows opening, and ice flowers blooming with enchanting light.
In this resplendent light, a palace of ice began to take shape. Supported by eighteen pillars, a pavilion of ice floated in the air, glistening with a jaw-dropping beauty in the sunlight.
The Frost Fairy had constructed an ice palace right before everyone’s eyes.
“Heavens… This is an art!” someone couldn’t help but mutter.
This was a true spell art, singlehandedly harnessing the powers of the world to create an incredible ability.
Compared to an art, the spells the students had were pathetic.
When it came to spells, all that could compare to the ice palace was a top-class spell like the Heavenly King Mara Incantation, but a single use of the Heavenly King Mara Incantation could completely drain a Spirit Platform Realm student of spiritual energy. Mind Opening arts were connected to the world and could draw upon its energy. Thus, this palace of ice would never take as much energy.
A majestic staircase of ice, covered in beautiful patterns, extended from the ice palace all the way to the ground like an arched bridge.
At the end of that bridge, a sprite wearing the robes of a princess made from ice and snow appeared in front of the palace.
She appeared around a meter tall, held a scepter of ice, and wore a crown of ice. Her cold and beautiful face was tinged with savagery and radiated a murderous energy.
This was an emotion that would inevitably appear on the face of a sprite who had spent most of their life evading humans. They had never experienced the warmth and kindness of the human world, only its endless greed.
The hatred nourished in this evasion gradually produced a desire for vengeance, and now, the moment had come for it to all come out.
Logically speaking, no matter how strong the Frost Fairy was, she couldn’t possibly fight against more than a thousand students, for numerous ants could ultimately bite an elephant to death. Unless the gap between the two was particularly large, it was very difficult to ignore the difference in numbers.
But for her, if she had any real chance, it was in this fog formation that had cut and peeled apart the students…
She raised her ice scepter high and ordered, “Go; kill all the intruders!”
As she spoke, snowflakes danced, turning into countless ice sprites. They were like little butterflies, wings growing from their backs as they rushed out in all directions.
Cries of alarm rang out from the formation as the battle began.
The Frost Fairy pointed down, and a pillar of ice shot out from her body and began to rampage like a giant ice dragon. She intended to use her advantage in terrain to massacre all the students.
“Watch out!”
“Dodge!”
“Strike back!”
As people shouted, beams of light were fired at the Frost Fairy.
What followed were numerous explosions of rainbow light around the ice palace. Flecks of ice flew in the air, reflecting a rainbow of colors, but this gorgeous sight only made everyone’s hearts sink.
This ice palace wasn’t just a pretty sight. It also served as a powerful defensive system for the Frost Fairy. All attacks aimed at her had to first get through the ice palace.
Though the students had numbers, because they were all split apart, they found it difficult to combine their powers, and with the numerous little sprites disrupting them, they were too busy with their own problems to counterattack.
The Frost Fairy still wasn’t satisfied. She once more thrust out her ice scepter, and snow began to pile up on the ground. A moment later, giant snow monsters emerged.
This was the Frost Fairy’s Frost Summon, an ability to produce monsters from snow and ice.
“Big Brother, hurry and help us! So many monsters!” Yiyi shouted into Tang Jie’s ear.
Tang Jie was perhaps the only person not in the formation, and so he was not being distracted by the various snow monsters.
“Raaa!” Tang Jie raised a rock and threw it at the distant Frost Fairy.
The Frost Fairy simply raised her hand, and the rock struck the ice palace’s stairs with a boom, sending shards of ice shooting into the air. This enormous force surprised the Frost Fairy, but she still sneered.
In her view, this was just a student who was lucky enough to not be in the formation, who understood a little about formations but had limited ability. While he was unaffected by the illusion formation, he alone could do little damage to her. She placed her real focus within the formation, where some of the stronger students were putting up a dogged resistance, gathering the scattered students so that they could join their powers. She had no choice but to devote most of her energy into constantly dispersing them.
But a moment later, several large trees smashed into the ice palace, the immense power within them causing the ice palace to shudder. Tang Jie called out, “Destroy the ice palace! This ice palace is created from the fog of the formation. Its destruction will have a huge effect on the formation!”
Even more attacks howled at the ice palace.
A hint of annoyance appeared on the Frost Fairy’s face. “Damn! You lot want to destroy my illusion formation? Absurd!”
She whistled, and frost surged out, forming into countless ice bats, with several hundred of them charging at Tang Jie. It was clear that she was rather worried about him.
Although Tang Jie couldn’t break her illusion formation, his every move had played a pivotal role. The Frost Fairy now considered him a threat.
An ice tornado rushed out, turning into fog as it moved to envelop Tang Jie, and the range of the illusion formation expanded to enclose Tang Jie. The Frost Fairy had decided that even if she had to reduce the power of her illusion formation, she would get Tang Jie in her formation and stop him from watching from the side.
Yet while Tang Jie had predicted this move, he didn’t fall back.
He allowed the fog to engulf him and the ice bats to fly toward him. He looked up at the Frost Fairy and snorted, “If you’re so nervous, it must mean that your formation has a flaw and you’re afraid that I’ll find it, right? I can’t blame you for that. You’re just an amateur sprite, so how can the formations you lay down surpass those of cultivators!? There are two reasons your illusion formation is so successful. The first is that you have the frost attribute, and water can turn into fog, which makes it a natural fit for illusion formations. The second is that the Floral Forest already possesses a spatial dislocation attribute. All you’re doing is borrowing its power.”
The Frost Fairy immediately paled. “And what about it? The Floral Formation was laid down by True Lord Tianshu. You think you can break it?”
Tang Jie chuckled. “I naturally can’t break it, but even if I could, I wouldn’t. After all, doesn’t this formation exist to hold you? You’re just borrowing the tiger’s prestige, but it’s never going to be yours… Just because I can’t break your illusion formation, it doesn’t mean I can’t deal with you!”
He raised his head and looked at the Frost Fairy, and then he roared, “Since I can’t break your illusion formation, I’ll just add on a layer!”
He smashed his right arm into the ground, and spiritual light radiated outward. At the same time, he called out using Heart Consonance, “Yiyi, use the formation diagram!”
“Understood!” Yiyi raised her hand, and the formation diagram appeared in her palm. The ice fog immediately swept outward and thickened. The formation’s range increased even more, even encroaching upon the sky and swallowing up more than half of the ice palace.
“This is…” The Frost Fairy was aghast.
“Eight Desolations Illusion Formation!” Tang Jie took out the Alarm Gate Banner and thrust it into the ground. At the same time, he took out all the materials that he could use to lay down an illusion formation.
Fighting a formation with a formation!
Since I can’t break your illusion formation, I’ll just set up another illusion formation in your formation so that you can’t know what’s going on around you! This was Tang Jie’s thought process.
He had the Alarm Gate Banner while Yiyi had the formation diagram and her talent. With the two of them working together, a new illusion formation that borrowed the spiritual energy of the world was formed.
Laying down a formation within a formation required some degree of resonance, or else the formations would get in the way of each other and simultaneously fail.
But Tang Jie didn’t care.
They would either coexist or perish. Either result was fine for him!
Just as he had predicted, while the Frost Fairy was at Mind Opening, she lacked instruction. She didn’t actually understand formations. All she had were her natural gifts and what she had learned from her environment. Although she was truly formidable, she lacked the ability to adapt.
The ice fog had swept back on her and now prevented her from seeing what was going on around her. Hunting down the other students now became very difficult.
With a roar, Tang Jie charged forward. His Heartbreak Saber flashed with an icy light, and then he savagely unleashed a wave of energy at the ice palace!