‘Next, the Mysterious Ice Sect.’
Soon after, Lü Dandan’s clear voice rang out as she gave the order.
The Dark Faction army set off once more, radiating palpable killing intent as they advanced toward the headquarters of the Mysterious Ice Sect.
Not long after, the Dark Faction army arrived before another cluster of worlds.
In stark contrast to the scorching heat of the Blazing Sun Valley headquarters, the world cluster housing the Mysterious Ice Sect headquarters was one saturated with ice energy and the Laws of Ice. Slicing winds howled like the cries of a myriad ghosts, kicking up blowing snow, and an utterly bone-chilling cold permeated the void.
‘The Mysterious Ice Sect established itself through ice attribute techniques and cultivation arts. This sect possesses a battle formation called the Mysterious Ice Limitless Formation, rumored to be quite powerful,’ Lü Dandan said to Ye Yunfei.
Dark Energy swirled around her form, isolating the extreme cold that rolled in from ahead.
Feeling the incredibly active ice energy and the Dao Laws of Ice in the surroundings, Ye Yunfei found it somewhat novel.
While he had comprehended and cultivated many major Dao Laws, his involvement with the Dao Laws of Ice was not particularly deep.
‘It's the Dark Faction army!’
At that moment, panicked shouts rang out from within the Mysterious Ice Sect headquarters.
‘Do not panic! Assemble the army at once and prepare to meet the enemy!’
A commanding voice responded.
Soon, countless disciples of the Mysterious Ice Sect, clad in pristine white battle robes and holding various ice-attribute magical treasures, poured out from their headquarters. Their eyes were as cold and piercing as the snowflakes drifting beside them.
Leading them was the Sect Master of the Mysterious Ice Sect, a middle-aged, beautiful woman with stern features and hair as white as snow, holding a crystalline ice scepter.
‘Dark Faction scum! This is a sacred land of extreme cold, not to be defiled by the likes of you!’
Her voice was clear and crisp, yet it carried a chill that could freeze one’s very soul. As she waved her scepter, the boundless snow and ice seemed to respond to her call, transforming into countless ice spears, ice swords, and ice storms that surged out from the headquarters like a tidal wave, sweeping towards the Dark Faction army.
‘Dark Barrier!’
Lü Dandan gave a cold shout and pointed a finger. Raging torrents of Dark Energy and the Laws of Darkness surged forth, instantly condensing into a massive barrier of Dark Energy. The dense dark power solidified into a gigantic shield, holding firm against the ferocious onslaught of ice and snow.
Boom!
Darkness and ice collided violently, their energies clashing and ripping countless abyssal chasms in the surrounding space.
Just like that, the leaders of the two armies exchanged a single, long-range strike, and neither side gained a clear advantage.
‘Let’s get to it. We’ll simply fight our way straight in.’
Ye Yunfei took a step forward, striding forth alone to face the rushing tide of ice and snow.
‘You’re courting death, boy!’
The Mysterious Ice Sect Master snorted coldly. Pointing her scepter at Ye Yunfei, countless ice dragons and ice phoenixes condensed from pure ice energy and the Laws of Ice materialized one after another. Carrying a cold so absolute it could freeze the void, they swooped down to slaughter him.
Ye Yunfei neither dodged nor evaded. His powerful blood essence erupted from within him, radiating a scorching, furnace-like light that temporarily dispelled the bone-chilling cold around his person.
He threw both fists forward simultaneously, no fancy moves, just pure, unadulterated physical might.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Wherever his fists passed, space quaked.
The ferocious ice dragons and phoenixes shattered like fragile glass the instant they came into contact with his fist force, exploding into clouds of icy powder.
‘What?
This boy is merely a Heavenly God, yet he can directly withstand my attack?!’
The Mysterious Ice Sect Master’s expression changed slightly.
Seizing the advantage, Ye Yunfei pressed on ruthlessly. His figure shot forward like lightning as he threw another punch.
‘A mere junior brat dares to run amok in our Mysterious Ice Sect? Sect Master, allow me to deal with him!’
A Perfected Heavenly God of the Mysterious Ice Sect roared. With a wave of his hand, he led a group out and instantly arranged a battle formation.
‘Try this Ice Barrier Formation, boy!’ the Perfected Heavenly God bellowed.
Boom…
The battle formation rolled forward under his command.
Boom! Boom!
Ye Yunfei simply met it with punches, his fist force vast and expansive.
Crack…
In less than two punches, the Ice Barrier Formation could no longer hold. It shattered completely, countless shards of ice crystal pouring down like a violent rainstorm.
‘Charge!’
Lü Dandan waited no longer. With her order, the Dark Faction army surged into the Mysterious Ice Sect headquarters like a black torrent.
Close-quarters combat erupted instantly as the two armies clashed.
At the start of the battle, the Mysterious Ice Sect disciples, leveraging their familiarity with the terrain, their strange ice attribute techniques, and the various battle formations they deployed, managed to cause significant trouble for the Dark Faction forces.
Their ice-based secret arts were particularly bizarre, employing freezing, slowing, soul-freezing, and various other chilling techniques without end.
‘Do you truly believe only your Mysterious Ice Sect possesses battle formations? Our Dark Faction has them too.’
Seeing the Mysterious Ice Sect forces deploy one formation after another, Lü Dandan snorted coldly and spoke.
Then, at her command, the Dark Faction army also began to deploy their own battle formations, each one conjuring various phantoms and apparitions related to darkness.
A short while later, many of the Dark Faction battle formations were rolling forward, erupting into fierce combat with the formations of the Mysterious Ice Sect.
In fact, the Dark Faction also possessed many ancient, inherited battle formations. It was just that their opponents in previous battles had been too weak, so they hadn’t felt the need to deploy them. It was now, when this Mysterious Ice Sect attempted to rely on battle formations to gain an advantage, that the Dark Faction’s formations were brought forth.
For a moment, the battle between the armies was extremely fierce.
‘I have battle formations too.’
Huang Shang, having already released his army of ghosts and his army of corpses, looked on at the lively battlefield with great excitement.
For Huang Shang, the type of fight he loved most was one like this—a large-scale war.
For it meant there would once more be harvests to be reaped; the corpses on the battlefield and the shattered fragments of soul bodies were all precious cultivation resources.
Huang Shang gestured with his hand, sending both the ghost army and the Corpse Army charging forward simultaneously.
The ghost army deployed over a dozen large ghost formations, while the Corpse Army assembled more than ten large zombie battle formations. Rolling forward as two distinct forces comprising over twenty or thirty large formations, they trampled everything in their path, quickly routing the forces of the Mysterious Ice Sect.
‘So you’re a ghost cultivator. Today, I’ll smash your soul to pieces!’
An elder of the Mysterious Ice Sect, having fixed his gaze on Huang Shang amidst the chaos, let out a furious roar. Surging ice and snow energy erupted from his body, plunging the temperature of the space around him even lower.
‘The Myriad Li Ice Seal!’
The elder uttered a low growl. The space in front of him began to freeze rapidly. In the blink of an eye, a massive Ice Realm materialized, completely encircling the area Huang Shang occupied.
‘Ghost Wall!’
Huang Shang shouted loudly.
Instantly, countless blood-drenched Ghost Walls appeared in the surrounding space. Wall after wall materialized at an astonishing speed, arranging themselves from the inside out, rapidly forming an enormous Ghost Wall labyrinth.
Within this Ghost Wall labyrinth, Huang Shang was the absolute master.
‘Your ice cultivation techniques are indeed potent, but their effectiveness against ghost cultivators like us is not as great as you imagine.’
Huang Shang’s figure flickered as he charged towards the Mysterious Ice Sect elder.
‘Smash this Ice Realm for me!’
Huang Shang roared.
Immediately, the dozen or so zombie battle formations arranged by the Corpse Army exerted force simultaneously, charging forward and systematically demolishing the surrounding Ice Realm.
Every corpse Huang Shang had refined possessed incredible sturdiness and immense physical power. Floating above their battle formations was the projection of a colossal prehistoric elder zombie. It possessed terrifyingly immense power, its sharpened claw-like hands ripping and smashing relentlessly forward, breaking through layer after layer of the enclosing ice boundary.
In a mere instant, the ‘Myriad Li Ice Seal’ array deployed by the Mysterious Ice Sect elder was completely shattered. Then, Huang Shang entered close combat with the elder.
‘Not bad.’
Ye Yunfei gave a slight nod.
The elder was a Mid-level Sovereign God. The fact that Huang Shang could hold his own to this extent indicated that Huang Shang’s current combat power was already on par with that of a Mid-level Sovereign God.
Earlier, during his secluded training inside the Phantom Tower to break through his cultivation realms, Huang Shang had made significant strides in power after his successful breakthrough.
Coupled with the numerous Sovereign God level soul bodies he had recently devoured, his strength had been rising steadily ever since.
‘It’s about time to end this battle.’
At this point, Lü Dandan, having slain several high-ranking members of the Mysterious Ice Sect, turned her gaze toward a middle-aged woman in the distance.
That middle-aged woman was none other than the Mysterious Ice Sect Master.
Almost simultaneously, the Mysterious Ice Sect Master’s gaze shifted towards Lü Dandan. Both understood the principle: to catch the thief, you first capture the king.
Lü Dandan’s figure flickered as she strode towards the Mysterious Ice Sect Master.
The Mysterious Ice Sect Master also moved towards Lü Dandan.
An intensely fierce battle immediately erupted between the leaders of the two great forces.
While Lü Dandan had previously fused with the Dark Heart, that was only a preliminary fusion. Perfect integration had not yet been achieved, and the full power of the Dark Heart could not be fully unleashed. Therefore, Lü Dandan needed a great deal of practical combat to drive herself towards a state of perfect harmony with the artifact.
Boom!
The combat energies released by the clash between these two leaders were terrifyingly immense. In an instant, all other combatants within a vast radius were forced back by the shockwaves. The armies of both sides instinctively cleared out a large section of space, leaving it for Lü Dandan and the Mysterious Ice Sect Master to fight.
‘The Young Miss Lü will win this fight.’
After observing for a moment, Hun Lao’s voice came to Ye Yunfei.
‘Indeed, Young Miss Lü is stronger,’ Ye Yunfei nodded in agreement.
After this, Ye Yunfei shifted his attention away from Lü Dandan’s duel with the Mysterious Ice Sect Master, for he had already anticipated the outcome.
The Mysterious Ice Sect Master was formidable, having attained the realm of a High-level Sovereign God. Wielding her Ice Crystal Scepter, she summoned the heaven and earth’s ice energy and ice laws, employing a dazzling array of exquisite and profound ice-based secret arts. Her techniques were ruthless and lethal, aimed at completely freezing Lü Dandan into an icy statue.
However, Lü Dandan’s Dark attribute movement technique was elusive and unpredictable, her form flickering amidst vast, swirling darkness, making it impossible to pin down her true location. As the battle reached a fever pitch, seven Dark Sacred Lotuses materialized, slowly rotating within a massive curtain of pure darkness.
Inside each Dark Sacred Lotus seemed to stand a visage of Lü Dandan. With each rotation, they unleashed streams of exquisitely pure and extraordinarily concentrated Dark Energy, while dense chains of the major Dao Laws of Darkness materialized from nothingness. These chains writhed and trembled, thoroughly sealing and suppressing the surrounding space.
The Mysterious Ice Sect Master continuously created one towering, sturdy ice wall after another, but all were instantly punctured by these chains of the Dao Laws of Darkness, collapsing into piles of shards moments later.
‘Damn it!
Although this little slut is young, her Dark Energy is unexpectedly profound and overwhelming!’
The more they fought, the more apprehensive the Mysterious Ice Sect Master became.
Meanwhile, Ye Yunfei led a contingent of his puppets to engage the rest of the Mysterious Ice Sect forces.
With his current strength, Ye Yunfei was practically unrivaled within the Mysterious Ice Sect’s headquarters.
Several Sovereign Gods of the Mysterious Ice Sect attempted to charge him, only to be subjected to Ye Yunfei’s psychic reading arts followed by a devastating display of physical force. They were flung high into the air, one by one, from his punches.
Had Huang Shang not intervened in time, those Sovereign Gods would have been blasted apart by Ye Yunfei’s fists on the spot.
Unless facing a High-level or Perfect Sovereign God where some back-and-forth would be required, for Primary and Intermediate-level Sovereign Gods, Ye Yunfei could often end a fight with one or two decisive moves.
At the same time, the battle between Lü Dandan and the Mysterious Ice Sect Master escalated in intensity.
‘Young Miss Lü is using this Mysterious Ice Sect Master for training; otherwise, she would have won already,’ Huang Shang, who had been observing the clash between the two powerhouses, sent a Sound Transmission to Ye Yunfei.
‘Indeed, Young Miss Lü is definitely using her as a training partner.’
Ye Yunfei had noticed the same and nodded.
‘In truth, this Mysterious Ice Sect Master’s strength is quite impressive. Moreover, the ice attribute techniques she has cultivated are profound and very strange. But Young Miss Lü possesses the Dark Heart, which can provide her with an inexhaustible supply of high-level Dark Energy.
In terms of sheer energy power and quality, the Mysterious Ice Sect Master cannot compare to Young Miss Lü. Furthermore, Miss Lü’s innate talent and comprehension abilities are clearly superior to this Sect Master. So, the conclusion of this battle was preordained,’ Ye Yunfei added.
After another while, sure enough, the Mysterious Ice Sect Master began to struggle desperately, narrowly evading defeat repeatedly as perilous situations cropped up all around her.
‘The Ice Phoenix Soars through the Heavens!’
Gritting her teeth, the Mysterious Ice Sect Master bit her tongue and spat a mouthful of vital essence blood onto her scepter, performing her ultimate secret art. An Ice Crystal Phoenix with wings that blotted out the sky condensed into existence, carrying an extreme, soul-annihilating chill as it pounced towards Lü Dandan.
‘Blade of the Dark Night!’
A focused glint flashed in Lü Dandan’s eyes. A single black dagger coalesced before her. She gave a simple cleaving motion forward.
A slash of pure darkness, seeming to rip heaven and earth asunder, shot forth.
Where the slash of darkness passed, the intimidating Ice Crystal Phoenix was cleanly cleaved into two halves. Rampant Dark Energy began grinding away and extinguishing the ice laws contained within it. Ultimately, with a sorrowful cry, it dissolved into countless fragments of ice and snow.
Boom!
That slash of darkness retained its momentum. Its residual power slammed violently into the Mysterious Ice Sect Master’s body.