Tao Tiande was a Spirit Ring cultivator.
When this level of cultivator used their full strength, they could unleash powerful spell arts, and if one wasn’t particularly picky, one could describe such spell arts as “blotting out the skies” without being laughed out of the room.
As Tao Tiande used his full strength, without considering its actual lethality, the storm of frost had a radius of a thousand feet, enough to sweep over a hundred cultivators. If he wanted to dilute the power even more, it could have covered an even greater area.
Thus, the storm of frost managed to catch at least a third of the Hemos cultivators, with Li Xiao, who was standing at the front, being the first to get struck.
As a Hemos, Li Xiao had gotten used to bullying the humans. He was already “shocked” that the humans dared to resist a robbery, so he was even more surprised that when he had come to “seek justice”, they would be so “insulting and wanton”.
As the wave of snow and ice approached, he took it as a sign of utter disrespect for a Violet Palace True Lord, causing him to gnash his teeth in anger.
This was not merely a challenge to him, but one to all Hemos!
With a single thought, a crimson wave of blood rose up to meet the ice.
This was Spirit Ring versus Violet Palace, so Tao Tiande’s loss was clean and swift.
A green light blocked the crimson wave outside the walls of the city.
Li Xiao scowled. “Liu Nanshan, you think that just having Thousand Autumns City means you can do what you want?”
He roared, upon which two people appeared in the distance.
One was a white-haired elder followed by a donkey and the other was a Hemos woman as pretty as a flower, wearing shockingly revealing clothing and carrying a zither.
Liu Nanshan paled. “It’s Old Donkey He and the Blood Queen! Activate the Flowing Frost Cloud Formation!”
These were famous Hemos Deification cultivators. Liu Nanshan was no match for both of them at once, so he chose to activate the formation.
The Hemos woman laughed. “Nanshan, there’s no need to be such a stranger. The Flowing Frost Cloud Formation is meant to protect the city in times of war. Currently, we Hemos are simply unhappy and have come to talk things out, and you’re already activating the formation? Do you think you can activate the formation for free? Or that it’s the private property of your Red Leaf Alliance?”
With these malicious words, the Blood Queen had defined this battle as a mere dispute, which made Liu Nanshan hesitate. As she had said, activating the Flowing Frost Cloud Formation was extremely expensive, and if it were used for every occasion big and small, what was even the point of having the Red Leaf Alliance around? Thus, the formation could only be activated if the situation was unfavorable. Currently, the other side had only outmatched them by one Deification cultivator, so the strength gap was not too great. The Red Leaf Alliance was not guaranteed to lose if they fought with all their might, so it was arguable that it was not necessary to activate the formation.
As he hesitated, the woman in red flew over and waved her sleeve at the wall, unleashing a cascade of crimson petals.
Liu Nanshan immediately realized that he had been enchanted by the Blood Queen’s charming spell, and his hesitation had caused him to miss out on the best opportunity to activate the formation. A moment later, the petals shattered, releasing a red fog over the city.
The crimson cloud caused everything to fall into chaos, sending the entire world into confusion.
Tang Jie sensed that this was an extremely bizarre and powerful spell art that affected all substances of a spiritual nature—it targeted formations!
As expected, the Flowing Frost Cloud Formation immediately ran into problems and failed to activate.
“It’s the Myriad Crimson Smoke! Hurry and dispel it!” Liu Nanshan shouted.
The cultivators on the walls prepared to drive out the fog.
Seeing this, the white-haired elder suddenly opened his mouth and roared.
It was an ordinary shout, but the skies responded with a resounding rumble, as if some god was pounding drums. If one listened closely, one would realize that this was the same shout, but instead of dying away, it had gained force and was still bouncing around in the heavens like a hammer.
The name of this art was the Thunder Duke’s Rumble!
The Thunder Duke’s Rumble deafened the ears of the cultivators and made it difficult for them to focus.
Li Xiao laughed. “My friends, what are you waiting for? Kill them!”
The Hemos cultivators began to bombard the walls with spell arts.
Tang Jie could tell that the combination of these two spells, while powerful, could only prevent the activation of the formation temporarily. However, this was exactly what Li Xiao wanted, as he had no intention of taking the city. He would never voluntarily start a war between the two races. He simply wanted to use this chance to kill a few human cultivators and take some treasure.
Among the Hemos, this would be considered a glorious act and would have no ill consequences.
As the Hemos cultivators attacked, Liu Nanshan knew it would be difficult to end things peacefully. He roared, “You won’t have your way!”
A blast of green Astral energy swept toward Li Xiao.
But before it could hit, the Blood Queen used a red cloud to intercept it.
At the same time, Old Donkey Hu flew over, upon which Wang Zhanshan, Mo Wuxin, and Luo Xiangran went up to fight him. These three were all at Infant Tending, so in a three versus one, they still shouldn’t have been a match for Old Donkey He. Strangely, Old Donkey He seemed quite weak, and the three were actually able to gain a slight advantage. They began to underestimate him and wonder how he had managed to grow more famous than the Blood Queen.
With the two Deification experts in battle, Li Xiao also joined the fray.
His body erupted with a red light as a head grew from his back, two arms emerged from his waist, and his body grew into a hundred-foot-tall giant. His four arms separately wielded a hammer, staff, axe, and mace, and as he swung them around, they stirred up mighty gales.
The Hemos normally cultivated both the body and arts. With his tough body and powerful combat arts, he didn’t fear Liu Nanshan at all despite being only at Infant Tending. With his domineering body and mighty spell arts, he was actually rather similar to Tang Jie in terms of combat style.
As an Infant Tending True Lord, he ranked at the very top of his tier, and now that the four sect masters of the Red Leaf Alliance were being held back, it was time to flex his power. But the Red Leaf Alliance wasn’t completely powerless against him, someone shouting, “Use the Verdant Wood Formation!”
It was Su Hongmei.
With her order, the disciples of the Red Leaf Alliance assumed their positions and pulled out their swords. With a unified roar, countless tendrils of sword energy gathered into a single massive sword that sliced at Li Xiao. Li Xiao swung his four weapons in response, and the ensuing impact created a boom that even alarmed the Deification True Lords. Despite being a Violet Palace expert, Li Xiao’s attack had been blocked by the combined power of the disciples.
From a distance, Tang Jie couldn’t help but sigh in admiration. This combination combat formation was comparable to those of the six major sects of Rosecloud.
At this time, the cultivators in charge of the Flowing Frost Cloud Formation were working hard to activate the formation, and all they needed was a little more time. What they didn’t know was that the formation was never going to activate—Tang Jie was standing at one of its formation nodes, coolly watching the battle.
Above Thousand Autumns City, the cultivators of the two sides continued to battle.
Even with the Verdant Wood Formation, the Red Leaf Alliance was still at a disadvantage. As the captain of the Hemos hunting squad, Li Xiao had no fear of this formation, his four weapons swinging around in turn and unleashing one terrifying attack after another, stressing the energies of the disciples to the limit. Meanwhile, the other cultivators of the Hemos hunting squad crazily attacked.
Hemos cultivators were known for being pugnacious fighters, and cultivators of both body and arts were also known for their ferocity. With all these Hemos cultivators unleashing spell arts and Li Xiao himself leading the assault, the Red Leaf Alliance disciples groaned under the pressure. With each barrage, more disciples began to weep blood. Some cultivators were even dragged out of the formation by Hemos cultivators and executed.
It was a perilous situation, and the Flowing Frost Cloud Formation was still inactive. Panicked and infuriated, Liu Nanshan shouted, “Li Xiao, the one who killed your people was that Tang Chong. I can hand him over to you!”
If he had handed the man over while he held the upper hand or if he had activated the formation before starting negotiations, Li Xiao would have accepted it. But with the Hemos having the upper hand and the formation still inert, Li Xiao ignored his shouts, not even caring who this Tang Chong was, and continued to fight.
Liu Nanshan was frantic, but there was nothing he could do.
Tang Jie estimated that the time was right and secretly cast a spell.
The Hemos cultivators instantly felt their spiritual energy freeze up. This wasn’t restricted to only the low-level cultivators. Even the likes of Li Xiao and the Blood Queen found it harder to circulate their energy. When they attempted to thoughtcast, they felt a pressure from the world that made even thinking somewhat problematic.
As a result, the Hemos side’s morale instantly fell while the humans were suddenly ascendant. Su Hongmei stood at the very front, her body shining with a dazzling aura as if she was empowered by some kind of treasure. With one swing of her sword, countless streams of sword energy gathered around it into an immense wave aimed at Li Xiao.
Li Xiao raised all four of his weapons to block, and upon impact, he felt an intense energy blasting through his defenses, obliterating his barrier and striking him, almost cutting him in half.
“Sword intent!!!” Li Xiao shouted in disbelief.
Su Hongmei was also stunned. When she swung her sword just then, she had seemingly comprehended something. A sense of sharpness had arisen in her mind, and she had simply swung her sword in accordance with that feeling, not expecting to wound Li Xiao.
Was this sword intent? In the middle of this arduous battle, she had inadvertently comprehended sword intent!
Elated, Su Hongmei swung her sword once more.