“Billy, Northfortia must have deliberately led us here!” Ivy spoke up at the same time.
“Yeah!” Billy nodded slightly. After listening to Scarface’s words, he naturally understood. The people from Northfortia attacked those people for the purpose of luring them here. In other words, they were waiting for strong warriors from Glavale to come to the Southern Polar Domain. As for the spiritual stone vein, it was just an unexpected gain for them. And the other party knew that Scarface’s group couldn’t possibly be their match, but still deceived them into staying here, clearly on purpose. Their goal was to make Scarface’s group reveal their whereabouts to Billy and the others. In other words, there must be a deadly trap waiting for Billy and his group at the spiritual stone mine site!
“Boss, should we send more people from the city?” Soul Chaser spoke up.
“Let’s go and see first!” Billy shook his head slightly.
“Since they specifically lured us here, it can’t be that simple. Should we just go like this…” Soul Chaser spoke again.
“It’s highly possible that it’s a diversion.” Ivy interrupted his words.
“What do you mean?” Judge seemed to have reacted after a momentary pause, and then spoke.
“Ivy, are you saying that if too many people are sent out from the city, Northfortia might attack our city again?”
“It’s very possible!” Ivy nodded in response.
“I get it.” Judge nodded.
“Lord Dragon, should I go ahead and take a look first, and you guys can join me later…” Otis Hum spoke after a brief thought.
“No,” Billy shook his head again. “They like to play, so let’s play along with them!”
About half an hour later, the snow carriage stopped on an open snowy plain.
“The spiritual stone mine is in that valley over there!” Scarface pointed in the direction about four or five kilometers away.
“Get off the carriage!” Billy said and led everyone off the snow carriage. At the same time, he released his powerful spiritual force to investigate the surroundings.
Just at this moment, Scarface took advantage of everyone’s inattention and turned around to run for his life.
“You think you can run?”
Scarface hadn’t run far when Bob flicked his wrist and a sword aura pierced through his back. After running a few more steps due to inertia, Scarface fell to the ground, and the blood stained the surrounding snow red.
“Let’s go and take a look!” After retracting his spiritual force, Billy led everyone towards the direction of the valley. Meanwhile, he activated his power and condensed a powerful defense aura to envelop everyone.
After walking for about two kilometers, a strong wind suddenly blew from the sky, and a large amount of snow on the ground was lifted into the air.
“Don’t get separated, stay close to me!” Billy squinted his eyes and slowed down his pace.
“Understood!” everyone responded simultaneously.
The wind speed became stronger and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a hurricane. The bone-chilling cold wind blew on their bodies, even the warriors in the Supreme Realm felt a bit uncomfortable. After a while, the empty space within a few kilometers was completely covered in ice and snow, blocking the sky and reducing visibility to less than ten meters!
Whoosh!
Then, sharp ice shards shot out from the falling snow like blades, moving at an extremely fast speed. Due to the low visibility, by the time everyone saw the ice shards, they were already flashing right in front of them. The sound of ice shards striking against the defensive aura reverberated, followed by explosions one after another. As time passed, the size of the ice shards grew larger and their speed increased. The largest one was about two meters long and as thick as a thigh. Despite being protected by the defensive aura, the powerful impact made Judge and the others feel uncomfortable, with their blood roiling in their chests.
“What’s going on? Even a mid-stage Saint expert wouldn’t be able to create such a commotion,” Soul Chaser furrowed his brows and spoke with a deep voice.
“I don’t think this is solely powered by cultivation,” Ivy pondered aloud.
“What do you mean, Ivy?” Judge asked.
“It should be similar to what we encountered at Snowstorm Pavilion’s headquarters.” Ivy responded.
“You mean it’s a formation?” Harleen asked.
“It seems so,” Ivy nodded. “But this formation should be on a higher level than the one we encountered before. I can’t sense any fluctuations in the formation lines.”
“Damn! Another formation?” Soul Chaser exclaimed. “Can we break through it?”
“It’s difficult,” Ivy replied. “The formation space set up by a high-level formation master is like a maze. It’s hard for an ordinary person to find the exit. Even if we run at full speed, we might just end up going in circles within the formation space, wasting our energy without achieving anything.”
“Damn it! Is there anything else?” Soul Chaser cursed. “What should we do then?”
“We have to find the eye of the formation before breaking it,” Ivy responded once again. After speaking, she turned to Billy and said, “Billy, can you sense the formation lines?”
“Yes!” Billy nodded slightly and instructed, “Everyone, release your Chi to strengthen the defensive aura. Give me ten minutes!”
Everyone released their Chi energy to its fullest. Then, Billy sat down cross-legged and began to release his spiritual power, causing ripples in the surroundings.
Formation lines differed from martial Chi. Even someone with high cultivation wouldn’t be able to sense the presence of formation lines if they didn’t understand formations. Of course, even for someone who understood formations, if their knowledge was far inferior to the person who set up the formation, it would still be difficult to sense the fluctuations in the formation lines. Furthermore, merely sensing the formation lines was not enough to break the formation. One had to untangle the chaotic formation lines, find the rules of the formation, and then locate the eye of the formation to break it.
Boom!
After a barrage of ice shards, the sky was filled with countless ice balls of various sizes. Some were as small as fists, while others had a diameter of two to three meters, falling like meteorites onto the defensive aura. Judge and Soul Chaser, who had the lowest cultivation among them, almost couldn’t contain their surging Chi energy and their auras were in disarray. In fact, it wasn’t just them. Even Harleen and Otis Hum, both of whom were ninth-stage experts, felt a bit overwhelmed. If this continued for another twenty minutes or so, the defensive aura would likely be breached.
Time passed, already seven to eight minutes had gone by, but Billy remained still. Clearly, this formation wasn’t as simple as they thought.
“Just hold on a few more minutes!” After a while, Billy suddenly stood up and swiftly dashed into the swirling snow.
“Has he found the eye of the formation?” Judge asked with difficulty.
“Probably,” Ivy nodded.
“Judge, Soul Chaser, if you can’t hold on, take a moment to rest in place,” Harleen said to Judge and Soul Chaser.
“We’re fine, we can hold on!” both of them responded.
Every second passed, the enormous ice balls continued to rain down on the defensive aura, and everyone was nearing their limits.
Boom! Just then, a deafening sound echoed through the air, and the oppressive aura around them increased by several orders of magnitude. Harleen and the others were slightly stunned, instinctively looking up at the sky.
“Damn it!” Judge and Soul Chaser cursed simultaneously.