Chapter 2031: Asking for Help
Zu An’s entire body grew numb. He rarely used these kinds of divination techniques, but now that he finally had, this was the result he got: The never-before-seen guaranteed death.
He remained silent for a long time. In the end, he laughed and put the divination plate away. The Second Empress was inside, and so was Yu Yanluo. Even they weren’t scared, so how could he cower and hide outside? Besides, which one of his battles over the years hadn’t been on the brink of death? He was already used to all kinds of dangers.
As for the divination’s results, if it really was that accurate, no one would have to work hard anymore. With his current cultivation realm, he could vaguely sense that fate was arranged by those up above, but it still depended on one's own efforts. When the two were combined, that would ultimately form the trajectory of one's fate.
He didn’t know that as he had that thought, the divination plate he put away into his Brilliant Glass Bead underwent a new change. The murky darkness became a bit fainter, and a trace of white light appeared in its depths. The bloody skulls also gradually scattered, a sign of extreme sorrow turning to joy.
Zu An took out a formation wheel, and his hands quickly moved across its surface. Soon after, streaks of clear light scattered all throughout. Even though he decided to take the risk and enter, he wasn’t going to go in fully blindly. Instead, he set up all kinds of defensive formations in preparation just in case.
When he entered the giant halo of light, even Zu An with his cultivation became a bit absent-minded. It was as if time and space inside were displaced. The light within was distorted, and his five senses grew strange. The higher one’s cultivation was, the clearer that unnatural feeling of distortion became.
As the space sensed that a living being had entered, winds swept wildly through it. This wasn’t a normal wind; it exuded a terrifying aura that could be felt even from far away, as if it could instantly shave off all of one’s flesh, then grind one’s bones to dust.
A piece of jade in Zu An’s possession began to shine. It was the jade tile the Peacock Wise King had given him, something used precisely to deal with the chaotic spatial streams. Sure enough, as if sensing the jade tile in his possession, the chaotic streams parted to either side.
Just like that, time passed. Zu An felt weightless, and he felt as if the world was spinning around him. Before he knew it, he landed once again on hard ground. The next thing he saw wasn't the distorted light, however. He stabilized his body and looked around him, stunned.
At first, he had thought that the sealed land would be a place full of blood and flames, of ruined structures and many corpses, but there wasn’t the slightest bit of carnage. Instead, it was a vast expanse of white. There was ice, snow, and cold winds stretching as far as the eye could see. He couldn't see any trace of life, not even a single plant. Snow stretched endlessly into the distance. Even with Zu An's current cultivation, he could feel the chill in his bones. It was easy to imagine just how low the temperature of the place was.
Clear light suddenly began to flicker around him. Zu An was startled, because it was the reaction of a formation that defended against poisonous miasma. Even though he was immune to poison, there was no need for him to test for poison himself; as such, he had prepared a formation ahead of time. It now seemed that the surrounding air carried a degree of toxicity. Even though it wasn’t the kind that would kill someone immediately, as time went on, it would start to corrode one's limbs and bones.
When he recalled that it had already been quite some time since the Second Empress and the others went in, Zu An became more and more worried. Those with lower ranks of cultivation could very well have already been afflicted by the poison and lost most of their fighting strength.
Suddenly, a formation surged with yellow light, then shattered into specks of starlight, making Zu An tremble. That defensive formation wasn’t particularly strong, but it had a special use, which was that it could detect the approach of any tangible creature. He had set up many evil-warding formations, as well; if any incorporeal spirits approached, he would also be alerted.
With his current cultivation, he didn’t need strong defenses. After all, no matter how strong a formation was, it wouldn’t be stronger than his own body. Even so, now that he was in a place he had never been to before that was full of dangers, coupled with the terrifying results of his earlier divination, he had no choice but to exercise absolute vigilance. As such, these alert formations were perfect for him. That way, he wouldn’t be ambushed by an unknown being and be done in without knowing what happened at all.
Zu An looked all around, but was a bit puzzled, because he clearly didn’t sense any enemies approaching. Why had the formations alerted him? He set up several formations, and then those formations were shattered one after another. Some unknown being was clearly attacking them.
Suddenly, he sneered and exclaimed, “I found you!” He reached out his hand and pressed down. The ground immediately split open, and a terrifying suction force dragged a figure out. Zu An was stunned, because the thing in his grip was actually a snowman. It was exactly like the snowmen people made in his previous world. Its chubby body had no neck, and its arms and legs were all really short.
When it was caught, a malicious expression appeared on the snowman's face. It brandished its claws and fangs at Zu An. However, Zu An sneered. With a squeeze of his hand, the snowman exploded, turning into endless wind and snow.
No wonder he hadn't been able to sense its presence; the sensation of its body and the surrounding snow were exactly the same. This world lacked everything but snow, after all. Furthermore, it had been hidden underground, so of course he couldn't see it.
The surrounding snowy land gradually broke apart. One after another, snowmen crawled out and screamed viciously, yet made no noise.
However, with a wave of Zu An’s hand, an invisible streak of sword energy engulfed the surroundings. Soon after, the snowmen were all crushed to pieces. He was about to leave when he suddenly sensed something. He looked at the ground where the snowmen had been. There, the crushed snow rejoined at a visible rate. Soon after, the snowmen once again stood up and rushed at Zu An again.
Zu An was stunned. He quickly defeated the snowmen, but they immediately gathered and regenerated once more. He was speechless. The snowmen weren’t that strong, but what was tricky was that they had undying bodies. Regardless of how many times he defeated them, they always regenerated quickly. After all, the world around him was an endless expanse of ice and snow. If this continued, it would be hard to say if he could hold on longer.
“Elemental creatures, huh…” Zu An muttered; he gave up on physical attacks and used the White Lotus Flame.
A giant lotus flower blossomed amid the snow, and countless flames poured out. The snowmen were all melted and couldn't regenerate any more. All that remained in their place was an enormous crater where the ice and snow had melted, revealing the dirt buried deep down. The terrifying temperature of the White Lotus Flame even created some flowing lava on the surface of the dirt.
Zu An’s eyes suddenly narrowed. He flew to the center of the magma and fished out a corpse… No, half a corpse. The body had already been chewed up by the snowmen, its internal organs emptied out. Only the head was still in good shape.
Zu An’s expression darkened, because he recognized this person. He was one of the guards at Princess Suolun’s side. Even though he didn’t remember the guard's name, Zu An had seen him several times at the princess' side, and knew that he was one of Princess Suolun’s most trusted guards. If even he had ended up in such a state, that meant everything likely boded ill for Princess Suolun. He searched around, but only found one corpse. He wondered if it was really just the one, or if the others had already been completely devoured by those snowmen.
Zu An reached out his hand, and a command token appeared in it. He saw that it was Princess Suolun’s emblem, likely her personal waist token. It seemed she had likely sent this guard back to ask for reinforcements, but he died when he was only a step away from the exit.
“Rest in peace. If I end up meeting Suolun Shi, I'll help her,” he said. With a casual wave of his hand, flames burned the corpse away to prevent it from being defiled by the monsters further.
He looked around him and saw that everything was the same no matter where he looked. In here, direction already became completely meaningless. Since the Second Empress had come in with many people, he had wanted to see if there were any traces. Unfortunately, the wind and snow here were too strong. Even if there were any traces, they would already have completely disappeared. It was a pity that Honglei wasn’t here, or else her glowing red yellow talisman would be perfect for searching for people.
After thinking about it, he took out the divination plate again. But after using it, he saw that the kan position indicated 'water', while the gen position indicated 'mountain', meaning that the mountains were high and waters deep. The path ahead would be be full of difficulties. Still, the divination did provide a result, which was to head southwest.
“Since I don’t have any other clues, I might as well go southwest first,” Zu An muttered to himself, then instantly disappeared into the distance.
After traveling for several hundred miles, he suddenly picked up weak shouts of fighting within the wind and snow.
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