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Chapter 275 - Black Dragon

The white-clothed young woman closed her eyes and used a special method to sense the battles that were going on at the four sects. As she let out a cold smile, her right hand formed a seal and a white light shot out from her hand into a rift in the sky.

With a thunderous roar, all of the rifts within 10,000 meters of the white-clothed woman fused together into one giant hole in the sky.

Ice towers descended from the hole one by one.

The cultivators of Xue Yu were very different from cultivators from other cultivation countries. Much like the Giant Demon Clan, they didn't have multiple sects. Everyone belonged to one sect.

In Xue Yu, once a cultivator has reached the Nascent Soul stage, they can form an ice giant with their Nascent Soul to do battle with.

This is a symbol of their status

Similarly, once they reach the Soul Formation stage, they make their own ice tower. This becomes their own personal cultivation ground.

The ice towers descending meant that Soul Formation cultivators had appeared.

Every single ice tower had different shapes, but someone knowledgeable about Xue Yu would know to look at how many floors a tower had to determined the cultivation level of the cultivator inside.

The more floors the ice tower has, the higher the cultivation level of the cultivator inside. This is a pretty simple way to see the cultivation level of Xue Yu cultivators.

There were a total of 36 ice towers that descended.

Four of the ice towers were clearly taller than the rest, each with 99 floors. This means that the owners of these ice towers have reached the late stage of Soul Formation.

The moment the 36 ice towers appeared, all of the Soul Formation cultivators from the Four Sect Alliance took deep breaths, walked into a formation, and disappeared.

A rainbow-colored light lit up under the white-clothed woman. From the light, a door appeared without a sound. The Soul Formation cultivators of the Four Sect Alliance walked out of it.

The middle-aged man and old woman from the White Cloud Sect were among them, but the old man that controlled the passing of time domain was not there.

Among them were four old cultivators that were very eye catching. They looked like they had just crawled out of coffins. They were the sect protectors of the four sects.

The four of them raised their heads and looked at the descending ice towers. One of them suddenly stood straight and his skinny body suddenly bulked back up. Cracking sounds came from his body as his bones increased in size. The wrinkles on his body disappeared and his muscles expanded.

In almost an instant, he turned from a wrinkly old man to a very dignified-looking middle aged man. He looked at the white-clothed woman with a serious look in his eyes and said. "I'm the Black Soul Sect's Zhou Yu. Maybe I ask if you're Xue Yu's Red Butterfly?"

The Red Butterfly the old man mentioned was the genius from Xue Yu that caught Suzaku's attention. The absolute genius that managed to reach the late stage of Soul Formation in 100 years.

The white-clothed woman's eyes lit up and she said. "So it is fellow cultivator Zhou Yu, one of the eight late stage Soul Formation cultivators of the Four Sect Alliance."

Zhou Yu's brow furrowed. This woman responded to his question with another question. This was clearly not what he was looking for, and seeing that the woman didn't seem to want to answer his question, his gaze became cold and he waved his sleeve.

This wave wasn't only a signal to start the battle, but also a signal to the people of the Four Sect Alliance to start phase two of their plan.

Zhou Yu couldn't wait anymore. It didn't matter if this woman was Red Butterfly or not, he had to gamble on it.

The Soul Formation cultivators around him all charged upwards.

The white-clothed woman revealed a look of disdain in her eyes. Xue Yu's Soul Formation cultivators walked out from their ice towers and the battle began.

With the activation of one powerful technique after another, the entire Four Sect Alliance shook and the sky changed colors. Every single technique of these Soul Formation cultivators had the power to move mountains and oceans. As a result, the shockwaves of the techniques spread out, hitting everyone in range. It didn't matter if they were cultivators of Xue Yu or the Four Sect Alliance, the lucky ones were heavily injured and the unlucky died instantly.

This battle between two countries had split into two different battlefields. One was between those below the Soul Formation stage, fighting on the ground, and the other was the Soul Formation cultivators exchanging techniques in the sky.

This was the most fierce battle Wang Lin had ever witnessed. He remained hidden in the mountain of snow as he looked at the powerful Soul Formation cultivators using techniques that contained their domains. He carefully watched and studied the various domains.

The battles of Soul Formation cultivators normally don't stay in one place as they can easily move 10,000 meters in an instant. Before long, the soul formation cultivators spread apart and used the entire Four Sect Alliance for their battle to the death.

The disdain in the white-clothed woman's eyes became even stronger as her hand formed a seal and a white light appeared in her hand. However, at that moment, nine specks of light suddenly appeared around her.

The moment the specks of light appeared, they connected to each other and the shadows of nine figures appeared.

The old man who controlled the passing of time domain was among them.

The moment the nine figures appeared, the white-clothed woman's face became ugly. She let out a snort, then waved her right hand and a fan made of seven large feathers appeared.

The woman's eyes lit up. She waved the fan and one of the feathers flew off by itself. The moment the feather left the fan, it turned into a cloud of smoke. Suddenly, an enormous figure appeared. Although the figure had some curves, it was still only a shadow.

She let out a gentle breath and the nine figures all trembled as they spat out mouthfuls of blood, but none of them took a single step back.

At the same time, the nine figures each let out roars as nine different domains charged at the woman.

At this moment, all of the Soul Formation cultivators from Xue Yu who saw this immediately wanted to go help, but the Four Sect Alliance cultivators wouldn't let them as this was part of their plan.

The woman's face immediately changed. She waved the fan in her hand, causing the feathers to fly out. However, it was too late. This killing formation was something the Four Sect Alliance had prepared for the genius of Xue Yu.

The moment the genius of Xue Yu dies becomes a huge turning point for this battle. If she dies, Xue Yu will lose the support of Suzaku. Although they might anger Suzuka, it beats having their country wiped out.

The moment the nine people attacked, many of the cultivators that were maintaining the formation died.

It was them who took a share of the attack from the white-clothed woman.

The reason that woman dared to float in the air all by herself was because of that fan. However, she was overconfident. After obtaining this treasure from the rank 5 cultivation country, no one but that junior apprentice sister, who was already above her, could be her opponent.

Among the nine figures, five of them were at the Soul Formation late stage. The other four were people who controlled special domains. No one would be able to survive this unless they had reached the Soul Transformation stage.

Under the onslaught of domains, the woman didn't have any power to resist as she was turned into a bloody corpse. The fan with only two feathers remaining was caught by a late stage Soul Formation cultivator before the nine figures turned into nine specks of light and disappeared.

The nine of them took major hits from the fan. All of their cultivation levels were greatly lowered and would require a long time to recover.

Rage appeared in the eyes of the Xue Yu cultivators who saw this, but there was no sadness. This rage caused their battles to become even more intense.

Wang Lin saw all of this happening and began to frown even harder. He carefully observed the expressions of the Xue Yu cultivators and felt that something was wrong.

This woman perhaps wasn't the genius.

Just at this moment, rays of rainbow-colored light shot out from the ground. There were a total of 108 rays of light.

The rays of light appeared evenly across the Four Sect Alliance at the same time. If someone were looking from above, they would see that this formed a formation that covered the entire Four Sect Alliance.

Wherever a pillar of light was, there sat countless cultivators on the ground around it. All of their eyes were closed and they poured all of their cultivation and spiritual energy into this formation.

The entire earth began to shake violently at the center of the Four Sect Alliance. This was the Heaven Cloud mountain range. Although it was covered in snow, the moment it began to shake, the snow started to fall off. Even giant chunks of ice cracked into pieces. Soon, the entire Heaven Cloud mountain range turned into a 10,000 foot long black dragon.

As the dragon raised its head, all of the snow and ice fell off of it and it stared at the Xue Yue cultivators.

On the head of the black dragon stood one person. Wang Lin knew this person; it was the large-earred cultivator, Zhou Wutai.

The reason Zhou Wutai's status was so high in the Four Sect Alliance was because he had the bloodline of the guardian dragon of the Four Sect Alliance.

Only he could successfully control the black dragon once the formation was active and use it to protect the country.

The black dragon let out a roar as it raised its head. This roar spread across the entire Four Sect Alliance. When the cultivators of the Four Sect Alliance heard this roar, their morale increased.

According to the plan, the moment the roar goes out, the final battle has began. Countless cultivators came out from the four sects and joined in the battle against the cultivators of Xue Yu.

Chapter 276 - Stealing The Earth Spirit

Wang Lin had a frown on his face as he hid inside the snow mountain. If Xue Yue only had this much, then the Four Sect Alliance would win for sure, but he still felt this strange sense of danger.

He pondered for a bit, then his eyes lit up as his divine sense detected the Earth Spirit, its body releasing black smoke, flying toward this direction from Black Soul Sect. Behind the Earth Spirit was the young man with the brush, casually chasing behind it. Every time the brush in his hand moved, the Earth Spirit would tremble and the amount of black smoke around it would increase.

When Wang Lin saw this, he didn't know what to do. After a while, he made a decision. He silently left the snow mountain and charged toward the Earth Spirit using his earth escape technique.

He got closer and closer; 8,000 kilometers, 7,000 kilometers, 5,000 kilometers, 3,000 kilometers…

When he was 3,000 kilometers away, Wang Lin's body suddenly disappeared. When he reappeared, he was only 2,000 kilometers away. He immediately hit his forehead and spat out the black seal.

The moment the seal appeared, it released a powerful killing intent as many soul fragments appeared around it as well. Wang Lin threw it up into the air until it disappeared from view.

At the same time, Wang Lin took a deep breath and rapidly moved his hands. Many restrictions were shot from his hands into the surroundings. He then took out his restriction flag and shook it. The flag covered the area with black fog, but then it quickly disappeared.

Just as he finished doing all of this, the Earth Spirit arrived.

The Earth Spirit was messy right now. When it saw Wang Lin, it didn't pay him any attention. Although it was very weak right now, with its late stage Soul Formation cultivation, it could still kill a late stage Nascent Soul cultivator at will.

In its view, Wang Lin wasn't qualified to make it cautious.

The moment it arrived, it waved its hand and a wave of earth power charged at Wang Lin. The moment that power touched him, he felt a sweetness in his throat as he coughed out blood.

The Nascent Soul in his body shook and almost collapsed.

The Earth Spirit frowned, but it didn't pause at all. Then, the blood Wang Lin coughed out turned into a blood mist and disappeared into the air.

At the same time, a large amount of black fog appeared. Arms of restriction smoke shot out and surrounded the Earth Spirit. Shortly after, eight black restriction rings appeared, forming a cage with the restriction flag to trap the Earth Spirit.

Wang Lin immediately backed up. He knew that with his cultivation level, he couldn't resist the Earth Spirit at all. But he didn't intend to fight it himself; he only had to hold the Earth Spirit here until the young man with the brush arrived. The battle would be over then.

The Earth Spirit noticed Wang Lin's intention. It let out a roar and slammed into the restriction ring while completely ignoring the restriction smoke.

In truth, the Earth Spirit wasn't being affected by the restriction smoke. The moment the smoke entered its body, it was like the Earth Spirit was devouring it.

With the first slam, a large amount of black smoke disappeared and a crisp crackling sound came from within.

Wang Lin's heart ached. He knew that cracks had appeared on the restriction flag.

The Earth Spirit let out another roar. It didn't break through the first time, so it slammed into the cage again. This time, all of the black smoke was destroyed. Although the restriction flag remained intact, there were even more cracks on it now.

Wang Lin's eyes lit up. The young man with the ink brush arrived right when the Earth Spirit was about to slam a third time. The young man's eyes were still closed as his hand moved with the brush. Although it looked slow, he moved it very quickly until it was pointed at the Earth Spirit.

Suddenly, the Earth Spirit let out a miserable scream as even more black smoke burst from its body, weakening it severely. It revealed a stubborn gaze. Unwilling to give up, it was about to slam a third time.

Wang Lin secretly sighed. He pointed his hand at the air and the black seal fell from the sky. The killing intent mixed with the soul fragment came down like the heavens collapsing.

The Earth's Spirit's face suddenly became very serious as its body turned into black mud. It attempted to wrap around the black seal.

At that moment, the young man opened his eyes, which revealed a mysterious light. His hand moved again, causing a large amount of the black mud created by the Earth Spirit to disappear.

The black seal's pressure smashed down on the Earth Spirit, causing it to let out a miserable scream as it turned back into human shape. However, the Earth Spirit was not half transparent. It was as if it would dissipate if the wind blew on it.

The Earth Spirit revealed a look of despair as the young man raised his hand. He was about to wave the brush again. Wang Lin immediately charged into the restriction flag and pointed at his brow. A powerful suction force appeared and immediately sucked the Earth Spirit into Wang Lin's brow.

Wang Lin didn't have time to check on it once it was absorbed into the heaven defying bead. He sucked the black seal back and waved his hand to put the restriction flag back into his bag of holding.

All of this was done very quickly. Afterwards, he didn't hesitate to shout, "Junior is a disciple of the White Cloud Sect. My master is Qing Song." With that, his divine sense entered his bag of holding to control the old man's carving to release a sliver of the passing of time domain before turning around and leaving.

The young man stared at Wang Lin with a cold gaze, but his hand didn't move. After a while, he turned around and left.

Wang Lin flew for 10,000 kilometers while on guard before stopping. Only when he noticed that the young man wasn't chasing did he finally let out a sigh of relief.

Wang Lin took a lot of risk to steal this Earth Spirit from someone else's grasp. He decided to not risk trying to get the other elemental spirits. It would be too dangerous; if he had made a single mistake, he would have died.

Also, the damage to the restriction flag caused his heart to ache.

Hidden inside a mountain of snow, Wang Lin checked the heaven defying bead and found that the earth element was completely filled. Now he only needed wood and metal to complete the heaven defying bead.

Just at this moment, the ground shook and countless ice sculptures of snakes with human hands came out from the ground.

These sculptures were the mysterious things Wang Lin found hidden more than 5,000 kilometers underground.

One by one, the sculptures rose through the snow-covered ground. If one were to look from above, they would notice that these sculptures formed an image.

This image looked exactly the same as the snakes with heads depicted on the ice sculptures.

The ice sculptures began to shine as they all suddenly rose into the air. All of the ice sculptures in the entire Four Sect Alliance flew into the air at unimaginable speeds and all of the rifts in the sky besides the one at the center disappeared.

Shortly after, a powerful, dark blue aura came out of the rift at the center. Once the aura appeared, it quickly spread and surrounded the area 10,000 kilometers around it.

Some of the Four Sect Alliance cultivators weren't able to dodge fast enough and were hit by this dark blue aura. They immediately froze and turned into ice sculptures. Even their Nascent Souls were completely frozen in place.

This bizarre scene caused the surrounding Four Sect Alliance cultivators to be shocked.

Next, the ice sculptures floating in the air melted. In a few short breaths, they had all melted completely. It was as if they were never there.

When they disappeared, a powerful pressure came out of the rift at the center. A creature the size of a small mountain with a snake body slowly descended from the rift.

The moment this creature appeared, the dark blue aura became even denser and spread out farther. No matter what it touched, everything would freeze into a block of ice.

Wang Lin sucked in a breath of cold air and without a world left the mountain of snow. Not more than three breaths after he left, the blue aura swept by and turned the mountain of snow into an ice mountain.

At this moment, the creature with the snake body had already descended halfway. Surprisingly, the upper half was that of a human. Wang Lin already expected that the creature would be the same as the ice sculptures.

Although he had already notified Zhou Wutai of this matter, whether the Four Sect Alliance did anything about it was not Wang Lin's concern.

Wang Lin ran until the blue aura stopped spreading, then he stopped and looked at the sky with a gloomy face.

At this moment, Zhou Wutai, who was standing above the dragon's head, let out a cold snort. Suddenly, the black dragon under him flew into the air. It opened its mouth, which looked like it could devour the heavens, and charged toward the descending creature.

The dark blue aura didn't have any effect on the black dragon.

However, as the black dragon charged toward the creature, a cold voice came from inside the rift. "Lord messenger, Suzaku promised to help us once, so I'm asking you now to kill this black dragon."

As those words came out, a woman in a white robe with long, flowing hair came out of the rift. This woman was very graceful. It didn't seem like there was even much coldness coming from her body, but her eyes revealed that she was a very determined person.

The moment the woman appeared, everyone, even fools, could tell at a glance that the difference between her and the woman before was too great. It was like comparing the bright moon to a firefly.

After this woman appeared, she waved her hand and four rays of light flew to her from four different directions. Those were the metal, wood, water, and fire elemental spirits.

The woman's brow furrowed. "There is one missing?"

Chapter 277 - Red Butterfly

Her master once told her that her Five Elemental Spirits appeared when she was born to protect her forever.

The Five Elemental Spirits were not at the late stage of Soul Formation when they were formed. They grew alongside Red Butterfly. Whenever she made a breakthrough, the Five Elemental Spirits did as well.

The stronger Red Butterfly was, the stronger the Five Elemental Spirits were.

As for where the Five Elemental Spirits came from, no one knew. In the end, Red Butterfly's master sacrificed her cultivation to obtain a hint. Red Butterfly had the Five Elemental Spirit body. In her life, she will only have one trial. Once she passes that trial, she will gain the true Five Elemental Spirit body and will never have a bottleneck.

However, even though her master had used her cultivation as the price, she still wasn't able to predict what the trial would be

After a while, it was kind of put to the side, but there was a tiny part of everyone's hearts waiting for that trial.

Just before this war, Red Butterfly's master suddenly had a vision. Using this chance, she was able to figure out a hint of her trial.

That was why before the war, she told Red Butterfly to hand her Five Elemental Spirits to her senior apprentice sister so that her senior may lead Xue Yu into battle against the Four Sect Alliance.

In truth, this all went as her master had planned. Using her senior as a replacement, Red Butterfly was able to dodge this trial.

As a result, once her senior died, her trial would be over and her future path would be without obstacles. This was why she came out of the rift.

But at this moment, when she found out that one of the Five Elemental Spirits were missing, her heart suddenly felt that something was off and her expression became gloomy.

There were eight people standing behind her.

Among the eight people, seven of them were dressed the same. There were males and females among the seven, and they were all very old because they were the seven grand elders of Xue Yu. Even after Red Butterfly enters Suzaku, these seven will still follow her and act as her bodyguards.

The last person was a middle-aged man that was wearing a black robe. This person's face was a pale yellow, making him look very sickly.

He lazily nodded after hearing the woman speak, then took a step forward and immediately arrived between the black dragon and the snake creature. He looked at the black dragon and smiled. "I don't have the right to kill this dragon, but I can remove the bloodline."

With that, he waved his right hand, causing Zhou Wutai's body to shake and cough out a mouthful of blood. He felt the presence of a powerful force. This force made his body shoot into the distance like a meteor.

The blood Zhou Wutai coughed out was condensed into a drop of purple blood in the middle-aged man's hand. Then he flicked the drop of blood into the brow of the black dragon.

The black dragon let out a roar filled with sorrow, but alongside that sorrow there was a sense of liberation. The dragon looked at the ground, then its whole body suddenly stopped moving as the soul of a dragon flew out and disappeared in the distance.

The black dragon quickly turned back into a mountain after losing the dragon's soul and fell back to the ground.

The black dragon no longer protected the Four Sect Alliance. The moment the mountain fell, the resulting sound was like the signal telling the Four Sect Alliance that they were doomed.

The middle aged man let out a sigh. He returned to the woman's side and continued to look sickly.

Finally, the snake creature with the top half of a human fully descended from the rift. The woman in the white robe gently landed on the head of the snake creature. She pointed at the ground and the snake creature spat out dark blue aura. The moment this aura appeared, it began to spread like crazy. No matter who it was, if they touched this aura they would only manage to struggle a bit before turning into an ice statue. Soul Formation cultivators were no exception.

Wang Lin stared at the scene before him. His scalp went numb. Although he was very far from that woman, the speed of the dark blue aura was too great. Without a word, he put on the straw hat and escaped. He used his full speed to escape the dark blue aura. His destination was where Zhou Wutai was thrown.

As the dark blue aura spread, the entire Four Sect Alliance was turned into a world of ice.

The cultivators of the Four Sect Alliance flew out of their sects with looks of indignation on their faces. After glancing at their home, they all tried to leave.

But how could the cultivators of Xue Yu let them just leave like this?

Wang Lin was very fast. He knew what the result would be the moment that sickly middle-aged man acted. Xue Yu was going to cut the roots this time, so it would be very hard for the cultivators of the Four Sect Alliance to escape.

Wang Lin took a deep breath. He no longer thought about this. Instead, he turned into an illusion as he flew even faster. He didn't dare to stop as the dark blue aura was very fearsome. Everything the aura touched was turned to ice. Wang Lin didn't believe he would survive by relying on luck.

Before long, his divine sense noticed that 1,000 kilometers away, there was a hole in a mountain of snow. That was where Zhou Wutai had landed.

Wang Lin's body disappeared. When he reappeared, he was already at the mountain of snow. He didn't hesitate at all as he entered the hole.

The moment he entered, he saw Zhou Wutai. Zhou Wutai didn't die, he was only knocked unconscious. Wang Lin quickly took Zhou Wutai's bag of holding and left. He didn't dare to linger.

Almost at the exact moment he left the snow mountain, the dark blue aura arrived. The entire mountain of snow turned into a mountain of ice.

While Wang Lin was flying in the sky, he used his powerful divine sense to wipe off Zhou Wutai's divine sense from the bag of holding. He let out a smile when he found the Rain Cauldron inside it.

Just as he put the bag away, his expression suddenly changed. He saw an ice tower with more than 80 floors appear before him. An old woman walked out of it. She shot Wang Lin a cold glance and raised her right hand.

Wang Lin quickly backed up and pointed at his brow. The core Teng family members that were turned into devils by him flew out.

As soon as these devils appeared, they jumped at the old woman. The old woman revealed a look of disdain as she flicked her finger. The devils were quickly surrounded by blue ice.

Wang Lin clenched his teeth and thought, "Explode! Explode! Explode!"

Suddenly, the devils exploded inside the blue ice and turned into a cloud of black smoke.

Wang Lin's body never stopped. He used the black smoke to disappear from sight. When he reappeared, he was already more than 1,000 kilometers away. He quickly started to run again. At the same time, his right hand pointed at his brow once more. This time, he ordered every devil besides Xu Ligou to explode.

Only after a few seconds of escaping did Wang Lin feel that some of the devils had already exploded. Although the smoke was now thicker, the feeling of a needle at this back was still there.

"You won't be able to escape!" The old woman's gloomy voice came from behind him. The 80 plus floor ice tower charged out from the black smoke with the old woman sitting at the top. The expression on her face was dark.

Wang Lin didn't turn around. He slapped his bag of holding and a cloud of black smoke appeared. The black smoke condensed into a Nascent Soul puppet. Wang Lin suddenly turned around as his hand formed a seal and red lightning shot out from his eyes. The red lightning entered the puppet as he shouted, "Go!"

Suddenly, the puppet charged at the old woman as if it was crazy. The old woman stood still at the top of the ice tower. The look of contempt in her eyes became even stronger. She reached out and grabbed. Suddenly, the ice and snow on the ground flew up and blocked the puppet.

As Wang Lin ran away, his eyes became cold as he thought, "Explode!"

A flash of red appeared in the puppet's eyes. As the ice and snow closed in on it, it exploded. The explosion of a Nascent Soul puppet at full power was very scary. Under the control of the puppet, the energy of that explosion didn't spread in all directions. Instead, it was directed at the old woman.

At the same time, in the middle of the explosion, a bolt of red lightning charged toward the old woman.

This red lightning was Wang Lin's Ji Realm. Although its effect on Soul Formation cultivators wasn't large, it was still enough to shock their consciousness.

The old woman didn't care too much about the red lightning, but she slightly frowned at the explosion of the Nascent Soul puppet. She put her hand on the ice tower, making rays of white light shoot out from all the windows. These rays of white light condensed around the old woman, forming an ice shield 10 feet thick.

However, the old woman would never have thought that the red lightning would just go through the ice shield as if it weren't even there. Her expression changed as she moved her hand to block it, but the red lightning suddenly entered her body through her arm.

The red lightning charged directly through her body and into her consciousness, causing her vision to become hazy. This only lasted for a few short moments before she returned to normal, but now there was a sliver of dread in her eyes.

This sliver of confusion caused the ice shield around her to weaken. Without the old woman's control, the ice shield absorbed some damage, which caused it to collapse. The rest of the explosion hit the old woman directly.

It was also at this moment that the old woman regained her senses. She let out a cold snort and her white robe puffed up. With some popping sounds, the explosion of the puppet was stopped by the mysterious formation on her white robe.

Once the smoke disappeared, the old woman sucked in a breath of cold air. She returned to her ice tower without a word and was about to leave.

Chapter 278 - Divine Retribution

But it was too late!

Earlier, when Wang Lin took out the puppet, he made a decision. Right now, he was at the point of life and death. The old woman was clearly not an early stage Soul Formation cultivator; she was very likely at the peak of the mid stage. This old woman's techniques must contain her domain, so if he were to get caught, it would be too dangerous.

The gap between their cultivation levels was too large, so even if he ran, he wasn't any faster.

Wang Lin's eyes became decisive as he made a decision. He had to finish this quickly or else once the other Xue Yu cultivators arrive, it will be very hard to escape.

He had to take victory as quickly as possible before the old woman considered him a threat.

Wang Lin didn't hesitate at all. The moment he threw out the Nascent Soul puppet, he took a deep breath and a thin thread slowly came out of his hand.

The sliver of divine retribution!

In addition to this, he could also hide inside the heaven defying bead. However, that was his last resort because he would rather use this sliver of divine retribution than allow the old woman to see the heaven defying bead.

The heaven defying bead was his most well kept secret and shouldn't be exposed. But if he didn't have this sliver of divine retribution, he would have no choice but to enter the heaven defying bead.

Wang Lin used the moment the old woman was dazed by the Ji Realm to activate the sliver of divine retribution.

This sliver of divine retribution was Wang Lin's ace that had helped him survive many crisis, but in order to live, he still used it today.

It wasn't that he didn't consider using it to threaten her; it was because there were many Xue Yu cultivators here. He could threaten her, but once she leaves and brings back more cultivators, he would be in a very dangerous situation.

So the ideal situation was to kill her with the sliver of divine retribution before she even realized it.

Although he felt a bit heartbroken when using it, Wang Lin was not an indecisive person. The sliver of divine retribution disappeared and red clouds appeared in the sky.

These clouds appeared very mysteriously. In almost an instant, the red clouds covered the sky. As for the dark blue aura, it really couldn't compare to the red cloud. The dark blue aura moved out of the way of the red clouds as if it didn't dare to block their path.

This was the scene the old woman saw once she recovered from Wang Lin's attack.

She didn't immediately recognize what this was, but the moment she saw the red clouds, she felt fear, so she didn't hesitate to hide inside the ice tower.

At this moment, the white-robed Red Butterfly looked at the red clouds with a curious gaze.

The sickly middle-aged man behind her suddenly became very alert. His sickly look completely disappeared as he stared at the red clouds.

He didn't say a word. He completely ditched his job of protecting Red Butterfly to go to the red clouds.

Wang Lin's face was pale and his right hand trembled as he watched the old woman escape to the ice tower. His eyes lit up as he controlled the red clouds and pointed at the ice tower.

Suddenly, a bolt of red lightning appeared in the red clouds. This red lightning was unbelievably fast. At almost the exact same moment it appeared, it landed on the ice tower. That sliver of red lightning seemed to have triggered the rest of the clouds. Sounds of friction could be heard inside the clouds as red lightning gathered to form a bolt of purple lightning that was as thick as an arm before crashing down from the sky.

The old woman was about to dodge inside the ice tower when she realized that her surroundings were locked down by a destructive force, making her unable to move.

A look of despair appeared on her face. She never would have expected to attract divine retribution when she went to chase a mere Nascent Soul junior.

No matter how dumb she was, she realized that this was the mythical divine retribution.

The purple divine retribution smashed down on the ice tower. The ice tower and the old woman disappeared without a trace. It was as if they had never existed.

Wang Lin took a deep breath and directed another regrettable look at the divine retribution. But he knew that this was not the time to linger, so he turned around and escaped.

But after moving just 100 feet, he noticed a powerful divine sense sweep by him. At that moment, the straw hat on his head glowed and that divine sense quickly retreated.

Suddenly, hot energy emanated from the straw head and entered his head. It showed the image of the middle-aged man who destroyed the dragon rapidly approaching.

Wang Lin was terrified and had no time to be amazed at the straw hat's ability. He quickly pointed his finger at his brow and disappeared into the heaven defying bead's space.

After the purple divine retribution lightning destroyed the ice tower and old woman, it began to dissipate slowly. The red clouds in the sky also began to disperse, but just at this moment, the middle-aged man from Suzaku arrived. His eyes looked crazed as he stared at the red cloud. Then he let out a roar and an unimaginable aura spread from his body.

Suddenly, the dissipating red cloud began to move again. It was as if it were trying to condense once more. However, without that sliver of divine retribution to guide it, the red cloud could no longer condense again.

The middle-aged man was extremely worried about the red cloud. He knew that this was an extremely rare chance for him. If he were to miss this chance, he didn't know if he would ever encounter something this good in his life again.

However, the red clouds could no longer condense and he could only watch as they dissipated. It was like seeing a mountain of gold and silver before you, but as you reached out to grab it, you noticed that there was an uncrossable gap between it and you.

Anxious, the middle-aged man bit his finger and drew blood symbols. The symbols flew out one by one into the red clouds.

Gradually, more and more blood symbols entered the red clouds. Finally, the speed at which the red cloud was dissipating seemed to slow down. The middle-aged man relaxed for a moment before his face became ugly again.

The red clouds were already very weak and about to disappear, but they were stabilized by the blood symbols. However, the dark blue aura suddenly rushed in as it was now stronger and sped up the dissipation of the red clouds.

Seeing the red clouds quickly dissipate until there was only one left, the middle-aged man let out an angry roar as he charged into the middle of it.

The moment his body entered the red cloud, bolts of purple lightning entered his body. He felt pain, but was also very comfortable as the lightning struck him. However, this only lasted for a very short period of time as the red cloud quickly dissipated.

The middle-aged man stared dumbfoundedly at the sky, his face very gloomy. Earlier, when his divine sense swept by, he only found the ice tower and a golden glow. The glow caused his divine sense to feel pain, so he pulled back. Afterward, he couldn't feel that golden glow anymore.

After pondering for a bit, he clasped his hands and shouted, "Fellow cultivator who attracted the divine retribution, I am Ou Zhi from Suzaku. I would like to ask fellow cultivator to attract the divine retribution again. I will reward you handsomely."

After a long time and still no response, the middle aged man let out a sigh. He reached out and grabbed the air. There was a scream as a giant arm covered in blue aura flew toward him. The arm landed in his hand and then turned to dust.

The snake creature only had one arm left. Red Butterfly's expression was calm, but there was a hidden trace of anger.

The middle-aged man let out a cold snort and slowly said, "If it wasn't for this damn beast ruining my fortune, then I would have been able to complete my technique today. I'm already very generous in taking only one arm. Red Butterfly, remember this well."

Red Butterfly didn't speak. The seven behind her only dared to be to silently angry. They didn't utter a word.

The middle-aged man moved. When he reappeared, he was behind Red Butterfly. He once again looked very sickly.

Almost all of the cultivators of the Four Sect Alliance died in the year after the battle. Only a few were lucky enough to remain hidden in the new Xue Yu.

Time slowly passed. After living here for a year, Red Butterfly followed the middle-aged man to Suzaku.

As for the rain cauldron, no matter how much the cultivators of Xue Yu searched, they couldn't find it. They believed that it was in the hands of the surviving Four Sect Alliance cultivators.

After Xue Yu took over the country, massive amounts of mortals from the original Xue Yu migrated over. Snow continued to fall, causing the new Xue Yu to be forever cold.

One by one, ice towers unique to Xue Yu appeared. After three years, this land completely belonged to Xue Yu.

Time quickly passed. Five years later, at a place 30,000 kilometers from the bounder of Xue Yu, a rainbow-colored light gradually condensed.

Chapter 279 - Heaven Defying Bead Changes

It was Wang Lin!

The heaven defying bead had undergone a mysterious change after absorbing the Earth Spirit. Before, it would have been impossible for him to stay inside for five years.

But after the earth element was completed, the amount of time Wang Lin could spend inside was far longer than before.

A big change was that the heaven defying space now had some spiritual energy inside. There was none in there before.

This spiritual energy was much more pure than the spiritual energy outside. Although Wang Lin had never felt celestial spiritual energy, he felt that the spiritual energy inside the bead was a bit less pure than celestial spiritual energy.

In additional to all of this, the most important change was that all of the small light sources inside the heaven defying bead had gathered together and formed five large masses of light in the sky.

Among the five masses of light, three of them are glowing brightly, one of them was only glowing slightly, and the last one was very dim, without any color.

Wang Lin had spent the years inside the heaven defying bead observing the masses of light. With his perception, he realized that these five masses of light were related to the elements.

It was very likely that these five masses of light were made of the elemental energy gathered by the heaven defying bead. The three brightly glowing ones were the water, earth, and fire elements.

The half glowing one was the wood element.

As for the completely dim light, it was the metal element.

In the years Wang Lin had spent observing the heaven defying bead, he got a very mysterious feeling from the lights. It was as if they were alive.

If someone whose cultivation level was higher than Wang Lin's was inside the bead, they would have a hard time noticing this. Wang Lin was able to notice this while he was cultivating his own life and death domain. During a moment of enlightenment, he was able to detect life inside the masses of light.

This discovery suddenly increased his interest in the masses of light.

Situ Nan once said that the appearance of the heaven defying bead caused all of the top cultivators in Suzaku and even cultivators from other planets to come and fight for it. After losing his body, his Nascent Soul escaped into the heaven defying bead and barely survived.

After a series of events, he was able to escape those cultivators. After many years, the bead ended up inside the stomach of a bird and then found by Wang Lin.

Wang Lin has had this heaven defying bead for more than 400 years, but he still hadn't managed to figure out its true function. In his view, this bead could only alter time to a certain degree and could change normal water to one with spiritual energy.

These abilities were very useful for cultivators below the Soul Formation stage, but they weren't all that useful to Soul Formation and above cultivators.

After all, for cultivators past the Soul Formation stage, the spiritual energy in the mortal world is no longer pure enough to cultivate with. Only celestial spiritual energy can be used, so this spiritual energy of the mortal world really wasn't that attractive to them.

Making water with spiritual energy and time altering were somewhat useful, but with just these abilities, it didn't seem right for the top cultivators of Suzaku and other planets to come and fight for the bead.

Wang Lin believed that this heaven defying bead definitely had to have other uses. Why else would all those powerful cultivators fight over it?

Situ Nan had said before that after years of studying, he believed that the heaven defying bead would only show its true nature once the five elements were complete. Maybe at that point, it will finally reveal a bit of its power.

Wang Lin's interest for the true power of the heaven defying bead not only didn't diminish with time, but he became even more interested.

He even had a hope that the five masses of light would become like the five elemental spirits the white-robed woman had.

Of course, this was all just speculation.

Wang Lin stood in the new Xue Yu and let out a sigh. Aside from studying the five masses of light, the rest of his time was spent cultivating his life and death domain.

He had spent more than ten years inside the heaven defying bead, but for some reason, when he was cultivating his life and death domain, the time altering power of the heaven defying space had lost its use.

Five years had passed outside. No matter how much time would pass inside the bead, it was still five years to his domain.

This point puzzled Wang Lin greatly. At this moment, Wang Lin felt his own cultivation level. He would only need to cultivate his domain for four more years before he finally reaches the Soul Formation stage.

Wang Lin believed that once he reaches the Soul Formation stage, if he were to meet that mid stage Soul Formation old woman, he will be able to put up a fight even without the divine retribution.

Wang Lin was forced to leave the heaven defying bead's space. Even with all the changes, five years was the limit. For a while, Wang Lin won't be able to stay inside for that long.

Wang Lin let out a sigh. Instead of flying, he slowly walked forward. He put the straw hat away and slowly walked on an ice field.

The snow raged and the cold air tried to invade his body every time he took a deep breath. After a long time, he saw an ice city in the distance.

In the center of the city was a 30 plus floor ice tower with a bead that emitted a mysterious light.

The land under his feet now belonged to the new Xue Yu, so he really didn't have any right to intervene in this matter. He only wanted to find a quiet place to spend the next four years to reach the Soul Formation stage.

When Wang Lin arrived in the ice city, he looked no different from a mortal.

Xue Yu also had mortals. After they had migrated to the new land, they built new cities with the help of the cultivators.

Wang Lin silently appeared inside the city. As he looked at all the ice houses, he couldn't help but feel like he was in a foreign place.

There weren't many people walking around outside and there weren't many inns or restaurants. The most common sight in the city were ice sculpture shops.

Outside almost every house there was someone carving a giant block of ice with a chisel, creating very rough ice sculptures. There was something strange about these people.

Along the way, no one talked at all. They were all either hurrying to somewhere or focused on carving the ice.

Also, whenever an ice sculpture was completed, all of the nearby mortals would help move it to the ice tower.

After leaving the ice sculptures there, someone from the tower would come out to accept it.

Wang Lin pondered a little. His appearance seemed a bit out of place, so others were already taking notice of him. He let out a sigh and turned to leave. Once he reached a secluded area, he disappeared.

In the blink of an eye, one year passed. During this year, Wang Lin had traveled all over Xue Yu and had entered almost every city. People no longer paid much attention to him as he started dressing like other Xue Yu mortals after going into the first city. He was now wearing clothes made out of animal fur and a fizzled animal hat.

Wang Lin learned a lot about Xue Yu during his one year here. The mortals of Xue Yu existed only to create ice sculpture for cultivators.

They created ice sculptures to exchange for what they needed to live.

There were no royal families or anything similar to them in Xue Yu. Instead, each city belonged to a powerful cultivator.

Wang Lin had figured out what the use for those ice sculptures in this past year. The cultivators would take them, place a formation on them, and then use a special technique to bring them to life, making them into something like a puppet.

This method was very mysterious. It required the use of the core essence of the Xue Yu cultivators. Wang Lin had studied it for a long time and still wasn't able to learn anything.

As for the ice sculptures themselves, a large amount of them were sold to other countries. Their prices varied depending on the cultivation level the ice sculptures displayed.

The most expensive ice sculptures were Nascent Soul level. Wang Lin had only seen a few being made in all the cities he had visited. The failure rate to make one was extremely high.

As for Soul Formation ice sculptures, Wang Lin still hadn't found a city that could produce one. Those types of puppets were probably very hard to produce, or even impossible. If they could easily make them, then the power of the Xue Yu cultivators would reach an unimaginable level.

In this year, Wang Lin had witnessed three occasions where a large number of ice sculptures was bought by another rank 4 country.

These ice sculptures required a large amount of materials to make, but they were the foundation of Xue Yu's infrastructure, so no expenses were spared.

In addition to all of this, there was large amount of mortals starting to mine at the spirit veins in this land.

It can be said that the mortals were slaves as everything they did was to serve the cultivators. What baffled Wang Lin the most was that the mortals felt proud doing this; they weren't rejecting this type of treatment.

Even if they were being overworked, there were no complaints.

Wang Lin had come to a conclusion after spending a year here: Xue Yu was a very strange country.

There was one more thing that shocked Wang Lin: all of the mortals carried a small ice sculpture with them. These ice sculptures were connected to the most powerful cultivator in their respective cities.

No matter how tired they were or even if they were dying, every morning and evening they would take out the small ice sculpture to pray. They would kneel on the ground with complete devotion.

All of these unbelievable things caused Wang Lin to have a very strange feeling about Xue Yu. This country, much like the snow and ice covering it, had no signs of vigor or life.

The sky was the same as well. There was this dull feeling everywhere he went.

Chapter 280 - Master

After a year of traveling, Wang Lin picked a small city. Although he didn't like this city, the ice sculpture technique had really caught his attention.

Wang Lin made wood carvings, so if he could learn this technique and use it on wood carvings, he would have another weapon.

In addition to this, there was another important reason that made Wang Lin not want to leave this place. The mortals here had no life in them, which was a very strange thing. Wang Lin believed that he would gain a better understanding of death here.

Wang Lin settled down in a small city near the northern border of Xue Yu. There weren't many people in this city and the cultivator controlling it was at the late stage of Core Formation.

This cultivator disappeared without a trace two nights after Wang Lin arrived. However, no one but Wang Lin knew of his disappearance.

On the third day, Wang Lin, disguised himself as this person and walked out of the ice tower that only had 11 floors.

Wang Lin had already used his power as a soul devourer to steal all the memories of this late stage Core Formation cultivator. Instead of killing him, he took control of him and locked him inside a formation, in case he becomes useful later on.

Originally, with this cultivator's cultivation level, he wouldn't have the right to own an ice tower, but his uncle had some power in Xue Yu, so he was assigned this small town and an ice tower.

Through this person's memories, Wang Lin learned that the genius of Xue Yu was named Red Butterfly and that she had left with a cultivator of Suzaku a few years ago.

Along with the seven grand elders that left, 13 more cultivators who were even older than the grand elders had gone as well. They went to Suzaku to accept the empowerment ceremony…

The request Red Butterfly had for joining Suzaku was to make Xue Yu a rank 5 cultivation country and to give them a new home. The second request had been completed. Now there was only the first one remaining.

All of the cultivators in Xue Yu knew a bit about this, but because of this cultivator's uncle, he knew even more than usual.

For a rank 4 cultivation country to rise up to rank 5, a cultivator in that country would have to reach the Soul Transformation stage.

The empowerment ceremony was a very powerful and heaven defying technique. Everyone only had one shot at it with a very high chance to fail. However, if it succeeded, then that person would reach the Soul Transformation stage. The only downside was that no matter how much life that person had, they would only have 100 years left to live.

Also, that person's cultivation level will be forever stuck at the early stage of Soul Transformation.

There was no way to change this. They will only have 100 years to live, and once that passes, they will die.

As a result, this was also a chance for those who were stuck at late stage of Soul Formation. After all, they didn't have much life left, so it was worth a shot.

As long as one of the 13 people were successful, Suzaku would give Xue Yu the privileges of a rank 5 cultivation country for 100 years. During those 100 years, one of the seven grand elders that followed Red Butterfly will reach the Soul Transformation stage, thus solidifying their position as a rank 5 cultivation country.

This was something Suzaku had promised Red Butterfly.

The four surrounding rank 4 cultivation countries had all accepted their fates and were ready to become subjects of Xue Yu.

These were rules left by the cultivation union rather than Suzaku. Any country can rebel, but they can't change anything as the price of rebellion is to be wiped out.

Wang Lin walked out of the ice tower and saw two Foundation Establishment cultivators outside. One was male and the other female. The moment they saw Wang Lin, they knelt down and paid their respects to their teacher.

Wang Lin silently nodded.

Wang Lin knew that this person has three disciples and that this small beauty was the youngest. She was also the most spoiled and had a secret relationship with the cultivator Wang Lin was disguised as.

This type of thing was very rare between masters and disciples in other cultivation countries. Even if it were to happen, it would be a well kept secret.

But in this incredible country, it was a very common thing. According to this cultivator's memories, there were many other cultivators in Xue Yu who had relationships with their disciples.

These types of thing had become so common that no one looked down on people who did it. This cultivator had once even complained that if Red Butterfly wasn't so blessed by the heavens, she would've had to serve her master as well.

Wang Lin could only bitterly smile at this matter. It caused his opinion of to Xue Yu become even worse.

As for the the male disciple, although he looked old, he was the second oldest. He showed respect to his master on the surface, but he really hated his master's relationship with his junior apprentice sister.

Wang Lin obtained all of this information from the Core Formation cultivator, who originally planned to send this male disciple away so he won't be such an eyesore.

With a hand behind his back and a very neutral voice, Wang Lin slowly asked, "Have any new ice embryos arrived?" Ice embryos were what the Xue Yu cultivators called the ice sculptures.

The second disciple quickly answered, "Master, two of them just arrived."

Wang Lin gently nodded and said, "Take them out and let me see if the two of you have improved your technique." Wang Lin obtained a very detailed description of the method from the cultivator's memories. From his point of view, this technique was related to the core of Xue Yu cultivators and was very intricate.

In addition to spiritual energy, Xue Ye cultivators also absorb cold energy from the snow when they cultivate. This cold energy is something they must absorb because it allows them to leave their bodies to form ice giants when they reach the Nascent Soul stage.

However, this technique has levels and is not easy to obtain. The cultivator Wang Lin captured only had the first four levels, and that's only because he had learned it secretly.

The second disciple quickly nodded and took out two three feet tall ice sculptures from his bag of holding. The two sculptures were of a creature with the body of a bird and head of a human. It looked very ferocious.

After a year of traveling, Wang Lin knew that this was an ice sculpture of one of Xue Yu's guardian creatures, the snow fairy.

The second disciple focused his gaze and cultivated for a bit. Then his left hand formed multiple seals until a ball of black blood formed. He pointed at the ball of blood and broke off a sliver of it. He then pushed the sliver into the ice sculpture.

Suddenly, black smoke spewed from his finger and entered the ice sculpture, creating a mark that looked like a vein.

The second disciple's forehead was covered in sweat. He took a deep breath, picked out another sliver of blood, and pushed it into the ice sculpture. Suddenly, a second vein appeared in the ice sculpture.

At this point, the ball of blood on the second disciple's hand silently disappeared. His face was pale as he quickly sat down to cultivate.

Wang Lin's expression was calm, but he secretly managed to find out a bit more about the technique. According to the memories of the cultivator, the requirement to complete the first step was to put nine blood veins in the snow fairy.

Just as he was thinking this, the female disciple walked up to him. She looked at him with her pretty eyes and whispered, "Master, you haven't answered my question from a few days ago, so disciple's cultivation is having problems. Please come and instruct me tonight."

Wang Lin was still considering the blood vein, so he casually nodded and said, "Speak, what issue?"

The female disciple was suddenly startled and looked around. Her face became red as she charmingly asked, "Talk about it here?"

Wang Lin nodded, but he suddenly remembered something from the cultivators memories: there was another meaning to this disciple's question.

Thinking about this, Wang Lin was about to speak, but the female disciple's face became even more red and her clothes suddenly fell off, revealing half of her body.

Wang Lin brows furrowed. He waved his sleeves and the woman's clothes went back on her body. He then looked at her with a very cold gaze.

The female disciple felt a cold pressure around her. Her expression immediately changed and she knelt on the ground in fear. After a long time, she carefully stood up. She was very afraid because she didn't know what she had done to anger her master.

At this moment, the second disciple finished cultivating. He looked at the female disciple but didn't say anything. His hand moved again to form another ball of blood and began forming the blood veins once more.

The second disciple had taken several hours to barely complete nine blood veins. Most of this time was spent cultivating to adjust his body.

It was clear that producing this ice sculpture took a toll on him.

When the ice sculpture was finished, the second disciple took a deep breath, knelt down before the ice sculpture, and began to mutter a prayer. Then he stood up, clenched his teeth, and pointed at the gathering point of the nine blood veins.

After a bang, the second disciple coughed out blood and was sent flying more than ten feet away. As for the ice sculpture, the nine blood veins moved like snakes. Then two of the blood veins touched and the ice sculpture exploded into pieces of ice.

The second disciple's face was pale and he shamefully said, "Disciple has failed again…"

Wang Lin didn't bother with the disciple but stared at the ice sculpture. He searched the cultivator's memories for the key part of producing the ice sculptures.

Just at this moment, Wang Lin noticed something. He looked up and saw a sword quickly flying toward this direction.

Chapter 281 - Honor

There was a very bright and handsome young man wearing black, leather clothes standing on a flying sword. He looked different from other cultivators from Xue Yu, which was very refreshing.

The female disciple's eyes suddenly lit up and she shouted, "Senior apprentice brother is back!"

As for the second disciple, his face suddenly became gloomy, but that was replaced by a happy expression in a flash.

Wang Lin could tell from the memories of the Core Formation cultivator that he really liked the eldest disciple. This eldest disciple had some blood relations with the Core Formation cultivator.

The eldest disciple could just barely be considered a genius. It took him 100 years to reach the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage and was only one step away from the Core Formation stage.

But according to the Core Formation cultivator's memories, the reason he liked this eldest disciple was because of the disciple's looks. He planned to marry his eldest disciple off to the female disciple of another late stage Core Formation cultivator to form an alliance.

After only a quick glimpse of this memory, Wang Lin no longer paid attention to it. The sword came close and arrived before the ice tower. The eldest disciple knelt on the ground and said, with a clear voice, "Disciple greets master. I was lucky and managed to find the hiding place of those Four Sect Alliance remnants!"

Wang Lin's expression was calm, but this heart suddenly skipped a beat. He did remember seeing in the Core Formation cultivator's memory that he had sent his eldest disciple out because a mortal reported to that they had seen someone that didn't look like they were from Xue Yu.

So the Core Formation cultivator sent out his eldest disciple to check up on this matter.

This kind of thing wasn't uncommon in the past few years. No matter how powerful the remaining Four Sect Alliance cultivators were, after years of being under this bizarre snow, they had all weakened greatly.

Although this was the case, Xue Yu couldn't be careless. Normally, when this type of thing happened, it would be reported to the Divine Temple of Ice and Snow. They would then send someone to deal with it.

The temple was extremely keen on this. If the report was given today, they would send someone out tomorrow.

Wang Lin pondered for a bit, then calmly said, "Lead the way."

The eldest disciple was startled. When this happens, his master normally never deals with it personally. However, he knew not to ask, so he only nodded and led the way.

The other two disciples looked at each other and followed behind. After all, their master was going personally. If they didn't go, then there might be trouble in the future.

So they forced themselves to follow Wang Lin.

The four of them formed a four point beam of light and flew into the distance. After a short while, the eldest disciple stopped. He pointed at a snowy mountain and said, "Disciple used the flying ice sculpture and personally saw that a person disappeared here. I believe they have a hiding place here."

Wang Lin's divine sense swept the area. Although his expression was calm, his eyes became focused.

"The three of you wait here!" After leaving that order, Wang Lin flew forward.

His divine sense found that below the snowy mountain there was a restriction, and inside it were two souls. One of them was only at the Core Formation stage, but the other one was very strange. Sometimes it was Core Formation, sometimes it was Nascent Soul, and sometimes it was even Soul Formation.

This phenomenon had only one explanation and that was this person's Nascent Soul and cultivation was about to scatter, meaning it was extremely unstable.

Wang Lin's body landed on top of the snowy mountain and sank into to mountain. He was closing in on the restriction.

He soon arrived at the restriction. As long as it was a restriction, he wasn't afraid of it. It took only one look to see through this restriction's structure. He sent out two restriction rings. The two restrictions soon started to fuse.

Wang Lin stepped through the restriction and went inside.

As soon as he entered, he saw a sword move and more than 10 sword qis attacked him.

Wang Lin's gaze was calm. His right hand seemed to randomly point in the air and he whispered, "Life."

The life and death domain suddenly gathered on Wang Lin's fingertip. This gentle point contained the way of the heavens and was filled with mysteries.

A gasp came from the swords. They then started to circle around Wang Lin's finger.

The swords were emitting a light as they underwent a change. Now the spiritual energy they released was several times more powerful than before.

However, the divine sense was completely erased by the power of the domain.

Wang Lin's eyes lit up as he looked at the terrified young man who was too scared to speak.

Behind the young man sat an old man on an ice bed. This person's eyes were closed and his face changed between red and green.

After a flick Wang Lin's finger, all of the swords suddenly fell to the ground with a ring.

The young man regained his senses. His face was filled with grief and indignation. He clenched his fist and shouted, "You guys destroyed my home, and now you've chased us here. Do you guys have to kill us all? You will kill us today, but someday there will be someone who will destroy Xue Yu."

This person's voice was filled with resentment that was now engraved in his bones.

After looking at the young man, Wang Lin's gaze fell on the old man.

The young man blocked Wang Lin's view. He watched Wang Lin for a bit, then, after pondering for a while, he suddenly knelt to the ground. He bit his lower lip hard until it bled and said, with a bitter smile, "Please don't kill my master, kill me instead! I am the Water Ink Sect's junior sect head. If you capture me and bring me back, you will definitely be rewarded. As long as you let my master go, then I'll willing to go with you. If you don't, you will only be able to get my corpse."

Although Wang Lin's eyes were calm, his heart was slightly touched. He slowly looked at the young man and then at the old man. Then he slowly said, "Why do you want to exchange your life for your master's?"

The young man was silent for a very long time before responding with a bitter smile. "Master could have left a long time ago if it wasn't for me dragging him down. It was all because he tried to save me…"

"Huan Er, quickly get up. This person is not a Xue Yu cultivator." The old man on the ice bed slowly opened his eyes.

The young man was startled, but his eyes suddenly lit up and he became very excited. He ran to his master's side and said, "Master, you… you're awake!"

Wang Lin took a look the old man. He clasped his hands and said, "Junior greets senior of the Water Ink Sect."

The old man coughed a few times as the red and green colors on his face became even stronger. With Wang Lin's life and death domain, he could clearly see the heavy death aura around the old man. He was near his end.

The old man raised his head. He looked at Wang Lin and slowly said, "Little friend, I'm too injured to greet you, so I hope you will forgive me. What has little friend come here for?"

Wang Lin let out a sigh and said, "Senior's hiding place has been found by the cultivators of Xue Yu, so it is best you leave now!" With that, he pondered a little and then took out a bottle of pills. He pushed the bottle toward the bed.

"Senior's injury is too serious for this bottle of pills to cure, but it can at least ease the pain of losing your cultivation. This should allow senior to leave this place. The world is big, so there might be other chances to recover you cultivation."

The old man let out a faint smile. He didn't even look at the pill and said, "Little friend, I don't know what sect you are from, but if I wanted to leave, I could have left back then. Even now I can leave, even if it means speeding up the loss of my cultivation, but do you know why I haven't left?"

Wang Lin pondered and then gently shook his head.

"This is my home! I was born here, and when I die, it will be here too!" Although the old man's voice was soft, there was a hard to describe aura within it.

Wang Lin looked at the person and no longer spoke. He clasped his hands and turned around to leave. His original plan here was not to kill but to give a helping hand.

After all, he had spent more than 30 years in the Four Sect Alliance and personally saw the invasion of the Xue Yu cultivators. Although it was outside his power to change anything, he would still help when he could.

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The moment Wang Lin turned around to leave, the old man looked at the bottle of pills and sighed. His right hand suddenly moved and took out a fan with only two feathers remaining.

"Little friend, I gift this treasure to you for the pills you've given me."

After Wang Lin caught the fan, his expression changed. He had a deep impression of this fan. It was used by that woman when she was surrounded by the Four Sect Alliance's killing formation. He remembered that after she died, this fan was taken away by a late stage Soul Formation cultivator.

He turned around and carefully looked at the old man. This person was one of the late stage soul Formation Cultivators that was in the killing formation.

All of the glory of the past was now a distant memory…

Wang Lin left with a complicated state of mind. The three disciples all didn't dare to speak; they only silently followed him.

Soon after Wang Lin left, the two came out of the snowy mountain and looked at the direction Wang Lin disappeared to before leaving.

At the border, the old man hit the formation to create an opening. He split half of the pills with the young man. He then looked lovingly at the young man and said, "Go. You have to rely on yourself in the future because master can't protect you anymore."

The young man's eyes were filled with sadness, but before he could say anything, the old man waved his sleeves and pushed the young man through. Then the protection formation returned to normal.

The young man stared at his master from the other side. His eyes were red and his voice cracked as he shouted, "Master!"

The old man let out a laugh and swallowed all of the pills in the bottle. His spiritual energy rapidly climbed back to its peak, though it was just temporary.

He waved his sleeves and his body moved. His target was the Divine Temple of Snow and Ice at the center of Xue Yu.

Even if he dies, he had to die in his home country. Even if he dies, he must die protecting his country!

All of the glorious moments of the past had become distant memories…

The one that falls in the fire must be that immortal phoenix… Even if it must burn its wings, it will still fly in the heavens…

Closing one door is like loving a world.

Memories of the past will now be forever distant.

The sand in the wind no longer filled the space of dreams. The whimper of the powerful flute is now only an echo in the desolate land.

Closing off one door is like cutting off one space and time.

The glorious past only remains in the descent's songs.

Yesterday's song no longer resonate the same way. The whispering complaints can't find its matching music.

Opening a window is like hugging a ray of sunlight.

Today's dream became the future empire's hope.

Even the ordinary you and me need to have exciting displays. Pursuit without regret to feel the might of the world.

Opening a window is like welcoming a wave of spring wind.

The burst of nothingness awaken what was once lost.

The one that fell in the fire must be that immortal phoenix… Even if it must burn its wings it will still fly in the heavens.

Chapter 282 - Returning to Zhao to Reach the Soul Formation Stage

The young man looked at his master's back as he left. A scene of the past entered his mind. He kowtowed to his master before clenching his fist and leaving.

"I, Chen Huan, swear that I'll wipe out Xue Yu!"

Wang Lin returned to the ice tower with a complicated state of mind. Although he had obtained a powerful treasure, he didn't feel happy. He only felt a sense of melancholy.

At this moment, Wang Lin suddenly gained another bit of insight of his life and death domain. "What is life… what is death…"

This question echoed in Wang Lin's mind.

The late stage Soul Formation cultivator of the Water Ink Sect used the last of his cultivation to fly up to the snow fairy statue at the Divine Temple of Snow and Ice. Like a moth flying toward a flame, he exploded on the statue, leaving behind a red mark that they couldn't get rid of.

Along with him, several other Soul Formation cultivators were killed in this explosion.

All the glory was now gone with the wind…

In his death, he died at the right spot. His death awakened the Four Sect Alliance cultivators that hadn't dared to show their faces.

In the blink of an eye, another year passed.

Throughout this year, Wang Lin kept thinking about the life and death domain, and he gradually gained more insight. His own being had undergone a transformation in this past year.

Looking at a mountain as a mountain, looking at a river as a river.

However, Wang Lin noticed that sometimes a mountain isn't mountain and a river isn't a river. It was as if there was another layer of fog blocking his eyes. He couldn't see it, but he could feel it. When he reached out, he couldn't touch it.

This type of thing won't go away with time. He would need a sudden burst of insight to get past the fog.

Autumn passed and spring came. Two more years in this icy world passed.

Wang Lin was able to make some progress regarding the creation of the ice sculpture puppets. These ice sculpture puppets relied on snow blood veins to maintain themselves. A puppet with 49 snow blood veins could achieve a Core Formation cultivator's power.

To be as powerful as a Nascent Soul cultivator, one would need 81 snow blood veins, but with these ice sculptures, the more veins a puppet has, the harder it is to control. And if two veins touch, the ice sculpture will explode.

Because of this, the difficulty increases exponentially with each additional snow blood vein. Thus, one can see how difficult putting 81 blood veins into an ice sculpture is.

This is why there were so few Nascent Soul ice sculptures produced by Xue Yu.

In addition to this, the snow blood veins come from the Icy Snow Tactic. Wang Lin was amazed by this technique.

This Icy Snow Tactic emphasizes refining the heart. This technique uses ice as the bones and snow as the heart to form an ice and snow soul to reach the state of a clear heart.

It can be described as very mysterious and unstable.

This is why Xue Yue cultivators are all impulsive and have personalities that can change drastically on a dime. The goal was to follow their will and do as they pleased to refine their hearts to the point of being impenetrable to outside influences.

The more Wang Lin studied this technique, the more clear he became about its true terror. This technique couldn't be considered a righteous path at all; it was definitely a side path. Wang Lin felt that this technique was very similar to the Six Desire Devil Lord's cultivation method.

Wang Lin wasn't willing to practice this technique. He merely imitated it by changing the snow blood veins to pure blood veins. He used blood to work with his life and death domain to gain the ability to control the carvings.

In the blink of an eye, Wang Lin had already stayed in this small city for three years. Adding on the one year he had spent traveling, four years had passed.

Only one year left until 10 years was up. He could feel that the time for him to reach the Soul Formation stage was coming.

He didn't know if he would trigger divine retribution when he reaches the Soul Formation stage. However, as he got closer to it, he realized that when he reaches the Soul Formation stage, it will create a disturbance that will alert everyone.

So on this day, Wang Lin walked out of the ice tower and left.

Before he left, Xue Yu had sent out a decree for all Core Formation and above cultivators to gather at the temple to receive a Dao lecture. The reason was that one of the thirteen cultivators that had gone to Suzuka had returned. He was the only person that had succeeded in reaching the Soul Transformation stage.

As for whether only one of the thirteen succeeded or if Suzuka had done something, it was not something for outsiders to know.

Wang Lin silently left without anyone knowing. Even the Core Formation cultivator that Wang Lin had trapped had lost his memory and regained his original position.

At the border of Xue Yu, Wang Lin turned around and carefully looked at the land. Scenes of the past several decades passed through his mind as he let out a sigh and left.

Wang Lin's goal was Zhao. He decided to reach the Soul Formation stage there.

As for why Wang Lin was going to Zhao to break into the Soul Formation stage, one reason was that it was a remote location. The other reason was because he felt a longing for his home after talking to that late stage Soul Formation cultivator from the Four Sect Alliance.

Everyone has a home. Does he have one…

Zhao could be considered home and there was a woman waiting for him on the other side of the Sea of Devils. That place could also be considered home…

So he decided on Zhao to complete the cycle of being born there.

Before he returned home, he went to the town to check on Da Niu and saw that Da Niu had opened up another ironworks shop. His wife was not young anymore, but she was clearly pregnant again.

Wang Lin let out a smile as he looked at them. That new life was growing by the day…

When he left, he left a bit of spiritual energy inside Da Niu's wife. That bit of spiritual energy could guarantee the mother's and daughter's safety. The new life was a girl.

Da Niu still didn't know that the uncle Wang he had always wanted to see again had come to see him. Da Niu's only regret at death was not that Xiao Niu was not here to see him off but that he never got to see the uncle the Wang who had watched him grow up again. That mysterious person who opened a shop, who he always pulled customers for, and who managed to sell a carving for 10 pieces of gold.

He gave those two wood carvings to his daughter and they became family heirlooms.

Wang Lin flew toward Zhao. 40 years ago, he walked the same road when he had just reached the Nascent Soul stage. Today he was going back through the same road, but this time he was about to reach the Soul Formation stage and was choosing a location to do so.

The Wang Lin now and the Wang Lin then were as different as heaven and earth.

He passed through one ancient transfer array after another. On this day, he was in a strange land where clouds filled the sky and rain began to fall.

The rain began to fall harder and harder until it seemed like water was being poured down. Wang Lin looked at the sky. It had been a long time since he had seen rain this heavy. He couldn't help but think back to when he was in the same room with Zhang Hu back at the Heng Yue Sect. The rain poured while lightning and thunder fell from the sky.

At this moment, rays of lightning flashed across the sky like silver snakes. They looked very beautiful.

Wang Lin's body slowly landed on the ground. He didn't even use a technique to block the rain. Instead, he waved his hand at a nearby tree and the leaves on the tree gathered to form a leaf umbrella.

Wang Lin walked in this foreign land with his umbrella. He was only two ancient transfer arrays away from reaching Zhao. In an area 40,000 kilometers to the east was where the ancient transfer array was located.

The sound of rushing rain filled the forest and gave the whole area a certain charm, especially the old temple in the distance. This temple was clearly deserted. Its original red paint was now dim and some parts were even damaged,

Even the brass rings on the door had rusted. There are patches of green on the temple's side.

Wang Lin had not seen many temples in his life.

Looking at the temple, Wang Lin walked inside. This was an ancient temple. There were no statues of gods inside; only a half-petal praying pad.

As he looked at the temple, he looked toward the door and then he returned to looking at the temple. Once he finished looking, he stood at the door and enjoyed the view of the rain.

After a long time, shouts came from a distance. A few large men wearing rain cloaks came while yelling.

"This damn weather. Once it starts raining, it never stops."

"There is a temple ahead; let's hide in there for a while. We can continue our travel once the rain lightens up."

As they were talking, they saw Wang Lin inside the temple. They all paused and looked at each other before silently walking toward the temple.

When they walked past Wang Lin, one of them took a step toward Wang Lin and seemed to have tried reaching toward him with his right hand for a gentle pat. However, another person from the group let out a grunt and pushed that person to stop him.

That person turned his head and let out a snort before silently entering the temple.

The five of them took off their rain cloaks, set up a fire, took out some food, and began to loudly chat with each other. However, every now and then, their gazes would turn to Wang Lin.

Wang Lin gently shook his head. These five mortals had ruined the special mood of this night and wasted the atmosphere. He let out sigh. Just as he raised his feet to leave, his gaze suddenly locked onto the forest in the distance.

He saw a man with long hair wearing a thin robe taking big strides toward the temple. Although the man looked very slow, after taking one step, he was suddenly next to Wang Lin, walking into the temple.

As he passed by Wang Lin, the man gasped and suddenly stopped. He carefully looked at Wang Lin, revealing his white teeth in a gentle smile, and said, "I didn't expect to meet a fellow cultivator in such a small temple. My name is Mo Zhi. You are?"