“The Heavenly Demon Saint’s true body has probably just taken its first step. The real starting line is the Immortal Emperor realm. What you’re doing now doesn’t even count as cultivation yet.”

“If the Heavenly Demon Saint is already that strong, it’s gonna take me a while to catch up to him, right?”

“Heh, don’t get your hopes too high. You just broke through to mid-stage Nine Hearts, your strength is far from fully recovered. At best you’re only at peak Reverseflow.”

After speaking, Wuxian hoisted up Yuanhui—who hadn’t even had time to resist—and tossed him into the cave.

“Old man, don’t push it!”

He was clearly disgusted by this treatment, but his teacher then did something even grosser—he grabbed Yuanhui’s chin, their eyes meeting as master and disciple stared at each other.

“Shut up. Careful, or your teacher might just eat you.”

“Eh?!”

Wuxian pointed at the very front of the army, right where General Chi Chanchi was leading the way, then turned back to Yuanhui.

“That guy’s aura is solidly at the early Boundless level. You’ve got ice element protection in your body so you can resist the cold, but in front of a demigod, you’re nothing but an ant.”

“Then what do we do? Just let them pass, fight the rebels, and both sides bleed each other dry?”

“Of course I’ve got a trick to deal with them.” Wuxian flicked his fingers lightly.

Streaks of blue light flashed past, and in his hand appeared something about the size of an egg—a pill?

“Tea… teacher?”

Yuanhui’s face twitched. He tapped the pearl-hard “pill” with his finger, his expression turning a little dark.

“Teacher, you think I’m stupid or what? My head’s not even this big. How am I supposed to swallow that…?”

“Sigh, it’s not for eating. It’s for using.”

“For… using?”

Leaning against the snow-dug pit wall, Yuanhui stared carefully at the “pill” lying transparent and glowing in his palm. The corner of his mouth twitched as he muttered,

“If I’m using it… where am I supposed to shove it?”

“I told you, it’s not a pill. It’s a holy relic—an Acceleration Gem.”

Wuxian lifted the gem and introduced it, “Its function is—instant teleportation.”

“Whoosh!”

A gust of wind swept past. The ground exploded into a huge hole from Wuxian and his Acceleration Gem together. Then he popped out at another spot as if stepping through thin air, grinning slyly at Yuanhui.

“Heh, you’re ruthless.”

Yuanhui grinned back at Wuxian, trading looks with him. Old ginger really is spicier.

After that, the two quietly used Wuxian’s method to conceal Yuanhui’s aura and started tunneling, planning to dump all these overseer officers under the snow, then fill in the pits and slaughter them while they were unable to move.

Easier said than done. This was flat plains terrain—aside from a few low mounds there was nothing like a real hill. If the other overseers spotted them, it’d be a dead end.

“Move, move, get through this stretch! If you don’t cross before dark, the blizzard will swallow you whole!”

At the front, Chi Chanchi shouted. The very center of this snowfield was once a forbidden zone. At night, strange blizzards would sweep through, forming rows of tornadoes. Even a peak Boundless expert would shudder at the very mention of them.

They didn’t dare give these lackeys any more time. They struck early, planning to wipe out these Godrealm generals in one net. They couldn’t stand up to the royal iron cavalry, but dealing with this rabble was more than doable.

Humans are born afraid of death. Take out their commander, and the Tiansnow Mountain iron cavalry would get no support. As long as the local rebels could hold this unit in place, they’d win.

“It’s time.”

Wuxian narrowed his eyes slightly. A sea-like aura surged out of his body, melting the nine feet of frozen snow beneath the ground into icy water, sending all the cavalry overseers and their warhorses plunging down.

“Wh–what is this?”

Watching the overseers thrash in the pool, the eight-cavalry soldiers first stared at one another, then completely panicked and scattered in all directions.

“Guh-heheh, it works like a charm.”

Hidden deep in the ice, Yuanhui brushed his silver hair back a little to blend in with the snow and keep his bangs from blocking his view.

“Good. I’ll leave the rest to you, Teacher. Anyone who can’t escape in the middle is mine.”

Yuanhui moved unhurriedly. Each time someone fell into the water, he would silently dive over and take them out.

Chi Chanchi noticed his army collapsing at an alarming speed and bellowed,

“Are the overseers in the back begging to die? What are you idiots doing?!”

His roar had zero effect. He dismounted and followed the trail through the column, inspecting things carefully.

“This is… a pit?”

He found the blood-red pool Wuxian and Yuanhui had dug. Even an idiot could see—it was an ambush.

Someone had deliberately set a trap for him and screwed over his three hundred overseers until fewer than thirty were left. What really sent his rage through the roof was that in less than five minutes, his eight-cavalry troops had gone from three hundred thousand to under ninety thousand.

“Damn it, who did this?!”

They hadn’t even reached the battlefield and his forces were already over half gone. The shame hit the general harder than any wound, making his head spin with anger.

Hidden within the ice, Moon Dragon curled his lips in a playful smile, circling past Chi Chanchi, planning to quietly finish off the remaining overseers.

“Brat, don’t push your luck.”

A pillar of light blasted Yuanhui straight out of the ice where he’d been dog-paddling. Chi Chanchi snapped his wrist back and grabbed Yuanhui by the throat, his expression dark.

“Was it fun, letting so many of my men run away just now?”

“N–not… not that fun, honestly.”

The man’s overwhelming strength scared Yuanhui so much his words came out halting. His life was literally in the guy’s hand. One careless move and Chi Chanchi could snap his neck.

“Heh, General, you’d better watch your back.”

“Hmph, child’s trick. You think this old man would fa—huh?!”

He hadn’t sensed any Chi fluctuation at all, but the chill spreading across his back made Chi Chanchi look toward where Yuanhui was pointing. On the ice mound behind him, Wuxian had already appeared, palm incoming, packed with dense Chi.

“Mountain–Sea Annihilation Palm!”

That strike surged in with the force of a tidal wave, aiming to obliterate Chi Chanchi in one blow. Unfortunately, Wuxian had underestimated this seemingly thick-headed brute.

Chi Chanchi threw the Yuanhui in his hand straight at Wuxian’s incoming palm. Wuxian instantly recalled his Chi, caught Yuanhui as he flew through mid-air, then planted a vicious kick in Chi Chanchi’s face and used the rebound to beat a hasty retreat.

The two attendants beside Chi Chanchi were both demigod-level experts, but everything happened too fast. Before they understood what was going on, the ambusher had already gotten away intact.

The old general was left fuming on the spot, beard bristling, staring at his almost completely wiped out cavalry. He jabbed a finger at the two who’d just been watching and shouted,

“What are you staring at? Go after them!”

“Yes, sir! But General, if we chase the ambushers now, we might not make it out of the Cold Domain before the blizzard hits!”

One of the attendants hurriedly reminded Chi Chanchi, but the general ignored his advice. Instead, he ordered that the ambushers be captured within half an hour.

Inside the snowdrift, once Yuanhui finally got a moment to rest, he looked over at his teacher—eyes closed, meditating—and asked in confusion,

“Teacher, why’d we run back there? They’re just Boundless-level guys. With your strength…”

Yuanhui was still grumbling about Wuxian’s sudden escape when—

“No.” Wuxian shut him down. “What do you know, kid? They’ve got three Boundless experts. Your teacher here is only a clone at peak Nine Hearts. At most I can scare them a little.”

As soon as he finished, he noticed the odd look on Yuanhui’s face. The boy’s cheeks puffed up in an instant. Wuxian shook his head, chuckling.

“Hehe, did you really think your teacher was some almighty god?”

“Come on, isn’t that what you are? You even dare disrespect… dragons! Gods!”

Hearing Yuanhui repeat the boast he’d made back when they first met—and realizing this brat had actually remembered it—Wuxian couldn’t help feeling his pride take a hit.

Just as the mood was starting to get awkward, a deep rumble shook the earth.

“This is bad. That guy’s here!”

Wuxian was the first to move. He gathered force into his fist and blasted open a hole in the top of the cave, then grabbed Yuanhui by the collar and darted west through the opening.

“Hurry. In another half hour, we’ll be buried in this hellhole along with the Godrealm army!”

Up in the air, Wuxian transformed into a dragon and carried Yuanhui, flying toward the Western Plains at supersonic speed without daring to pause. In the Cold Domain of the Snow Region, whenever night fell, the passage to the Six Domains would open.

But that wasn’t the real problem. Inside the passage, a storm of destructive turbulence would spawn countless tornadoes, like spinning blades that could kill a Lord God in an instant. Even their soul would be shredded, gone forever.

At this moment, inside Xiuhuang City…

“Hehe, congratulations to the new City Lord of Xiuhuang City. Brother Meng is here to offer his respects to Brother Luo.”

Meng Wuchou, head of the Meng clan, brought two elders and the young elites of the three great families to the lantern-lit Hailong Plaza, crowning the new city lord, Wu Luotian, at the center of the Rising Dragon Platform.

But among this crowd, there were always a few who just didn’t fit in. On the elders’ seats of the Wu clan to the north of the platform sat the still-burly, long-bearded Great Elder Wu Zesheng, with the slightly chubby Second Elder Wu Fengzong on one side and the skinny, almost skeletal Third Elder Wu Gulao on the other.

Compared to Great Elder and Second Elder, Third Elder was happily chatting away with the juniors behind him. Great Elder Wu Zesheng and Second Elder, however, were forcing their smiles.

Now that the Wu clan’s patriarch, Wu Luotian, had broken through peak Nine Hearts and reached the quasi-Boundless level—and even been elected the new City Lord of Xiuhuang City—no one in the Wu clan could rival him anymore.

On the high platform, Elder Daofeng specially crowned Wu Luotian, dressed in a silver ceremonial robe, with a silver coronet in the name of the Church. Unable to stand the sight, Wu Zesheng flicked his sleeve, abandoned the juniors behind him, and left alone. No one present dared try to stop him.

Sitting in the west was the Nan clan’s representative, Nan Lun. Seeing this scene, he slipped through the crowd, sneaking off toward Wolong Mountain where Wu Zesheng was headed.

“Hmph!”

Face flushed with anger, Wu Zesheng stared at the lake and let out a skyward roar.

“Heavens, when have I ever not served the Wu clan, not given my all for it?”

“And this is what I get? You hand the title of clan patriarch and the Wu clan’s inheritance to that snot-nosed brat Wu Luotian!”

When the burly Wu Zesheng lost his temper, it was earthshaking. Nan Lun, who’d been planning to speak with the Great Elder, was so frightened he dove behind a boulder fifty meters away, hiding from view.