Chapter 380: Ice‑Chilled Evil Spirits

After witnessing the gruesome deaths of the luos, the evil spirits in the gathering hall fell silent.

All the evil spirits present retained human memories; they had seen many special legions, yet the legions they had encountered were still within a normally understandable range.

But the appearance of the 150,000‑strong Ice Disaster army before them completely shattered their prior understanding.

It made them doubt whether the memories they inherited were faulty.

All the evil spirits present were deeply shocked—could an army really be that powerful?

After a long while, Zhu Wu broke the silence.

"Although the enemy's advance is slow, we have little time to waste!"

"We must fight them with our great army!"

"If we lose the luos that gather Cloud Energy, we may be swept up in one net by the enemy."

Yet even after Zhu Wu's words, the group of evil spirits remained silent.

Honestly, some of the evil spirits had already started to think of retreat.

This Liangshan isn't their lifeline; while the luos delay the enemy, they could simply flee far away.

"A dead fellow cultivator does not die, a poor fellow does not die."

There's no need to risk confronting the obviously overwhelmingly strong enemy army.

"Don't forget the bull's snout lurking in the shadows, do you really think scattering away can evade its tracking?"

"Only by showing our strength and forcing the Heavenly Court and Underworld to send envoys to pacify us can we truly escape the fate of being captured and locked at the Ghost Gate!"

Wu Yong shouted angrily at the evil spirits.

"If you want to leave, you can leave now, but if you stay and later want to leave, don't blame us for being ruthless!" Song Jiang said coldly.

The evil spirits fell even deeper into silence; just by seeing Song Jiang and the others' fierce gazes, they knew whoever left first would be besieged by these guys.

They had no real camaraderie, just a scattered bunch; even if they wanted to leave, they had no chance of escaping the joint assault of these guys.

Moreover, Wu Yong's words were reasonable; they knew that a single person could never escape the pursuit.

"Since no one leaves, it means everyone is willing to stay, so we're like grasshoppers on a rope!"

"Everyone should summon the luos, form a great formation, and wait for the enemy to attack!"

Song Jiang breathed a sigh of relief; with a mix of kindness and threat, he finally managed to coax this unruly group of evil spirits into a tentative unity.

It wasn't exactly sincere cooperation, but at least no one would run off before the fight even began.

Having already broken Qin Ming, their Heavenly Gang Earthly Fiend Formation had shown cracks; if a few more fled, they'd be forced to become outlaws, praying they wouldn't be captured.

"Stubborn and dim‑witted!"

Mu Yi stared coldly at the thick Cloud Energy rising above Liangshan.

By linking his will to the army's Cloud Energy, he too was affected by the army, and a chilling sensation spread through his body.

Mu Yi raised his hand, and an ice‑forged frost longsword appeared in his grasp; in strength it was no weaker than the Zhanlu Sword, and in this extreme cold its killing power was even greater.

"Attack!"

The longsword swung, and the snowstorm descending from the sky, controlled by the Ice Disaster army, formed an ice dragon that stretched forward at will.

The intangible ice‑frost dragon surged toward Liangshan, draining all temperature along its path; even with the great formation and Cloud Energy protection, the luos on Liangshan felt the cold and their movements stiffened slightly.

A luo on the outer rim, swept by the ice dragon, lost the last filament of body heat; exhausted from hypothermia, the luo froze in place, becoming an ice statue.

"The ley lines beneath Liangshan have been cut; the great formation we set up won't hold for long!" Gong Sun Sheng's face suddenly changed.

Perhaps to atone, the Qingzhou lands aided the first controller of the ley lines; together they directly severed the supply to the ley lines around Liangshan.

Though this would cause irreversible damage to the ley lines beneath Liangshan, there was nothing they could do now.

"Gather the army, deploy the Heavenly Gang Earthly Fiend Formation, and we'll charge in for a blade‑to‑blade fight!" Zhu Wu gritted his teeth.

"To counter their tactics, we can only use the Decapitation Tactic; both armies' Cloud Energy intertwines, suppressing everyone, and even that bull's snout hidden in the center can't help us."

"We have numbers; when we all charge, we'll behead the enemy commander directly, and their army will collapse on its own!"

Lu Junyi added, echoing the military knowledge in his mind.

In their assessment, at this moment only executing the Decapitation Tactic could secure final victory.

Heaven's timing and Earth's advantage were fully on Mu Yi's side; if they wanted to win, they could only rely on people and harmony.

Yet everyone was uncertain; when the full one‑hundred‑and‑eight were present, they had confidence, but now with Qin Ming gone, their hearts felt empty.

They were just ordinary evil spirits, unfamiliar with the Jiuzhou calamities, unaware that their one‑hundred‑and‑eight were linked by destiny.

Without breaking that destiny, no matter what danger they faced, they could turn peril into safety.

That was also why Mu Yi began by fishing.

For Mu Yi, once he gathered enough of the army to raise his own stats to match Liangshan's, Liangshan's chances of victory became negligible.

Liangshan's army launched a counter‑charge toward the Ice Disaster side.

Cloud Energy tangled together, and both sides' usable power visibly dropped dramatically.

They had originally thought that after the Cloud Energy tangled, the luos on the front could gain some counter‑attack capital.

But the situation was more collapsed than Zhu Wu and Wu Yong had imagined.

Mu Yi didn't even need to command; with perfect alignment of Heaven's timing, Earth's advantage, and people's harmony, the army only needed to crush forward, regardless of the enemy's intentions.

Simply pushing straight through, all of Liangshan's tactics became jokes when facing the Ice Disaster army; whether Heterodox Paths, strange tricks, or any other chaotic methods, under the Ice Disaster's extreme strength they were all jokes.

There was no counter‑charge, nor any grand formation push.

Liangshan's army couldn't even mount a counter‑attack.

It was like a hot knife slicing butter—no resistance at all.

In a normal two‑army clash, whichever side was at a disadvantage could still fight to the death and possibly launch a strong counter‑charge when needed.

Yet this time, the disadvantaged Liangshan luos had no room for any counter‑charge.

A desperate charge would lose most of its strength to the extreme cold before even reaching the Ice Disaster, and even if they broke through the wind‑snow assault, they were powerless against the Ice Disaster's potent ice‑frost weapons.

Can't fight, absolutely can't fight.

No matter how special the Liang Mountain bandits are, they are still living beings, and as long as they are living beings, facing this life‑forbidding extreme cold leaves only death.

Originally this was the preparation made by the evil ghosts on Liang Mountain to deal with the Yin Spirit; when facing a Yin Spirit, a soul body is at a great disadvantage.

Under equal conditions, a demigod‑level Yin Spirit can capture all the evil ghosts.

That is why these evil ghosts chose to seize bodies and reincarnate; with a physical form, the Yin Spirit finds it hard to maintain an advantage.

And these Liang Mountain bandits were also remodeled based on this concept.

When facing the third‑generation disciples of the Jade Void Palace, the effect was quite ideal.

What they didn't expect was that Mu Yi would engage them in a great army showdown; their clever trick instantly turned into lifting a rock only to drop it on their own foot.

Compared to a soul body, which also suffers from will attacks but can still endure and even counterattack.

At this moment, the half‑human, half‑ghost Liang Mountain bandits, facing the Ice Calamity army's attack, could not even hold up.

The Ice Calamity's frost weapons need only inflict a wound to cause fatal damage; the harm is not just cutting but also necrosis from extreme cold.

After a brief skirmish, all the Ice Calamity soldiers on the front line naturally switched weapons to ice spears, which are far more lethal than other weapons.

They can not only thrust but also be thrown.

The piercing damage of a single ice spear, besides the wound itself, is mostly hypothermia from the cold; once struck, even if not killed instantly, the victim will turn into an ice sculpture within minutes.

Steadily advancing without pause, the great army kept its slow, firm pace, and the evil ghosts on Liang Mountain felt as if their throats were being gripped.

They clearly still had the strength to fight back, yet for some reason they felt an invisible hand continually tightening, making their breathing somewhat difficult.

Besides the physical loss of stamina from the freezing cold, much more came from the suppression of the great army's aura.

The illusory aura, at this moment as if made tangible, became a shackle bound upon them.

"We can't wait any longer—charge!"

Song Jiang roared, and the evil ghosts hidden among the bandits, leading their relatively outstanding subordinates, erupted and concentrated all their strength to launch a charge toward Mu Yi.

A large group of Legend and demigod powerhouses launched a joint assault, far stronger than ordinary bandits.

Even the super‑enhanced Ice Calamity soldiers suffered repeated defeats.

A triangular formation of over a thousand men, within the great army, advanced like a bamboo splitter, and the Liang Mountain bandits behind followed the gap carved out by their leaders and surged in.

But gradually, the Liang Mountain evil ghosts realized something was wrong.

They hardly encountered any notable resistance; rather than saying they broke through the Ice Calamity soldiers' line, it was as if the great army opened a road, letting them penetrate deep into its center.

"Without bait, how could we catch a big fish?"

Mu Yi watched as the Liang Mountain evil ghosts plunged headfirst into the army's encirclement, his expression blank; the ultimate cold seemed to have made his emotions even more indifferent.

From a battlefield command perspective, Mu Yi's move is quite dangerous; a torn formation will cause the Cloud Energy's boost to wane, thereby reducing the soldiers' strength.

But this premise assumes the two sides are evenly matched, whereas the Ice Calamity army and the Liang Mountain bandits differ vastly in combat power.

Perhaps in individual quality, the Liang Mountain bandits still have an edge, plus the boost of the Heavenly Net and Earthly Slaughter Formation.

Yet in this environment, the Ice Calamity's power obeys no reason.

The White Calamity's defense is hardly more than a thin layer of ice armor, yet against most physical attacks it is no different from the Wall of Sighs—impossible to pierce, completely impenetrable.

Even though it is thin and transparent enough to see the clothing inside with ease, it still cannot be pierced; conventional physical attacks have no effect on it whatsoever.

When everyone's strength has greatly diminished, this defense appears especially formidable.

This is the foundation of the Military Strategist's doctrine: the Great Army Cloud Energy, which forces all Transcendent experts back to the mortal realm, infinitely shrinking the quality gap and infinitely amplifying the numerical advantage.

After confirming the Liang Mountain evil ghosts had entered the pocket formation, Mu Yi promptly closed the gate to beat the dog and caught the turtle in the jar.

The torn opening was firmly shut by the Ice Calamity soldiers on both sides.

The Liang Mountain bandits outside and the evil ghosts inside the encirclement were directly severed from each other.

Perhaps the original Liang Mountain leaders would still have made Mu Yi expend some effort in command, since they would utilize the army's power.

But these evil ghosts completely lacked such awareness; they knew the army's power was not to be underestimated, yet they still trusted their own individual strength more.

Mu Yi himself didn't realize that, after undergoing a series of war‑god temperings, he had become almost instinctive at luring the enemy, ambushing, and designing hand‑to‑hand captures.

Mu Yi's position was actually not far from the Liang Mountain evil ghosts, and this too was intended to lure the enemy.

Even after penetrating deep into the army's interior, these evil ghosts still had the ability to break out and charge forth.

The gap in strength will be narrowed, but it will never be erased completely.

No matter how much the power of demigods and Legends is weakened, a mere group of Transcendent soldiers cannot completely stop them.

"He's right up ahead; these foot soldiers can't stop us—charge past, kill him, and everything will be over!"

Mu Yi's lure succeeded; what lay hidden in the evil ghosts' bones was always brutality and chaos.

Perhaps they were once clever people full of schemes, but after being suppressed beneath the Ghost Gate for who knows how many years, their remaining reason is pitifully scarce, and some of it may even stem from reincarnation.

Between the choices of fleeing for their lives and killing Mu Yi, they ultimately chose the more ferocious and violent option.

Layer upon layer of frost‑constructed barriers blocked the evil ghosts.

The frost continually thickened, making the barriers ever stronger.

Yet this ice layer, sufficient to trap and doom the Liang Mountain bandits, could only hold out against these evil ghosts for a short while.

Layer after layer of defense was breached, and the distance between Mu Yi and the evil ghost host grew ever closer.

Even both sides could now clearly see each other's facial expressions.

Mu Yi's indifference and the evil ghosts' ferocity formed an extremely stark contrast at this moment.

"So evil ghosts are just brainless!"

Mu Yi raised his hand and released a vast fog that filled the heavens.

The white mist spread outward from Mu Yi as its center, enveloping the entire battlefield.