Chapter 1421: Early Evacuation

Qujing and Wen Chenggang also felt that Liuyun's analysis made some sense. The Empire wouldn't keep letting this elite army chase them while abandoning the fight against the Southern Elephant Kingdom. After all, the threat from the Southern Elephant Kingdom was far greater than theirs.

"Then we should also have a rough direction!" Qujing finally agreed to retreat, but they still needed to decide where to go.

"Then let's head north to Xueyu, the farther from the Empire the better!" Liuyun suggested.

"Okay!" Qujing finally agreed. At least this plan would let them survive a bit longer.

However, he also knew that they would not face fewer blocking armies along the way. Even with Liuyun's help, they would suffer considerable losses.

But it was still far better than waiting here to be destroyed.

Thus, Qujing's army, while resisting the attacking enemy forces, also made preparations to retreat.

As Liuyun's mining progressed, the temperature here kept dropping, beginning to give a sense of chill.

After the Luanfeng River widened again, it also seemed to ease up.

Especially when Liuyun's mining progressed to the next stretch, the river surface already showed signs of freezing.

The subterranean extreme cold force had already begun to spread through the underground of the entire region, and it was spreading faster and faster,

"This place will probably truly become a Xueyu!"

Liuyun never expected that he would cause a second Xueyu to appear.

Qujing's side, however, began to worry.

Once the Luanfeng River completely froze, they would lose their terrain advantage, and the enemy could advance unimpeded.

At this moment, the army guarding the opposite bank of the Luanfeng River had already gathered over five hundred thousand, and now they had all ceased their attacks.

They also noticed this phenomenon and began to anticipate the Luanfeng River being completely frozen.

"Haha, heaven is helping us! Perhaps we won't even need to wait for the Iron Armored Army's arrival; we can take this place ourselves!"

Several leaders had the soldiers rest well, preparing to cross the ice river.

Qujing and Wen Chenggang, meanwhile, asked several times a day about the progress of the clone's mining.

"They're preparing to attack, we're preparing to retreat! Don't worry, worst case we just abandon some veins!" Liuyun comforted them.

At this moment, the fire crystal vein was about to be mined out.

The magic crystal vein had already been exhausted; Lei Ming was helping Liang Xue mine the spirit stone vein. They were each mining a vein, and their speed had increased greatly.

Just as Liuyun was putting away the final segment of the fire crystal vein, the whole earth suddenly trembled.

The people mining underground were startled, thinking they might be buried underground.

Although the subterranean extreme cold force had not fully erupted, even just what leaked out was enough to cause the Luanfeng River to begin freezing rapidly.

The whole ground also saw more and more places cracking and collapsing.

It seemed that the subterranean extreme cold force would soon burst forth.

"Retreat!" Liuyun decisively ordered everyone to withdraw, lest they encounter danger.

When Liang Xue, Lei Ming, and the others were taken back into the Space World by him, in fact there was not much left of the spirit stone vein.

Liuyun assessed the remaining spirit stones, estimating they could only suppress things for a few more days.

The extreme cold power kept surging upward, quickly consuming the spirit stones' spiritual qi.

The clone outside also informed Liuyun that the thickness of the ice on the Luanfeng River was already enough to support a person.

"Alright, let's withdraw under cover of night!" Liuyun immediately returned and met up with his clone.

Liuyun never imagined that the veins he mined would cause this second Xueyu to eventually merge with the previous one, forming a vast cold region in the north.

As Liuyun's side prepared to withdraw, the enemy forces had naturally already made their preparations.

But Liuyun released the evil dragons, yin souls, ferocious beasts, and demon beasts, carving out a bloody path and even taking away many corpses and resources.

He basically crushed the armies that had surrounded them.

Afterward, they distributed all the captured medium and small warships to the large army, while not using any large warships, lest they slow down.

Thus, a force of two hundred thousand, using thousands of medium and small warships, set off northward in a mighty procession.

But just one day after they set out, the center of the veins exploded.

These were the soldiers of the armies scattered by Liuyun's group; seeing Liuyun's group leave, they came here to scavenge, discovered the spirit stone vein, and went madly mining it.

The extreme cold power then took the opportunity to completely break through the blockade of the spirit stone vein in the central area, shaking the earth and mountains.

The ground split open in countless large vents, spewing out freezing gusts. Snowflakes began to dance in the sky, and the earth turned into a sheet of silver-white.

The soldiers who rushed to mine the veins were instantly frozen into ice sculptures, then shattered by the quake into ice shards.

The extreme cold power surged throughout the night, then finally ceased completely.

Next, the earth's surface was sealed in ice, and the extreme cold power began to spread from underground outward in all directions.

In the hot southern weather, the extreme cold power spread slowly, but its northward spread was much faster.

At the very moment the extreme cold power broke through its seal, even Liuyun's group, which had fled more than a day away, felt a wave of chill.

"The cold weather is starting to spread—have the army prepare winter gear! At the same time, send people to all cities to exchange these seized supplies for needed resources."

Liuyun returned the seized equipment to Qujing.

Qujing was deeply grateful to Liuyun. With these resources, they could survive for several years without problem.

Thus, he immediately arranged for people to disguise themselves and scatter to various cities to trade for resources.

By the time the Iron Armored Army arrived at the Luanfeng River, they could no longer recognize the terrain.

Everything was covered in white snow; even the Luanfeng River was nowhere to be seen.

"What on earth happened here?" the Iron Armored Army's Supreme Commander Jia Yun, who had previously received news of Qujing's forces breaking out, said.

But he still needed to come here first to assess things before reporting to the Empire.

Unexpectedly, this place had turned into a Xueyu. Moreover, it felt even colder than a Xueyu, and the soldiers' iron armor began to frost and freeze.

Jia Yun led the army in pursuit for a stretch, but when he received the news that Qujing's forces had all switched to medium and small warships to flee, he immediately ordered a return.

Medium and small warships are fast; even if he wanted to chase, he would probably struggle to catch up.

Moreover, he couldn't possibly keep chasing Qujing farther and farther away. His main battlefield was in the southern Nan Xiang Empire.

After the Iron Armored Army withdrew, the multiple interceptions that Qujing had previously anticipated did not appear. All the City Lords received the news that Qujing had several times annihilated armies of four to five hundred thousand, with terrifying Yin Souls and Demon Beasts, so naturally no one wanted to come and throw away their lives.

Even if someone did intercept, it was only under the Empire's orders, merely putting on a token show, with no real intention to fight Qujing to the death.