Chapter 254: Arrival

The giant stone cavern where Triplelink City is located spans three thousand li, with many hills and plains, and also several small mountain ranges.

Jin Mancang, his ways are very wild.

No one knows when or by what means, he set up a secret nest that extends five kilometers underground in a winding small mountain range stretching hundreds of miles.

The entrance is very hidden, the route very winding, the cavern's area is not small, enough to hold hundreds of people, and moreover…… Jin Mancang somehow obtained several huge stone carvings with extremely archaic shapes, and placed them outside the cavern.

The shape of these stone carvings is almost exactly the same as the stone carvings on an ancient place called 'Easter Island' in the knowledge passed down by Old Tie.

They are equally huge, equally archaic, equally strange in appearance, giving people a rather inexplicable feeling.

These several stone carvings erected outside the cavern naturally connect with the earth's veins, an extremely strong yet extremely hidden earth-vein magnetic field spreads in all directions, tightly enveloping the entire cavern.

Wu Tie had previously kidnapped the heirs of the twelve ruling families and tested them when he sent them to the cavern.

This earth-vein magnetic field is extremely powerful; soul fluctuations cannot penetrate its shield at all. No matter how hard Wu Tie tries, under his scan this place is just an ordinary stratum of rock.

Other various detection divine abilities are also useless against this earth-vein magnetic field.

Wu Tie exhausted all the detection divine abilities he mastered, including his brow's Dharma Eye; under his perception, this place is just an ordinary stratum of rock.

Thus, the many experts of Triplelink City have been searching back and forth for so long; countless Life Pool Realm and Chonglou Realm cultivators have combed through Triplelink City up and down repeatedly, yet they never managed to discover this cavern.

Wu Tie curled up in a corner of the cavern, eyes wide, he stared in horror at the rock wall where, like white salt crystals slowly seeping out of a salt pool, clusters of tiny ice crystals began to seep out.

The earth-vein magnetic field that Wu Tie's soul fluctuations and various detection methods could not penetrate was soaked with a terrifying cold Qi. The cold Qi enveloped the entire secret cavern—know that this place is five kilometers underground.

Quietly watching those clusters of ice crystals slowly emerge, the small ice crystals gradually gathered into large patches of frost, which then spread outward, turning into a sheet of ice that continually expanded in all directions.

Wu Tie lifted his head.

In the cavern's air, strands of deep-blue cold Qi were visible to the naked eye.

The cold Qi slowly drifted through the air; wherever it passed, moisture in the air turned into white ice crystals, falling with a 'xixi suosu' sound.

Cold, very cold, cold to the bone.

The chill was like fine needles of cow hair, continually pricking into the pores.

Flames burst from Wu Tie's body surface as the Great Witch Essence Blood burned fiercely; he sprang up and sat cross-legged before Grey Master, releasing the vast essence-blood energy within his body while taking out a large amount of Primordial Herb and swallowing it.

Two double-helix light bands formed a heavenly ladder that appeared behind him.

The light bands resembled dragons, with countless fine light strands tightly interwoven. Originally Wu Tie was only at the Twelvefold Heaven cultivation level, but in just a few short hours, driven by the surging soul energy and propelled by the nine Great Witch Essence Blood, he broke through three heavenly layers in succession.

Countless heavenly and earthly shackles shattered; innumerable points of light containing the mysteries of heaven and earth merged into his whole body, from flesh to soul. Wu Tie's brow Dharma Eye opened slightly, five-colored lightning flickered lightly within, like a pool of water that could ripple out from the Dharma Eye at any moment.

His magical power surged.

In the Heaven Lock Chonglou, the later the stage, each breakthrough of a heavenly ladder yields benefits that are several times the sum of all previous ladders.

Through inner vision of the soul, in Wu Tie's brow Dharma Source a ball of golden light the size of a water jar nearly condensed into substance, like a small sun continuously radiating brilliant golden light in all directions.

Vast Righteous Qi washed over his body wave after wave, continually forging the golden light of his Dharma Source, continually tempering his physique. The nine Great Witch Essence Blood had been completely exhausted; at this moment the Primordial Herb within his body was also burned up. After breaking through three heavenly layers, his somewhat depleted physique was gulping down energy in large mouthfuls.

The Abundance Tree happily swayed its branches and leaves.

He continuously drew vast streams of Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy from the void, continuously injecting them into Wu Tie's entire body.

In the heavenly ladder Chonglou behind Wu Tie, countless light strands were rapidly breaking down into points of light that merged into his whole body. Wu Tie breathed deeply, like an evil dragon coiled in the cavern; each breath could cause the entire cavern to heave with a low rumble.

"Break!" Ignoring the erosion of the cold Qi, he adjusted his whole body to perfection, Wu Tie lightly waved his right hand backward and tapped a finger on Grey Master's body.

The Mystic Spider's seal placed on Grey Master was extremely vicious; it was made by extracting the venom and soul of a Black Widow Spider, merging them with her own divine abilities, and transforming into an evil seal.

This seal was her own creation, and only she could undo it.

Zu Ling Wa Huang Shi devoured and refined that strand of divine soul from the Mystic Spider's avatar; the related divine abilities and techniques' knowledge was not regarded as impurity, but as precious knowledge to be passed on to Wu Tie.

Therefore, all the divine abilities and techniques mastered by the Mystic Spider's avatar, including part of those mastered by her true form, were also inherited by Wu Tie.

A flicker of spiritual light at the fingertip caused Grey Master's head to emit strands of black Qi; the hideous, evil spider phantom quietly dissipated, turning into strands of yin-cold foul odor that drifted away.

These yin-cold foul odors contained deadly poison; Wu Tie grabbed them in a handful, clenched them tightly in his hand, then exhaled a mouthful of Samadhi True Fire onto them.

A mass of black Qi the size of a human head writhed violently, emitting a creature-like 'squeak-squeak' wail.

Under the refining of Samadhi True Fire, this mass of black Qi was quickly burned to clean ashes, leaving no trace.

Wu Tie leapt up, using divine abilities to gather his entire body's magical fluctuations, and quickly circled the secret cavern once.

Jin Mancang was still in a stupor, as were the sons and daughters of the great families; the few defensive seals at the cavern entrance remained untouched, the cavern's cold Qi grew ever thicker, strands of blue cold Qi gradually increased, and the ground was already covered with a layer of black ice half an inch thick.

This place is five kilometers underground, and moreover it is isolated by the earth-vein magnetic field.

Such a place has become so bitterly cold; Wu Tie cannot imagine what has happened inside Triplelink City…… Could it be that I disturbed Triplelink City, and those hysterical fellows adjusted the heavenly phenomena, doing something strange?

For revelry, they can change the weather, causing a blizzard to appear within Triplelink City.

What else could they not do?

After a moment of silence, Wu Tie came to Grey Master's side, he pointed a finger at Grey Master, a warm and comfortable seal wrapped around him, letting him fall into a pleasant sleep.

Then he went to the unconscious Jin Mancang, removed all seals from his body, and slapped his round face several times.

Jin Mancang let out a grunt.

Wu Tie grabbed a handful of ice shards from the ground and stuffed them into Jin Mancang's neck.

A piercing bone-chilling cold suddenly struck; Jin Mancang shivered violently and woke up with violent trembling.

He looked at Wu Tie in horror and exclaimed: "How did you come back……"

He quickly closed his mouth and looked around in all directions.

This is the cavern he personally set up; he knows full well how much effort he put into this cavern and how many precious ancient treasures he used.

Ordinary external forces could hardly invade this place, yet thick frost appeared on the cavern floor and walls.

"What's happening outside?" Jin Mancang asked Wu Tie solemnly.

"I don't know…… You just fainted, and I barely managed to escape back here…… I also don't know what happened outside."

Wu Tie looked at Jin Mancang: "Do you still remember what happened in the city?"

Jin Mancang stared blankly, he strained to raise his right hand and touched his somewhat swollen occiput.

"I feel like I was knocked out with an oil hammer…… or maybe struck with a club?"

However, inside Three Linked City... uh, it seems some terrifying big shot appeared? I, I, I can't remember.

Jin Mancang's face turned extremely grim.

The appearance of Zu Ling Wa Huangshi not only crushed Huayan's soul, slaughtered the dark spider's clone, heavily wounded the dark spider's true body, and also terrified all living beings within Three Linked City... Under Zu Ling Wa Huangshi's magnificent power, aside from Wu Tie, everyone's memories of that period became blank.

I don't remember either... Wu Tie looked satisfied at Jin Mancang: "I only know that something terrifying happened, so I brought you all out to escape. I just woke up and realized something is off."

Jin Mancang quickly sized up Wu Tie: "Your cultivation seems to have increased quite a bit?"

Wu Tie grinned: "When escaping, I casually took a few treasures from the Twelve Heavenly Palaces that greatly boost cultivation; before passing out, I ate them all… Anyway, might as well take what's free."

Jin Mancang looked a bit annoyed at Wu Tie: "Eating alone… fine, that's not important. What exactly happened outside?"

Wu Tie grabbed Jin Mancang's arm and pulled him up.

The two left the nest one after another, carefully following the narrow passage outside that was as complex as a spiderweb, feeling their way toward the ground bit by bit.

Three Linked City had already been shrouded in frost.

At the main passage leading out of Three Linked City, all the garrisoned soldiers had frozen into ice sculptures.

The giant armor stood silently at the passage mouth, wave after wave of icy blue Cold Qi like the great Yangtze River continuously poured down his legs onto the ground. The Cold Qi rapidly spread along the ground, rapidly spreading along the rock walls of Three Linked City.

Cold Qi enveloped the entire Three Linked City; wherever the Cold Qi reached, all public entry/exit passages, secret hidden exits, and even the underground Yin River water system were frozen solid.

The giant armor wanted to completely ice-seal Three Linked City, turning the whole city into a massive icy prison; it would not let anyone here go.

A faint tearing-through-space sound arrived; after the giant armor had activated its Cold Qi to ice-seal Three Linked City for fifteen minutes, finally a Chonglou Realm cultivator from Three Linked City rushed over.

From afar, they saw the giant armor standing at the passage entrance on the high cliff; these Chonglou Realm experts of the Twelve Governing Families were utterly bewildered.

The ten-meter-tall giant armor emitted intense Cold Qi all over; hundreds of sentinels of Three Linked City here were frozen into ice sculptures, and even the entire high cliff had become an iceberg.

Ancient treasure? Divine armor?

Or perhaps some evil thing that crawled out of a ruin?

The group murmured guesses about the giant armor's origin, while greed flashed in their eyes.

No matter where this set of giant armor came from, its power is absolutely immense.

The Cold Qi it released had already covered the entire 3,000-li stone cavern; with such power, if it could be taken into the family… or, mastered in one's own hands, how wonderful would that be?

A Chonglou Realm youth of the second or third heaven suddenly accelerated his escape light, laughing as he flew toward the giant armor.

Heaven-bestowed great treasure, to the virtuous…

Having just spoken those seven words, a hexagon-shaped ice crystal the size of a pot lid suddenly condensed in the air. The ice crystal flashed swiftly through the void, its sharp edge instantly cutting the youth's neck.

Drops of blood sprayed out; soon the youth's internal blood froze into ice chunks.

The youth's corpse fell from high altitude, dropping from a kilometer-high sky and smashing onto the rocks, shattering to pieces.

A group of nearly a hundred Chonglou Realm cultivators abruptly halted their escape light.

It's too late.

Large ice crystals formed one after another, flashing swiftly through the air, savagely slicing their bodies.

Even if just a tiny wound was cut on their fingers, the terrifying Cold Qi would instantly freeze their bodies and souls.

One cultivator after another fell from high altitude, just like that youth before, directly crashing into a pile of ice shards.

"Cleanse… utterly annihilate." The giant armor emitted a deep, icy voice; the Cold Qi in its eye sockets surged, thick Cold Qi churned violently, condensing behind it into a sheet of ice cloud, faintly revealing a phantom of a mermaid with a human torso and fish tail.

"Ice Spirit… Divine Clan… Noble… Powerful… Not to be violated!"

The giant armor rumbled lowly, raising both hands and lightly pressing toward the several villages within sight.

Several ice mountains directly condensed in midair, then heavily smashed toward those villages.

With a few booming sounds, the ice mountains exploded in the villages; terrifying Cold Qi surged for several li, freezing every living thing in the villages into ice sculptures, instantly eradicating all vitality.

From villagers to livestock, not even a small cat, dog, duck, or chicken could escape.

"Leave no chicken or dog… a perfect micro-scale strike." The giant armor rumbled lowly: "Control the strike intensity, do not let 'Mu's power notice me too early… before being expelled… eradicate all living beings here…"

"Micro-scale strike… control… strike intensity."

The giant armor moved.

He took big steps, striding steadily toward Three Linked City.

He stepped off the high cliff; ice crystals naturally condensed under his feet, steadily supporting his massive frame.

In the distance, a brilliant red light shot up into the sky.

Crimson phoenix true fire roiled, dense fiery clouds covering the sky for tens of li around. A Phoenix clan Life-Pond Elder arrived, his expressionless gaze witnessing the death of nearly a hundred Chonglou Realm cultivators, roughly estimating the giant armor's strength.

"Monster, if you bow and submit…"

Having spoken just those seven words, the giant armor swung its right hand, an ice spear tearing through space, piercing the Phoenix clan Life-Pond Elder's brow, directly shattering his Life-Pond and destroying his soul.

Nonchalantly, killing a Life-Pond Realm cultivator was as easy as killing a chicken.