The Path Toward Heaven

As the pearl-like object rose up to the night sky, Bai Zao saw a mass of dark shadows, but they moved too fast, and so she couldn’t use her Spiritual Awareness to count their numbers.

The patch of the snowland chosen for the Cultivation tournament that year was the ancient battlefield where the human race had resisted the monster invasion. As such, this part of the land should have been scoured many times by the human race, and usually such powerful monsters of the Snowy Kingdom wouldn’t be here.

Bai Zao had thought that the real danger would wait for them after they entered that dark mountain range; but who would have thought there were so many snow foot monsters hiding in the deep ground of the snowy land?

Moreover, these snow foot monsters’ abilities were at a higher state. The snow foot monster that had just attacked her had only three feet, and it could jump a hundred yards easily, and was as fast as lightning.

Though the snow foot monsters of this state didn’t have intelligence, their fighting instinct was terribly strong. The timing of the three feet snow foot monster’s attack on her after coming up from the ground was almost perfect. It happened when she asked the disciple of the Hanging-Bell Sect to help their other partners and to set up the defense formation.

In the end, she used her magic treasure to kill that snow foot monster, but she also paid the price for it, as she was wounded in the fighting.

The other two partners had been injured when the attack began.

The crisp sound of the bell rang throughout the night sky nonstop, helping the wounded protect their Dao Hearts while also alerting them to where in the ground the snow foot monsters might launch their attack from.

The female disciple of the Hanging-Bell Sect sat on the snow cross-legged, both of her eyes closed. The magic pill she had taken had almost worn, so nobody knew how long her zhenyuan could hold up.

Following the direction indicated by the sound of the bell, a green flash of sword light suddenly went out and then came back abruptly.

Looking at that flash of the sword light, Bai Zao had a look of appreciation in her eyes, thinking that the sword of the Green Mountain was really awesome.

Yao Songshan looked at the returning flying sword and felt relieved after making sure that the sword wasn’t eroded by the blood of the snow foot monster. “Are you okay?” he asked Bai Zao.

He admired this feeble-looking young woman in white clothing.

As the only daughter of the Center Sect Master, her leadership skill and commanding ability were outstanding, and the magic treasure she was carrying with her was of a very high spiritual state. And her ability to arrange the formation was also exceptional.

The pearl-like object that rose into the night sky was not only used for the illumination, but was also used by Bai Zao as vitalizing the Spiritual Awareness to form a strong barrier.

This barrier had blocked the majority of the snow foot monsters. Yao Songshan and that big sister of the Hanging-Bell Sect had cooperated to eliminate those snow foot monsters climbing out of the ground.

However, the big sister of the Hanging-Bell Sect had used too much of her zhenyuan, and Bai Zao was also wounded, so Yao Songshan had no idea how long they could maintain this formation.

Bai Zao looked quite feeble, but her eyes revealed calmness and self-assurance.

Having survived the critical moment of being attacked suddenly by the snow foot monsters, Bai Zao had the confidence of leading her group to hold on till next day.

Even if the Cold-Signal Bird hadn’t discovered the situation they were in, she believed other rescuers would come. And even if nobody would come to their rescue, they still could handle the situation.

As she was thinking about these matters, she sensed that the surroundings had suddenly become even chillier.

She had noticed earlier that a gust of extremely cold wind came from the valley, had nearly extinguishing the bonfire.

Though the snowy land was usually quite cold, such a low temperature was rare.

Somehow a patch of thick fog rolled out from the valley, covering the snowy ground they were on.

The fog was even colder than the earlier wind, as if having countless icicles amid the fog. Even though they were Cultivation practitioners, the exposed skin still felt the pain inflicted by the cold like being pierced by needles.

The flames of the bonfire had visibly lowered.

Bai Zao said solemnly, “It might not be able to hold on anymore.”

She didn’t know what formed this fog. It was extremely cold and thick, and her Spiritual Awareness had even frozen amid it.

Her Spiritual Awareness was linked with the pearl-like object in the night sky, so she had a better understanding.

Without the Spiritual Awareness holding it, the formation would gradually dissolve.

Yao Songshan arched his eyebrows slightly and walked up to Bai Zao, the green sword coming along.

The female disciple of the Hanging-Bell Sect opened her eyes. She and other two wounded Cultivation practitioners supported each other to come to the side of Bai Zao, calling out their last magic treasures.

The fog had grown thicker, and the bonfire had grown dimmer. Finally, the fire went out.

The pearl-like object had gotten darker. And soon it disappeared from the night sky as well.

The dark night fog covered everything. The colliding sounds started again, and they became more frequent as the sounds grew closer.

Would this patch of fog scatter soon?

Bai Zao was thinking of this.

The Cultivation tournament was a risky test for the participants. The masters wouldn’t offer their help before the critical moment. However, as the situation of fighting could change at any instant, the masters in the highest state couldn’t help in time when the tragedy happened. The similar incidents had happened many times in the past, so many participants in the Cultivation tournament of the Plum Meeting had died as a result.

Besides, the cold fog had appeared too suddenly that day, and it was too eerie and too terrifying. Bai Zao had never read anything like this in the records.

If her big brother were here, what would he do?

In the darkness, her hand reached for her waist and held two icy cold objects.

They were not enough for five of them.

Thinking about it silently, she released her hand.

The moment she did, a voice sounded in the dark of night.

Under such dangerous circumstances, the voice was very calm, revealing no fluctuation of emotion, and it seemed unsympathetic, and yet also quite convincing.

“Take back the bell.”

The female disciple of the Hanging-Bell Sect instinctively called back her bell.

A sound the air being pierced occurred in the night sky.

A heavy object landed on the snowy ground, splashing the snow powder around, some of which landed on Yao Songshan’s face.

Compared to the cold fog, the snow powder felt somewhat warm.

The calm voice sounded again.

“Bring up the shield.”

Yao Songshan could vaguely see a dark shadow of double the size of a human standing up about six feet in front of him.

Soon afterwards, he heard a sound of a heavy smash and a thudding groan.

The voice continued giving out orders.

“The Star Pot.”

“Start the fire.”

“Breaking Cold Branch.”

…

…

The bonfire was lit again. Though the flame was still weak, it was still able to illuminate the surrounding area.

The fire of zhenyuan could hold up a little longer even in the extremely cold fog.

The blue Star Pot was placed in front of the bonfire, and some weak starlight shot out from the mouth of the pot, covering the group.

A few steps away from the starlight barrier, a snow foot monster attempted to stand up.

Yao Songshan recited the sword instruction, and the green sword broke through the fog and pierced through the head of that snow foot monster, producing a string of green blood.

The green sword didn’t return, instead flying forward in the cold fog.

For some unknown reason, the power of the sword light had grown stronger in the cold fog, and it had killed two more snow foot monsters instantly.

Hearing the three words “”Breaking Cold Branch”, Yao Songshan knew right away who the owner of that voice was.

“Breaking Cold Branch” was the seventh move of the Snow-Following sword style of Shangde Peak.

Only the disciples of the Green Mountain knew that he had been a disciple of Shangde Peak before he joined Liangwang Peak.

Besides Yao Songshan, the other three didn’t have enough time to react because the situation had changed too fast.

Bai Zao knew who had helped them.

Judging from the zhenyuan fire and the Star Pot, she could identify that the rescuers were the colleagues of the Mysterious Heaven Sect and the Chosen Star House.

These two colleagues were in Jing Jiu’s group.

But where was Jing Jiu?

…

…

The snow foot monsters retreated to the darkness of the night and dared not get any closer, either due to the fire and the Star Pot or Yao Songshan’s powerful Snow-Following sword style.

The cold fog was too thick, and the light of the fire couldn’t shine far enough. They couldn’t see anything when they looked around, only hearing sounds.

They could hear the sounds of the iron sword piercing through the air and of the rocks breaking up, and also the horrendous screams of the snow foot monsters.

Yet, there were so many snow foot monsters in the darkness of the night; how could he withstand them? Why didn’t he retreat to the area protected by the Star Pot and take a break?

Listening to the sounds in the night fog, Yao Songshan was quite worried, and he wanted to rush out to help, but he had to restrain himself since he hadn’t received the order to do so.

The sounds in the fog had grown more frequent, but farther and farther, until they had totally vanished.

Yao Songshan couldn’t take it anymore, saying, “I want to go have a look.”

“He didn’t say to,” said Bai Zao.

“I’m worried about him,” Yao Songshan said.

Bai Zao said, “I believe in him.”

…

…

The young Cultivation practitioners were waiting nervously, treating their wounds and taking turns to rest, all the while resisting the chilly fog; so they were not in the mood to talk for the rest of the night.

After a long while, the fog finally had the sign of dispersing.

The female disciple of the Hanging-Bell Sect opened her eyes; looking at the dim morning sunlight in the sky, she let out a smile of surviving the ordeal.

The footsteps could be heard outside the fog.

All of them looked in that direction.

Jing Jiu walked out from the fog.

The dim fire light and morning sunlight fell on his face at the same time.

Bai Zao looked at him silently, thinking he looked so handsome.

…

…