Chapter 40: The Army of Ice Bees

The twelve members of Cangyang Valley made their plans and set off immediately.
Whoosh!
Twelve sounds of breaking through the air came one after another, as they each took their magical treasures and continued flying toward the South Pole.
The fierce winds were like spinning knives, descending from the distant sky with unstoppable force, intent on cutting down anything in their path.
Since the twelve members of Cangyang Valley had decided to rush to the ice-cave gorge to set an ambush, they wanted to avoid any further delay and spare no energy. As the winds arrived, they used their magical treasures to confront them head-on, turning those powerful winds into massive storms that dispersed.
Fast!
To reach the ice-cave gorge as quickly as possible, the twelve members accelerated to their maximum speed and used their energy to cast spells to dispel the winds ahead. Everything was done for greater speed.
Ten days later, after all members of Cangyang Valley had taken three He’e Dan pills, the twelve finally arrived at a miraculous place.
Seen from above, the ten-mile-wide area below resembled a smooth, shiny ice mirror. Beneath it lay a dark region—the gorge. This ice mirror was ten miles wide from north to south, while it seemed endless from east to west, extending as if through the entire Gale Region and serving as the boundary between the ice continent’s north and south.
Most miraculously, within this ice mirror area, those fierce winds completely disappeared, leaving the entire place in a peaceful and quiet atmosphere.
The twelve members of Cangyang Valley landed on the ice mirror. Without time to admire the stunning scenery, they immediately sat in meditation to balance their disrupted energy.
After a while, all twelve were full of energy and joyfully scanned their surroundings.
“Great! Brother Yangdi, thanks to your exploration here a few years ago, we found such a wonderful place. Now, let’s break through this ice layer together, enter the ice-cave gorge, teleport to where LanYang Palace will pass by, and lay in wait,” Li Zhen exclaimed happily.
The ice layer was ten meters thick and extremely hard, formed by extreme compression of ice blocks to create this large ‘ice mirror’.
However, with the combined efforts of the twelve members of Cangyang Valley, the ten-mile-wide ice layer shattered instantly, with a large piece falling away.

Immediately, the twelve people released their spiritual senses and sensed that what lay beneath the entire ice layer was no longer something that could be called a canyon—it was an abyss, with various icy cold energies at its bottom, completely blocking the exploration of their spiritual senses. As a result, the twelve had no idea how deep this abyss was.

However, the twelve from Cangyang Valley did not intend to explore the bottom of the canyon. Instead, they wanted to use the calm airspace above this abyss to travel to distant places. Soon, the twelve who had broken through the ice layer flew into the canyon, flying within the space beneath the ice layer and above the cold air layer, heading swiftly toward the west.

In this area, the people from Cangyang Valley detected no strong winds, not even storms, so they began to use instant teleportation to travel at incredible speeds—thousands of miles in a single breath.

Li Zhen flew at the front, with his spiritual senses fully activated, smiling as he used instant teleportation. He wondered if LanYang Palace would be surprised upon discovering they had been ambushed. Suddenly, Li Zhen stopped in his tracks, his expression grave as he stared ahead.

Yang Di, Li Heng, and the other eleven people quickly gathered around Li Zhen, all with serious expressions. Below them, in the abyss ahead, Flying Ice Bees were rapidly ascending. Moreover, these Flying Ice Bees were all at the Mid-Divination stage, with a few even at the Late-Divination stage. It turned out that the lair of the Flying Ice Bees was this underground canyon, and they originated from the cold air layer at its bottom.

Through their spiritual senses, the twelve people roughly estimated that there were only a little over a thousand Flying Ice Bees living at the bottom of this abyss, five of them at the Late-Divination stage, and the rest at the Mid-Divination stage.

“How is this possible? There are still Flying Ice Bees here?”
“I wondered why this canyon was so calm. It turns out there are these Flying Ice Bees here.”
“It seems the cold air at the bottom of the canyon is under the control of these Flying Ice Bees.”
……

The twelve from Cangyang Valley had already shared their discoveries. While they were discussing, a thousand Flying Moths, under the command of the five Flying Ice Bees at the Late-Divination stage, split into five groups and flew toward the twelve from Cangyang Valley.

The space became turbulent, with cold air spreading everywhere. As the Flying Ice Bees moved, the entire canyon immediately became chaotic. The twelve from Cangyang Valley were even more terrified. With such chaotic space, they dared not use instant teleportation and now had to fight their way out.

“Everyone, gather our true energy once again and turn it into swords to kill these Flying Ice Bees,” Li Zhen instinctively transmitted a message to the others through his spiritual senses.

“Good!” The eleven people hesitated not for a moment and agreed immediately.
In an instant, the twelve of them pressed their palms together, gathering their vital energy to form a single entity. Above the canyon, a giant yellow sword appeared, shooting like lightning at the flying ice bees approaching them.
The sword struck the lead flying ice bee without any resistance, shattering it effortlessly. It moved again at lightning speed, cutting down the second flying ice bee that hadn’t had time to turn around.
Coldness—still coldness. In desperation, the remaining flying ice bees expelled all the cold vital energy stored in their bodies, turning into an ice wall that blocked the sword.
The cold energy emitted by hundreds of flying ice bees, combined with their strength, was equivalent to that of those in the mid-stage of fusion, and it managed to stop the sword.
Li Zhen, who was at the tip of the sword, directed everyone’s vital energy to attack the ice wall. Affected by this cold energy—whose power was no less than that of the late fusion stage—it caused frostbite-like damage to his spiritual essence, preventing him from fully unleashing the sword’s power at the early stage of tribulation.
The sword quickly retreated before soaring upward again, slashing down swiftly as it approached the ice wall. The entire ice wall was instantly split in two and fell rapidly into the layer of cold air at the bottom of the canyon.
Just as the sword prepared to slaughter the flying ice bees behind the ice wall once more, a thousand streams of white mist rose from the cold air at the bottom of the canyon, entering each flying ice bee’s body. Soon, those bees emitted more cold vital energy, forming an ice sword that charged straight at the sword created by the twelve people from Cangyang Valley.
It was astonishing how the cold air from the depths of the canyon could be quickly utilized by the flying ice bees, transforming into cold vital energy within their bodies just like spiritual energy.
The sword also noticed this trait and dared not confront the ice sword. After all, even if it destroyed this ice sword, those flying ice bees would form another one, creating an endless cycle of trouble.
Undoubtedly, the sword relied on its speed, constantly circling in the air to avoid the pursuit of the ice sword.
The ice sword pursued swiftly, its tail emitting white mist continuously, covering the entire space with layers of fog until all its vital energy was exhausted, clearing the sky above the canyon once again.
Inside the sword, the twelve people from Cangyang Valley were also rapidly exchanging spiritual awareness.

“These thousand Flying Ice Bees are controlled by those five late-stage Divination Flying Ice Bees. As long as we kill those five ice bees, these thousand bees won’t unite to attack us, and we’ll be able to leave easily.”
“I have a better idea. How about knocking out those five late-stage Divination Flying Ice Bees first, then taking control of these thousand mid-stage Divination Flying Ice Bees? We can use them as hidden allies when attacking Blue Yang Palace.”
“I think these ice bees must have a way to communicate with other ice bees. Let’s go all out—first take control of a large group of ice bees in this valley and use them to attack Blue Yang Palace.”
…
The twelve people each shared their ideas, and eventually they agreed on one goal: to take control of these Flying Ice Bees.
After discussing, the giant sword suddenly flashed yellow, then pierced through the ice swords created by the thousand Flying Ice Bees before rushing toward the five late-stage Divination Flying Ice Bees.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
With a few swings of the sword, its sword energy quickly sealed off the space where the five ice bees were, leaving them with no escape. Then, five human-shaped figures emerged from the sword’s body. Each used a palm strike to knock out the five late-stage Divination Flying Ice Bees and pull them inside the sword.
As soon as the five ice bees fell inside the sword, five early-stage merged elder spiritual entities entered their core souls, located their souls, and planted soul shackles, turning the five ice bees into their slaves.
Soon, the sword disappeared, and the twelve people from Cang Yang Valley floated in the air, overjoyed. Although they had used half of their true energy to shatter the ice swords and then rushed to deal with the five leader ice bees, capturing them was worth the loss.
When the five late-stage Divination Flying Ice Bees woke up, they obediently stood behind the twelve people, buzzing softly. Then, all the thousand Flying Ice Bees calmed down and stopped being hostile toward them.
The twelve people from Cang Yang Valley were delighted. They then led the thousand Flying Ice Bees and continued flying swiftly above the icy valley.
Along the way, using the Flying Ice Bees under their control, they captured another ten groups of them. Thus, now the twelve people from Cang Yang Valley had fifty late-stage Divination Flying Ice Bees and ten thousand mid-stage ones.
Their strength had increased tenfold.

The twelve members of Cangyang Valley were now filled with confidence, firmly believing they had the ability to sweep away everything in their path. After traveling through the icy canyon for a month, they finally arrived at a place and stopped. “If our estimates are correct, the people from Lanyang Palace will appear in the nearby area. Now, release your Flying Ice Bees and spread them throughout the bottom of the canyon. I believe that as long as the people from Lanyang Palace come here, they will definitely discover this canyon and enter it to rest. By then, the Flying Ice Bees will surely be able to spot them, and we can then find a way to ambush them,” said Li Zhen with full confidence. “Understood,” replied the other eleven members happily.