Chapter 41: We’ve Been Waiting for You for a Long Time

Lanyang Palace lost one member in the Gale Region, leaving ten members left—led by Rongju, along with Ronghuo and eight other elders in the early stages of fusion.
At this moment, after overcoming numerous difficulties and using up a large amount of Hehan Pills, the ten members of Lanyang Palace finally arrived at the underground ice canyon area.
“Senior brother, look! There really is an underground ice canyon here,” Ronghuo, with his rugged appearance, called out loudly.
Ronghuo was the same burly man that Qu Yi had made Huanwu Die knock out using the Eight Directions Sword on Yunxia Island. Now, under Qu Yi’s control, Ronghuo reported all matters related to Lanyang Palace to the Artifact God at all times.
Following the Artifact God’s orders, Ronghuo had made up an excuse while in the Gale Region, claiming he had heard that there was an underground ice canyon there without gales, where they could rest, so he brought all the members of Lanyang Palace there.
“Good, everyone. You’ve worked hard to withstand the gales. Let’s rest for now,” Rongju said, his eyes gleaming with joy as he looked at the calm “ice mirror,” and immediately gave the order.
Then, the ten members of Lanyang Palace landed on the ice mirror.
But unlike the other nine, Ronghuo took out his magical weapon, the Tonghuo Halberd. With a surge of his vital energy, a pillar of true fire emerged from the tip of the halberd, breaking through the ice mirror and revealing the canyon below.
“Ronghuo, what are you doing?” Rongju paused his meditation and looked at Ronghuo in confusion.
“Senior brother, I want to explore this underground ice canyon to see if there are any secrets. If we can find a way to easily cross this Gale Region, we won’t waste any more Hehan Pills,” Ronghuo said calmly, explaining his reason.
Hehan Pills, like He’e Pills, were also used to replenish vital energy.
“Be careful then,” Rongju agreed without suspicion.
Soon, Ronghuo entered the underground ice canyon and used instant teleportation to head far away.
At some point, Ronghuo’s presence slipped out of Rongju’s spiritual sensing range, and he suddenly stopped. The next moment, Qu Yi and Li Heng appeared right beside him.
“Master!” Ronghuo said respectfully.
Qu Yi smiled slightly and said, “Your task is complete. Come with me into the Inch Realm Sphere.”
Immediately, Qu Yi took Ronghuo into the Inch Realm Sphere, which attached itself to Li Heng’s hair.

It turned out that the Artifact God had always maintained a spiritual connection with Ronghuo, allowing him to keep track of the whereabouts of the people from the LanYang Palace at all times, and thus continuously directing Li Heng to wait in this area of the underground canyon. Of course, Li Heng had also distracted the other eleven members of the CangYang Valley; otherwise, Qu Yi would not have emerged.

Li Heng immediately flew to the bottom of the canyon and leaned on his flying ice bee pet. The flying ice bee automatically emitted a cold aura that enveloped Li Heng, with all the cold energy dispersing outward without causing any harm to him.

Since the flying ice bee was flying at the bottom of the canyon, it wasn’t afraid of spiritual sensing, as the layer of cold air there served to block spiritual perception.

The other eleven members of the CangYang Valley, having received a message from Li Heng’s communication token, also mounted their own flying ice bee pets and rushed quickly toward Li Heng from the bottom of the canyon.

……

The nine members of the LanYang Palace sat on the ice layer and quickly finished regulating their breath, eliminating all physical fatigue.

“Senior brother, why hasn’t Ronghuo come up yet after entering the canyon?” suddenly asked a young man with bright red hair.

Rongju immediately sent out his spiritual sense to enter the canyon but detected no trace of Ronghuo. However, he was surprised to find that the layer of cold air at the bottom of the canyon could block spiritual sensing.

“I’ll send him a message first,” Rongju said calmly.

Soon after, he took out his communication token, channeled his vital energy, scanned with his spiritual sense, and sent a message.

“Hmm, Ronghuo hasn’t replied.” Rongju was instantly shocked, feeling an ominous premonition.

Seeing the change in Rongju’s expression, the other eight members guessed that Ronghuo had gone missing. They were deeply shaken—another member of the LanYang Palace had died, making the journey ahead even more difficult.

“Everyone, Ronghuo once told me that to reach the South Pole, we can only ambush other sects and steal their medicinal pills. It seems we’ll have to follow this plan this time. I just sensed the canyon and found that its space is very stable. I think we can teleport inside and then head to the places other sects pass through to ambush them,” Rongju said coldly, his eyes gleaming with determination.

After hearing this, the other eight members fell silent for a moment before agreeing unanimously.

Then, the nine of them flew together into the underground canyon.

The nine members of the LanYang Palace hadn’t flown even a hundred li when suddenly two powerful streams of white, mist-like cold air rose from both ends of the canyon’s bottom, quickly enclosing the nine of them within those spaces of cold air.

“Fellow cultivators of Blue Sun Palace, we’ve been waiting for you for a long time,” suddenly, Li Zhen from Cangyang Valley flew out and called out with a laugh.
Rong Ju’s spiritual awareness came into contact with the cold barriers on both sides and discovered that the cold could freeze spiritual awareness. At that moment, he realized that the nine of them had no other choice but to fight desperately if they wanted to break through the cold barriers and escape.
“Li Zhen! So it’s you leading Cangyang Valley. Good. If you want to ambush us from Blue Sun Palace, you’ll first have to prove you have the ability,” Rong Ju replied calmly, without the slightest sign of tension.
The other eight members of Blue Sun Palace quickly surrounded Rong Ju, ready for battle.
Li Zhen smiled briefly, then his expression turned cold as he shouted, “Cangyang Sword, attack!”
In an instant, the other eleven members of Cangyang Valley flew up from the bottom of the valley and quickly merged with Li Zhen. Their vital energies converged to form a sword.
The giant yellow sword reappeared.
At this point, Rong Ju was shocked—Cangyang Valley actually had twelve people: one in the later stage of fusion, one in the middle stage, and ten in the early stage. Meanwhile, Blue Sun Palace now had only nine left: one in the later stage of fusion and eight in the early stage. The gap in strength between the two sides was extremely obvious.
Once the giant yellow sword was formed, Rong Ju realized its power—it was already at the level of the early stage of tribulation. None of the nine of them could resist it.
“Gather vital energies, Blue Sun Fire, attack!” Rong Ju immediately shouted, gathering everyone’s vital energies to resist against it.
Above the valley, a giant red sword wreathed in flames appeared and headed straight toward the yellow sword.
The yellow sword and the red sword collided swiftly, clashing back and forth. Flames and yellow mist spread everywhere, hitting the cold barriers on both sides and pushing them back a mile.
When the two swords of vital energies met for the first time, their strengths became apparent. The red sword formed by the nine members of Blue Sun Palace was sent flying after just one collision, with sparks scattering throughout the space. It took all nine of them exerting great effort to stabilize the red sword.
The yellow sword formed by the twelve members of Cangyang Valley only rebounded slightly before flying back at the red sword, clearly aiming to take advantage of the situation and drain the vital energies of Blue Sun Palace’s nine members.
At this point, the red sword no longer hesitated—it retreated immediately and then fiercely slashed at the cold barrier behind it, clearly trying to break through it and escape the valley.
Unfortunately, the yellow sword wouldn’t give it that chance. It made a spatial leap and appeared behind the red sword, slashing down.

If the Red Sword wanted to break through the barrier of cold energy, it would naturally have to be cut in half, meaning half of the nine members of the Blue Yang Palace would likely die. Of course, the Red Sword formed by those nine members quickly dodged, too late to pierce the barrier of cold energy. Thus, the Yellow Sword kept chasing, while the Red Sword kept avoiding. As it dodged, it constantly searched for an opportunity to break through the barrier and escape. “Li Zhen, don’t push me too far, Cang Yang Valley. Otherwise, we’ll all perish together,” suddenly roared Rong Ju from within the Red Sword fiercely. The Red Sword rushed around frantically but found no chance to escape, so it resorted to threats. Since the Blue Yang Palace came to fight for the Eight Directions Sword, they surely brought their trump cards—otherwise, how would they dare to come to the dangerous South Pole of White Yin Star to compete for treasures? “Haha, Rong Ju, I never thought you’d be at a loss like this. Even though you have a trump card, do you really think that can threaten me?” Li Zhen replied calmly, his joy completely gone. The Red Sword trembled slightly, showing that Rong Ju, who controlled it, was uneasy. Sure enough, as soon as Li Zhen spoke, the entire bottom of the canyon and the layer of cold energy underwent tremendous changes. All the cold energy vanished suddenly, and eleven groups of Flying Ice Bees merged together, releasing all their cold energy essence to form Ice Swords. Eleven massive ice swords flew out from the bottom of the canyon, surrounding the Red Sword of the Blue Yang Palace. The Yellow Sword formed by the twelve members of Cang Yang Valley had retreated to the back, observing the situation. The power of these ice swords was equivalent to that of those in the early stage of the Tribulation Phase, and these eleven ice swords represented eleven strong warriors at that stage. The Red Sword formed by the nine members of the Blue Yang Palace had no chance to resist. Trapped in the encirclement, it couldn’t break free, and the cold energy from the ice swords extinguished the flames emanating from it. “Spirit of Flame!” Suddenly, Rong Ju shouted angrily. Then, the entire Red Sword expanded from a hundred meters to a thousand meters, with flames burning skyward. It turned out that Rong Ju’s trump card this time was the Spirit of Flame—a kind of spiritual fire that, once consumed, could rapidly boost a person’s strength, though the effect varied from person to person. After absorbing the Spirit of Flame, Rong Ju’s cultivation level soared to the middle stage of the Tribulation Phase, jumping two levels at once. With his cultivation level suddenly rising, the power of the entire group of fire swords also increased to the middle stage of the Tribulation Phase. The eleven ice swords at the early stage of the Tribulation Phase still charged fearlessly, attacking the Red Sword formed by the nine members of the Blue Yang Palace at the same time.

The Red Sword managed to hold its ground, and then, relying on its speed, it spun and severed the two ice swords beside it. With another rapid flight, it cut through three more ice swords. Just then, the remaining six ice swords suddenly exploded. A wave of extreme cold surged forth, and solid-like crystals of cold struck the Red Sword, extinguishing all the flames on it. The Red Sword also began to shake, clearly stunned by the explosion of the ice swords. Meanwhile, the Yellow Sword, which had been observing, suddenly emitted a flash of yellow light and flew over quickly. Before the Red Sword could react, it swung down with a lightning-fast strike at its core.