Dusk fell with the setting sun.
Golden twilight washed over the wide streets of Lingtian Pass, gilding the ground in brilliant amber.
Cultivators hurried back and forth in a bustling flow.
Amidst them all, a single leisurely figure strolled unhurriedly through the fortress, looking starkly out of place.
Luo Chen let out a soft sigh.
"It really all comes down to having too much idle time!"
At such a critical juncture, Huiniang's desire for a child was a stark departure from her usual temperament, which always prioritized the big picture.
Yet Luo Chen understood.
Sima Huiniang had long since stepped down from the position of sect master of the Luotian Sect; neither great matters nor small required her concern anymore.
Though she had retired previously as well, the sect's very survival had still hung over her head, demanding her constant worry.
Yet once he returned, even that burden was lifted from her shoulders.
And because of the Consonance Gu, Luo Chen forbade her from cultivating further.
One thing leading to another, Sima Huiniang had found herself completely idle.
For a cultivator, having no cultivation to pursue, no affairs to manage, no worldly pleasures to enjoy, and no former authority to wield—while watching one's lifespan tick away day by day—was nothing short of agonizing torture!
To dispel that torment, Huiniang had volunteered to take charge of the newly built Luotian Treasure Pavilion.
Yet with Luo Chen's renown preceding her, the cultivators of the Luotian Sect assisting with utmost devotion, and talented hands from the Tianyuan Commerce Alliance offering guidance behind the scenes, there was hardly anything that truly required her labor.
In the end, other thoughts had taken root in her mind.
Just like cultivators of mediocre talent who, upon growing old, instinctively sought to leave behind a legacy or their own bloodline.
She wanted a child; she wished to pin all her focus and hope upon offspring of her own blood.
There was nothing wrong with such a desire. What was wrong was the turbulent era they lived in.
Even Luo Chen himself was not entirely certain of his own survival; how could he lightly bring his own flesh and blood into this world to weather the storms of the cultivation world?
"We will see when the time comes."
Luo Chen sighed again, then quietly returned to his cave dwelling.
***
Beams of spiritual light floated midair.
Luo Chen gazed at them for a long while before pushing them toward the Red Dog puppet one by one in order.
"These phantom core weapons range anywhere from ordinary artifacts to low-grade magic treasures."
"Though there are no specific crafting recipes, with my artifact refinement abilities, I should be able to reverse-engineer rough blueprints from their formations, materials, and forging techniques. And even if that proves difficult, I can simply use the system to verify whether the blueprints are viable when the time comes."
"Furthermore, these are the artifact refinement manuals left behind by Feiyunzi back then. Take them and study them thoroughly as a reference."
The Red Dog puppet silently accepted the items. Connected by mind and spirit, words from Luo Chen's true self were hardly necessary.
The puppet suddenly opened its mouth.
Opposite him, Luo Chen's fingertip trembled slightly, and a flame flickering between cyan and white drifted out, sinking into the Red Dog puppet's mouth.
It was an ember of Wither-Bloom True Fire, infused with a portion of Luo Chen's magic power.
While perhaps insufficient for combat, it was more than enough to assist the Red Dog puppet in dismantling artifacts and magic treasures.
After arranging all of this, Luo Chen entered a secret chamber within his cave dwelling.
Inside, bone-chilling cold permeated the air, surrounded by stacked tiers of ice.
An ice coffin rested in the center. Canglong lay quietly within, her brows still knitted tightly.
With a flick of Luo Chen's hand, a book fashioned from profound ice appeared in his grasp.
*Ten Directions Extreme Frost Path*.
This was the foundational art of the Ice Fort from years past, accessible only to inner disciples endowed with water spiritual roots or ice variant spiritual roots.
When Fairy Jueqing had entrusted the ice coffin to Luo Chen, she had handed him this manual as well.
Disclosing a sect's core technique to an outsider was an act of profound betrayal.
Yet the Ice Fort existed now in name only. To save Canglong, Fairy Jueqing had no other choice.
Luo Chen skimmed through the icy manual, paying little heed to the cultivation methods recorded within—even though the manual was a Rank 4 technique leading all the way to the Nascent Soul stage.
What mattered to him were the several sealing arts and formations inscribed upon its pages.
*I have already attained basic mastery over the Extreme Frost Seal and can undo the seal upon Canglong at any moment to awaken her.*
*Yet the time is not ripe!*
*Going forward, I might not have much leisure, so I must prepare beforehand. I need to master these ice-attribute formations as soon as possible to channel the freezing power of profound ice and prevent the ice coffin from collapsing.*
Thoughts flitting through his mind, Luo Chen began reading through the formations in the *Ten Directions Extreme Frost Path*, character by character.
***
Three days later.
Within the western gatehouse of Lingtian Pass, the Black Ape puppet slowly opened its eyes.
In its field of view, Luo Chen walked inside, looking somewhat fatigued.
"I've settled things on my end, and I will personally guard this post from now on. Do not slacken; I have another important matter for you."
"These are the puppetry techniques Qin Yuanjiang submitted to the sect, handed down from the lineage of the Luoyun Sect."
"Study them diligently. Perhaps you can uncover the specific method Han Zhan used back then to control that White Tiger puppet."
The Black Ape puppet wordlessly took the thick booklets and retired to a corner to read in quiet solitude.
Qin Yuanjiang had not offered these puppetry texts at first.
Only after Luo Chen returned and imparted the *Soul Splitting Art* to him had he handed them over after careful deliberation.
Truth be told, while these puppetry techniques possessed a certain ingenuity, their grade was not particularly high—falling short of the ancient puppetry methods Luo Chen had collected in the North Sea years ago.
Yet what mattered was that these puppetry techniques shared an unbroken heritage with Han Zhan!
Back then, Han Zhan had been able to subdue the White Tiger puppet at the early Nascent Soul realm relying precisely on the Luoyun Sect's puppetry arts.
Perhaps Luo Chen's chance to master that puppet lay buried within these volumes.
With such a puppet by his side, he would gain yet another trump card for the looming war.
Once the Black Ape settled down, Luo Chen cast a glance at the crescent moon hanging outside the western tower and waved his hand over the floor.
A Five Elements Lotus Dais manifested on the ground.
He drifted onto the seat, placed a high-grade Hongyuan Pill in his mouth, and entered meditation.
Around dawn, his weariness was completely washed away, leaving his spirit and Qi brimming with vitality.
Without the slightest hesitation, he laid the Yuan Slaughter Sword across his knees, drew a wisp of Crimson Firmament Qi into his mouth, and began circulating it unceasingly between man and blade.
***
On this particular day.
Late into the night, Luo Chen's eyes snapped open.
A wisp of Crimson Firmament Qi dissolved into mist, sinking into his chest.
Without hesitation, he flew out and landed atop the pitch-black ramparts, looking out into the distance.
The distance was too great for his divine sense to discern anything clearly.
Yet he possessed a pair of eyes capable of piercing thousands of li!
In his vision, speckles of lamplight flared awake in unison.
Faintly, the sounds of commotion rising from within the fortress reached his ears.
"Has the battle begun?"
Just as everyone had anticipated during their earlier council, the demon race's strength had redoubled following Huang Man's arrival, and they could no longer restrain themselves.
Unable to hold back for even half a month, they had launched an all-out assault.
The eastern gate, directly facing the demon army, bore the brunt of the fierce onslaught from the very first moment.
At this hour, millions of cultivators were surging toward the eastern wall.
Perhaps having learned from Commander Qi Xi's prior failure to take Lingtian Pass by force—which had resulted in severe injuries instead—the demon race did not dispatch top experts to breach Lingtian Pass directly this time.
Instead, they unleashed swarms of low-tier demon beasts to batter the gates from all four directions.
Luo Chen leaped into the air, ascending high into the sky.
His sharp gaze swept in all directions.
Beneath the cloak of night, beasts surged from the east like an endless deluge.
Upon reaching the plains outside Lingtian Pass, the immense beast flood split into two offshoots, sweeping around to envelop the northern and southern flanks.
It was as though Lingtian Pass were an elephant, while the beasts were diminutive ants branching into three streams to surround and devour it.
"May fellow Daoists hold out!"
Luo Chen sighed softly. At the same time, he instructed Zeng Yilong and the others—who stood fully armed and ready—to prepare to exterminate any beasts that approached their sector.
He had no intention of going to reinforce the other gates.
The four Nascent Soul cultivators each guarded their respective sector; none could lightly abandon their post.
Comparatively speaking, the western district lay in the rear and was the safest quarter.
Had Luo Chen not previously built up his reputation as a Grandmaster of Alchemy and received preferential treatment, this assignment would never have fallen to him.
Now, he had effectively gained a boon, spared from taking the brunt of the beast army's frontal assault.
Yet Luo Chen knew full well that as the beasts multiplied and Commander-tier Demon Emperors arrived one after another, the encirclement of the western gate was only a matter of time.
"When will the reinforcements arrive?"
***
To the east, south, and north, the din of slaughter never ceased.
From the dead of night, it raged straight through until dawn.
One formation after another unfurled under the direction of the city's cultivators.
Artillery-like spiritual energy cannons consumed spirit stones without restraint, unleashing ferocious barrages against the beasts beyond the walls.
Throughout the onslaught, Nascent Soul–tier Demon Emperors periodically launched probing strikes against Lingtian Pass.
Their answer came from the defensive grand formation activated by Castellan Lingtian.
A single profound sword swept across the four directions. Though it could not sally out to slaughter them, neither could any foe step foot inside.
At this point, the demon powerhouses also came to realize that taking Lingtian Pass by individual might alone was an impossibility.
The only way was attrition!
Once the various formations of Lingtian Pass were worn down and the fortress's resources depleted, the Black Tortoise Four Directions Formation would be nothing more than an inert shell.
The battle raged without pause!
Time slipped by day by day.
By the fifth day, scattered remnants of routed demon beasts began appearing outside the western gate under Luo Chen's watch.
These were scattered forces shattered on the frontal battlefield.
Without hesitation, Luo Chen promptly ordered the destruction of these routed beasts.
Led by Golden Core cultivators, the cultivators of the western sector sallied forth from the city, hunting down the remnants one group after another.
That he chose not to activate the western gate's formations was a deliberate decision on Luo Chen's part.
A few scattered beasts hardly warranted activating killing formations.
It was far better to use this opportunity to hone the cultivators under his charge.
Bloody skirmishes soon unfolded right before Luo Chen's eyes.
He extended his divine sense to its limit, cloaking a thousand li around the battlefield to guard against any Nascent Soul–tier Demon Emperor launching a surprise assault on the western gate amidst the chaos.
Evidently, the Demon Emperors' attention remained fixed on the frontal battlefield, and none bothered with his sector yet.
Thus, the battles fought by his subordinates remained well within manageable bounds.
Luo Chen intentionally focused a portion of his attention on the Luotian Sect cultivators, particularly Zeng Yilong.
Having received the Poyue Wings bestowed by Luo Chen, Zeng Yilong's deficiency in speed was thoroughly resolved.
Back when the youth had been in his tender years, Luo Chen had taught him Nine Myriad Li and gifted him a pair of top-grade flight wings.
Those wings had been destroyed on the battle platform.
The present Poyue Wings were high-grade magic treasures, making him like a tiger that had grown wings!
In his view, Zeng Yilong spread his wings, gripping the Myriad Jun Halberd. Still as a mountain until he moved, he would surge across hundreds of zhang in a flash, striking with thunderous fury.
Low-tier beasts were frequently crushed into paste with a single blow.
Even ordinary Rank 3 Demon Kings could not withstand more than a few exchanges against him.
Witnessing this, Luo Chen breathed a slight sigh of relief.
*Wang Yuan's grooming of him over the years has truly borne fruit. This boy inherited his father's innate combat instincts, and now he wields the treasures I bestowed upon him. Unless a late-stage Rank 3 Great Demon King appears, or he is trapped in an encirclement, virtually no one can threaten him.*
Luo Chen was very pleased. Zeng Yilong's performance fully justified everything the Luotian Sect had invested in him.
So long as he did not fall prematurely, he would stand as a banner figure for the Luotian Sect in the future!
As for the other Luotian Sect cultivators, their performance in the melee was equally commendable.
Whenever one ran low on strength, their companions moved to draw the enemy away and cover their retreat.
The abundance of talismans Luo Chen had previously granted flared with radiance, bringing down beast after beast in steady succession.
*What a pity I haven't mastered an external incarnation technique. If I could dispatch an avatar to mass-produce talismans, they would have shone brilliantly in this war!*
Luo Chen still harbored an enduring desire for techniques like a second Nascent Soul or external incarnations.
Suddenly!
Luo Chen's divine sense twitched, focusing on a spot several hundred li away.
Massive spiritual energy fluctuations surged forward with no attempt at concealment.
He looked into the distance and saw a colossal flying boat piercing through the sky.
A red banner bearing intricate, wondrous patterns flew high atop the vessel.
The Divine Talisman Sect!
Elder Fu stood aboard the flying boat, looking toward Lingtian Pass from afar.
Upon spotting Luo Chen, he smiled and nodded in greeting.
Luo Chen let out a sigh of relief as well.
The reinforcements had finally arrived!
*Boom!*
The flying boat came to a halt ten li outside the gate.
Luo Chen transmitted his voice from a distance: "There is no need to spare men to deal with the skirmishes here. Undergo the inspection and enter the fortress directly!"
Elder Fu understood instantly.
Evidently, compared to the scattered skirmishes outside the western gate, the pressure on the frontal battlefield was far greater.
As the Divine Talisman Sect cultivators filed into the city, Luo Chen exchanged a brief conversation with Elder Fu.
"Did young friend Ye Lan succeed?"
"Thanks to the aid of your pill, he finally crossed that threshold."
"A joyous occasion worthy of celebration!"
"Haha, had he failed, how could I have come to Lingtian Pass with an easy mind?"
"Once we have some leisure, care to share a few cups of wine?"
"If the Grandmaster of Alchemy invites me, how could I dare decline? This old man will certainly come!"
After that brief exchange, Elder Fu led several thousand cultivators into Lingtian Pass one after another.
The Divine Talisman Sect was among the Nascent Soul upper sects whose organizational framework remained relatively intact.
Today, he had brought thousands of disciples, and that was merely a portion of their force.
The "young friend Ye Lan" Luo Chen mentioned was precisely the peak Golden Core cultivator of the Divine Talisman Sect who had been in desperate need of a Nascent Soul Formation Pill.
Speaking of which, though Luo Chen had never met him in person, there was some prior connection between them.
The man's elder brother was none other than Elder Ye, Ye Xiang, who had participated in the opening war of the Howling Moon Mountain Range back then.
The arrival of the Divine Talisman Sect's reinforcements seemed to serve as a signal.
Following them, more and more cultivator forces departed from the Five Lingtian Domains and arrived at Lingtian Pass in succession.
The three sects situated in the Fenghua Domain, the Fenghua Palace, Motian Cliff, and even the Five Elements Divine Sect arrived first.
Then came the Wan Jian Pavilion, the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect...
The number of Nascent Soul cultivators within the fortress surged dramatically, casting an immense, crushing pressure outward.
At some point, the beast horde besieging Lingtian Pass, having left behind a dense blanket of corpses, gradually withdrew.
Evidently, the demon race had also detected the shifting tides within Lingtian Pass and ceased their futile attrition.
Luo Chen was finally relieved from standing watch on the battlements all day long.
Yet just before he could depart, the Castellan's Estate sent someone to deliver an oddly shaped compass.
"What is this?"
Luo Chen turned the magic treasure over in his hands—square on the outside, round on the inside, with intricate contours—his expression one of bewilderment.
Ye Hong, who had delivered the item, explained, "The Castellan instructed that this be buried at the foot of the wall, and requests that each Zhenren infuse their magic power to activate it."
Though puzzled, Luo Chen followed the instructions.
He floated down from the walls, arrived at the base of the ramparts, and set down the strange compass.
Then he channeled his magic power into it.
The moment his magic power entered, a torrential suction surged forth, showing signs of threatening to drain Luo Chen dry.
Luo Chen furrowed his brow, but he did not halt the flow.
It was only a magic treasure, after all; how much of his vast magic power could it possibly hold?
Sure enough, after consuming a tenth of his magic power, the suction gradually tapered off.
The sphere resting in the center of the square compass spun rapidly, as though gorged to the brim.
Suddenly!
*Swish!*
The sphere transformed into a pillar of light that shot into the heavens, vanishing past the horizon in the blink of an eye.
Even when Luo Chen probed with his divine sense, he could not detect a trace of it.
At that exact moment, pillars of light erupted across the fortress, piercing straight into the nine heavens of the azure sky.
Amidst Luo Chen's astonishment, a hazy figure hovered aloft in midair above the center of Lingtian Pass.
With a wave of the figure's finger across the void, the pillars of light gradually dispersed.
And the bright, clear sky began to darken.
"The sun and moon wax and wane; the stars spread their arrays."
"The celestial stars align; the azure sky is blotted out!"
Beneath the veil of darkness, stars flickered with brilliance, aligning across the four directions to perfectly encase Lingtian Pass.
With a sudden sweep of the hazy figure's open hand, the dark canopy dissipated abruptly, leaving neither stars nor darkness visible in the azure heavens.
It was as though nothing had ever transpired.
Yet Luo Chen knew with absolute certainty that much had changed.
It felt as if something high in the sky was watching him.
Feeling a twinge of discomfort, he cast several concealment arts upon himself before the sensation finally faded.
Luo Chen looked up, lost in thought.
*That person just now tampered with the firmament—and did so through the hands of us Zhenren.*
He looked down slightly as the token at his waist began to vibrate, and Castellan Lingtian's voice echoed from within:
"Gentlemen, please gather at the Castellan's Estate!"
Chapter 812