Breaking the Ice

If he couldn't come up with another way out, he would die even more wretchedly than a turtle trapped in a jar. At this moment, Juju's avatar was also roaring from his shoulder, "Smash open that glazed dome! Didn't you say you had a plan?!" The chiming bells were shaking it to death with agonizing torment. If this surprise raid failed again, the Heavenly Palace would torment it to death afterward without mercy! Under normal circumstances, Juju might have turned traitor immediately, tossing He Lingchuan straight to the Heavenly Palace to save its own skin. But right now, it was bound by the Chain of Oaths; all it could do was pray that He Lingchuan truly had some way to ruin this formation core. In any case, until the formation core was damaged, it could not lift a single finger against any structure on Mount Xu. Amid the current chaotic melee, it could only stare on in helpless panic, completely unable to exert any strength. "I'm thinking!" He Lingchuan ground his molars. "You're so well-traveled and experienced—can't you offer a single suggestion?!" "If I weren't suppressed, I could shatter this damned dome with a single slap!" "Bullshit! Can't you say something..." He Lingchuan dodged another sneak attack from a monster, "...useful?!" Zaifu Kua, the Junior Director of the Directorate for the Palace Buildings, had only said the glazed dome was exceptionally hard, but hadn't mentioned there would be such a troublesome barrier outside the spider's shed husk. He Lingchuan suspected this had been added later. More than a decade ago, just before the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation was completed, a minor "flaw" had cropped up: during autumn and winter, the formation core could not fade into the void, leaving it vulnerable to exposure. The celestial gods had probably devised numerous new measures in the aftermath to elevate the formation core's security level. Of course, He Lingchuan knew very well that even with thorough preparations, nothing was ever guaranteed to be foolproof. Unforeseen accidents could strike at any moment. Ordinarily, the way to open this transparent dome was by using mother-and-son spheres. This great dome itself was the mother sphere, while the Chief Duyun Emissary held a son sphere that served as the key. Whenever the formation core required maintenance, the Chief Duyun Emissary would come up in person to unlock the dome. Since He Lingchuan had no way of acquiring the key, he had to resort to brute force. Just then, a glazed monster sprang violently out from the surface of the planetary ring, lunging straight at He Lingchuan. It seemed to understand the principle of capturing the leader to catch the bandits. The spider guardian beneath him bounded aside, dodging the strike. The glazed beast crashed into the dome, but instead of being repelled or pulverized by lightning, it melted directly into the barrier. *Eh?* These two things were made of the same material? He Lingchuan's gaze narrowed. He pulled out another cold ice talisman and silently channeled his incantation. The talisman's etched patterns immediately glowed with a faint blue light. Li Qingge had told him that, properly applied, a single cold ice talisman could easily freeze nearly half a mountain peak. Right now, the spider guardian beneath him was trembling incessantly, sinking lower and lower—it could barely hold on. Though the other spider guardians were fighting with everything they had, the enemies were multiplying, and they were vanishing one after another. He Lingchuan knew that in ten breaths at most, they would be reduced to nothing. This was the countdown on his own life as well. He had swapped places to get in here using the ghost shadow cicada slough, a divine ability that could not be used a second time within a short interval. To him, this formation core was an enclosed, sealed space. If he couldn't figure out a way to breach the dome, today next year would be the anniversary of his death. Especially when He Lingchuan caught sight of flashing red lights in the distance: several lamp wardens had charged in, holding burning candles in their hands. White candles dusted with faint gold. He had seen them in Bai Ziqi's hands before; these were the candle spirits of the Everlasting Lamp. With those things joining the fray, what chance did he have? Another small glazed shark leaped out from the ring and lunged toward him. These monsters were simple-minded and attacked with predictable patterns, but their sheer numbers were terrifying. An army of ants could bite an elephant to death, let alone these searing-hot behemoths. This time, He Lingchuan did not dodge. Sweeping his left arm forward with the mirror shield, he shouted, "Grow, grow!" and shoved it forcefully into the lunging shark's open jaws. After thoroughly digesting the Emperor's Flowing Dew, the mirror shield had evolved further. It could now take the form of a four-cornered heavy shield over half a man's height. It could be carried on horseback and raised to block on foot, providing far more comprehensive protection to its master. It expanded inside the glazed shark's mouth, plugging the throat instantly. Before the shark could thrash its head, He Lingchuan slapped the cold ice talisman into the gaps of its teeth with his other hand. A wave of frigid air swept outward; He Lingchuan yanked his hand back immediately. The shark's gaping maw froze into an ice sculpture, unable to snap or gnash its teeth any longer. This icy transformation spread from inside out, from snout to tail; within merely two breaths, its thrashing fins were frozen solid. The mirror shield also shrieked from within the shark's jaws, "Ah, it's freezing! Hurry up, I can't hold out much longer!" A thick layer of hard ice formed over the front of the shield, but the frost did not spread behind it to harm its master's arm. This was the result of its desperate resistance. He Lingchuan gripped the handle behind the shield once more. Funneling power into a single arm, he exhaled a sharp breath and hoisted the glazed shark clean into the air! This brute had to weigh seven or eight hundred jin. Fortunately, he often wrestled with Jiao Yu for fun, and a fierce tiger weighed roughly the same. He Lingchuan rammed the glazed shark's tail right into the dome. Being made of the identical glazed material, the two melted together just as before. Furthermore, the cold ice talisman in its mouth was neither deflected nor detonated by lightning. The talisman's power unleashed in full force, the freezing wave surging all the way down to the shark's tail, and then— It transferred into the dome. White frost blossomed over the transparent shell. He Lingchuan watched hexagonal ice flowers materialize, growing thicker and thicker. It was working! He tapped the dome and discovered that the frozen section no longer rebounded incoming force. Immediately, he retrieved several more cold ice talismans and slapped them directly onto the glazed shark's tail to amplify the effect. Lightning continued to flicker across the dome's surface as he tapped it, but none of it managed to shock him. He was carrying a lightning-ward tablet concealed on his person. It was crafted from the hide of a Thunder-Wielding Behemoth. That sovereign-tier beast could unleash titanic bolts of thunder without suffering any harm itself, all thanks to the formidable insulating power of its hide. Formidable as the formation core's Lightning Pool restriction was, it still fell short when compared to the innate instincts of a sovereign-tier Donao beast. Otherwise, He Lingchuan would have been blasted into a lump of charcoal long ago. Anyone watching this before the Splendid Picture of Mountains and Rivers would have found it utterly beyond belief. In just a few breaths, the broad expanse of the dome before He Lingchuan froze solid. The rapid freezing even caused hairline fractures to spread across the dome's surface. Though the fissures were exceedingly fine, in He Lingchuan's eyes, they were a beacon of immense hope! There was a chance. It was common knowledge that glazed glass was prone to cracking under abrupt drops in temperature. He Lingchuan decided to give it an extra push. From his storage ring, he pulled out a heavy pattern-welded iron hammer and slammed it against the frozen dome. *CLANG—* The formation's counterattack still failed to trigger; it had likely been frozen along with the dome. Now reassured, he unleashed a tempestuous downpour of strikes. *Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!* Seven consecutive blows rained down, each heavier and more ferocious than the last, until the entire formation core trembled from the impacts. This hammer was also a magic artifact Fang Canran had procured for him, capable of tripling its wielder's striking power for fifteen breaths—an exceptional aid for short-burst onslaughts. At this life-and-death juncture, both of his dantian surged into motion, his true force raging through his meridians with an intensity no less fierce than when he had refined the Emperor's Flowing Dew on the Three Hearts Plain. Had he not spent over a month gathering strength just to unleash it in this single burst? More than half a year ago, when striking the water at the Han River, he could already slice seven raindrops in succession with his blade. Striking seven times with a massive hammer in a single breath was child's play by comparison. All seven strikes landed squarely on the exact same fracture point. In this moment, he erupted with unprecedented, titanic might. On the seventh strike, the hammer head sank inward. He had actually punched through the dome! He Lingchuan was ecstatic. That sharp shatter of glazed glass sounded no different from celestial music to his ears. By now, the last two spider guardians had been battered into ruin, collapsing into two falling beads of blood with a soft *poof*. There was no longer any barrier between He Lingchuan and the host of enemies. Two arrows streaked through the air like shooting stars, one aimed at his left eye and the other at his heart. Clearly, his actions were deemed unforgivable. Without even turning around, He Lingchuan braced the shield in one hand to block the shots, while frantically swinging the hammer with the other, delivering three more gouging blows. Between life and death, one had to strike with everything, holding nothing back. Fortunately, with a hole already punched in the dome, tearing it open further was far easier. With three resounding *clangs*, shards of glazed ice showered down, widening the breach to more than a foot across. With a sharp crack and clang, the heavy iron hammer's handle snapped clean in two. By then, the swarm of enemies had arrived. A siege of dozens against one was already set in stone! In the face of imminent peril, He Lingchuan snatched an object out and hurled it forward. Every Heavenly Palace guard felt the world suddenly blaze white before their eyes, as if staring straight into the midday sun—a brilliance so intense that even shutting their eyes offered no relief. In that single instant, every creature of flesh and blood was seized by dizzying disorientation or turbulent emotion, their assault grinding to a halt. This was the Soul-Shocking Thunder he had swindled from Fang Canran. Its purpose was to shock the enemy's soul, freezing them stiff on the spot. These one or two stolen breaths were unimaginably precious to He Lingchuan. Raising the massive shield and marshaling all his true force, he smashed it directly into the rim of the breach. Once, twice. The breach widened from one foot to more than two feet across. A blur swept past as a lamp spirit darted forward, overtaking the others. It had assumed the form of some bizarre creature, its face splitting open like petals to shoot two long tongues out like a frog snaring prey. He Lingchuan had already tasted its strength back in Baishaqu, and had no desire to face it head-on right now. He patted his mount, and this final spider guardian spat a web at the lamp spirit, plugging its mouth. It then reared up and lunged forward, barely managing to stall the lamp spirit's initial strike. In just two clashes, the spider guardian dissolved into falling drops of blood. Its energy utterly exhausted, it had reached the natural end of its life. Yet it had fulfilled its duty flawlessly, because He Lingchuan seized the fleeting opening and slipped through the hole in the dome with a swift *whoosh*! A sea of enemies surged outside, but the opening in the dome was only so wide. Aside from the glazed monsters, how many could squeeze through? At that moment, Juju's stone golem also strode forward, dropping into a crouch right in front of the opening. It dared not touch the Lightning Pool and could not take the initiative to attack opponents, but serving as a stumbling block to obstruct most of the pursuers was no problem at all. Now, the Lightning Pool restriction over the dome actually became He Lingchuan's greatest ally. Two guards outside were instantly charred to a crisp, and the rest dared not force their way against the dome, reduced to shoving and hacking furiously at the stone golem. Seizing this window, He Lingchuan pulled out the xun and began to play, racing against every fleeting second! The hairy pedipalps of Zhu Erniang's shed husk were barely ten feet away, almost close enough to poke him in the face. At such close range, don't tell him playing the xun still wouldn't summon reinforcements! A shrill hissing sound reverberated throughout the entire formation core.