Chapter 244: Judgment

While Han Li's thoughts were racing, many of the cultivators around him began to glow with light. Some wore a warm sun jade pendant shaped like a fire dragon hanging inside their sleeves, some had a belt woven from red flame crystal threads around their waists, and others draped a white snow robe covered with spiritual patterns over their bodies.

"Roar..."

Accompanied by a beastly roar, a giant pure white snow rhinoceros emerged from the swirling snowstorm, its massive head suddenly shaking, exuding a fierce aura.

The burly man with the red flame belt swayed as he straddled the snow rhinoceros's back. With a slight squeeze of his legs, the rhinoceros lifted its four hooves and charged out of the island.

"Bang bang bang"

A series of sounds of shattering ice cones rang out. The massive white beast, carrying its master, rampaged across the sea surface, its four feet treading on air as if flying, and soon disappeared into the wind and snow.

The others also summoned various strange beasts, such as snow eagles and ice foxes, one after another, and rode away into the distance.

In the blink of an eye, seven or eight out of ten of those present had left.

Lin Nine glanced around on the spot, then summoned his golden-patterned spirit boat again. The three of them boarded together and sped off toward the icy continent further north.

...

More than ten days later.

Above a frozen sea, the wind and snow had just ceased, but a thick layer of leaden clouds still pressed down in the sky, and bone-cutting gales raged over the sea.

The golden-patterned spirit boat carrying Lin Nine and the others arrived from the distant horizon, flying swiftly to this place.

Inside a cabin on the first floor, Han Li, dressed in a green robe, was sitting cross-legged on a bed in the inner room. Suddenly feeling the spirit boat shake violently, he opened his eyes wide and dashed out of the room.

He saw that on the port side of the spirit boat, an enormous black tentacle was coiled around the railing, stretched taut, as if struggling to pull the boat down into the sea below.

Han Li went to the side of the already slightly tilted hull and looked down along the black tentacle. He saw that a huge hole had been broken in the ice on the sea surface, and half the body of a giant, scale-covered octopus was emerging from it.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak..."

Accompanied by a sound of friction, the octopus's tentacle coiled around the railing tightened continuously, causing the entire spirit boat to shake violently and slowly descend toward the sea.

"Wretched beast, die!" A loud shout rang out.

From the third-floor pavilion of the treasure ship, a figure shot out, turned into a streak of golden light, flashed down, and instantly returned.

In the blink of an eye, the tentacle coiled around the railing broke into pieces.

At the same time, the body of the black octopus on the sea surface also exploded with a "bang," splattering countless jets of black blood, dyeing the large expanse of ice on the sea ink-black.

Watching this scene, Han Li's heart stirred slightly. This octopus demon beast was only at the Great Vehicle stage, with limited intelligence; killing it was not a difficult task.

However, the scales on this beast were not ordinary. Being able to ignore its scale defense and kill it instantly was no simple feat.

From this, it could be seen that Lin Nine had likely comprehended some law of speed or metal law, and his strength should not be underestimated.

...

In the blink of an eye, another three months passed.

In the southern part of the Minghan Continent lay a colossal snow mountain range, with numerous branches spreading out on both sides. Viewed from high above, it resembled a giant frost centipede lying on the snow.

Each branch range was dotted with towering peaks tens of thousands of zhang high, most of which were covered in ice and snow. Only where ice sheets had slipped off could patches of bare black rock be seen.

Above the peaks, the azure sky was as clear as if washed, with a white sun hanging high, emitting soft and warm light. Yet the entire world had not a trace of warmth, still feeling extremely cold.

At the eastern section of a southern branch range stood two solitary peaks over a thousand zhang high, like two silver swords pointing straight at the sky. Between them lay a very deep valley.

Outside the valley stretched a vast snow plain spanning ten thousand li.

In the snow plain grew countless towering snow pines over a hundred zhang high, most buried beneath the snow, with only the tops exposed, also covered in snow, forming towering white snow towers.

"Roar..."

Just then, from the snow plain outside the valley came a series of muffled beast roars.

In the snow pine forest to the northeast, two furry pinkish-white large ears suddenly emerged from the snow-covered ground. They stood up high, turned left and right a few times, and then moved toward the valley entrance.

Along the path it took, a rumbling sound of collisions came continuously, followed by giant trees falling one after another, crashing into the snow and stirring up large amounts of crystalline snow powder, leaving a deep, huge trench on the ground.

The closer it got to the valley entrance, the higher the terrain seemed to become. The true form of the pinkish-white ears gradually emerged from beneath the snow.

Its body was pinkish-white, its eyes slightly red, and its ears stood tall—it turned out to be a giant snow rabbit over ten zhang high.

The snow rabbit arrived at the valley entrance, kicked off with its hind legs, lunged forward with its front legs, and leaped fiercely into the valley.

With a loud "boom,"

the snow rabbit seemed to hit an invisible barrier, bounced back violently, and fell on its back with all four legs in the air.

After flipping over, it became ferocious, its eyes glowing redder. It let out a low roar, kicked off the ground with its hind legs, gathered tenfold strength, and lunged at the valley entrance with several times its previous force.

Suddenly, a faint golden light curtain appeared in the void at the valley entrance, densely covered with runes and shining brightly. A bolt of golden lightning as thick as a thumb flashed and struck the snow rabbit.

With a "bang!"

the snow rabbit, struck by the lightning, turned into charcoal and exploded.

A smell of burning immediately filled the air.

At that moment, three figures slowly emerged from the deep trench in the snow pine forest and walked toward the valley entrance.

The leader wore a green deer-head mask, while the two behind him wore ox-head and rat-head masks respectively—they were none other than Han Li and his companions.

"What do you two think, fellow Daoists?" Lin Nine stopped before the valley entrance and turned to ask the other two.

"Hehe, if I'm not mistaken, the formation set up here should be the ancient Golden Peak Thunder Guard Array. The power revealed when the snow rabbit triggered it was less than one ten-thousandth of the full array," Lin Seventeen said with a sly smile, his small eyes rolling.

"Indeed, I also think it's this array. Based on our earlier observation from high altitude, the foundation of this array should be on those two peaks beside us, which should contain at least two metal-attributed spirit treasures. Moreover, the array's coverage should include both peaks and the entire valley," Lin Nine nodded and said.

Han Li, however, remained silent, as if pondering something.

"What's the matter, Jiao Fifteen? Have you found something wrong?" Lin Nine asked, his eyes flickering.

"Although I have never seen the Golden Peak Thunder Guard Array you mentioned, I know a little about it. It is said that this array is renowned for its tough defense and powerful attacks. Once triggered, it releases a sky full of golden thunder, with a might comparable to a small thunder tribulation. But when the snow rabbit triggered it just now, the thunder's power, though not small, was very restrained, showing little of its true might," Han Li said slowly.

"That's just because the snow rabbit was too weak to provoke the array's full counterattack. What's so surprising about that?" Lin Seventeen chuckled dryly, somewhat disdainfully.

"Then what kind of formation do you think this is?" Lin Nine raised an eyebrow and asked Han Li.

"I have never encountered such a formation before, nor have I seen it in any books. I don't know its name, but I feel it is not as simple as it appears on the surface," Han Li said after thinking for a moment, shaking his head.

"Since you haven't even seen the Golden Peak Thunder Guard Array, don't make such alarming statements here. After all that talk, you've said nothing but useless nonsense," Lin Seventeen curled his lip and said.

Han Li, upon hearing this, did not get angry. Instead, he focused his attention on the formation, completely ignoring him.

"Since Fellow Daoist Lin Seventeen is certain this is the Golden Peak Thunder Guard Array, do you have any way for us to sneak in without alerting those inside?" Lin Nine asked after a moment of silence.

Lin Seventeen gently stroked his mask-covered cheek with one hand while lightly rubbing his fingers on the other side, and said:

"This Golden Peak Thunder Guard Array uses the two peaks as its pivot and eighty-one Thunder-拘 Wood as its foundation. Normally, to break the array, one only needs to find a flaw in either of these two to dismantle it. But since we need to sneak in without disturbing those inside, we must find a way to assimilate ourselves with the array, thus avoiding triggering the thunder formation."

"To assimilate with the array, we must change our own aura, converting it to the same metal attribute as the pivot or the same thunder attribute as the foundation, thereby merging into the array and entering it," Lin Nine's eyes lit up as he added.

"Hehe, this process must be extremely fast, completed in an instant; otherwise, there is still a risk of triggering the array," Lin Seventeen glanced at Han Li and said with a grin.

"Fellow Daoist Jiao Fifteen, if you have no other findings, shall we proceed as Fellow Daoist Lin Seventeen suggests?" Lin Nine looked at Han Li and said.

"The method Lin Seventeen mentioned is not flawed, but the peculiarity of this array lies in the fact that its thunder release is very different from ordinary thunder formations. Its thunder power is condensed and not dispersed, and when suddenly released, its power is immense. If we rashly enter, I'm afraid our fate will be no better than that snow rabbit's," Han Li frowned and said.

Upon hearing this, Lin Nine's eyes also showed a trace of hesitation.

In fact, his judgment of the thunder array before him was similar to Lin Seventeen's, so he had more doubts than trust in Han Li's words. If not for Han Li's various rumors in the alliance before, he probably wouldn't have even had that trace of hesitation.