490: Jue Long Ice Ridge Pass

He quietly let out half a breath, swallowed hard, and continued:

"The Old Marquis had not yet recovered from his old injuries and was subjected to such a humiliating disgrace; on the spot, he severed the Bloodline connection with that rebellious son, Meng Tianxiong!"

"The Lord of the State was filled with unappeasable wrath, stripping the Meng clan of their Iron Certificate, seizing the 'Zhenyuan' marquisate, and confiscating seventy percent of their fiefs and financial assets!"

"Leaving only... a small city in the East Mountains, bestowing the title of 'Viscount Ningyuan'!"

Meng Changtian, Marquis Zhenyuan... Viscount Ningyuan? A cold light flickered deep within Yao Delong's eyes.

What a move, Xiao Tiance! The blade fell steady, accurate, and ruthless! Deterring the Northern Border while further weakening the titled nobility!

His gaze, like an invisible hand, lifted Meng Lang's chin. "This Meng Tianxiong... what was his conduct like before?"

Meng Lang's eyes were vacant and filled with fear. "This slave... the clansmen cannot understand it!"

"The Family Head... Before Meng Tianxiong fell to the devils, he guarded the Ice Ridge Pass for forty years, fighting in over three hundred bloody battles!"

"He personally slew nineteen devil army commandants! The corpses he piled up were like snowy hills! He was truly the blood-drinking tiger of the Northern Border, a man of ten thousand!"

"I... I even personally saw the clan's Hall of Merits erect a golden statue of him to receive incense and worship! To say something rebellious,"

His voice dropped, carrying an incomprehensible tremor:

"Compared to losing his only son, Meng Bi... it was far more likely he would burn his last drop of blood for the Northern Border's Ice Sea! How could he... instead lead the devils to knock at the pass?!"

Clouds of suspicion suddenly rose in Yao Delong's heart! A veteran with such a brilliant record betraying his blood oath?

One who should have been wreathed in the fires of war instead became a rebel banner leading the devils? This transition lacked all logic!

Unless... there was some kind of despair or temptation far exceeding his sense of duty that smashed through the iron wall of his battle Soul, which he had held for decades!

His fingertips moved slightly, and a strand of pure, majestic Golden Core vitality, carrying three fourth-grade Medicinal Pills for strengthening bones, was silently struck into Meng Lang's Qi Sea vortex.

"Go investigate! Find out what matters and what people Meng Tianxiong came into contact with in the six months before he went to the border pass!"

"There must be something fishy in the shadows." Meng Lang's face instantly turned from deathly pale to one of agitated ecstasy!

"Thank you, Master, for this rebirth..."

Before his words were finished, a profound wind erupted on the spot!

Yao Delong's figure had already disappeared from the peak of Tuyao Peak!

Meng Lang fell to his knees with a thud on the shattered steps, then scrambled to his feet, his back completely drenched and cold.

Golden Core?! Before the Master... I am not even worthy of being a dog facing the Dragon's Might!

While the cold wind in front of Meng Lang's Immortal Cave still carried half a sentence of unswallowed, tearful gratitude,

Yao Delong's figure had already pierced through the sea of clouds at Tuyao Peak like a golden meteoric arrow tearing through a curtain!

The Sect Head's words "at once" were by no means an empty command!

The Ancient Cross-Domain Teleportation Platform.

The astral wind at the mountain peak was like a knife, swirling fine ice crystals that crashed against the eight sky-propping black rock pillars used for displacement, emitting a faint and ancient hum.

The gray robes of the rotating Elder guarding the formation hub fluttered; his Late Nascent Soul Stage aura could be considered a steady mountain even in this cold wind,

Yet his entire body suddenly tensed when he caught sight of that black-gold figure tearing through the clouds and descending boldly!

That was not merely speed and power, but a kind of... violent will that could pry at the rules of this firmament!

"True Disciple Yao!" The Elder bowed as if paying respects to a giant mountain, his voice sharp enough to pierce the howling wind. No further words were needed.

Yao Delong simply nodded, his voice like a tolling bell: "Juelong Ice Ridge Pass!"

A golden jade slip embedded with precise coordinates shot out from the Elder's sleeve, accurately striking the runic core of the main pillar!

Buzz!—

In an instant, the eight pillars shone together! Ancient and complex star-map runes flowed and climbed like living dragons!

Space emitted an overburdened groan, and the ground shook violently!

The 'Yin Yang Devil-Slaying Iron Guard Token' hanging at Yao Delong's waist erupted with a piercing blood-red light!

It forcibly carved out a slightly distorted, silver-gray passage through the violent spatial turbulence, wide enough for several people!

"The passage is stable! The direction is absolutely precise! True Disciple, please proceed quickly!" The Elder spoke as fast as a rapid drumbeat.

Yao Delong's figure did not pause as he stepped into that chaotic silver flow that devoured light and sound!

Chaotic grinding!

A sense of weightlessness, accompanied by a terrifying spatial crushing force capable of tearing the Divine Soul of an ordinary Early Golden Core Stage Cultivator into a hundred million fragments, descended with a roar!

The chaotic radiance within Yao Delong's body merely shifted slightly, and the muscles, bones, and skin throughout his body emitted a faint but steady hum,

Quietly shrugging off that body-destroying and Soul-extinguishing power as if it were nothing. This bit of "itch"? It wasn't even enough to scratch his back!

Ten heartbeats.

The tearing and strangling forces around him suddenly vanished!

Step!

A coldness far heavier, more desolate, and more murderous than the teleportation pressure pierced straight through his Soul!

Looking up—

The sky! It was a frozen, lead-gray vault! Thick leaden clouds formed from ice crystals churned, hanging low as if to crush all things!

The ground! It was a boundless, pure white ice plain! Stretching to the limit of vision were nothing but bone-chilling ice crystals and accumulated snow!

The gale winds on this vast plain whipped up millions of snow dragons that hissed and roared!

The cold was not merely drifting; it had condensed into hundreds of millions of invisible steel needles, ruthlessly piercing every inch of exposed skin!

The air was so thin and bitterly cold that even exhaled breath instantly froze into white icy dregs!

And at the end of his vision, a vast city wall built from obsidian rock, blacker and heavier than ten-thousand-year profound iron!

It crouched on the boundary line between the ice plain and the more distant sky, which was churning with black-purple Devilish Qi,

Like a dormant, battle-scarred, yet still world-disdaining... Azure Dragon!

The city! Juelong Ice Ridge Pass!

A piercing scar on the Azure Dragon's spine—located dozens of miles southeast of where Yao Delong landed.

A section of the originally solid and majestic obsidian wall, a hundred zhang high, had abruptly collapsed, creating a massive gap that tore through the earth for several miles!

Although a large amount of refined stone unique to the Moyang Sect and emergency-constructed ice formations had forcibly closed most of the gap like bandages,

The hideous claw marks that tore deep into the foundation of the wall, the terrifying debris piled up like mountains after the collapse,

And the tragic bloodiness and dense devilish aura that lingered in the nearby air, refusing to dissipate and making one's heart hair-raising... all indicated what a tragic and frenzied surprise attack had occurred here!

Without an internal collaboration, it would have been impossible for tens of thousands or even more treacherous devilish creatures to swarm in!

Just looking at this wound, one could tell that the battle was deadlocked and repairs were difficult!

Yao Delong only took one glance, and his heart was also solemn: "The severity of the disaster is even worse than what I heard!"

Swish, swish, swish!

Several figures carrying ice mist rushed over, clad in half-face cold iron armor.

Their pauldrons were worn white, and their entire bodies were wreathed in a dense aura of iron-blooded slaughter and the exhaustion of being soaked in frost.

The leader, a captain with eyes as sharp as a falcon, warily sized up this powerful figure who had suddenly appeared in the teleportation formation—

Although Yao Delong's black cloud-patterned Daoist robe, transformed from the Qilin Treasure Armor, was low-key and restrained,

That invisible, blazing aura of the Divine Sun caused even the bone-chilling cold wind around him to distort and retreat! This was no ordinary Immortal Master!

"This Immortal Elder!" The captain's voice was dry but forceful. "May I ask which Sect the Immortal Master comes from?"

Yao Delong's gaze swept over the sword and saber gouges on their armor, and the icy blood-mud that had frozen, melted, and frozen again from their hot blood.

Early Golden Core Stage cultivation... in this core of the Northern Border where the devil calamity had erupted, they were the smallest yet most respectable 'reefs'!

He maintained a peaceful attitude, cupping his hands in return: "This humble one is from the Yin Yang Sect, following the Sect's decree to specifically come and purge the roaming bandits and devilish spawn within the pass."

"An Immortal Elder from the Yin Yang Sect!" The eyes of the several border soldiers instantly lit up, like catching a glimpse of a spark on a snowy night!

It was hope and respect from the bottom of their hearts! The two pillars of the Ba Xia Dynasty, the Immortal Sects, had personally arrived!

The leading captain cupped his fists even more forcefully, his armor clashing with a crisp metallic sound:

"Reporting to the Immortal Elder! Your Sect's temporary station is about fifty miles southwest of here, located within 'Chenyun Valley'! Immortal Elder, just head in this direction..."