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Chapter 647: Chapter 653: Harvest
"Courting death!"
The leading Great Devil glanced up at him lightly, and with just one look, the entire person was frozen in place, unable to move. Moments later, a spell pierced through his heart.
Thump—
The Sect Leader’s body fell from the sky, crashing onto the ground with a face grim and twisted. But the wide-open eyes retained a hint of clarity.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
The cultivators in the Immortal City were instantly silenced. They couldn’t believe that a Nascent Soul cultivator had just died so recklessly, so carelessly.
And the actions of the Profound Ice Sect’s Sect Leader had enraged the other Fourth-Order Great Devils as well, who boldly struck and shattered the already teetering defensive formation.
Roar!
All manner of strange roars arose, accompanied by the crushing might of a sky-holding giant palm, the vicious and bone-chilling cold winds, and the mercilessly life-reaping snow and ice.
In an instant, hundreds of low-level cultivators were dead.
There were simply too many cultivators, and even with several dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators, it was impossible to protect everyone.
Especially the Loose Cultivators, who had no protection from the Nascent Soul cultivators, could only wail and wait for death amidst the Great Devils’ terrifying spells.
The disciples who had originally thought the Sect Leader’s death was tragic and heroic were now cursing him in their hearts—his suicidal action not only killed himself but also dragged them down with him!
"Just let off some steam, then leave," the leading Great Devil commanded coldly.
They had only intended to catch the cultivators off guard. If they didn’t leave now, once the cultivators regained their composure, it would not be so easy to escape.
"Hmph!"
Once it spoke, the other Great Devils dared not disobey, but before leaving, they still delivered one more blow to the cultivators and casually set the Immortal City on fire.
This was no ordinary fire, but the Devil’s Pill Fire, some even worse, for they possessed the Spirit Devouring Cold Flame, a fortuitous Spiritual Fire they had acquired.
Its most notable feature wasn’t the fusion of ice and fire, rather, it was incredibly difficult to extinguish! As long as there was a trace of Spiritual Energy, the Cold Flame would persist.
The cultivators of the Profound Ice Sect struggled to extinguish the great fire, but the once flourishing Profound Ice Immortal City was now reduced to a heart-wrenchingly ruined walls and broken bricks. Looking around, one couldn’t see a single structure intact.
What should have been a joyous Thunder Tribulation had cost the Profound Ice Sect a dreadful price!
The Immortal Cities and Marketplaces in the west and south had been completely destroyed, with hardly any of the stationed disciples surviving; the Immortal City at the mountain gate had its formations broken, and buildings burned to the ground.
Fortunately, Profound Ice Mountain had an independent Mountain Protection Array in place, otherwise the mountain gate would have been in jeopardy.
"The most urgent task now is to set up the defensive formation for the Immortal City, to prevent the Devil Race from launching a surprise attack, and then arrange for the disciples to clean up the debris in the Immortal City," the Great Elder said gravely.
Now that they were without a Sect Leader, these miscellaneous affairs naturally fell onto his shoulders.
However, the other Elders were not convinced, as they were all equals—why should he be the one calling the shots? This led to another dispute, which nearly resulted in the division of the Profound Ice Sect. n𝚘𝚟𝚙u𝚋.co𝚖
—
"What a vicious Devil Race! It’s such a pity for the Spiritual Objects in the other areas," lamented Li Zhirui, who had taken cover in a space.
That’s right! Li Zhirui had already entered the Immortal City.
He had originally planned to leave, but was attracted by the Sect Leader’s foolishness and stayed a moment longer, just in time to witness the formation shattering.
Because the area Li Zhirui was hiding in was on the northern side of the Immortal City, where cultivators were scarce, and attention was focused elsewhere, he managed to enter smoothly.
While the humans and demons were in a standoff, he quietly went to the Profound Ice Tower to see if he could find some good items.
Li Zhirui’s luck was decent, and he acquired some treasures, although none were particularly outstanding, their total value was not low.
Among them worth mentioning was a fourth-grade gem, a fourth-grade magical treasure called the Mountain Heavy Seal, and a lot of jade slips inscribed with various methods.
As for Spirit Pills and Talismans, not even a shadow could be seen, as they had all been forcefully conscripted by the Profound Ice Sect.
It was evident that the Profound Ice Sect had prepared for a great battle, but they hadn’t expected the Devil Race to act so ruthlessly, deploying eighty percent of Great Devils and several hundred thousand Devil Beasts of various levels at a very fast speed to the Immortal City.
Among these spiritual objects, what Li Zhirui valued most were these yet-to-be-known jade slips.
He was not in lack of spiritual objects or magical treasures now; what he needed were the methods inscribed on these jade slips.
Unfortunately, after the Devil Race retreated, the cultivators of the Profound Ice Sect began to thoroughly clean up the city, and Li Zhirui could not stay there. Regrettably, he had only been to the Profound Ice Tower, and he had no time to visit the other marketplaces.
For the following month, he stayed in the spatial realm, sorting through those jade slips with Xiaoqing and Cang, looking for methods that were either useful for him or could be used by the family.
"Jiu, here’s a fourth-grade pill recipe," Cang said.
Li Zhirui took the jade slip, and with a sweep of his divine sense, he knew it was a pill recipe to enhance mana. However, it was somewhat redundant for the Li family, as they lacked the spirit seeds and had to buy them from outside.
"Jiu, when are we going back?" Xiaoqing couldn’t hold back any longer.
Although the size of the spatial realm had expanded to dozens of miles with Li Zhirui’s breakthroughs, it was still too confined for Xiaoqing, who could reach any spot with just a few breaths.
"We have to wait until the Profound Ice Immortal City reopens and welcomes cultivators, then I can appear openly and legitimately," he said calmly about this.
It was just a little over a month, was it that long?
"Sigh!"
Xiaoqing let out a dejected howl and resignedly continued to sort through the contents of the jade slips.
Speaking of which, the Profound Ice Tower truly lived up to its name as the marketplace established by the Profound Ice Sect, it harbored quite a few treasures.
The jade slips that Li Zhirui acquired over a month ago still were not completely accounted for!
Of course, this was largely due to them spending most of their time cultivating and only occasionally sorting through the slips for relaxation.
So far, Li Zhirui had obtained two fourth-grade pill recipes, one blueprint of a fourth-grade magical treasure’s restrictions, a piece of fourth-grade formation array patterns, and a script of a fourth-grade Talisman.
Apart from the pill recipes which were somewhat redundant due to the lack of spirit seeds, the other three jade slips were all valuable additions to address the deficiencies of the Li family.
All these treasures that once fortified the Profound Ice Tower, now belonged to Li Zhirui.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, another half a month had passed.
After the emergency repairs by the Profound Ice Sect, many shops had been rebuilt, prepared to welcome cultivators.
There was no choice; for each day the Immortal City delayed its opening, a day’s worth of spirit stones was lost. The Profound Ice Sect, already short on spirit stones, couldn’t afford any further delays.
And Li Zhirui chose the right moment to emerge from the spatial realm into the Immortal City. Although he was quite cautious, some cultivators still saw him.
"How did this person suddenly appear?"
To avoid trouble, he immediately blended into the crowd and vanished in an instant.
Li Zhirui did not linger in the Immortal City; he immediately left the city gates, flying southward, then changed direction mid-way to head straight for the eastern Boundless Sea.
