Author's Note: Hey all! I'm back! Finals kind of killed my physical and mental health so I was pretty burnt out and I even got an infection right after. Fortunately, everything is getting better now. 

Two figures were seen floating in the skies above True Ice City. Below them, hundreds of thousands of cultivators were on both sides of the outer city walls.

“It turns out you are the one leading the attacks, Lian Song,” Martial Emperor True Ice’s voice echoed through the sky.

“True Ice, I’ve been looking forward to this day since I lost to you a hundred years ago. Once I’ve defeated you, I’ll be famous!” His opponent was a red clothed individual. 

“You’ve never beaten and you never will,” Martial Emperor True Ice pulled out his sword, readying himself for battle. 

“Just you watch!” Lian Song flared up. Looking downwards, he shouted towards the cultivators below him, “ATTACK!”

His command triggered waves of attack to launch towards the city. Yet as they approached the city, the attacks stopped and vaporized as they hit the defensive barrier that had formed around the city. 

“My domain, activate!” Martial Emperor True Ice yelled out. Qi began to seep out from his body as the area around him began to distort. At the same time, a potent surge of the dao of ice began to circulate in the distorting area before the scenery around him began to change. He was floating in the sky with grey clouds behind him but suddenly, it seemed as if another transparent layer, filled with cold icy mountains and snow, had formed and covered the world. 

“Hmph, getting serious already?” Lian Song snickered as a similar thing happened to him. Compared to Martial Emperor True Ice though, his domain was redder in color and before long, erupting volcanoes and lava had appeared in his domain. 

“Beasts of the Frozen Depths!” Martial Emperor True Ice waved his sword, conjuring various beasts besides him. In a matter of seconds, ice lions, phoenixes, dragons, and more lunged forward at Lian Song. 

“Pesky beasts!” Lian Song roared. “Burning Aura of Ashes!” The qi around him exploded and pulsed outwards, creating a fiery aura that slowly got weaker as it spread further away from him. 

*Sizz!* Nonetheless, as the beasts of ice slowly came into contact with, they were slowly incinerated by the domineering aura.

“Great Thundering Slash!” the beasts had just disappeared but Martial Emperor True Ice didn’t seem fazed by it. Instead, he simply raised his hands upwards before creating a large energizing sword of lightning that pierced into the heavens. 

“Tch, you’ve broken through!” A look of displeasure appeared on Lian Song’s face. 

In return, Martial Emperor True Ice didn’t say anything but waved his hand down. 

*BAM!* The large sword of lightning followed his hand, directly slamming into Lian Song. 

Yet as the explosion settled, a strong hue of dark red qi, in the figure of a large human, was seen. “My Fire Demon Armor isn’t taken so lightly though!” Lian Song chuckled from inside the armor of fire qi. Compared to his body though, the armor of fire qi was many times larger, as if forming a larger clone of Lian Song himself. 

“You’ve gotten stronger,” the silent Martial Emperor True Ice finally talked. “But, not enough!” He silently sent a message with a communication storm.

“Hmph! Fire Palms of Destruction!” Lian Song flew towards Martial Emperor True Ice and, controlling the armor of fire like a puppet, he quickly swung his fists. 

“Ghastly Moon Steps!” Martial Emperor True Ice vanished like a ghost. 

“Freezing Ice Tomb of Death!” Dodging the attack, a thick layer of ice instantly materialized around Lian Song, trapping him within. 

*Bam! Bam!* Heavy pounding resounded out as Lian Song attempted to break the ice. Yet Martial Emperor True Ice didn’t bulge and continued to stall for time as he attempted to continuously reform the ice tomb. 

*Crack!* A minute had only passed before a red fist had created a large hole in the wall. 

“Is that all you can do!?” Lian Song appeared after breaking the other parts of the ice tomb. 

“Now!” The tomb had only stalled Lian Song for a minute but it was sufficient. As he yelled out, golden flood dragons emerged from True Ice City. Passing through the defensive barrier, they soared forward into the skies. 

“An attack formation?” A bewildered look appeared on Lian Song’s face as he saw the 9 dragons run at him. 

*Whoosh!* Lian Song quickly dodged the first few that came at him.

“Fire Palms of Destruction!” His giant armor of fire punched forward at an incoming flood dragon. Yet all it did was merely stop it in its tracks. 

*Bam!* A few others dragons approached by the side, ramming into Lian Song. 

“Hmph, give up!” Martial Emperor True Ice snickered as he watched Lian Song dance with the dragons. Every now and then, he would get rammed by dragon, sending him flying away.

“Are you so sure, True Ice?” An uncharacteristic smile suddenly appeared on Lian Song who was struggling with the flood dragons. 

*Sizz* A noise appeared from below. 

“What?” Martial Emperor True Ice looked down, suddenly noticing something amiss. As he did, he saw the defensive formation below him dissipate. 

“The defensive formation! You!” He shouted. 

“Haha, you think I wouldn’t expect an attack formation? Of course, your most trusted subordinates would be too busy controlling the attack formation but what about the defensive formation eh?” Lian Song laughed. 

“A traitor!? But when?” Martial Emperor True Ice’s hands curled into a fist. He had picked his subordinates with careful consideration and background checks. Even then, time was needed for them to gain his trust as well. 

“Hmph, take a guess!” Lian Song only laughed. As he did, the flood dragons that had been harassing disappeared. The barrier had just disappeared but instantly, clouds of smokes and explosions were seen from the city. 

“Tch,” Martial Emperor True Ice started descending from the sky. 

“Not so fast!” Lian Song appeared in front of him. 

“You're not the only one who broke through. Burning Meteorite!” Lian Song raised his hands as a meteorite appeared. 

Qian Yu had been watching the two Martial Emperors fight in the sky. As the leader, he only needed to supervise the 100 men and didn’t participate in the formation himself. 

“That lightning sword…” Qian Yu was speechless as he saw the large blade in the sky. Unfortunately, it was a short moment and with this distance, he couldn’t really observe the laws of lightning from the attack. 

Suddenly though, the transparent barrier disappeared and in a matter of seconds, the attack formation stopped working as Qian Yu felt massive fluctuations of qi coming from all around him.

“Boss, what happened?” the soldiers noticed a change and shouted. 

‘Xinyi, are we under attack?’ Qian Yu turned to Tian Xinyi. 

‘I’m afraid so, there are so many strong auras in the city that I’m afraid I don’t really know what is going on,’ Tian Xinyi answered. 

Jumping onto a building, Qian Yu quickly scouted the city before turning to the soldiers, “Damn it. We’ve been breached. The enemy has already started to enter the city and fighting has begun…” 

‘Fortunately, we are towards the inner part of the city so the fighting hasn’t spread here yet… It’s so chaotic now though,’ Qian Yu thought 

“Follow me,” Qian Yu suddenly shouted. 

‘First thing is regrouping with the girls,’ Qian Yu furiously bit his lips as he led the group. He had looked at the locations that Zhen Yue and Zhao Xieren had been assigned to and compared to his own, they were much closer to the outer borders of the city.

“Qian Yu, Sister Sun had already gone to Zhao Xieren and Zhen Yue,” Bai Jia had appeared out of nowhere. Wearing a large dark cloak, she hid her body and facial appearance.

“Alright, that’s good!” Qian Yu nodded. 

“Hahaha, we’ve finally found some enemies!” A shout resounded as Qian Yu and Bai Jia had just turned a corner. 

A small army of soldiers appeared in front of Qian Yu. Leading them were a band of cultivators.

Water serpents instantly coiled around Bai Jia, “They are weak, leave it to me.”

“Are you sure? What about your identity? You could get exposed and get in trouble,” Qian Yu stopped her with his hands.

“Before it was different. Now though, it’s too chaotic. No one will be bothered to pay attention or notice. Besides, I can’t sit back when I know the others are possibly in danger,” Bai Jia pushed his hands aside. 

“Very well, then,” Qian Yu summoned forth his spear. Pointing it forward, he shouted, “Charge!”