The howling winds of the glacial range finally began to calm.
The echoes of battle faded, leaving only the slow crackle of ice settling over the dead. The snowfields, once pristine white, were now littered with frozen
corpses and shards of shattered armor glinting faintly beneath the faint blue glow of the misty sky.
It was over.
The last Ephera Sect cultivator in the northern range fell to the ground, his body encased in frost, eyes wide open in disbelief. Lin Mu stood a few paces. away, his breath forming slow, even clouds in the air.
Around him, the Ice Drakes lowered their heads, their breaths releasing fog that quickly crystallized into drifting flakes. Elyon stepped out from a patch of shadow, his robes perfectly clean despite the slaughter that had just taken place.
"None left here," Elyon said quietly. His tone was calm, but there was a faint satisfaction in it. "They didn't even try to run."
Lin Mu's eyes swept the battlefield one last ti. "Good. Contact the others."
Daoist Chu's voice soon echoed through the communication talisman. "Eastern group reports success. All enemies exterminated."
Cattaleya's voice followed, her tone sharp but relaxed. "We handled ours. The leader tried to self-destruct, but Hushu sealed him before he could do it. Not a single one survived."
Lin Mu let out a slow breath.
Everything had gone precisely as planned. The coordination between groups had been flawless, their timing perfect. The Ice Drakes' frost breaths and the human cultivators' targeted attacks had annihilated the Ephera Sect's invading forces before they could react.
Even the three peak immortals, supposedly the strongest among the Ephera Sect's expedition had perished under the combined assault of multiple experts. The Elder Ice Drake's transcendent power alone was enough to crush one of them into frozen rubble, while Cattaleya's Duskthorn Sword had cleaved another in two during their duel.
Elyon himself had trapped the last one inside a dark abyss while Lin Mu tore his body apart from within with a hundred sword slashes.
It had all ended in less than thirty minutes.
Little Shrubby, Xiao Yin, and Xiao Yang had not even needed to intervene. Their task had been to chase down any fleeing survivors, but there had been none. The Ephera Sect's arrogance had dood them... they had co thinking they were hunting beasts, not realizing they had walked straight into the den of dragons.
Lin Mu activated the group link again. "Confirm. All sectors clear?"
"All clear here," Daoist Chu answered.
"Sa for us," said Cattaleya.
"Good," Lin Mu said.
He turned to Elyon, who nodded silently. For a brief mont, there was a sense of peace, of quiet accomplishnt. The plan had worked. The glacial range was safe, at least for now.
But then, everything changed.
GRAAAAAA!!
A piercing roar tore through the communication channel, loud enough to cause the arrays in the talismans to flicker with static. It was the Elder Ice Drake's voice, strained with agony.
"Elder!" Lin Mu called out sharply. "What is it? What happened?"
Before he received a reply, another roar followed... this ti not one, but many.
The other Ice Drakes that had accompanied the Elder were crying out in pain. Their anguished voices reverberated through the mountains, shaking loose avalanches in the distance.
Cattaleya's voice ca through next, tense and confused. "What's happening? Elder Ice Drake, respond!"
The Elder's voice was heavy, his words coming between ragged breaths. "Sothing... sothing is wrong. My body feels heavy... the others... they cannot move!"
Lin Mu's eyes widened. "What do you an? You were not struck by any attack. Are you poisoned?"
"I... do not know," the Elder growled, his tone filled with frustration. "It feels like fire burning in my veins. The young ones with are collapsing. I can barely... endure."
Lin Mu imdiately sent his Immortal sense toward the southern region, but the distance was too great to make out details through the dense frost. He clenched his jaw and opened a link to the others. "Cattaleya, Daoist Chu, report your Ice Drakes' condition."
Daoist Chu quickly replied. "Our drakes are fine. No signs of weakness or abnormal qi fluctuations."
"Sa here," Cattaleya confird. "The ones with us are healthy. Whatever's happening isn't affecting everyone."
That only deepened the concern.
Lin Mu's mind raced, connecting the fragnts of information. "Then it must be targeted. The Ephera Sect planted sothing specific in that area. Maybe among their corpses, or before the battle even started."
Elyon frowned, stepping closer. "A curse array or a delayed toxin?"
"Possibly both," Lin Mu muttered. "The Ephera Sect is known for their underhanded thods. If they left sothing behind before dying, it could be ant to trigger after contact."
Another roar of pain echoed through the link, followed by the Elder's weakened voice. "It... feels like poison. A venomous energy eating away at our vitality. I
can slow it, but the others are fading"
Lin Mu clenched his fist. "Hold on. I'm coming"
He began to prepare a teleportation talisman, but before he could activate it,
Elyon stiffened.
His eyes flashed with sudden alarm. "Wait."
Lin Mu froze. "What is it?"
"The alarm near the main nest," Elyon said grimly. "It just triggered."
For a heartbeat, no one spoke. Then chaos erupted in the communication
channel.
"What?" Lin Mu shouted.
Daoist Chu was already activating his formation disk, which projected a smaller
version of the glacial range map. His eyes widened as a new red dot flickered into existence near the deep blue mark representing the main Ice Drake nest. "Confird," Daoist Chu said, his voice tight. "There's movent in the main nest. A single energy signature, strong, but concealed. Soone made it inside."
The Elder Ice Drake's weakened voice suddenly bood with rage. "The
infants! The eggs!"
Lin Mu's heart sank.
He rembered their plan clearly. Only the infant Ice Drakes and the
unhatched eggs had been left behind in the main nest. It had been considered safe, too deep, too shielded for anyone to breach unnoticed. Yet sohow, the enemy had known exactly where to strike.
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