Chapter 2030: Seeking Help

Zu An felt a chill down his spine. He rarely used divination of this kind, yet the one time he finally did, this was the result: an unprecedentedly ominous sign.

He remained silent for a long time, then finally gave a wry smile and put the divination plate away. The Little Demon Empress was inside, and Yu Yanluo was also inside. If they weren't afraid, how could he cower outside just because of the danger? Besides, in all these years, he had always walked on the edge of life and death and had long grown accustomed to all kinds of danger.

As for divination and prophecy, if they were truly that accurate, then people wouldn't need to strive at all. Given his current cultivation level, he instinctively sensed that destiny was a combination of both heaven's arrangements and one's own efforts; only the synergy of both determined the ultimate path of fate.

He didn't know at this moment that with his current thoughts, the divination plate, now stored in the Glazed Pearl, had undergone a new change. The dense black mist began to thin slightly, and a faint white light vaguely appeared deep within it. The blood-red skull pattern also began to dissipate—it was the hexagram signifying "after extreme adversity comes prosperity."

At this moment, Zu An took out a formation disk. His hands swiftly danced over it, and soon, streams of clear light spread out in all directions. Although he had decided to venture in, he wasn't doing so blindly. Instead, he had preemptively set up dozens of defensive formations of various types as a precaution.

Stepping into the massive halo, even with Zu An's cultivation, he felt a bit disoriented. Around him, it was as if countless moments of time and space were misaligned. Light and shadows were extremely distorted, and his five senses became unusually strange. The higher one's cultivation, the more pronounced this abnormal sense of distortion became.

Sensing the entry of a living being, a fierce gale suddenly erupted around him. This was no ordinary wind; a terrifying aura could be felt from a great distance, as if it could strip away a person's flesh and blood in the blink of an eye, then grind their bones to dust.

At this moment, a jade piece in Zu An's bosom began to emit a soft glow. It was what Peacock Mingwang had just given him, specifically for dealing with the spatial turbulence here. Sure enough, as if sensing the jade pendant in his bosom, the spatial turbulence parted to both sides.

After some more time passed, a feeling of dizziness and weightlessness came over him. Zu An found himself on solid ground, and the distorted light he had seen before was gone. He steadied himself and looked around, unable to help but be taken aback.

Initially, he had expected the sealed land to be a place intertwined with blood and fire, filled with ruins and countless corpses. Yet, as far as the eye could see, there was no trace of blood or fire; instead, it was a clean expanse of white. Everywhere was ice, snow, and biting wind. As far as the eye could see, there was no sign of any living creature, not even a single plant—only snow, and more snow. Even with his current cultivation, he could vaguely feel the biting cold, which showed just how low the surrounding temperature was.

At this moment, the clear light around him began to flicker. Zu An's heart stirred; this was a formation for defending against poisonous mist. Although his body was immune to all poisons, there was no need for him to personally test the toxins, so he had prepared the formations in advance. Given the current situation, the air around contained certain toxins. While not instantly lethal, they would gradually corrode a person's limbs and bones over time.

Thinking that the Little Demon Empress and others had been in this world for some time already, Zu An grew increasingly worried. Those soldiers with lower cultivation levels were likely already afflicted by the toxins, and their combat strength probably wasn't even half of their peak.

Just then, a formation burst forth with an earthy yellow light, then shattered into tiny specks of starlight. Zu An's heart jolted. This defensive formation wasn't particularly strong in terms of defense, but it had a uniquely excellent function: to block the approach of any tangible object other than air. He had also just set up many ghost-repelling and evil-warding formations; if invisible spirits approached, he would similarly receive a warning.

With his current cultivation, he didn't actually need overly strong defenses; after all, no matter how strong a formation's defense was, it couldn't surpass his own. But having arrived at a dangerous place he had never visited before, coupled with the ominous hexagram from earlier, he had to be extremely vigilant. These warning formations were perfect for him, preventing him from being ambushed by unknown entities in this place and thus suffering an unexpected setback.

At this moment, Zu An's divine sense swept across his surroundings, and he felt a little puzzled. He clearly hadn't sensed any enemies approaching, so why were these formations giving warnings? He consecutively set up over a dozen more formations, but soon, they began to shatter one by one. Clearly, some unknown entity was attacking.

Zu An let out a cold snort. "Found you!" He stretched out his hand and pressed downwards, and the ground instantly cracked open. A terrifying suction force pulled a figure out. Zu An was immediately stunned, because the thing he had grabbed was actually a snowman. It was the kind of snowman people built when it snowed in his previous life—plump, with no neck, and very short limbs.

When the snowman was caught, its expression immediately turned ferocious. It bared its fangs and brandished its claws, trying to attack Zu An. Zu An let out a cold snort, and with a forceful squeeze of his hand, the snowman instantly exploded, turning into a flurry of wind and snow. No wonder he hadn't detected its presence just now, because it felt exactly like snow, and this world lacked everything but snow. Furthermore, since it was hidden underground, he naturally didn't sense it.

At this moment, the surrounding snow began to crack open, and one by one, snowmen crawled out, issuing silent roars at him. Zu An waved his hand casually, and an invisible sword qi swept through the surroundings, quickly shredding the snowmen to pieces. Just as he was about to leave, his heart stirred suddenly, and he turned back to look at the ground where the snowmen had been. The shattered ice and snow from earlier visibly began to re-form. Soon, snowmen stood up again, one by one, and lunged at Zu An once more.

Zu An was startled. He quickly defeated the snowmen, but they quickly reformed and recovered. Zu An was speechless. The snowmen's strength wasn't actually formidable, but the problem was that they seemed to possess immortal bodies; no matter how many times they were defeated, they would quickly recover. And this world had an endless supply of ice and snow. If this continued indefinitely, it was uncertain who would give out first.

"Elemental creatures, then..." Zu An gave up on physical attacks and instead cast White Lotus True Flame. A giant lotus bloomed at the center, followed by countless flames scattering in all directions. The snowmen were instantly melted and never recovered.

A large pit appeared on the ground where they had been. The ice and snow melted away, revealing the earth buried deep beneath. The terrifying temperature of the White Lotus True Flame even caused some flowing magma to form on the surface of the exposed ground.

Zu An's pupils suddenly contracted. He flew directly to the center of the magma and pulled out a corpse—no, to be precise, half a corpse. The body had been gnawed to pieces by the snowmen, its internal organs gone, but its head was still relatively well-preserved.

Zu An's heart sank, because he recognized this person. The person was a personal guard of Princess Sauron. Although Zu An couldn't recall his name, he had seen him several times by Princess Sauron's side and knew he was one of her most trusted guards. If even he had met such a fate, then Princess Sauron was likely in great danger.

He searched around and found only this one body, unsure if he was the only one, or if the others had already been consumed by the snowmen. Zu An reached out his hand, and a token appeared in his grasp. Looking at the Sauron crest on it, this should be Princess Sauron's personal waist token. Most likely, she had sent this guard to seek help, but unfortunately, he had died here, just a step away from the exit.

"Rest in peace. If I encounter Princess Sauron, I will help her," Zu An said. He casually conjured a flame, cremating the body to prevent it from being gnawed on by the monsters.

He looked around and found that north, south, east, and west all looked virtually identical. Direction had lost its meaning here. He had originally wanted to look for any tracks, as the Little Demon Empress had brought quite a few people. But unfortunately, the snowstorm here was too intense, and any traces had been completely erased. It was a pity Hong Lei wasn't here; otherwise, her red-glow yellow talismans would have been perfect for finding people.

He thought for a moment and then took out his divination tools to cast a hexagram. The result was the Jian hexagram, "Obstruction" (Kan over Gen). Kan represents water, and Gen represents mountain, signifying high mountains and deep waters, implying numerous difficulties. However, this hexagram also had another interpretation: "beneficial to the southwest."

"Since there's no clear direction, I'll head southwest then." With a thought, Zu An vanished into the distance.

After flying for about several hundred li, faint sounds of battle suddenly drifted through the wind and snow.