As soon as the curtain of night descended, a group of unexpected visitors flew from the sky into the dark Imperial City. The group consisted of Han Li and eight other Yellow Maple Valley cultivators.

With their magic tools, they arrived above the pitch-black walls of the forbidden city. The leader, Liu Jing, glanced at this so-called forbidden area. After a slight moment of hesitation, he extended his arm forward with great heroism.

“Go.”

Without hesitation or doubt, Liu Jing resolutely said this, before he took the lead and charged in.

When the others saw this, they naturally followed closely behind him. The fear toward the Seven Sect prohibition had long ago been tossed to the back of their minds.

Han Li wasn’t at the front of the charge. Instead, he chose to fly at the back of the group and deliberately fell a bit behind.

This actually wasn’t because of any particular thoughts; rather, this was because he was silently feeling out the “Five Elements Reversal Great Formation” he had installed last night.

When they arrived several kilometers away from the Imperial Palace, the corner of Han Li’s mouth formed a mysterious smile.

Excellent! The great formation was still intact and the Spiritual Qi mark he secretly placed wasn’t damaged in the slightest. This caused Han Li to feel exceptionally happy.

After a moment, the nine of them were hovering above the Imperial Palace as they looked down at the entirety of it.

“Everyone listen up! For this operation, we will act according to our previously discussed arrangements. Our forces will be divided into two groups. The first group will hurry to the current Emperor of Yue’s sleeping quarters and rescue him from the hands of the Black Fiend School, and prevent them from taking the State of Yue’s Emperor as a hostage out of desperation. The second group will head to the cold palace where the Black Fiend School Master is located and first focus on killing the four Great Blood Servants. Then the two teams will regroup before finally subduing the secluded Black Fiend School Master.” With a solemn expression, Liu Jing repeated his plans for the night, causing the listeners to repeatedly nod their heads.

The members of each team have already been decided. The two female cultivators, Chen Qiaoqing and Zhong Weiniang, formed the first group and will be rescuing the Emperor of the State of Yue. Liu Jing and the rest formed the second group and would throw themselves at the four Great Blood Servants that were guarding the cold palace. Han Li was included among them.

“Seventh Junior Martial Sister, Junior Martial Sister Chen, be very careful!” Liu Jing urged them with great concern before they split up.

After the two women gave a solemn response, they flew down to the side. They silently disappearing into the darkness soon after.

“From now on, if anyone sees a cultivator, do not hold back. Any cultivators casually moving about in the Imperial Palace are certain to be enemies from the Black Fiend School. We will begin now! Let us create an opportunity for our two Junior Martial Sisters.”

Han Li and the others followed after them.

After a short moment, the seven of them descended from the sky in an arrogantly domineering manner and were immediately discovered by the Black Fiend School Disciples guarding the perimeter of the cold palace.

After many sharp whistles were blown, countless magic techniques and tools assaulted them from every direction.

“Even mere specks of light dare to outshine the moon!”

After Liu Jing grandly raised his hand, a sparkling silk scarf flew out from his hand. In an instant, the scarf had formed a huge barrier that protected Han Li and everyone else behind it from the incoming attacks. It seemed he was truly confident in the power of this magic tool.

The moment the silk scarf unfolded, a barrage of magic techniques and tools fell upon it, causing it to release a dazzling white light. Not only was there not the slightest damage on the silk scarf as expected, but a few magic techniques had also been reflected, leaving a few Black Fiend School Disciples battered and confused.

“Senior Martial Brother Liu, good move!”

Upon seeing this, Song Meng, who was standing alongside Liu Jing, loudly shouted out in praise. Soon after, he threw away what he was grasping in his hand without any restraint.

A huge blue sword then appeared out of thin air. This was Song Meng’s favorite top quality magic tool, the “Blue Threaded Sword”.

“Go!”

Song Meng formed an incantation gesture with his hands. The huge blue sword then released a long shriek and started spinning itself like a wheel. The sword’s great display left the anxious Black Fiend School disciples in shock.

When Song Meng saw this, a wicked grin faintly appeared on his face.

He pointed two fingers toward the Blue Threaded Sword that had transformed into a disk.

The disk’s blue radiance suddenly shrank and then expanded, shooting out countless threads of blue light and enveloping everything underneath it within a range of about a hundred meters.

The Black Fiend School disciples that saw this felt their souls leaving their bodies from fright. They all activated various defensive magic tools and techniques in an attempt to block this heaven shrouding attack.

Successions of wretched screams could be heard.

A majority of Black Fiend School disciples were unable to withstand the penetrating attack of the countless blue threads of light. They either died a miserable death after turning into honeycombs or managed to survive by protecting their vitals. But even then, the injuries they received from the attack would have left them unable to fight.

“Myriad Threads Under the Heavens! Good move! As expected, Junior Martial Brother Song’s long famed technique is quite different from the rumors.”

When one of Chen Qiaoqian’s Senior Martial Brothers saw the might of this attack, he couldn’t help but sincerely praise it. Song Meng’s face revealed slight pride in response.

At this moment, several people calmly landed at the great entrance of the cold palace. Those Black Fiend School disciples that managed to luckily survive had already lost themselves to fear and didn’t dare to attack..

“Start the Four Symbols Formation and trap them within.” [1]

Just as the remaining Black Fiend School Disciples were about to confront the their group with fear and trepidation, an incomparably cold voice came from the cold palace.

A white silhouette releasing a cold and hazy white mist had appeared at the entrance in the blink of an eye. This was the “Ice Demon” that happened to be on duty.

He was the one who gave those orders from a moment ago, with teeth clenched in anger. Now, he was looking at the Yellow Maple Valley Cultivators in both rage and alarm.

“Humph! This monster will be taking your lives!”

When Liu Jing heard those words, he looked at this person’s cultivation and immediately realized he was one of the great Blood Servants. After he coldly snorted, he shot two streaks of silver light straight toward his head.

When the others saw this, their magic tools began to shine. They thought to immediately make a united attack against the newly appeared Black Fiend School expert. After all, this wasn’t a practice match against fellow sect members; they naturally wouldn’t fight alone.

Han Li equivalently took out his six golden blades from his storage pouch and shot them out.

If this attack was enough to kill this Blood Servant, Han Li would naturally be happy to do it!

But before their attacks could land, the scenery before their eyes blurred for a moment and underwent a huge change. Everyone was greatly shocked to discover that in the blink of an eye they had suddenly appeared in a world of frost and snow.

A vast expanse of whiteness surrounded them with bone-chilling winds and huge drifting snowflakes filled the entire sky. Where did that white clothed silhouette go?

Although Liu Jing and company were shocked, they knew that they had fallen into the Four Symbols Formation. Thus after a brief moment of panic, they had all regained their composure.

After all, they were Foundation Establishment cultivators from the same sect and had nothing to fear from this minor formation.

“Hehe! Your courage is quite great, actually daring to injure our School’s disciples! Properly stay put for the moment in our School’s great protection formation.” That ice cold voice sounded as if it came from every direction at the same time, causing a truly astonishing impression.

“Four Symbols Formation?”

“Does anyone here comprehend this formation spell? We had best break out quickly. Else, we will be letting the four great Blood Servants gather together and that would prove troublesome.” Liu Jing didn’t take notice of the ice demon’s infuriating words and instead said this to the others with a calm expression.

When he said this, the others mutually looked at each other and didn’t speak for a short while.

“I understand a bit of the Dao of Formation Spells and have heard of this Four Symbols Formation before. However, I didn’t particularly study the specific method to break this formation. This formation spell can be considered to be an obscure type. As such, one normally wouldn’t study such a formation.” Chen Qiaoqian’s Senior Martial Sister hesitantly said, interrupting the awkward silence.

“This is a bit troublesome. Could it be we have to use brute force to break the formation?” Liu Jing wrinkled his brow and muttered to himself with reluctance.

Relying on brute force to break a formation is admittedly a simple and direct method. However, not only was it more time consuming, but it would also consume a large amount of everyone’s magic power. Which would naturally put them at a huge disadvantage in the great battle following the destruction of the formation. Perhaps this was the true intention of why the enemy has used this formation!

When the others heard this, they looked at each other with worry and dismay.

At this moment, a very curious voice spoke out.

“Yi! Junior Martial Brother Han, what are you doing?”

Song Meng didn’t understand the slightest bit about formation spells and wasn’t troubling himself with thinking about how to break the formation. Instead, he was looking around and actually saw Han Li’s actions.

Han Li was currently grasping a clear crystal ball magic tool and placed it in front of his eyes. Gazing thought it, he was staring at a particular direction.

This peculiar action strongly piqued Song Meng’s curiosity, causing him to ask this without thinking.

This question attracted the other’s attention causing them all to look toward Han Li with puzzlement.

Han Li put down the crystal ball with an ordinary expression. Then he turned his head toward Liu Jing and said, “I have likely found a gap in the formation!”

“What? You found a weakness?!”

Han Li’s words caused everyone’s face to reveal pleasant surprise. Liu Jing was particularly overjoyed.

[1]. The Four Symbols Formation (四象陣) refers to the four divisions of the twenty eight constellations: Azure Dragon 青龍｜青龍, White Tiger 白虎, Vermilion Bird 朱雀, Black Tortoise 玄武.