Sage’s Sacred Banyan grew larger and larger, he carefully controlled the tree barrier so there was more than enough room on the inside for his companions to remain clear of the poison gas. Killer Garden was quite potent and could infect plants very rapidly, but the gas only extended a few inches from the surface of a plant before it dispersed too much and lost effectiveness. The poison had no negative effect upon plants, so Sage imagined it turned the carbon dioxide they breathed into a poison rather than oxygen. Of course, he was no botanist or biologist, so he had no idea the volume a plant could breathe, nor how fast it did so, but he still liked to guess what was going on as if he wasn’t in a world that defied science as he knew it.

With the grove of poisoned trees as a deterrent, the little bobcat had no easy method to attack them. Since the trees grew bigger and bigger it only waited a few moments before making an attack. It slashed its claws to slice off a tree branch, but a root shot out of the ice. The root was like a spear, but too slow, and the cat easily dodged it. It made a few more probing attacks, and felt the numbing effect of the Killer Garden Poison. It wasn’t much, but the more the cat touched the leaves or roots the number it got. It snarled at the small grove and then ran off, hopping into a crack in the ground.

The commotion had caught the attention of Sage’s three companions and all four of them used their Spiritual Sense to observe the end of the confrontation. Elder Zhong even reached out to touch the tree dome around them and felt what the cat had. It wasn’t a very powerful poison, but if it continued to accumulate, even he would grow numb.

Song Lu Tian chuckled, “Why didn’t you catch it, Brother Sheng? I wonder how that little cat tastes. Cats are usually pretty stringy, but everything seems to be weird around here, maybe it’ll be tasty.”

“That was a Sconce Cat, they’re the main thing we need to look out for during the night, but it seems that Lang Sheng has a good defense against them. You shouldn’t underestimate them, Xiao Tian, nor any of the other creatures here for that matter. For some reason all the beasts that live in Icefire Valley all reach tier six when they mature.”

Sage blinked at Elder Meng’s words, “Everything here can match a Nascent Soul? No wonder this is said to be a terrifying place. I just so happen to excel at dealing with beasts.”

Most beasts weren’t as intelligent as cultivators, nor did they have any magical devices or many unusual techniques to call upon. They were plenty cunning and powerful, but they mostly relied on their physical gifts or bodily features. There was a reason most cultivators were required to study Demonic Beasts, because once they knew what to be aware of they could beat beasts that were much more powerful than they were using teamwork, tools, traps, and other tricks.

After the burst of excitement, Elder Zhong brought out his cooking equipment and they finished their rest with a good meal. They had already passed the most dangerous part of their journey, but they wanted to be ready for the most difficult part. The Sacred Banyan slowly faded away without any energy to sustain it, and they continued on their way towards the large glaciers. They ran into another problem a few hours later when they chose to leap over a large chasm rather than spend hours going around.

A flurry of blue icicles shot towards Song Lu Tian, targeting the ‘weakest’ of their group. The large man turned into a blur, spinning rapidly in mid-air. A sword appeared in his hand and sliced the icicles into perfect halves while another sword flew out from him and stabbed into the eye of a large blue dog. It sunk deep into the dog’s skull and the beast skidded across the top of an ice shelf. By the time it hit the wall of the icy cliff it had already died.

There was a flurry of barking and howling, but Song Lu Tian made it to the other side of the crevice. At that moment, their group was split apart. Sage was left alone on the other side of the cliff while a horde of blue furred bodies scrambled up an icy ramp to reach the surface level with them. These dogs were quite large, their shoulders as tall as his waist. They had sharp features and sleek bodies, looking much like a doberman pinscher yet with a coat of blue fur and with what looked to be a coat of icicles. Around the scruff of their necks, down the ridge of their backs, and hanging from their chest were foot long blue icicles. The icicles swayed back and forth, clinking against each other as they moved, while their claws dug into the ice like spiked cleats. A dozen of the dogs swarmed out of each side of the crevice, surprising Sage with their numbers.

Even so, twelve against one, he was actually more concerned about the other three. Only two of the dogs on his side were fully grown, while the Song Clan Cultivators were going up against a half dozen. The others didn’t have the strength to stand up to a rank 6, but Sage saw them taking pack tactics. Circling around him and trying to nip at his heels. Unfortunately for them, he released a steam-like cloud of poison to deter them long enough for a dozen black skinned minions to appear around him. The shiny black oil surface of the Blacksilver Pawns glistened in the light as they rushed out in every direction. The dogs shook their bodies and the icicles shot off of them like flying daggers, but the Blacksilver Pawns were undeterred. The icicle stabbed into their tar-like flesh, sinking deep but doing little more than slowing them down.

The pawns lifted one hand in front of themselves and tackled the dogs, catching the snapping jaws with their forearms as they tried to pin down the blue furred beasts. Black strips of flesh were ripped from the bone and tossed into the air. A few of the dogs broke away from the Blacksilver Pawns and rushed towards Sage, leaping towards his throat, but he hopped to the side to fix his angle and then thrust both palms forward. A huge burst of rumbling wind shot out and caught the two dogs mid-air, scooping them up like a pair of leaves and sending them flying into the huge ice crevice. They yelped as they flew over the edge, but then there was a thud and a whimper. Sage slid on the ice a few feet closer to the edge and then he crouched down, grabbing a pair of silk cords from his lower back and smashing them onto the ground. He used his other hand to attach a large sticky ball of silk to anchor the two lines and then looked to the rest of the battle.

The Blacksilver Pawns had wrapped their limbs around most of the dogs, ignoring the damage to their flesh and using their bones and weight to pin and cage them. The two that had broken past level 60 were tearing their pawns to pieces, but the three that he had defeated earlier stumbled back onto their feet and joined forces on one of the lead dogs. Sage rushed toward the other leader, his right eye glittering with stars as he threw a line of silk and made it swoop through the air and loop around the beast’s neck three times. Then he gave it a hard tug and the dog whined as it was choked. He ran a circle around it, making the line dip and rise in the air to dodge the Blacksilver Pawn’s limbs while trapping the dogs. He took a few minutes to tie it up before doing the same with the other weaker dogs. Each time he took one down, the Blacksilver Pawn that was freed would go to the remaining lead dog and join the pile.

After a few minutes, he had tied them all up and looked over to the other side of the crevice. The white ice was stained red. The three from the Mount Song Sword Sect had not been as merciful as him. Limbs and body parts were strewn across the ice, but each of them had many rips and tears on their clothing. Sage did a quick count and saw that the numbers didn’t match up. Then the lines he’d anchored snapped and he looked over the edge to see the three dogs had been freed by another three that were bleeding from several wounds.

Sage sent the bound dogs into his Inner World and then leapt across to join the other three.