"Did they all work?"
Sha Wujin asked.
"They did."
Little White Dragon said.
The frost on his dragon horns had thickened by an inch.
"Mine's the fiercest."
Zhu Bajie shouted eagerly.
"Mine's the fastest."
Sun Wukong hoisted the Golden-Hooped Staff onto his shoulder.
"This humble Daoist's lasts the longest."
Tang Sanzang said.
His face had grown a shade paler.
Sha Wujin nodded.
Cradling the Moonlight Shovel, he walked to the water's edge.
"Then there's one last thing."
He said.
"How do we bring all five down?"
"Follow my beat."
"If I don't move, none of you move."
"When I move."
"We bring them down together."
The five members of the Preaching Squad spread out.
They formed a semicircle.
Blade energy roared on either side.
The ringing of swords pierced their ears.
As though urging them on.
And as though waiting for an answer.
"Fall."
Sha Wujin said.
Just one word.
Very softly.
But in that instant.
The wind on the northern bank stopped.
It wasn't that there was no wind.
The wind had been frozen.
The first layer was Little White Dragon's Azure Abyss Silent Dragon Martial Way.
He raised his hand.
And pressed it down toward the river's surface.
"Freeze Water and Earth."
Little White Dragon was the first to make his declaration, a verdict that "this place now falls under water's jurisdiction."
"Freeze Home Ground."
With him at its center, the temperature of the surrounding space plunged.
What fell wasn't the number of degrees.
It was the "rules."
From that moment on, this place was no longer allowed to follow the rules of sword energy.
"Freeze External Force."
Blade energy sliced its way in.
A foot in, it slowed.
Three inches in, it stopped.
It hung in midair.
As though the sword had been confiscated.
The second layer