The wind had just died down, yet the medicinal formation still flickered. Chen Wuya stood at the tent entrance, his hand still pressed against Bai Zhi's abdomen, his Misaligned Force not yet withdrawn. The fetus's pulse thudded against his palm again and again, as though answering the power within him.
He opened his eyes, his brow furrowing.
System tremor: [High-risk energy approaching—demonic qi origin has locked onto host!]
He scooped Bai Zhi up and sprang from the tent. Hearing the commotion, Mo Feng rushed out of the adjacent tent with a mechanism box in hand. The three landed on the ice field just as the camp behind them exploded with a boom. Shattered snow flew everywhere, and the medicinal formation instantly collapsed.
A figure emerged from the frigid mist.
He wore black robes, had blood-red eyes, and a bronze mask that covered only half his face. His left eye glowed crimson, while his right was hollow as a dead well. He stood upon the split ice, a baleful weapon slung across his shoulder like a twisted bone.
"You woke me," he said.
His voice was not loud, yet it made the ice beneath their feet crack and groan.
Chen Wuya set Bai Zhi down beside Mo Feng. "Protect her."
He took two steps forward, Misaligned Force surging from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. A system prompt appeared: [Target is an avatar of the Demonic Cult's leader. Contains thirty percent of the main body's demonic qi origin. Recommend using Ice Misaligned Force: Extreme.]
He did not move.
The avatar raised a hand and swept out with his baleful weapon. The ice fields for a thousand miles exploded, and a bottomless rift spread outward from beneath their feet. The shockwave sent all three staggering;