North of Liang Province.
Great Snow Mountain.
Snow lay here year-round, never melting.
For ten thousand miles, ice sealed the land, a vast expanse of white stretching beyond sight.
Mountain winds wrapped in snow pellets swept through the peaks like blades.
An ordinary cultivator who came here would spend more than half their spiritual power merely resisting the bitter cold.
Yet deep within these deathly silent snow mountains.
There stood an enormous complex of buildings.
These structures had been built against the perilous snowy peaks.
Halls rose in overlapping tiers.
This...
Was the Pure World Holy Church Headquarters, which had given Great Zhou endless headaches and shaken the foundations of its rule over the northern frontier.
At the deepest part of the headquarters.
There was a circular altar.
Around it stood rings of steps built from bluestone.
The steps were covered in snow.
At the very center of the altar.
A figure sat cross-legged with his eyes closed.
His face was dark, his hands broad and rough. He wore a coarse cloth shirt and went barefoot.
If not for the fact that he was seated at the heart of the Pure World Holy Church Headquarters.
Anyone who saw him would have taken him for an old farmer who had just come down from the field ridges.
Yet this "old farmer."
Was the Pure World Holy Venerable, whom Great Zhou's Princess Royal and the entire Northern Aristocratic Coalition had joined forces to hunt down for years without ever managing to kill.
Half-Saint realm.
One of the foremost existences in this world.
"Sacred Venerable."
A man in a black sacrificial robe hurried over.
He stopped thirty feet below the altar and bowed deeply.
"What is it?"
The Pure World Holy Venerable did not open his eyes.
"Great Zhou's army... has withdrawn."
"Withdrawn?"