The freezing wind of the Eternal Night Icefield carried shards of ice.
Like countless tiny blades, they continuously scraped across the battlefield.
Masses of corpses lay frozen upon the deep-purple tundra, still retaining the postures of their final moments in life.
They were all sealed beneath translucent, ghostly blue shells of ice, as though they had become some cruel kind of amber.
Zong Shen stood at the highest point of the Wall of Despair within the defensive zone.
Having changed into a long hooded robe, Zong Shen remained perfectly still within the constant field of light.
His fingertips slowly rubbed the three "Corrupted Fragments" concealed in his sleeve.
This sort of messy stuff was all pollution from the icefield, essentially infection sources released by the Night King.
Beneath their icy touch, a profound filth resonating with this silent icefield continued to pulse.
The instant the scarlet countdown numbers above everyone's heads finally reached zero.
Zong Shen knew that the first phase had ended.
It had been neither particularly long nor particularly short.
For him, there had truly been no ripples to speak of.
With the strength Zong Shen had accumulated, the trial was nothing more than a crushing blow from a higher dimension.
The Time Stop state appeared once again.
Everyone had long since grown accustomed to it.
At that moment, an emotionless and irresistible announcement appeared deep within the consciousness of every surviving lord:
[Northern Frontier Trial Phase One "Eternal Night Erosion" has ended]
[Points being calculated]
[Lord: Zong Shen1999514 Final Points for This Phase: 423568308]
[Phase One Points Leaderboard unlocked]
[First Place: Zong Shen1999514 (Points: 423568308)]
[Second Place: Caesar Piero1987616 (Points: 3432921)]
[Third Place: Zhang Bowen1993219 (Points: 2929713)]
[Fourth Place: George Blanton19891123 (Points: 2726792)]
[...]
Silence.
A silence more piercing than the freezing winds of the Eternal Night