The rain in Hundred Refinements City had turned into ice filling the city, into snow falling from the heavens.
On the city gate wall stood Wei Gang and Mu Xuan, bleak figures amid the snow.
Wei Gang's initial grief had dwindled until only the stillness of dead water remained.
He had not received reinforcements from the south. All that came was the natural Calamity wrought by the Eastern Immortal Division's alteration of the Central Plains' weather, along with Heavenly Immortal power descending from the void.
Around the ruins of Hundred Refinements City, immortals descended amid the boundless snow, shrouded in halos of light.
Immortal power formed mysterious runes amid the clouds, linking together into a circular formation spanning a hundred li—a third-grade formation. Magical treasures belonging to Immortal Court retainers appeared along its perimeter, enveloping all of Hundred Refinements City within its radiance.
"Old Wei..." Mu Xuan called softly. Then, beneath the immortals' pressure, he calmly swept his gaze over every enemy.
More than a thousand immortal retainers were maintaining the formation, intent on trapping him and Old Wei.
Twenty-three immortals under Deep Winter Immortal Lord's command stood around Hundred Refinements City, unleashing domains unique to immortals. Outside the city, already buried beneath heavy snow, countless flesh-and-blood tentacles bored out of the ground beneath those immortals radiating holy auras. Their immortal arts seemed to draw the entire city into Assimilation into Darkness within the world's stomach.
Facing them, Deep Winter Immortal Lord led two Heavenly Immortals under his command, floating level with the battlements.
The Deep Winter Immortal Lord of the Eastern Immortal Division was as magnificent as ever.
Yet the other two Heavenly Immortals were like the tentacles beyond the city walls. Their garments began to tear apart, and their flesh began to writhe.
One Heavenly Immortal's flesh broke