The earth's rumbling grew increasingly violent.
The long, narrow Dragon-Severing Ridge seemed to have suddenly come alive.
Deep, muffled booms sounded from within the mountains.
Waves of scorching heat surged out through cracks in the ground.
At first, there was only hot wind.
Then the edges of the cracks actually began to glow red.
Lin Yuan glanced down.
His pupils contracted slightly.
Earthfire.
And not ordinary earthfire, either.
Several fire veins beneath Dragon-Severing Ridge, artificially diverted from their courses, were awakening at once.
The feeling was all too familiar.
It bore some resemblance to the Earth Inferno Formation of the Ten Ultimate Formation.
But it was far larger.
Because the enemy had not simply planted a few formation flags.
They had used the whole of Dragon-Severing Ridge as their foundation.
"Everyone, fall back!"
Wen Zhong had already given the order at the first sign of trouble.
The rear guard abandoned its preparations to make camp.
They swiftly withdrew along the way they had come.
But they had retreated only a few li.
Boom!
A crimson curtain of light suddenly blazed up at the entrance to the ridge.
A wall of fire dozens of zhang high burst from the ground into the sky.
It completely sealed off their retreat.
A Qi Practitioner from the Shang Army tried to fly through on his sword.
He had barely drawn close.
When the magical power protecting his body began to distort violently.
"Grand Preceptor!"
"There are restrictions within the fire wall!"
Wen Zhong's expression grew grave.
"Don't force your way through."
"Draw the battle formation toward the center!"
"Cultivators, protect the ordinary soldiers!"
The troops originally assigned to cover the retreat swiftly formed ranks.
The blood energy of the human battle formation rose.
For the moment, it held back the mounting heat around them.