The Frozen Earth Plains covered a vast area, but stretched only a little over two thousand li from south to north. Judging by Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing's current position, they had already crossed its midpoint and reached its northern reaches.
Liu Xing had once crossed the Frozen Earth Plains and reached the Frozen Ocean in the far north. But faced with that boundless expanse of frozen sea, he had lacked the ability to explore the polar regions, since he could not fly.
"If we keep heading north, we'll reach the Frozen Ocean. I wonder if that's where the disturbance came from?" Liu Xing looked toward the distant horizon, then turned to ask Lu Xuanqing.
Lu Xuanqing said, "The ocean is far vaster than the land, and there may be unknown dangers hidden within it. Let's keep heading north for now. If we really reach the shore, my current abilities will let me carry you into the sky on the wind. Even venturing out over the sea for a look isn't out of the question."
Liu Xing smiled. "A chance to fly through the sky? I couldn't ask for anything better." With that, he sprang forward again.
Lu Xuanqing smiled faintly and rode the wind behind him, heading straight north.
A short while later, they had traveled several hundred more li north. They could already feel the chill in the air growing stronger, and even the ground was covered in a thin layer of transparent ice.
Neither Liu Xing nor Lu Xuanqing was an ordinary person, and the cold caused them no discomfort. Yet Liu Xing's brow gradually furrowed. After running another few li, he suddenly stopped.
Flying overhead, Lu Xuanqing descended several meters to hover beside Liu Xing. "What's wrong?"
Liu Xing frowned. "Come down to the ground first. Do you feel anything?"
Lu Xuanqing found this rather strange, but she withdrew her spiritual energy as asked. The air currents swirling around her instantly dispersed, and she landed steadily on the ground.
The moment she landed, Lu Xuanqing felt a tremor beneath her feet, as though the earth were shaking without pause.
"An earthquake?" Lu Xuanqing blurted out. But she immediately sensed something was wrong. The trembling was continuous and rhythmic, nothing like a natural disaster such as an earthquake.
Within moments, the tremors grew increasingly violent. Liu Xing's expression changed, and he suddenly dropped to the ground, pressing an ear against it to listen.
Liu Xing soon stood up and said to Lu Xuanqing, "Can you take me up into the sky? The higher, the better."
Lu Xuanqing seemed to have guessed something as well. She nodded and swept both hands outward. As her spiritual energy surged, a mass of air abruptly gathered beneath their feet, steadily supporting them as they rose into the sky.
The Wind-Riding Technique was an introductory technique in the Cultivation World, one that could be performed with a Qi Refining Realm cultivation. An expert in the Foundation Establishment Realm like Lu Xuanqing could use it as easily as plucking something from her hand, even while injured.
Before long, Lu Xuanqing and Liu Xing had risen more than a hundred meters into the air, and the horizon visible to them extended much farther into the distance.
A white line appeared on the horizon, advancing steadily from north to south. It was not moving particularly fast, but its pace was no slower than galloping horses.
Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing both had keen eyesight. Though the distance was considerable, they could still make out that the white line consisted of thousands upon thousands of enormous white beasts, each standing over two meters tall.
These enormous white beasts resembled brown bears and could walk upright like humans, but horns grew from their heads, and two long fangs protruded from their mouths, making them look even fiercer than brown bears.
"Ice-Horned Bears?" Liu Xing exclaimed in surprise. "These big fellows live in groups of five or six at most. How can there be so many now?"
Indeed, nothing short of tens of thousands could have formed a line along the horizon. And the trembling earth was precisely the result of all those Ice-Horned Bears running together.
With beasts as large as Ice-Horned Bears, tens of thousands gathered together would be more than a match even for the supposedly invincible swarms of Spotted Mice. But from what Liu Xing knew of Ice-Horned Bears, these formidable beasts were not herd animals. Surely even gathering every Ice-Horned Bear on the Frozen Earth Plains could not produce so many?
More unsettling still, these tens of thousands of Ice-Horned Bears had gathered together to flee desperately for their lives, as though something terrifying were pursuing them.
As far as humanity knew about Connors Star, no Demon Beasts or Immortal Beasts had ever arisen here; there were only primitive wild beasts. But could even the fiercest primitive beast chase tens of thousands of Ice-Horned Bears into fleeing like dogs driven from their homes?
Tens of thousands of Ice-Horned Bears gathered into an enormous beast tide, surging across the Frozen Earth Plains. With such overwhelming momentum, what could possibly stand in their way?
Lu Xuanqing kept herself and Liu Xing hovering in the air, not daring to land. After all, faced with tens of thousands of fierce beasts intent only on escaping, even though the two of them were far stronger than the Ice-Horned Bears, they would surely be swallowed by that terrifying beast tide.
As the stampeding beasts drew closer, a thunderous rumble reverberated between heaven and earth, its force rivaling a crashing thunderclap!
This was the terrifying force of ten thousand beasts stampeding. A sense of helplessness rose involuntarily in Liu Xing's heart. How could human strength possibly withstand a beast tide like this?
Lu Xuanqing's brow furrowed as well. Had she fully recovered from her injuries, she would not have feared this beast tide. After all, a single powerful attack from her would have been enough to clear every Ice-Horned Bear within a radius of several hundred meters. At the very least, these Ice-Horned Bears could not have broken through her spiritual energy shield, and naturally could not have harmed her.
But with her injuries, Lu Xuanqing could not endure a prolonged battle. There was no reason to clash head-on with these tens of thousands of Ice-Horned Bears, so she kept Liu Xing hovering in the air with her and let them race past below.
Only after a full quarter of an hour did the enormous beast tide finally finish sweeping past. The entire surface of the Frozen Earth Plains had been trampled into a ruinous mess, with scarcely a single patch left intact.
Liu Xing had once heard the old man say that several enormous glaciers lay in the Frozen Ocean, each nearly as vast as a landmass. Ice-Horned Bears probably lived on those glaciers as well. Otherwise, the Frozen Earth Plains alone could not possibly have supplied such an enormous gathering of them.
If these Ice-Horned Bears had begun their retreat from the glaciers, did that mean the disturbance had come from the sea?
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