In the darkest hour before dawn, the caverns of Iron Bone Stockade blazed with light.
White Snow stood on the stone platform in the center of the main hall, her short, silvery-white hair gleaming beneath the fluorescent ore overhead.
A crowd packed the space before her...
The fighters from all seven stockades had arrived. Even the old man from Sandstorm Pass who walked with a crutch had come with a rusty saber strapped to his back.
"Listen up." White Snow's voice was quiet, yet the noisy cavern instantly fell silent. "My master gets here in three days. Before that, we're going to tear up Star-Locking Hall's nest."
Bearded Man squeezed out of the crowd. "Deputy Alliance Leader White, with so few of us, wouldn't charging Star-Locking Hall be suicide?"
"Who said anything about charging head-on?" White Snow grinned, revealing two little pointed canines. "Ningyu, read them the intelligence."
Ningyu stepped out of the shadows in a corner, her maimed fingers tapping a rolled jade slip. Her voice was crisp and clear, like pearls rolling across a jade dish:
"Star-Locking Hall has nine floors aboveground and eighteen below. Three restrictions guard the front: the Spirit-Binding Array, the Soul-Eroding Miasma, and the Thousand-Blade Wall. But there's an abandoned Sewage Tunnel underground that leads straight to Star-Locking Hall's lowest level... That's the core of the Sacrificial Array, and also its most lightly defended point."
A stir ran through the crowd.
"The Hidden Channel's entrance is in a dry well by Starfall City's west gate," Ningyu continued. "But fluid from the Heavenly Demon Blood Pool has seeped into the Hidden Channel. An ordinary cultivator wouldn't last twenty breaths inside."
White Snow nodded, the flames dancing in her claw illuminating her golden eyes.
"Phoenix truefire can purify heavenly demon qi." White Snow raised her left