Snow fell from the heavens, only to be shredded into mist by the churning demonic qi and the military formation's baleful aura before it could reach the camp.
The entire valley seemed covered by an overturned black cauldron. Outside stood an ancient Buddhist temple, golden light shining upon the snow amid faint Brahma sounds;
inside, however, the Demon Lotus Army's formation had already refined it into a bloody furnace, its weapons cold and murderous aura soaring into the sky.
To the east, beneath Cold Crow Ridge, the hundred-thousand-strong Front Army had camped along the ridge, its military formation the fiercest of all.
Ye Wushang and the others had clearly shown not the slightest mercy while clearing out demon bandits, rogue cultivator stockades, and barbarian raiders along the way. Many Front Army cultivators still bore mottled bloodstains, their weapons and dharma artifacts suspended beside them. Blood dripped down the blades, freezing into dark-red icicles in an instant.
The heads dragged along on tethers all the way from Cold Crow Ridge, barbarian bone talismans, and tattered bloodstained banners were piled before a temporary altar, their baleful aura surging skyward.
Directly south, two hundred thousand Central Army troops stood in formation outside Faneng Temple's mountain gate.
Nearly twenty War Treasure Ships hovered in midair, their hulls patterned in black and gold. Beneath them, spirit cannons gaped like the maws of beasts, aimed straight at Faneng Temple's outer mountain gate and more than a dozen cores of its protective formation.
Formation platforms spread out one after another across the snow. Pillars of black rune-light linked together, like an enormous demon lotus slowly blooming within the valley.
Xin Bairen had commanded troops for years, and his field camp was laid out with great solidity.
Five layers of cheval-de-frise formations, seven ballista lines, and nine