Zhou Fan

Atop a massive snow mountain lay an ice valley. This had originally been the nest of a Heaven Tier Spirit Beast, the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle, but it was unusually lively at the moment.

With dozens of Divine Soul Realm experts and hundreds of Spirit Wheel Realm experts, even a Heaven Tier Spirit Beast could not withstand them.

"It's almost done for! Quick, attack!"

The figure standing at the forefront in the sky shouted sharply.

Then, the dozens of Divine Soul Realm experts and hundreds of Spirit Wheel Realm cultivators behind him all roared in unison, their cries shaking heaven and earth.

Boom! Boom!

Countless spiritual energy attacks swept out. Under such an assault, even the wind and snow filling the sky were forcibly blasted apart. Streaks of rainbow light pierced through the sky before all striking the enormous body of the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Heavy impacts rang out continuously. Faced with the combined attack of so many people, the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle was forced back hundreds of meters. Holes were torn through the crystalline snowstorm that had originally swirled around its body.

Now!

The leading man roared inwardly, and a streak of light flew from his hand. In an instant, it pierced through the terrifying storm and even punctured the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's wing!

Screech!

The sudden agony in its wing made the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle let out a shrill cry. With its wing injured, it could no longer remain airborne and fell straight from the sky.

When Liu Bai and An Ran arrived outside the valley, they happened to witness the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's wing being broken.

"Huh? What method did Zhou Fan just use? How did he severely wound the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle in a single strike?" Liu Bai's expression changed.

If Zhou Fan possessed such an ability, then he should simply leave. If that attack landed on him, he would be lucky not to die—and even then, he would lose a layer of skin.

An Ran's pretty face darkened as well. Seeing that Zhou Fan had so many experts under his command, she was already beginning to despair.

On the battlefield, the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle became far less threatening after being knocked out of the sky. However, this thoroughly enraged it. After landing, it cried out furiously again, and its enormous snowstorm wings suddenly flapped.

Violent spiritual energy swept out madly. The snowstorm filling the sky gathered before it at an astonishing speed, transforming into countless ice spears in just a few breaths. Each spear radiated spiritual energy fluctuations that made hearts tremble.

Clearly, the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle was truly enraged.

"Dodge!" Zhou Fan shouted at once from the sky. Then he waved both hands, and a long spear flickering with lightning appeared in his grasp.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle flapped its huge wings, and the countless ice spears instantly shot out with piercing whistles. They tore through the air and rained down upon the figures attacking it.

Boom!

Faced with such a terrifying attack from the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle, the expressions of those figures changed. They hurriedly pushed their spiritual energy to the limit and unleashed a barrage of spiritual energy attacks.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ice spears streaked across the sky while spiritual energy howled, creating an especially spectacular sight.

Sizzle! Sizzle!

Amid the terrifying collision, quite a few unlucky people were struck by ice spears. The marks on their foreheads shattered almost instantly, and they were transformed into streaks of light and teleported away.

Terrifying shockwaves from the collision spread throughout heaven and earth, rolling up snow and wind across the skies.

"Thunderclap God-Shattering Spear!"

A furious shout rang out. Zhou Fan transformed into a streak of lightning in the sky, while the lightning spear in his hand formed an enormous phantom spear dozens of meters long. It surged forward without hesitation and stabbed directly toward the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's huge body.

Boom!

Accompanied by an earthshaking boom, the entire ice valley trembled beneath that strike. Even the thousand-year-old ice within the valley was pulverized.

The massive shock triggered enormous avalanches across the surrounding snow mountains. Countless Spirit Beasts living in the world of ice and snow were swept away by the avalanche, crushed or dashed to death...

Liu Bai and An Ran desperately clung to an icy crevice beneath them, barely preventing themselves from being shaken loose and thrown down.

"So strong! That spear's grade is probably not low..." An Ran said, her face slightly pale.

Liu Bai nodded. Judging by its power, it was likely at least a High-grade Spirit Artifact. Yet even within Northern Azure Spirit Academy, a Spiritual Artifact of that grade would definitely be a precious treasure. Zhou Fan either had an extraordinary background or heaven-defying luck.

In fact, this was not difficult to understand. Anyone who would enter the top ten of the Heavenly Ranking in the future could not possibly be ordinary in terms of strength, talent, luck, or even background. Otherwise, he could not have stood out among millions.

"Don't worry about that. I think the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle is at the end of its rope after being so heavily wounded. In a moment, I'll make a move to draw their attention. Then you can seize the Spirit Beast Core while you have the chance!" Liu Bai told An Ran.

"Alright. Be careful!"

After witnessing Zhou Fan's terrifying strength, An Ran could not help worrying about Liu Bai's safety.

Liu Bai nodded. Then, taking advantage of the turbulent spiritual energy around them, he quietly crept closer.

At that moment, the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle lay weakly in a large pit within the ice valley, mournful cries constantly coming from its mouth. A huge bloody hole had opened in its chest, and blood continued to flow out.

Once the blood left its body, the terrifying cold rapidly froze it, turning it into bead-like drops of crimson ice that fell to the ground.

Seeing this, Zhou Fan, who had unleashed his strongest move, finally let out a long sigh of relief.

The battle just now had been extremely dangerous. If he had not possessed a Spirit Breaking Bead given to him by his father for protection and used it to injure the Ice Eagle, it would have been nearly impossible to take it down today.

Unfortunately, he only had one such life-saving item. If that spear strike had failed, they would have needed to consider fleeing.

Fortunately, the outcome was not bad.

Looking at the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle, which had already lost its fighting strength, Zhou Fan was about to order someone to finish it off and seize its Spirit Beast Core when he suddenly saw golden light erupt in the distance.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

Five Golden Giant Wheels, each dozens of meters wide and carrying razor-sharp force capable of cutting through anything, instantly charged into the crowd.

The people, who had just relaxed, had no time to mobilize their spiritual energy. Several were immediately struck by the golden wheels, their marks shattered, and were sent out of the Northern Cang Realm.

"Get out of the way, quick!" someone roared.

The entire valley instantly descended into chaos. Countless people desperately dodged the five giant wheels' sharp edges. Who still had the time to pay attention to the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle, which was already on the verge of death?

However, very soon...

"Not good! Protect the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle!" Zhou Fan was the first to react and immediately shouted out an order.

He himself struggled to gather his heavily depleted spiritual energy and raised the Thunder Spear in his hand.

Buzz!

Before Zhou Fan could act, one giant wheel was already hurtling straight toward him.

This made Zhou Fan even more certain that someone was causing trouble in secret, and that person's target was the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle!

"This is an array! Someone set up an array! Find him for me!" Having realized this, Zhou Fan nearly went mad with rage as he roared.

The golden array was right there and could not be concealed. The person controlling it had to be within the array as well, so the enraged members of Zhou Gang charged over with furious roars.

While everyone focused their attention on the person who had set up the array, a figure had already silently slipped beneath the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's wings to hide.

Very quickly, Liu Bai controlled one golden wheel and turned it around, cleaving open the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's head. The Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle, which had only been clinging to its last breath, died instantly...

The next moment, An Ran shot out from beneath the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's wings like an arrow. With a pull of her palm, a streak of blue light flew out from the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's shattered head and landed in her hand.

Within that blue light was a miniature Ice Eagle. It struggled frantically, and the force it exerted was so great that An Ran could barely hold it.

An Ran gritted her teeth and ignored how the icy power leaking from the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's Spirit Beast Core had frozen her hand blue and purple. She charged straight down the mountain.

"Damn it, stop her!" Zhou Fan was nearly driven mad with fury as he shouted.

He had led his people into battle and exhausted all their strength, even using his trump card, before finally defeating this Heavenly Beast. Who would have thought that someone would dare lurk in the shadows and steal the spoils? No one could tolerate that.

"Don't let me find out who you are! I will never let today's matter rest!"

"We got it! Hurry and leave!"

At that moment, An Ran's voice, carried by spiritual energy, reached Liu Bai's ears.

A faint smile rose at the corner of Liu Bai's lips. The next moment, he added nine thousand Experience Points to the Mountain God Art.

In an instant, violent spiritual energy erupted from his body. A terrifying aura belonging to the Divine Soul Realm Middle Stage burst forth, and a yellowish-brown mountain formed directly around him.

After advancing to the fourth layer, the mountain shaped around Liu Bai's body had become even more solid, and its defensive power was naturally even more terrifying.

At that moment, the enraged members of Zhou Gang had already charged close, and countless spiritual energy attacks came whistling toward him...

Liu Bai was not the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle. Faced with attacks from so many Divine Soul Realm and Spirit Wheel Realm cultivators, even his fourth-layer Mountain God Art could not withstand them.

Yet he did not panic. He merely uttered one word calmly.

"Explode!"

Boom!

The Five Wheel Sky Splitting Array, a Second-Grade Spirit Array, exploded instantly. The terrifying impact created an even greater storm than Zhou Fan's earlier attack on the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle.

Countless gusts of wind and snow were blasted into the sky by the impact. The entire world became a vast expanse of white, and visibility was completely blocked.

Using that force, Liu Bai himself fell down the mountain like a meteor. He smashed through countless icy peaks along the way. By the time he reached the foot of the mountain, the brown mountain around his body was already covered in cracks. It then shattered with a bang, reverting to motes of spiritual light that dispersed into the air.

He had learned this move from Uncle Long's Flying Eagle Plan. However, he had still underestimated the height of the snow mountain. If he had not raised the Mountain God Art to the fourth layer at the last moment, he would probably have been reduced to pulp by now.

Even so, his entire body felt as though it had fallen apart, and he was so dizzy that he could barely distinguish directions. After struggling to get his bearings, he headed toward the place he had agreed to meet An Ran.

At the mountaintop, when the dust finally settled, the entire ice valley had been completely destroyed.

Because Liu Bai had self-destructed the Spirit Array, an unknown number of Zhou Gang members had been caught in the blast and then teleported away by their marks. Even Zhou Fan's spiritual energy was surging chaotically within him. Coupled with his panic and fury, he spat out a mouthful of blood, and his vision darkened.

"Don't let me find out who you are! I'll kill you! Kill you!"

Even in the Spirit Road, Zhou Fan had never suffered such serious injuries. Moreover, the humiliation of being schemed against by someone else made him even angrier than his physical wounds.

A thin figure came to his side. Seeing Zhou Fan's bloodshot eyes, the figure could only smile bitterly inwardly.

He too was a participant in the Spirit Road. Although he had not been crowned a king like Zhou Fan, he was still an expert second only to those crowned kings. Yet today's encounter filled him with anger and a deep sense of helplessness.

Although they did not know that person's identity, his strength was at the Divine Soul Realm Middle Stage, no weaker than his own. Moreover, he was a Spirit Array Master. That golden Spirit Array was likely among the best of all Second-Grade Spirit Arrays; even a peak Divine Soul Realm cultivator would not be able to break it quickly.

Furthermore, the other party had taken them by surprise, prepared an accomplice, and even self-destructed the Spirit Array. What could they possibly do?

"Brother Zhou, don't be too angry. That person cannot be feeling well after self-destructing the Spirit Array either. A Second-Grade Spirit Array Master like him cannot possibly be unknown in the Northern Cang Realm. We will have a chance to find him eventually. It won't be too late to avenge today's grudge then!"

Though Zhou Fan was burning with rage, he had not lost his mind. After hearing the thin youth's words, he quickly calmed down.

He looked at the battered Zhou Gang members around him, then at the headless corpse of the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle amid the valley's ruins, and said coldly, "Take the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle. We're going down the mountain!"

Inside a cave in a barren mountain several dozen miles away from the snow mountain, Liu Bai sat cross-legged and silently circulated his spiritual energy, nourishing the injuries within his body.

Protected by the White Jade Spirit Light of the Ice Muscle Jade Bone Art, although his body had suffered a considerable impact this time, his internal organs had not been greatly affected. Furthermore, the White Jade Spirit Light could help heal his injuries. Thus, in less than a quarter of an hour, the pain throughout Liu Bai's body had disappeared, and his injuries had fully recovered.

Liu Bai then stopped healing, let out a long breath of stale air, and looked toward the cave entrance.

Although An Ran had escaped before him, she had still not arrived at their agreed meeting place after so long. Could something have happened to her on the way?

Just as Liu Bai was considering whether he should go out and take a look, he suddenly sensed a surge of icy power rapidly approaching from his direction.