As Xia Ningshang moved, the dense yin qi throughout the entire valley reacted. Viewed from above, it looked like a pot of boiling water — the yin qi seemed to come alive, roiling and writhing ceaselessly through the valley. The sight was absolutely terrifying.
"This is bad!" Wen Feichen cried out. Though he had no idea what Xia Ningshang was actually doing, as an expert at the fifth layer of the Zhenyuan Realm, his eye for these things was decent enough.
This girl must have set up some kind of formation in this valley beforehand, and now she was activating it.
If she actually managed to get that unknown formation running, this whole affair could take a nasty turn.
"Put more effort in! Break through this barrier now!" Wen Feichen roared. He needed to capture Xia Ningshang before that formation opened, or it would all be for nothing.
"You lot, get over here too — or I'll kill you right now!" Wen Feichen barked at the minor Wind and Rain Tower members.
Nulang and the others didn't dare hesitate. In a battle of this intensity, they were completely useless — they knew that well enough and had been standing off to the side watching. But with Wen Feichen's order, they had no choice but to join in.
Their attacks were weak, but they could at least chip away at the barrier's defenses.
Twelve people in total, every one of them giving it everything they had, throwing their lives into the assault on the semi-circular barrier of light.
Ripples spread across the barrier one after another, and it looked like it might crumble at any moment, yet it held firm as ever.
Inside the barrier, Yang Kai was burning with anxiety. He wanted to help, but his strength was far too low to make any difference. All he could do was stay by Xia Ningshang's side, ready to contribute whatever meager strength he had if the barrier was breached.
Xia Ningshang's movements grew faster and faster, her two hands moving so quickly they left afterimages. The yin wind howling through the valley intensified, sounding like ghosts wailing and wolves howling, making one's heart tremble with dread.
Wen Feichen's expression was grim, tinged with a hint of greed. He realized he had underestimated the grade of this defensive artifact. It was at least a heaven-grade upper-tier defensive artifact — otherwise it couldn't possibly have held up this long without breaking.
Heaven-grade upper tier! That meant it could withstand the full-power strike of an expert in the Shenyou Realm. Owning something like this was like having an extra life.
A full incense stick's worth of time later, a small crack suddenly appeared on the barrier.
With the crack's appearance, Xia Ningshang's face went white! Activating this defensive artifact had consumed a massive amount of her Yuan Qi, and now she had to simultaneously power her earlier preparations. The energy inside her body surged outward like floodwaters breaching a dam.
Seeing hope, Wen Feichen kept urging the others to attack while unleashing his own devastating technique. The Yuan Qi in his body erupted, and he slowly — almost casually — pushed his palm forward.
The palm struck the barrier, and the entire shield shuddered violently. Xia Ningshang's delicate body trembled, her face growing even paler.
Crack, crack, crack — dense, spiderweb-like fractures finally spread across the barrier.
"Hahaha!" Wen Feichen laughed triumphantly. He was confident that with one more full-power strike, this barrier would shatter completely.
But before his next palm could land, the churning yin qi in the valley suddenly went still. The ghostly wailing and wolfish howls vanished in an instant.
Xia Ningshang's eyes — as clear and bright as stars — flashed with light as she cried out in a sharp, delicate voice: "Seal!"
At that moment, Xia Ningshang's preparations were finally complete!