Several near-transparent demon beasts flew at the top of the white snowstorms and stealthily moved forward in the winterland.

These demon beasts were known as Glacial Imps, born from glacial Qi. Although they were only grade-six demon beasts, the ruthless cold that froze the air posed little threat to them. Rather, they moved through it with vigor, much like a fish in water.

Suddenly, the Glacial Imp leading them stopped. Its several eyes opened on both of its sides as it doubtfully looked in a certain direction within the snowstorm. The other imps had stopped and done the same.

Suddenly, the sounds of tearing air sounded and several red threads broke through the winds. At incredible speeds, they penetrated the imps.

With the sharp cracks of their demon cores splitting into two, the imps lifelessly dropped to the ground.

At that moment, a silhouette slowly emerged from within the storm, a female North Night Palace cultivator who wore a white cloak.

Her emotionless eyes observed the fluttering snow for just a moment before blurring out of sight once more.

...

In an area fifty kilometers away, there was a six-meter-tall figure with an ox head. It was walking across the sparkling surface of a frozen lake.

A pair of pitch-black horns jutted from its head and its fur flickered with blue light. It carried a huge saber on its back and his buttocks twisted in a ridiculous clumsiness as it walked.

But if a human cultivator were to see this demon beast, they wouldn’t be laughing by any stretch as the figure was grade seven demon beast on the verge of metamorphosis.

Due to North Night Island’s fully-activated restrictions, all demon beasts below grade eight were forced to tread through the ground, resulting in those less skilled in movement techniques to move forward at a snail’s pace.

Suddenly, the huge saber on the demon beast’s back blurred and seemingly disappeared from sight.

A huge boom soon followed, along with a miserable cry.

A wide and immensely deep cut had appeared on the surface of the lake.

The bull-headed demon then began to leisurely examine it.

In the blink of an eye, mists of blood spouted from the cracks as well as a bisected corpse. From its clothes, it appeared to belong to a disciple from North Night Palace.

The disciple used ice movement techniques to move underneath the lake in preparation to ambush the demon, but he was seen through and was executed in a single strike.

With a trace of savage cruelty on its face, the demon reached out with its hand and summoned the corpse half into its grasp.

It widely opened its mouth and chomped down.

In the time it took to finish a cup of tea, the corpse-half filled the demon’s stomach to satisfaction.

Similar scenes of slaughter occurred throughout North Night Island, of low-grade demon beasts being ambushed and cultivators being devoured.

However, all battles taking place were against low-grade demon beasts and cultivators at Core Formation-stage and below. Nascent Soul cultivators and grade-eight demon beasts, however, didn’t seem to notice these battles as one side stayed inside their city of ice and the other rushed through the snowstorms.

It wasn’t that the high-grade demon beasts didn’t want to kill the palace’s low-grade cultivators, but rather, it was difficult to find them amidst the snowstorms and activated restrictions, not to mention these cultivators were skilled in various evasion techniques.

A few of these North Night Palace cultivators even wore particular magic tools that concealed their scent, making it even more difficult to discover them.

Even if these demons managed to kill a few cultivators on occasion, it would do little to affect the war as a whole. It would be better for them to conserve their strength for the upcoming battle. Every sliver of magic power is significant in a battle of life and death after all.

When the many demons drew close to the city of ice, the beautiful middle-aged Elder Liu was sitting inside a hall in the Hidden Arctic Dragon Boundary. Sitting across from her were two rows of North Night Palace elders, all of them listening to the reports of a white-clothed palace disciple.

The disciple respectfully said, “Of the hundred high-grade disciples that were dispatched, thirty-seven of their lifesoul tiles were shattered. From the information we’ve acquired, there were a hundred twenty-seven demon beasts killed, a majority of them being from the Ice Sea. we’ve already dispatched the second wave of disciples. It should take about two hours before they group up with the first wave.”

After a brief pause, Elder Liu commanded, “Thirty-seven disciples have already perished in battle. It should be about time for them to be a few thousand kilometers from the city. Notify Elder Ye that the Sea Calming Bell will be used in two hours. We’ll be inflicting heavy losses on the low-grade demon beasts. It would be greatly troublesome if we allowed a large number of pests to bother us.”

“Yes, Palace Lord!” A white-haired elder with a child-like face immediately waved his hand and released a sound transmission, sending it out of the hall.

The woman then “Junior Martial Brother Ding, make sure the grand formation is fully activated. I suspect that using this treasure will incite the high-grade demon beasts out of grief for their lesser brethren.”

“Yes!” The other elder flew off as soon as he gave his reply.

“In addition, you’ll need to inform the disciples outside of the city to be careful. The suppression of the Sea Calming Bell will only last a half-hour at most. After that, it’ll be over a hundred years before we’ll be able to use it again. After the elapsed time had passed, the disciples are to immediately return to the city and seal off the secret teleportation formations. We can’t have the demons use them to invade!”

“As you command!”

With a string of commands uttered, the other elders began to move and carry out her orders.

...

Hundreds of kilometers away from the icy city, a large group of high-grade demons arrived on top of a small ice mountain.

They were at the very edge of the North Night Palace’s protective grand formation. As they looked at the glacial mist flying in front of them, the metamorphosed demons wore a solemn expression.

These demons clearly belonged to two groups. One group numbered about a dozen and were surrounding a tall old man and a short child. The other group consisted of over twenty and were escorting a slender silver-clothed woman.

But oddly enough, these demons all looked quite ordinary. Apart from a few discrepancies in their appearance, they were no different than human cultivators. And even stranger was how each group looked at each other with contempt.

The larger group of demons wore hateful expressions and clothes made of fur. There were even those that left their chest uncovered.

They carried a large assortment of weapons in either their hands or back. They also hung storage pouches made of hide on their waist. While it was unknown why they didn’t keep their weapons there, these demon beasts emitted violent intent as they gazed at the other group.

The two groups of demon beasts faced one another with a clear gap between them.

But if any cultivator were to come across them, they would fearfully run away.

They were all metamorphosed demon beasts at grade eight and higher. The old man, the child, and the silver-clothed woman, in particular, were grade ten demon beasts.

Such power would likely be able to instantly crush any of the ten great sects of the Righteous or Devilish Dao. High-grade demon beasts were already more powerful than their equivalently-ranked cultivator counterparts.

The black-robed old man amongst them had a stern and squarish face with spirited eyes; his grey hair faintly glowed with azure light, overall producing an aura of self confidence.

Next to him was the boy that appeared seven years old with a delicate, nearly otherworldly appearance. His irises were faintly red and he wore a faint smile.

The silver-robed woman facing him had snow-white skin and beauty capable of toppling nations.

However, this gorgeous woman was escorted by many formidable high-grade demons, who didn’t dare to meet her gaze. They looked down as if in fear.

The old man said with a chuckle, “Fairy Feng, I didn’t expect that these North Night Palace cultivators were truly willing to attack. They actually released the glacial Qi they were accumulating for nearly a thousand years. I’ll have to see how they respond when they encounter another great enemy in the future.”

The woman’s expression stirred and she coldly said, “Fellow Daoist Qing, why do you ask despite knowing the answer? The North Night Palace cultivators do not know that our objective this time isn’t the Glacial Quintessence, so it is natural for them to hold nothing back. Otherwise, if our line of defense is broken, it won't matter how much glacial Qi they store."

The child then opened his mouth and spoke with an aged raspy voice, “However, I am quite surprised to see that Fellow Daoist Feng had personally made an appearance. For over two thousand years, you’ve entered seclusion in the icy depths.”

The silver-robed woman shifted her gaze to the child and calmly said, “If it were for anything else apart from passage up to the Spirit Realm, I wouldn’t have left. Didn’t you also send your incarnation over here?”

The child narrowed his eyes and chuckled, “I didn’t expect you to readily agree with my proposal! How surprising! It seems you’ve been dissatisfied with North Night Island since long ago and have thought about exterminating Fairy Ice Soul’s line of cultivators in the mortal realm. Fellow Daoist Feng, you are relying rather heavily on the power of our Myriad Demon Valley!”