The twenty-thousand-man army that Ju Zi brought along with her this time were soldiers deployed from the north of the Sun Moon Empire, able to tolerate the cold well. However, many of them still suffered frostbite after coming here.

The tolerance of the five thousand miners who were sent over here for cold was much worse. The soul masters among them fared better, as their bodies were stronger. However, there were not many soul masters among them. Most of them were ordinary people. They worked every day, and very quickly, many of them couldn’t hang on anymore, and some of them even died.

The blizzard tonight was especially strong, and no one knew what the conditions would be tomorrow. Given this atrocious weather, their progress would likely be stalled even further.

After hearing no news of Huo Yuhao, Ju Zi was actually very anxious. She hoped that their mining operations would finish quickly, so that she could return to her actual base. On the one hand, she wanted to quickly execute her plan for the war. On the other hand, she also hoped that she could rely on the Sun Moon Empire’s intelligence-gathering capabilities to find out where Huo Yuhao was.

Bitingly cold winds howled outside. The deafening sound made it seem as if avenging spirits were shrieking past. The soul lamps in the commander’s tent flickered even more intensely, and even more depressions appeared around the commander’s tent.

It’s even stronger now?

Chi chi!

Weird noises started to sound around the tent. Ju Zi suddenly focused her gaze, and seemed to have thought of something. She quickly charged towards the opening of the tent and drew the curtains. Countless ice flakes flew in. These ice flakes carried a strong chill and sharpness. Ju Zi subconsciously lifted her hands before she poured out her soul power, forming a protective barrier around herself.

However, even so, the ice flakes still managed to cause ripples to form after piercing the barrier around her.

“It’s damaged!” Ju Zi murmured in wonder, and immediately unleashed her protective soul barrier.

She was a seven-ringed Soul Sage. After unleashing her protective soul barrier, she ignored the raging blizzard in the sky and immediately leapt up flying tens of meters into the air.

She was immediately stunned when she saw what was going on.

The blizzard was raging throughout the entire base. Snowflakes that resembled icy blades were scattered everywhere, and covered the entire base. The leather tents of the Phoenix Soul Engineer Legions were still fine; notreally damaged yet. However, the other ordinary tents were already starting to tear because of the snowflakes.

Tragic screams were already sounding. The ordinary soldiers couldn’t possibly resist the ice flakes, which cut like sharp knives.

“Enemy attack!” Ju Zi shouted, and lifted her right hand. An orange-red beam of light immediately shot into the sky. Patches of orange-red light exploded amid the blizzard. Ju Zi’s red armor shone, and a barrier formed around her.

Orange-red figures started to appear from the perimeter of the base, and beams of orange-red light also started to gather in the air. They formed a layer of red barriers that started to expand as they resisted the blizzard.

There were four hundred soul engineers in the Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion, along with some reserve members. This placed the size of the entire legion at around five hundred soul engineers. They quickly rose into the sky at Ju Zi’s signal. Linked defensive soul tools were unleashed, forming a barrier to resist the brutal attacks of the blizzard.

Ju Zi realized that this blizzard wasn’t a natural phenomenon. No matter how strong a natural blizzard was, it was only snowy and windy. The snowflakes couldn’t be so sharp, and they wouldn’t contain undulations of ice elements, either. Without a doubt, this had to be someone’s doing!

Yuhao, is it you? 

After unleashing the linked defensive soul tools, the first thing that surfaced in Ju Zi’s head was Huo Yuhao.

However, she soon rejected that assumption. The reason was very simple: this blizzard was simply too strong!

Everything around had been covered by this blizzard, and it was damaging everything. No matter how talented Huo Yuhao was in terms of his Ultimate Ice, he was still a Soul Sage. A Soul Sage couldn’t possibly demonstrate such terrifying abilities. Ju Zi even felt that this couldn’t possibly be the doing of a single soul master.

Whether it was in terms of military matters or soul tools, Ju Zi was very intelligent. However, everyone had their flaws and shortcomings, and she wasn’t an exception. Her greatest shortcoming was that she wasn’t a strong soul master.

She wasn’t a strong soul master, but was a pure soul engineer instead. The strongest soul masters that she had fought were the evil soul masters from the Holy Ghost Church, who she actively avoided.

This was why she wasn’t able to deduce the cultivation of a soul master needed to produce such a brutal blizzard. Or rather, she couldn’t tell the number of soul masters needed to produce this blizzard. 

Don’t tell me that the Heavenly Soul Empire or Dou Ling Empire actually have a strong soul master legion?

However, no matter how strong this blizzard was, it couldn’t shake the linked defense of the entire Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion.

However, the linked defense formed by five hundred soul engineers still had a limit. Their defense couldn’t possibly protect the entire base.

After all, the base had to be big enough to contain twenty-five thousand people! They could only protect one-third of the base. This was their limit!

After stabilizing the formations, Ju Zi immediately descended and continued to give out commands. She didn’t command the soldiers to retreat to this one-third of the base. Given how terrifying the blizzard was, the ordinary soldiers would be torn apart the moment they exposed themselves outside. She immediately gave the order for everyone to hide under their beds and cover their bodies with their blankets.

Even though there would still be many casualties this way, she could only hope that this unnatural blizzard wouldn’t last for too long. If that was the case, the number of casualties could be minimized.

Ju Zi’s solution was undoubtedly the best they could do right now. Such a strong blizzard was unnatural. In her opinion, it couldn’t last long.

However, her expression still changed after she settled the soldiers in the base. She knew that they had lost this battle, even though it had only just begun.

Most of the soldiers were hiding underneath their beds and temporarily avoiding the blizzard. However, the other two-thirds of the base had already been torn to pieces. It couldn’t contain anyone any longer.

She had twenty-five thousand men with her, and it was already very cramped. It was impossible to contain everyone within the remaining one-third of the base.

This meant that their original plan couldn’t be completed even if this blizzard ended soon, and even if there weren’t too many casualties, it would be greatly delayed. Moreover, many people would certainly be hurt or killed. Even the machines that were used to mine the rare metals would be greatly damaged.

This blizzard was simply overwhelming! In addition, Ju Zi couldn’t even find her target. If she wasn’t able to lock onto her opponent and find out where this blizzard was coming from, she naturally had no way of dealing with it.

Can’t find my opponent?

As she thought until here, Ju Zi’s expression turned even grimmer. She subconsciously lifted her head and peered into the sky.

All she saw was the blizzard that was raging in the pitch-black night sky.

That’s it. The aerial surveillance soul tools will be greatly damaged in this blizzard. Or rather, the other party’s original plan…

As she thought of this, Ju Zi grit her teeth extremely hard.

A scheme, this is obviously a scheme! The other party obviously knows that even if I find out that their plan is to destroy our aerial surveillance soul tools, I won’t be able to command my soul engineers to leave the base, given the blizzard. This base is our foundation, we have so many soldiers here! Even if they choose to retreat, there won’t be enough tents. We’ll still sustain heavy losses. We have to protect our base. This gives them enough time to destroy our aerial surveillance soul tools!

-------

Ju Zi’s deductions were all correct.

Huo Yuhao was on the Ice Bear King’s back right now as he searched for the aerial surveillance soul tools at the boundaries of the blizzard.

As he had checked them earlier, he had already memorized the positions of the aerial surveillance soul tools. As for those that were within the blizzard, he didn’t have to worry at all.

The closer this blizzard was to the ground, the larger the area it covered. However, its actual strength would diminish. When it was in the air, its destructive strength would be even greater. Those aerial surveillance soul tools were not very tough. Given the strength of the blizzard, they would definitely be destroyed.

The Ice Bear King had once questioned Huo Yuhao. He told Huo Yuhao that the destructive strength of his Blizzard would be several times greater if it was unleashed at a lower altitude. The enemy would certainly suffer much greater losses.

However, Huo Yuhao stopped him from doing so. The reason was simple. He didn’t want to use this blizzard to deal with the enemy. Given the overall abilities of Ju Zi and her Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion, a blizzard was unable to truly hurt them. Once the region covered by this blizzard became smaller, she might have some way of dealing with it, since she was so intelligent.

Furthermore, the most important point was that Huo Yuhao didn’t want to kill too many ordinary soldiers. They were innocent, just ordinary people. War and invasions were the results of their ruler’s orders. Huo Yuhao’s main intention was to disrupt the Sun Moon Empire’s plan, not to kill people. Also, he was the only one who knew deep down in his heart that he was afraid of hurting Ju Zi.

It was the truth that this blizzard was very effective. The ground shook repeatedly, and the Sun Moon Empire’s army was in a great state of confusion. Even though Ju Zi’s orders were very appropriate, she couldn’t possibly deal with Huo Yuhao right now. The raging blizzard was also slightly weakened at Huo Yuhao’s request, but this let it last longer... long enough for all the aerial surveillance soul tools to be dealt with!

The blizzard soon covered a smaller region. However, the parts of the Sun Moon Empire’s base that were exposed were already completely destroyed.

The strength of the icy blades was limited, but that was only true for soul masters. To ordinary people, they were still quite lethal. Even though the strength of the blizzard was already greatly reduced at Huo Yuhao’s request, there were still many soldiers who would never get out from underneath their beds.

---

Ju Zi looked very grim right now. She maintained the linked defensive formation, which rapidly drained their soul power. The icy blades weren’t too strong, but it was difficult for them to maintain their positions within the blizzard. In just a short time, all the soul engineers had to replenish their soul power with a Milk Bottle each. More importantly, the blizzard greatly dampened the soldiers’ morale.

At this moment, a roar sounded in the distance. Ju Zi clearly saw a figure that was charging towards the base rapidly.

This figure didn’t come close to the base, but started causing damage around the perimeter. The figure looked to be that of a human, but its strength was extremely terrifying. Incredibly loud sounds of destruction started to reverberate in the air.

“Small Team 1, take care of him.” Ju Zi commanded. She still didn’t remove the linked defense formation. At this moment, she had to be more prudent in dealing with this unknown enemy.

There were ten soul engineers in one small team of the Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion. Each of them was led by a Class 6 soul engineer, while the rest were all Class 4 soul engineers.

Ten soul engineers rapidly charged towards the person who was causing destruction to the foundational structures around the base. Volleys of soul rays shot towards him.

They didn’t use any soul cannons, which would be more destructive, to preserve the foundational structures.

However, they were shocked to see that the person didn’t avoid their attacks at all. When the scorching soul rays struck him, they didn’t even create ripples, and just disappeared. The person didn’t seem to feel anything at all!

After this, they saw something shocking. That person stood in front of a thick metal pillar. It was one of the many metal pillars that Huo Yuhao witnessed the Sun Moon Empire drilling into the ground. Each pillar was fifty meters long, forged from special alloys.

As this person exerted his strength, he actually managed to crush his fingers into one of the pillars. He lifted it up, and swept this pillar towards the small team of soul engineers, like he was trying to swat flies!

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter