But it was truly an extremely bitter battle. Ao’ye and his several dozen team members had to fend off forty to fifty great mystic cultivators levels 12 and above, in addition to more than a hundred mystic beasts.
The Night Pavilion’s three teams amounted to several dozen members, but only three people, including himself, were left.
Ao’ye didn’t know how he descended the snowy peaks. Yet when he finally struggled to open his eyes after someone shook him back and forth, he saw several familiar faces.
He recognized them as people from the Three Sects.
“Young Brother, how are you? Why are you here?” Daybreak Sect’s Sect Master Liang Wanshan asked him anxiously, “Do you know what happened on these snowy peaks?”
Ao’ye was at a loss from the sudden series of questions.
“Who are you?” Duan Yue abruptly hoisted him up, his peach-blossom eyes glossed with cruelty. “You?”
“Clang!” An identity pendant fell to the ground, and the others picked it up.
It was only after Duan Yue swept it a glance that he loosened his grip on Ao’ye’s collar. “You’re one of the crown prince’s men?”
“Cough cough cough.” As Ao’ye lay on the ground, he was so exhausted that he didn’t want to move at all. He lifted his eyelids and looked towards the top of the snowy peaks.
With a single look, he understood why the Daybreak Sect’s Sect Master and the others had such flabbergasted expressions.
The five peaks were completely enveloped by vines and thistles, and the originally snow-white summits were not to be seen. Rather, intertwining branches and thick brush towered high above.
It was like, all the snowy peaks transformed into an ancient thicket in the span of a single night.
“How? …” Ao’ye struggled to get up, but Duan Yue had already paid heed to him no more and flew towards the summits of the snowy peaks with a leap.
When Situ Yi saw this, he hastily followed after him. Many others from the two sects also followed along.
Unfortunately, when they flew halfway up the mountain, they were obstructed completely by vines as thick as a person’s wrists.
They chopped at these branches, intending to open up a path. Even though everyone was slightly puzzled by the situation, their movements didn’t slow down.
On the other end, Mo Lian, who was currently rushing towards the Holy Water Sect at top speed, started panicking.
Originally, his thread of remnant divine conscious had been able to sense the little fellow’s existence.
But just now, he couldn’t sense anything at all.
It was like the little fellow had disappeared from the world all of a sudden. Her presence had completely vanished from the face of the earth!
Seventh Yan knew the apprehension in his master’s heart. With a whip of its dragon tail, it darted towards the Holy Water Sect at a speed comparable to that of light.
The two sects’ people had already summoned their mystic beasts to help chop and claw at the obstructing ancient vines and old trees. They wanted to open up a path towards the Sect Master’s Peak as soon as possible.
Suddenly, they heard a dragon’s cry. When they raised their heads, they saw the crown prince standing on the golden dragon’s back while facing the wind. The dragon was currently spiraling around the dense thicket of ancient vines, seemingly unable to find a suitable landing.
Duan Yue waved vigorously at him and then shouted one word: “Fire.”
An incinerating red blaze shot out from the crown prince’s hands. It landed on the patch of vines in front of Duan Yue and the others, burning out a path in its wake.
The group of people increased their speed at clearing a path. With the raging and scorching blaze, in addition to the mystic beasts’ fierce advance, they were able to forcibly open up a path in this cocoon of ancient vines.
However, when everyone rushed to the Sect Master’s Peak, they were all involuntarily dumbstruck.
Where the branches encircled the summit, the ground was completely empty. They didn’t even see a single corpse. A majority of the snowy peaks had already been flattened, and they could only see some building ruins.
Looking into the distance, they saw that the ground was strewn with broken branches. It was a desolate sight.