More than a dozen demon beasts, resembling tigers, wolves, bears, and wild boars, were wandering in the abandoned village, pawing at the corpses on the ground and gnawing on the flesh of the bones.
Suddenly, they perked up their ears and looked to the northwest, where an arrow of snow seemed to shoot across the sky like a flying arrow. The snowy ground rolled like sea waves, as if a piece of ice, similar to a flying boat, was gliding across the snowfield.
Upon closer inspection, one could see that on that block of ice was a Blood Man with no skin at all, treading on blood and riding ice, tunneling and flying, rushing straight over in an instant, and sweeping to the front.
Before the demon beasts could use their limited brain capacity to comprehend the scene before them, the Blood Man had already flown over, waving his right hand and sweeping his thumb, instantly striking out a blood line over four zhang long!
With a "hiss——!", the blood line swept across, beheading the demon beasts of the entire village, severing their bodies at the waist, all scattering across the icefield!
Seizing the moment when the meat was still warm, the Blood Man flew over, ripped and picked with his fingers, swallowed the Demon Core, skinned the hides, absorbed the Demon Blood and Flesh, and finally wrapped his whole body in the hides before taking a breath, leaping into the icy wind, as if standing on a vast glacier, gazing at the vast snowfield in the distance.
After escaping, Tie Dan realized that it had already started snowing. The cold penetrated the body, and even a cultivator must always channel True Qi to resist the Gang Wind. Moreover, the snow was very dirty, not ordinary ice crystals, but mixed with many impurities and dust, with some things that could not be seen or touched, nor explained, yet felt wrong.
Tie Dan, without the obstruction of outer skin, immediately discovered that this dirty snow would not only block the meridians and seal the Qi Veins, but if overly tainted, it would seep into the bones, inevitably posing hidden dangers to the Taoist Body. If not for the Heavenly Ruin Earth Evil Sword’s ability to temper the body, who knows how long it would take to retemper the Dao Body anew.
Suddenly, a wolf howl came from afar, clearly a demon summoning reinforcements. Tie Dan, not yet full, immediately slid over the ice to start his meal.
After swiftly traveling several li and crossing a mountain peak, he soon saw on the other side of an ice-covered hill, Demon Qi surging and Daoist energy crisscrossing—it was clearly a battle of spells between people.
So Tie Dan flew up to take a closer look, and sure enough, it was a group of Mystic Sect Disciples under attack by demons.
Counting them, there were fifteen or sixteen, besieged by over a hundred demons at the Core Formation stage, struggling bitterly. It looked like several were wounded, and several more were exhausted. Most had already depleted their True Qi and could only retreat to a small hill, relying on the terrain, using swords and crossbows for self-defense. Among the crowd, only three foundationally solid were left to block the mountain path temporarily, resisting the demons for a time.
A glance revealed these were Golden Core Realm cultivators, likely outer disciples from various factions training together. Although their skills were somewhat inferior to Tie Dan’s, having crossed the vast icefield and fought through demon tides to reach this point, their cultivation was solid.
However, recently, Kan State had become bone-chillingly cold. With cold waves sweeping south, Gang Wind and blizzards raged, temperatures plummeted, and even someone as powerful as Tie Dan couldn’t resist without a layer of hides against the cold, to prevent hypothermia. Looking at the corpses of cultivators being devoured by demon beasts on the ground, some were even clad in silk skirts and clothes, no wonder their faces turned blue, limbs stiffened, breathing became labored, ultimately exhausting their Qi Power and being eaten alive by the demons.
Meanwhile, these Southern cultivators lacked Northern outdoor experience. Now besieged by large groups of demons and with roars summoning more from all directions, within moments, two or three hundred more rushed over from the northern ridge.
Cold wind howled from above, scattering bits of ice crystals onto Tie Dan’s hides. It was about to snow again. This group of Mystic Sect practitioners wouldn’t abandon the wounded and break through but instead continued to cast spells and form formations, seemingly preparing to hold fast—they were practically sitting ducks.
Seeing no acquaintances among them and calculating it should be their calamity, Tie Dan didn’t rush to assist. He first flew to the foot of the mountain, picking up demon beast corpses scattered along the way and consumed them to restore Essence Blood and recover physical strength.
Unexpectedly, a hairy monkey fell from the sky, snatching food, and the surrounding demons were also taken aback.
After all, the opponent’s overwhelming blood aura obscured any other scent. However, this plush, stitched-together form of seven or eight heads certainly didn’t seem human. Dissatisfied, they roared twice, expressing "Do you understand the rules! First besiege and kill these Humans, then divide the meat!"
But Tie Dan pretended not to understand, "Ow ow ow," roaring chaotically twice, pounding his chest, then lunged to tear the lead demon apart, pulling out its heart and lungs to eat fresh.
The surrounding demons, seeing this crazy monkey, instantly dared not rob him of food, detouring around to prioritize attacking the Mystic Sect disciples.
So Tie Dan took over a field of demon corpses, eating while watching the show.
There was no need to watch the exhausted rabble; the key was the three experts defying the cold in fierce battle, their Qi Power not yet depleted.
Tie Dan, now experienced in killing, identified two by their movements: the one in a yellow robe was from Songshan, the one in a green robe from Heng Mountain. One wielded Songshan Qi Gong heavy sword hard work, and the other Heng Mountain sword light sword technique. They fought fiercely and ruthlessly, clearly deeply skilled and seasoned, able to aid each other, forming a pincer, hacking through the demon horde, holding the upper hand for a time.
The third dressed like a scholar, though unfamiliar, was evenly matched in skill, with a bookcase on his back that seemed to be a Sword Box. He deftly commanded over ten small golden swords, a flying sword flurry amid laughter, guarding the hill alone, carving a bloody path at the mountain path, protecting the disciples healing behind, with spare effort to support the other two with flying sword.