Chapter 76: The Northern Region’s Top Talent

The surroundings became silent, with only the sound of wind and falling snow remaining. Han Yue was the first to snap out of his shock. He cupped his hands and bowed respectfully in all directions, speaking in an extremely reverent tone:

“Thank you, Senior, for saving us. Please show yourself so that this junior may pay respects!”

The wind and snow swirled and howled past. Xu Ziyan, hidden within the storm, did not emerge. Since Zhou Yao and Zhou Qiang were already dead, Han Yue and Xu Yundong would surely return safely to the Xu Clan. Thus, the clan leader would naturally learn everything that had happened here, making her own appearance unnecessary.

“Senior! Senior! Are you still there?” Han Yue continued to call out persistently.

Suddenly, the sound of sword flight sliced through the air from above and behind Han Yue and Xu Yundong. The two of them abruptly turned and looked up. Through the dense snow, they saw a person wildly flying on a sword. It was clear they had been flying for a long time, as their True Essence seemed nearly depleted. Staggering unsteadily, they could no longer control the Flying Sword beneath their feet, lurching down toward where Han Yue and Xu Yundong stood.

With a thud, the person landed on the ground, stumbling forward several steps before barely steadying themselves. With a wave of their hand, the sword on the snowy ground flew back into their grasp. Clutching the sword, they glanced warily at Han Yue and Xu Yundong, then nervously looked back at the sky behind them before staggering off in the direction of Zhongdu City.

Whooshing sounds cut through the air as three figures abruptly descended from above, surrounding the person who had just landed.

Hidden within the snowstorm, Xu Ziyan focused her gaze. The person trapped in the middle was a middle-aged woman, whose Cultivation Level had actually reached the Third Layer of Qi Refining Stage. Encircling her in a triangular formation were also three women: two middle-aged women and a girl around seventeen or eighteen years old.

Xu Ziyan’s eyes swept over the three women, and her heart shook. What shocked her wasn’t the two middle-aged women at the Third Layer of Qi Refining Stage, but the young girl who actually had the same Cultivation Level as her—the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining.

At that moment, the woman trapped in the middle anxiously scanned her surroundings. Finally, her gaze fell upon Han Yue and Xu Yundong. After sensing their Cultivation Levels, her face showed disappointment, but she still urgently cried out:

“Brothers, I am Xu Wenli from the Xu Clan in Zhongdu City. The Yang Family is hunting me down. I beg you, please go to Zhongdu City and inform the Xu Clan’s leader that the Yang Family is pursuing me.”

“The Yang Family?” Xu Ziyan, hidden in the snowstorm, was inwardly shaken. “The Yang Family from Nanlin City? Could that young girl be the Yang Family’s genius, Yang Linglong?”

Xu Ziyan immediately realized that the woman in the middle must be like Xu Yundong—a spy the Xu Clan had placed within the Yang Family. Having learned of the alliance between the Zhou Family and the Yang Family, she was desperately trying to return to the Xu Clan with the news.

These people must not die. They surely had critical, detailed information to bring back to their clan. But facing the three from the Yang Family, there was no way they could survive on their own.

Xu Ziyan sighed inwardly. It seemed she had no choice but to reveal herself. Using her Spiritual Power, she glanced inside her Storage Pouch and found only one fifth-grade Talisman left, with the rest being Second-grade Talismans she had made for her clan.

“I’ll fight. At worst, I’ll expose my true Cultivation Level. Isn’t Yang Linglong called the top talent of the Northern Mortal World? Let me see exactly how strong she is.”

A surge of heroic spirit rose within Xu Ziyan. A fighting intent erupted from her heart, burst out of her body, and shot straight into the sky.

Yang Linglong abruptly turned and looked toward the direction where Xu Ziyan was hiding. She sensed an overwhelming fighting intent rushing toward her from behind.

Xu Ziyan concentrated her mind, and the Snow Force responded to her will. Hidden within the blizzard, she instantly appeared beside Xu Wenli. Quickly, she pulled a “Instant Teleportation Talisman” from her Storage Pouch.

It was a top-tier Second-grade Talisman capable of teleporting a person twenty meters away. As soon as Xu Ziyan reached Xu Wenli’s side, she swiftly slapped the Talisman onto Xu Wenli’s body.

Xu Wenli was startled, looking confusedly at the seemingly empty space beside her. Then, a brilliant light enveloped her, and her figure began to fade instantly.

“Not good!”

Yang Linglong was horrified. She formed a hand seal with her fingers and pointed toward Xu Wenli’s fading form. The longsword hovering beside her circled once and shot like a beam of light toward Xu Wenli.

Xu Ziyan raised her hand and threw out five top-tier Second-grade earth Talismans. The air rippled rapidly, and five earthen shields abruptly materialized in front of Xu Wenli.

“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”

Five deafening explosions rang out as the shields shattered one after another. However, Yang Linglong’s controlled sword was also repelled. Yang Linglong reached out, retrieved her sword, and stared intently ahead.

By now, Xu Wenli’s figure had vanished from her sight. Suddenly, a soft exclamation was heard, and Xu Wenli’s form appeared twenty meters away.

“Show yourself!”

Yang Linglong’s pretty face flushed with fury. She knew someone had rescued Xu Wenli, and that person, having stayed to cover the teleportation, had not left. With her angry shout, she raised both hands over her head, pulled them apart, and then swiftly flipped them. Around the spot where Xu Wenli had vanished, a ring of short spears materialized, entirely formed from condensed metal-attributed Spiritual Energy.

“Go!”

With her sharp cry, the dense ring of short spears hummed and shot toward the center. At that moment, Xu Ziyan was still hidden there. Earlier, she had been forced to help Xu Wenli block Yang Linglong’s sword. The explosive collision between the sword and the Talismans had thrown the surrounding Spiritual Power into chaos, preventing Xu Ziyan from using her Snow Force to escape.

Now trapped within Yang Linglong’s metal energy—and with Yang Linglong’s enraged attack being far more powerful than her previous sword control—Xu Ziyan had no choice. She threw out Talismans again, this time releasing ten top-tier Second-grade Talismans at once, arranging them around herself into a low-grade defensive Talisman Array.

“Boom, boom—”

The explosions seemed endless. The white snow on the ground was completely swept away, and even the hard winter soil was scraped off to a depth of over half a foot. Snowflakes in the surrounding air instantly vaporized into mist and were pushed far away. Within the blast radius, not a single trace of snow remained.

The short spears of metal-attributed energy vanished. The Talisman Array was also reduced to dust in the collision. With no snow around, Xu Ziyan’s figure was revealed before everyone’s eyes…