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--- Chapter 422 ---
White-Eyed Phoenix Lord focused all her attention on opening a hole for everyone to see.
Yet, at this moment, her expression shifted, "Young Lord, I have detected an unstable fluctuation within this spiritual plane."
"Something is about to happen to this institution, no, this city."
As the White-Eyed Phoenix Lord finished her words, everyone noticed the 'Snow Empress' within the white bubble snap her eyes open and gaze into the distance in horror.
The Demonic Beasts in the spiritual domain went on a rampage, wrecking everything on their path. Although the students have impressive power and hunt demonic beasts for cultivation, their number is just minuscule compared to the latter.
Moreover, the 'limited' feature within the spiritual domain was somehow broken and caused the confined area where they hunted to get flooded by demonic beasts.
"C-Can we help them?" Xiao Wu couldn't help but ask. No matter how she sees it, she feels pity for the students of Spirit Orchid Institute getting slaughtered inside the spiritual domain.
"We can't." Someone said with utter indifference.
Surprisingly, the person who said that is Snow Empress herself.
"Snow..." Ice Empress gazed at her close friend with a worried look.
Han Yuan sighed, "Unfortunately, as the Snow Empress herself said, we can't help those people, Xiao Wu."
"Not because I don't have the power to do so, but we can't."
"Why?" Xiao Wu was stunned. She looked very upset.
"Time!" Bi Ji realized something. "Di Tian once said that the Law of Time, whilst powerful, is taboo to a certain degree."
"If it is only surface-level Time Law, there wouldn't be a problem."
"A few seconds' time rewind won't cause much complications. Some spirit beasts in the Star Dou Forest have such an ability."
"However, the problem appears when the Time Law is 'forcibly' applied to an area with a massive time difference."
"In our case, it's the timeline."
"The time difference between our time and this Glory City is too far apart that even making the slightest change here would cause disturbance in the future."
"This is very crucial because it will affect not only the past, but also the present and future."
"More importantly, if we decided to save these people, we might prevent the Snow Empress and her fellow Heavenly Snow Maidens from being born."
"Effectively killing them from our time."
"That's why changing the past with Time Law is very taboo." Bi Ji sighed because she didn't expect the knowledge she learned sparingly from Di Tian to affect her so much.
"Then, we can't do anything but watch..." Xiao Wu helplessly watched as the students of Spirit Orchid Institute died one after another.
"Don't worry, the powerhouses of Glory City won't stay idle," remarked Han Yuan. "Also, those people we watched dying won't necessarily die themselves."
"Look at the cabin-like devices."
Everyone focused their attention on the field again and saw many cabin-like devices opening one after another quickly, revealing the supposedly deceased students.
They are still alive, but their complexion doesn't look very good. Dying in the spiritual domain must be like dying in the Spirit Ascension Platform, yes, the experience is real, but it won't kill you.
At most, their minds would get exhausted, needing them to recuperate for a good amount of time.
Of course, from the look of it, the 'exhaustion' caused by sudden death in the spiritual domain wasn't light either. The students looked as if they had been sucked dry mentally.
That kind of extreme mental exhaustion takes precious medicinal herbs over a thousand years to recover from; otherwise, it would take years even to recover.
Han Yuan then spotted an elderly figure rushing into the field, blocking one of the array formations with his spirit power and thus pulling every student out of the spiritual domain.
"Elder Ye!" shouted one of the sober students in panic. "T-The Spiritual Domain, i-it was rioting!"
Elder Ye nodded solemnly, "I know. Just focus on recovering from your exhaustion first."
"I will handle this matter with the principal and others."
"What about Ye Ziyun and her friends?"
"I am here..." Ye Ziyun 'Snow Empress' walked out of the cabin slowly and staggered out. Her face is paler, even paler than snow.
Elder Ye's eyes widened in disbelief, "This, your condition, how long have you stayed in the spiritual domain?"
"I don't know. I got surrounded by demonic beasts and slaughtered my way to others. I managed to save six people before getting forced out of the spiritual realm." Ye Ziyun shook her head, looking very dispirited.
"Let me see your condition..." Elder Ye grabbed Ye Ziyun's wrist carefully, and his eyes widened once again. "Your cultivation has reached the Spirit Emperor realm."
"You must have killed and devoured too much Demon Beasts' spiritual energy."
"Sigh, your affinity for heaven and earth has improved beyond normal."
"I don't know if this is a blessing or not."
Han Yuan raised his eyebrow slightly, 'Heaven and Earth Affinity? That's a new term for sure.'
'But what for? The degree of compatibility? The rate of absorption? Or even the reason behind Snow Empress and her fellow Heavenly Snow Women's births?'
While thinking about this, Han Yuan also noticed the scenery around them rapidly moving, as if in time-lapse. Thankfully, his own mental force is strong enough to digest every event that occurs.
To keep it short, the plane-hopping array that the Glory City developed to farm 'spiritual energy' in another plane, named Small Demon Grotto Plane, has failed.
Not only did the plane-hopping array fail to keep the Small Demon Grotto Plane at bay, but it also caused the latter to be able to invade Glory City, no, Douluo Continent!
At this rate, it would become a complete and utter disaster.
To stop the invasion, Glory City immediately drove all its resources into developing two strategies.
Another large-scale spirit guidance array to stop, no, block the invasion, and a group of powerful spirit masters to halt the invasion.
The array needed time to develop. After all, wisdom needs time to bloom just like a flower.
As for the group of powerful spirit masters, they were called the Demon Slaying Squad.
However, everyone in the Glory City knew that the Demon Slaying Squad was no different than sending their experts to their death.
It is simply an act of quenching one's thirst by consuming poison.
An inevitable doom!
As for running from the Glory City, that would be even more impossible, as the area surrounding the city is full of ferocious spirit beasts. Several 100,000-year-old spirit beasts are even more dangerous than these demon spirits.
Not to mention, they haven't contacted the outside world for a very long time. Even if they successfully reached the outside world, the others might not help them.
So, they were truly locked in this place.
.
.
One of the Demon Slaying Squad's leaders is none other than Ye Ziyun, 'Snow Empress,' but her expression was not very good.
Even though Ye Ziyun's cultivation has risen rapidly, reaching the Spirit Saint realm in just a few months after that first incident, her mental force is actually very unstable.
As expected, absorbing too much spiritual energy and having a high level of affinity toward Heaven and Earth weren't good things for a mortal body.
"Breach detected! The third tower of the east, a plane-crossing hole has appeared and killed the guards there." A warning voice rang in Glory City.
Ye Ziyun and her squad quickly walked out from the darkness, wearing a white-red shrine maiden combat attire, while holding their respective weapon, and not surprisingly, 'Snow Empress' has chosen an icy longsword.
Han Yuan gazed at the demon-slaying weapons and discovered they were actually spiritual artifacts made from the remains of those Demon Spirits and Spirit Guidance Tool technology.
Yet, he also noticed its terrifying aspect. The demon-slaying weapon isn't just increasing the wielder's power, but also gradually devouring them to death.