Gateway of Immortality-Chapter 441: Snake Granny

As he neared the massive disc, Qin Sang shuddered violently.

A terrifying chill emanated from ahead—second only to the Malevolent Frost Wind!

The closer he got, the more he felt his spiritual power stagnate within his body, as if he were about to be frozen solid.

At last, Teng Zhaogang came into view.

His entire body was covered in a thick layer of white frost, making him look like a living snowman. The disc rested on his lap, still exuding an unceasing chill.

Before Teng Zhaogang, a senior brother from the Taiyi Core Sect sat facing him, looking equally miserable.

They were both channeling spiritual power into the discs, supporting the massive array disc above, aiding Golden Core Di in setting up the array.

However, even now, Qin Sang could not see the big disc with his naked eye.

Above Teng Zhaogang, cold qi had gathered into a thick cloud, resembling an enormous frozen vortex suspended in midair. The overwhelming chill radiating from it was suffocating.

"Help me dispel the cold..."

Teng Zhaogang’s teeth chattered, his voice weak, yet he continued channeling spiritual power into the disc, not daring to slacken.

Qin Sang and Zhan Yi landed on either side of him.

After a brief moment of thought, Qin Sang retrieved a teapot-shaped artifact from his Mustard Seed Pouch.

This was an artifact he had personally refined, created by fusing the partially damaged Thousand-Raven Urn with another fire-based artifact, which he had named the Thousand-Flame Urn.

The smoke originally contained within the Thousand-Raven Urn was of the fire element, and the illusory crows it conjured were a type of Fire Crow, infused with dense fire-elemental energy. The artifact he had merged it with was of a similar nature.

At the time, he had attempted the fusion as an experiment—partly to salvage the Thousand-Raven Urn, which was a high-grade artifact, and partly to hone his artifact refinement skills. To his surprise, the fusion had succeeded on the first attempt.

Though the Thousand-Flame Urn had not improved in quality, its fire-elemental energy was now more abundant, and rather than releasing smoke, it now expelled spiritual flames.

Its function had also changed, shifting from defensive to offensive capabilities.

Now, Qin Sang cradled the Thousand-Flame Urn, unleashing waves of spiritual flames around the three of them, driving away the cold qi.

Zhan Yi, meanwhile, drew a fire-based flying sword, channeling spiritual power into it to release slashes of flame-like sword qi, though the effect was mediocre at best.

...

Not long after Qin Sang entered the array, several streaks of evasion light flew in from the horizon.

Di let out a long sigh of relief and said, "You’ve returned just in time. Hurry and help stabilize the array core so we can complete the array!"

Time passed, and just as Qin Sang was approaching his limit, Teng Zhaogang was finally relieved of his duty.

Returning below, he found that the Chaotic Island Waters had undergone a shocking transformation.

On all sides, as well as above, a boundless sea of mist had formed. freewёbnoνel.com

The array's range was even larger than Qin Sang had imagined. He flew toward the mist layer and peered into the distance, barely able to make out the boundary. The white mist, dense and unwavering, covered the Chaotic Island Waters, enclosing the entire region.

Beneath the mist, there was a narrow three-zhang-high space where the fog thinned enough to allow visibility.

Despite the mist’s thinness, the weather within the Chaotic Island Waters kept changing unpredictably—at times, a blizzard raged, at others, gentle snowfall descended; sometimes, fine drizzles filled the air, and at other moments, icy gales swept across, carrying frozen shards.

No wonder this array was called the Thousand-Illusion Array of True Waters—it was ever-changing, shifting endlessly.

The entire Chaotic Island Waters now resembled a sanctuary woven from mist. However, the low-hanging fog created an oppressive feeling.

Yet, within this array, Qin Sang felt significantly more at ease than before.

After all, with a grand array protecting them, they wouldn’t be thrown into a chaotic battle at a moment’s notice.

Sweeping his gaze across the area, Qin Sang noticed that Di was seated at the very center of the Chaotic Island Waters, atop its largest island. Beside him sat several other formidable Core Formation cultivators, all deeply focused.

The array appeared to be incomplete, as they were still busy with its final stages.

Even at Qin Sang’s level, he could sense that these Golden Core experts carried traces of exhaustion in their aura, a clear indication of how difficult setting up the Thousand-Illusion Array of True Waters had been.

Vice Island Master Xiao is not among them. Is he still engaged in battle?

Just as Qin Sang pondered this, Di seemed to sense something. His eyes snapped open as he turned southward and uttered a low command, "Open!"

At once, within the thick mist, a faint white light appeared, piercing through the fog. As the mist churned, a narrow passageway emerged.

Whoosh, whoosh...

Several streaks of evasion light shot through the passage.

Accompanying them was Vice Island Master Xiao’s urgent voice, "Seal the array immediately!"

Qin Sang focused his gaze and saw that, at some point, more than a dozen figures had appeared on the island. Most of them had tattered robes, and their artifacts remained unsheathed, as if they had been caught off guard. Some bore gruesome wounds, their disheveled appearances revealing the brutal struggle they had endured.

Among them were Vice Island Master Xiao and Che Yutao.

However, at the very center stood an old woman holding a serpent staff.

Seeing how Di and the others treated the old woman with the utmost reverence, Qin Sang was secretly astonished. So Stargazing Island’s Island Master is this very woman.

Beside the old woman, an unusual figure stood close to her. His upper body was that of a handsome man, but his lower half was entirely serpentine. Instead of a human tongue, a scarlet snake’s forked tongue flickered from his mouth.

His eyes bore vertical pupils, just like a serpent’s, and his gaze carried a bone-chilling coldness.

Qin Sang had once asked Zhan Yi about her. This individual was called Snake Granny, the vice sect leader of Yuling Sect.

This half-human, half-serpent entity was nominally the old woman's spirit beast, but in truth, he was a demonic beast from Heavenly Demon Hill, enlightened by the Imperial Elixir at an early stage, which had awakened his intelligence. He was then sent to Yuling Sect, where he formed a contract with Snake Granny.

Rumors suggested that this serpent-bodied man had an extraordinary status within Heavenly Demon Hill and that his strength was on par with Snake Granny herself.

The Yuling Sect was located northwest of Yuanshen Sect, making it the closest sect in the Small Cold Domain to Heavenly Demon Hill. It was a sect that straddled both the righteous and demonic paths, deeply entangled with Heavenly Demon Hill through numerous, complex connections.

Like Shangyuan Tranquility Palace and a few other ancient sects, Yuling Sect had a long-standing lineage. No matter how turbulent the situation in Small Cold Domain became, they always managed to maintain their foothold.

Their heritage far surpassed that of short-lived demonic sects like Kuiyin Sect, which flickered into existence only to vanish just as quickly.

What allowed Yuling Sect to remain standing was precisely its intimate connection with Heavenly Demon Hill. Even though they lacked a Spiritual Infant cultivator, the other sects preferred not to provoke them.

There were even rumors that true Spiritual Infant experts in the Small Cold Domain were exceedingly rare.

At present, the Yuling Sect had no acting sect leader, as there were no Spiritual Infant cultivators within the sect. Snake Granny was the de facto sect leader.

Even among the Eight Major Sects of the righteous path and some of the well-established demonic sects, there were several factions similar to Yuling Sect—they lacked a Spiritual Infant cultivator, yet possessed methods capable of deterring one.

This revelation contradicted what Qin Sang had once believed when he was in the Qi Refining Realm, but that was understandable.

He was still far from the level where he could access such secrets. For now, these were nothing more than rumors to him, and even the rumors he was hearing now might not be entirely true.

Seeing Snake Granny and the serpent-bodied man scanning the area, Qin Sang suddenly felt uneasy. He quickly averted his gaze—after all, he still had the relics of a Yuling Sect's Golden Core cultivator in his Mustard Seed Pouch. He could not afford to expose himself.

All of them were Golden Core experts. Qin Sang couldn’t perceive their cultivation arts, but he could infer some details from their artifacts—the righteous, demonic, and rogue cultivators of the Small Cold Domain had all gathered here.

Among them, two figures were being carefully guarded. They were none other than Senior Fang and Senior Shentu, the ones who had first fallen victim to the ambush.

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