The old patriarch showed no extra reaction, a swift dodge and he was gone, flying out of the mountain belly, speeding away through the air.
The two manor lords still in place exchanged glances, looked at the golden orchid plant before them, though itching to pick it, but after sizing up the golden giant statue holding a sword, they ultimately felt uncertain and somewhat fearful, not daring to act rashly against the golden fruit.
Both flew away, and after exiting the mountain belly they both transformed into demon forms, spreading their wings to soar high…
Inside the palace, the two groups continued their search.
The iron-faced man and others who had entered for the first time were naturally greatly broadening their horizons, this existence of one world nested within another was truly marvellous.
There was also Wu Hei, searching with his son, who was still unwilling to give up.
Actually, even without asking Wu Xieshan earlier, he had already realised what Old Patriarch Wu had gone to do, he could figure it out, for that uncle of his, nothing was more important than finding the Heavenly Spring, so naturally the man had gone to search for the Heavenly Spring.
In other words, the Heavenly Spring was not inside this palace.
But he still feared there might be oversights, or feared it might be some scheme of Old Patriarch Wu, thus he still refused to give up, insisting on thoroughly searching the immortal palace to completion, wanting to continue searching the places not yet inspected, before actually confirming things he could not give up halfway.
But just at this moment, a clanging sound suddenly rang out.
Mu Aotie and a cloaked figure both flashed back to the palace from the pavilion on the mountain peak, striking the golden carved railing, sounding an urgent alarm.
The two were on sentry duty, Wu Hei and the iron-faced man had each sent one person they relatively trusted to keep watch.
Mainly to guard against Old Patriarch Wu’s arrival, there was no other way, they could not blindly search without a care, after all Old Patriarch Wu might return at any moment.
They had thought killing Wu Xieshan, that person who might send a warning, would buy them enough time, they had not expected him to come so quickly.
And he came so unexpectedly.
There was no imagined scene of two demons carrying a reclining chair flying over, but rather a sudden arrival, a figure suddenly drilling out from the dark clouds, suddenly descending from the sky, suddenly landing not far from the pavilion on the mountain peak, nearly scaring Mu Aotie and that cloaked figure out of their wits.
Inside the palace there was instantly chaos.
Wu Hei could not care about the others, he knew he was the main target his uncle wanted to capture, grabbing his son he immediately rushed toward the nearest exit outside the palace, breaking through the void waves, bursting into the deep sea.
When the three fellow disciples met, Yu Qing’s sharp eyes caught Wu Hei and his son’s movements, immediately calling to his two senior brothers, “Quick, go!”
The three also rushed out through the nearest exit in emergency, breaking through the void waves, bursting into the vast deep sea.
The moment they were enveloped by seawater, the three immediately felt immense pressure, the kind that nearly squeezed them to bursting, the three exerted all their cultivation to resist, swimming desperately away, swift as fish in the pitch-black sea.
They had to run, everyone had committed quite a few sins at Split Valley Manor, and had just killed Wu Xieshan, if they did not run they would lose their lives.
Yu Qing originally had another risky escape plan, but thinking of his two senior brothers nearby, it was truly not suitable to be too adventurous, he himself could risk it, but he could not gamble away Old Seventh and Old Ninth’s lives as well, if he really did that, he could not face his deceased master.
Everyone scattered and fled into the sea, perhaps some would be caught, but it was indeed the escape method with the highest survival probability, after all no matter how high Old Patriarch Wu’s cultivation was, he could not simultaneously catch so many people fleeing in all directions in the sea.
Ning Chaoyi and the others naturally followed the crowd, noticing Wu Hei and Yu Qing and the others’ direction, they also immediately fled without hesitation, breaking through the void waves toward the deep sea.
One expert’s arrival instantly made everyone scatter like birds and beasts.
But the iron-faced man urgently waved the fluorite in his hand, quickly gathering his subordinates together, then quickly extinguished the fluorite’s glow, he seemed to have other ideas.
Outside the pavilion, Old Patriarch Wu who had landed directly, landed at the conspicuous bloodstain, before Wu Xieshan’s corpse.
The corpse had been shattered, this technique seemed somewhat familiar, Old Patriarch Wu gazed for a moment, his cold eyes fixed on the pavilion, suddenly a swift dodge, light as a phantom, instantly breaking into the palace, he could see in the dark, faintly glimpsing figures breaking through the void waves to flee.
He immediately flashed across the entire palace, landing on the gate tower, looking up at the deep sea, sneering, “You came and still want to run? None of you shall escape!”
The blue halberd in his hand swept out, slicing through the void waves, thrusting diagonally upward, half in the sea, under his spell-driven power, the blue halberd actually faintly bloomed with pale blue light in the darkness, frost immediately appeared outside the void waves, the void waves solidified.
The speed of seawater freezing instantly radiated through the entire sea like a shockwave!
The iron-faced man lurking secretly inside the palace, noticing that Old Patriarch Wu had gone outside to the gate tower, immediately signalled a group of subordinates to follow him.
He actually took this opportunity, leading a group of subordinates to sneak back into the space leading to the pavilion on the mountain peak, then all successfully escaped through the window, truly bold and meticulous.
Speaking of which, without such courage, he would not have dared to take things this far.
After the group leapt out from the pavilion, they immediately fled in emergency.
Having already figured out and confirmed the way in and out of the immortal palace, the iron-faced man obviously had his own ideas…
Wu Hei fleeing in the deep sea, bearing immense pressure, cast a spherical space for his son with his spells, quickly fleeing toward the sea surface. But midway he noticed something, suddenly looked down toward the seabed, then looked around in surprise and doubt.
The spherical space encountered resistance as it advanced, and the resistance grew greater and greater, so great that he could hardly drive it forward with his spells anymore.
Only then did Wu Hei understand what the resistance was about, but by the time he understood it was too late.
Understanding or not could not change anything, it froze, a powerful freezing force had actually sealed an entire sea, locking him and his son tightly inside the spherical space. The only benefit was that he no longer needed to maintain this spherical space with his spells, resolving that immense pressure.
He exerted all his cultivation, wanting to try whether he could break through the ice layer, but found the ice layer completely unresponsive.
Not hard to understand, beneath the sea, the ice layer was so thick, gravity so great, though his cultivation was high, it was not high enough to shoulder an entire sea.
He took out fluorite to illuminate, the surrounding ice was transparent and clear, the cold air biting.
Little Black was carefree, his bright eyes full of curiosity, his hand touching the ice surface looking quite cheerful.
For his son’s sake, Wu Hei could not sit and wait for death, beginning to punch the ice surface one fist after another, using the shattered ice chips to pad his feet, hoping to use this method to shift outward bit by bit.
However, he quickly realised this method was not very practical, the space for father and son was gradually shrinking, if this continued, father and son might not even have room to move, he had no choice but to stop, and with one finger pointed at his son’s back, caused him to fall into a coma state…
Yu Qing fleeing in the deep sea suddenly shivered from the cold, the bone-chilling cold coming instantly, forcing him to cast spells to resist the cold, also feeling greater and greater resistance to his escape, later he felt what despair was.
He took out fluorite to illuminate in the seawater, wanting to see what was going on, also seeing nearby Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie who had similarly taken out fluorite to illuminate.
The three fellow disciples were all somewhat panicked.
Panicked or not, the three soon could no longer move, frozen, sealed in ice.
The key was that being frozen they did not die, with their cultivation they would not die so easily, the seawater outside had frozen, their bodies were still desperately casting spells to resist the cold, desperately maintaining their physical vitality.
But at this moment they were desperate, the kind of despair that most people would not likely experience in their entire lives.
A person alive, yet frozen in ice unable to move, exerting all cultivation yet unable to shake the ice seal in the slightest, about to be frozen alive to death like this…
On the gate tower, Old Patriarch Wu withdrew his hand, swish, pulling back the blue halberd, thud, planting it on the ground.
No matter who had fled outside, they were all frozen by him now, the entire ice palace was sealed, no one could easily escape, he could search slowly.
Just at this moment, he slightly cocked his head to listen, faintly hearing a long howl, that was a sound only he and the three manor lords could hear, normal people could not hear this kind of sound.
Hearing this he immediately flashed away, rapidly flashing out and ascending from the palace’s back gate, quickly flying off in one direction.
Flying at high speed through the air.
After flying several dozen li, he saw Wu Dao circling with spread wings in the air, below him was the iron-faced man fleeing in panic.
The iron-faced man’s heart was in turmoil at this moment.
Some things truly are beyond human calculation, his plan was not wrong, but alas not long after escaping from the pavilion on the mountain peak, their group had actually run into Wu Dao and Wu Heyun flying through the air, the group was immediately targeted by the two.
And the others were flying high in the air, even with the iron-faced man’s cultivation he could do nothing to the two in the sky.
With no other choice, to increase the chance of escape, he ordered everyone to scatter and flee.
However, he looked like the leader, Wu Dao directly locked onto him, while Wu Heyun went after the others.
“Old ancestor, a group of nine happened to run into us, scattered and fled, this one looks like the leader.”
Seeing Old Patriarch Wu arrive, Wu Dao immediately reported.
Old Patriarch Wu made an “oh” sound, swoosh, a flash downward, like a phantom landing on a slope on the ground, just planting his halberd to block the iron-faced man’s escape path ahead.
The iron-faced man urgently braked to a stop, though wearing a mask, one could sense his face changing from his eye holes, his Adam’s apple bobbing continuously, knowing he could not escape, his guts turning green with regret, regretting that he should not have fled inward, he should have fled into the sea.
“What person?” Old Patriarch Wu asked coldly.
The iron-faced man’s Adam’s apple was still bobbing nonstop, truly not knowing how to answer, the key was that his origins could not be exposed, once exposed, he would completely have no way back.
Wu Dao landed, transforming into human form, standing beside Old Patriarch Wu saying, “Should be inseparable from that group who made trouble at the manor earlier.”
Old Patriarch Wu flashed once, arriving before the iron-faced man, indifferently saying, “Won’t speak? Fine, I’ll give you a chance, you flee, I’ll hunt you, let’s see if you can escape!”
What kind of talk was this? The iron-faced man was speechless, after slight hesitation, he suddenly flung back his cloak, actually kneeling on one knee before Old Patriarch Wu, “This one knows he is no match for the old gentleman, dares not flee again, willing to serve the old gentleman with dog and horse service, begging the old gentleman to raise his hand and spare this one a way to live!”