More than ten days passed, and one day a clear, piercing howl suddenly rang out from beyond the ice house. Though not especially loud, it was enough to rouse
His brow twitched, and he opened his eyes.
A flicker of thought crossed his gaze. He tilted his head for a moment in contemplation, then rose to his full height, pushed open the ice door, and stepped outside.
Before the ice house, on the broad expanse of open ground, a great ice hall had appeared at some point, easily a hundred zhang across. The structure was supported by several massive ice pillars—crude in construction, to be sure, but they glimmered brilliantly under the sunlight, lending it a grandeur all its own.
Atop an ice platform several zhang high inside the hall stood a man and a woman.
The man was a strikingly handsome youth with a full head of silver hair and a face as youthful as a boy's. The woman had dark hair swept up in a high chignon and a voluptuous figure of extraordinary beauty; her bare arms, smooth as lotus roots, and a pair of porcelain-white feet were fully exposed to the open air, as though the biting cold atop the mountain meant nothing to her at all.
Both of these individuals possessed Void Refining stage cultivation, and the silver-haired man was at the mid-stage.
It was he who had let out that piercing howl.
Below the ice platform, four or five people were already standing there—Fairy Ying and the grey-bearded
In the blink of an eye, nearly twenty cultivators had assembled atop the summit.
Every one of them was at the Deity Transformation stage or above, and after hearing the howl, they made their way toward the great hall with expressions ranging from curiosity to wariness.
Once inside, many of the cultivators immediately offered respectful greetings to the couple on the ice platform:
"Senior Zheng, Senior Qing—we pay our respects!"
"Both esteemed seniors have arrived as well! This junior greets you!"
…
It was this very pair—man and woman cultivators of considerable renown among the Gold Guards of Sky Abyss City—who had personally come to invite him. Though this was his first time dealing with them, their reputation was decent enough, and they were both cultivators who had ascended from the lower realms. Otherwise, no matter how generous the terms offered, whether he would have agreed to participate was far from certain.
The long howl from the silver-haired man named Zheng had already ceased abruptly. Smiling, he returned the greetings of those assembled, and finally addressed them in a clear, carrying voice:
"Most of us have arrived now. Fellow Daoists, please take a seat. Let us discuss how best to wipe out that nest of Green-Eyed True Toads."
The moment he finished speaking, the beautiful woman beside him raised one hand and sent a incantation seal downward.
Immediately, white light flickered along both sides of the ice hall, and one after another, exquisite jade chairs materialized under the effect of a series of simple formations.
The cultivators took their seats as directed, then turned their attention back to the Void Refining stage couple, who had seated themselves on the platform as well.
The silver-haired man swept his gaze across the assembled crowd before speaking with a smile:
"As expected, it's much as my wife and I anticipated. Of all the fellow Daoists we invited, only about forty percent have actually made it here. The rest are either tied up with assignments and couldn't come, or ran into some trouble and couldn't make the journey of ten thousand li. But even so, as long as we work together, we can still successfully exterminate that brood of Green-Eyed True Toads. When the time comes, each of us takes what we came for—the fellow Daoists here receive the True Toads' spirit blood, while my wife and I obtain the several stalks of Thousand Heart that those ancient beasts have been guarding. This was all explained to everyone in advance, and I trust there are no objections. Of course, the distribution of the spirit blood will depend on each person's contribution—there will be no equal split. I hope none of you harbors the notion of reaping rewards without lifting a finger."
The handsome young man delivered this speech in full, and as he reached the final sentences, a powerful Void Refining stage spiritual pressure emanated faintly from his body. His expression had turned grave.
The other cultivators listened in silence, remaining seated without apparent objection.
"Good. Since everyone understands the situation, let us discuss the specifics of the operation. The Green-Eyed True Toads were first discovered by Fairy Ying and her group, so I'll ask Fellow Daoist Ying to explain." Seeing this, the handsome young man allowed a trace of satisfaction to cross his face and turned toward the veiled woman seated below.
"Senior Zheng has given his command—how could this junior dare refuse?"
Fairy Ying rose gracefully to her feet, her gaze sweeping across the assembled cultivators before she began her account in a measured, unhurried voice:
"I won't belabor how the Green-Eyed True Toad nest was discovered. What I can tell you is that this brood numbers close to ten. The two adult toads—a male and a female—each possess strength roughly equivalent to the mid Void Refining stage, while the young toads are comparable to Nascent Soul cultivators. The entire brood remains deep underground in their nest at all times and virtually never emerges. Trying to kill them inside the nest would make the difficulty considerably greater—the terrain around the nest is extremely unfavorable for mounting any kind of assault."
At this point, her voice paused briefly, but she continued almost at once: