Chapter Forty-Eight: Golden Armor, Golden Walls, Golden Barriers

In the span of a single breath, absolute cold descended. Upon the great lake, the already thick ice, over ten feet deep, began to crack and groan. Accompanied by the raging surge of glacial energy, the ice shattered.

Such bone-chilling cold, capable of splitting solid ice, had surpassed the endurance of any living creature. This aura of frost was colder than ice itself, so the lake’s surface was forced to absorb much of this glacial energy in an instant.

Though the storm-like frost was continually diffusing and being absorbed as it advanced, compared to the vast energy it originally contained, this loss was almost negligible.

Facing such peerless might, it was only natural to feel despair. Yet the fact that Tianxing, relying on his own strength, had managed to stall the icy torrent for so long proved one thing: when human power grows great enough, even the impossible can be achieved.

Jin Buhuan, the elder of this generation in the Spirit Realm, was renowned for his unmatched strength, having vanquished countless demons and monsters in his lifetime, rarely meeting an equal.

“Golden Doppelganger!” Confronted with the vast, tempestuous storm of frost, Jin Buhuan’s hair and beard flew wildly as his eyes widened. With a thunderous shout, dazzling light burst forth from his golden robe and armor. Dozens of golden rays shot from his body, scattering around him, each transforming into a figure identical to himself—each clad in golden robes and radiant armor, imposing and vigorous. Upon closer look, these ten figures were all Jin Buhuan himself, manifestations of his Golden Doppelganger technique.

The art of creating doppelgangers was a supreme technique. It was this that caused the masters to turn pale when Zhou Yu used it to ambush Morrison. The reason this art was so highly regarded was not only because it was extraordinarily difficult to master, but more crucially, because it had a stringent requirement: the practitioner’s internal energy had to reach immense levels. Only then could they sustain and control doppelgangers. To summon even one meant turning a battle of one against one into one against two; within the same realm, this made one nearly invincible. Furthermore, doppelgangers could lure enemies, scout, and undertake perilous missions. In short, the power of this technique was beyond doubt, but so was its daunting threshold.

Now, Jin Buhuan had divided himself into ten golden doppelgangers—what unmatched might this revealed!

The ten golden doppelgangers now flanked Jin Buhuan, fanning out in a line, each spaced fifty meters apart. With precise, synchronized movements, they swiftly formed seals and pressed their palms to the ground.

“Diamond Gate!”

With a unified cry from all eleven Jin Buhuans, golden light erupted on the ice surface ahead of the cultivators, where the frost had not yet reached. Seemingly slow yet in truth swift, massive golden walls rose one after another, fitting together seamlessly—eleven thick, towering walls, each more than ten feet wide, dozens of feet tall, stretching a full mile to form a golden barricade.

Without question, this wall was meant to block the glacial force unleashed by the self-destruction of the Sacred Qilin. Whether it would hold, Jin Buhuan knew better than anyone; his own technique could not be a mystery to him.

No sooner had the golden wall risen than Jin Buhuan, paying little heed to the headache from expending so much power at once, led his ten doppelgangers in a rapid retreat.

After instantly falling back a hundred meters, Jin Buhuan halted, the ten doppelgangers lining up behind him. Again, they formed seals in perfect unison, but this time the seals were noticeably more complex, taking slightly longer to perform.

Though only marginally longer—just two or three breaths—the golden wall, rising from the depths of the earth, was already riddled with fine cracks from the icy assault. Its original golden hue took on a ghostly white sheen as the frost battered it. The frigid energy, unable to immediately breach the wall, piled up outside, growing denser and higher until, within two breaths, it surpassed the wall and flooded in.

At last, even the pure gold wall, famed for its conductivity and resilience, was shattered by the frost with a resounding crash.

But at that very moment, Jin Buhuan and his ten doppelgangers completed their second technique. Lines of golden walls now stood facing the icy torrent, extending far into the distance and branching left and right to form passageways.

It became clear: this technique was to redirect the glacial energy elsewhere. At the outset, the frost had come too swiftly for him to deploy it; he had used the golden wall only to buy precious moments. Now, with the technique complete, the dozens of doppelgangers, having spent all their energy, faded away with a series of soft pops.

Jin Buhuan himself nearly collapsed, his legs giving out beneath him.

Hua Quelyue drifted swiftly to his side, catching him just in time. A brilliant green light flared in her palm as she pressed it to his back, pouring pure, vital energy into him while hastily carrying him away from danger.

The glacial energy was successfully diverted, granting the cultivators a temporary reprieve. But the price was high: Tianxing had vanished, Jin Buhuan was utterly spent. Both men were peerless among living masters, yet the self-detonating Sacred Qilin had been only a juvenile.

With the crisis averted, the cultivators finally relaxed. The great lake was now so cold that water froze on contact with air, and their breath turned instantly to tiny crystals, falling like fine snow instead of rising.

Yet even so, every cultivator’s back was soaked with sweat. In the span of just a dozen heartbeats, they had all walked the edge of death. Zhou Yu, who had fled the furthest, was still running at full speed. Though Nan Fenglang had already informed him that they were temporarily safe, Zhou Yu seemed not to hear, continuing to pour his energy into sustaining his overtaxed body.

Temporary safety did not mean true safety. Zhou Yu would only feel secure once he had left the great lake far behind.

Among the many cultivators here, Zhou Yu was the lowest in rank—and the most cautious with his life.

Because of his low cultivation, he had to flee further than the others to be safe.

Because he treasured his life, he spared nothing in his efforts to escape.

“Get down… Ouch! You rascal, are you trying to kill me?” The old man clinging to Zhou Yu’s back sensed Zhou Yu’s deep terror. Zhou Yu was bordering on hysteria, so the old man had to take action to calm him down.

The old man's complaint rang clearly in Zhou Yu's mind, snapping him out of his frenzied state. Gradually regaining his composure, Zhou Yu slowed, gently lowering the old man from his back.

At that moment, a sudden scream from Nan Fenglang broke the silence behind them: “Impossible?!”