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"Raise your lances, attack—" Seeing the method effective, dozens of draconic knights immediately unleashed their battle aura, lifting their massive and heavy dragon lances to thrust at the barrier. The other draconic knights behind them also formed battle formations, ready to follow suit.

Meanwhile, Fengdanbailu naturally wouldn’t allow the enemy to act so arrogantly and swiftly responded.

Beneath the arcane barrier, the city suddenly flashed with a deep blue light. A series of "thud" sounds echoed as over a hundred four-to-five-meter-long ice crystal spears were hurled upward from below—swift as lightning, fierce as thunder—aimed precisely at the dozens of draconic knights pressing against the magical barrier. The "Twelve Star Palace Gate" protecting Fengdanbailu seemed to possess awareness, offering no resistance to attacks launched from within. In the flickering blue light, dozens of dragon beasts were impaled by the ice spears, with half the knights also wounded or killed, yet no blood sprayed—all frozen solid by the spears' extreme cold.

Following the ice spears, a nimble figure shot into the sky—a tall, athletic woman with striking blue hair. It was Fengdanbailu’s foremost cryomancer, the "Ice Valkyrie," Zha.

This warrior woman of the ice plains barbarians had once narrowly escaped death under an ice-based taboo magic with the help of a divine weapon. Though she lost her memories, she unexpectedly regained some of her ancestors' Jotunn abilities. Combined with the partial secrets of the "Nine Yin Manual" imparted by Chen Xuanfeng, she forged her own path despite not fully mastering either. Over the years, her relentless clashes with the "Tide Knight," Xian Lan, had honed her skills to rival even the young human sword saints. Now, with the draconic knights attacking the barrier near her position, she struck with full force, instantly slaying most of the intruders before charging out beyond the arcane barrier to assault the remaining knights.

With power nearing the Saint Master realm, Zha swiftly annihilated the surrounding draconic knights, her icy fury on full display. However, with only a few hundred knights in this raid, the human side wouldn’t stand idly by as she wreaked havoc.

A crisp "clang" of a sword rang out. The freely drifting clouds in the sky suddenly shifted, coalescing into a snow-white sword-shaped mass hundreds of meters long, slashing down toward Zha with world-sundering might. Though illusory, the sword’s momentum rivaled that of a truesteel armament.

Faced with the colossal blade, Zha dared not underestimate it. With a fierce cry, she swung her "Spear of Absolute Destiny," unleashing a dazzling blue light to meet the cloud-forged sword.

The collision erupted in a thunderous explosion, scattering the giant sword back into mist. Zha staggered slightly—just as a snow-white sword, devoid of any magical fluctuations, shot from the mist like a white thread, piercing her shoulder.

"So you are the 'Ice Valkyrie'?" A white-clad human girl stood before Zha, sword in hand, and asked, "Why do you aid those who destroyed your people? Are you content to be their slave?"

Nameless Heavenly Sword, Stellar Chess Sword.

The attacker was none other than "Lunar Celestial Maiden" Tan Yueer.

In previous years, it had always been the "Tide Knight," Xian Lan, who faced Zha. As a result, both sides knew each other’s strengths intimately, leading to stalemates whenever they clashed. This time, the humans sought to switch combatants, hoping to eliminate one of Fengdanbailu’s elites. Tan Yueer, inheriting the martial arts of the Moonlight Tower, wielded sword arts reputed as peerless, granting her an edge in close combat over Xian Lan’s whip techniques. Zha, caught off guard by the legendary "Stellar Chess Sword"—said to see through all techniques—and lacking by a hair's breadth in cultivation, suffered an injury in the first exchange.

Yet, in Tan Yueer’s eyes, her ambush had failed.

For in the next moment, Zha retreated, her "Spear of Absolute Destiny" sheathed behind her. Before the blood spraying through the air could even fall, a gilded sacred radiance shot from the Azure City Fortress, precisely sealing Zha’s wound. In the blink of an eye, the gaping hole through her shoulder healed without a trace. This was why Zha, despite being slightly weaker than a sword saint, could hold her own—she lacked the sword saints’ immunity to healing magic. With sufficient support from healers, she was virtually unkillable.

"Hmph. The barbarian Zha died long ago under humanity’s treacherous ice-forbidden spell. I am what was reborn from that body—a descendant of the Jotunn," Zha replied coldly, her spear resting behind her. "As a scion of Jotunn blood, pledging loyalty to my contractor is only natural."

If it were merely healing magic, Tan Yueer had ways to counter it—at the very least, by deploying her domain to cut off external aid to Zha. But Zha’s stance, lance art held behind her, gave her pause. She had heard of this technique from Xian Lan—the "Spear of Destiny," capable of exploiting the temporal variance between the ice plane and the material plane to reverse causality and strike with absolute precision. Against such a technique, even her "Stellar Chess Sword" couldn’t guarantee a counter, let alone allow her to spare focus to deploy her domain.

Of course, Zha couldn’t afford carelessness either. Even with Jin Luosha—the world’s foremost healer—backing her, severe bodily destruction would render even "Greater Resurrection" useless. At the Saint Master realm, every strike carried the force to shatter mountains and boil seas, leaving no room for error.

Thus, the two female warriors stood atop the arcane barrier, locked in stalemate. Meanwhile, elsewhere, battle had just begun.

While the dragon beasts attempted to breach Fengdanbailu’s arcane barrier, the Saint Masters among the invaders had also sprung into action.

"Vast Moon Knight" Carol didn’t invade from the sky—his power was rooted in the earth. Upon nearing Fengdanbailu, he leapt from his dragon’s back, twin blades of wind and fire in hand, charging the city gates amid churning loess clouds. His blades crisscrossed, slashing repeatedly at the arcane barrier near the gates. The red and blue blade lights clashed against the multicolored barrier, driving inward—not enough to break through, but far more effective than the draconic knights’ efforts above. When the curtain was compressed to its limit, Carol sheathed his blades in an instant, summoning a mightier blade light—the divine blade "Skyrending Thunder," inheritor of the "Blade Saint’s" power—which erupted skyward with earth-shaking force. With a resounding "boom," a chasm spanning multiple yards was torn open in the arcane barrier near the gates.