The forest was ablaze—an entire grove of Heavenfire Trees burning with golden flames, stretching across the skies of Snow Continent. Thick clouds that had blanketed the skies above were dispersed in an instant. What had already resembled daylight now turned into pure brilliance. Golden light poured down upon Snow Continent, illuminating everything.
To the soldiers of the Great Yi Dynasty, it was a miraculous sight—one of surreal majesty.
But in the eyes of the Ice Crystal King and his people, it was a nightmare. A true, living nightmare.
"Ah! My eyes!!"
"No! Shut your eyes, don't look up—that's True Sunfire!"
"I'm done for! My eyes! What's happening?! My eyes are burning!"
A chorus of screams echoed across the battlefield.
No one had expected the Heavenfire Trees to emit True Sunfire. Even though this version of the flame wasn't perfectly pure, it was still True Sunfire—a fundamentally fatal element to the Ice Crystal Clan.
Usually, the Ice Crystal Clan avoided the sun during daylight, always turning their backs to it, never looking directly into it. Many would only look at the sun once in their lives—at the moment of death.
This sudden change was too abrupt—too overwhelming.
On the battlefield, countless Ice Crystal warriors clutched their faces, shrieking in agony. Golden fire ignited within their eye sockets the moment they looked up, setting their eyes ablaze like dry twigs catching a spark. In the blink of an eye, the flames consumed their eyeballs—one of the weakest parts of any living creature.
The pain was unbearable. Bone-deep.
As the fire spread, countless Ice Crystal war bodies began to collapse. Only a pitiful few, who instinctively closed their eyes just in time or had been out of range, were spared.
Under normal circumstances, faced with a fatal blow, the Ice Crystal Clan would break down into crystal eggs to allow a new generation to be born. But in front of the Iron-Blood Great Wall, once reduced to eggs, they were as good as dead—there would be no returning from that state.
"No... Damn it! They can actually unleash True Sunfire! My eyes... I'm blind!!"
Even the Ice Crystal King clutched his eyes, howling in pain. He had never imagined the Great Yi Dynasty would wield True Sunfire—let alone deploy it so decisively.Worse, they clearly knew the Ice Crystal Clan's fatal weakness from the beginning but had never revealed it—saving it for the most devastating moment when the king himself had come to the frontlines.
"This is a trap! A well-planned ambush! Great Yi knew all along but said nothing—they waited until our forces gathered en masse just to annihilate us in one fell swoop!"
Even the High Priestess was struck, though she managed to react quickly—closing her left eye in time to preserve it, but her right was scorched and blinded, leaving her half-blind and in excruciating pain.
This wasn't limited to the battlefield. All across Snow Continent, anywhere the Ice Crystal Clan resided, wails of anguish rang out. Though some had stayed indoors and were spared, the damage was staggering—over ten billion Ice Crystal clansmen were blinded in an instant. It was a catastrophe beyond imagination.
To the Ice Crystal Clan, this was apocalypse.
Even though cultivators could perceive the world without eyes, losing them still meant a significant loss of battle strength. For a race of warriors to be turned into a legion of blind soldiers—this was ruinous.
Not all blind men are sword saints.
Their strength collapsed. At best, those affected retained only half their power.
This was nothing short of devastation.
In the Qingshan Immortal Sect, stunned silence reigned.
Disciples and elders alike stared at the sky, mouths agape, completely overwhelmed by what they'd witnessed. If they hadn't seen it themselves, no one would've believed it.
"Incredible… A true deathblow. I never imagined His Majesty had such a hidden card—an entire battle formation used to conjure Heavenfire Trees, and even produce True Sunfire. It may be faint, but it's still Sunfire. Combined with those mirrors... utterly genius," said Qing Yunzi, eyes gleaming with awe.
They had expected the war between Great Yi and the Ice Crystal Kingdom to be long and bloody. No one had foreseen that it would end so quickly—and so decisively.
A deathblow worthy of a master assassin.
"The Ice Crystal Kingdom… defeated. And so thoroughly."
The other sect members turned complicated gazes toward Yi Tianxing.
The Ice Crystal Clan's weakness to Sunfire had indeed been leaked by them—but using that information this effectively was something no one could've predicted. The clan had lived under sunlight for centuries, only avoiding direct contact. Blindness due to the sun was extremely rare.
Exploiting that weakness and turning it into total annihilation? That was a strategic masterpiece.
From the rainbow bridge to the golden mirrors set up by the Golden-Scaled Birds, to the final detonation of Heavenfire Trees—everything was choreographed to perfection.
"So ruthless… So cunning," someone muttered."This attack has crippled the Ice Crystal Clan. Snow Continent is now practically Yi territory."
In the Hanhai Dragon Palace, the Hanhai Dragon King also looked deeply shaken.
"Such power… Snow Continent, even larger than Yi Continent, was taken just like that. If Great Yi continues to expand at this rate, who knows what it will become...?"
"A formation, a few mirrors... and they turned the tide of war. The wisdom of the human race is terrifying," added Prime Minister Turtle, sighing in admiration.
Every force watching the war from the shadows was struck dumb.
They'd all expected a hard-fought campaign. No one had imagined this kind of reversal.
Inwardly, many swore never to provoke the Great Yi Dynasty lightly again—not unless they were absolutely sure of victory.
A strange mix of fear and pity filled many hearts.
The Ice Crystal Clan had stood tall and proud only moments before—now they were reduced to a battlefield of the blind.
"We'll kill them all!"
"If we're going to die, we'll drag them down with us!"
"Let's all die together!!"
Countless blinded Ice Crystal warriors, especially those near the Iron-Blood Great Wall, let out roars of madness and fury. Without hesitation, they charged at the wall in suicidal rage.
As their bodies slammed into the wall, their internal energies erupted—burning their own bodies in massive explosions aimed at collapsing the wall itself.
But it was futile.
A blood-red divine light surged forth once more from the Great Wall, stretching from heaven to earth. The Iron-Blood Barrier had been reactivated, now that the Iron Thread Corpse Worms had been exterminated.
All suicidal explosions bounced harmlessly off the shield, leaving only faint ripples behind.
"Kill them!!"With a wave of his feather fan,Zhuge Liang gave the order—without the slightest hint of sympathy.
This was war. There was no room for mercy. Either you died—or your enemy did.
"HAHAHAHA!!!"
A crazed, maniacal laughter suddenly ripped through the battlefield. The voice was filled with grief, with fury—it was the Ice Crystal King.
Standing atop his palace, blood-tears streaming from his hollow eye sockets, he laughed like a madman—laughing so hard it seemed he might fall.
All eyes turned to him.
"Who would've thought… that this would be the end of the Ice Crystal Kingdom. I... I'm not willing. I REFUSE!!"
His laughter stopped, and a cold, insane expression took its place.
Before him, a radiant light shimmered.
A single eye appeared.