"If there are snowflakes, then let's also cultivate the Cold Ice Willow."
Reaching the mountaintop, Yang Hong extended his hand, holding a snowflake that danced lightly in his palm, neither melting nor flying away.
"Alas, if only we hadn't left Great Snow Mountain, we'd still be..."
"Alas."
Song Yuzhi and Wanwan looked at the snowflakes, and their hearts were suddenly stirred by the scene, sighing.
Zhu Yuyan, however, had a different perspective.
"If we hadn't left that sealed space, we might have already converted to Buddhism, and not only that, but we would have converted with our minds erased and our senses confused."
Yang Hong nodded in agreement, saying, "I can't predict how long your will could resist the seduction of the sealed space, but with my will at the time, at most ten years, I would no longer be myself."
This was the primary reason Yang Hong and his companions had urgently fled the sealed space.
The operating mechanism of that sealed space was unknown, but its greatest effect was undoubtedly to tempt people towards Buddhism.
Zhu Yuyan's expression changed slightly as she said, "I might have lasted three years."
"I had two years—at most two and a half years for me."
Wanwan and Song Yuzhi also stated the time they could endure.
It seemed that if they hadn't escaped, all but Yang Hong would have become Buddhist puppets by now.
"I wonder how long those flower and tree spirits can hold out."
Yang Hong suddenly felt a pang of worry for the state of the transformed nine-rank spiritual plants within the Great Snow Mountain's sealed space.
...
Just as Yang Hong was worrying about the transformed spiritual plants, within the Great Snow Mountain's sealed space.
Three hundred and sixty young boys and girls, with shaved heads and adorned in kasayas, were chanting Buddhist scriptures and prostrating devoutly towards the west.
Threads of golden faith intertwined with their magical powers, continuously injecting into the sealed space. A faint golden Buddha light illuminated this sealed space, replacing the sunlight.
Hummm~ Hummm~ Hummm~
Suddenly, the teleportation array formed by the Cold Ice Willows began to emit gray-white spatial fluctuations rhythmically, accompanied by a piercing roar.
Boom~~
With a dull thud, a spatial passage opened in the center of the small island within the sealed space.
"Everyone, leave Sky Island, everyone, leave Sky Island!"
The monks of Budong Temple on the island also sensed the sudden spatial fluctuations and immediately ordered the disciples on the island to evacuate.
Those qualified to ascend to this Sky Island were at least fifth-tier Nascent Soul stage monks, so everyone on the island quickly flew into the sky.
They were fortunate enough to witness a magical teleportation.
The gray-white spatial spiritual energy was like a powerful hand, and Sky Island was like a fragile piece of white paper. In just a few breaths, the entire Sky Island was torn to shreds.
"Retreat further! Beware of spatial turbulence eruption!"
An old monk with white eyebrows extending over his nose stood at the front, exerting his powerful magical energy to push the onlookers back.
Almost instantly, a torrential spatial force erupted.
"Pfft~"
The old monk, without any defense, instantly spat out a mouthful of golden blood and was sent flying backward.
Nearby monks, unless their cultivation had reached the seventh-tier, were almost instantly torn to shreds.
"Retreat~ Retreat further!"
The old monk struggled to stabilize himself in the air, his voice hoarse and urgent as he commanded the monks to flee.
Crack, crack, crack~~
With a sound like breaking glass, an island with a diameter of a hundred li appeared, inverted, in the original location of Sky Island.
"Rescue them~ Quickly, there are still people on this island!"
The old monk's divine sense had been focused on the appearing island. His expression changed instantly, and he called out to the monks to rescue the people on the island.
As the inverted island stabilized, some people not inside houses began to fall like dumplings.
Many people were caught off guard and died from the impact on the ground. Even if they survived the fall, they would be frozen to death by the extreme cold.
This island was covered with gourd vines, and many gourds were frozen and cracked, with strange malevolent energy flowing out.
If Yang Hong were present, he would have recognized those gourds as "Guang You Gourds," and this island as an attached island of Guang You Island.
After this island stabilized, the spatial force instantly disappeared, as if it had never erupted, and the current island seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
...
Yang Hong was unaware that the teleportation array he had cultivated was still operational. And because of his instructions before leaving, the tree spirits had rearranged the Cold Ice Willows, once again linking the teleportation array to the outer sea of the Myriad Monster Sea Region.
After he and Zhu Yuyan watched the snow, they returned to the mountainside.
"Husband, please entrust the task of setting up the array to us. Although the 'Two Poles Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Array' is complex, I have practiced it in the Great Sui Dynasty, so I can still set it up.
Moreover, you have already built the structures. Sister Yuzhi and I only need to draw the formation patterns and place the formation eyes. The work is very simple, and I guarantee I can handle it."
"Is that so~~"
Yang Hong pondered for a moment and then nodded, saying, "Alright, you can be in charge of setting up the array. You only need to perfect this eight trigrams grand formation. I will handle the subsequent array combinations and fusions."
"Husband, rest assured~ Your concubine guarantees to complete the array setup perfectly."
Zhu Yuyan excitedly hugged Yang Hong. Wanwan and Song Yuzhi also came up to hug him.
Only by helping Yang Hong share some of his work could they avoid feeling redundant and useless.
Although Yang Hong was a bit slow and didn't fully grasp Zhu Yuyan's intentions, his intuition still led him to delegate and assign tasks.
After all, he had too many things to do next.
Under the scorching sun, Yang Hong stood up from the ground again, wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead, and casually wiped the sweat from his brow with a military towel hanging around his neck.
"This weather is a bit strange. Calculating the time, it should be May. The weather is making me, a cultivator, sweat profusely. Wouldn't ordinary mortals be baked into mummies?"
After a moment of complaint, Yang Hong slowly walked forward along the palace complex he had just built with the "Finger Touching the Ground Becomes Steel" spell.
As he walked, he had to calculate the direction and plant a seed in a specific spot.
To ensure that the spiritual plants could connect and form an array after growing, he needed to release his divine sense to constantly compare and measure.
If there was no suitable planting spot, he would have to make a flowerpot and plant the seed there first, waiting for the overall array to be completed later for adjustments.
When he reached the core position of the array, he even had to take a fourth-rank spiritual plant from his scale space, plant it, and then perform a灌顶 (guàn dǐng - an initiation or empowerment).
"Ding~ You have initiated 1200 days of cultivation to the fourth-rank Puer tea tree and received a tenfold cultivation return, gaining 12,000 days of cultivation."
Listening to the prompt sound in his ear, Yang Hong released his divine sense, watching the spiritual plant grow normally in the correct position.
If the position deviated too much, he had to adjust it promptly.
Although Yang Hong could not determine the growth of the spiritual plant solely through his divine sense, guiding and constantly adjusting its growth through divine sense was as common as breathing.
This spiritual plant was the core of the array, and any carelessness would be fatal. Otherwise, the subsequent array planting would have to start from scratch. This spiritual plant was the positioning device for his spiritual plant array.
After diligently planting this positioning spiritual plant, he had to continue forward, leaving the palace complex beneath his feet and heading to a new patch of wasteland. He would then squat down, place his hand on the ground, and begin constructing a new palace complex.
Building palaces and planting arrays were tedious days, but they were also busy and fulfilling.
Unfortunately, a heavy downpour brought Yang Hong a considerable problem.