# Chapter 497: The Ice-Snow Demon-Sealing Formation
A crowd of Mages leapt onto the orange-red roof of the grand mansion, arranging themselves in rows along the eaves — their bearing made it plain they had been ready for this.
Yet when those guards caught sight of half a mountain reduced to rubble, deep terror showed in their eyes. Veterans of countless battles against Demon-Beasts, not one of them had ever witnessed a creature capable of such staggering destruction.
Guard Captain Hai Yan was already encased in ink-dark plate — Armor Enchanted Gear forged from the cooled sediment of molten lava, material that offered near-perfect resistance to flame. But beneath that armor, his body had begun to tremble. He knew full well that his prized Armor Enchanted Gear was nothing but a paper shield before this queen of the Blazing Plains.
The Flame Enchantress radiated an inferno that lit up the entire Blazing Plains. Ripples of fire spread outward from her in concentric waves, stretching several kilometers in every direction.
She hovered there above it all, gazing down at the hundred-odd Mages packed into the estate grounds below — none of them warranted so much as a flicker of concern.
Her gaze swept across the grounds until it settled on a pavilion rooftop, where a woman swathed in white bandages stood alongside Zhao Yulin, his hair braided back.
Beside this greedy couple stood an older man, his face bare of any beard but silver-streaked hair hanging at his temples, lending him an otherworldly, almost transcendent bearing.
"Abomination! How dare you breach the Safe Zone of Magic City!" the silver-templed man thundered.
This man had been personally recruited by Zhao Yulin from the Mu Clan — the vice-leader of the Daoqi branch, one of the Mu Clan's own lineages.
Mu Dao ranked third in the Mu Clan's entire hierarchy, wielding tremendous influence both within the family and throughout society at large. Having earned a place on the Xuan Rankings, he stood as an equal to Councillors.
And the silver-templed man before them was none other than Mu Dao's right hand — Shi Gui, himself a formidable Ice Element practitioner.
Zhao Yulin and Mu Dao were on excellent terms. Zhao Yulin had originally planned to summon Mu Dao himself — the Xuan Rankings' renowned Ice Element expert — to anchor their defense. But Mu Dao was abroad, and had dispatched Shi Gui in his place, a man whose abilities were no less formidable.
At first Zhao Yulin had no idea who Shi Gui was. When he learned that the man had one foot already into the Transcendent Tier, he immediately treated him with the utmost respect. Whether this crisis could be resolved now rested entirely on Shi Gui's power.
And Shi Gui proved worthy of that reputation. Where the others had gone pale with dread, he stood before the Flame Enchantress without a trace of fear.
"The Fire Calamity Fruit — give back my Fire Calamity Fruit!!!" The moment the Flame Enchantress caught sight of Zhao Yulin and white-wrapped Jiang Feng, a grating screech tore from her.
That cry poured forth through Xinxia's mouth. Xinxia was a Mind Element Mage by nature, and once Magical Energy was channeled through her voice, the sound could pierce straight to the soul — leaving every man who heard it chilled to the marrow.
"Don't waste words on her. She's wounded — she can't cause any real trouble here!" Jiang Feng, still swathed in her white bandages, clearly didn't want the Flame Enchantress holding court for long, and immediately pressed both Zhao Yulin and Shi Gui to act.
Shi Gui saw no value in exchanging words with a Demon-Beast. He raised one hand in a broad sweep, and the Ice Element Mages already lying in ambush nearby moved at once.
In the open grounds of the estate, eight Mages had long been poised and ready. The moment they caught Shi Gui's signal, they focused their minds and poured Ice Element Magical Energy into themselves as formation nodes with furious intensity.
Beneath their feet, an eight-pointed array blazed to life with ice-white radiance — like a snowflake magnified a thousandfold.
The more Magical Energy they fed it, the stronger the Octagonal Ice-Snow Demon-Sealing Formation grew. The entire mountainside had been like a furnace — hot enough to leave a man dehydrated and on the verge of collapse — yet with the eight Ice Element Mages holding formation, snow began to fall from a sky that had no business producing it.
The flakes fell thick as goose feathers, swirling down in a cascade.
The white snowfall grew denser by the moment, and within its swirling curtain, one after another, crystalline ice walls materialized — perfectly transparent, solidifying silently from the storm.
Eight in total — one for each Mage — the crystal walls took shape at breathtaking speed. Almost the instant the snow touched earth, an eight-sided crystalline cage had closed around the Flame Enchantress, sealing her within its frozen confines.
The Flame Enchantress thrust her palm to one side. A fireball larger in diameter than a full-story building materialized from nothing and blazed into one of the crystal walls.
**BOOM — BOOM!!**
The fireball blasted the wall to splinters, shards scattering wildly in every direction — whatever didn't melt in midair was gone before it hit the ground.
Yet barely had one wall vanished than a new one solidified in its place at blinding speed. The Flame Enchantress had begun gathering a wave of fire to surge through the gap — only to slam bodily into the freshly formed wall. Cold stabbed into her like a dozen blades twisting in her flesh at once.
*They were already prepared to fight to the death from the start.* Perched atop a pine tree, Mo Fan watched the ice walls rise and fall across the sky and breathed a quiet sigh for the Flame Enchantress.
She had seized Xinxia because she still held a thread of hope — that Zhao Yulin and his wife might recognize the gravity of what they had done and surrender the Fire Calamity Fruit.
In truth, the greedy couple had already decided to keep it for themselves. They had never had the slightest intention of giving it back.
A flicker of cold resolve crossed the Flame Enchantress's eyes. Her Mental Intent surged — and she flicked a single spark from her fingertip.
The spark struck the crystal wall. An instant later, a devastating burst of flame erupted across its entire surface, and the surrounding air shuddered with the force of it.
The technique resembled Fire Burst: Detonation, yet outstripped it by an incalculable margin. The exploding tongues of flame twisted into writhing fire pythons that coiled through the sky, hideous and vivid, turning every shard of ice and flake of snow into billowing steam.
As the ice walls shattered once more, the Flame Enchantress settled her debts with the clarity of someone who never leaves them unpaid. She gave Xinxia a gentle push — sending her drifting back toward Mo Fan — and then, with nothing left to hold her back, her entire body erupted in a savage, roaring blaze.
Her graceful form became a massive fire meteor in an instant. Flanked by the fire pythons still coiling through the air and wreathed in a tempest of serpentine flame, she hurled herself straight at the estate's sky-blue Barrier.
The Barrier formed an ellipse that encased the entire grounds. Its thin water-screen was no match for the Flame Enchantress at full force. The Barrier shuddered violently — and a few seconds later, under the meteor's impact, it shattered completely.
A cascade of water droplets rained down from the wreckage, but every last one evaporated before reaching the ground. The fire meteor plunged straight down and crashed into Zhao Yulin's beloved European-style villa.
The villa was rubble in an instant, and the inferno reduced every antique treasure Zhao Yulin had ever prized to ash.
His heart bled — but he knew full well that making an enemy of the Flame Enchantress would come at a devastating cost. Things had gone too far to turn back now. Jaw clenched, he had no choice but to rely on the Mu Clan's power to destroy her.