Chapter 1 A Thousand Li Raid

After finishing his call with Shao Qiming, Su Zhou hung up and solemnly placed his phone in a sealed metal box on the roof.

"The snow is really heavy." Fully armed, Su Zhou exhaled a white breath. He stood on the snow-covered roof, raised his hand, and watched several snowflakes melt in his palm, then evaporate, turning into wisps of white mist.

In the darkness of the night, Su Zhou surveyed the hazy lights of Hongcheng's nightlife. The cold wind and blizzard from the high altitude formed a pure white curtain, veiling the entire city.

In Su Zhou's eyes, the city's spiritual aura formed a massive, inexplicably harmonious foundation for a magic array. Its brilliance was like quantum encryption, maintaining dynamic stability at all times, constantly changing its shape and details with people's movements and states, making it extremely difficult to decipher.

This was the Order Array. A protective array that might have been inherited from the spiritual energy era before the severance of Heaven and Earth, derived from the foundation of human bloodlines and souls.

Since the revival of spiritual energy, the array had suppressed countless potential demons and evil spirits. Even now, Su Zhou could see the array's brilliance rising and falling, surging, and even occasionally briefly transforming into a hazy heroic spirit, cutting off things he could not yet see—clear evidence that the array was working, preventing the birth of evil.

"However, the heavier the snow, the better."

But today, Su Zhou would leave the shelter of the Order Array. Taking advantage of the recent heavy snow, he was going to Hengcheng, nearly four hundred kilometers away in a straight line, to carry out a 'thousand-li raid'!

To be honest, this was truly a godsend opportunity. Not only Zhengguo, but the entire Southeast Asian southern region was suffering from blizzards due to the abnormal climate caused by the revival of spiritual energy. Moreover, the Heavenly Secrets were in disarray, and spiritual energy was turbulent.

Even with Su Zhou's advanced Spiritual Sight, it was difficult to see the trajectory of spiritual energy clearly under the current celestial phenomena. And this blizzard was estimated to last until late December before slowly ending.

By then, all traces of spiritual energy would dissipate, and even gods would not be able to find any clues. Taking action at this time, no one would be able to detect it.

To prevent being located, Su Zhou did not plan to bring his phone or any other electronic products on this raid. In Zhengguo, where the artificial intelligence industry was advancing rapidly, although the authorities could not yet monitor every phone call like in cyberpunk works, it was still not difficult to locate someone based on their signal.

Two weapons and some miscellaneous gadgets—this was all the equipment Su Zhou carried. He would never use the Dragon Horn Spear and the Annihilation Blade unless absolutely necessary. Even if he did, he would only selectively use one of them to avoid leaving overly obvious and unique personal traces.

As for the distance…four hundred kilometers was indeed long. Even driving on the highway would normally take four or five hours.

But Su Zhou had qinggong (light body skill)!

In the Divine Wood World, even when Su Zhou had just awakened to the Advanced stage, he could reach a speed of nearly 35 meters per second when he first learned qinggong, and he could sustain continuous running for more than an hour with the support of the 'Celestial Circulation'.

After advancing to the peak of Awakening, his speed increased to 60 meters per second. With a single breath, he could leap across a hundred meters. His normal speed reached a terrifying two hundred kilometers per hour, already comparable to a sports car! The duration was also greatly increased; running at full speed for half a day was not a problem at all.

If it was a short-distance burst, Su Zhou's speed was even faster than an arrow shot by an average martial artist—of course, not faster than an arrow he shot himself.

Four hundred kilometers was just over an hour's journey for Su Zhou, perhaps even less, because the wind was in his favor from Hongcheng to Hengcheng, and with the wind's assistance, his speed would be even faster.

"Time to go."

Without hesitation, after making sure he had not forgotten any equipment, Su Zhou leaped directly into the high air with the power of the wind, jumping and gliding rapidly out of the city, like a large white bird flashing through the dark clouds and snow at night.

He was like a ghost, passing silently through the snowy night. Even if someone happened to see something flying through the air, they would only think it was an illusion, because they would not find anything when they looked closely.

Soon, he left the city and began to fly through the desolate mountains without roads. Occasionally, when he jumped more than two hundred meters into the air with the help of the wind, Su Zhou could vaguely see the highway not far away.

There were not many vehicles on the highway at this time, only super-large transport vehicles with wheels as tall as two people were still traveling between cities.

The blizzard sweeping the south hindered traffic, preventing all holidaying people from going out and forcing them to stay at home and surf the internet—the only good news might be that the spiritual energy was abundant during this time, and the tranquility of the ice and snow allowed people to cultivate in peace.

There was nothing worth noting along the way. Everything before him was an endless expanse of snow. Fortunately, Su Zhou was used to this kind of weather from Mount Taibai in the Divine Wood World, otherwise he would definitely not be accustomed to it and would get lost.

However, the further he got from the city, the more 'abnormal creatures' there were.

When leaving Hongzhou's border, Su Zhou could vaguely see that there were many spiritual creatures in the mountains.

For example, the 'Frost Slimes' that were lying in the ice and snow, slowly wriggling. This spiritual species, which was found all over the world, had a light blue, ice-crystal-like solid body, used to condense and store cold spiritual energy. Its life form was very different from its counterparts living in humid areas. Not only was it not wet and disgusting, but it was like a shining ice-blue gemstone in the snow.

In addition, in the wind, many 'Ice Sprites' were dancing with the falling snowflakes. These little sprites, born with the stirring of spiritual energy, were born with the snow and died with the sunshine, looking like pure white balls of light with ice-crystal wings. Their communities gathered under the clouds where blizzards were falling, hovering and shining with aurora-like light.

Of course, there were not only these cute creatures in the mountains.

Su Zhou's keen spiritual perception could detect that there were fighting fluctuations and clear gunshots coming from the mountains covered in snow not far away.

Da da da, boom! Boom!

The sound of battle, mostly obscured by the wind, could not escape Su Zhou's ears. He could even sense that five Awakeners, who should be officials, were fighting a nameless beast that was also at the Awakening level, but with a very large amount of spiritual energy.

——It should be a monster or evil spirit that awakened recently.

Su Zhou was not surprised by this. The blizzard in the south was originally an abnormal weather event caused by a large-scale spiritual energy outburst. And it was not strange that monsters and evil spirits awakened and were born in the remote wilderness without the Order Array—it should be known that a giant whale and a seal had reportedly awakened in the Mediterranean and Britain, and it was these awakened monsters that, with their groups, migrated and exacerbated the weather changes there.

"Judging by the sound, it seems to be a large bear? It's not clear what it is, but it has been completely suppressed by the firepower of the guns. The power of modern weapons is something that even Transcendent-level beings must be careful of, let alone Awakeners?"

Su Zhou did not plan to intervene and help—mainly because it was not necessary. The official forces were very powerful and had a plan, so they did not need his help.

Soon, after more than an hour of rapid marching, Su Zhou had arrived in the vicinity of Hengcheng.

He had already seen the company headquarters of the Tang family ghost-witch clan, located in the suburban development zone.