Villain: Manipulating the Heroines into hating the Protagonist

Chapter 873: Breaking And Entering the Barrier

The seven cultivators stood in a loose, tense formation before the shimmering wall of ancient ice. The air in the Glacial Heart Wastes was sharp, cutting, each breath a sliver of frost in the lungs. Before them, the massive ice barrier hummed with contained power, and from within, the oppressive auras of the three Frost-Maw Devourers pulsed like angry, slumbering hearts.

Chen Ying stood at the forefront, her beautiful face a mask of cold determination. In her hands, the nine exquisite, cone-shaped artifacts—the Nine Heavens Formation-Breaker Cones—began to glow with a faint, disruptive light.

"Our positions are set," she announced, her voice crisp and authoritative, leaving no room for argument. "My sect sisters and I will form the primary offensive line. Your group," she said, her cool gaze sweeping over Wang Jian, Yue Lingshan, and Liu Ruyan, "will provide support and guard our flanks. Your main duty is to ensure nothing interrupts me for one hour. Do not fail."

Wang Jian gave a slight, formal bow. "You can count on us, Senior Sister Chen."

As the others focused their attention on the barrier, readying their weapons and Qi, Wang Jian caught Yue Lingshan’s eye. He gave a subtle, almost imperceptible shake of his head, then his gaze flickered towards Liu Ruyan before returning to Lingshan. His meaning, honed over months of silent communication, was crystal clear.

’Conserve. Defend. Do not reveal our true strength. Our only goal is to get inside.’

Yue Lingshan’s veiled form stiffened slightly in understanding. A flicker of trust and obedience passed through her eyes. She, in turn, subtly shifted her stance, a movement that brought her a fraction closer to Liu Ruyan, a silent communication of unified intent passing between them. Liu Ruyan, perceptive and intelligent, caught the cue, her own posture becoming more defensive, her alchemical pouches held ready but not aggressively brandished.

Wang Jian was playing a long game. Chen Ying’s story about the Spirit Cleansing Pool was too neat, her ambition too palpable. She was using them as cannon fodder to clear the path to her true objective. Fine. He would play the part of the useful tool, but he would do so on his own terms, preserving his strength for the real prize, whatever it might be.

"I am beginning," Chen Ying declared.

She stepped forward, her hands weaving a series of complex, intricate seals. The Nine Heavens Formation-Breaker Cones lifted into the air, arranging themselves in a precise, nine-pointed star pattern before the ice barrier. She poured her Thirteenth Stage Qi into them, and they began to emit a high-pitched, vibrating hum, a sound that grated on the soul.

The ancient ice barrier responded instantly. The runes etched within its frozen depths flared, resisting the disruptive energy. A brilliant, silent war of energies began, the air crackling, the ground beneath their feet trembling.

Suddenly, the trembling intensified. It wasn’t from the barrier. It was from the ground itself.

ROOOOAR!

With a cataclysmic explosion of snow and ice shards, the ground erupted. Three monstrous figures burst from beneath the frozen earth where they had been lying in wait, their emergence a chaotic whirlwind of white fur and primal fury.

The Frost-Maw Devourers.

They were terrifyingly massive, each easily fifteen feet tall even when hunched over. Their bodies were a hulking combination of ape and bear, covered in thick, shaggy white fur matted with frost. Their arms were disproportionately long and powerful, ending in brutal, five-fingered hands tipped with claws of jagged, translucent blue ice, each claw as long as a short sword.

But their most horrific feature was their heads. Their faces were almost flat, dominated by a maw that could unhinge to a terrifying degree, revealing not just one, but multiple concentric rows of crystalline, razor-sharp teeth that glinted with a hungry, frigid light. Their eyes were small, black, and devoid of anything but brutal, instinctual hunger. The pressure of their Second-Rank auras, equivalent to Foundation Establishment cultivators, washed over the group, a wave of crushing cold and killing intent.

"They came from below! Positions!" roared Lin Jing, Chen Ying’s quiet but fierce swordswoman comrade.

The battle began without preamble. It was chaos.

Lin Jing, her Winter’s Kiss blade a blur of icy light, met the charge of the first Devourer head-on. Her swordsmanship was exquisite, each strike precise, aimed at the beast’s joints, but the Devourer’s brute strength was overwhelming. It swatted at her with a massive ice-clawed hand, and she was forced to retreat, a deep clang echoing as her blade barely deflected the blow.

Wu Qian, the arrogant array specialist, acted swiftly. She flung a series of small, inscribed plates onto the ground. "Minor Earthen Bind Array!" A web of yellow light erupted from the ground, momentarily entangling the Devourer’s feet, slowing its charge.

The beast roared in frustration, stomping its massive feet, and shattered the array with sheer physical force, but it had bought Lin Jing a precious moment.

Bai Mei, the gentle-faced healer, her hands glowing with a soft, life-giving light, sent a stream of verdant energy towards Lin Jing, mending a shallow cut on her arm from a flying ice shard. "Stay strong, Sister Lin!"

The second Devourer, ignoring the main melee, bounded towards Chen Ying, its black eyes fixed on the source of the irritating hum that was disturbing its home.

"Intercept it!" Wu Qian shouted, already preparing another array.

This was where Wang Jian’s group came into play.

They had been assigned the flank, the line between the main battle and the vulnerable, concentrating Chen Ying.

The Devourer charged them, its massive form a terrifying avalanche of white fur and icy death.

"Defensive formation!" Yue Lingshan commanded, her voice clear and steady.

She stood at the forefront of their small trio. The Nightwind Terror Fan snapped open in her hand. She didn’t launch an attack. Instead, she poured her Qi into the fan, creating a swirling, miniature vortex of wind directly in the Devourer’s path.

The vortex didn’t have the power to stop the beast, but it disrupted its charge, the swirling winds filled with ice crystals and snow stinging its eyes, forcing it to slow, to roar in annoyance.

Liu Ruyan acted in perfect concert. As the beast slowed, she tossed a small, grey pellet from her storage pouch. It burst at the Devourer’s feet, not with a flash or a bang, but with a silent puff of incredibly slick, greasy smoke. It was a ’Grease Moss Pellet’. The ground beneath the beast’s feet instantly became treacherous, like ice coated in oil.

The Devourer, its momentum already broken by the wind, slipped, its massive feet sliding out from under it. It stumbled, letting out another roar of pure, frustrated rage as it fought to regain its balance.

Wang Jian watched all this with a calm, analytical gaze. He stood slightly behind the two women, a bastion of quiet strength. When the stumbling beast’s massive arm flailed wildly in their direction, a backhand swat that could crush steel, he moved.

He didn’t use a powerful spell. He simply stepped forward, his Glacial Bite held in a low guard. He met the incoming ice claws not with a forceful block, but with a perfectly angled parry. ’Flowing Metal Slash.’ His dense Steller Qi coated the blade, and with a screech of tortured metal on ice, he deflected the blow, redirecting the immense force downwards into the ground beside him, the impact cracking the frozen earth.

He was pushed back a step, his arm vibrating from the shock, but he held firm. His expression didn’t change. He had neutralized a potentially lethal blow with minimal Qi expenditure, using pure technique and superior energy control.

The Devourer, infuriated by these pesky, hard-to-hit insects, finally regained its footing. It opened its horrifying maw and unleashed its most terrifying weapon. A blast of supercooled air, filled with razor-sharp ice shards, shot towards them—its Frost Breath attack.

"Jade Water Shield Art!" Yue Lingshan cried, her own spiritual energy surging. A shimmering barrier of blue Qi, reinforced by her Twelfth Stage cultivation, appeared before them.

Simultaneously, Liu Ruyan crushed a small, heat-radiating talisman. A thin, transparent wall of shimmering heat materialized just in front of Yue Lingshan’s shield.

The Frost Breath slammed into the heat wall first, the extreme temperature difference causing a massive cloud of hissing steam and condensation to erupt, obscuring vision and dissipating much of the attack’s initial force. The remaining ice shards pelted against Yue Lingshan’s shield, which flickered violently but held.

The battle raged on. The third Devourer had now engaged Lin Jing and Wu Qian, forcing the healer Bai Mei to constantly divide her attention, her face pale with the strain of healing two frontline fighters at once. The inner sect disciples were powerful, their techniques refined, but they were fighting a battle of attrition against beasts whose physical power and resilience were simply on another level.

Wang Jian’s group, in contrast, fought a battle of deflection and annoyance. They were a thorn in their Devourer’s side, impossible to pin down, their attacks never lethal but always irritating. Yue Lingshan’s wind and water spells misdirected and hindered. Liu Ruyan’s alchemical concoctions created hazards, slowed the beast, and coated its claws in frost-retardant goop that made its attacks less effective. And Wang Jian... he was the anchor, the unmovable rock, his blade deflecting the most dangerous blows with an unnerving, almost casual efficiency.

He conserved his power, his gaze constantly flickering between the battle, Chen Ying’s progress, and the spot far in the distance where he knew a secret observer was watching.

Time stretched, each minute an eternity of roaring beasts, clanging steel, and desperate cries. Chen Ying’s followers were bleeding now. Lin Jing’s sword arm was visibly trembling with exhaustion. Wu Qian had a deep gash on her leg, and Bai Mei’s healing light was beginning to flicker, her Qi reserves running low.

Their Devourer, too, was growing more and more frustrated. It ignored the other two beasts and focused its entire, furious attention on Wang Jian’s group, the ones who refused to fight it head-on.

"It’s enraged! Be careful!" Liu Ruyan warned, tossing another pellet that released a foul-smelling smoke, making the beast recoil.

At that moment, a triumphant cry came from behind them.

"The barrier is breaking! Stand ready!"

It was Chen Ying.

The humming of the Formation-Breaker Cones reached a crescendo, and with a sound like a glacier calving, the massive ice barrier before the cavern entrance spiderwebbed with a million cracks.

The three Frost-Maw Devourers, as if sensing their sanctuary was about to be breached, let out synchronized roars of absolute fury and turned their attention away from the cultivators, towards the cracking barrier.

"Now!" Chen Ying screamed.

With a final, deafening CRACK, the ice barrier shattered into a billion glittering shards. A wave of incredibly pure, potent spiritual energy, cool and invigorating, washed out from the cavern entrance.

Chen Ying didn’t hesitate for a second. She recalled her Nine Heavens Formation-Breaker Cones with a wave of her hand and darted through the newly formed opening like a phantom, her eyes fixed on the treasures within, completely ignoring the ongoing battle behind her.

This was the signal Wang Jian had been waiting for.

His passive, defensive demeanor vanished, replaced by an aura of shocking decisiveness.

Before Yue Lingshan or Liu Ruyan could even process what was happening, he moved. One powerful arm wrapped around Yue Lingshan’s slender waist, the other, with equal firmness, encircled Liu Ruyan’s.

Both women let out surprised yelps as they were lifted off their feet, their soft bodies pressed firmly against his hard frame.

"Hold on," was all he said.

He poured a massive burst of his stored Steller Qi into the Feather-Light Step Technique. It was far more than the technique was designed for, but his fortified meridians handled the surge. He didn’t just step; he launched.

He became a grey streak, a human missile, carrying the two stunned beauties in his arms, shooting past the still-recovering Devourers and through the shattered opening into the cavern beyond. The sheer speed of his movement was shocking, far beyond what a Twelfth Stage cultivator should be capable of.

Lin Jing, Wu Qian, and Bai Mei, seeing their leader vanish and Wang Jian’s group follow suit, wasted no time. With cries of desperation, they disengaged from their respective beasts, taking painful parting blows as they did, and scrambled frantically towards the opening.

The three Devourers, roaring in fury at being denied their prey, turned to charge through the opening after them.

They would be too late.

Wang Jian, having landed gracefully inside the cavern with the two women, spun around. He didn’t even put them down. Holding them securely, he slammed his free palm against the shimmering, fractured frame of the broken formation’s entrance.

He didn’t use a spell. He just poured a small, but incredibly dense and pure, burst of his Steller Qi directly into the core matrix of the shattered array.

The effect was instantaneous.

The broken, flickering runes flared with a brilliant, renewed light, feeding on his potent Qi. The shattered ice fragments seemed to reverse their trajectory, flying back together. With a deep, resonant THRRRUUUMMM that shook the very foundations of the cavern, the ice barrier reformed, sealing the entrance completely shut, a solid wall of ancient, impenetrable ice once more.

The furious roars of the three Frost-Maw Devourers were abruptly cut off, reduced to muffled, frustrated growls from the other side. They were trapped outside. The cultivators were trapped inside.

Wang Jian gently set Yue Lingshan and Liu Ruyan down. Both were breathless, their hearts hammering, a mixture of shock, confusion, and a dawning, thrilling admiration in their eyes as they looked at him. They had never felt such raw, controlled power from him before.

A moment later, Chen Ying’s three followers stumbled into the cavern, bleeding and exhausted, their eyes wide with relief as they saw the sealed barrier behind them.

The cavern was safe. For now.

Far away, hidden behind a massive ice boulder, Ye Fan watched the entire spectacle unfold, his heart pounding in his chest.

He had been watching the battle, shocked by the power of the Second-Rank beasts, his mind calculating, waiting. He had planned to wait until both the cultivators and the beasts were exhausted, weakened from their battle. Then, he would sweep in, using his own superior combat strength and the element of surprise to deal with the survivors and claim the treasure for himself. It was a risky, but potentially rewarding, plan.

He saw the ice barrier shatter, and his heart leaped. The treasure was exposed! This was his moment!

He was just about to activate his own movement technique, to rush for the opening, when he saw it.

He saw the Mystic Peak disciple in grey—Wang Jian—do the unthinkable. He saw him grab both women, one in each arm, and launch himself through the opening with a burst of speed that made Ye Fan’s own eyes widen in disbelief.

Then, the final, crushing blow to his plans.

He watched in stunned horror as Wang Jian turned and, with a simple touch, a flare of impossibly dense Qi, reformed the ancient barrier. The entrance, his only way in, was sealed shut.

"He... he sealed it?" Ye Fan whispered to himself, his mind reeling. "From the inside? How is that even possible? He trapped the beasts out... and me with them!"

A wave of cold, bitter disappointment washed over him. His opportunity, the fated treasure he had tracked all this way, was gone, locked away behind an impenetrable wall of ancient ice. Lingering here, with three enraged, frustrated Second-Rank beasts now roaming the area, was absolute suicide.

Ye Fan was many things—determined, resilient, vengeful—but he was not a fool. His harsh life had taught him one lesson above all others: know when to retreat.

He gritted his teeth, a curse dying on his lips. He cast one last, frustrated glare at the sealed cavern entrance, committing the face of the mysterious Mystic Peak disciple to memory. Then, true to his pragmatic nature, he turned and melted back into the icy shadows of the Glacial Heart Wastes, not even sparing a second glance behind him.

The protagonist had been outmaneuvered. The stage within the ice cavern now belonged solely to Wang Jian and the six beauties accompanying him.