"What is he trying to do now?"
Grandpa Ju's brows shot up, his eyes full of suspicion and surprise. "Why did he suddenly stop again?"
"Wait, that's not right! Not only has he stopped, but it looks like he's standing right at the center of the Winter Gate. What's he planning?"
Grandpa Ju stared at Master Lin from Seacrest inside the Winter Gate. At that moment, the young man had already come to a halt.
The powerful cracks that had split the ground with each step he took suddenly stopped spreading as soon as he stopped moving.
Almost the instant he paused, the ice spikes—previously forced back by the fierce energy of those cracks and destroyed faster than they could grow—suddenly surged back with a vengeance.
Starting from where the cracks had stopped, the ice spikes launched themselves at Master Lin from Seacrest with even greater ferocity.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
One massive ice spike after another swept in from all directions toward Master Lin from Seacrest, each one more overwhelming than the last.
Under the eerie blue sunlight, the giant ice spikes gleamed with a deadly chill.
Just a single glance was enough to send a bone-chilling cold through anyone watching.
Master Lin from Seacrest stood there with his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze icy and calm. Around him, roaring wind and snow hammered in, carrying immense force.
The snowflakes and cold winds were like invisible blades, each one more ruthless than the last.
"Condense."
With a single word, Master Lin from Seacrest calmly summoned a transparent ice barrier to form rapidly in front of him.
"Is he insane?"
Blake Lin was startled by the scene. "Is this Master Lin from Seacrest really planning to use the Winter Gate's wind and snow to form a shield?"
"Doesn't he know that inside the Winter Gate, all the wind and snow are under the array's control? Even if he manages to form a shield, the formation will immediately turn it against him and launch its fiercest attack yet."
Blake Lin's eyes sparkled with intrigue.
Logan Lu didn’t fully understand, but he got the gist: inside the Winter Gate, everything was designed to attack the intruder.
Even if someone tried to use their own force to condense the wind, snow, and ground inside the Winter Gate into a shield, that shield would eventually turn against them and attack.
In other words, at first glance, that barrier looked like it was protecting Master Lin from Seacrest from the wind, snow, and ice spikes—but in the next moment, it could easily transform into countless blades stabbing straight at him.
Selina Wu clenched her fists so tightly her palms were drenched in sweat. She couldn't shake a strange sense of unease.
Beside her, Martin Wu and the others all stared at the scene. They had huge confidence in Evan Lin, but this Winter Gate felt like it was shrouded in deathly silence.
It wasn’t just the wind, snow, and ice spikes surrounding Master Lin from Seacrest. Not far away, right in front of Night Winter—the array's eye—a swirling vortex was forming, and that was the truly terrifying part.
At first, the vortex was barely noticeable, but now it had grown over three meters tall. The energy gathering beside it whipped up layers of howling winds.
The vortex remained motionless, quietly guarding Night Winter as the array's core, but with every passing second, its power grew even stronger.
Even separated by the formation and some distance, Selina Wu could feel the cold winds blowing off that vortex.
"Let me see just how strong your Four Seasons Grand Array's final formation, this Winter Gate, really is."
Evan Lin spoke calmly. One meter away, a shield of solid ice formed instantly, condensed from the Winter Gate's own power.
A thunderous boom echoed through the air.
The incoming wind, snow, and ice spikes slammed against the layer of solid ice.
The ice barrier didn't break, but in the very next instant, more than a thousand ice blades suddenly appeared on its surface, all pointing at Evan Lin and ready to charge straight at him.
But just as the blades emerged from the first ice barrier, a second ice shield, condensed by Evan Lin, appeared right on cue.
Boom!
Another round of thunderous impact.
The first ice barrier, now turned into blades, collided head-on with the newly formed second shield.
The second ice shield remained completely unscathed, its defense flawless.
In another instant, the second shield began to transform into countless ice blades, just as they were about to rush Evan Lin's way—
A third ice shield appeared once again.
"Inside the Winter Gate, he's constantly condensing new shields, using each fresh barrier to block the old ones that have already turned into ice blades?"
Blake Lin's eyes snapped wide open, his heart skipped a beat. "What is this?"
Blake Lin's mind went blank. The moment Evan Lin used his force to turn solid ice into a shield, the Winter Gate couldn't control that layer. By the time the formation converted it into blades, Evan had already taken control of the next shield.
Layer after layer stacking up like this—old ice breaking, new ice rising—means he can defend against any attack indefinitely.
Even more shocking, Blake Lin realized that each new ice shield was stronger than the last.
The Winter Gate's offensive was almost frozen in place. Wind, snow, and ice spikes kept shattering into eerie blue mist against the newest ice shield, unable to advance even a step.
From the outside, Master Lin from Seacrest looked perfectly calm within a one-meter radius—like the surface of a still pond, utterly undisturbed.
Beyond that meter, the wind and snow raged, ice spikes crashed down, and the attacks were as terrifying as a sudden downpour.
Amid the ghostly blue mist, the young man stood alone, looking completely aloof and above it all.
He simply stood there, his gaze cutting through the layers of ice mist, staring at Night Winter in the array's core—and at the snow vortex growing ever more powerful in front of him.
"How much longer is that thing going to take?"
Evan Lin spoke calmly, his voice cutting through the chaotic wind and snow and reaching everyone's ears.
Night Winter's face changed instantly at Evan's words. "That vortex contains all the force of the Winter Gate—are you actually waiting for it to fully form?"
"This is the final formation of the Four Seasons Grand Array. That vortex could shred even Pointing-to-Mystery-Realm experts to pieces!"
Night Winter had never understood Evan Lin's methods, but hearing Evan's question now, he suddenly snapped to attention.
"Is he really planning to test the array?"
Blake Lin clenched his fist and furrowed his brow. "The final vortex in the Winter Gate is the combined force of all four formations."
"Normal formation-breakers would never try to take on that vortex head-on, but he's planning to face it directly?"
"Is he fearless, or does he really think this last formation is just as easy as the previous three?"
"Absolutely ridiculous!"