Ice Lotus Soul Lock, Ice Empress' Lament

"This is it, boss! That kid lives in this room. Get him!"

The hushed, vicious voice outside the door was followed by a jumble of heavy footsteps. The metallic scrape of blades being drawn rang out, piercing to the ear.

With a bang, brute force smashed the wooden gate to pieces, sending splinters flying. More than a dozen dark figures poured into the private courtyard, instantly surrounding the room's entrance so tightly that not even a drop of water could have passed through.

Their leader was none other than the burly man with a face full of hard flesh from the auction stage that day.

The obsequious manner he had worn at the auction was long gone. His eyes gleamed with murderous malice, and the cold light of the long saber drawn from his waist reflected off his vicious face.

Behind him, four men with imposing presences took up positions at the four corners. Their Soul Power fluctuations had clearly reached the level of fortieth-rank Soul Ancestors.

The seven or eight remaining subordinates were all Soul Masters between the twentieth and thirtieth ranks.

Each wielded a short blade, and their killing intent surged as they completely sealed off the room, leaving its occupant no room to escape.

Qian Lingye stood in the center of the room with his hands behind his back. Snow Empress was sleeping soundly on the bed. He raised his eyes to sweep over the uninvited intruders, a faintly mocking smile curving his lips.

"What's this? Did you come all this way in the middle of the night to pay me back?"

The burly man threw back his head and let out a deafening sneer. Treading over the splintered wood that covered the ground, he advanced one step at a time.

"Brat, you threw money around at the auction today, tossing out fifty thousand Gold Soul Coins in a single bid. You sure made a show of yourself. I could tell you came from a great clan and have a distinguished background."

His tone abruptly changed, and a chilling murderous intent swept forth.

"But your mistake was flashing your wealth as you pleased in a place like Hanwu City, where fish and dragons mingle! I want the money, and I want that pretty little girl too! No matter who's backing you, you're dying here tonight!"

Hanwu City was a place where heaven was high and the emperor far away, a lawless land beyond anyone's jurisdiction.

Murder and robbery were commonplace here.

The burly man had originally thought the little girl was worth only 1,000 Gold Soul Coins, but he had never expected Qian Lingye to bid fifty thousand.

If one person could spend fifty thousand to buy her, then surely someone else would be willing to spend 50,000 too.

Wouldn't he be taking a loss if he sold her only once?

So he had spent the entire day asking after Qian Lingye's whereabouts, all for this moment.

As his words fell, the burly man abruptly waved his huge hand and bellowed, "Get him! Kill him!"

Humm!!

The Soul Power of four Soul Ancestors above the fortieth rank erupted at once. Yellow and purple Soul Rings rose and lit up one after another, and a terrifying wave of Soul Power swept through the courtyard.

The Soul Masters in their twenties and thirties around them all activated their Martial Souls as well. Soul lights of various colors flared, and flashing blades and sword shadows interwove into an airtight net of slaughter that lunged at Qian Lingye from every direction.

The shriek of blades cutting through the air rose and fell. The attacks blotted out the sky and covered the earth, sealing off every avenue of evasion or retreat.

In Hanwu City, a force like this already counted as a local powerhouse. Even an ordinary Soul Elder would give such a lineup a wide berth.

Faced with the killing moves bearing down on him from all sides, Qian Lingye remained calm and indifferent from beginning to end, without a trace of panic. He did not even move his feet half a step.

"Is that all you've got?"

With a thought, he unleashed the power of his Second Soul Ring.

[Snow Dance Rainbow Dress!]

Humm-!!

Translucent, deep-blue ice lotus runes bloomed out of thin air. Ice lotuses the size of palms, each bearing intricate patterns, appeared from nowhere and danced through the air.

Hundreds of ice lotus runes scattered and shot forth as though alive, wrapping around every intruder's body like a tide.

The moment the ice lotuses touched flesh, they clung tightly and coiled around it, burrowing into their bodies through the pores of their skin.

In an instant, the four Soul Ancestors above the fortieth rank at the front of the charge went rigid. The light of the Soul Rings rising around them abruptly dimmed, like oil lamps whose flames had been snuffed out!

The Martial Soul Origin circulating within them froze in an instant, and their surging Soul Power became trapped in their meridians. They could not draw on the slightest bit of it.

Not only were their bodies restrained, but the bone-piercing cold also bored through their flesh and blood and straight into their seas of consciousness. Even their souls seemed to be encased in ice and frozen.

The entire group, who had been charging so fiercely, froze in place.

Some held their long sabers high, their blades only a few dozen feet from Qian Lingye, yet they could not thrust them forward another inch. Others remained in midair, frozen stiff in the middle of a pounce.

The killing intent filling the courtyard vanished like smoke in an instant, leaving only deathly silence.

The cold stabbed at their souls. Everyone's features twisted, their muscles trembling uncontrollably. They could not even keep their teeth clenched, and could only force muffled, agonized gasps from their throats.

The burly leader's pupils contracted violently. Stormy waves surged in his heart, and his eyes were filled with disbelief and horror.

He could clearly sense that the Soul Power fluctuations of the young man before him were unmistakably those of a Soul Grandmaster in his twenties!

"No... impossible!! A mere twentieth-rank rookie! How could you... freeze our Martial Souls!?"

The burly man screamed wildly in his heart, fear engulfing him like icy water.

Soul Ancestors above the fortieth rank had been completely locked down by a young man in his twenties with a single move, unable even to twitch a finger.

It was straight out of the Arabian Nights!

He knew that the geniuses of the great clans could fight above their rank. Two, three, even five ranks higher was nothing unusual, but this was fucking more than twenty ranks higher. Fucking hell, this was ridiculous!

That Soul Skill had frozen them all stiff in just one second. Was that a Soul Skill a normal twentieth-rank Soul Master should possess?

Its power was already comparable to an eighth or ninth Soul Skill.

A cold look flashed across Qian Lingye's face.

"Just because I've sealed your movements doesn't mean I'll spare your lives."

[Your anger has been detected. Authority of Wrath activated. All abilities increased by 40%, and all Soul Skills amplified by 40%!]

Qian Lingye acted with a thought.

[Evil God Authority!]

In an instant, a pitch-black halo enveloped Qian Lingye's entire body, and a layer of dark-gold patterns flowed and flickered across his skin.

The power of his Soul Skills doubled, and he was immune to all backlash and negative effects!

With Authority of Wrath and Evil God Authority stacked together, Qian Lingye's Soul Power had risen to a terrifying degree.

He glared at the group, and in the next moment, unleashed his ice and snow origin at full force.

[Ice Empress' Lament!]

Boom-!!

Behind Qian Lingye, a vast, ethereal apparition of Snow Empress slowly appeared!

The apparition had skin of ice and bones of jade, and her long, ice-blue hair fluttered in the wind. Her indifferent eyes looked down upon all living beings, and an extreme-cold pressure originating from a seven-hundred-thousand-year-old Ferocious Beast instantly filled the entire courtyard.

The Snow Empress apparition opened her mouth slightly.

A boundless, raging tide of ice roared forth!

A piercing, bone-chilling wind swept in every direction, and frost visible to the naked eye spread madly outward from Qian Lingye.

The moment the ice tide touched the wall bricks, wooden beams, window lattices, and stone paving, they were swiftly coated in thick, solid ice.

The entire room and courtyard were transformed into an enormous, crystalline ice sculpture in the blink of an eye.

The assassins restrained by the ice lotus runes bore the brunt of it, swallowed up by the ice tide.

The ice invaded their bodies and tore apart their meridians. Even the origins of the souls within their seas of consciousness were crushed outright by the terrifying cold.

Before they could utter a final scream, more than a dozen bodies were frozen solid, their flesh and blood extinguished along with their souls.

The courtyard fell deathly silent.

The ice tide filling the air slowly subsided. Throughout the inn's courtyard, everything was sealed in crystalline ice. Lifelike human ice sculptures stood silently on the ground, the signs of life within them completely gone.

Qian Lingye slowly lowered his arm, and the Snow Empress apparition behind him gradually dissolved into the void.

The cold slowly receded, and the pitch-black light of the Soul Skill withdrew into his body.

He glanced at the ice sculptures filling the courtyard, his expression indifferent.

He did not like killing, but if someone was blind enough to dare offend him, he would not hold back when he killed.

Qian Lingye did not want to cause too much of a commotion. This time, he had used only Ice Empress' Lament, letting these desperadoes die in the extreme cold.

If he had used Emperor Sword or Emperor's Palm, there probably would not have been a scrap left of them, and half the city would have been razed to the ground!

Qian Lingye walked over to the burly man's corpse and took back the fifty-thousand-Gold-Soul-Coin note. He also swept up everything of value the group had, scrounging up another five thousand Gold Soul Coins.

"So poor."

By rights, five thousand Gold Soul Coins was already quite a lot.

One Gold Soul Coin was enough to feed an ordinary family of three for a month, and the monthly stipend for becoming a Soul Master was only one Gold Soul Coin. Put plainly, that was equivalent to a thousand yuan on Blue Star, making five thousand Gold Soul Coins equivalent to five million.

To Qian Lingye, however, it was only a little pocket money. Bibi Dong had never restricted him when it came to money; he could spend it however he liked.

The job was done. Qian Lingye dusted off his sleeves.

Just as he was about to turn around, he looked toward a petite figure in the corner of the courtyard, who was trying to sneak away.

His lips curled. "Xiao Xue'er, you're awake?"