Dugu Bo: The Advantage Is Mine!

"Impudence!"

This furious shout was like the hiss of a cold, venomous serpent.

Carrying a sickeningly sweet, bloody stench and the terrifying pressure of a Titled Douluo, it instantly shattered the stillness of the Ice Fire Yin Yang Eye.

Jiang Zhen whipped around and saw an elderly man standing at the entrance to the valley, though he had no idea when the man had arrived. He was tall and thin, with dark green hair hanging loose over his shoulders.

He wore a simple gray robe. His eyes were sinister and his face withered, yet he exuded a suffocating aura as deep as an abyss.

Dugu Bo was both shocked and enraged.

As usual, he had come to the Ice Fire Yin Yang Eye today, intending to use this place's extreme environment to suppress the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor Poison within his body.

Yet the moment he stepped into the valley, he sensed two utterly unfamiliar auras!

One belonged to a mere Soul Ancestor junior, roughly Level Forty-Eight.

As for the other... Dugu Bo's Level 91 Spiritual Power swept over it like a clay ox entering the sea, unable to probe its depths at all!

He could only faintly sense an incomparably cold, incomparably noble, and utterly inhuman terrifying essence.

A Soul Ancestor and a woman with a strange aura whose true strength he could not discern had actually dared to intrude upon the treasured land he regarded as his private domain—and were even brazenly trying to pick his Herbs?!

In his shock and fury, Dugu Bo did not dwell on the woman's oddity.

In his view, there were only a handful of renowned female Titled Douluo on the continent, and none of them matched the person before him.

Perhaps she had used some special method to conceal her aura?

But no matter what, a Soul Ancestor and a woman who was, at most, a Soul Douluo were nothing before him, the Poison Douluo!

The advantage is mine!

"Where did these little thieves come from? How dare you trespass into my Herb Garden and touch my Herbs! You're courting death!"

Jade light flashed in Dugu Bo's eyes, his killing intent fully exposed.

He could not even be bothered to ask further questions. His withered hand shot up, and his Eighth Soul Ring instantly lit up.

"Eighth Soul Skill, Time Freeze!"

Dugu Bo had not used his full strength. After all, in his eyes, dealing with a pair of "little thieves" did not warrant such great expenditure.

Even so, an incomparably condensed, almost tangible beam of sickly green light shot forth.

Bearing horrifying toxicity that corroded all things and extinguished life itself, it streaked like lightning toward Jiang Zhen and the Ice Empress, who stood beside the Immortal Herb!

The exotic flowers and grasses around them rapidly withered and blackened from the aftershock of the toxic light, while the air let out a mournful sizzling sound.

Yet in the face of an attack that would have driven most Spirit Masters to despair, the two people present reacted completely differently.

Jiang Zhen's pupils contracted, and the Soul Power inside his body instantly boiled as the Profound Water Clear Mind Art circulated at its limit.

A deep blue Water Film instantly covered his entire body. The Deep Sea's Eye between his brows activated in response, locking firmly onto that fatal green light.

Though startled, he did not panic, because he knew exactly what kind of being stood beside him.

As for the Ice Empress, from Dugu Bo's appearance to his attack, not a trace of expression changed on her exquisite, coldly beautiful face.

Within those emerald-like eyes was only the... indifference and disdain of one watching an ant try to shake an iceberg.

Just as the Soul Skill was about to strike them—

The Ice Empress did not even turn to look at the attack. She merely raised one fair, slender hand and lightly brushed it toward the incoming toxic light.

Like a spring breeze passing over the lake surface, without the slightest trace of fanfare.

There was no earth-shaking explosion, no roar of colliding energies.

The Jade Phosphor Divine Light, which Dugu Bo believed could kill even a Soul Douluo, reached a point just inches before the Ice Empress's palm.

As though it had encountered an absolute nemesis and an insurmountable barrier, it instantly congealed and froze!

Yes, froze!

The sickly green toxic energy was completely sealed in midair in an instant by a layer of crystalline Extreme Profound Ice that appeared from nowhere, forming a bizarre green ice pillar!

Within the ice pillar, that terrifying toxic energy seemed to have had a pause button pressed. Not even the slightest fluctuation could escape, let alone harm anyone.

"What?!"

The cruel grin on Dugu Bo's face instantly froze. His eyes nearly popped from their sockets as he cried out in disbelief, his voice cracking.

What had he just seen?

His Eighth Soul Skill had been... frozen with a casual wave of her hand?!

How was that possible?!

Even a Titled Douluo could not have taken his attack so effortlessly!

"A petty trick, and you dare show it off before an expert?"

Only then did the Ice Empress slowly turn around, her icy gaze falling upon Dugu Bo.

That gaze was not sharp, yet it made Dugu Bo feel as though he had been targeted by a prehistoric beast.

A chill from the depths of his soul instantly swept through his entire body. Even his Martial Soul, the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor, seemed to shrink back under the suppression of that extreme cold!

"What... what exactly are you?!"

Dugu Bo's expression changed drastically, alarm bells ringing wildly in his heart as he finally realized that he might have made a catastrophic mistake!

That green-dressed girl before him was absolutely no Soul Douluo. She might not even be an ordinary Titled Douluo!

The answer came from Ice Empress's emerald eyes, which suddenly lit up.

An extreme chill far more terrifying, purer, and more ancient than Dugu Bo's poisonous might erupted from Ice Empress's petite body like a tsunami!

The temperature throughout the Ice Fire Yin Yang Eye valley plummeted wildly at that instant!

Dugu Bo felt the space around him become incomparably viscous in an instant. His movements slowed to a crawl, and even the circulation of his Soul Power seemed about to freeze.

Even worse, the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor Poison that had already been restless Inside the Body began showing signs of backlash under the stimulation of that extreme cold!

"Not good!"

Dugu Bo was terrified out of his wits. No longer caring about anything else, he instantly unleashed his Martial Soul Avatar. The phantom of a massive Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor appeared behind him as he desperately tried to break free from the invisible restraint.

"Ant, be quiet."

Ice Empress frowned slightly, seemingly growing impatient with Dugu Bo's struggle.

She merely raised her other hand and made a grasping motion in Dugu Bo's direction.

Crack--!

Countless masses of Extreme Profound Ice, harder than Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Iron, burst from the ground around Dugu Bo.

Like a living Ice Cage, they instantly sealed him and his Martial Soul Avatar firmly within!

The Ice Layer rapidly thickened, forming a gigantic Ice Coffin as large as a small mountain in the blink of an eye!

Trapped at the center of the Ice Coffin, Dugu Bo felt unparalleled icy power pressing in on him from every direction.

It did not merely freeze his body—it seemed intent on freezing his soul as well!

He frantically mobilized his Soul Power to resist. Emerald green poisonous light repeatedly slammed into the Ice Layer, yet it could only leave shallow marks on the crystalline ice walls. It was utterly incapable of breaking through!

That frigid aura even seeped through his defenses and began eroding his Meridians, nearly freezing his blood solid!

He was the mighty Poison Douluo, a Level 91 Titled Douluo!

Yet in a single exchange, he had been completely suppressed by his opponent as though she were disciplining a child, with no power to fight back!

That absolute, despair-inducing gap in strength filled his heart with shock and disbelief.

"You... you are..."

Dugu Bo's strained, terrified voice came from within the Ice Coffin.

Jiang Zhen watched everything unfold from the side.

Though he had long known that Ice Empress was terrifyingly powerful, witnessing her so effortlessly crush a famed Titled Douluo with his own eyes was still an incomparably shocking sight.

Seeing the undisguised icy killing intent in Ice Empress's Eyes, he knew that to her, killing a Level 91 Titled Douluo was no different from crushing an ant.

"Ice Empress." Jiang Zhen spoke calmly.

Ice Empress turned her head slightly toward him. The killing intent in her eyes remained, as though asking, "What?"

"Spare his life for now."

Jiang Zhen looked toward the enormous Ice Coffin, his gaze deep.

"He may still be useful to us. Besides, perhaps I can have a 'talk' with him about what happened here."

Ice Empress curled her lips, seemingly dismissive of keeping this "trouble" alive.

But she looked at Jiang Zhen, then at the Ice Coffin. In the end, she dispersed the terrifying icy radiance gathered in her palm, enough to utterly obliterate Dugu Bo along with his soul.

She waved her hand lazily.

"Do whatever you want. He's just a little bug that plays with poison. Boring."