A Lone Blade Meets the Audience

The Wolf Head Mercenary Group's headquarters was brightly lit under the night sky. The patrolling mercenaries were still performing their duties diligently, unaware that a devastating storm was about to descend.

A white figure appeared silently outside the headquarters' main gate.

It was Mo Lin, his white robe gently fluttering in the night wind. He stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze calmly sweeping over the noisy courtyard, like a king surveying his domain.

"Who's there? Stop!" the guard shouted sternly, drawing his sword, its cold gleam flashing.

Mo Lin still didn't reply, only the corner of his mouth curling into an icy arc. With a slight shift of his thoughts, the immense power from the Ice Emperor within him began to surge.

The first change occurred on the surface of his body. A layer of crystal-clear armor, as if carved from profound ice, rapidly spread downwards from his neck, covering his torso and limbs!

The light armor had smooth lines and shimmered with a diamond-like, brilliant icy luster. It allowed for free movement at the joints yet exuded an aura of invincibility—this was the defensive skill, Ice Emperor's Armor!

At the same time, his arms and hands underwent an even more astonishing transformation.

Jade-like solid ice rapidly covered them from the elbows, instantly turning his forearms and palms into two exquisite, ferocious ice crystal claw blades with fingertips as sharp as knives!

The claw blades themselves emanated an extreme chill, and the diamond-shaped ice crystal structures on them refracted a heart-stopping cold light under the illumination—this was the offensive skill, Ice Emperor's Claws!

Ice armor covering his body, claw blades in hand! At this moment, Mo Lin was like a god of war who had emerged from the extreme northern ice fields, majestic, cold, and filled with destructive power!

A chilling killing intent swept out like a tide. The guards at the gate felt their very souls tremble, their strength to even grip their swords seemingly frozen.

"Enemy...!"

The warning cry was cut short. Mo Lin moved! His figure turned into a white lightning bolt, and he casually crossed his Ice Emperor's Claws forward with a swing!

"Screech—Crack!"

There was no violent collision, only the slight crisp sound of blades cutting through flesh and bone.

The two guards were instantly sliced into several pieces, like butter cut by a hot knife. Before their severed bodies could fall, they were frozen into stiff ice blocks by the terrifying cold that followed!

Mo Lin didn't even glance at the bloody scene as he stepped over the congealing blood ice and walked into the Wolf Head Mercenary Group's headquarters courtyard.

"Someone broke in!"

"It's a kid in white robes! Stop him!"

The mercenaries in the courtyard were alerted, swarming from all directions like an enraged swarm of bees. Their swords and sabers reflected the firelight, and their shouts of killing filled the air.

Dozens of mercenaries, their eyes red and faces contorted, lunged at the "frost monster" who had intruded alone.

Facing the surging crowd, Mo Lin frowned slightly and muttered, "Tsk, clearing out grunts is really troublesome... The single-target tearing power of Ice Emperor's Claws is unrivaled, and the defense of Ice Emperor's Armor is tough enough, but the efficiency for clearing fodder is too low. It would be great to have a wide-range AOE."

Despite his grumbling, his actions didn't stop. He didn't dodge or evade, charging directly into the torrent of blades!

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The dense chopping sounds landed on the ice armor formed by Ice Emperor's Armor, only managing to splash scattered ice fragments and leave shallow white marks, unable to penetrate the defense. His Ice Emperor's Claws, however, turned into the scythes of death!

A sweep! A mercenary, along with his armor, was slammed with such force that his chest caved in, flying backward and smashing through the courtyard wall!

A slash! The ice claws swept in a semicircle, slicing three mercenaries charging side-by-side at the waist. Before their blood could even spurt out, it froze!

A grab! A mercenary attempting a sneak attack was grabbed by the head with an ice claw. With a slight squeeze, his head exploded like a watermelon!

A stab! The ice claws thrust straight forward, easily piercing through a heavy shield and pinning the mercenary behind it to the ground!

Mo Lin was like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, unstoppable! The ice armor provided absolute protection, allowing him to ignore most attacks; the ice claws, on the other hand, granted him ultimate power and sharpness, with each swing bringing devastating results.

His combat style was overbearing and efficient, purely breaking skill with force, crushing everything with absolute defense and offense!

Initially, his dodges and weaves against attacks from all directions were slightly deliberate, but the powerful defense of Ice Emperor's Armor gave him ample room for error.

Soon, he completely adapted to the rhythm of being surrounded, his movements becoming fluid and natural, as if performing an elegant yet brutal dance of death.

As the ice claws swung, they stirred up chilling whirlwinds, and wherever they passed, people were thrown down, and flesh and blood turned to ice!

Screams, shattering sounds, and freezing noises were incessant. The elites of the Wolf Head Mercenary Group were fragile against this combination of ice armor and claw blades.

The front courtyard quickly turned into a frozen, bloody hell. The biting cold mixed with the heavy smell of blood, making one nauseous.

"A... monster! A monster we can't hurt!"

"Run... Run!"

The mercenaries' morale completely collapsed, and they scattered in terror.

Just as the front courtyard descended into chaos, inside the headquarters' main hall, the leader of the Wolf Head Mercenary Group, the Two-star Dou Master Mu She, was frowning as he listened to his subordinates' reports, mainly about trivial business matters and friction with other factions.

Regarding his son Mu Li taking people out for "business," he simply assumed it was a routine patrol or hunt and didn't think much of it.

After all, in Green Mountain Town, no one dared to easily harm the people of his Wolf Head Mercenary Group.

"What's going on outside? So noisy!" Mu She was disturbed by the sounds of fighting and screams coming from the front courtyard and asked with displeasure.

A mercenary scrambled in, his face deathly pale, and shouted in terror, "Leader... Leader! This is bad! Someone has broken in! The brothers... the brothers can't hold them back!"

"What?!" Mu She shot up from his seat, his face filled with shock and anger, "Who is it? Myriad Medicine Hall? Or the Blood Battle Mercenary Group? How dare they!"

"N-no idea! It's just one person! A very powerful young man! His Fighting Energy is ice-attribute!"

"One person?" Mu She was stunned for a moment, then flew into a rage, "Useless! A bunch of trash! You've been beaten like this by just one person? Come with me, I want to see who dares to cause trouble on my territory!"

Mu She grabbed the steel saber leaning against the table and strode furiously out of the hall.

When he arrived at the front courtyard and saw the ground covered in frost, his groaning subordinates, and the white-robed youth moving through the crowd as if no one was there, his pupils contracted sharply.

Especially when he felt the extremely pure, sharp, and cold aura from the opponent, which, though seemingly less profound than his own level, carried the majesty of a superior, Mu She's heart sank. The visitor meant trouble!

"Kid! Who are you? Why are you barging into my Wolf Head Mercenary Group and injuring my subordinates!" Mu She suppressed the shock in his heart and pointed his great saber at Mo Lin, shouting sternly.

He truly couldn't understand when he had offended such a bizarre and powerful enemy.

Could it be for revenge? But he hadn't provoked anyone like this recently!

Punishing evil and promoting good? Although Mu She acted domineeringly, he didn't think he had reached a point where heaven and man were outraged, requiring such a master to specifically eliminate him. He was utterly bewildered.

Mo Lin punched the last mercenary who dared to charge forward, sending him flying. He flicked his wrist as if to remove nonexistent bloodstains, and looked calmly at Mu She, as if he had just finished warming up.

"You are Mu She?" Mo Lin's voice was not loud, but it clearly carried across the entire area. "There's no special reason, I just felt... your Wolf Head Mercenary Group was an eyesore."

His reason was simple and overbearing, which ignited Mu She's anger but also made him more suspicious and uncertain.

"Arrogant! Wind Blade Dance!" Mu She roared in fury. His two-star Dou Master Fighting Energy erupted to its fullest, unleashing a mid-grade Profound tier Combat Skill!

His great saber danced wildly, forming a dense net of swirling green wind blade afterimages that howled towards Mo Lin.

Facing this seemingly sharp offensive, a hint of disdain flashed in Mo Lin's eyes.

With another thought, the Ice Emperor's Claws covering his arms suddenly dissipated, and the Ice Emperor's Armor on his body rippled slightly, transforming into pure energy that flowed back.

"Out of respect for the BOSS, I'll use my ultimate move too," Mo Lin's voice carried a hint of laziness, as if he wasn't facing a life-or-death battle, but a boring game.

"Emperor Sword... Peerless Ice Extreme!"

As he whispered softly, a long sword formed entirely from extreme cold energy materialized out of thin air in his hand.

The sword was three feet three inches long, carved entirely from eternally frozen ice, crystal clear. Within the blade, it seemed as if ice-blue streams of light slowly circulated, emitting a chill that could freeze the soul!

The sword's edge was wreathed in cold air, causing even light to distort slightly—this was the nascent form of the Snow Emperor's Ultimate Technique. Though far from perfect, its magnificence and nobility had already begun to show!

The net of blades howled as it arrived, the fierce wind tearing at the ground!

Mo Lin, however, merely flicked his wrist. Holding the ice crystal longsword, he elegantly and casually thrust it towards the seemingly flawless net of blades in front of him!

There was no earth-shattering momentum, no piercing sound of air being torn. That sword strike seemed to pierce through space, crossing the distance!

"Hum—"

A strange, soft hum sounded!

The tip of the ice sword precisely struck the core, and most vulnerable point, of the energy flow within the blade net!

The next moment, a scene that everyone would remember for eternity unfolded!

The grand, cohesive net of countless green wind blade afterimages, upon contact with the ice sword, instantly froze solid like a glass artwork plunged into absolute zero!

All the afterimages were frozen in mid-air, and then, starting from the point of contact with the sword tip, countless fine ice-blue cracks spread silently!

"Crack... crackle..."

The cracks spread across the entire blade net like a spiderweb!

Immediately after, before Mu She's widened eyes, filled with terror and disbelief, the entire blade net, along with its contained violent energy, shattered like broken ice crystals, completely annihilating and dissipating into nothingness!

There was no explosion, no shockwave, only an absolute silence brought by extreme cold!

Mu She stood frozen, his body icy cold. His strongest Combat Skill had been dismantled so effortlessly, so gorgeously and bizarrely... by the opponent?

However, it wasn't over yet!

After the ice sword shattered the blade net, its momentum seemed to have ended. But Mo Lin's wrist trembled slightly again, and the sword tip hummed!

A condensed to the extreme, thin as a cicada's wing, curved like a new moon ice-blue sword qi detached from the sword's edge. Moving at a speed beyond visual capture, it instantly swept across Mu She's neck!

Mu She didn't even have time to react. He only felt a coolness on his neck before his vision began to spin.

The last thing he saw was his own headless body rapidly freezing over, and the white-robed youth retracting his sword, his eyes as indifferent as ice.

"Thud."

His head landed on the ground, turning into a block of ice. His headless corpse heavily fell soon after, shattering into ice crystals.

One sword! Just one sword! It not only broke his strongest Combat Skill but also decapitated him directly!

Silence fell over the entire scene! The remaining mercenaries were so terrified they lost the strength to flee, collapsing to the ground, trembling uncontrollably.

The ice crystal longsword in Mo Lin's hand slowly dissipated, as if it had never existed. He glanced at the messy courtyard and shook his head, "Clearing the scene... is really troublesome."

With a casual wave of his hand, a wave of cold air swept through, freezing several terrified mercenaries into ice sculptures as a show of force.

Then, he didn't linger. The white-robed figure flickered and vanished into the night like a phantom.

Meanwhile, far away at the Myriad Medicine Pavilion camp, Xiao Yi Xian was still waiting anxiously, thinking Mo Lin had merely gone to create some chaos.

She was completely unaware that the young man who seemed to be "causing a little trouble" had already ended the overlord of Qingshan Town with a single sword strike in the most overbearing manner.