The thrilling sparring match between Mo Lin and Xiao Xun'er in the valley had not lasted long, but forcibly unleashing the complete Emperor Cold Heaven: Snow Dance Shining Sun Domain had drained and enlightened Mo Lin far beyond any ordinary fierce battle.
That brief expansion of the domain had nearly emptied half the Dou Qi within him. Waves of tearing pain came from his meridians, while his mind was gripped by an unprecedented exhaustion.
Yet fortune and misfortune were intertwined. This extreme depletion and brief touch upon the laws of heaven and earth acted like the fiercest catalyst, completely drawing out and integrating the foundations he had accumulated through his recent battles with Instructor Ruo Lin and Xiao Xun'er, as well as the fruits of his daily unceasing cultivation.
More importantly, at the instant the domain unfolded, he had become like a bottomless pit, madly drawing in and compressing the vast energy of heaven and earth around him.
Although most of that torrent of energy forcibly absorbed into his body had been used to sustain the domain, a portion of its pure power had still settled within him, blending perfectly with his own Dou Qi.
At that moment, the sturdy barrier separating a Dou Practitioner from a Da Dou Shi had already become as thin as a cicada's wing under the savage assault from within and without. The surging Dou Qi in his body was spontaneously and uncontrollably launching wave after wave of fierce attacks toward that long-awaited critical point!
The opportunity for a breakthrough had unexpectedly arrived at the very moment when he had expended most of his strength and most needed quiet rest and recovery!
Not good! I must immediately find an absolutely quiet and safe place to enter seclusion and break through! Mo Lin cried inwardly, forcibly suppressing the churning blood and energy tide within him that was about to erupt from his body like a volcano.
At this moment, every second was crucial!
He did not even have time to steady his ragged breathing. He fiercely bit the tip of his tongue, using the sharp pain to keep himself awake.
Then he pushed his movement technique to its limit, turning into a blurry white shadow as he shot out of the valley that had just witnessed a great battle and whose energy was still in turmoil. He raced toward an absolutely concealed hideout he had long secretly arranged within Wutan City!
Breaking through to the Da Dou Shi realm was a major dividing line on the path of cultivation. It required liquid Dou Qi to condense into crystals and allowed one to connect with even more energy from heaven and earth. No outside interference could be tolerated!
Otherwise, at best, the breakthrough would fail, all previous efforts would be wasted, and one's cultivation would regress. At worst, one's Dou Qi would spiral out of control and backlash against the meridians, damaging the foundation of cultivation and leaving endless future troubles!
Almost at the exact moment Mo Lin's figure vanished like a ghostly apparition around the corner of a secluded alley in Wutan City—
In another adjacent alley leading to the rear entrance of the Mietel Auction House, Ya Fei was hurriedly heading out with two trusted maids to deal with a sudden emergency.
Today, she had shed the cheongsam that usually displayed her charm and changed into a light-purple fitted outfit suited for movement. Though it did not outline her breathtaking curves as vividly as before, it still could not hide her proud figure and instead added a touch of capable, valiant elegance.
Yet a trace of anxiety and gravity hung between her delicate brows as she dealt with official matters.
However, at the very instant she was about to leave the dim alley—
An extremely concealed yet bone-piercing chill, so cold that it made even her soul tremble, spread without warning from the direction of the silent neighboring alley. Like an invisible tide of ice, it swept across her senses in an instant!
This chill was not the low temperature brought by ordinary ice-attributed Dou Qi. It was an absolute coldness that seemed to originate from the very source of all things freezing, carrying an ancient, deathly still, indifferent aura.
Though it had flashed by in an instant, so faint that one might have mistaken it for an illusion caused by excessive mental strain.
Ya Fei, whose senses were sharp, felt as if an invisible ice spike had viciously pierced her soul. Her delicate body suddenly stiffened, and her steps froze in place.
"This... this aura?!" Ya Fei's alluring peach-blossom eyes abruptly contracted to pinpoints, filled with utter shock and disbelief.
This feeling... this coldness, ancient and awe-inspiring enough to make one tremble from the depths of the soul... how could it be so similar to the trace of original aura she had sensed during her two close encounters with the mysterious "Mr. Ice"?
No, it could almost be said that they came from the same source! One was like an ocean and the other a stream. Though the difference in quantity was as vast as heaven and earth, their quality—their "extremity" that froze all things and their "majesty" that looked down upon all living beings—was exactly the same!
Her heart began pounding wildly beyond her control, nearly crashing through her chest.
She abruptly turned her head, her sharp gaze shooting toward the neighboring deep alley, which was empty and shrouded in shadows.
Could it be... Mr. Ice had just appeared there?! Was he nearby?!
This thought exploded in her mind like thunder! Without a moment's hesitation, she quickly whispered an order to the two puzzled maids behind her, "Wait here! Do not follow without my command!"
Before her words had even faded, she was already moving. Her Dou Qi quietly circulated as she transformed into a swift light-purple shadow and hurried after the lingering trail of coldness!
At that moment, she had cast the emergency entirely from her mind!
She was incredibly fast, her movement technique agile. After a few leaps, she rushed into the alley like a gust of wind.
The alley was completely empty. Only the cool evening breeze swept across the mottled walls, stirring several dried yellow leaves and producing a soft rustling sound. There was not a single person in sight.
Only at the end of the alley, just as she was about to turn onto the noisy main street outside, did she seem to catch a terribly blurry glimpse from the corner of her eye: the back of a youth in an ordinary white robe, flashing past amid the endless tide of people at the street corner.
That figure... vaguely resembled Mo Lin, the talented young man who had recently risen to prominence?
Was... it him?
Ya Fei abruptly stopped at the alley entrance, staring in the direction where that figure had long since disappeared into the crowd.
Her expression shifted constantly, while her chest rose and fell violently from her hurried run and the immense shock in her heart.
Shock, doubt, absurdity... all kinds of complicated emotions intertwined like a tide, leaving her momentarily dazed.
That fleeting, extreme chill that shared the same origin as Mr. Ice's aura... and Mo Lin's blurry, vanishing figure... could there truly be some unimaginable connection between them?
The moment this bold and absurd thought surfaced, Ya Fei forcibly denied it herself.
No... impossible! Absolutely impossible! She shook her head repeatedly in her heart, trying to dispel this preposterous association. No matter how talented Mo Lin is, he is only a youth in the Dou Practitioner realm. He is young, and his cultivation is limited. How could he possess such a terrifying aura, like the origin of ten-thousand-year mysterious ice? That was pressure only a Dou Emperor-level existence, or perhaps someone even stronger, could possess! And Mr. Ice's mystery, depth, and that tone as though he had weathered countless years were absolutely not something a teenager could disguise or imitate!
She forcefully rubbed her smooth brow, attributing that instant of perception to an illusion caused by her excessive worries in recent days as she desperately searched for traces of Mr. Ice.
Or perhaps it had been a coincidence brought about by an extremely rare, uniquely natured fluctuation of heaven-and-earth energy.
After all, linking the unfathomable Mr. Ice with a young Dou Practitioner who had only just begun to make a name for himself was simply too absurd, beyond all common sense.
I must want to find Mr. Ice so badly that I've become restless and started imagining things. Ya Fei took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down and striving to regain her usual shrewdness and composure.
She turned to the concerned maids who had hurried after her and said calmly, "It's nothing. Perhaps my senses were mistaken. Let's go. The important matter comes first; don't delay it."
Although she said this and tried to pull her thoughts back to reality, that fleeting extreme chill that made her soul tremble, together with the astonishing coincidence of Mo Lin's vague figure in both time and place, was like a tiny yet incomparably hard wedge, silently driven deep into her heart.
A thread of indescribable doubt had already been planted, quietly lying dormant as it waited for the right moment in the future to sprout and break through the earth.
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