Deep within the Obsidian Mine Cave, beneath the dim light, the air hung so still it seemed one could wring water from it.
Ya Fei leaned against the icy rock wall, breathing lightly. Her dark green fitted outfit was stained with dust and torn in places, while her once immaculate hair bun had fallen slightly loose, several strands sticking to her smooth temples with sweat.
Those peach-blossom eyes that could so easily stir up storms were now sharp as an eagle's, fixed tightly ahead—seven or eight dark figures had surrounded her and her three guards.
The two Three Star Great Fighter guards she had brought stood back-to-back before her, their battle aura flickering and their breaths disordered. They had clearly endured a bitter fight.
One had a wound on his arm deep enough to expose bone, blood dripping ceaselessly. The scout guard, meanwhile, had already collapsed in a pool of blood, dead or alive unknown.
"Gale Bi! Liu Xi! You have some nerve!" Ya Fei's cold voice, laden with suppressed fury, echoed through the empty mine.
Her gaze swept over Liu Xi, who stood outside the encirclement with a smug, lecherous grin, and Gale Bi, whose eyes were dark and sinister.
"Setting such a despicable trap—aren't you afraid of retaliation from the Mittel Family?"
"Retaliation?" Liu Xi sneered, his greedy gaze roaming over Ya Fei's alluring figure, which remained impossible to conceal even in such danger. He licked his lips. "Once the deed is done and I take a few 'mementos,' would Manager Ya Fei really be willing to let the 'good thing' between us become public?
By then, wouldn't the Mittel Family have no choice but to swallow their pride and acknowledge this 'marriage' for the sake of their reputation? Hehehe..."
Gale Bi added in a sinister tone, "Manager Ya Fei, a wise man submits to circumstances. As long as you cooperate obediently, hand over part of the Mietel Auction House's control in Wutan City, and properly 'serve' Master Liu Xi, we may yet spare your life. Otherwise... this Obsidian Mine Cave will be your burial ground!"
Ya Fei's heart sank. The other side had come prepared. Not only did they have the advantage in numbers, but two of them had actually reached the Five Star Great Fighter level!
More importantly, she realized that nearly every contingency she had carefully arranged had failed!
There was no word from the reinforcement team; they had clearly been intercepted or eliminated midway. And on her own side...
Her gaze abruptly turned toward the most severely injured Three Star Great Fighter guard—Li Kui!
During the battle just now, it had been his repeated "mistakes" that had created fatal gaps in their defensive formation. Wang Yan had been seriously injured while saving him, and she herself had nearly been captured!
"Li Kui! It was you!" Ya Fei's voice carried an icy disbelief.
Li Kui had been one of the trusted subordinates she relied on heavily, following her for many years. She had never expected him to be bought off by the Gale Family!
Li Kui did not dare meet Ya Fei's eyes. Lowering his head and clutching his bleeding arm, he rasped, "Manager... I'm sorry! They... they captured my family..."
"Traitor!" Wang Yan roared. He wanted nothing more than to cut Li Kui down at once, but under his severe injuries, he was already at the end of his strength.
Ya Fei gave a miserable smile. The last shred of hope in her heart had shattered.
Besieged from within and without, with her escape route cut off, this was certain death!
Instinctively, she clenched the icy jade talisman hidden in her sleeve. It was her final means of taking her enemies down with her.
"Take her! Be careful, don't hurt my beauty!" Liu Xi waved his hand impatiently, his face brimming with lecherous delight.
The two black-clad Five Star Great Fighters grinned savagely as they stepped forward, their powerful auras locking onto Ya Fei and Wang Yan.
At that critical moment—
"Buzz!"
An ultimate chill, born from the deepest abyss and capable of freezing souls, descended without warning!
The temperature inside the mine plummeted, and thick layers of dark blue ice instantly covered the rock walls and ground!
The torches on the walls sputtered out one after another. All light vanished as darkness and bitter cold swallowed everything!
The moisture in the air froze into crystalline powder, drifting down like falling snow!
Everyone felt as though they had fallen into an ice pit. Their battle aura grew sluggish, their movements stiffened, and even their thoughts nearly froze!
"What is this?!"
"So cold!"
Panicked screams rang out in the darkness.
A figure appeared silently before Ya Fei like a ghost.
He wore a simple white robe, spotless beneath the faint glow of dark blue ice crystals, his posture tall and straight.
The newcomer had a youthful face. It was Mo Lin!
Yet at this moment, he was entirely different from his usual self. Expressionless, with eyes cold as ancient ice, he swept his gaze over the crowd with an authority that held life itself in contempt.
The power of his newly unfolded domain had completely rewritten the laws of this place—extreme cold, suppression, sluggishness!
Within this domain, he was the absolute ruler!
"What kind of combat skill is this?! Impossible!" the Gale Family's Great Elder cried out in horror.
He could feel his Five Star Great Fighter strength being suppressed by nearly thirty percent beneath this bizarre force field! He had never heard of such a method!
Mo Lin gave them no time to react. The instant the domain unfolded, he moved!
Ice Emperor's Claws!
His hands were instantly covered in translucent ice crystals radiating extreme cold, as though he had donned exquisitely crafted clawed gauntlets!
His figure became a blurred streak of icy blue light, moving so fast that it seemed to ignore the barriers of space itself!
His first target was the nearest Six Star Fighter.
The fighter saw only a flash of blue. Before he could even make a defensive move, the palm covered in icy claws had pierced through his chest as easily as cutting tofu!
Cold spread through him in an instant, freezing him into an ice sculpture! An instant kill!
Emperor Sword: Peerless Ice Extreme!
Mo Lin raised two fingers like a sword, firing a tightly condensed streak of icy blue sword aura.
As though it possessed life, it traced a strange arc through the air and instantly pierced the throat of another Three Star Great Fighter who had tried to launch a sneak attack from the flank! Another instant kill!
Ice Emperor's Armor!
A layer of ice crystal armor, thin as cicada wings yet indestructible, instantly covered Mo Lin's entire body, forcibly withstanding the all-out strike of a Three Star Great Fighter guest elder from the Gale Family!
Only a faint ripple appeared on the ice armor, but Mo Lin's counterattack had already arrived!
His icy claws directly shattered the man's battle aura defense and slammed viciously into his chest!
The sound of shattering bones rang out alongside the sound of freezing. The Guest Elder spat blood as he flew backward, crashing into an ice wall, his life extinguished!
The slaughter unfolded efficiently and coldly amid the extreme chill and darkness.
Mo Lin pushed every powerful ability he possessed to its limit: domain suppression, icy claws for offense, the Emperor Sword for ranged attacks, and ice armor for defense.
Combined with ghostlike speed, he was like a death god from an ice prison. Every strike claimed a life!
The Gale Family's fighters were no better than chickens and dogs before him, collapsing at first contact. Even the two Five Star Great Fighters—Gale Bi and the Great Elder—could not hold on for long beneath the domain's suppression and the storm of attacks!
The Great Elder's all-out Mysterious Tier Intermediate Combat Skill was shattered by the more refined and tyrannical Emperor Sword. Its remaining sword aura tore through half his body before freezing it! Gale Bi tried to flee, but Mo Lin closed in. The Ice Emperor's Claws tore through his defenses like rotten wood and crushed his throat!
The entire process was as swift as lightning, precise and merciless. In barely ten breaths, the Gale Family members who had been so arrogant moments ago had all become ice-sculpture corpses, fallen dead in the frozen cavern!
The cave fell silent, broken only by the crackling of ice crystals. The bloody stench froze beneath the biting chill, filling the place with an eerie and terrifying atmosphere.
Mo Lin dispelled his icy claws and ice armor, while the power of his domain slowly receded.
His white robes remained as pristine as snow, though his breathing was somewhat hurried. That thunderous slaughter had clearly consumed no small amount of his strength.
He turned around, his gaze falling on Ya Fei, who stood rooted in place from overwhelming shock.
Seeing her pale face and the lingering terror in her eyes, the corner of his mouth slowly rose into a mischievous, somewhat roguish smile utterly out of place amid the carnage.
"Yo, Sister Ya Fei. Haven't seen you in a few days, and you're already in such a sorry state?"
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