Ice Lotus Blooms

"Ice Lotus... First Bloom!"

The icy voice rang out like a jade chime, instantly tearing through the deathly silence of the practice arena!

The calm surrounding Su Qingxue, restrained to the extreme, shattered with a boom! A terrifying chill far purer and sharper than Su Hao's, seemingly originating from the deepest reaches of an abyss frozen for ten thousand years, erupted inside her without warning like a volcano suppressed for a millennium!

Buzz—!

Centered on where she stood, a visible white tide of cold swept outward like raging waves! The bluestone slabs beneath her feet instantly became covered in frost resembling a spiderweb and began to crack under the strain! Countless tiny ice crystals condensed in the air, refracting multicolored icy radiance beneath the autumn sun, as if draping her in armor woven from ice crystals!

Her spring-cold eyes blazed with icy light, like two stars fallen into the mortal world! Her originally aloof and solitary air was utterly replaced by a cold battle intent that looked down on all things!

"What?!" The savage grin on Su Hao's face instantly froze! His pupils shrank to pinpoints! The terrifying cold wave rushing toward him caused the protective chill surrounding his body to flicker like a candle in the wind. The bone-piercing cold even made his blood seem as though it might freeze! This was absolutely not the aura of an ordinary One-Star Martial Artist! This girl... had been hiding her strength?!

Shock seized his heart like a cold viper! But the arrow was already nocked and had to be loosed! He forcibly suppressed the storm raging in his heart, and the murderous glint in his eyes grew even more intense! He pushed Nine Cold Strengths to its limit. The ice crystals on his right palm instantly thickened several times, radiating a chilling blue glow that made one's heart tremble! His palm wind howled, carrying a venomous force capable of freezing the soul, as he struck even more viciously toward Su Qingxue!

"Playing tricks! Shatter for me!"

Wherever his palm wind passed, the air wailed as it froze to the extreme! His target was still Su Qingxue's chest! He was going to detonate the Jade Balance Hidden Meridian! He was going to make this ignorant girl collapse amid extreme pain and humiliation!

Su Qingxue moved!

Facing this fatal palm strike capable of freezing the soul and detonating the hidden meridian, she did not retreat in the slightest! Her icy eyes locked firmly onto the meridians in Su Hao's right arm, where the True Qi of Nine Cold Strengths surged! There! That "fuse" node Lin Xiao had optimized, now fluctuating violently as Su Hao unleashed his full strength!

Her Plum Blossom Reflecting Snow Steps unfolded instantly! Her footwork was no longer the light evasion it had been before. Instead, it carried a strange, heavy rhythm, as though she had merged with the frosty earth beneath her feet! She shifted slightly to the side, advancing instead of retreating and meeting Su Hao's Cold Jade Palm by a hair's breadth! At the same time, she held her left fingers together like a blade. A dazzling, blinding blue radiance of cold condensed at her fingertips, carrying an edge capable of piercing through anything as she stabbed straight toward the marked "fuse" beneath Su Hao's right armpit!

Attack where the enemy had to defend! Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao!

"Looking for death!" Su Hao laughed furiously! His opponent actually dared to attack him head-on? And she even wanted to strike beneath his armpit? She truly had no idea how high the heavens were! His palm's momentum remained unchanged. His left arm suddenly sank, blocking before him like an iron gate as he prepared to withstand Su Qingxue's seemingly feeble finger blade. At the same time, the imprint of his Cold Jade Palm would land on her chest without holding anything back!

Yet at that moment, when victory or defeat was about to be decided in a flash of lightning!

Hidden in the shadows, the bloodshot eyes of Lin Xiao suddenly erupted with the fierce glint of a lone wolf! Now! All of Su Hao's attention was locked onto Su Qingxue. His current step was precisely the transition point where he had exploded with all his strength, his old force exhausted before his new force had formed! It was also the moment when he was psychologically most certain and most relaxed!

His will, like a dying beast, let out a final roar and slammed viciously into the blue screen of light in his mind!

Target locked: Su Hao... landing area of the right Yongquan acupoint... surface material: bluestone slab... molecular structure stability...

Modification plan: Instantly reduce the bonding energy of silicon-oxygen bonds in the target area! Friction drastically reduced! Duration: 0.1 seconds! Source Energy Points required: 0.3!

Warning! Current Source Energy Points: -1.3! Executing this operation will cause the core to reach the critical point of depletion and carries a risk of uncontrolled Viper's Kiss contamination!

0.3 points! This was the final straw that broke the camel's back! His depleted soul let out a wail! Deep in his right leg, the dark-green Viper's Kiss core throbbed frantically, radiating cold greed!

"Move—for me!" Lin Xiao's will let out a soundless roar amid the agonizing pain of his soul being torn apart!

Command confirmed! Source Energy Points deducted: 0.3!

Source Energy Points: -1.3 - 0.3 = -1.6!

Modification initiated!

Buzz—!

An emptiness and agony far more violent than before instantly swallowed Lin Xiao! His vision plunged into total darkness! His ears rang loudly, as if the entire world were receding from him! The sweetness of blood in his throat could no longer be suppressed. A trace of crimson slid silently from the corner of his mouth! Deep in his right leg, the dark-green core erupted in a frigid tide like a poisonous snake breaking free of its shackles!

Warning! Core depletion has reached the critical point! Stability declining rapidly! Viper's Kiss contamination activity: +20%! Erosion rate: 0.005%! Risk of contamination spread: Extremely high!

The icy notification sounded like a funeral bell!

In the real world, just as Su Hao's right foot was about to plant itself firmly on the hard bluestone slab, the molecular structure on the surface of that seemingly ordinary slab underwent an extremely brief yet violent reorganization under the might of Source Energy!

0.1 seconds!

The rough bluestone surface that had originally provided firm friction became as smooth as a mirror on the microscopic level! The bonding energy of its silicon-oxygen bonds was forcibly weakened to the extreme!

Squelch!

Su Hao's right foot, which held all his strength and was prepared to withstand Su Qingxue's finger blade while launching a lethal strike, landed as though on ice coated in a thick layer of grease!

There was nothing to brace against!

The step in which he had placed all his confidence, aura, and strength instantly slipped into empty space! His center of gravity suddenly slid forward without warning! His entire body lurched forward uncontrollably, as if tripped by an invisible rope!

"Eh?!" The savage grin on Su Hao's face instantly transformed into utter shock and disbelief! All his calculations and his entire burst of strength were completely disrupted the moment his step slipped! Because of his loss of balance, the left arm blocking his chest warped instantly! The vital area beneath his armpit was left completely exposed!

This sudden turn of events, utterly contrary to reason, left Su Hao's mind blank!

An opening!

Su Qingxue's icy eyes, like the most precise hawk's, instantly caught this once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity! The finger blade stabbing toward the "fuse" beneath Su Hao's armpit subtly shifted upward the instant his left-arm block warped!

Sshk—!

Her ice-blue fingertip, like a red-hot brand, struck with incomparable precision onto the violently fluctuating "fuse" node in Su Hao's right-arm meridian, the one marked by Lin Xiao!

There was no earth-shaking boom.

There was only an extremely faint crack, like an ice crystal breaking!

Su Hao felt the surging flood of Nine Cold Strengths True Qi beneath his right armpit freeze and twist instantly, as though a piece of ten-thousand-year-old ice had been thrown into it! A bone-piercing pain filled with intense backlash shot through his entire right arm like an electric current!

"Argh—!" Su Hao let out a shrill scream! His right arm went numb instantly. His ice-crystal-covered right palm drooped limply like a marionette with its strings cut! The condensed force of his Cold Jade Palm collapsed in an instant! Even more terrifyingly, the frigid backlash that had been triggered and should have blasted into Su Qingxue's body had now lost its target. Like a runaway horse, it violently poured back into his own meridians!

Pfft!

Su Hao's face turned from red to green, then from green to white. He suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with ice shards! His body stumbled backward several steps as though its bones had been removed. Each step left a staggering bloody footprint on the frost-covered bluestone! His eyes were filled with unbearable pain, bewilderment, and... unbelievable terror!

He had lost? He... had lost just like that? Because... he slipped?!

At the instant Su Hao's mind faltered and the backlash rampaged through his body!

Icy light erupted from Su Qingxue's eyes! This was the moment she had been waiting for!

"Ice Lotus—Blooms in Anger!"

The icy voice sounded like judgment from the netherworld!

Her right palm, charged and ready to strike, finally moved!

It was no longer a probing finger blade, but the full-force strike of Ice Lotus Palm, optimized by Lin Xiao and infused with all her vital essence and spirit!

In the center of her palm, an ice crystal lotus formed from the most extreme cold True Qi suddenly blossomed! Its petals were crystal clear and layered, their edges sharp as blades. At the center of the flower, a deep blue radiance of cold emanated a terrifying aura capable of freezing all things!

Her palm struck!

The ice lotus spun with a shriek that tore through the air. As though crossing the distance between spaces, it instantly slammed into Su Hao's completely exposed, undefended chest!

Boom—!!!

There was no deafening explosion, only a muffled impact that made one's heart tremble, like an iceberg collapsing!

Su Hao's body was struck as though by a ten-thousand-ton hammer. His black martial outfit was instantly torn to shreds by the berserk cold palm force! His burly body flew high into the air like a kite with its string cut, trailing a dazzling mist of blood and ice crystals in all directions. It traced a tragic arc before crashing heavily onto the bluestone slabs more than ten meters away like a broken sack!

Crack! Squelch!

The sound of bones breaking rang clearly! Su Hao's body spasmed several times on the cold stone slabs. Blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs poured continuously from his mouth, while a thick layer of frost covered his body and his aura withered to the extreme! Only in his eyes, stretched wide to their limit, remained incomprehensible shock, pain, and... endless resentment!

The entire Su family practice arena was silent!

Absolutely silent!

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Every gaze was fixed on the figure standing proudly in the arena.

Su Qingxue slowly withdrew her palm, and the deadly ice lotus in her palm gradually faded away. She still wore her moon-white training clothes, her sleeves fluttering slightly in the cold wind, utterly spotless. The flush from the fierce battle had yet to fade from her breathtaking face, but her spring-cold eyes had already returned to their unfathomable calm. Beneath that calm, however, there seemed to be an indescribable trace of... complexity.

She had won.

As a member of the Branch family, despite the outcome everyone had believed would be certain defeat, she had forcefully defeated the Main Branch's prodigy, Su Hao, before everyone's eyes!

Clatter!

A young Branch family disciple accidentally dropped the teacup in his hand. It shattered on the ground. That faint sound was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, instantly breaking the deathly silence of the practice arena!

"Huaaah—!!!"

A tsunami of exclamations and incredulous uproar swept through the entire practice arena!

"She won? Su Qingxue won?!"

"One move! She seriously wounded Su Hao with just one move?!"

"What kind of palm technique was that?! Ice Lotus?! It's terrifying!"

"The Jade Balance Hidden Meridian! She really mastered the power of the Jade Balance Hidden Meridian!"

The Branch family's area erupted with joy and cheers that had been suppressed to the extreme! Countless fervent, reverent, and even fanatical gazes focused on Su Qingxue! She was no longer the Branch family orphan oppressed by the Main Branch. She was a hero who had single-handedly vented the anger of every Branch family disciple!

The Main Branch's side, meanwhile, was filled with ugly faces as silent as death. The teacup in Su Zhenshan's hand had already been crushed into powder. Tea mixed with ceramic fragments dripped between his fingers as he stared fixedly at his son, whose aura was faint in the arena, then looked toward Su Qingxue standing proudly in the arena. His gloomy face was black as the bottom of a pot, while furious flames and... a trace of barely perceptible alarm churned deep in his eyes!

The Enforcement Elder flashed to Su Hao's side and quickly examined him before solemnly announcing, "Su Hao is heavily injured and has lost the ability to fight! Su Qingxue wins this battle!"

As the announcement fell, the Branch family's cheers grew even more deafening!

Lin Xiao leaned against the cold corridor pillar, looking as though he had just been hauled out of water, his entire body drenched in cold sweat. His violent panting tugged at the wounds on his back and the dark-green core deep in his right leg, which had grown even more active and cold after his Source Energy Points had been depleted. The number -1.6 in his mind was like a red-hot brand, every flicker bringing soul-tearing pain. His vision remained blurred, and the ringing in his ears had yet to fade.

But the corner of his mouth slowly pulled into a cold, exhausted curve tinged with a trace of wild satisfaction.

It worked!

At the instant that satisfaction surged!

Detected a fluctuation in the influence of a major event... overturning result... scope of influence: Su family's core circle... influence level: Medium...

Source Energy Points replenished: +0.8!

Source Energy Points: -1.6 + 0.8 = -0.8!

A faint yet distinct warmth, like sweet spring water, instantly flowed into his depleted soul! Although he was still mired in the swamp of negative values, the depletion-induced agony clinging to his bones had clearly eased somewhat!

Lin Xiao abruptly raised his head. His bloodshot eyes pierced through his blurred vision, passed over the cheering crowd, and precisely locked onto the moon-white figure in the arena.

Su Qingxue seemed to sense it as well. Her spring-cold eyes passed through the uproar and swept toward the corner where Lin Xiao stood for an exceedingly brief moment.

Their gazes crossed silently amid the falling ice-crystal dust, separated by the surging sea of people and cold calculations.