Instant Nine Slashes!

As snowflakes drifted down, the air suddenly turned frigid, and the surrounding trees were coated in a layer of white frost.

As Shui Wuchen advanced, soul rings slowly appeared beneath his feet.

Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black!

These were not Shui Wuchen's true soul ring colors, but even the mere number of six soul rings was enough to shock the Pale Youth.

Seeing the soul rings beneath Shui Wuchen's feet, the Pale Youth cried out in disbelief, "You... you're actually a Soul Emperor?"

A Soul Emperor was an absolute powerhouse anywhere on the continent. Even after resorting to forbidden arts, he had only reached this realm in his thirties.

Yet Shui Wuchen was merely a sixteen-year-old boy and had already broken through to Soul Emperor. It was hard to imagine what kind of prodigy it took to achieve such a feat.

However, the Pale Youth quickly regained his composure and snorted. "So what if you're a Soul Emperor? I'm a level seventy-nine Soul Sage. Your ending will not change in the slightest!"

As he spoke, black smoke around the Pale Youth began spreading rapidly, intending to turn everything around him into his domain.

"How is this possible?"

In the next moment, the Pale Youth's expression changed. His domain could not spread outward at all.

Only then did he abruptly look around at the surroundings, which had already become a white world. His pupils trembled slightly. "This snow is... a domain!?"

That was right. This snow was Articuno's domain, which Shui Wuchen called Snow Scene!

Within the Snow Scene Domain, Shui Wuchen and Articuno's attack increased by fifty percent, and their defense increased by fifty percent. Meanwhile, the enemy's abilities in all aspects would decline to a certain extent due to the extreme cold.

Whoosh~

At that moment, the Ice Wings on Shui Wuchen's back spread open, and his third soul ring began to glow.

"Don't even think about it!"

Seeing this, the Pale Youth immediately unleashed a soul skill to attack Shui Wuchen.

He had watched Shui Wuchen's battle against Lightning Academy and naturally knew that Shui Wuchen possessed an extremely powerful self-created close-range soul skill. Under such circumstances, he could not allow Shui Wuchen to use it so easily.

"Kehehehe!!!"

Beside the Pale Youth, an enormous black skull spewed Black-Red Flame. The massive torrent of fire seemed ready to swallow Shui Wuchen whole.

"Caw!!!"

However, at that moment, an icy glint flashed through Articuno's eyes above Qing Mu's head as she spread her wings.

Endless freezing winds mixed with ice and snow immediately spread outward from her, instantly blowing back the Black-Red Flame spewed by the skull—and even dispersing it outright.

"What?"

The Pale Youth was greatly startled by the sight. What kind of monster was this bird? It had frozen his skull before, and now it had directly overwhelmed his flames.

But he no longer had the time to worry about Articuno, because Shui Wuchen had already vanished from where he stood and appeared before him.

Ice Blade: Instant Nine Slashes!

In an instant, nine dazzling blade lights appeared, slashing toward the Pale Youth simultaneously from nine directions.

"This is bad!?"

The next moment, the Pale Youth felt a bone-piercing chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head. He had actually sensed the threat of death from this strike!!

The Pale Youth's fifth soul ring lit up. His eyes turned into skulls, and two blood-red rays shot from his eye sockets.

The purpose of this attack was not defense, but to attack Shui Wuchen.

If Shui Wuchen did not stop his current attack to dodge, then even if he could not withstand the move and was cut to death, Shui Wuchen would be buried with him today.

As a Fallen One, the Pale Youth had endured countless brutal battles to get where he was today. Whether in combat experience or courage, how could Shui Wuchen, a student sheltered in an ivory tower, compare to him?

The Pale Youth had killed quite a few geniuses. He was fully confident that in such an exchange, Shui Wuchen would definitely withdraw out of fear of perishing together. Then, he would seize the opportunity to turn the tables and kill him!

Yet as those nine serene and breathtakingly beautiful blade lights drew closer, the Pale Youth's originally calm heart began to panic.

He had actually encountered a reckless fool—a peerless genius who had broken through to Soul Emperor at sixteen and possessed limitless prospects—who was truly willing to trade his life for the Pale Youth's!

Just before the dazzling blade lights struck him, the Pale Youth faltered. The flesh and blood of his body rapidly shriveled, and he retreated backward at a speed nearly equivalent to teleportation.

Even so, he was still struck by Shui Wuchen's Ice Blade.

Plop~

A completely bloodless arm fell to the ground. Eight frost wounds ran across most of the Pale Youth's body, and beneath their icy covering, stark white bones could vaguely be seen.

However, the first thing the Pale Youth did after surviving was not inspect his injuries, but look toward Shui Wuchen across from him.

Since the other party had chosen to exchange injury for injury, then he should be dead already, right?

But was that really the case?

A pale-blue barrier had appeared around Shui Wuchen at some point, while the Pale Youth's highly anticipated fifth soul skill had failed to stir even the slightest ripple on that pale-blue barrier.

This was Shui Wuchen's fifth soul skill, Protect!

Protect came from an Ice Barrier Bird that was over twenty thousand years old. At Shui Wuchen's current level, it was capable of blocking even a Titled Douluo's killing move.

A moment later, the pale-blue barrier faded away. Shui Wuchen looked at the heavily injured Pale Youth, narrowing his eyes slightly. "It didn't kill him?"

[Ice Blade: Instant Nine Slashes] was currently his most explosive move. Back when he was a Soul King, he had used this move to instantly kill a soul beast nearly thirty thousand years old.

Now that he had broken through to Soul Emperor, empowered by the Snow Scene Domain, even a fifty-thousand-year soul beast would be severely wounded if it took this move head-on.

The human body was far inferior to that of a soul beast. Shui Wuchen had expected this attack to be enough to kill his opponent instantly.

What Shui Wuchen had not expected was for the Fallen One to unleash a speed close to teleportation. No wonder even the two deans, Shui Yueruo and Huo Wushuang, had failed to keep him from escaping when they joined forces.

"You actually injured me this badly, brat. You! Must! Die!!!"

When he saw that Shui Wuchen was completely unscathed, the Pale Youth snapped.

He had been injured so badly that he had even lost an arm, yet Shui Wuchen had not only survived but remained completely unharmed. How could that bastard dare?!!

The next moment, the Pale Youth held nothing back. All seven soul rings lit up at once.

As his seven soul rings flared to life, Black Mist completely engulfed his body. His flesh turned into a skeleton, while flickering black-red flames danced within its skull.

This was his Martial Soul Avatar—the Skeleton True Body!

Shui Wuchen's gaze narrowed at the sight.

The consequences of failing to kill the Pale Youth instantly had arrived. With the Martial Soul Avatar unleashed, the battle ahead was going to be troublesome.