That was a force of pride and arrogance from the depths of his soul. It seemed determined to freeze his will solid and tear it into pieces.
"Ah!"
Mu Rong let out a pained cry. His body jerked upright, and his huge, bean-sized eyes bulged as they filled with bloodshot red.
In the sea of consciousness, a ferocious, hideous ghost seemed to howl. Again and again, its Ice Blade tore at Mu Rong's spiritual defenses.
That bone-deep pain went straight to his soul!
This was bad—he was going to be trapped for a thousand years!
If he spent a thousand years here, wouldn't he be driven mad before he even had a chance to struggle free?
This was the power of a Soul Fragment!
Even a Soul Fragment couldn't stop him from wanting to defy fate and change his life!
Mu Rong clenched his teeth, letting the violent energy batter his mind as he gathered his spirit into a single point and firmly guarded his final defense in the sea of consciousness.
"Old Zhou, you... are you all right?"
King Ying watched the agony twisting Mu Rong's face and asked anxiously.
Old Zhou also looked worried. He rubbed his face.
"You're asking me? I should be asking you! That kind of absorption beyond the limits of the Soul Sect, with no room to borrow any power from outside—now it all depends on this kid's own will!"
Time passed by the second.
The short while felt like an eternity. In the blink of an eye, Mu Rong's face had turned pale, and that fierce wave of soul power had finally subsided.
Mu Rong's tightly shut eyes snapped open. A bright gleam flashed through them.
He took a deep breath, and a surge of powerful feeling filled his whole body.
His soul power had risen directly to the twenty-second level!
He summoned his martial soul, Ice Phoenix. The once-smooth snake-like body was now covered in a dense layer of hard, ice-blue scales, glittering with a cold sheen.
He could clearly feel that the strength of his body and his defensive power had both improved significantly.
So this was the benefit of absorbing a Soul Fragment? It really was extraordinary!
"Stinky brat, I knew you could do it!"
King Ying took a step forward and looked Mu Rong up and down, clicking his tongue in admiration.
"The second soul ring of a nine-hundred-year-old soul beast! You've broken the Douluo Continent's historical record for the age of a second soul ring!"
Old Zhou was also full of admiration and exclamation. This kid really wasn't human!
"Thank you both for your help."
Mu Rong stood up and bowed deeply to the two of them.
His expression was solemn as he said sincerely,
"I don't know how to repay you. I hope you'll allow me to do something for you."
"Forget it. This matter is far too important. I'm a citizen of the Heaven Dou Empire, and I don't want to be dragged into certain people's schemes."
King Ying patted him warmly on the shoulder, then rubbed his dark hair.
"Good! I know how serious this is. I won't bring it up again. You should be careful, and keep it to yourself. That'll be for the best!"
"All right, all right. Enough with the sentimental talk!"
Old Zhou couldn't wait any longer. His face was full of curiosity.
"Stinky brat, hurry up and show us what your second soul skill is! Let this old man open his eyes!"
Mu Rong smiled, with a hint of mischief in his eyes.
"Of course. I inherited the Ice Phoenix's Ice Crystal ability."
"My second soul skill is Ice Crystal Wave."
"In an instant, a group-wide ice seal. It unleashes a spreading wave of ice crystal, instantly freezing every enemy within a hundred meters into ice."
"The freeze lasts three seconds. If the target's soul power is lower than mine, each level of difference adds half a second to the duration."
"Furthermore, when the ice breaks, it triggers the 'Cold Poison Ice Dark' effect. The target's movement speed is reduced by thirty percent, and the cold poison erodes one percent of their soul power each second, lasting twenty seconds."
King Ying and Old Zhou listened. Without even realizing it, they swallowed hard, their eyes fixed on Mu Rong in shock.
This... What kind of soul skill had he obtained?
Freezing every enemy within a hundred meters in an instant! That wasn't something even a Soul King could do! And on top of that, its control effect and soul-power erosion were terrifying!
If he used it in battle, wouldn't it be an entire group wiped out?
Even if it didn't reach that point, it was certainly a lifesaving control skill!
"This soul skill... is too powerful..."
King Ying murmured in amazement.
A thought suddenly occurred to Mu Rong, and he recalled the first soul skill, Ice Seal, that had frozen the water prison. That skill had left Tang San bewildered.
Now that he'd gained his second soul skill, he wanted to know how effective it would be against the Soul Sect.
"All right! Come on, old man will personally test your soul skill's effect!"
Old Zhou let out a hearty laugh, then immediately pulled out his weapon, ready to have a go.
Mu Rong was of the same mind. He also wanted to know how his second soul skill would fare against a Soul Sect.
"Fine, Old Zhou. You've got this!"
"Come on, then!"
Old Zhou shouted, and the enormous force of his martial soul instantly surged around him. His four soul rings rose and fell, and a Soul Sect's heavy aura swept out toward them.
Mu Rong didn't hesitate. With a thought, the second soul ring around his waist suddenly lit up with a deep purple glow!
"My second soul skill, Ice Crystal Wave!"
A wave of flesh-piercing cold burst out in an instant, almost impossible to see.
There was no earth-shaking commotion, only deadly cold.
Old Zhou felt a force of extreme chill sweep over him, completely enveloping his body. His movements froze, and even the flow of soul power seemed to slow visibly.
Crack! Crack!
Ice-blue frost spread from his feet at astonishing speed, climbing up his body. In the blink of an eye, his towering frame, more than two meters tall, had become a dazzling ice sculpture, with even his expression perfectly preserved.
But the Soul Sect was, after all, the Soul Sect.
The instant he was frozen, the soul power in Old Zhou's body erupted like a volcano.
"Break for me!"
A muffled roar came from inside the ice sculpture.
Crack!
In the blink of an eye, the thick ice barrier was covered in cracks before suddenly exploding!
Countless shards of ice scattered through the air.
Old Zhou burst out, but a faint layer of white frost still clung to him. His whole body trembled uncontrollably, and the breath he exhaled had turned into white mist.
A bone-chilling cold poison seeped into his body through the shattered ice. The flow of his soul power felt sluggish, and his movements were clearly slowed.
He moved his somewhat stiff limbs, then looked at Mu Rong, his face full of amazement and disbelief.
"Good boy! That was impressive!"
"Even though you've only reached the Soul Elder realm, your soul skill still made me suffer!"
"Though it can only hold me for one second, that's already enough to change the course of a fight! When facing a Great Soul Master, I doubt anyone could break out of your ice seal!"
"Even a Soul Venerable would have to put up a fight against you!"
Mu Rong fell silent.
They were more than twenty levels apart. If his skill could hold a Soul Sect for even one second, that was already a genuine soul-power gap he could overcome—a duration far beyond what he'd expected.
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