Reining In Emotion

Outside the Extreme North Ice Palace, atop a sheltered Ice Cliff, Xue Lingyun sat cross-legged.

Wind and snow howled around him. Ice crystals were swept up by the wind and struck the cliff face with faint, scattered sounds.

Yet not a single snowflake landed on him.

Cold air formed an invisible barrier over his body, repelling or melting every ice crystal that approached.

He had been sitting there for six full days.

Six days without food or water, without moving or speaking.

The spiritual forms of the Ice Empress and Youyou floated in the air, one emerald green and one pinkish-purple, especially conspicuous amid the gray-white snowstorm.

The spiritual forms could not stray too far from Xue Lingyun, but floating around the Ice Cliff posed no problem.

The Ice Empress stood with her arms folded, her posture exactly the same as when she had been in the Extreme North Ice Palace. Emerald-green patterns of light flickered faintly across her spiritual form.

Youyou's spiritual form was lighter, like an orchid held aloft by the wind. Occasionally, she drifted a little farther away with the gusts, only to be tugged back by an invisible thread.

The Ice Empress did not speak, and neither did Youyou.

They simply remained there quietly, like two stone statues standing guard.

Xue Lingyun was not cultivating Soul Power.

He had sat here for six days without food or water, without moving or speaking.

But he was not spacing out. He was attempting something.

He possessed Soul Power, vitality and blood, Soul Rings, and Spirit Bones.

When combined, those things were enough to fight people his age, and enough to fight stronger opponents as well.

But what he wanted to know was this: if he used both Soul Power and vitality and blood, what else could be used?