Chapter 194

When Han Ling'er drew close to him, the ice beneath her feet suddenly changed. The patch of ice where she stepped was a layer thinner than she had expected, and the instant her foot came down, hairline cracks split across it. Her center of gravity shifted slightly. It was a tiny shift, so small she could adjust at once, but at a full sprint, even the slightest deviation affected the continuity of her speed.

Her speed slowed for an instant. That instant of delay let the distance between Xue Lingyun and her go from closing to steady again. He kept walking forward, while she had to accelerate all over again to shorten that gap.

Beibei cut in from the side, blocking the line between Han Ling'er and Xue Lingyun. Lightning from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon flickered over his fist. He did not attack with force; he merely stood there in the way. Han Ling'er's charge was interrupted by his positioning. She could not circle around Beibei to chase Xue Lingyun, because the moment she detoured, she would expose a gap on the flank to He Caitou's cannon muzzle.

She stopped where she was.

Xue Lingyun did not look back.

He finished walking that stretch of ice path and reached the right edge of Qing Feng's Earth Wall. A thick layer of earth covered the outside of the wall, its surface filled with quicksand-like patterns. Those patterns were extension channels for the earthen spikes; as soon as anyone approached, they would erupt from the Earth Wall to attack. He pulled his hand from his pocket, turned his palm downward, and pressed it to the outer surface of the Earth Wall.

The chill of Extreme Ice seeped through his palm into the cracks within the Earth Wall. It did not erupt,