"Boom—"
Snowflakes flew everywhere, and five enormous claw marks gouged dozens of meters into the snow. Who knew what state Nangong Wan had been smashed into?
The curtain of snow parted, revealing an exceptionally huge ice bear.
Its massive body was practically a small mountain. Even on all fours, it stood over fifteen meters tall. Thick fur covered its enormous frame, and a faint silvery sheen glimmered across its white coat.
Xu Lanqing stared at the ice bear and clicked his tongue inwardly. This had to be Ice Bear King Xiaobai, but calling such a huge fellow Xiao Bai always felt so incongruous.
Suddenly, a figure over fifty meters long burst out of the snow, with two people following behind.
It was a centipede with a thousand legs, its long body coiled around itself and shrouded in poisonous mist. Drops of viscous liquid dripped from it, instantly melting a large patch of snow with a sizzling sound.
It was Tianwu Douluo, Nangong Wan. Naturally, the two beside him were Youming Douluo and Ming Lei Douluo.
Youming Douluo held the Youming Sword. Its slender, ethereal blade was wrapped in gray mist, giving it an unreal quality.
Fine purple lightning crackled around Ming Lei Douluo. Soul Tools unfolded one after another beside him, linked by purple bolts like chains, while their cannons began to charge.
He was not only an Evil Soul Master but also a Rank Nine Soul Master.
"Fourth, you and I will do everything we can to hold him off. Third, break through the snow curtain!"
This area had been sealed in by the ice and snow conjured through the combined efforts of Ice Bear King and the Strong Man. Breaking through would take some time.
But with Ice Bear King here, they needed someone to keep him occupied.
Nangong Wan, transformed into a centipede, lunged straight at Ice Bear King, trying to wrap his body around him.
Youming Douluo raised his sword, and his Eighth Soul Ring flashed. A gray sword beam shot out. It was only ten meters long, but gray mist clung to it, and it gave off a piercing, mournful shriek, as if it carried the cries of countless vengeful spirits.
Ice Bear King rose onto his hind legs, bringing himself up to the same height as Tianwu Douluo. But his bear form was bulkier, and beneath his white fur lay peerless physical strength.
His white fur bristled like steel needles. One paw met Tianwu Douluo head-on. This time, it did not swell to a hundred meters long, but the power concentrated in it was even more terrifying. His other paw reached for the incoming sword beam.
Faced with the bear paw, Tianwu Douluo's Eighth Soul Ring flashed. His entire carapace thickened, its color deepening.
Yet in the very next moment, the carapace was shattered, and a hideous wound tore through half his body, spilling black blood.
Elsewhere, the sword beam shattered, leaving only a white mark on the bear paw.
But the gray mist clinging to it crept up Ice Bear King's arm, attacking his brain. Sensing something amiss, Ice Bear King roared. A blast of air mixed with snow and ice surged at the mist, but passed straight through it.
This was a mental attack infused with vengeful spirits. Ice Bear King had a powerful body, but his soul was nothing special.
The attack landed squarely, but it did not do much damage. He shook his head and recovered in the space of a breath. His lantern-like eyes turned bloodshot. The countless needle-like pains in his mind enraged him, and the surrounding snow and wind gathered, mercilessly sweeping toward Youming Douluo.
A centipede's tail suddenly lashed at Ice Bear King. Tianwu Douluo had coiled around him again, and his Ninth Soul Ring flashed. His earlier wounds had already healed completely.
Hundreds of centipede legs clamped tightly onto Ice Bear King's body and twisted with all their might, disrupting his gathering of wind and snow. Youming Douluo immediately seized the chance to dodge to one side.
One of them bore the brunt of the assault, constantly recovering from his injuries under his Ninth Soul Skill; the other attacked, repeatedly harassing Ice Bear King with mental strikes. For the moment, they managed to hold on, but clearly not for long.
Ice Bear King grew more and more frustrated and irritable as the fight went on. If he had not spent so much of his focus maintaining the snow curtain, how could two mere humans have kept him occupied for so long?
As for Third Elder Ming Lei Douluo, he was attacking the snow curtain with all his might. Over a thousand Soul Tools unleashed purple lightning, bombarding it.
The Soul Tool at the very center had a cannon muzzle three meters across. Each charged blast made the entire snow curtain tremble.
It would take less than a minute to blast a breach through it.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield.
Xu Lanqing and the other two were still facing off against the Strong Man.
Seriously, whoever had offended you was the one you should go after. What was the point of keeping us stuck here?
"Sir, is there really no way you can let us go?" Jing Hongchen asked, still unwilling to give up.
The Strong Man gave a ferocious grin without answering. He simply swung a punch at them, making his answer clear through action. The blow swept up the surrounding snow and wind, its momentum astonishing.
Zheng Zhan immediately stepped forward, not daring to be careless. He unleashed his Ninth Soul Skill. The silver-white giant shield was instantly covered in ocher rock, a Rank Nine Soul Tool Shield unfolded, and pieces of silver-white metal began circling him.
"Bang!"
The Strong Man's fist slammed into the shield with a muffled boom.
The Rank Nine Soul Tool Shield shattered at once. The ocher rock covering the shield face crumbled in an instant, and cracks appeared across the silver-white shield beneath it.
Zheng Zhan felt an irresistible force hit him. One blow sent him reeling backward, blood spilling from his mouth and staining the snow.
The silver-white metal that had been circling him flowed into the giant shield like liquid, repairing its cracks.
He watched the fissures on the silver-white shield slowly mend, his heart bleeding. That was all money down the drain.
The giant shield was special. It was both a Rank Nine Soul Tool and his Martial Soul Avatar, the two fused into one. Any damage meant repairing it with rare metals—and particularly expensive ones, at that.
"Oh? That turtle shell of yours is pretty tough." The Strong Man looked a little surprised. His punch had combined the power of heaven and earth; someone else would not have taken it so easily.
He swung another punch, even stronger than the first.
Seeing this, Zheng Zhan gritted his teeth and stood his ground. The silver-white shield completely blocked the attack. It shattered over and over, then was repaired again and again by the silver-white metal, like a rock standing firm amid towering waves.
Just then, the snow curtain behind Xu Lanqing began to tremble, and faint cracks appeared across it.
Xu Lanqing's face lit up. Ye Yulin had to be breaking through from outside. If they could hold on a little longer, they would be able to get out.
The Strong Man narrowed his eyes, his aura growing even more powerful. "Looks like I'll have to speed things up."
"Only if you're capable of it!"
Jing Hongchen retorted.
Two yellow, two purple, and five black Soul Rings appeared around him, and his Seventh Soul Ring flashed.
Brilliant golden light blazed. He had transformed into a golden toad over twenty meters tall, its back covered in golden bumps. Unlike an ordinary toad, he even had a golden leg growing from behind.
A top-tier Power Attack System Martial Soul: the Three-Legged Golden Toad.
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