A sharp glint of cold light flashed through the air.
Yu Yuanzhen felt the hairs on his body stand on end and hurriedly snatched his hand back.
Only then did he get a clear look at the cold light that had flashed past.
A pale-blue ice blade.
It was embedded deep in the marble floor.
It had cut through with ease, as if slicing into a block of tofu.
Snow Empress's expression darkened.
She reached out and pulled Yu Shuangbai behind her.
"Big Sister Xue'er..."
Yu Shuangbai seemed to want to say more, but Snow Empress cut him off.
"That's enough, Xiao Shuangbai. Leave everything from here on to me."
With that, Snow Empress turned a cold gaze on Yu Yuanzhen.
She had been holding back for a long time.
Ever since she learned that the Yu Yuanzhen before her was from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan—the very clan that had once treated her Xiao Shuangbai so mercilessly—Snow Empress had been holding back.
She had only wanted to give Yu Shuangbai a little freedom.
To see how he felt about the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
If Yu Shuangbai's attitude toward the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had been decent,
Snow Empress could have ignored her displeasure and let it go.
But Yu Shuangbai had no fondness for the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
His face practically spelled out his disgust.
In that case, Snow Empress had no reason to keep holding back.
Yu Yuanzhen had reached out and tried to forcibly take Yu Shuangbai into the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. That had crossed the line for this queen of ice and snow.
She would never let Yu Shuangbai leave her side!
And she would never allow anyone to try to take him away from her!
So Snow Empress struck.
That ice blade had shown no mercy.
Its sharpness and the Soul Power it contained were enough to sever the arm of a Super Douluo like Yu Yuanzhen.
Fortunately, Yu Yuanzhen had an instinct for battle and pulled back in time.
Otherwise, the arm he had stretched out would have fallen to the floor.
"Who are you?"
His arm had come within a hair's breadth of being severed. Beyond his private relief, Yu Yuanzhen's expression was now grim.
He had noticed Snow Empress from the start, with her unfathomable strength.
But since she had made no move or shown any reaction before this, Yu Yuanzhen had assumed she didn't want to get involved.
He hadn't expected her to suddenly strike without warning.
"You're not worthy of knowing my name."
Snow Empress spoke coldly.
Her contempt was completely undisguised.
She plainly did not take the current Sect Master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan seriously.
Yu Yuanzhen's expression shifted like the weather.
When had he ever been treated like this?
As Thunder Douluo and Sect Master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, wherever he went, people treated him with respect.
Even Xue Ye, the emperor of the Heaven Dou Empire, addressed him as "Your Excellency" when they met.
Snow Empress's scorn was like a spark falling into a pile of dry grass, setting alight all the pride Yu Yuanzhen felt in the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan,
along with the frustration and anger he had bottled up after repeatedly hitting a wall with Yu Shuangbai.
The strange looks coming from all around, from people who had noticed the commotion, only added fuel to the fire.
"How insolent!"
He hadn't known Snow Empress's true strength, so at first he hadn't wanted to provoke her lightly.
But Yu Yuanzhen could no longer afford to care about that.
Snow Empress's contempt wasn't directed at him alone.
It was an insult to the entire Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan!
If he did nothing, and word of today's events spread, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan would lose all face!
How could Yu Yuanzhen, who had always treated his clan's reputation as dearly as his own life, accept that?
So this time, he didn't keep testing her or hold back.
He erupted with power.
He refused to believe it.
How strong could a woman who had appeared from who knew where really be?
Most likely, she just had some trick up her sleeve, which kept him from seeing her true cultivation!
"Hmph!"
Snow Empress said nothing, only letting out a cold snort.
Cold intent swept through her snow-white, crystalline eyes.
Yu Yuanzhen's fury did not stir her in the slightest.
As the ruler of the Far North, Snow Empress had a pride of her own.
Besides, she was a Limit-level Douluo. Why would she fear Yu Yuanzhen, a Super Douluo?
Back in the Far North,
even when Beast God Di Tian arrived, Snow Empress had dared to fight him.
Though she wasn't in the Far North now,
Snow Empress wasn't so down and out that she had to fear even a mere Super Douluo.
"You don't know what's good for you."
She raised her hand.
A long, ice-blue sword took shape in her palm.
The temperature around them plunged.
The moisture in the air froze in an instant, turning to frost.
The entire restaurant felt as though it had become an ice cellar, filled with biting cold.
The many diners with no cultivation or only meager cultivation couldn't help wrapping their arms around themselves, trembling.
The restaurant waiter, standing to one side, was frantic with worry, but didn't dare step in to mediate.
Neither of these two was someone he could afford to provoke.
Turning into an ostrich might mean some damage to his employer's business, but at least he could keep his life.
If he didn't hide his head in the sand and tried to intervene, it could very well become more than just a matter of the business.
It could mean whether or not he kept his life.
Faced with a choice between the business and his life, the waiter wisely chose the latter.
He was only a hired hand.
He got just a few Gold Soul Coins each month. There was no need to risk his life by getting involved.
Seeing the ice sword that had taken shape, Yu Yuanzhen's pupils suddenly contracted.
He sensed a deadly threat from that sword.
The extreme chill it radiated far surpassed the cold caused by the change in the surrounding temperature.
Even the Soul Power circulating through his body seemed to freeze.
The speed at which his Soul Power flowed slowed drastically.
Yu Tianheng and Yu Tianxin exchanged glances.
They had never imagined that this breathtakingly beautiful woman in the white dress possessed such strength.
They were only bystanders, yet the pressure alone had already robbed them of any will to resist.
The fear rising from deep within them replaced the anger they had felt at Snow Empress's contempt for the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
The two silently retreated a few steps.
All they could do was hope that their "invincible" grandfather, their sect master, was stronger than the woman in white.
"Die!"
A voice, cold and brimming with murderous intent, rang out.
The ice-blue sword in Snow Empress's hand came down.
It carried an overwhelming sword intent of extreme cold.
Blue lightning leaped in Yu Yuanzhen's pupils.
In an instant, both his arms completed their Dragon Transformation, and he raised them to block Snow Empress's descending sword.
But...
A stream of blood spurted out like a pillar.
Then a round object rolled across the floor.
"Murder!"
The diners who had never witnessed such a scene turned deathly pale. They covered their mouths with both hands and screamed.
Yu Yuanzhen's expression was unbearably grim.
Beside him, the old man from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had lost his head.
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