Level Forty

"It seemed that over the past year, while I had been frantically hunting down human traffickers in the Far North, these people had discovered that I was an ice-attributed Soul Master. They had actually sent someone specifically to deal with me."

As the masked man approached, a sharp glint flashed through Gu Yuan's eyes. He thrust his spear toward the man's throat.

Clang!

The masked man twisted aside and avoided the strike, then grabbed Gu Yuan's spear with his clawed glove.

Gu Yuan's expression did not change. He poured Ultimate Ice into the spear shaft, freezing and cracking the clawed glove. The masked man felt a sharp pain in his palm and instinctively let go, revealing a withered yellow hand with pale nails.

"Ultimate Ice? You're courting death!"

Looking at his frostbitten palm, the masked man was both shocked and furious.

If he had not released it in time, or if his Martial Soul had not been the Mutated Fire Python, which feared little of ordinary cold, that hand would likely have been crippled.

In his rage, the masked man's third soul ring lit up. A pair of dazzling, bewitching snake wings spread from his back, and in an instant, he appeared above Gu Yuan.

His fifth soul ring then lit up. With a palm strike, overwhelming crimson flames swept down.

Gu Yuan flashed away, narrowly evading the attack. He thrust out his spear, and freezing intent soared into the sky.

The masked man no longer dared to catch it with his bare hands. He flashed backward and widened the distance between them.

His fifth soul ring lit up again. Soul Power gathered in his hand and instantly formed a bright red snake bow, from which he fired five arrows in succession.

Ice Crystal Wings spread from Gu Yuan's back. Moving with incredible speed, he dodged the first three arrows and knocked aside the last two with his spear. Yet the immense force contained within them numbed his right arm, nearly making him lose his grip on the spear.

Pfft!

The masked man gave Gu Yuan no chance to catch his breath. After flashing several times, he appeared behind him and swung his snake tail. With no way to dodge, Gu Yuan's second soul ring lit up.

A layer of dragon-shaped armor made entirely of ice crystals appeared around him.

The Ice Jade Empress Scorpion soul ring's second skill, Ice Emperor Dragon Armor, activated.

Before the snake tail could touch the dragon-shaped ice armor, it was sent flying back with a bang by an impact wave of extreme cold.

As it flew backward, the snake tail was visibly covered in a layer of solid ice.

Seeing that his flames could not stop the ice from spreading, the man chose to sever his tail and regenerate at the critical moment.

Without hesitation, he drew a long blade from his waist and cut off half his snake tail.

After hitting the ground, the severed snake tail exploded into countless ice crystals that scattered everywhere.

"Bastard! I'll make you pay with both your legs!"

The snake tail was formed from the masked man's legs. Cutting off half of it was equivalent to losing everything below his knees.

Though he could still barely walk using the remaining half of his snake tail after Martial Soul Possession,

it was ultimately nowhere near as nimble and convenient as having his own legs.

"Sixth Soul Skill—Disaster of the Mad Python."

Consumed by fury, the masked man's sixth soul ring lit up. Beneath him, a ten-meter-long fire python resembling a Martial Soul Avatar condensed.

"This guy's soul ring configuration may not be optimal, but his soul skills are unexpectedly practical. It's as if they were made specifically to counter ice-attributed Soul Masters, and his combat experience is extremely rich. An ordinary ice-attributed Soul Emperor really wouldn't be his match."

Looking at the fire python in the sky, Gu Yuan did not dare lower his guard. His Ice Crystal Wings beat once, and he shot into the air.

"Mysterious Ice Dragon Soar!"

He shouted softly. The Mysterious Ice Dragon Spear in his hand transformed into cold energy that enveloped his right arm. His five fingers curled slightly, and three blue rings of light emerged around his wrist.

With one palm strike, ice-attributed energy gathered in the air. From nothing, an ice dragon nearly twenty meters long emerged, even larger than the fire python formed by the masked man.

Hundreds upon thousands of streams of cold energy surged backward in an instant, as though space itself was about to freeze. Countless shards of ice shot toward the fire python like streaks of blue light.

The fire python weaved through the blue streaks with unstoppable momentum. The moment those blue streaks came within three feet of it, they were blocked by a layer of red light emitted from within the fire python.

It did not look like flames, but rather an invisible force field.

Boom!

The ice dragon and fire python collided, creating an enormous storm within the canyon.

A storm formed from ice and a strange force field.

The storm continued to expand, swallowing both men.

Pfft!

The masked man felt sweetness rise in his throat and was blasted backward.

Gu Yuan, meanwhile, had somehow already circled behind him. The dragon-shaped ice armor he wore completely ignored the storm's effects and remained undamaged.

"Eight Extremities Collapse!"

Gu Yuan shouted.

His feet shifted, his body tilted halfway sideways, and the fist wrapped in ice crystal armor suddenly tore through the air with a piercing whistle.

A moment later, carrying terrifying freezing force, it smashed ruthlessly into the masked man's back.

The instant they made contact, the snake wings on the masked man's back were frozen and shattered by Gu Yuan's freezing force.

Bang!

The fist, carrying Ultimate Ice, struck the masked man's back.

The middle of his torso actually turned into ice crystals, shattered violently, and fell to the ground.

The mask fell away, and the upper half of his body, containing his head, revealed an aged and withered face.

He cried out weakly, "What you used wasn't a hundred-year soul skill at all, and that battle technique just now..."

"You're still not dead? Life really is remarkably tenacious."

Gu Yuan sneered. His Ice Crystal Wings beat behind him, and he abruptly rose into the sky, pulling away from the masked man, who had only half a body left.

"Third Soul Skill—Ice Dragon Comet Meteor."

Gu Yuan's third soul ring came from the three-hundred-thousand-year soul ring sacrificed by the Ice Bear King, Xiao Bai.

It had granted him two soul skills.

One was Eternal Frozen Prison.

It could create ice pillars surrounded by countless circling ice dragons, freezing the opponent.

It forcibly controlled them with ice for three seconds.

The other was Ice Dragon Comet Meteor.

It was a mutated soul skill derived from Ice Meteor, one of the Ice Bear King's own abilities.

It could condense a gigantic ice comet containing the Ice Explosion Technique and unleash chained ice explosions.

Its power soared with charging time.

His third soul ring lit up. Gu Yuan raised his right hand over his head, and a gigantic ice comet formed above him. Its surface resembled a meteor hammer, while an ice dragon was sealed inside.

Gu Yuan waved his hand.

The ice dragon roared, and the ice comet descended.

The instant it hit the ground,

it exploded with a thunderous boom.

Fragments of ice filled the sky, shooting in all directions along with bone-piercing cold force.

At the point of impact,

thick frost instantly condensed. White ice patterns spread across the frozen ground, cold energy swept through the surroundings, and the lingering chill refused to disperse.

A steep mountain peak on one side of the canyon could not withstand the blast and collapsed with a deafening crash.

A vast cloud of icy mist rose up.

"Hey, hey, he was just a Soul Emperor. Did you really need to use a trump card like the Ice Explosion Technique?"

Ice Empress's exasperated voice rang out in Gu Yuan's mind.

The dragon-shaped ice armor receded. Gu Yuan removed the ice crystal mask from his head, revealing a handsome face that had fully matured.

"Who knew whether he was playing dead? It's always better to be careful."

As he spoke, Gu Yuan's first soul ring lit up. Element Control activated, and with a wave of his hand, the ice and snow below automatically transformed into tentacles that hooked up the masked man's storage Soul Tool.

After checking it, he indeed found a wanted notice concerning himself.

Codename: Ice.

Crime: Attacking passing merchants.

Bounty: One hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins.

Gu Yuan sneered inwardly. Attacking passing merchants? They were clearly a bunch of human traffickers.

"Hmph, I think you're just afraid of dying."

Ice Empress habitually argued with Gu Yuan.

The Ice Dragon King had long grown accustomed to it.

Those two were like a pair of bickering enemies every day, arguing nonstop.

She could not be bothered to interfere.

The Ice Dragon King said, "All right. You've trained enough during this period. Your Soul Power has now reached level forty, so you can go find A-Tai and receive his sacrifice."