In the blink of an eye, the enormous lake had turned into a massive block of crystal-clear ice!
Even the air seemed to have frozen solid.
Dugu Bo's enormous Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Avatar began trembling violently, completely beyond his control.
It wasn't from pain, but from the fear of Absolute Zero that came from the very source of life.
That ultimate cold was like countless invisible ice needles, piercing through his Soul Power armor and stabbing into every inch of his body.
Agony and freezing cold made his enormous Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Avatar convulse incessantly.
At that moment, only one thought remained in his mind.
So cold!
This was no longer suppression at the level of Soul Power. It was an overwhelming crush at the level of life itself!
Dugu Bo's enormous serpent eyes fixed on the petite figure atop the ice wall, and a storm surged through his heart.
"That astonishing presence... Could she be... Level 97?"
Among Titled Douluo, Level 95 was a natural barrier. Every level beyond that brought a world of difference in strength.
A Level 97 Super Douluo was a rare existence, even across the entire continent!
Just who was this little girl?
Meanwhile, on the distant lakeshore.
Lan had returned to the shore at some point. He watched Ice Empress's small figure from behind, his face calm, though a trace of warmth stirred in his heart.
"Aunt Bing really is still as strong as ever."
On the other side, Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling were in a very different state.
The bone-chilling cold seemed ready to freeze their blood solid. The two instinctively clung to each other, shivering.
Dugu Yan looked at the girl in the middle of the lake. She was about the same age as her, yet had unleashed power that seemed capable of destroying heaven and earth. Dismay filled her beautiful eyes.
How could this woman be so strong? She even looked younger than me!
A thin layer of frost had already formed on Ye Lingling's long hair. Her graceful figure, clad in a tight black dress, pressed close to Dugu Yan.
Suddenly, as if she'd thought of something, she reached out with her cold little hand and smacked Dugu Yan's pert butt.
"Yan Yan, does your butt still hurt?"
The unexpected smack made Dugu Yan stiffen. Her cheeks, already red from the cold, now flushed so deeply they looked ready to bleed.
"You little Dead Leng Leng! Is this really the time to smack me?"
Both embarrassed and annoyed, Dugu Yan reached back and pinched Ye Lingling's ample backside through her black dress.
Ye Lingling winced, her pretty face turning slightly red, but she giggled.
"See? Doesn't fooling around like this make you feel a little less cold?"
Dugu Yan paused for a moment, then realized what Ye Lingling was doing: she was trying to distract them both.
She rolled her eyes helplessly at her best friend, but her gaze couldn't help drifting toward another figure not far away.
"Look at him."
There was a complicated note in Dugu Yan's voice.
"He doesn't seem cold at all."
Lan stood with his hands behind his back, tall and straight, his face expressionless amid the frozen landscape.
The Extreme Cold Domain, cold enough to freeze a Titled Douluo, seemed to him no more than a gentle breeze from his homeland.
As soon as Ye Lingling finished speaking, Dugu Yan's complicated gaze returned to the center of the lake.
The petite figure had become the sole focus of the world.
Above the lake.
Dugu Bo's Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Avatar had been frozen into a massive green ice statue. Only his resentful serpent eyes could still move, and then only barely.
He refused to believe it!
He refused to believe a girl who looked barely more than ten years old could possess such terrifying strength!
"Roar—!"
A suppressed growl came from deep within the ice.
Dugu Bo's enormous body jolted, and a spiderweb of cracks instantly spread across the ice encasing him.
"Ninth Soul Skill, Jade Phosphorous Divine Light!"
He was putting his life on the line.
The Soul Body pierced by Lan's "Abyssal Shark Hunt" was already weak. Forcing himself to activate his Ninth Soul Skill now was only making things worse.
But he had no choice.
A thick beam of dark green light blasted out of the ice statue's mouth, carrying a poison potent enough to corrode all things as it shot toward Ice Empress!
Wherever the beam passed, even the air corroded with a sizzling hiss.
Yet faced with this lethal strike, enough to kill an ordinary Titled Douluo instantly—
Ice Empress merely yawned, bored.
She couldn't even be bothered to raise another ice wall to block it.
The petite figure stepped lightly forward, her bare foot, white as jade, touching the crystalline surface of the ice.
Not a sound escaped her.
She strolled toward the destructive beam as casually as if she were taking a walk in a garden.
Her skirt fluttered, revealing a perfectly shaped calf that looked even whiter against the ice, as though it would put frost and snow to shame.
"What... What is she doing?!"
On the shore, Dugu Yan cried out, her beautiful eyes wide with shock.
She was going to take a Titled Douluo's Ninth Soul Skill with her bare body?
Was she crazy?!
Lan merely watched in silence, the faintest curve lifting the corners of his mouth.
How could these people possibly imagine Aunt Bing's true strength?
Just as the Jade Phosphorous Divine Light was about to touch Ice Empress, she moved.
She simply lifted her right leg.
Her delicate, translucent foot swept through the air in a graceful arc, then kicked the dark green beam with what seemed like casual ease.
"Thump!"
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Only a dull thud, like a kick landing on a sandbag.
Then, under the horrified gazes of Dugu Bo, Dugu Yan, and Ye Lingling, the world-destroying Jade Phosphorous Divine Light began freezing from the front, inch by inch, as if gripped by an invisible hand!
In the blink of an eye, the poisonous dark green beam had turned into a crystal-clear green popsicle.
Then—
"Crack."
A crisp snap.
The popsicle shattered.
It turned into a shower of ice fragments, drifting through the air and reflecting the moonlight in dazzling colors before silently blending into the ice below.
As if it had never existed.
"..."
Dugu Bo's enormous serpent eyes froze completely.
His Ninth Soul Skill, the poison he'd always been so proud of—the most potent on the entire continent—had just... been kicked away?
What kind of absurd scene was this?
He felt as if his entire worldview had been overturned.
This wasn't even a question of whether she was strong or not.
"Gulp."
Dugu Bo swallowed, though even his throat was nearly frozen.
At that moment, his instinct for survival overcame the dignity of a Titled Douluo.
He had to back down!
Otherwise, the old man's life might really end here today!
The next instant, the enormous Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Avatar flashed and rapidly shrank, returning to Dugu Bo's human form.
The ice around him vanished as well.
The Poison Douluo, whose name shook the world, had lost every trace of a master's bearing. He struck an exceptionally proper pose and dropped to his knees with a thump.
His movements were so smooth, his attitude so sincere, he could have served as a textbook example.
"Senior!"
"Fairy!"
"Granny!"
Dugu Bo cried out.
"This old man failed to recognize Mount Tai and offended you, Your Eminence!"
The whole series of moves left Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling staring dumbfounded from the shore.
Was this really the same grandfather (senior) they knew—the proud, aloof, arrogant one?
He'd changed faces far too quickly!
Lan, meanwhile, wasn't surprised at all.
In the Far North, there had been no shortage of Soul Beasts "taught a lesson" by Aunt Bing and Aunt Xue. There must have been at least eighty, if not a hundred.
Dugu Bo's reaction was perfectly normal.
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