Ice Dragon Descent!

Jiang Che knelt on one knee in the charred soil, raising a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth as he stared intently at the black figure standing in the distance with his hands behind his back.

Di Tian hadn't even moved. He still stood exactly where he'd been.

"Kid, you really do have a remarkable talent." A hint of coldness flashed through Di Tian's pitch-black, vertical pupils. "Too bad you're far too arrogant. This isn't Shrek Academy. You can't run wild here."

Jiang Che slowly got to his feet. Several fine cracks had appeared in the ice-crystal dragon scales covering the chest of his Ice Dragon Avatar—the marks left by Di Tian's palm strike.

He took a deep breath. The Soul Power of Ultimate Ice surged through his body, and the cracks in his scales healed at a visible rate.

"The Beast God certainly knows how to throw his weight around." Jiang Che's voice came from within the Ice Dragon Avatar, though his breathing was somewhat unsteady. "I accept that a senior would teach a junior a lesson. But if the Beast God refuses to be reasonable and insists on protecting his own, then there's nothing I, Jiang Che, can say."

He raised his head and met Di Tian's pitch-black, vertical gaze without the slightest intention of backing down.

"But does the Beast God really think he can keep me here so easily today?"

"Brother Sky Dream, is Senior going to be all right?" Huo Yuhao asked anxiously from within his Sea of Consciousness.

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm fell silent for a moment. His voice carried a rare note of gravity. "Hard to say. Di Tian's strength far exceeds what your senior can imagine. If Di Tian truly intends to kill him, your senior will likely be in grave danger. But Di Tian has lived for eight hundred thousand years. He isn't some simple-minded brute. He should know what killing your senior would mean."

"What would it mean?"

"It would mean an all-out war between Shrek Academy and the Star Dou Great Forest," Sky Dream Ice Silkworm explained. "Your senior is Mu En's darling, and the hope of Shrek's next century. If he dies here, Dragon God Douluo Mu En will go mad. Even Di Tian wouldn't come out ahead if a Limit Douluo went on a rampage."

Hearing this, Huo Yuhao felt somewhat reassured, but he continued to watch the battle intently.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion stood beside the Scarlet King, its golden vertical pupils fixed on Jiang Che. The red vertical eye on its forehead flickered faintly, as if it were pondering something.

It didn't leave or interfere. It simply stood there in silence, like a golden statue.

Di Tian looked at Jiang Che, then suddenly smiled. It wasn't a smile of approval so much as the lazy amusement of a cat playing with a mouse.

"Interesting," Di Tian said. "If you hadn't injured the Scarlet King just now, I might have let you off. But the dignity of the Star Dou Great Forest cannot be challenged. If I don't teach you a lesson today, you'll never know how high the heavens are."

He raised his right hand. The black dragon scales covering his palm gleamed with a dark-gold sheen in the sunlight, while a wisp of light so profound it seemed almost absolute gathered at his fingertips.

It wasn't pure darkness, but an emptiness that devoured all light. Even the surrounding air warped and twisted beneath its glow.

"Your Martial Soul is quite impressive, though." Di Tian's gaze fell on the Ice Dragon King's phantom behind Jiang Che, and a hint of appreciation flashed through his vertical pupils. "The Ice Dragon King Martial Soul is purer than I expected. If your cultivation were a little higher, you might actually last a few rounds against me."

"Too bad you're still far too weak."

Di Tian flicked his hand. The wisp of light, concentrated to its utmost, shot forth in an instant—so fast that Jiang Che had no time to dodge!

The Sixth Soul Ring flared again, and Winter Guardian took shape almost the instant the light struck.

"Crack!"

The ice-blue shield shattered on impact. This time, it didn't even last a second. The black light pierced through it and struck Jiang Che's Ice Dragon Avatar with pinpoint accuracy.

The silver-blue ice-crystal dragon scales were as fragile as paper before that light. It punched straight through them, leaving a hole the size of a fist, and blood gushed from the wound.

Jiang Che grunted as he was sent flying. This time, he couldn't steady himself. He slammed into the ground, plowing a deep furrow through the charred earth before crashing through a tree trunk and finally coming to a stop.

Ice Empress could hold back no longer. She flashed to Jiang Che's side, unleashing the full force of her Ice Jade Ultimate Ice Soul Power and conjuring a thick wall of ice before them.

"Oh?" Di Tian looked at Ice Empress with interest. "You are... Ice Empress?"

Di Tian had once visited the Far North and seen Ice Empress and Snow Empress in human form. Ice Empress had used her original appearance when she transformed, so he recognized her.

But from his doubtful tone, he wasn't entirely certain that the girl before him, who showed no sign of being a Soul Beast, was Ice Empress.

Ice Empress didn't answer. She kept her eyes fixed on Di Tian as Soul Power surged wildly around her. Though she looked like a girl of twelve or thirteen, her figure now radiated a sense of grim resolve.

"Ice Empress, stand down." Jiang Che's voice came from behind her.

"In your current state, you're no match for him!" Ice Empress didn't turn around. Her voice was edged with worry.

"I said, stand down!" Jiang Che's voice hardened.

Ice Empress trembled. A flicker of struggle crossed her eyes, but in the end, she let the Soul Power around her dissipate and stepped aside.

Jiang Che climbed to his feet. Most of the dragon scales on his Ice Dragon Avatar had shattered, exposing the mangled flesh beneath. Blood dripped from the broken scales, freezing into beads of ice-blue blood on the charred earth.

There was a fist-sized hole through his left chest, left by Di Tian's last attack. Under normal circumstances, an injury like that would have put any Titled Douluo out of commission.

But Jiang Che was still standing. He was even smiling.

"Ha ha ha..." Jiang Che began to laugh, a trace of madness and ferocity in his laughter. "Beast God Di Tian, your eight hundred thousand years of cultivation are every bit as formidable as the legends say. I admit that I'm nowhere near your match right now."

His smile slowly faded until his face was expressionless.

"But if you think this is all I have..."

Jiang Che took a deep breath, and the Soul Power within him began to surge with a savage intensity.

The dark-red Soul Ring at the very top, marked with five golden lines, suddenly burst into a radiance unlike anything it had ever shown before!

"Then you're gravely mistaken! Ninth Soul Skill!"

Jiang Che's voice thundered across the skies above the Star Dou Great Forest, booming like a rolling peal of thunder.

"Ice Dragon Descent!"

The moment the words left his mouth, the chill of Ultimate Ice erupted around him. The earth froze within a thousand zhang, and the ground—once scorched and cracked by the Scarlet King's flames—was now blanketed in thick, ice-blue frost. The charred remains of the trees crystallized in the cold, forming ice sculptures of every shape.

Di Tian's pitch-black, vertical pupils suddenly contracted. For the first time, surprise showed on his face.

He could clearly sense Jiang Che's aura rising at an incredible rate.

Rank 93... Rank 94... Rank 95...

Rank 96... Rank 97... Rank 98...

It finally stabilized upon reaching the realm of a Limit Douluo.

Jiang Che's form was completely reshaped within the ice-blue radiance. His Ice Dragon Avatar was no longer half-human, half-dragon. Instead, he transformed into a silver-blue ice dragon more than ten meters long!

His entire body was covered in translucent ice-crystal dragon scales, each etched with mysterious silver patterns. His head was held high, and his horns formed a crown of ice. His eyes were no longer silver-blue, but two cold, golden crescents. His outstretched wings spanned a full fifteen meters, their membranes studded with countless delicate ice crystals that reflected a fantastical silver-blue glow.

Ice Dragon Descent, the third effect of the Ninth Soul Skill, allowed Jiang Che to wield the power of a Limit Douluo for a short time!

With the Soul Power of a Limit Douluo behind it, the Ice Dragon King Martial Soul finally revealed its true form as a Martial Soul of divine-beast rank. The Ice Dragon Avatar was no longer an illusion, but a real body of ice and dragon!

"Roar!"

The ice dragon threw back its head and roared. Its cry shook the Star Dou Great Forest, and Soul Beasts within dozens of li dropped to the ground, trembling.

It was fear from the depths of their blood—a lowly Soul Beast's instinctive submission before the sovereign of the dragon race.

Ice Empress stared in shock at the ice dragon overhead, disbelief filling her diamond-yellow eyes. She knew Jiang Che had a trump card, but she had never imagined it could be something of this caliber.

A Limit Douluo—that was a realm most Soul Masters couldn't reach even after a lifetime of striving. Yet Jiang Che was only twenty-two, and with the skill of a single Soul Ring, he had forcibly raised his strength to that level.