You're Bullying Me Again!

"You!" Ice Empress raised her eyes to glare at Xiao Jinchen. Seeing his mocking expression, her temper flared instantly. Cold air surged around her body, and just as she was about to lash out, Xiao Jinchen raised a finger and tapped the air.

A fire lotus pattern faintly flickered on Ice Empress's forehead.

Xiao Jinchen looked at Ice Empress with a half-smile, pointing at her forehead to make his warning clear.

Ice Empress naturally felt the temperature on her forehead, and her imposing aura instantly withered by more than half.

Feeling the heat radiating from her brow, Ice Empress looked at Xiao Jinchen and moved her lips several times, but the harsh words on the tip of her tongue were ultimately swallowed back down.

"You... you promised it to me! You're bullying me again!" Ice Empress muttered softly, her tone laced with a hint of grievance. Moisture welled up in her eyes, making her look like a child who had lost her candy—angry and annoyed, yet completely unable to do anything about the other party.

Watching Ice Empress's aggrieved expression, the mockery in Xiao Jinchen's eyes slowly softened into warmth.

Xiao Jinchen stepped forward, took Ice Empress's small hand, and placed the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow into her palm.

"Alright, I was just teasing you." Xiao Jinchen smiled gently and said, "I keep my word; this Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow was meant for you all along."

Ice Empress clutched the cold, smooth Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow, stunned for a long moment before slowly raising her eyes.

"Hmph!" Ice Empress huffed unhappily before finally putting the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow away.

Feeling the abundant soul power within his body, Xiao Jinchen couldn't help but grin. "Level sixty-six."

The hundred-thousand-year Evil Eye Tyrant had granted him two soul skills. The first, Soul Devour, allowed him to forcibly control soul masters with lower mental strength than his own and read all of their memories.

The second was a domain-type soul skill, the innate ability of the Evil Eye clan: Mental Field, which could cover a radius of several miles.

Xiao Jinchen let out a lazy yawn and turned his gaze toward the stone statue of Xiao Yan.

Surrounding the statue of Xiao Yan, numerous clusters of light danced, looking incredibly brilliant from afar.

"My combat techniques are starting to feel insufficient." Xiao Jinchen murmured. With a thought, his figure transformed into a streak of blue lightning, darting toward the light clusters in front of the statue.

Arriving before the clusters, Xiao Jinchen rubbed his hands together in excitement.

His gaze swept over the many clusters, and he quickly locked onto one that seemed to have a swirling tornado inside.

"You're the one!"

Xiao Jinchen looked at that cluster, and with a thought, cyan soul power surged rapidly from his palm. He reached out and grabbed it.

As his palm grasped the cluster, a faint stinging sensation accompanied by a flood of information rushed into his mind.

Xiao Jinchen shook his head and began to review the information contained within the cluster.

"Earth Gale Flame: Earth-tier high-grade combat technique. By using a peculiar vibration, one transmits their own battle qi into the earth to create an extremely scorching current of energy. It erupts unexpectedly from the ground beneath the opponent's feet, delivering a fatal blow in total silence. This technique has terrain requirements; if used near volcanic regions, its power is significantly enhanced."

"An Earth-tier high-grade technique. I haven't learned one of those yet," Xiao Jinchen chuckled.

"Maybe I should get a ruler technique as well. I remember Xiao Yan had a set of ruler combat techniques." Recovering from his initial surprise, Xiao Jinchen looked toward the many light clusters with burning eyes.

Xiao Jinchen's gaze quickly locked onto a cluster that glowed with a dark red hue. Unlike the others, it seemed to contain a tiny figure constantly brandishing something.

"This must be it, right?" Watching the tiny figure in the cluster, Xiao Jinchen channeled his soul power once more and reached out a palm.

As his hand grasped the cluster, the same stinging sensation and influx of information flooded his mind.

"Six-Harmony Wandering Ruler, Earth-tier intermediate combat technique, created by the Venerable Six-Harmony who rampaged across the continent several centuries ago. This ruler technique was his signature skill and is extremely powerful. Its only flaw is that the technique is somewhat unorthodox; unless one has immersed themselves in it for several years, it is quite difficult to master."

"Six-Harmony Wandering Ruler! It really is this one!" Xiao Jinchen exclaimed in pleasant surprise.

It took a long while for Xiao Jinchen to suppress the excitement of obtaining two Earth-tier combat techniques. After all, greed leads to poor digestion, and the techniques weren't going anywhere.

"Ice Empress, it's time for us to leave." Xiao Jinchen reminded her. Emperor Flame rose on his palm, and he injected it into the Exotic Flame Ring on his finger.

However, he didn't open a spatial rift immediately. Instead, Xiao Jinchen closed his eyes and continuously poured Emperor Flame into the ring.

"Aren't we leaving? What are you doing?" Ice Empress asked, watching him keep his eyes shut.

"Bang!"

Before the words had even faded, a spatial rift appeared before Ice Empress in an instant.

"Whew."

Xiao Jinchen's face was slightly pale as he slowly exhaled.

"Let's go." Xiao Jinchen called out to Ice Empress and stepped out of the Exotic Flame Space first.

The scene shifted; they were no longer in the gloomy core area of the Evil Demon Forest, but in the outer perimeter.

"Huh? Your space has a built-in teleportation function?" Ice Empress asked curiously after exiting the Exotic Flame Space. "We were in the core area when we went in, but now we're directly in the outer perimeter."

"That's right." Xiao Jinchen nodded. "I can choose the direction of the exit, but I have to leave a mental imprint in advance."

Everything had gone according to Xiao Jinchen's plan. His target this time was the son of the Evil Emperor. In the original story, Huo Yuhao only survived because of Wang Qiu'er's destiny skull, while he had only been able to take Ice Empress and hide in the Exotic Flame Space.

To avoid running into the enraged Evil Emperor upon exiting the core area, Xiao Jinchen had used the mental imprint he left in the outer perimeter to open the spatial rift directly there.

"Uh... Jinchen... is it... do you have any more of that Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow?" Ice Empress asked hesitantly, using Xiao Jinchen's name for the first time.

"Oh? Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow?" Xiao Jinchen grinned. "Of course I do."

Xiao Jinchen then flicked his storage ring, and ten pieces of Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow floated before Ice Empress.

"This..." Ice Empress's pupils shrank the moment she saw them, and just as she reached out to touch them, Xiao Jinchen retracted them into his ring.

"You said you didn't have much Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow on you! What were those just now!" Ice Empress said, puffing out her cheeks.

Ice Empress had only asked on a whim. Such rare ice-attribute treasures were hard to come by, and she had assumed he might have two or three left and wanted to see if she could get them. She never expected him to have ten!

"That's right. I really don't have much left on me, just..." Xiao Jinchen smiled slightly, "just another forty-four pieces."