"You!" Ice Empress glared up at Xiao Jinchen. Seeing his teasing expression, her temper flared, and cold air roiled around her as she was about to lash out. Xiao Jinchen simply raised a hand and pointed.
A Fire Lotus pattern faintly appeared on Ice Empress's forehead.
Xiao Jinchen gave Ice Empress a half-smile and pointed at her forehead, clearly warning her to behave.
Ice Empress naturally felt the warmth on her forehead, and her imposing aura weakened by more than half in an instant.
Feeling the warmth from the mark on her forehead, Ice Empress looked at Xiao Jinchen. Her lips moved several times, but she ultimately forced the harsh words back down.
"You... you promised to give it to me! You're bullying me again!" Ice Empress muttered under her breath, her voice carrying a hint of grievance. Tears glimmered in her eyes, and she looked like a child who had lost her candy, angry and upset, yet helpless against the other person.
Looking at Ice Empress's aggrieved expression, the teasing in Xiao Jinchen's eyes gradually softened.
Xiao Jinchen stepped forward, took Ice Empress's little hand, and placed the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow in her palm.
"All right, I was just teasing you." Xiao Jinchen smiled warmly. "I keep my word. This Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow was for you all along."
Ice Empress clutched the cool, smooth Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow and stared at it for a long moment before slowly looking up.
"Hmph!" Ice Empress gave an unhappy snort, then put the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow away.
Feeling his own Soul Power surging within him, Xiao Jinchen grinned. "Level sixty-six."
The hundred-thousand-year-old Evil Eye Tyrant had given him two Soul Skills. The first was called Soul Devour. It could forcibly control Soul Masters with weaker mental power than his own and read all of their memories.
The second Soul Skill was a domain-type ability: the Evil Eye Clan's innate skill, Mental Field, with a range spanning several miles.
Xiao Jinchen gave a lazy yawn and turned his gaze toward Xiao Yan's stone statue.
Countless glowing orbs circled around Xiao Yan's statue, dazzling from a distance.
"I'm running a bit short on Dou Techniques." Xiao Jinchen murmured. At a thought, his body turned into a streak of blue lightning and shot toward the orbs before the statue.
Reaching the orbs, Xiao Jinchen rubbed his hands together excitedly.
His gaze swept over the many glowing orbs before him, and soon settled on one that seemed to hold a surging tornado within.
"You'll do!"
Xiao Jinchen fixed his gaze on the orb and focused. Green Soul Power streamed rapidly from his palm as he reached out and grabbed it.
The moment Xiao Jinchen's hand closed around the orb, a faint sting accompanied by a stream of information swiftly flooded into his mind.
Xiao Jinchen shook his head and began examining the information contained in the orb.
"Earth Gale Flame: High-grade Earth-tier Dou Technique. By using a strange vibration, one sends one's Dou Qi into the earth, creating a stream of intensely hot, forceful energy that erupts without warning from beneath an opponent's feet, delivering a lethal attack in utter silence. This Dou Technique requires suitable terrain. Its power will increase greatly near a volcanic region."
"High-grade Earth-tier Dou Technique. I've never learned a high-grade Earth-tier Dou Technique before." Xiao Jinchen chuckled.
"Maybe I should get a ruler technique, too. I seem to remember Xiao Yan had a ruler-based Dou Technique." Recovering from his earlier delight, Xiao Jinchen gazed eagerly at the many glowing orbs before him.
His gaze soon locked onto one of them. It, too, glowed dark red, but inside it, a tiny figure seemed to be swinging something over and over.
"This should be the one, right?" Seeing the little figure repeatedly swinging inside the orb, Xiao Jinchen sent Soul Power surging through his body once more and reached out with one hand.
The moment Xiao Jinchen's hand closed around the orb, the same faint sting and stream of information as before flooded into his mind.
"Six-Harmony Wandering Ruler, a middle-grade Earth-tier Dou Technique. It was created by Venerable Six-Harmony, who dominated the continent several hundred years ago. This ruler technique was also his signature Dou Technique, and its power is formidable. Its only flaw is that it is somewhat unorthodox. Anyone who hasn't immersed themselves in it for years will likely find it difficult to master."
"Six-Harmony Wandering Ruler! It really is this one!" Xiao Jinchen exclaimed in delight.
Only after quite a while did Xiao Jinchen manage to rein in his excitement at obtaining two Earth-tier Dou Techniques. After all, biting off more than you could chew was no good, and the techniques weren't going anywhere.
"Ice Empress, we should head out." Xiao Jinchen reminded her. Emperor Flame rose from his palm, and he poured it into the Exotic Flame Ring on his finger.
But this time, he didn't open a spatial rift right away. Instead, Xiao Jinchen closed his eyes and kept pouring Emperor Flame into the Exotic Flame Ring.
"Weren't we leaving? What are you doing?" Ice Empress asked, watching Xiao Jinchen keep his eyes shut.
"Bang!"
Before she had even finished speaking, a spatial rift appeared in front of Ice Empress.
"Phew."
Xiao Jinchen's face was somewhat pale as he slowly let out a breath.
"Let's go." Xiao Jinchen called to Ice Empress, then stepped out of the Exotic Flame Space first.
The scenery changed. They were no longer in the gloomy heart of the Evil Demon Forest, but at its outskirts.
"Huh? Your space can teleport us, too?" Ice Empress asked curiously after leaving the Exotic Flame Space. "We were in the heart of the forest when we went in, but now we're straight out at the outskirts."
"That's right." Xiao Jinchen nodded. "I can choose where the exit appears, but I have to leave a Mental Field mark there beforehand."
Everything had gone according to Xiao Jinchen's expectations. His target this time was the Evil Emperor's son. In the original story, Huo Yuhao had survived thanks to Wang Qiu'er's Destiny Skull, but Xiao Jinchen could only hide with Ice Empress inside the Exotic Flame Space.
To avoid running into the enraged Evil Emperor in the forest's heart when they came out, Xiao Jinchen had used the Mental Field mark he'd left at the outskirts earlier to open a spatial rift there.
"Um... Jinchen... about that Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow, do you have any more?" Ice Empress stammered. This time, she had actually called Xiao Jinchen by name.
"Oh? The Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow?" Xiao Jinchen grinned. "Of course I do."
Then Xiao Jinchen lightly tapped his finger against the Storage Ring, and ten pieces of Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow floated before Ice Empress.
"This..." Ice Empress's pupils suddenly contracted at the sight of the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow. She had just started reaching out to touch them when Xiao Jinchen put them back in his Storage Ring.
"Didn't you say you didn't have much Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow left? What was all that just now?" Ice Empress protested angrily.
Ice Empress had only asked on the off chance. A rare ice-type heavenly treasure like Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow was hard to come by. She had thought Xiao Jinchen might have two or three pieces left and wanted to see if she could get them from him. She hadn't expected him to have any at all, let alone ten!
"Right. I really don't have much Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow left. There's only..." Xiao Jinchen smiled. "Only forty-four pieces."