Tang Lie came to his senses, his shock and fury over his Martial Soul being damaged giving way to eyes bloodshot with rage. He roared, "Kill him!"
The other three also snapped out of their terror. Forcing down their fear, they lunged at Qian Qizhou, who was already weak and swaying on his feet.
Yet in the face of this deadly attack, despair did not appear on Qian Qizhou's pale face. Instead, a smile curled across his lips—the smile of someone whose scheme had succeeded.
He had accomplished his goal: buying time and creating a commotion loud and unusual enough to send out his coordinates.
Just as the three men's attacks were about to land—
The temperature between heaven and earth plummeted!
A crystalline snowflake drifted down without warning.
Then a second, a third... In the blink of an eye, a blizzard swept across the battlefield.
Snowflakes danced wildly through the night sky, and bone-deep cold spread in an instant, as though even Soul Power would freeze.
"What's going on?!" The men's charges abruptly faltered as they looked around in alarm and confusion.
Before they could figure out the cause of this bizarre change in the weather, an indescribable pressure crashed down!
"Boom—!"
A terrifying shock wave erupted around Qian Qizhou. The three men in the air felt an irresistible force slam into their chests.
"Pfft!"
All three spewed blood at once and were hurled backward like kites with their strings cut, crashing hard to the ground beside Tang Lie.
Amid the flying snow, a breathtakingly beautiful, slender figure appeared soundlessly before Qian Qizhou, countless snowflakes swirling around her.
The newcomer was none other than the foremost of the Three Great Kings of the Far North, the Heavenly Snow Woman, Snow Empress, whose cultivation was nearing seven hundred thousand years.
As it happened, a few days earlier, Qian Qizhou had gone out for the first time. Unable to find his way, he had accidentally wandered into the Far North.
As luck would have it, he ran into a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast that hunted him down. By chance, he met Snow Empress, and the two became friends.
Her ice-blue hair fluttered in the blizzard. Her beauty was peerless, yet her expression was as cold as frost. Her eyes, seemingly filled with ten thousand years of ice, passed indifferently over the men she had sent flying.
At last, her gaze settled on the weakened Qian Qizhou behind her. "Xiao Zhou, are you all right?"
The Far North was not far from here. Snow Empress had sensed Qian Qizhou's presence and rushed over, which was how she had been able to save him.
Looking at the figure standing between him and danger, Qian Qizhou finally relaxed completely. He coughed lightly and forced a smile. "Sister Snow, if you'd arrived any later, you'd have been collecting my corpse."
He glanced at the men below and said, "Send them home."
Snow Empress's eyes showed not the slightest ripple. She gave a small nod. "All right."
That single word had already pronounced Tang Lie and the others' death sentence.
Without hesitation, and without giving them time to beg or even react, Snow Empress slowly raised her pale, jade-like hand.
In an instant, frigid power gathered in her palm, and the air temperature dropped again.
Tang Lie was scared out of his wits. The overwhelming premonition of death made him scream hoarsely, "Who are you, exactly?! I'm the Clear Sky Sect's Seventh Elder! There may have been some misunderstanding..."
He tried to invoke his sect's prestige and make her hesitate.
Snow Empress, however, remained unmoved.
She pointed her fingertips at the men, and the Cryo between heaven and earth instantly converged.
A chill that seemed capable of freezing the soul spread in an instant.
"Crack—!"
In a flash, they and the swirling dust around them were sealed inside transparent black ice. They could not move; even their thoughts froze.
Terror and despair remained frozen on the faces of Tang Lie and the three Soul Douluo.
Then cracks spread across the black ice. It collapsed with a roar, shattering into countless tiny ice crystals that scattered on the wind, without leaving so much as a trace of blood.
Four powerful members of the Clear Sky Sect had been annihilated in body and soul with a single casual strike, as though they had never existed.
Snow Empress slowly lowered her hand. The snow around them gradually settled, and she turned to Qian Qizhou. "It's taken care of."
When it came to talent, this little fellow might not be one of a kind, but there was probably no one else like him anywhere on the Douluo Continent.
Even if he could help her survive the seven hundred thousand year Heavenly Tribulation, human lives were limited. He would not live to see her next tribulation. If so...
Looking at the scattered ice crystals, Qian Qizhou let out a soft breath and nodded. "Thank you, Sister Snow."
Then his gaze swept over the devastated battlefield, sensing the various traces left lingering in the air.
They were far too conspicuous. If left alone, they would surely draw endless investigations.
Snow Empress had clearly noticed them too. She raised her slender fingertips once more.
In a short while, the entire battlefield fell silent. Not a trace of the earlier battle could be sensed anymore; only pure, icy desolation remained.
Only after finishing all this did Snow Empress turn to Qian Qizhou. "I've cleared away the traces. We shouldn't stay here."
She reached out, and a gentle flow of Soul Power supported Qian Qizhou, who was nearly exhausted. "Let's go first."
Qian Qizhou used her support to steady himself and nodded.
The two of them flashed away, becoming a blue streak and a purple streak of light as they quickly left the area.
As time passed and Qian Qizhou healed, the Douluo Continent was swept by upheaval. In just a few days, the situation changed dramatically!
A piece of earth-shattering news spread through every corner of the continent at terrifying speed.
Tang Hao had broken through and become the youngest Titled Douluo on the continent.
The Spirit Hall's pope, Qian Xunji, had actually been killed by Tang Hao!
The news set the whole world ablaze!
More chaotic and shocking details followed.
Tang Hao had joined with a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and fathered a child.
After killing the pope, he had fled with the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and their infant, and his whereabouts were unknown.
To quell the Spirit Hall's immense fury and avert all-out war, the Clear Sky Sect had actually announced that it was expelling Tang Hao and severing all ties with him.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere inside the Clear Sky Sect had grown oppressive to the extreme.
Faced with the Spirit Hall's relentless pressure and overwhelming internal strain, Sect Master Tang Wei finally announced, under the elders' council's decision, that Tang Hao was officially expelled from the sect and removed from the family genealogy.
Many Soul Masters across the continent saw this move as the Clear Sky Sect bowing to the Spirit Hall, and the sect's reputation as the greatest sect under heaven suffered a heavy blow.
Even so, it did nothing to quell the Spirit Hall's fury.
After all, Tang Hao was the Clear Sky Sect master's son. How could a casual announcement of his expulsion possibly make sense? Who would believe it?
So, in its fury, the Spirit Hall immediately declared war on the Clear Sky Sect.
For a time, flames of war engulfed half the continent, leaving everyone in a state of panic.
No one had expected the fall of a pope to topple the first domino and unleash a massive storm that swept across the entire Soul Master World.
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