A Passing "God"

The blood never reached the ground. It froze into icy beads in midair.

"Urgh..."

Elder Yan let out a muffled groan. His true form shattered instantly, and he fell from midair like a ragged sack, slamming into the snow and sending powder flying.

A visible deep-blue color rapidly spread from the wound in his chest throughout his body.

Within seconds, his lips had turned bluish-purple.

Ice Emperor's Poison.

It was over.

Elder Yan's consciousness began to blur. He could feel his Soul Power and life force being frozen and drained away by that strange poison.

He struggled, wanting to turn back for one last look at the child he had sworn to protect.

But he no longer had the strength even to turn his neck.

The Ice Jade Empress Scorpion slowly moved its legs, step by step, toward him.

It looked down at the human lying on the ground and slowly raised its massive pincers, aiming at Elder Yan's head.

It was going to crush the insect that had disturbed its slumber.

"No... don't..."

Ma Xiaotao's pupils suddenly contracted.

The sight of Elder Yan falling was like a massive hammer crashing down on her already-fragile sanity.

"Don't—!!!"

A scorching torrent erupted from deep within her dantian, instantly smashing through every restraint within her body.

At that moment, her sanity was completely burned to ashes.

Just as the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion's massive pincer was about to fall—

Boom—!!!

A black-red flame erupted from Ma Xiaotao's body without warning!

It was not the crimson-gold of phoenix flame, but a black-red blaze... carrying an aura of destruction and ill omen.

The flames soared into the sky, burning a hole through the dark clouds above Ice Valley.

Ma Xiaotao slowly rose to her feet.

Her long hair whipped wildly amid the black-red flames. There was no longer a trace of human emotion in her eyes, only pure, mad, indiscriminate brutality.

"Roar...!!!"

A roar that scarcely sounded human forced its way from deep in her throat.

She moved.

Her target was neither the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion close at hand nor Elder Yan, whose fate on the ground was unknown.

Like a crazed beast that had lost its prey, she unleashed her wrath—enough to burn all things—upon everything around her without distinction!

"It's over..."

The taste of blood rose in Yan Shaozhe's throat. Half his body had been numbed by the extreme cold.

Within Ice Valley, two utterly opposing forces had completely spiraled out of control.

On one side were dark-red phoenix flames, like an erupting volcano. Wherever they passed, even ten-thousand-year black ice sizzled and melted into vast clouds of white vapor.

On the other was the chilling frost current spewed by the emerald-green scorpion, nearly freezing the air itself into ice crystals.

At the boundary between flame and ice, space itself seemed to fracture in an eerie manner.

Yan Shaozhe, an elder of Shrek's Sea God's Pavilion and a genuine Titled Douluo, was now in an utterly miserable state.

He had only wanted to escort Ma Xiaotao, whose Evil Fire had gone out of control, to the Far North to try their luck. Who could have imagined they would run headfirst into a Hundred-Thousand-Year Ice Jade Scorpion?!

Worse still, the completely crazed Ma Xiaotao had treated this ruler of the Far North as an enemy too.

The battlefield between one human and one beast had become a deathtrap even for a Titled Douluo like him.

"Xiaotao! Wake up!"

He roared with the last shred of his Soul Power, but his voice was torn apart by the raging energy storm.

There was no reason left in Ma Xiaotao's crimson eyes, only a desire for destruction. The Evil Fire Phoenix phantom behind her threw back its head and shrieked as a thick pillar of dark-red flame blasted recklessly toward both the Ice Jade Scorpion and Yan Shaozhe.

The Ice Jade Scorpion gave a piercing hiss. Its enormous tail lit up with a ghostly green glow, clearly preparing to fight for its life as well.

Yan Shaozhe's heart turned cold.

He could not dodge.

Whether he was touched by that Evil Fire or struck by a desperate attack from this Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, there was only one outcome.

Who would have thought that he, the dignified president of Shrek, would die in the chaotic battle between his own student and a Soul Beast?

How... humiliating.

Just as the phoenix flames and emerald frost current were about to collide and blow the entire Ice Valley into the sky—

A male voice, sounding somewhat lazy and even faintly impatient, suddenly rang out at the mouth of the valley.

"So noisy."

Huh?

Yan Shaozhe froze, thinking he was hallucinating.

The voice was not loud, yet it was like a sharp blade that effortlessly cut through the deafening energy roar and reached his ears with perfect clarity.

He struggled to turn his head.

At the entrance to Ice Valley stood a young man and woman, though he had no idea when they had arrived.

The man wore white, his black hair draped over his shoulders. With both hands in his pockets, he looked indifferently at the apocalyptic scene inside the valley, his brow slightly furrowed as though watching an improper farce.

The girl beside him had beautiful pink-blue hair and breathtaking features. She merely stood obediently half a step behind him, her gaze upon him carrying an almost worshipful light.

Who... were they?

How had they gotten in?

Yan Shaozhe's mind went blank.

"Master, should I dispose of them?" Wang Dong'er asked softly. Her gaze swept over the massive Ice Jade Scorpion before shifting to the red-haired woman in the distance who had fallen into madness. Her tone was as calm as if she were asking what they would have for dinner.

Yu Chen did not answer. He merely raised a hand casually toward the Ice Jade Scorpion, which was preparing to fight for its life, and pressed down lightly as though swatting away a fly.

The next second—

A scene Yan Shaozhe would never understand for the rest of his life occurred.

The ferocious Hundred-Thousand-Year Ice Jade Scorpion, whose massive body had troubled even him... suddenly froze without any warning.

There was no energy fluctuation, no glow from a soul skill—nothing at all.

It was as though an invisible giant hand of a god had brutally pressed it down from the sky. Its body, weighing tens of thousands of jin, slammed into the ice with a bang!

The hard ice cracked like a spiderweb. The Ice Jade Scorpion let out a miserable cry, terrified beyond measure, its eight legs clawing frantically at the ground, yet it could not raise even a single tiny limb. For the first time, an emotion called "begging" appeared in its vicious compound eyes.

It was... trembling?

A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was trembling in fear?

Yan Shaozhe's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

How... how was that possible?!

What had he done? What exactly had that young man done?!

He had merely... raised his hand?

After making that gesture, Yu Chen did not even glance again at the scorpion, which had collapsed on the ground and was playing dead. His gaze fell on the woman who was still crazily releasing flames.

"Are you going to keep this up forever?"

He muttered in displeasure.

Before his words had even faded, his figure vanished from where he stood.

It was not the kind of disappearance caused by speed so great that it left an afterimage. Rather... he vanished into thin air.

Yan Shaozhe's pupils shrank to pinpoints.

When Yu Chen appeared again, he was already standing before Ma Xiaotao.

They were less than three meters apart.

"Watch out!!" Yan Shaozhe shouted instinctively. "That's Evil Fire! You can't touch it!"

Ma Xiaotao, in her crazed state, had clearly noticed this new target that had suddenly appeared.