Crack!
A crisp crack suddenly rang out beside their ears.
Then, a hair-thin fissure rapidly spread across the solid ice encasing Su Shi'er.
"Hm? This fellow actually isn't dead?"
Yin Qingxue's face filled with surprise, and he could not help letting out a quiet cry.
As his words fell, he urged his true essence through his palm and struck the solid ice fiercely once more.
Under the ceaseless wash of surging true essence, the solid ice encasing Su Shi'er steamed away and melted at a visible rate.
An hour later, accompanied by rising clouds of vapor, the ice covering Su Shi'er finally melted completely. His body went limp, and he toppled toward the ground.
Before he could hit the floor, however, an invisible hand condensed from true essence caught him.
A weak aura emanated from his body. Su Shi'er's consciousness was hazy. Having just survived a life-and-death crisis, he felt as though he had been dead drunk, his mind heavy and muddled.
The other party's ice spell had come without a sound or trace, and even he had not noticed the slightest hint of it.
Had the attack not been launched in secret, greatly weakening its power, and had his Nirvana Sword—which had fused with Southern Bright Leaving Fire—not been in his dantian—
At this moment, he would likely have become a wrongfully slain wandering ghost upon the road to the Yellow Springs.
Su Shi'er gasped for breath in great mouthfuls, lingering fear still in his heart as his consciousness gradually returned.
At the same time, he slowly turned his head to look at Yin Qingxue. The instant he saw the figure beside him, his pupils contracted sharply.
What entered his sight was an unfamiliar figure.
The person before him was not particularly tall, yet had an exceedingly slender figure.