Yan Wuji: Profound Ice Dragon Martial Soul (Su Chen's Third Companion)

It shouldn't have been snowing in the middle region of the Star Dou Great Forest.

The moment Su Chen stepped into this area, he sensed something was wrong.

A thin layer of white frost coated the fallen leaves beneath his feet.

His breath condensed into white mist.

Over the past half incense stick's worth of travel, the temperature had dropped by at least twenty degrees.

It was midsummer.

"Someone is using an ice-element soul skill," Mo Qianye said.

He raised a hand and touched the ice crystals on a tree trunk. The instant his fingertips made contact, a bone-piercing chill seeped into him.

"The residual soul power is strong. The caster is nearby."

"And they've been at it for a long time."

Su Chen did not reply.

He closed his eyes as the scouting images relayed by the Shadow Leopards spread through his mind.

Two li ahead lay a stretch of forest frozen into lifeless white.

The trees, shrubs, even the anthills in the ground had all been sealed beneath transparent shells of ice.

At the center of the icy domain, two figures were fighting.

One human.

One snake.

"Let's go."

Su Chen quickened his pace.

This was not curiosity, but judgment—someone capable of creating an ice domain of this scale in the middle region of the Star Dou Great Forest was either a friend or an enemy who absolutely could not be left alone.

Either way, it was worth seeing for himself.

When the three of them passed through the last patch of frozen undergrowth, the full scene of the battle unfolded before them.

An Ice-Soul Python.

Its body was as thick as a water vat, covered in translucent ice-blue scales that refracted glaring, frigid light through the cold air.

Its dark golden vertical pupils were filled with fury and hunger.

Every swing of its tail sent sheets of frozen earth flying.

A ten-thousand-year-level beast.

And its opponent was a boy who looked no older than thirteen.

The boy wore a deep indigo robe embroidered with dark-patterned snow lotuses along its hem.

His pale silver-gray hair was tied behind his head, with a few loose strands clinging to his temples.

His features were refined, and the faint upward curve of his lips carried a gentle smile utterly out of place on this battlefield.

Behind the boy floated the phantom of an ice-blue giant dragon, its wings spread wide.

The dragon's body was translucent, its scales sharply defined, with ice-blue radiance flowing through the gaps between every scale.

Profound Ice Dragon.

Two Spirit Rings rotated quietly beneath his feet.

Two purple.

Great Soul Master.

"Frost Domain."

The boy's voice was neither loud nor soft, his tone calm, as if he were making tea for a guest at a table.

His first soul skill operated at full force, turning the ground within a hundred-meter radius into a smooth, mirror-like ice field.

The Ice-Soul Python's belly slid wildly across it, greatly restricting its movement.

But it was, after all, a ten-thousand-year soul beast naturally attuned to ice.

After its brief discomfort, it began adapting to the icy ground.

Its tail suddenly lashed out, smashing three frozen trees that had become pillars of ice.

Shards of ice shot through the air. The boy twisted aside, but one corner of his robe was sliced away.

"Myriad Ice Spikes."

His second soul skill activated.

The ice field's surface exploded in an instant. Countless sharp ice spikes erupted from the ground like an inverted forest of death, pinning the Ice-Soul Python's lower body firmly in place.

Snake blood splashed out, instantly freezing into dark-red beads of ice.

The Ice-Soul Python let out a pained hiss.

The light in its snake eyes flared as its entire body swelled violently by a full circle.

The terrifying pressure of a ten-thousand-year soul beast came crashing down, and visible ice crystals condensed in the air.

That was not the boy's soul skill, but the Ice-Soul Python's own frigid domain.

Using ice to suppress ice.

The boy's Frost Domain was forcibly compressed. Cracks began appearing across the ice field, and the ice spikes shattered one after another.

His soul power was visibly draining away.

Two rings against ten thousand years.

The courage was admirable, but the strength was lacking.

The boy's smile remained on his face, but his breathing had already grown hurried.

He stepped back, and the ice beneath his feet cracked in response.

The Ice-Soul Python broke free from its final restraints, arching its body as its gaping maw aimed at the boy—

Then a massive dark-golden figure slammed into it from the side.

Iron Wall.

A sixteen-hundred-pound Fearclaw Bear charged at full speed, its entire shoulder crashing into the Ice-Soul Python's midsection.

The enormous snake body was sent flying sideways, plowing a savage twenty-meter trench across the ice.

Before the Ice-Soul Python could turn over, a second and third Fearclaw Bear closed in from both sides.

A fourth leaped directly onto its body, its dark-golden fearclaws plunging deep into the gaps between its scales.

Snake blood gushed forth.

The Ice-Soul Python twisted madly, but the encirclement of ten Ten-Thousand-Year Fearclaw Bears had already completely formed.

Iron Wall pressed a paw onto the snake's head, its fearclaws directly piercing the hard scales on either side of its skull.

The Ice-Soul Python's struggles rapidly weakened. Its tail slapped limply against the ice as it let out one final mournful cry.

Less than twenty breaths had passed from the first strike to the end.

The boy stood where he was, and at last, a crack appeared in his smile.

He watched the ten colossal beasts pin the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice-Soul Python to the ground and ravage it for a long time in silence.

Then he turned to look at Su Chen, who was walking out from the woods.

"Are these... all yours?"

His voice remained gentle and refined, but the slight lift at the end betrayed a trace of shock and doubt.

"For now." Su Chen stopped at the edge of the ice field, his gaze pausing briefly on the dark-patterned snow lotus. "You're from the Snow Dragon Sect."

The smile on the boy's face stiffened.

Only for a moment.

Then it returned, three parts gentler than before.

"I once was." He dipped his head slightly, every courtesy observed. "Yan Wuji. May I ask who you are?"

"Su Chen."

"Su Chen." Yan Wuji repeated the name, savoring it carefully. "The Su Chen who caused such a stir around the outskirts of the forest recently, the one Spirit Hall has been searching for everywhere?"

Su Chen did not deny it.

Yan Wuji's gaze shifted from Su Chen to Iron Wall, then swept over the other nine Fearclaw Bears cleaning up the battlefield.

His pupils contracted. It was not fear, but calculation.

"The Supreme Summoner," he said softly. "So it's true."

"You know?"

"Though the Snow Dragon Sect is secluded in the northern frontier, we are not cut off from news. Spirit Hall's wording on the wanted notice was interesting—'Capture alive. Do not injure.'"

Yan Wuji smiled. "There are only a handful of people on the entire continent whom Spirit Hall would be reluctant to kill."

Su Chen neither confirmed nor denied it, getting straight to the point.

"The Snow Dragon Sect was annexed by the Star Luo Empire three months ago."

Yan Wuji's smile did not change.

But the light in his eyes did.

The gentleness faded from those pale gray eyes, leaving behind only pure coldness.

"Yes," he said. "Three months and four days."

"Before you left, you froze the Star Luo Empire's governor's residence stationed at the sect."

Chu Yao made a soft, "Hm?"

Mo Qianye raised his brows as well.

Yan Wuji tilted his head, and his smile became gentle again.

"'Froze' is not quite accurate." He spoke as if correcting an academic misconception. "I sealed the entire governor's residence, along with the forty-seven officials and two hundred guards inside, in three chi of Profound Ice."

He paused.

"Don't worry, no one died. The Profound Ice slowly releases cold air to maintain their bodily functions. They're merely asleep."

"Will they wake up?" Chu Yao could not help asking.

"Probably in three years." Yan Wuji smiled. "If a Soul King-level fire-element soul master breaks the ice, perhaps sooner. But the northern frontier of the Star Luo Empire... does not seem to have anyone like that."

Chu Yao stared at him for three seconds, then silently took half a step back.

Su Chen did not comment on whether what he had done was right or wrong. He only cared about one thing.

"Where are you planning to go next?"

Yan Wuji looked around.

Ten Fearclaw Bears poised for action.

The faintly visible shadows of Shadow Leopards among the trees.

A girl holding a Poison Gu Gourd, and a black-clad young man with a deep, unfathomable aura.

And the summoner before him, whose gaze was so calm that he did not seem like a fourteen-year-old boy.

"Originally, I planned to head south and leave the Star Dou Great Forest," he said. "But now..."

His gaze finally settled on Su Chen.

"Your legion is strong," Yan Wuji said. "But you lack one thing."

"What?"

"Area control."

Yan Wuji extended a hand, and a delicate ice flower condensed at his fingertips.

"The Fearclaw Bears are an Iron Wall, and the Shadow Leopards are blades. But a battlefield is not made of only walls and knives—you also need terrain."

"My Profound Ice Dragon can turn a two-hundred-meter radius into an absolute ice field within three seconds. Any enemy on my ice will have their speed halved and lose their balance."

"Your Shadow Leopards can hunt any target that loses its mobility on the ice."

He did not finish speaking.

But Su Chen already understood.

The silence lasted five seconds.

"Welcome aboard."

Yan Wuji bowed slightly.

Chu Yao rolled her eyes. "Another freak."

Yan Wuji turned to her, his smile warm. "The toxins in this young lady's body are quite varied. Gu poison, herb poison, insect poison... at least seven kinds, all maintained very well."

Chu Yao's pupils suddenly contracted.

Her toxins had been deliberately restrained within her body. Even Mo Qianye could not precisely distinguish their types.

This person had seen through everything just by standing five steps away?

"Try taking one more step closer." Her voice turned cold.

Yan Wuji smiled and took a step back. "I wouldn't dare."

Mo Qianye glanced at Su Chen.

Su Chen returned the look.

Neither spoke, but they understood each other—this person was far more dangerous than he appeared.

Exactly the kind of danger they needed.

That night, the four sat around a bonfire at their temporary camp.

Yan Wuji was using ice-element soul power to chill a pot of stream water, his movements elegant as though he were hosting a tea gathering.

Su Chen stared at the dancing flames as the Shadow Leopards' scouting network sent back new information.

Northeast, forty li away.

Five soul power signatures were rapidly approaching.

The leader's soul power was deep and heavy as an abyss.

Level seventy-five.

Soul Sage.

Su Chen lifted his head and looked toward Thunderstorm Peak.

At the horizon, muffled purple thunder rolled soundlessly through the depths of the clouds.

His air force was still waiting for him atop that mountain.

And the enemy was already nearly at their doorstep.