Help

Li Qingfeng, Tuoba Shan, Su Mei'er, and the others all stared at Qin Yuan in shock. They knew Qin Yuan was strong, but they had never imagined he was strong to this extent—he had actually forced Yan Lie back head-on!

Yan Lie's expression shifted, and he suddenly waved his hand. "Retreat!"

The remaining Crimson Flame Sect disciples felt as though they had been pardoned. They hurriedly helped up their injured companions and swiftly followed Yan Lie deeper into the ice gorge. Seeing that the situation had turned sour, the three cultivators who had been recruited had long since fled in different directions.

The ice gorge fell silent in an instant, with only the howling cold wind remaining.

"Fellow Daoist Qin... thank you for your aid!" Li Qingfeng suppressed the roiling blood and qi within him and solemnly bowed to Qin Yuan. The gratitude on his face was utterly sincere. Had Qin Yuan not acted in time, he would likely have been severely injured at Yan Lie's hands.

Tuoba Shan clutched the wound on his shoulder and grinned. "Brother Qin, impressive! Old Tuoba is convinced!"

Su Mei'er and Yin Jiuyou also stepped forward to offer their thanks, while Han Bing was overwhelmed with gratitude.

Qin Yuan waved a hand, but his gaze thoughtfully flicked toward the direction Yan Lie had retreated in before sweeping over Li Qingfeng. During the chaotic battle just now, he had keenly noticed that while Li Qingfeng and Yan Lie had been locked in fierce combat, Li Qingfeng had seemed to deliberately—or perhaps inadvertently—expose an opening. It had caused one of Yan Lie's fire arrows to veer off course and graze past one of Yan Lie's severely wounded disciples lying on the ground, rather than delivering a fatal blow. That disciple had later been dragged away by his companions.

Had it been a mistake, or intentional?

Qin Yuan harbored his doubts, but he did not expose them.

After briefly regulating their breathing, the group swiftly left the ice gorge and proceeded toward the Cold Pond according to the map. Along the way, they encountered several more waves of ice-element demonic beasts, all of which they repelled together. Around an hour later, the view suddenly opened up before them, revealing a vast Cold Pond covered by a thin sheet of ice. Its waters were dark and deep, radiating bone-piercing chill. Along the shore grew patches of ice moss that emitted a faint blue glow.

"According to the map, once we cross the Cold Pond, we'll reach Ice Soul Forest, and beyond that lies the inheritance site." Li Qingfeng pointed at the map. "There may be demonic beasts beneath the Cold Pond. We must be careful."

Tuoba Shan suggested that they rest briefly and tend to their injuries. No one objected. They found a sheltered spot behind an icy hill by the Cold Pond, set up a simple warning array, and each took medicine to heal.

Qin Yuan sat cross-legged. He appeared to have his eyes closed as he regulated his breathing, but in truth, his Spiritual Sense spread outward, covering a radius of several hundred feet as he watched for every movement.

After roughly half an incense stick's time, Li Qingfeng suddenly rose and walked over to Tuoba Shan. With concern in his voice, he said, "Brother Tuoba, how is your shoulder wound? I have a bottle of Jade Marrow Paste here. It works wonders on external injuries." As he spoke, he took a jade vial from his robes.

Tuoba Shan suspected nothing and accepted the jade vial. "Many thanks, Brother Li." He was just about to open it.

The instant he lowered his head to look at the jade vial, a vicious glint flashed through Li Qingfeng's eyes behind him. A pitch-black, lightless short spike slid from his right sleeve and stabbed toward Tuoba Shan's back with lightning speed! At the same time, he flicked a colorless powder from his left hand toward the nearby Su Mei'er and Yin Jiuyou.

"Watch out!" Qin Yuan's ever-tense Spiritual Sense caught that instant of killing intent and the faint spiritual energy fluctuations from the powder. He shouted sharply and shot to his feet.

Though Tuoba Shan had been warned, the distance was too close, and Li Qingfeng had planned this for a long time. He only managed to twist aside slightly. With a muffled puff, the black spike pierced his left shoulder blade. A chill, vicious force instantly surged into his body. Tuoba Shan groaned miserably, and half his body immediately went numb.

Su Mei'er and Yin Jiuyou had already held their breath when they heard the warning, but they still inhaled a small amount of the powder. At once, their heads spun, their spiritual energy stagnated, and they collapsed limply to the ground.

Han Bing's cultivation was the weakest, and though he stood farther away, he too inhaled the powder. His vision went black, and he fainted.

Having succeeded with one strike, Li Qingfeng did not linger. He rapidly retreated, opening the distance between himself and Qin Yuan. The gentle, refined look on his face had long vanished, leaving behind only cold calculation and a trace of smug satisfaction.

"Why?!" Tuoba Shan's eyes nearly split with fury as he forced himself upright and glared at Li Qingfeng.

Su Mei'er barely managed to remain conscious, her face deathly pale. "Poison... it's Soul Scattering Incense! You... planned this from the beginning?"

Yin Jiuyou struggled to summon his deathly qi, only to find that his Nascent Soul seemed bound in shackles and his spiritual energy scattered.

Li Qingfeng leisurely dusted off his sleeve and smiled. "Why? Naturally, it is to monopolize the inheritance. What we obtained from the ice manor was merely an appetizer. How could the true inheritance possibly be shared with you? The four of you, along with those fools outside, were nothing more than tools for me to open this secret realm and fend off the Crimson Flame Sect."

He looked at Qin Yuan, the only one still standing. A trace of wariness flashed through his eyes, but there was even more calm confidence in certain victory. "Fellow Daoist Qin, you truly are an unexpected variable. Your strength far exceeds my estimates. But after being poisoned by Soul Scattering Incense, your Nascent Soul is sealed. No matter how capable you are, how much of your power can you wield now? In consideration of your considerable strength, hand over what you obtained from the ice manor, along with the storage bag on you. Perhaps I can grant you a quick death."

Qin Yuan's expression remained calm, as though he had not been poisoned at all. He had indeed inhaled a trace of the powder, but the moment its toxins entered his body, they were enveloped and dissolved by the pure spiritual energy automatically circulating through the Nine Revolutions Profound Origin Art. They never managed to invade his Nascent Soul. A notification even appeared on the system interface:

[Weak neurotoxin detected. Automatically purified.]

"Soul Scattering Incense... its effects last half an hour?" Qin Yuan asked, his tone as calm as though he were discussing the weather.

Li Qingfeng frowned. Qin Yuan's composure made him uneasy. "So what if you know? Half an hour is enough for me to kill all of you ten times over!"

Before his words had even faded, his figure suddenly blurred into three afterimages that attacked Qin Yuan from different directions. The black short spike in his hand glimmered with eerie light as it aimed at Qin Yuan's vital points. His speed far surpassed what he had displayed when fighting Yan Lie!

Qin Yuan moved. He did not use much spiritual energy, relying only on his formidable body and exquisitely precise footwork. Like willow catkins drifting in the wind, he weaved lightly through the three vicious strikes, evading each one by a hair's breadth.

The longer Li Qingfeng fought, the more alarmed he became. His opponent's movement technique was bizarre. Though Qin Yuan's spiritual energy fluctuations were clearly weak, he always seemed able to anticipate the enemy's moves, and every one of Li Qingfeng's attacks missed completely. His poisoned short spike could not even touch the corner of Qin Yuan's robes.

"Impossible! You were clearly poisoned!" Li Qingfeng growled, his attacks growing even fiercer. The short spike carved out trails of afterimages, sealing off every route of retreat available to Qin Yuan.

Qin Yuan stopped evading. Fixing his gaze on one of the incoming spikes, he shot out his right hand like lightning and precisely caught the blade of the black short spike between his index and middle fingers!

Clang!

The sound of metal striking metal rang out. Li Qingfeng felt as though his short spike had struck ten-thousand-year dark iron and could advance no farther. He exerted force in horror, yet it would not budge in the slightest.

Qin Yuan's fingers tightened slightly.

Crack!

That poisoned spike, at least a top-grade Profound-rank artifact, was snapped cleanly in two!

Li Qingfeng seemed to have been struck by lightning. With his artifact destroyed and his mind linked to it, he let out a muffled groan as blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. His reaction was swift. Without hesitation, he discarded the broken spike and rapidly retreated. At the same time, both hands swept out in succession, sending dozens of emerald needle lights raining toward Qin Yuan like a storm. Their coverage was extremely broad, even encompassing the poisoned Tuoba Shan and the others on the ground. He clearly intended to force Qin Yuan to rescue them and use that chance to escape.