Heavy Snow Whirls

At that moment, the overwhelming mental assault crashed over him wave after wave like an invisible tsunami.

Cao Xin's body was forced steadily backward by the impacts, until he had retreated to the edge of the clearing.

At this moment, Cao Xin understood...

He had truly underestimated this Evil Eye Tyrant.

If not for the fact that his physical constitution and spiritual power had been bolstered by heavenly treasures to a level far beyond ordinary people...

The first wave of circular mental impact alone would have been enough to blast him straight out of the Ascension Platform.

But fortunately...

He had more than just this much up his sleeve.

Cao Xin took a deep breath.

The turbulent blood and energy within him, thrown into disarray by the impacts, gradually settled.

He slowly closed his eyes.

Outside.

Watching Cao Xin get driven to the edge of the clearing by that violent mental assault, staggering backward, Qian Gu Dongfeng's expression remained as calm as still water.

He folded his arms across his chest and gave a slight shake of his head, without the slightest surprise in his eyes.

This was perfectly normal.

A six-year-old two-ring Soul Grandmaster...

No matter how gifted he was, he would ultimately have limits when facing an Evil Eye Tyrant with three thousand years of cultivation.

The gap in strength was absolute.

The fact that Cao Xin's earlier strike had managed to injure the Evil Eye Tyrant was already astonishing enough.

Being forced back by its counterattack afterward was only to be expected.

Although Cao Xin possessed two top-tier martial souls—martial souls as compatible as the Ruthless Sword and the Sentimental Sword.

Qian Gu Dongfeng had also witnessed the connection between Self and Traceback.

That instant of mental interference followed by time reversal had been executed with impeccable timing and rhythm.

Any ordinary soul master might not have been capable of such a feat.

But Cao Xin's cultivation was right there for all to see.

A two-ring Soul Grandmaster could never defeat this Evil Eye Tyrant.

Mental-attribute soul beasts were already among the most troublesome opponents of the same rank, let alone an existence like the Evil Eye Tyrant, which possessed formidable spiritual power by nature.

Even a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor could not accomplish it.

After all, a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor would likewise struggle against mental attacks of that caliber, to say nothing of the Evil Eye Tyrant's nearly impossible-to-defend-against circular mental eruptions.

Even Soul Ancestor-level soul masters could at most circle around it and protect themselves. Defeating it was practically impossible.

Otherwise, he would have to be insane to make this External Soul Bone the guardian of the Junior Spirit Ascension Platform.

After all, if a four-ring soul master could defeat this Evil Eye Tyrant and then simply absorb it...

The Spirit Pagoda's reputation...

Would shatter on the spot.

After all, only those in the Spirit Domain Realm could absorb it.

If a four-ring soul master defeated the guardian, then eagerly tried to absorb the soul bone, only to have his mind crushed by a lingering strand of the Evil Eye Tyrant Lord's spiritual power...

If word of that got out...

Most of the Spirit Pagoda's ten-thousand-year reputation would be ruined.

Thus, he looked toward Zang Xin and carefully considered his phrasing, intending to say something tactful and harmless like, "The child is still young. There will be more opportunities in the future."

But the staff member beside him suddenly cried out.

"Snow!"

Qian Gu Dongfeng frowned.

Snow?

What snow?

He turned toward the staff member, ready to reprimand them.

Then he froze.

Because on the screen...

Snow and ice were falling.

At first, extremely fine white particles drifted slowly down from the sky. Then they grew larger and denser, becoming genuine snowflakes—hexagonal crystals spinning and fluttering down through the image.

On the forest canopy, upon the ground...

A thin layer of white swiftly formed.

How could this be?

His eyes widened sharply.

It really...

Was snowing?

Meanwhile, within the Ascension Platform.

As Cao Xin closed his eyes...

Ice and snow slowly began to fall from the sky.

At first, there were only a few scattered flakes.

Within moments, they became a dense blizzard, pouring down and blanketing the heavens and earth.

A cold wind rose from the void.

The temperature plummeted.

The forest was covered in snow.

As far as the eye could see, the entire clearing and the surrounding woods had become a silvery-white world.

The figures of Cao Xin and the Evil Eye Tyrant...

Were both swallowed by the ice and snow, vanishing from sight.

At that moment, an invisible fluctuation spread from within Cao Xin's body, continuously affecting this world.

[Self: When you immerse yourself in the world of the self, the rules and laws of all things will tilt toward you.]

When Cao Xin believed that snow would fall in this world...

This world would grant him a heavy snowfall.

He did not need to use a soul skill to create wind and snow. He only needed to immerse himself in "Self"...

And firmly believe that it should snow here.

Then the laws of this space would naturally draw closer to him, turning his imagination into reality.

Winter was divided into early winter, Deep Winter, and late winter.

With his eyes closed, the imagery of winter's three stages surfaced clearly in his mind.

The bracing awakening of early winter.

The silence of all things in Deep Winter.

The gradual ending of late winter.

And what he intended to use now...

Was the deepest and most murderous of them all.

Cao Xin slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze was clear and tranquil, as if this blizzard had always been part of his state of mind.

He raised his foot and took a step forward. Snowflakes danced with his movement, whirling around him and parting to either side, as though even the wind and snow were making way for him.

And at that moment...

The Evil Eye Tyrant was also at a loss.

This sudden blizzard...

Had robbed it of its vision.

Its enormous eyeball rolled back and forth through the snowy curtain, its vertical pupil repeatedly contracting and expanding, yet all it could see was endless white.

Worse still...

The snow carried a strange energy that affected the range of its spiritual detection.

Its mental perception, which had originally covered the entire clearing, was compressed to a radius of only a few feet around itself.

A killing intent locked onto it...

Instinctively, it sensed a fatal threat.

Its pupil turned blood-red once more.

Another invisible mental assault erupted, spreading in every direction from its pupil...

It tried to force out the enemy hidden within the curtain of snow through a barrage of dense attacks.

But suddenly, a longsword tore through the air.

That sword thrust out from the flying snow.

At its tip condensed the most extreme chill of deep winter, carrying the wind and snow forward with it.

"This sword is Deep Winter."

Cao Xin's voice rang out amid the storm.

The longsword became a streak of white, icy light...

Carving a straight path through the snowy curtain.

The world instantly fell into dead silence.

The wind stopped.

Even the heavy snow seemed frozen in midair.

All that could be seen...

Was the Ruthless Sword piercing that enormous eyeball.

It entered through the center of the pupil and burst out from behind.

The blood-red radiance went out abruptly the instant the blade pierced through it, like a flame being snuffed out.

The eyeball rapidly turned grayish-white...

All mental fluctuations and signs of life returned to absolute stillness beneath the Deep Winter intent of that strike.

The Evil Eye Tyrant's body instantly transformed into a sphere of light and was absorbed by Cao Xin.

At the same time...

A soul bone shaped like an eye pupil appeared.