The Icehorn Giant Bear was like a child who had gotten a novel new toy, concerned only with enjoying itself, utterly oblivious to the terrible effects it was having on its surroundings.
In the ocean, countless fish were trapped in ice; atop the glaciers, untold numbers of creatures were frozen into ice sculptures; even the birds in the sky could not escape this bitter cold, freezing into blocks of ice before falling to the ground and shattering...
Wild animals were born with an exceptionally keen sense of danger. This upheaval of heaven and earth in the Frozen Ocean soon made the animals living in the north sense the terrifying breath of destruction.
Thus, all the animals began fleeing south. Although the south might not be safe either, at least it took them farther from the danger.
It was precisely because Liu Xing had noticed that these animals' southward flight defied their usual habits that he and Lu Xuanqing had come north to investigate.
Soon, the entire Frozen Ocean had frozen into a glacier, and the glacier met the land with a thunderous crash.
Once it reached land, the glacier's advance slowed considerably, but that terrifying white line still blanketed heaven and earth, extending relentlessly southward.
The Icehorn Giant Bear excitedly raised its enormous paws and hammered its chest several times, then strode toward land with an eager expression.
With each step the Icehorn Giant Bear took, rings of white ripples spread outward, carrying a freezing chill capable of encasing everything in the world in ice.
With Liu Xing's constitution, he had no reason to fear the cold, yet now he felt a chill rushing straight at him, and even the joints in his limbs grew somewhat stiff.
Lu Xuanqing swept a hand forward. A flash of emerald light set the air spinning into a wall that sheltered her and Liu Xing completely.
Liu Xing immediately felt the chill vanish, and his limbs moved normally again. Yet in that brief instant, a layer of white frost had already formed on the tips of his hair and his eyebrows.
Only now did Liu Xing experience firsthand just how formidable the cold emanating from the Icehorn Giant Bear was. No wonder it could freeze the entire Frozen Ocean into a glacier so quickly. Had Lu Xuanqing not used her cultivation arts to protect them, even Liu Xing would probably have been frozen into a chunk of ice by now.
Perhaps it felt provoked, but the Spirit-Devouring Beast within Liu Xing's divine sense also grew frenzied. It locked firmly onto the Icehorn Giant Bear, sending Liu Xing an unceasing stream of signals: Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!...
Liu Xing did not lose his reason because of the Spirit-Devouring Beast's divine sense fluctuations. He began carefully weighing whether he and Lu Xuanqing had the ability to deal with this Icehorn Giant Bear, and whether they even needed to...
Lu Xuanqing was considering the same questions. She glanced at the frowning Liu Xing beside her and could not help saying, "I cast a spell to form an air barrier around us. It can hold off the cold for now, but it isn't as effective as a spiritual energy barrier. I'm afraid the cold will still seep in if we get close to that monster. Fighting it in this world of ice and snow won't be easy. Perhaps our chances will be better once it reaches the south. Besides, however powerful it is, its strength can't be inexhaustible. If it really pushes the glacier all the way south, it's bound to weaken."
Liu Xing pondered for a moment, then said slowly, "We don't necessarily have to fight this monster. But I don't want it turning the place where the old man rests into an ice pit. Let's see whether we can finish it off. If we really can't, we'll fall back and think of something else."
Lu Xuanqing nodded. "To be safe, let's give ourselves three minutes. If we can't deal with it within three minutes, we must retreat to ensure our safety."
"All right," Liu Xing said. "Three minutes it is. Lower me to the ground first."
Lu Xuanqing knew the Icehorn Giant Bear would not be easy to handle, and Liu Xing could only unleash his full fighting strength on the ground, while she could support him from the air in a two-pronged attack.
As Lu Xuanqing withdrew her spiritual energy, the airflow beneath Liu Xing's feet dispersed, and he landed steadily on the ground. Watching the Icehorn Giant Bear, which had already stepped onto land, Liu Xing bent down and picked up a boulder weighing several hundred jin.
The Icehorn Giant Bear was still several thousand meters from Liu Xing. After taking aim at it, he summoned tremendous strength into both arms and hurled the boulder.
Over such a distance, throwing a boulder was unlike shooting those little pebbles; he could only attack along a parabolic trajectory. Fortunately, Liu Xing's control of his strength was extraordinarily precise. The boulder traced an arc through the air, then hurtled toward the Icehorn Giant Bear with astonishing accuracy.
What made the sight rather terrifying was that, as the flying boulder approached the Icehorn Giant Bear's head, a layer of ice rapidly formed over its surface, making it look even larger. This, too, showed just how frightening the cold emanating from the Icehorn Giant Bear truly was.
A boulder that large made no small commotion as it tore through the air. The Icehorn Giant Bear soon realized that it was falling from the sky straight toward its head.
The Icehorn Giant Bear let out a furious roar and thrust an enormous paw at the boulder. With a deafening boom, the boulder shattered into countless fragments of ice that scattered across the ground.
At that very moment, a streak of emerald light that had followed behind the boulder suddenly transformed into an arrow and shot straight toward the Icehorn Giant Bear's throat.
When Liu Xing had thrown the boulder, Lu Xuanqing had condensed a stream of spiritual energy and sent it shooting toward the Icehorn Giant Bear, close behind the rock.
This stream of spiritual energy had been drawn from within Lu Xuanqing's body, and she could control it at will even from several thousand meters away. Seeing that the boulder had captured all the Icehorn Giant Bear's attention, she willed the detached spiritual energy to become an arrow, which shot viciously toward the bear.
The Icehorn Giant Bear was only a brute. How could it have anticipated such deadly intent concealed behind the boulder?
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