Lu Xuanqing, who was following close behind Liu Xing, could scarcely believe her eyes.
Just as Liu Xing was about to be injured by the Icehorn Giant Bear's breath, the Spirit-Devouring Beast had suddenly darted out and helped him escape danger.
This turn of events defied all reason and completely caught Lu Xuanqing by surprise. But she was a cultivator with considerable combat experience, and she did not stand there dazed. When she saw Liu Xing fling the Icehorn Giant Bear into the air, she knew their chance to win had come.
Though the Icehorn Giant Bear was formidable, it had remained on the ground all along and clearly could not fly. Now that Liu Xing had hurled it into the air, how could it possibly evade Lu Xuanqing's attack?
Lu Xuanqing soared upward, condensing a shimmering green orb in her palm, then slammed it viciously against the Icehorn Giant Bear's neck.
With a thunderous boom, the green orb burst apart, and a brilliant green radiance engulfed the Icehorn Giant Bear's entire body.
Lu Xuanqing shot backward through the air, retreating more than ten meters in the blink of an eye. A thick layer of frost had formed over the right palm she had used to unleash the green orb, extending all the way to her elbow.
Clearly, although Lu Xuanqing's attack had struck the Icehorn Giant Bear, the extreme cold had also frostbitten her hand.
Liu Xing looked up and saw a massive body fall stiffly out of the green radiance. It was the Icehorn Giant Bear.
The Icehorn Giant Bear's enormous head was no longer on its neck. Lu Xuanqing's strike had clearly blasted its neck apart, sending the brute's great head flying.
The Spirit-Devouring Beast, now back within Liu Xing's divine sense, abruptly extended the divine sense wrapped around the Icehorn Giant Bear outward. In an instant, it caught up with the severed head and locked firmly onto it.
Liu Xing immediately understood: the source of the Icehorn Giant Bear's abnormalities lay in its head.
A moment later, the Icehorn Giant Bear's body crashed to the ground, while its head landed several dozen meters away.
With the Icehorn Giant Bear's death, the extreme cold vanished in an instant. Though the surroundings were still a world of ice and snow, the temperature had returned to normal.
In just a few short seconds, the Icehorn Giant Bear, so utterly arrogant moments before, had met an end with its head severed from its body.
Although Liu Xing had flung the Icehorn Giant Bear away with tremendous speed, the absolute-zero cold had still inflicted severe damage on his body.
A thin layer of ice had formed over Liu Xing's hands, shoulders, and chest. Even the blood vessels inside his body had frozen.
The damage had penetrated deep into Liu Xing's body, and since he knew no cultivation techniques, healing such internal injuries would be no easy task.
But just then, the fire vein spirit jade Liu Xing had kept close against his body sent a warm current into him, protecting his internal organs and blood vessels.
Nurtured by this warmth, not only did the thin ice on his body gradually melt away, but the frozen blood vessels inside him slowly relaxed as well.
At the same time, the Wood Vein Spirit Fruit sent a steady stream of vitality into Liu Xing's body, allowing his internal injuries to slowly heal without medicine.
The two unusual treasures he had previously found with the Spirit-Devouring Beast's help possessed such miraculous effects that Liu Xing ought to have been delighted. Yet he could not feel happy just then, because the Spirit-Devouring Beast's sudden appearance had left him unsure how to face Lu Xuanqing.
To protect himself, Liu Xing had not previously told Lu Xuanqing the full truth about the Spirit-Devouring Beast merging with him. But now, at a moment of crisis, the Spirit-Devouring Beast had actually emerged to save him. Was that not evidence enough?
Given his current friendship with Lu Xuanqing, Liu Xing would feel too ashamed to keep hiding the truth if she questioned him closely about the Spirit-Devouring Beast.
Lu Xuanqing quietly circulated her spiritual energy, melting the thin ice encasing her right hand. Then she slowly descended to the ground, looking at Liu Xing with a rather peculiar expression.
Liu Xing sighed inwardly and was about to volunteer an explanation about the Spirit-Devouring Beast when Lu Xuanqing spoke first:
"Strange, truly strange! I've never heard of a Spirit-Devouring Beast coming back out after entering someone's body. And after emerging to devour such a powerful mass of spiritual energy, it had every opportunity to escape. Why would it return to your body?"
Liu Xing froze. From what Lu Xuanqing had said, was the Spirit-Devouring Beast coming out to help him something that defied all reason?
In that case, even though Lu Xuanqing had seen the Spirit-Devouring Beast, she might not be able to determine its situation inside my body?
With things having reached this point, Liu Xing could only continue playing dumb. Scratching his head, he said, "I don't know what happened either. The Spirit-Devouring Beast was staying quietly inside me before. Who knew it would suddenly dart out? Luckily, the little fellow helped me, or I'm afraid that Icehorn Giant Bear's breath would have frozen me solid."
Lu Xuanqing glanced at the thin ice on Liu Xing's body, which had almost entirely melted away, and sighed. "Even if its breath had hit you, you might have been fine. You should know that, powerful as that breath was, its destructive force might not match the Golden Light Spirit-Locking Formation's. You were unharmed when you opened the Small Copper Box, so perhaps you wouldn't have been injured even if that breath had struck you."
Lu Xuanqing was looking at Liu Xing as though he were some sort of monster. He could only say with a self-deprecating smile, "I'm starting to wonder whether I even count as a normal person. If the old man were still around, I wonder if he could give me an answer."
Lu Xuanqing shook her head. "My abilities are limited. I have no way to diagnose what exactly is unusual about your body. Perhaps when my grandmaster-uncles find this place, their immense powers will allow them to discover what is going on with you."
Liu Xing said, "There's not much point in always talking about things we aren't sure of. Why don't we take a look at what was strange about this Icehorn Giant Bear instead? As far as I know, a normal Ice-Horned Bear could never grow into a monster like this. There must be a reason behind it."
As he spoke, Liu Xing turned his gaze toward the Icehorn Giant Bear's corpse.
PS: Brothers and sisters, do you still have any recommendation votes left? I certainly wouldn't mind you throwing them all my way!
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