"Emperor Cold Heaven: Snow Dance Shining Sun! Emperor Sword: Ice Extreme Peerless!"
Having summoned his domain, Yang Xingchen held an ice-crystal longsword and severed Dugu Bo's fifth Soul Skill with a single slash.
"Well, Dugu Bo? Do you have time to hear me out properly now?"
The ice-attribute Heaven and Earth Yuan Power within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well flowed through Yang Xingchen's domain, continuously supplying Soul Power to his Heavenly Snow Woman Martial Soul.
Watching Yang Xingchen point his raised sword at him, Dugu Bo felt amused on top of his surprise.
"Brat, you merely cut through my fifth Soul Skill. What makes you think I'll listen to you?"
"Sixth Soul Skill: Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Break!"
A phantom Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor appeared behind Dugu Bo, opened its jaws, and spat out a pillar of poison as thick as a bucket.
Facing the sixth Soul Skill Dugu Bo had unleashed, Yang Xingchen knew his own strength alone would certainly not suffice.
This was the time to follow the Flame Emperor's example and use the Heaven-tier combat technique, Ghost Possession, letting the Snow Empress fight Dugu Bo in his place.
"Watch closely and learn. If you're still this weak the next time you use my supreme techniques, take it upon yourself to do extra ice body tempering."
The moment the Snow Empress took control of Yang Xingchen's body, the Heavenly Snow Woman's domain more than doubled in size.
The presence of the ice-crystal longsword in Yang Xingchen's hand changed completely.
Dugu Bo immediately sensed something was wrong. The brat before him had clearly done nothing, yet his presence seemed to belong to an entirely different person!
With nothing but a longsword condensed from Soul Power, he had blocked Dugu Bo's sixth Soul Skill, Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Break.
At this moment, the pressure emanating from "Yang Xingchen" had even surpassed that of Golden Crocodile Douluo, whom Dugu Bo had once met.
But this brat was only a three-ring Soul Elder! How could he exert greater pressure on him than the Level 98 Golden Crocodile Douluo?
At that thought, Dugu Bo stopped holding back and poured his full strength into his sixth Soul Skill.
Had he not been concerned about their being inside his own treasure land, Dugu Bo would have even wanted to activate his Martial Soul Avatar to fight Yang Xingchen.
Just as Dugu Bo thought he had suppressed Yang Xingchen, "Yang Xingchen" turned his longsword sideways and gave a sharp cry: "Slash!"
A streak of sword Qi burst from the blade, advancing straight against the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor's onslaught.
"How is this possible?! I'm a Titled Douluo! How could I fail to defeat a three-ring Soul Elder like you?!"
With his Dao heart somewhat shattered, Dugu Bo immediately realized that even his sixth Soul Skill could do nothing to Yang Xingchen.
As Dugu Bo watched "Yang Xingchen" draw closer and closer, he could no longer spare any thought for his treasure land.
An enormous jade-green serpent thirty meters long abruptly appeared before Yang Xingchen and the Snow Empress.
"Medusa's Gaze!" "Emperor Palm: Great Cold Without Snow!"
A tremendous boom resounded throughout the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, followed by a massive blast of air surging in every direction.
Not only did the blast set the branches and leaves of the Immortal Herbs within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well swaying, but it also dispersed most of the poisonous mist around the outermost perimeter.
"Cough, cough. To think I'd actually lose to a three-ring Soul Elder. How utterly laughable!"
Struck by the Snow Empress's Emperor Palm: Great Cold Without Snow, Dugu Bo lay on the ground, staring blankly at the sky.
Throughout all his years of cultivation, Dugu Bo had never imagined he would be defeated by a child younger than his own granddaughter.
"Xingchen, the third seal has loosened. I can hold on for half an hour at most. Find an Immortal Herb and consume it immediately."
To defeat Dugu Bo just now, the Snow Empress had used power at the hundred-thousand-year level, thereby disturbing the third seal.
Upon learning that the third seal had loosened, Yang Xingchen went numb. He had never expected something like this to happen.
Had he known this would happen, he should have restrained Dugu Bo the moment the man stepped into the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
But it was already too late for regrets.
Yet Yang Xingchen could not be certain that consuming just one Immortal Herb would allow him and Cangyuan to withstand the Snow Empress's hundred-thousand-year cultivation.
"Damn it, I'll just have to gamble!"
"I'll take the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Infernal Delicate Apricot together, then jump into the spring water of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well!"
By doing so, perhaps he could rely on the Heaven and Earth Yuan Power contained in the spring water of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to let his body withstand the third seal!
Without so much as glancing at Dugu Bo, who lay on the ground questioning his life, Yang Xingchen turned and rushed straight toward the spring water of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
He looked at the Infernal Delicate Apricot beside the spring, fiery red all over yet resembling a cabbage, and the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, which bore a large white, eight-pointed flower.
Without the slightest hesitation, and without worrying whether the Space-Time Fishing Rod would be damaged, Yang Xingchen wound its fishing line around the Infernal Delicate Apricot.
He unleashed Emperor Sword: Ice Extreme Peerless once more, using the ice-crystal longsword to cut down the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass.
"Everything rides on this!"
The instant the Infernal Delicate Apricot was pulled over, the Space-Time Fishing Rod's line burned through.
Immediately afterward, more than half the Soul Power within Yang Xingchen vanished, and even his Spiritual Sea showed signs of instability.
Enduring the throbbing pain in his brain, Yang Xingchen used the ice-crystal longsword to lift the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and swallowed it.
"I have to hold on for ten breaths!"
A cold poison thousands upon tens of thousands of times stronger than that of ice body tempering swept through Yang Xingchen's entire body. His meridians froze before they could last even a single breath.
Sensing something amiss, the Snow Empress could only divert part of her power to envelop Yang Xingchen's vital organs, ensuring that he could hold on for a few more breaths.
With five breaths remaining, the Infernal Delicate Apricot finally flew in front of Yang Xingchen.
Yang Xingchen thrust his head forward, caught it in his mouth, and swallowed it, then toppled backward, his body rigid.
Only then, upon hearing a splash, did Dugu Bo gradually come back to his senses and discover that Yang Xingchen was gone.
"Wait, that sound came from the central spring. That brat couldn't have gone there to throw his life away, could he?!"
Realizing something was wrong, Dugu Bo hurriedly scrambled up from the ground and ran toward the central spring of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well without daring to waste a moment.
By the time Dugu Bo reached the spring of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Yang Xingchen was nowhere to be found.
All that remained nearby were the roots of the severed Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Infernal Delicate Apricot with only half a leaf left.
"Damn it, is that brat insane?!"
"Even I wouldn't dare touch the slightest bit of this spring water containing extreme ice and fire attributes, yet that brat actually dared to eat two herbs with unknown medicinal effects and jump in!"
After their battle, Dugu Bo had come to regard Yang Xingchen entirely as a peerless genius nurtured by some hidden sect.
The reason he had managed to defeat him earlier must have been that Yang Xingchen had used a life-saving divine artifact his sect had left him, granting him the strength to contend with a Titled Douluo.
Only this way could Dugu Bo convince himself to believe that a Titled Douluo would not be defeated by an ordinary three-ring Soul Master.
But now that Yang Xingchen had jumped into the spring water of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Dugu Bo did not even know whether he was alive or dead.
If the sect behind Yang Xingchen traced this back to him someday, it would have been fine if he were alone-at worst, he could flee across the continent. But he still had Yanyan!
The instant he fell into the spring water of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the Snow Empress completely released the third seal, and the power of her hundred-thousand-year cultivation instantly flooded Yang Xingchen's entire body.
At any other moment, this immense power would have burst Yang Xingchen's meridians and dantian outright, crushing every muscle and bone in his body.
But at this very moment, the supremely pure power of ice and fire within the spring water of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the power of the two Immortal Herbs inside Yang Xingchen, and the Snow Empress's hundred-thousand-year cultivation formed a bizarre balance.
The three forces restrained and tugged at one another, nourishing Yang Xingchen's flesh even as they destroyed it.
Amid this constant destruction and reconstruction, the strength of Yang Xingchen's body increased at rocket-like speed.
"If it keeps increasing at this rate, achieving the goal of withstanding the seventh seal within five years might not be impossible!"
Watching Yang Xingchen sink into slumber, the Snow Empress felt for the first time that there was something to him besides good luck.