"... I was almost awake, and after such a difficult breakthrough, I need time to consolidate my energy."
As she spoke, Snow Empress looked at Toji, who was still unconscious, and said irritably:
"It was because of this guy's crazy behavior that I realized his Life was in danger, and that's when I woke up early."
"I have to say, this guy is a madman. He's only Level 80, yet he dares to charge up and exchange a few blows with a Level 99 Limit Douluo. He's really courting death."
Snow Empress paused for a moment, then said:
"Human lifespan is already short, yet they still disregard their lives so much, it's really..."
Before Snow Empress could finish speaking, a slight movement suddenly came from her arms.
"Damn, that old bastard really went all out."
The deep, husky male voice made the three women present freeze simultaneously.
Snow Empress looked down in disbelief, only to meet a pair of eyes that were slowly opening.
Those eyes, though still slightly dazed, had regained their clarity.
"You... you're awake?" Ice Empress green eyes widened. "So fast? Weren't you seriously injured?"
He managed Toji strained tug at the corners of his mouth, revealing his signature roguish grin:
"What, are you disappointed?"
He tried to move his arm, and immediately winced in pain, gasping for breath.
"Thankfully, Snow Empress woke up in time and froze all my injuries. I have to say, risking my life isn't really my style."
My body almost exploded.
"More than that, if it weren't for me, you'd probably be a bomb by now, your whole body blown apart." Snow Empress grabbed Toji, who was trying to get up. "The strength boost was indeed quite strong, allowing you to barely advance to the level of Divine Body, but that realm is not something your cultivation can maintain. Being able to last for a minute or two is already a testament to your strong physique and incredible luck."
Toji scratched his head. The situation was urgent, and since he had this trump card, he played it without thinking too much about it.
" Mu En is dead?"
"Dead."
Di Qiu'er raised her little fist and punched Toji on the shoulder, but lightened her strength the moment she made contact.
"He's as dead as can be."
Toji rubbed his shoulders.
"Then Shrek... is basically finished."
Mu En Elder Song and the like have all been taken down.
Wouldn't that mean...?
Just as Toji was about to say that Shrek was done playing, everyone noticed that there seemed to be some movement on Shrek's side again.
"... Have we forgotten something?"
Toji spoke for everyone.
"There must be another Grand Secretary who didn't participate in the battle just now, right?"
Di Qiu'er hesitated for a moment, as if she had remembered something.
" Snow Empress."
Toji suddenly looked at Snow Empress.
"To cut the weeds, you must pull them out by the roots."
After Snow Empress left the battlefield with the unconscious Toji, an old figure finally arrived late in the sky above Shrek City.
" Mu En!!"
Xuan Zi's roar shook the heavens and earth. He staggered and fell from the sky, crashing heavily onto the edge of the glassy pit.
He looked around and found that he couldn't find Mu En at all.
But when he saw the remaining corpses of Elder Song and the other Grand Secretaries, his pupils contracted sharply, and he instinctively knelt down, his trembling fingers tracing the ground.
The air seemed to still hold the last vestiges of Mu En's light, but now, only a cold, deathly silence remained.
Xuan Zi suddenly looked up, his gaze sweeping towards the direction of the Golden Ancient Tree.
The ancient tree, which was once as radiant as the sun, was now dim and lifeless, with most of the golden light on its crown withered, as if some extreme force had forcibly ripped out its life force.
"It's all my fault, it's all because of me."
Xuan Zi's voice was hoarse like a wild beast's, his Soul Power went berserk uncontrollably, and the violent Taotie aura swept around, causing the earth to crack inch by inch under his rage.
"If I hadn't gone after Zhang Lexuan and had come to help you, things might not have turned out this way..."
"But not only did I fail to find Zhang Lexuan, your side also ended, leaving me the only one left to eke out a living."
Xuan Zi knelt on the ground, and murky tears slid down his cheeks.
He had lived for so many years and experienced countless life-and-death separations, but now, in the vast Shrek Academy, the elders had passed away, Mu En had died in battle, and even the Golden Ancient Tree had suffered severe damage.
"I'm the only one left..."
He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into his palms, drawing blood.
"I, Xuan Zi, hereby swear that I will destroy the Body Sect in this lifetime, and make that brat wish he were dead!"
His roar echoed across the ruins, like the final roar of a dying Ferocious Beast.
The moment he finished speaking, a bone-chilling cold suddenly descended.
"Oh? Who do you want to suffer a fate worse than death?"
A cold, clear voice pierced Xuan Zi's eardrums like a sharp blade.
He looked up abruptly, his pupils contracting sharply.
In the distance, a figure in ice blue is descending through the air.
Snow Empress!
She actually returned.
Snow Empress's gaze was as cold as ice that had stood for millennia. Her long hair danced in the wind, and with each step she took, dazzling ice lotuses bloomed beneath her feet.
"It's a good thing you listened to him. Of the entire Shrek, you're the only one left, so naturally you'll be desperate to get revenge." She spoke calmly, her voice carrying a chilling killing intent. "I didn't have any feelings for you originally, but since you've chosen to die..."
"We still have to nip it in the bud."
Xuan Zi roared, Godly Taotie Bull Martial Soul instantly possessed him, with nine Soul Ring flashing wildly.
Seeing him launch an attack, Snow Empress muttered to herself:
" Emperor's Palm - Great Cold Without Snow ".
There was no unnecessary talk, no elaborate build-up.
The sky suddenly darkened.
A gigantic ice crystal hand, larger than the sky itself, materialized out of thin air and descended from above Xuan Zi's head!
Xuan Zi looked up, frantically channeling his Soul Power, unleashing the Godly Taotie Bull Avatar in an attempt to withstand the attack.
However, in the face of absolute power, all struggles seem ridiculous.
"Boom!"
As the icy palm pressed down, Xuan Zi's Godly Taotie Bull Avatar shattered like paper. His bones were crushed into dust the moment they made contact, and his flesh and blood were frozen into ice crystals before they could even splatter.
His roar abruptly stopped as he was slammed into the ground, creating a crater even deeper than Mu En's.
"Click..."
The icy hand dissipated, leaving only a completely frozen humanoid ice sculpture at the bottom of the pit.
Xuan Zi's expression froze in the fear and resentment of the last moment; his Martial Soul, Soul Power, and vitality were all frozen into eternal ice crystals.
Snow Empress glanced at it indifferently and then lightly raised her fingertip.
"Broken."
"Bang!"
Xuan Zi's ice sculpture shattered, turning into countless ice shards that drifted away in the wind.
The last elder of the Shrek Academy has fallen!
At this point, all of the Shrek Academy's top combatants, including Mu En and Xuan Zi, had perished in battle.
The Golden Ancient Tree withered, the Sea God Pavilion collapsed, and the entire academy was almost reduced to ruins.
Shrek Academy is now defunct in name only!
Snow Empress withdrew her gaze, turned and left, as if she had only done a trivial matter.
"Now it's completely peaceful."