After his wild elation, Lin Yan quickly forced himself to calm down. The opportunity was right before him, but hunting a four-thousand-five-hundred-year-old soul beast, even a relatively gentle plant-type one, would be anything but easy.
Charging in with brute force was by no means the best strategy. Lin Yan's eyes flickered as he rapidly weighed the cards he held.
Peak level-twenty Soul Power, physical strength and resilience far beyond others of his rank after being remolded by the thousand-year blood ginseng, and two core assets-his first Soul Skill, "Illusory Color Concealment," and the "Tai Chi Sword Technique," whose essence he had deeply grasped.
"Illusory Color Concealment..." Lin Yan murmured, savoring the name of the Soul Skill as a bold, intricate plan gradually took shape in his mind. The core of this Soul Skill, obtained from the Iridescent Withering and Flourishing Fern, lay in "illusion" and "concealment": creating illusory colors to deceive and concealing his own presence. It could not have been more suitable for this moment.
He did not rush to act. Like the most patient hunter, he used Illusory Color Concealment's ability to mask his presence to blend perfectly into the surrounding cold mist and terrain. He drew closer to the frigid pool and hid behind an ice-covered rock about twenty meters from the Heart-Healing Grass to observe it more closely. He needed to confirm its attack patterns, detection range, and possible weaknesses.
Time ticked by. Lin Yan remained motionless as an ice sculpture, only his keen gaze piercing the thin cold mist to fix on the dazzling ice-blue plant. He noticed that the Heart-Healing Grass did not remain on high alert at all times. Its leaves occasionally swayed gently and unconsciously, absorbing the intensely cold power spilling from the pool and the faint moonlight in the air. Its roots plunged deep into cracks in the frost-covered rock and seemed to have some kind of connection to the power within the deep, secluded pool.
Its attack triggers at roughly five meters. Beyond that range, it barely reacts. Its main attack is an explosive barrage of ice needles from its leaves-fast and wide-ranging. But after each burst, the leaves briefly dim and need time to draw power from the surroundings to recover... Lin Yan silently analyzed. Its vital point is either its roots or that Ice Heart Fruit. But attacking either directly will inevitably provoke its fiercest counterattack.
The longer he observed, the more complete his plan became. He decided to use Illusory Color Concealment to hide the Blue Silver Grass leaves as they spread around the Heart-Healing Grass. Meanwhile, he would conceal himself with Illusory Color Concealment, close in at maximum speed, and use the Tai Chi Sword Technique to handle any possible counterattack, aiming for a one-strike kill!
He regulated his breathing for a moment, bringing himself to peak condition. Soul Power flowed through his meridians like a stream poised to surge. Lin Yan took a deep breath of icy air, and his gaze abruptly sharpened like a blade.
"Begin!"
With a thought, he circulated his Soul Power along a specific circuit. His first soul ring quietly lit up beneath his feet, shimmering faintly.
"First Soul Skill, Illusory Color Concealment!"
The next moment, the Blue Silver Grass leaves took on the colors of their surroundings and spread from Lin Yan toward the Heart-Healing Grass, while he himself suddenly shot out from behind the ice-covered rock where he had hidden! With a burst of speed, he charged straight toward the Heart-Healing Grass beside the frigid pool!
Almost the instant the Blue Silver Grass leaves spread within five meters of the Heart-Healing Grass, the previously tranquil plant seemed to sense danger. Its seven ice-blue leaves sprang upright, blazing with blue light!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-!
Dense as rain, ice-soul needles swept across the area occupied by the Blue Silver Grass leaves in an instant, carrying bone-piercing cold and shrill whistles like a blue storm of death! The assault was far fiercer than when it had dealt with the ice scorpion. Clearly, the Heart-Healing Grass was extremely sensitive to its surroundings; even the Blue Silver Grass concealed to match the environment could not evade it.
And at the very moment all the Heart-Healing Grass's "attention" was drawn to this sudden attacker and its leaves poured out their power!
Lin Yan slipped silently out from the other side of the ice-covered rock like a phantom! Illusory Color Concealment suppressed his presence to the barest minimum, and his footsteps made barely audible sounds against the ice-covered ground. Pushing his speed to its limit, he became a faint shadow that almost merged with the cold mist, circling in from the side to thrust straight at the Heart-Healing Grass itself!
Five meters! Four meters! Three meters!
The distance shrank rapidly! The Heart-Healing Grass's leaves remained aimed at the area covered by the Blue Silver Grass leaves, continuously spraying ice needles, seemingly unaware that the true killing blow was already upon it!
Two meters! Victory was in sight!
Yet the instant Lin Yan stepped within two meters, his longsword already raised to strike straight at its roots, another sudden change occurred!
The Ice Heart Fruit at the center of the Heart-Healing Grass abruptly flashed without warning! A surge of power, far colder and more condensed than the ice needles, spread outward in an instant!
It had noticed him! Or rather, instead of relying simply on sight or Soul Power perception, it possessed some instinctive sensitivity to the flow of power and the presence of life within a certain range around itself! However well Lin Yan concealed his presence, the shifting air from his rapid approach and that instantaneous burst of killing intent had still triggered its defenses!
Humm-!
A solid blue ring of ice abruptly expanded from the Heart-Healing Grass without warning! Wherever it passed, the air crackled as it froze, and even the drifting cold mist was instantly locked in place! This was an area-of-effect Soul Skill of extreme freezing, far more powerful than the ice needles, intended to instantly seal every approaching threat in ice!
This caught Lin Yan off guard! He had never expected the Heart-Healing Grass to unleash a second Soul Skill so quickly while attacking at full force-much less such a powerful controlling counterattack!
The ice ring expanded at astonishing speed, reaching Lin Yan almost instantly! The icy breath of death rushed toward his face. He could even feel the blood flowing through his body slowing!
Retreat? It was already too late! Take it head-on? With his level-twenty Soul Power, even his strengthened body stood absolutely no chance of directly resisting this desperate strike from a four-thousand-five-hundred-year-old soul beast!
In that flash of lightning, Lin Yan remained composed in the face of danger. Rather than panic, a sharp gleam of resolve flashed through his eyes! His forward momentum stopped abruptly, and all his Soul Power circulated frantically at an unprecedented speed and in an unprecedented manner, pouring into the longsword in his hand!
If I can neither retreat nor withstand it, then-redirect it!
The longsword gave a clear hum in his hand, its blade instantly tinted pale cyan by the Soul Power flooding into it. Facing the rapidly expanding blue ice ring that seemed capable of freezing everything, Lin Yan flicked his wrist. His sword tip traced one perfect, connected arc after another. His sword movements were dense and seamless, carrying a peculiar rhythm, as though weaving an invisible, intangible yet incomparably supple sword net before him!
Tai Chi Sword Technique-Apparent Closing! Grasp the Sparrow's Tail!
He chose not to meet force with force. Instead, he pushed the Tai Chi Sword Technique's essence of "overcoming hardness with softness" and "prioritizing guidance and redirection" to its utmost! The force field formed by his sword light was meant not to block, but to guide, deflect, and shed force!
Hissss-!
The intensely cold ice ring collided violently with the Tai Chi sword net! There was no earth-shaking explosion, only a teeth-grating shriek of power fiercely grinding and dissolving against power. Lin Yan felt an indescribable force and chill surge along the blade. His arm shook violently, and the web of his hand split open instantly, the blood freezing onto the hilt before it could flow out. That freezing power even pierced the sword light, trying to invade his meridians and instantly numbing half his body!
The pressure was immense! It was like pushing an iceberg!
"Turn!" Lin Yan clenched his teeth and let out a low, hoarse roar, pouring all his will and all his understanding of Tai Chi sword intent into this single move. His footwork shifted, and his body turned slightly with the sword's momentum like willow down in the wind, guiding that terrifying freezing force to one side!
A miracle occurred! When the blue ice ring, which should have instantly swallowed him and frozen him into an ice sculpture, touched those profound, rotating sword circles, its course was actually forced slightly askew. Like a raging flood meeting a smooth reef, most of its power roared past his body, freezing the ground and air diagonally behind him into a dazzling field of blue ice crystals!
Crack! Though Lin Yan had exerted every ounce of strength to deflect most of its power, the edge of the ice ring still swept across his left shoulder. A heart-piercing chill instantly invaded him. His left shoulder and arm were immediately coated in thick blue ice and lost all sensation, while even the circulation of his Soul Power became terribly sluggish.
The price was steep! But he had successfully weathered that lethal strike! And he had not been driven back. Less than two meters still separated him from the Heart-Healing Grass!
At that moment, after unleashing the powerful ice ring, the Ice Heart Fruit's light faded completely. It turned dull gray, as though it had exhausted all its power. At the same time, the ice needles continuously attacking the Blue Silver Grass leaves stopped abruptly.
The seven leaves of the Heart-Healing Grass had dimmed, and even developed fine cracks. Clearly, unleashing two major Soul Skills in succession had placed an enormous burden on it as well, leaving it briefly weakened!
An opening! A once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity!
Ignoring the ice and intense pain in his left shoulder, Lin Yan's eyes flashed fiercely! His sole remaining right arm gripped the longsword tightly. The Supreme Purity Breathing Technique circulated frantically within him, concentrating all his Soul Power and all his will into this final strike!
He ducked low, avoiding the lingering cold ahead. His longsword shot out like a venomous snake leaving its lair, like a meteor streaking across the heavens, carrying unstoppable momentum and Soul Power condensed to its utmost as it thrust straight at the faintly blue-glowing core of the Heart-Healing Grass's roots, exposed within a crack in the rock!
Tai Chi Sword Technique-Meteor Chasing the Moon! Turn softness into hardness, kill with a single strike!
Pfft-!
This time, nothing stood in his way! The longsword pierced the central node of the roots with absolute precision! A pure, icy liquid sprayed out, accompanied by a piercing shriek filled with pain and unwillingness that seemed to come from the soul itself!
The Heart-Healing Grass's seven leaves trembled violently, blue light flashing chaotically as it attempted one final struggle. But that light swiftly went out like a dying candle in the wind. Cracks spread rapidly across its leaves, and finally, the entire plant withered at a speed visible to the naked eye. It lost all its crystalline luster, becoming no different from ordinary withered grass.
With a soft snap, the Ice Heart Fruit fell from the tip of the stalk onto the frost-covered rock, rolled twice, and showed not the slightest trace of spiritual vitality.
A deep-hued soul ring, shimmering with noble purple radiance, slowly emerged from the Heart-Healing Grass's remains and rose.
At that very moment, the longsword in Lin Yan's hand also broke apart inch by inch. The sword that had accompanied him for four years had finally earned an honorable retirement.
Lin Yan sighed. "Weapons forged from ordinary iron fall a little short in high-level combat after all."
With the battle over, an intense wave of weakness and pain instantly swept over Lin Yan. He dropped to one knee, barely supporting himself with his hand, and gasped for breath, his forehead covered in cold sweat. The ice on his left shoulder was still spreading, sending out bone-piercing pain and numbness.
He immediately sat cross-legged and first circulated his Soul Power to resist the cold in his left shoulder. Only after considerable effort did he slowly melt the solid ice there, but the frostbite in his meridians and the numbness in his left arm would not recover anytime soon.
After resting and regulating his breathing for about an incense stick's worth of time, Lin Yan felt some of his Soul Power return and regained partial sensation in his left arm. He dared not delay any longer. The cold here was oppressive, and although the commotion of the battle had not been great, the fluctuations of power might already have drawn the attention of certain beings.
His eyes blazed as he looked at the purple soul ring hovering above the Heart-Healing Grass's remains. He hesitated no longer.
"It's time, my second soul ring!"