Mystic Jade Marrow Hand

Looking at the girl whose hands had already been frozen solid, Liu Bai felt utterly helpless.

"Why didn't you put the Spirit Beast Core into your Mustard Seed Bracelet?"

Though only a core remained, a Heavenly Beast was still a Heavenly Beast. That terrifying icy power was still not something an ordinary Divine Soul Realm Early Stage cultivator could restrain.

An Ran nearly burst into tears upon hearing Liu Bai's question. She whimpered, "I did, but it nearly burst my Mustard Seed Bracelet, so I took it back out..."

As she spoke, she deliberately showed Liu Bai the bronze bracelet on her wrist, which was covered in cracks.

Liu Bai was rendered even more speechless.

That Mustard Seed Bracelet presumably contained all of the girl's belongings. Naturally, she could not let it be destroyed, so her actions were understandable.

With a sigh, Liu Bai raised his hand. Dense yellow-brown spiritual energy immediately covered his right palm, and he directly took the Spirit Beast Core from her hands.

"Thaw your hands first. If you leave them like this too long, the damage will definitely become irreversible. Let me hold this for you for now..."

An Ran naturally had no objection.

The moment the core entered his hand, Liu Bai sensed a terrifying chill seep through his spiritual energy and into his palm. Before long, the flow of blood through his entire right arm had slowed.

Only then did he truly experience the terror of the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's cold aura. Even his dense spiritual energy could not completely block it, so it was no wonder the Mustard Seed Bracelet could not withstand it.

But Liu Bai was not An Ran. The moment the cold invaded, a white jade glow suddenly emerged from within his flesh, bones, and blood. That cool sensation directly drove the bone-piercing chill out of his body.

A cloud of blue icy mist suddenly poured from the pores of Liu Bai's right arm. In an instant, he felt a warm sensation spread through his body.

Seeing this, Liu Bai smiled faintly. Then he sat cross-legged and quietly waited for An Ran to recover her hands.

Thus, the night passed without incident. When the morning sun rose once more, a strand of golden sunlight appeared within the cave where they were staying.

Liu Bai slowly opened his eyes and saw the girl opposite him opening hers as well.

For some reason, the girl's face suddenly reddened. She hurriedly averted her gaze, trying to conceal her panic.

"Um, thank you."

After a long while, the girl finally spoke softly.

Liu Bai did not mind it. "It's nothing. If you're ready, fuse with this Spirit Beast Core first. After that, we'll go see the true form of the Heavenly Beast living underground that you mentioned."

At this, An Ran's expression turned serious as well. "Don't worry. I won't go back on my word."

Looking at the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle core Liu Bai handed her, An Ran suddenly said, "You killed the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle. The spiritual energy inside should be absorbed by you..."

She was referring to the Mark. The spiritual energy provided by a Heavenly Beast was enough to directly raise Liu Bai's Mark to Level Seven!

Liu Bai did not refuse. If he remembered correctly, Marks could be used for transactions in the Northern Cang Realm. Even though there was still quite some time before the assessment ended, he would not complain about his Mark level being too high.

With a thought, a wisp of icy-blue spiritual energy spilled from the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's Spirit Beast Core and was absorbed by the golden Mark on Liu Bai's forehead.

The next moment, purple light blossomed from the Mark. Liu Bai's Mark changed from gold directly into violet-gold, the sign of a Level Seven Mark.

A flicker of envy passed through An Ran's eyes at the sight, but she quickly adjusted her mindset.

Honestly, without Liu Bai's help, she could never have snatched the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's core from Zhou Fan. She was already more than satisfied with the outcome.

Fusing with a core was not particularly dangerous, but considering the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's power, An Ran made thorough preparations. Even so, it took a full three days before the fusion was complete.

During those three days, Liu Bai also examined the changes within himself.

Inside Liu Bai's Sea of Qi, a massive Spirit Wheel slowly rotated. Above the Spirit Wheel sat a tiny figure cross-legged.

This was Liu Bai's Divine Soul!

Though the Divine Soul still appeared somewhat blurry, through the spiritual glow, one could already make out a face identical to Liu Bai's.

Liu Bai merged his consciousness into the tiny Divine Soul figure and opened his eyes. The entire Sea of Qi space then appeared before his gaze. This felt completely different from his previous inner vision. He was truly "seeing" it.

His gaze shifted, and Liu Bai controlled his Divine Soul to soar into the air. Following the two streams of differently colored spiritual energy through the void, the world changed in the blink of an eye, and Liu Bai found himself in a new space.

Here, he could clearly see a towering Yellow-Brown Mountain rising before him. Standing at its foot, he was as insignificant as an ant.

"A Cultivation Method taking form... so this is the divine mountain condensed by the Mountain God Art. Seeing it with my own eyes really is rather shocking."

Unfortunately, the Blazing Sun Art he cultivated was only Spirit Grade Low Rank, so it had no ability to take form.

The world shifted again, bringing him into his Heart Aperture. Looking at the scene containing only a fiery-red Spirit Wheel, Liu Bai could not help but feel regret.

"High-grade Cultivation Methods can only be obtained from Northern Azure Spirit Academy..."

Time passed in the blink of an eye. When An Ran emerged from seclusion, Liu Bai suddenly discovered that the already frosty girl now resembled an ice block even more. Icy-blue mist seemed to linger around her body.

"She actually broke through directly to the Divine Soul Realm Middle Stage. As expected of a Heaven Tier Spirit Beast Core!" Liu Bai nodded in satisfaction.

After all, a Spirit Beast Core contained vast amounts of spiritual energy. When fusing with one, its spiritual energy would naturally be absorbed as well. If one could completely absorb the spiritual energy of a Heaven Tier Spirit Beast Core, breaking through to the Divine Soul Realm Late Stage might not even be impossible. An Ran's current advancement was actually on the low side.

"Let's set out next," An Ran said, her voice even colder than before.

However, this was not her intention. It was merely the influence of the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle core.

Once she completely gained control over the Spirit Beast Core, she would be able to freely control that icy chill.

Just as Liu Bai and An Ran set out for the mysterious Underground Cave, shocking news spread through the Northern Cang Realm.

King Zhou, Zhou Fan, had led every member of the Zhou Gang to surround and kill a Heaven Tier Spirit Beast. Just as they were about to succeed, a mysterious Spirit Array Master launched a sneak attack from the shadows. Not only had the person stolen the Heaven Tier Spirit Beast Core, but they had also escaped successfully, even detonating an array at the end and inflicting heavy losses on the Zhou Gang...

The moment this news emerged, the entire Northern Cang Realm was thrown into an uproar.

There were those who did not believe it, those who dismissed it with contempt, and those who thought it had nothing to do with them. But more people hid in the shadows and watched the spectacle with glee.

After all, Zhou Fan had become a king on the Spirit Road. He was a true favored son among the examinees of their generation. There were plenty of people who wanted to see such a genius suffer a setback.

At this moment, in the northwestern region of the inner area of the Northern Cang Realm.

This was a barren mountain range of dark brown rock. Deep within it, several hundred figures stood atop the various peaks, all gazing toward the center of the range. There, an enormous gray bear raised its head and roared, an astonishing spiritual pressure sweeping outward.

Judging by that spiritual pressure, this giant bear was also a Heaven Tier Spirit Beast comparable to the Heaven Fusion Realm Early Stage!

However, unlike when Zhou Fan and the others had surrounded the Northern Nether Golden Patterned Eagle, the one facing this Heaven Tier Spirit Beast was merely a slender-looking figure.

"This Rock Desolate Savage Bear can't hold on much longer. Is Boss really going to take down a Heaven Tier Spirit Beast alone?" a burly youth could not help but cry out.

"Hmph, what's so surprising about that? Boss is the Spirit Crown Holder of the Spirit Road. His strength is far beyond those so-called kings. What does killing a mere Heaven Tier Spirit Beast amount to..." someone said proudly.

At this moment, terrifying spiritual energy suddenly erupted from the figure confronting the Rock Desolate Savage Bear. He slowly raised his right hand, and his already slender, fair palm gradually became transparent.

Buzz, buzz.

The spiritual energy filling the sky surged wildly toward him, finally pouring into that gradually transparent palm. Threads of jade marrow-like light began to emerge within the transparent hand, eventually covering the entire palm.

That hand had become like transparent jade, with jade marrow flowing within it. It was exquisitely beautiful.

Mystic Jade Marrow Hand!

The figure gave the giant bear an indifferent glance, then lightly pushed out his slender hand, which had become transparent to the extreme.

Boom!

As the figure thrust out his palm, majestic spiritual energy erupted like a flood bursting through a dam. The ground before him was instantly torn open by a massive, deep scar.

Whoosh!

A transparent palm print roughly thirty meters wide whistled forth. It was also covered in jade marrow-like veins, appearing mysterious and unfathomable.

The palm print shot forward at astonishing speed. Any obstacle in its path was instantly pulverized. Even the air, compressed by the palm print, erupted with sharp explosions.

The several hundred people around could only see a huge ravine rapidly being torn across the earth, its end aimed directly at the Rock Desolate Savage Bear's body.

Roar!

The already heavily wounded Rock Desolate Savage Bear naturally sensed the threat of the transparent palm print. It immediately threw back its head and roared. Its entire body rose upright, and endless earthy-yellow spiritual energy gathered around its two massive bear paws before it fiercely slammed them into the ground.

Rumble!

As though an earth dragon had turned over, everyone felt the mountain beneath their feet become like waves on the sea, heaving and trembling violently. Huge cracks rapidly spread from beneath the Rock Desolate Savage Bear's feet. When they reached beneath the figure, a rock spear dozens of meters long suddenly erupted upward.

Screech!

The rock spear tore through the air. Even space itself rippled like the surface of a lake swept by the wind.

With such terrifying attacking power, if it struck head-on, even someone at the Divine Soul Realm would die without question. Not even a Heaven Fusion Realm cultivator could escape death!

But the figure's movement speed was simply terrifying. At the last moment, he narrowly evaded it.

With its final attack missing, the Rock Desolate Savage Bear lost its last chance to survive.

Bang!

The instant the transparent handprint struck the Rock Desolate Savage Bear's huge body, the mountain stretching thousands of meters seemed to tremble like it was undergoing an earthquake.

How similar this scene was to what had happened earlier. The only difference was that this time, the source of it all was the tiny figure in the sky...

Everyone around could clearly see vicious cracks spreading rapidly like a spiderweb from where the Rock Desolate Savage Bear had been standing.

The crowd had barely managed to steady themselves. Every pair of eyes was fixed tightly on the enormous body within the dust cloud.

Rumble!

Through the dust, they vaguely saw a huge black shadow crash to the ground. Though the sound was far softer than the splitting earth beneath their feet, everyone erupted into cheers.

"We succeeded! Boss really succeeded!"

Although they had all been brimming with confidence before, when they truly saw this scene, they could not help but shout and celebrate.

Killing a Heavenly Beast comparable to the Heaven Fusion Realm Early Stage while at the Divine Soul Realm—such a heaven-defying feat, aside from their boss, who else in the entire Northern Cang Realm could accomplish it?!

The figure in the sky descended at this moment. He was a handsome youth clad in black.

Though the youth's face was somewhat pale, his eyes still shone brilliantly like stars.

Moreover, unlike the excited crowd around him, the youth who had personally slain the Heaven Tier Spirit Beast wore an extremely calm expression, as if nothing had happened.

"Boss Li, you're incredible! As expected of the Spirit Crown Holder. That Crane Demon, Su Xuan, and even Shen Cangsheng—they aren't qualified to be mentioned in the same breath as you!" The burly youth rushed over and exclaimed excitedly.

If Liu Bai had heard those words, he would definitely have been shocked.

That was because the people the burly youth had just mentioned were all top experts on the Heavenly Ranking of Northern Azure Spirit Academy in the original story, and they were all particularly powerful.

And the only person who could suppress them all and claim the title of Spirit Crown Holder was the second-ranked expert on the Heavenly Ranking in the original story, Li Xuantong!

That was right. Whether on the Spirit Road or at Northern Azure Spirit Academy, Li Xuantong had always been the foremost figure of their generation. It was not until a year before Mu Chen and the others entered Northern Azure Spirit Academy that Shen Cangsheng, who had kept a low profile there for two years, made his move and defeated Li Xuantong with a single spear strike, forcing him to relinquish the top spot.

After that, Shen Cangsheng seemed to have gained some kind of cheat. He killed Blood Dragon Demon Yu Yuan, pursued the Sect Master of the Nine Yin Sect, and did one absurd feat after another before the eyes of the crowd, thoroughly securing his title as the number one person in Northern Azure Spirit Academy.

In truth, this did not mean Shen Cangsheng's talent had initially been inferior to Li Xuantong's. Shen Cangsheng merely had a cold and aloof personality, was poor with words, disliked socializing, and had always preferred being alone. After entering Northern Azure Spirit Academy, he had no interest in rankings and focused solely on cultivation. That was why people had thought him "unknown."