One arrow to sever life
The fireworks faded.
The enormous smiling face vanished with the wind as well.
Mu Xuansheng stood where he was, a few multicolored specks of light still lingering on his face.
The "HP-1" above his head slowly faded.
The Ice Empress fell silent.
The Snow Empress said nothing either.
Only the smiling mask kept circling Lin Yuan frantically.
"Hahahaha!"
"How was that shot?"
"Wasn't it a surprise?"
Lin Yuan tightened his grip on the Imperial Bow.
"Shut up."
Boom!
The branches on Mu Xuansheng's body suddenly erupted.
Pale golden roots tore through the ice, and the pressure of a Titled Douluo bore down on the surroundings once more.
Those dark golden slit pupils locked onto Lin Yuan.
Although he had already lost his reason, that last arrow had clearly enraged him further.
"Kill!"
Branches filling the sky stabbed down at once.
The Ice Empress stepped in front of Lin Yuan, sweeping out a jade-green gleam of freezing light.
Crack!
The foremost branches froze instantly, then burst into a skyful of ice shards.
"How much power do you have left?"
Lin Yuan felt the red-and-white Soul Power rapidly fading within him.
The power borrowed from Aha did not belong to him.
After that last arrow, barely any remained.
And deep within the Imperial Bow, only one final wisp of the Power of The Hunt remained.
"Only enough for one arrow."
The Ice Empress glanced back at him.
"Will it set off fireworks again?"
The corner of Lin Yuan's eye twitched slightly.
The smiling mask immediately sidled up.
"Well, it's not impossible-"
"Get lost."
Lin Yuan looked up at Mu Xuansheng.
The Ambrosial Arbor had taken root in his chest.
Countless roots sank deep into his flesh, connecting to his heart, bones, and meridians.
With Lin Yuan's current strength, piercing through the Ambrosial Arbor was impossible.
But he did not need to destroy the Ambrosial Arbor.
He only needed to sever the connection.
Lin Yuan looked at the Snow Empress and the Ice Empress.
"Hold him still."
The Ice Empress raised an eyebrow.
"For how long?"
"Three breaths."
"For something like this?"
The Ice Empress snorted coldly.
"It won't take three breaths."
She took a step forward.
Jade-green light shot into the sky.
Utmost cold swept through the ruins in an instant.
"Get down before this empress!"
The phantom of an enormous Ice Jade Scorpion claw descended from midair.
Boom!
Mu Xuansheng's massive body was forcibly smashed into the ice.
The surrounding snow exploded outward.
The branches on his back thrashed wildly, trying to prop his body up.
The Snow Empress raised her right hand.
The wind and snow filling the sky went utterly still at that moment.
A crystalline snowflake settled between Mu Xuansheng's brows.
The next instant, freezing cold erupted.
Crack!
Transparent ice spread downward from the top of his head.
Branches.
Roots.
Flesh.
Even the Soul Power flowing within him rapidly solidified in the extreme cold.
In the blink of an eye, Mu Xuansheng became an enormous ice sculpture.
The Snow Empress's cool, clear voice rang out.
"The first breath."
Lin Yuan closed his eyes.
He focused his Hunting Sense entirely on Mu Xuansheng.
An immense presence of life filled almost his entire body.
Chaotic.
Twisted.
Growing without end.
Yet the source of all that power of Abundance ultimately converged in his chest.
At the base of the Ambrosial Arbor, countless tiny roots intertwined.
One connection among them was the weakest.
Found it.
"The second breath."
Crack!
Cracks appeared in the ice covering Mu Xuansheng's body.
A pale golden branch pierced through the ice.
Immediately afterward, more branches frantically burrowed out through the cracks.
A mindless roar resounded across the snowfield.
"Kill!"
"I'll kill you!"
The Ice Empress's gaze turned cold, and she abruptly brought her hands together.
Two phantom Ice Jade Scorpion claws closed in from either side.
Bang!
The thick wooden armor over Mu Xuansheng's chest shattered on the spot.
The Ambrosial Arbor rooted in his heart was fully exposed.
"The third breath."
Lin Yuan opened his eyes.
He nocked his last iron arrow.
Red-and-white power supported his body.
All the remaining Power of The Hunt deep within the Imperial Bow gathered at the arrowhead.
Blue-green light shone.
Exceedingly faint.
Yet it made the Ambrosial Arbor in Mu Xuansheng's chest tremble violently.
Fear.
That was not Mu Xuansheng's emotion.
It was the Ambrosial Arbor's instinctive dread.
Lin Yuan drew the bow to its fullest.
The arrowhead aimed at the point where the Ambrosial Arbor connected to flesh.
"Sever."
The bowstring twanged.
Whoosh!
The iron arrow passed through the wind and snow.
There was no earth-shaking display of might.
Only a straight streak of blue-green arrow light.
Shlk!
The arrowhead sliced precisely beneath the Ambrosial Arbor.
The Power of The Hunt erupted instantly.
The roots intertwined at the base of the Ambrosial Arbor snapped all at once.
Mu Xuansheng's massive body abruptly stiffened.
The next moment, the arrow forcibly shot out of his chest, carrying that section of the Ambrosial Arbor with it.
Bang!
The iron arrow pinned the Ambrosial Arbor into the distant ice.
"No-"
Mu Xuansheng let out an agonized howl.
The instant he lost the Ambrosial Arbor, the pale golden light on his body rapidly went out.
His ninth, dark golden Soul Ring shattered with a thunderous crash.
The pressure of a Titled Douluo plummeted.
Large swathes of the branches on his back withered.
His wooden limbs turned back into flesh.
The fleshy growths and roots covering his features all retracted into his body.
Within a few short breaths, that enormous Abomination of Abundance disappeared.
Mu Xuansheng returned to his original human form.
But all the injuries the Ambrosial Arbor had repaired for him erupted at that very moment.
His breastbone caved in.
His left arm twisted.
The bones throughout his body broke inch by inch.
He fell to his knees in the snow, blood pouring endlessly from his mouth and nose.
"Sacred Tree..."
Mu Xuansheng reached out, struggling to crawl toward the distant Ambrosial Arbor.
"Give it back..."
The Ice Empress appeared before him.
Her jade-green eyes were filled with disgust.
"You'd better go die somewhere farther away."
Cold light flashed.
Mu Xuansheng's body froze instantly.
The Ice Empress stamped down.
Crack!
The ice sculpture shattered with a crash.
This time, no roots grew.
Nor did flesh gather back together.
Mu Xuansheng fell utterly lifeless.
Elsewhere.
The Imperial Bow in Lin Yuan's hand slowly dissipated.
The red-and-white power rapidly receded.
The last wisp of the Power of The Hunt had been exhausted.
A powerful wave of dizziness flooded his mind.
He glanced at the Ambrosial Arbor pinned down by the iron arrow.
"Don't let any living thing touch it..."
Before he could finish, Lin Yuan's vision went black.
His body toppled forward.
The Ice Empress instinctively reached out and caught him.
She looked down at the unconscious Lin Yuan, her expression instantly stiffening.
"Me again?"
The Snow Empress approached the Ambrosial Arbor.
The pale golden branch was still trembling incessantly.
Tiny roots sprouted one after another from the broken end, trying to burrow underground.
But whenever they approached the iron arrow, the lingering presence of The Hunt forced them back.
The Snow Empress raised her hand.
Dense cold Qi compressed inward.
A crystal-clear block of ten-thousand-year profound ice swiftly took shape, sealing both the Ambrosial Arbor and the iron arrow within.
The pale golden light was suppressed by the ice.
The roots also temporarily stopped growing.
The Snow Empress lifted the profound ice, turned, and headed deeper into the Far North.
"Bring him."
Holding the unconscious Lin Yuan, the Ice Empress could not help asking:
"Why are we taking a human back with us?"
The Snow Empress did not stop walking.
"The Ambrosial Arbor cannot be suppressed by ice forever."
"And right now, he is the only one who can control it."
The Ice Empress glanced at Lin Yuan in her arms.
"Then as soon as he wakes up, make him get lost."
The Snow Empress did not answer.
Their figures gradually disappeared into the wind and snow.
Beside Lin Yuan's dangling right hand, a smiling mask quietly appeared.
It glanced at the ten-thousand-year profound ice in the Snow Empress's hand.
The smile on its face grew wider and wider.
"A piece of wood that won't die."
"Two monsters from the Far North."
"And an unconscious kid from The Hunt."
"What comes next..."
"Is going to be fun."