Freezing Qi

He broke through the surface!

Mu Tian'en began to breathe.

After holding his breath for so long, his craving for air compelled him to breathe harder.

His heart was pounding too fast, sending Qi and blood surging through his body.

Even his nearly ferocious face, formed of black shadows and twenty pairs of eyes gleaming with golden light, showed an unprecedented weakness.

The heat generated by the exertion of the muscles throughout Mu Tian'en's body warmed the water around him in an instant.

But the next moment, the temperature around Mu Tian'en plunged again.

As ice spread across the water, Old Xiu Nuo's voice rang out beside Mu Tian'en. "What did I tell you, Old Ma? Your luck is definitely a little terrible. We've already dived more than three times, and we haven't run into them once."

Looking at the mist rising from the water, Old Xiu Nuo, whose eyes had grown somewhat farsighted with age, failed to notice for the moment that someone was beneath the ice spreading as his cold Qi leaked out.

He even had the leisure to look around from atop the ice, hoping to catch sight of Mu Tian'en and Golden Crocodile Douluo.

At this point, only Elder Ma Chengyuan remained at Old Xiu Nuo's side.

After confirming that the Hall Guard Knights would be of little use in the pursuit, Bishop Xiunuo and Elder Ma Chengyuan had sent some of the knights straight back to the Spirit Hall.

As for the rest...

They were to follow at their own pace, using the markers the old men had left along the way.

After all, as Old Xiu Nuo recalled, the sea of sand where Mu Tian'en and Golden Crocodile Douluo were looking for a Sinking Sand Water Turtle was at least eighty to a hundred li from Vast Sea City.

If two Soul Saints traveled light, they could naturally reach it in a relatively short time.

But if they brought those heavily armored knights along, Old Xiu Nuo doubted that even by the time Mu Tian'en had finished hunting for his Soul Ring and returned to the Spirit Hall's main hall in Vast Sea City, the two old fellows would necessarily have reached the right sea of sand.

Yet when the two of them actually arrived near the sea of sand, both Old Xiu Nuo and Elder Ma regretted not having any suitable means of tracking them.

They had no idea where Golden Crocodile Douluo had taken Mu Tian'en.

All they could do was grope around blindly, diving again and again to search for Mu Tian'en and Golden Crocodile Douluo.

At first, Old Xiu Nuo and Elder Ma had chosen to dive beside the sand-sea village closest to Vast Sea City.

Unfortunately, even after Old Xiu Nuo used his cold Qi to make several little islands of floating ice on the sea of sand, they found no trace of Mu Tian'en.

They had also wasted a great deal of time.

With no other choice,

they kept changing their diving spot until they arrived here.

Old Xiu Nuo thought his cold Qi had just injured a Soul Beast in this sea of sand, so he took a stance to defend against an attack.

But the next moment, he saw Old Ma's expression, normally as placid as an ancient well, now somewhat panicked.

"Old Ma?" Old Xiu Nuo asked tentatively.

Then...

a book came flying straight at him from Old Ma, like a missile from the heavens.

"Xiunuo, couldn't you use your presence to sense what's around you before you act?"

Elder Ma Chengyuan had no time to berate his old friend.

How could a cardinal make such a huge blunder?!

Had the cold Qi really entered Xiunuo's head and frozen his brain stupid when he had been storing it up to make the Deep Sea Black Ice Crystal a few days ago?

But judging by how he had arranged things for the knights just now, Old Ma didn't think the old fellow who usually had the lord of Vast Sea City wrapped around his little finger had gone stupid.

Still...

Ma Chengyuan wasn't about to dwell on his old companion's behavior right now.

His Martial Soul, the Boundless Book, flipped rapidly in his hand, and a violent surge of Soul Power shattered all the ice beneath his feet.

Yet within that surge, Elder Ma Chengyuan kept his attack from affecting the ice in front of him as much as possible.

"Tian'en, don't worry. Grandpa Ma is coming right now..."

But before Ma Chengyuan's Soul Power could reach Mu Tian'en, a much burlier figure emerged from the water, smashing the floating ice around Mu Tian'en. With a casual sweep of his arm, he scooped his disciple out of the icy water, which had already grown cold enough to kill, like an osprey snatching up a fish.

"Which blind fool is using Soul Skills wherever he pleases? Don't you know that could get someone killed?"

The burly figure was airborne.

With Mu Tian'en in his grasp, he landed heavily on the remaining little island of floating ice.

Golden Crocodile Douluo's eyes were full of menace, red light flaring around him and light flickering in his mouth as he frantically searched for his enemy. Then he saw his student, whom he had finally managed to meet, and his unfilial son's friend.

The roaring blast of energy gathering in his mouth was unleashed at that very moment.

But realizing it wasn't very good to aim his roar at his own student, the Super Douluo tilted his head, diverting the roar, which he had released instantly but which was powerful enough to destroy any Titled Douluo below level ninety-five whose Martial Soul was merely an ordinary one.

After blasting apart the ice platform Qing Xiunuo had made nearby as a lookout, Golden Crocodile Douluo carried Mu Tian'en over to the two idiots, who had put on somewhat obsequious smiles the moment he appeared.

"Don't you watch where you're using your Soul Power?"

Although Golden Crocodile Douluo, having just opened his mouth and blasted an ice platform to pieces, was hardly qualified to criticize his two juniors,

he was their senior, after all, and at this moment he decided to be a little shameless.

Besides, he had only thought that the little fellow who had surfaced ahead of him had come to harm, and had been ready to fight with everything he had and tear apart whoever had dared hurt his little one.

Now...

Golden Crocodile Douluo heard Mu Tian'en's rapid breathing and hurriedly put him down.

At this moment, Mu Tian'en, who had been caught off guard by the arrival of the cold Qi and frozen because of the many droplets still clinging to his body, came to his senses in an instant.

"Little Tian'en..."

"Little fellow..."

Xiunuo and the others called out to Mu Tian'en together, wanting to see how the little fellow was after being frozen.

But the next moment, they saw Mu Tian'en's eyes, which were somewhat hair-raising up close.

Golden Crocodile Douluo felt nothing.

He had seen possessions more terrifying than this one, so how could he possibly be afraid of Mu Tian'en's current Martial Soul Possession?

Besides, how many living creatures in the real world had enough eyes to frighten people?

The only creatures capable of that were insects born with many eyes and terrifying behemoths so powerful they disdained even to hide their weaknesses.

Clearly, Mu Tian'en's Martial Soul was the latter.

Ma Chengyuan and Qing Xiunuo, however, were different. This was their first time seeing it.

After their initial fright, the two also noticed the Soul Ring slowly revolving around Mu Tian'en.

A yellow Soul Ring...

With a hint of depth to it.

"The optimal configuration?" Ma Chengyuan frowned at once.