"Roar—"
A surge of earth-element spirit power erupted, and a dragon's roar echoed. From behind Huo Lie, a soil-yellow divine dragon soared upward, diving down to snatch the heavily injured, falling Mu Xiyue with its claws. With a sweep of its tail, it carried her swiftly toward Mu Yang's position.
Huo Lie dared not gamble on whether the enemy would finish off the gravely wounded Mu Xiyue. To be safe, it was best to let the Earth Dragon remove her from the battlefield.
Though Huo Lie usually favored his Fire-element secret arts, he was still able to wield Earth-attribute techniques effectively.
After all, his Lava Tyrant Dragon was dual Fire and Earth, without primary or secondary distinction. Apart from proficiency differences, his Earth techniques were no weaker than his Fire ones, and in fact excelled more in defense.
If not for his Martial Spirit True Body greatly raising his power, Huo Lie could have even dismissed it entirely, withdrawn his Lava Tyrant Dragon, and relied solely on Earth techniques. In that case, the Snow Emperor's overwhelming ice power would not have weakened him at all.
"Roar—"
"Roar—"
In the next instant, two more dragon roars rang out—Shui Yanyu and Feng Zhen had also activated their Extreme Ice Dragon and Gale Dragon secret arts.
However, though Shui Yanyu's cultivation was slightly stronger than Feng Zhen's, under the suppression of the Snow Emperor's Extreme Ice and Snow, her Extreme Ice Dragon's might was markedly weaker than Feng Zhen's Gale Dragon.
"Imperial Sword—Peerless Ice!"
After shattering Mu Xiyue's Fire Shadow True Body with a single palm, the Snow Emperor did not chase the Mu Xiyue whom the Earth Dragon had rescued. Instead, channeling her Extreme Ice and Snow, she condensed before her a gigantic ice-crystal sword radiating terrifying cold. With a flash, it shot toward Shui Yanyu at lightning speed.
"Sixth Spirit Skill, Extreme Ice Plume!"
"Eighth Spirit Skill, Tornado Storm!"
"Eighth Spirit Skill, Breath of Magma!"
A yard-long icy-blue feather, a raging windblade cyclone, scorching magma breath, and the Extreme Ice Dragon's frosty exhalation, along with the Gale Dragon's storm of slicing windblades—all these mighty attacks struck against the charging ice-crystal sword.
Yet all these flashy skills proved like gaudy tricks; the ice-crystal sword was only slightly weakened, its force barely diminished.
Seeing the unstoppable sword, locked onto her spirit with no escape possible, Shui Yanyu decisively canceled her Martial Spirit True Body. The massive Ice Sparrow vanished, shrinking back into her human form.
She knew her True Body could not withstand that sword.
If a True Body was shattered, spirit backlash followed—a soul-level wound. Silver-Jade Undying Ginseng could not heal damage of the soul.
But canceling her True Body was different. Even if she were slain by the sword, the damage would be physical.
Physical trauma could be healed. As long as it was within the half-hour effect window of the Silver-Jade Undying Ginseng (or doubled with the Purple-Jade Xuanhuang Ginseng), as long as she retained spirit power and the attack strength was beneath the divine level, then she could not be killed.
"Pu—"
The instant her Ice Sparrow True Body vanished, the ice-crystal sword pierced Shui Yanyu's chest. Terrifying cold erupted. She froze instantly into a human-shaped ice statue—then shattered into countless fragments scattering in all directions.
But the next moment, the fragments glowed silver. The brilliance flowed, and Shui Yanyu's body reformed, whole once more.
Aside from some drained spirit power, she was exactly as before, as though that terrible sword had never existed.
"What?!"
The Snow Emperor's eyes widened in shock. To see Shui Yanyu, shattered a moment ago, reconstitute herself was utterly startling.
Immortality?
"I don't believe you cannot die! Imperial Palm—Great Cold Without Snow!"
Recovering from her shock, the Snow Emperor's eyes flashed coldly. Another enormous ice-crystal palm slammed down.
Here, the advantage of a spirit beast over a human Spirit Master revealed itself vividly.
Besides most spirit beasts having far tougher bodies than Spirit Masters of equivalent level, their ability to use ultimate skills frequently was another vast edge.
Human Spirit Masters, bound by rigid spirit rings, could rarely unleash high-level skills in rapid succession—unless it was a highly flexible self-created technique.
But spirit beasts were different. Their abilities were akin to self-created skills, with far fewer restrictions. With sufficient mastery, they could unleash them several times in quick succession without issue.
The massive ice-crystal palm howled down. Shui Yanyu was shattered into ice fragments once more.
Yet again, silver light flickered. Her body reformed, alive once more.
Damn!
The Snow Emperor cursed inwardly. Dodging incoming strikes, she surged her Extreme Ice and Snow, conjuring another ice-crystal sword—Imperial Sword, Peerless Ice.
This time, however, she redirected her attack. No longer targeting the undying Shui Yanyu, she aimed the ice-crystal sword at Feng Zhen.
The same pattern repeated. As the sword lunged, Feng Zhen also decisively canceled his Martial Spirit True Body.
With it, his power increased—but not enough to contend with her. Better to abandon it than have it smashed in one or two blows, suffering severe backlash. At least with the Silver-Jade Undying Ginseng's immortality effect, he could endure more of her strikes.
"Bang—"
The ice-crystal sword slashed him apart, reducing him to shards of ice.
But in the blink of an eye, silver radiance flowed, and Feng Zhen restored himself fully, as good as new.
This tactic was nothing short of shameless.
Yet the Snow Emperor truly had no counter to it. An Ice Sky Snow Maiden could serve as a control-type beast or an assault-type Spirit Master, but not as a spiritual-type attacker. At least, the Snow Emperor herself had not mastered effective spiritual attacks.
Of course, their strategy worked only thanks to their spirit cores.
Energy was conserved: to reconstruct their bodies consumed spirit power. The more complete the destruction, the greater the cost of reformation.
Like Feng Zhen being ground to dust—his own spirit power alone could not sustain many such "resurrections."
But with a spirit core, things changed. The core absorbed external energy, converting it into spirit power to quickly restore them. This greatly offset the flaw of their "immortal" tactic.
And so, Shui Yanyu and Feng Zhen were caught in a cycle of instant death followed by instant revival.
Combined with Huo Lie switching to Earth-attribute secret arts, their shameless but reckless strategy just barely managed to hold the Snow Emperor at bay.
Now the stalemate would depend on who gave out first: Shui Yanyu and Feng Zhen exhausting their spirit power and spirit core reserves, or the Snow Emperor losing the ability to sustain such relentless bursts.
For additional chapters
Versatile mage {40 chapters}
Douluo Dalu:This Soul Master is to Weird {30 Chapters}
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