A purple divine pattern spread across the brow of Li Guanqi's mask.
He kept pills for replenishing blood qi and immortal essence in his mouth.
The moment he passed through the barrier, Li Guanqi felt an overwhelmingly powerful chill boring toward the interior of his body!
As his immortal essence surged, suffused with the power of the Devouring Void Sacred Flame to protect his body, he finally felt a little better.
Hiding in the shadows by the entrance, he completely reined in his aura and extended his divine sense slightly to observe the scene outside.
A colossal Ice Phoenix was spreading its wings and screeching, surrounded by over a dozen cultivators besieging it!
*Rumble—!*
The space within the barrier trembled incessantly as massive blocks of ice plummeted from above.
Chen Ce, Xiahou Cang, and Chu Yuan were all erupting with terrifying killing power at this moment.
The surrounding Heavenly Immortal cultivators, by contrast, had become dead weight.
The Ice Phoenix's body spanned a full hundred zhang.
Its sharp, curved beak had a faint silvery-white sheen that radiated a piercing sharpness.
Feathers carved like ice crystals covered its entire body, translucent and glittering with the luster of glaze.
Its long, ornate tail feathers trailed behind it like tassels amidst a glacier, swaying gently with the wind.
Its eyes were as deep as starry skies, glowing with a somber blue light, enigmatic and majestic.
At this moment, on the Ice Phoenix's chest, an ice-blue crystal the size of a forearm and palm radiated a blue halo.
And at the heart of that crystal, a single drop of golden blood was sealed!
Li Guanqi raised an eyebrow.
"Could that be... true phoenix essence blood?"
"Is that how the Cold Soul Jade Glaze was able to coalesce an Ice Phoenix spirit?"
*Screeech—!*
A shrill cry rang out.
The colossal Ice Phoenix beat its wings and soared high, bringing a biting, freezing wind with it!
Spreading its wings, the Ice Phoenix exuded an imposing dread, its momentum magnificent and overwhelming!
*Screeech—!*
The feathers of its wings shimmered with eerie blue light, and as it flapped them furiously, an ice storm instantly swept across the entire interior of the barrier!
In an instant, three Heavenly Immortal cultivators were submerged by the tempest. Flesh ripped from bone; before they could even scream, their bodies and souls perished together!
Chu Yuan roared, "Join forces!!"
In a flash, standing about a zhang apart, the three joined hands to project a barrier of immortal essence.
*Clang, clang, clang, clang!*
The ice thorns within the storm slammed madly against the barrier forged by their combined strength!
After a long while, the tempest gradually dispersed, and the Ice Phoenix swooped down from the heavens, raking its sharp talons toward the barrier.
*Bang!*
The barrier exploded, and all three coughed up blood as they were thrown back a hundred zhang.
Meanwhile, the Heavenly Immortal cultivators Xiahou Cang had brought along were completely wiped out in the storm.
Xiahou Cang's expression was ugly in the extreme. He hadn't expected the Cold Soul Jade Glaze inside to have manifested as an Ice Phoenix spirit!
Moreover, this Ice Phoenix spirit was exceptionally powerful.
*Screeech!*
A ferocious glint flashed through the Ice Phoenix's eyes.
Opening its maw, it spewed a frost breath!
A massive pillar of ice shot violently toward Chen Ce.
Sword in hand, Chen Ce dodged, but the breath moved at blistering speed, arriving before him in the blink of an eye.
"Help me!!!"
Even before his words finished, Chen Ce swung his sword with all his might, the strike imposing and explosive with sword light.
Chu Yuan was closest to him, but if he stepped forward, his back would be exposed to Xiahou Cang.
Chu Yuan first shifted several tens of zhang laterally before dashing toward Chen Ce.
Yet in that split second of hesitation, the breath had already struck Chen Ce.
The man roared and slashed desperately, cleaving the breath in two.
Yet a layer of frost steadily crept over the sword in his hand, and the chilling cold continued to spread furiously.
In the blink of an eye, the breath's frost engulfed Chen Ce's entire right arm.
*Whoosh! Bang!*
The man's body flew backward like a cannonball.
The terrifying force of the breath slammed into the ground, blasting two hundred-zhang craters out of the ice sheet.
The terrifying aftershocks of power were so violent that Li Guanqi could barely keep his aura hidden!
Without hesitation, Li Guanqi darted behind a massive ice mountain on the other side.
This isolated domain space was by no means small, spanning nearly a hundred li—more than enough room for their battle.
"Pfft!"
Chen Ce slammed into the ice mountain behind him, gouging out a deep crater; a mouthful of blood sprayed from his lips, instantly crystallizing into icy mist.
His complexion turned an ashen purplish-black as the cold poison penetrated his body.
His entire right arm was frozen stiff in an instant, its flesh a ghastly purplish-black.
His lips trembling violently from the freezing cold and blood trickling from his nose and mouth, Chen Ce decisively raised his hand and severed his right arm!
*Crash!*
As the severed limb hit the ground, it instantly shattered into powdered ice.
The Ice Phoenix's sharp talons swooped in, tearing fissures through the surrounding space.
Chu Yuan unleashed several sword slashes in succession, parrying the strike.
Xiahou Cang flickered across space, supporting Chen Ce and shifting several hundred zhang away in an instant.
"Heal your wounds, quickly!!"
With that, Xiahou Cang went to assist Chu Yuan.
Chen Ce's gaze was dark to the extreme, his eyes locked dead on Chu Yuan!
The man had clearly had the opportunity to help him just now.
Yet he had deliberately shifted tens of zhang away to distance himself from Xiahou Cang first.
Enduring the excruciating pain from his severed arm, the man swallowed healing pills with cold eyes.
Watching this, Li Guanqi merely curled the corner of his lips.
If the three of them cooperated fully, slaying the Ice Phoenix before them would only be a matter of time.
Yet while they appeared united on the surface, they were inwardly guarding against one another, naturally unwilling to exert their full strength.
This was precisely the situation Li Guanqi wanted to see.
A cold smirk curved at the corners of Li Guanqi's lips.
"In that case, I might as well lend you another hand!"
Before long, Xiahou Cang and Chu Yuan were on the verge of collapsing, repeatedly teetering on the edge of disaster.
*Rip!*
Sharp talons shredded Xiahou Cang's robes, carving three wounds deep enough to bare bone.
In just a breath, the flesh across Xiahou Cang's chest had already frozen necrotic.
Gritting his teeth, he raised a hand to gouge out the dead flesh before fresh blood finally welled forth.
"Chen Ce! Get over here and help!"
Drawing upon the power of the Cold Soul Jade Glaze as its foundation, the Ice Phoenix possessed tremendous strength.
By contrast, Chu Yuan and Xiahou Cang had depleted a vast amount of immortal essence.
Hearing the cry, Chen Ce only then unhurriedly stood up, his arm already restored to pristine condition under the efficacy of the pills.
Gripping with his right hand, his sword flew into his grasp; the ice beneath his feet shattered as he shot upward into the air.
Under their combined assault, they soon wounded the Ice Phoenix!
Its plumage shattered, and its wing was nearly severed by their joint strike.
And the power of the Cold Soul Jade Glaze was steadily waning as well.
Yet right at that moment, the Ice Phoenix locked its gaze onto Chen Ce once more!
Chen Ce's expression changed. He tossed out a jade seal that enveloped his body in a barrier and shouted, "Help me!!"
*Skrrr—!*
Space was torn asunder as the Ice Phoenix's talons pinned Chen Ce firmly against the ice mountain.
The barrier projected by the jade seal was gripped tight in the beast's talons.
*Crack! Crack, crack, crack!*
Webs of fine cracks surfaced. The Ice Phoenix leaned forward and beat its wings, sending two massive vortexes sweeping toward Xiahou Cang and Chu Yuan.
Lowering its head, it opened its maw as another frost breath gathered!
Xiahou Cang crushed the ring on his finger, summoning two translucent figurines.
Immediately following that, he escaped the storm's area of effect in an instant; one of the figurines burst apart, and Xiahou Cang spat out a mouthful of blood.
Chu Yuan's gaze turned fierce as he flashed away to evade.
Suddenly!
A cyan jade gourd with a crack at its mouth abruptly manifested within the tempest!
The gourd contained an extraordinarily potent frost power.
In an instant, it doubled the storm's destructive might!
This gourd was none other than the one Li Guanqi had retrieved from the patrol camp.
Caught completely off guard, Chu Yuan was instantly swallowed by the storm!
And yet...
Every bit of this unfolded right before Chen Ce's eyes.
Feeling the jade seal's barrier being crushed to powder bit by bit, several suspicions solidified in his mind!
Chu Yuan and Xiahou Cang must have joined forces.
They wanted... him to die here!
Chapter 1756