*Crack, crack, crack!*
The jade seal was on the verge of shattering, a ruthless glint flashing in Chen Ce's eyes.
"Then don't blame me."
In Chen Ce's hand, a bronze treasure mirror suddenly appeared.
The mirror was only the size of a palm, an eerie cyan halo swirling across its reflective surface.
*Bang!*
The jade seal burst apart, and the barrier ceased to exist.
A blast of frost breath came crashing down toward Chen Ce.
Yet the treasure mirror erupted with blinding brilliance, instantly deflecting the frost breath toward Chu Yuan!
Having just escaped the storm, Chu Yuan was covered head to toe in frostbite.
He had barely managed to break free when the frost breath bore down directly on him.
Catching sight of Chen Ce holding the bronze mirror from the corner of his eye, Chu Yuan was utterly shocked.
The immortal essence roared within him, but his damaged meridians prevented him from unleashing his full power as he swung his sword.
*Rumble—!*
The frost breath poured over Chu Yuan in full force.
His sword light shattered, and the man let out a shrill, agonizing scream as he was hurled backward, violently smashing through an iceberg.
*Spurt!*
Spitting blood, half his body encased in ice by the blast, the man roared in fury, "Chen Ce, have you lost your mind?! What are you doing?!"
Chen Ce merely sneered in response. Seizing the moment when the frost breath was spent, he raised his hand and drove his sword straight through the Ice Phoenix's throat!
With a twist of his wrist, his longsword swept sideways, unleashing a burst of sword light that severed the Ice Phoenix's head clean off.
Chen Ce wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, soaring over to stow away the fallen phoenix head.
These were all precious treasures!
The spectacle shocked Xiahou Cang as well.
He could not comprehend why Chen Ce had suddenly turned on Chu Yuan!
With one hand, Chu Yuan retrieved a healing pill and swallowed it, his hair disheveled and wild like a madman.
The "corpse" of the Ice Phoenix crashed onto the ground, the crystal embedded in its chest pulsing with rapid flashes of light.
Spiritual light flickered at the phoenix's severed neck, rapidly regenerating the injury.
Xiahou Cang could not afford to dwell on the matter. He flew to the other side and joined Chen Ce in frantically bombarding the phoenix's body.
Ice shards flew and wings snapped as both men caught sight of the dawn of victory.
Only Chu Yuan was left roaring in rage from the distance.
"Chen Ce!"
Chu Yuan's heart was in utter turmoil; he already wanted to flee.
Severely wounded as he was, once they finished off the Ice Phoenix, he would likely be the next to die.
By now, he suspected Chen Ce had joined forces with Xiahou Cang!
Otherwise, why would Chen Ce suddenly strike with lethal intent against him?
Chu Yuan struggled desperately to move his body. Nearly seventy percent of his meridians had been ruined by the cold poison, making the mobilization of immortal essence sluggish to the extreme.
Panic flickered in the man's eyes.
Watching the two men furiously laying waste to the Ice Phoenix, he knew he could not linger any longer—he had to leave!
Whatever was going on, it could only be dealt with later.
Right at that moment, however, Xiahou Cang's heart pounded wildly as he attacked the Ice Phoenix.
*Chen Ce and Chu Yuan have turned against each other. Now, as long as I get rid of Chen Ce, all of Dixiu Bay will be mine! The Cold Soul Jade Glaze will be mine too!*
With that thought, the Nirvana Spirit Feathers behind Xiahou Cang instantly erupted in blinding radiance.
A resonant chime rang from his sword, carrying momentum capable of splitting mountains and cleaving stone as it slashed savagely toward Chen Ce!
"Die!"
Yet how could Chen Ce not have been on guard against Xiahou Cang?
With a shift of his body, he stepped dozens of zhang aside in advance, narrowly dodging the fatal blow.
Tossing out the treasure mirror to deflect the sword beam, his speed exploded to its absolute peak, a mist of blood bursting from his flesh.
Transforming into a streak of blood, he shot straight at Xiahou Cang!
"You mongrel, die!"
*Splatter!*
In his panic, Xiahou Cang brought his blade back to parry, but the strike nearly cut him in two at the waist.
Blood spurted wildly as sword qi tore through his internal organs, blood gushing from his mouth...
The Nirvana Spirit Feathers behind him collapsed, and his body plummeted from midair, the blood he retched containing fragments of shredded flesh.
*Bang!*
Hurled a hundred zhang away, he slammed violently onto the ice sheet, leaving behind a pool of blood.
Flesh on Chen Ce's shoulder had been sheared off by stray sword qi. Standing in the void, he panted heavily, the immortal essence in his body all but exhausted.
Yet a manic grin spread across his face.
"Ha... hahahaha!"
"I won! It's me!"
Severely injured, Chu Yuan and Xiahou Cang looked ashen, neither of them having expected such an outcome!
Chen Ce raised his hand to bind both of them with immortal essence, sealing their seas of consciousness and dantian before finally moving in to slay the Ice Phoenix!
The Ice Phoenix's body stiffened, and the Cold Soul Jade Glaze at its chest clattered down.
The instant the Cold Soul Jade Glaze detached, the phoenix's body burst with a bang, dissolving into a sky full of spiritual light.
Gazing at the Cold Soul Jade Glaze in his palm, Chen Ce's eyes burned with greed, and he hungrily licked his lips.
Xiahou Cang's face was deathly pale, his gaze hollow.
"Why... Why wasn't it me..."
Hundreds of zhang away, Chu Yuan's eyes were similarly dazed. He had never imagined things would end like this.
Weren't he and Chen Ce allies?
"Why... Why did he turn on me all of a sudden?"
Just as Chen Ce was about to stow away the Cold Soul Jade Glaze—
A sudden shift occurred!
A golden rope burst through the ice sheet, shooting up from the ground.
In a flash, it bound Chen Ce tight!
A piercing sword chime abruptly reverberated across the glacial expanse.
*Skreech!*
"Eight Desolations: Extinction!"
*Boom!*
Boundless sword intent surged into the sky as terrifying thunder-flame swept across the void, churning like an ocean of lightning.
A sword light swift to the absolute limit flashed through the air.
Everywhere it passed, space was sliced open into a long rift.
The glacial earth was split into a canyon-like chasm!
Chen Ce watched helplessly as the sword light streaked toward him. His immortal essence roared as he struggled with all his might to break free.
*Bang!*
The rope burst apart. With bloodshot eyes, Chen Ce gripped his sword, roared, and swung back with a strike!
"Chaotic Demon Sword Slash!"
Countless brilliant beams of sword light shot out haphazardly.
Fine cracks burst across Chen Ce's right arm, blood seeping out as a faint sound of fracturing bone rang out.
Yet the sword lights the man unleashed were like clay chickens and pottery dogs before that purplish-black lightning blade beam.
With the force of toppling dead wood, that terrifying sword light shattered every bit of Chen Ce's sword light!
Its momentum undiminished, the strike sent the man's arm flying through the air, and his longsword plunged blade-down into the ground.
The eyes of all three men instantly locked onto the newcomer.
He wore a blood-red robe, and upon his face rested a Fanged Ghost Mask laced with purple markings.
At the stump of Chen Ce's severed shoulder, a Blood Pact abruptly coalesced!
In virtually an instant, it drained half of the man's essence blood.
*Boom!*
A violent explosion resounded.
The man was flung through the air, half his body mangled beyond recognition, collapsing into a bloody heap on the ground, whether dead or alive unknown.
"Li Congxin!"
Xiahou Cang roared.
"You... How can you be here?!"
Beneath the ghost mask, blood-red eyes glanced playfully at Xiahou Cang, and then at Chu Yuan in the distance.
Li Guanqi raised his hand and slashed twice toward the two of them!
Blood Pacts coalesced, ceaselessly drawing out the essence blood from their bodies—when their essence blood was completely drained, the Blood Pacts would erupt.
Turning his hand, he swung his sword and finished off Chen Ce.
Stepping up to the corpse, he picked up the bronze treasure mirror and the Cold Soul Jade Glaze.
Standing straight, he sneered.
"Truly a bunch driven mad by greed..."
Chapter 1757