Chapter 71: A Storm of Fire and Ice
’This is not good.’
Jiang Chen’s figure blurred as the Traceless Ink Steps unfolded, seeking to retreat until the incense stick burned out.
He felt the light coating of sweat upon his skin instantly crystallize. Thousands of microscopic needles of ice pierced his flesh simultaneously, leaving his body leaking crimson from countless pinpricks. The thermal shock was so absolute that his blood felt sluggish, as if it were cooling lead flowing through his veins.
She directly and ruthlessly bulldozed into him with the momentum of a falling mountain.
The force crushed the breath from his lungs, his vision turning white as bones creaked and blood sprayed from his mouth. His robes were charred and torn, his skin burned in patches while other parts were stiff with frost. Blood began to freeze within shallow wounds, forming dark crimson crystals that clung grotesquely to his flesh.
He Lan hovered in the air, her expression carved from the coldest jade as she gazed downward.
Only disdain.
Simultaneously, three clones burst forth from his body. Two seized his arms and the third his waist, hoisting his broken form and fleeing with the movement technique.
She flicked her head, and her elongated red hair extended rapidly into whips of liquid solar fire while her white hair turned into biting frost.
They lashed through the air with terrifying speed, striking at the fleeing clones. Each blow left ten meter fissures in the ground, one side bubbling with molten lava and the other frozen into a brittle, glass like sheet.
The final clone staggered under the pressure, still carrying Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen, having forcibly knit his vital organs together, ruthlessly grabbed the flaming whip of hair. His palms, coated in the brilliant golden phantoms of tigers, began to hiss as the skin blackened, but he did not let go.
Her body slammed into the ground with tremendous force, sending debris flying outward and dust erupting once more into the sky.
Above him, the sky darkened as a giant ice hammer had formed, its size rivaling a small hill and weighing thousands of kilograms. It descended with a whistling sound that tore at the eardrums.
"Break!" Jiang Chen roared as a dozen golden fists slammed into the descending colossus.
The hammer trembled under the combined force. Cracks spiderwebbed rapidly across the blue ice, yet it did not shatter immediately. The immense weight pressed downward, forcing Jiang Chen and his clones to their knees as the ground beneath them fractured further.
With a final surge, the ice hammer finally exploded in a violent, frozen blast that pulverized every clone in the vicinity under a storm of blades.
She waved her hand lightly, dispersing the lingering frost and dust. Her eyes scanned the cratered field, finding no sign of Jiang Chen, no blood, no broken corpse, nothing at all.
A cold light passed through her eyes.
The entire battlefield shifted as if the heavens had inverted. Pillars of ice, each the size of a skyscraper, began to erupt through the earth in a chaotic forest of blue ice.
Just before the ice hammer had detonated, he had used the Space Swapping Beads to exchange places with the lone clone that had been hiding in the background. But now, with a pillar rising directly beneath his feet, the concealment was useless.
He Lan caught sight of him instantly.
His spiritual energy was at rock bottom.
Flames suddenly rained from the sky.
Jiang Chen gritted his teeth, using the ice pillars as shields, desperately slipping behind the frozen monoliths to buy precious seconds.
A massive ice dragon, its scales shimmering with a lethal blue light, sat waiting with its maw wide open.
Jiang Chen resisted with everything he had, golden light flaring as his arms pushed against the closing jaws. The pressure was immense, his bones creaking under the force.
Suddenly, the dragon took flight.
She lifted a hand.
Under her command, the dragon rushed forward, aiming head on toward a distant massive pillar of ice.
If he collided at this velocity, he would be reduced to a paste of flesh.
The Space Swapping Beads flared once more and Jiang Chen vanished. He reappeared at the dragon’s tail, while He Lan was suddenly the one held within the dragon’s mouth.
She had anticipated this. The dragon first swallowed her before furiously twisting its massive body and swinging its tail with the force of a siege engine.
His state was beyond miserable. He lay within the ice, unmoving, his muscles split open and his ribs visible through the bloody remains of his chest. The golden glow on his hands faded entirely, leaving them pale and trembling. Had he not channeled the last of his Qi to lessen the impact, his soul would have already departed to the underworld.
Something had grabbed her.
He Lan’s heart nearly stopped. For the first time since her transformation, dread appeared on her face as her dual polarity armor erupted madly in a defensive surge, but the talismans were a beat quicker.
Light consumed everything.
Jiang Chen had never intended for the swap to kill her by placing her in the dragon’s jaw. He had anticipated that she had anticipated him using the Space Swapping Beads. This swap had been mainly to position her exactly where the hidden talisman laden clone could seize her.
Only five breaths remained.
His physical state was a wreck, every meridian screaming in protest, but the condition set by Sun Jian was absolute.
With a groan that sounded like grinding stones, Jiang Chen dug his broken fingers into the ice and began to pull himself out of the crater, his will a blade that would not yield.
