49: Chapter 49 Want to see a show? Pay for the ticket first.

Shen Xiao's gaze did not fall upon Lin Yun on the other side.

Instead, he turned around, facing the ice wall directly, and looked at Xia Lengbai standing atop the ice prison.

The angle was actually quite tricky; the surface of the ice wall was covered in dense frost, and the refraction of light blurred one's silhouette, yet he still locked onto her position with precision.

The mockery on his face was not feigned.

"You said just now that the oracle of the Heavenly Dao is that only one of us can survive?"

His voice was not loud, but in this frozen cavern, every word clearly pierced through the humming of the ice layers.

Xia Lengbai did not answer, merely looking down at him from above, that gentle smile still lingering at the corners of her mouth.

Shen Xiao did not wait for her answer either.

"Don't you find it strange?"

He continued, his tone carrying a leisurely composure, as if chatting about mundane matters.

"I can understand why the Heavenly Dao wants to kill me. I'm someone undermining its foundations, so it would love nothing more than to grind my bones to dust. But Lin Yun is its designated Child of Destiny, the Gu King it has raised for over twenty years; why would it want to use your hands to kill him?"

Xia Lengbai's smile faltered slightly.

Shen Xiao caught that pause.

"Let me tell you why."

He licked the blood from his lips, his voice rising a few notches.

"Because the so-called 'oracle' you heard isn't about letting you choose who survives. It means that regardless of which one of us dies, you are the next to die."

He tapped his own chest with his finger, then pointed in Lin Yun's direction.

"The winner will become stronger, fatter, and more worth harvesting. And you, as the 'referee,' have personally sealed off your own retreat, locking yourself in the same cage with two beasts on the verge of madness. Once only one is left standing in the cage, how do you think the Heavenly Dao will deal with you, its 'meritorious servant'?"

Xia Lengbai did not speak.

But the smile on her face was fading, bit by bit.

Shen Xiao could tell she was thinking.

Although this woman was mad, she was not stupid.

She was merely challenging fate in her own way, not truly seeking death.

"You might be right."

Xia Lengbai finally spoke, the hoarse excitement in her voice having mostly vanished, replaced by something deeper and more dangerous.

"But what does that have to do with me?"

Shen Xiao raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not doing these things to survive." Xia Lengbai tilted her head, the fanatical gleam in her eyes reigniting. "I'm doing this to see, when all options lead to a dead end, what path I can carve out for myself."

Saying this, she formed hand seals again.

The stationary ice wall began to change; countless sharp ice spikes emerged from its surface, each as long as an arm, their tips shimmering with an eerie blue cold light.

Immediately after, the ice wall began to contract inward.

It wasn't moving as a whole, but rather like a massive ice prison mechanism, compressing synchronously from all directions, squeezing the activity space of Shen Xiao and Lin Yun bit by bit.

"Since you've reminded me," Xia Lengbai's voice drifted down from above, carrying a hint of lighthearted joy, "then I shall add a bit of urgency for you both."

She held up three fingers.

"Within thirty breaths, if you haven't decided a winner, the ice spikes will skewer the two of you like candied haws."

Hearing this from the other side of the ice wall, Lin Yun's expression turned chillingly cold to the extreme.

He never expected that one day he would be treated as a spectacle in a gladiator pit by a madwoman.

What he expected even less was that although he had only caught bits and pieces of what Shen Xiao said earlier, he had to admit—he was right.

This oracle was not salvation at all, but a death warrant.

But the problem was, even knowing that killing Shen Xiao would just be doing a favor for someone else, he had no other choice.

If he didn't kill Shen Xiao, once the ice wall closed, everyone would die together.

If he killed Shen Xiao, at least he would have a glimmer of hope; as long as he rushed out of this cavern before the ice wall closed completely, he could re-establish a link with the heart of the demon emperor, and at that point, Xia Lengbai's little ice Spell wouldn't be able to trap him at all.

Lin Yun took a deep breath, his eyes becoming resolute.

He abruptly raised his right hand, bit his fingertip, and fresh blood dripped down between his fingers.

Without hesitation, he used his blood-stained finger to quickly draw an ancient rune over the wriggling demonic patterns on his chest.

The rune was extremely complex, looking like a cluster of twisted vines, or perhaps the Bloodline brand of some ancient creature.

The moment the rune lit up, Lin Yun's body shuddered violently, the color drained from his face instantly, and he looked as if half his life had been sucked away.

Yet his aura did not drop.

Instead, it began to rise.

The blood Qi energy throughout the cavern seemed to be drawn by some force, beginning to converge toward him crazily.

Those dark red mists floating in the air, those bloody waters seeping from the cracks in the riverbed, all seemed to be gripped by an invisible hand, surging toward Lin Yun.

His body was like a vortex, crazily devouring all the blood Qi around him.

Shen Xiao stood on the other side of the ice wall, watching this scene, his eyes darkening slightly.

He knew what Lin Yun was doing.

The summoning rune for the heart of the demon emperor.

This was a forbidden technique that Lin Yun only learned in the Late Stage of the original novel. By sacrificing his own essence blood, he could forcibly summon the main will of the heart of the demon emperor to descend; even if it was just borrowing a sliver of its Origin power, it was enough for the caster to obtain combat power far exceeding their own Realm in a short time.

However, in the original novel, when Lin Yun used this move, he was already at the Late Stage of the Golden Core, and his physical constitution could withstand the backlash.

Now he was only at the Peak of Foundation Establishment; using this move forcibly, even if successful, would leave him bedridden for at least half a year.

But Lin Yun had no choice.

Shen Xiao stood in place, watching the half-demon figure on the other side crazily absorbing blood Qi, his mind racing through various possibilities.

He could, of course, intervene and interrupt.

Lin Yun was currently at the critical phase of casting, his overall defense dropped to the lowest point; if he just punched over, he could interrupt the summoning, or even cause backlash on Lin Yun himself, making him kneel and vomit blood on the spot.

But he did not move.

It wasn't that he didn't want to kill Lin Yun.

It was that he knew Xia Lengbai's personality too well.

When this woman said "thirty breaths," it meant exactly thirty breaths.

She wouldn't cancel the deathmatch just because Lin Yun was interrupted; instead, she would seize the moment he made his move to manipulate the ice spikes to activate prematurely, taking them both out together.

She didn't care who won.

What she cared about was "whether this show was exciting enough."

Therefore, if Shen Xiao made a move now, he would just be handing a knife to Xia Lengbai.

He had to wait.

Wait until Lin Yun finished the summoning, wait until the gap in combat power between the two narrowed to the minimum, wait until Xia Lengbai was forced to divide her attention between two targets—that would be the best moment to break the deadlock.

But this didn't mean he would do nothing.

Shen Xiao lowered his head and glanced at the ground beneath his feet.

The crack he had blasted open with Yin-Sha Qi was still there, and that extremely Yin and cold aura was continuously surging out from the opening, as if a slumbering giant beast deep underground was breathing.

His gaze fell on that crack, lingering for a moment.

Then he took a deep breath and poured all the remaining spiritual power within him into his legs.

The spiritual power surged crazily through his Meridians, swelling his calf muscles until they were taut, veins popping out, as if they could explode at any moment.

He did not hesitate.

His legs exerted force violently, and his whole body shot up into the air like a cannonball, and then...

He did not rush toward Lin Yun.

He smashed a punch down toward the ground beneath his feet.

This punch had no flashy technique, no dazzling light, only the purest, most brutal physical impact.

The moment his fist struck the rock layer, a muffled, thunderous sound erupted.

That sound didn't seem like breaking stone; it sounded more like someone striking a massive bronze bell, and the entire cavern echoed with that dull thud.

The rock layer crumbled upon impact.

Cracks spread from the point of impact in all directions, like a giant spiderweb spreading crazily across the ground.

Immediately after, the entire ground collapsed.

A bottomless crack appeared beneath Shen Xiao's feet, and dark red light gushed out from the opening, carrying an indescribable, terrifying aura.

That aura was not Yin-Sha Qi.

It was purer, more ancient, and more violent than Yin-Sha Qi.

It was the Origin energy of the Ten Thousand Spirit Blood Sacrifice, which had been suppressed by the "River of Blood Qi" for over ten thousand years.

Shen Xiao had read descriptions of the Cave of Ten Thousand Demons in the original novel; the reason the heart of the demon emperor could initiate the Ten Thousand Spirit Blood Sacrifice was not due to its own power, but because it was suppressing some more ancient existence deep underground.

What exactly that existence was, the original novel did not elaborate.

But the energy it produced was pure black.

Not the black of ink, but a pure, pitch black that devoured all light and vitality.

The black energy gushed out from the crack, like an ancient Vicious Beast that had been imprisoned for over ten thousand years finally breaking free from its cage, letting out a silent roar.

That energy had no color, no shape, yet it carried an indescribable sense of oppression.

It surged out like a tide, sweeping toward the three living beings in the cavern indiscriminately.

The first to suffer was Lin Yun.

He was currently exerting all his strength to absorb blood Qi energy, his body already in an extremely unstable state of equilibrium.

The moment the black energy washed over, that external force directly severed his link with the heart of the demon emperor, sending him flying and crashing heavily against the ice wall with a dull thud.

Following right after was the ice wall set up by Xia Lengbai.

Those ice layers that she considered indestructible were like paper in front of the black energy, beginning to dissolve at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It was not melting.

It was dissolving, as if being directly erased from a molecular level by something, the surface of the ice layer peeling off layer by layer, turning into white mist and dissipating in the air.

Xia Lengbai stood atop the ice prison, the smile on her face freezing for the first time.

What she felt was not cold, but her life force being drained away.

The sensation was extremely subtle, as if something was gently and tenderly drawing something out from within her, neither hurried nor slow, but rhythmic, like some ancient and irresistible law.

She looked down at her palms and discovered that the skin on her fingertips was becoming withered at an extremely slow speed.

Like a flower slowly withering.

Her pupils contracted slightly.

This carefully designed gladiator pit, in just a few breaths, had turned into a tomb about to bury three people.

The black energy was still spreading.

It showed no signs of stopping.

Shen Xiao stood at the edge of the crack, feeling that energy sweep past his feet, a piercing chill coming from the surface of his body, as if something was trying to drill into his bone marrow.

His gaze pierced through the dissolving ice wall, falling on Lin Yun on the other side, then lifted to look at Xia Lengbai standing on the high ground.

Then he smiled.

That smile was light, faint, like someone who had just made a good deal.

"Now," he spoke, his voice somewhat hoarse, yet carrying a confidence that could not be ignored, "is it your deathmatch, or mine?"