59: Chapter 59 Using you as a stepping stone, don't mind.

That hand was slender and steady, its fingertips wreathed in a faint golden halo, as if it were grasping not air, but some form of invisible authority.

Behind her, the trajectory of the command reflected in Bailian's hollow eyes. With a flick of her wrist, the archaic copper bell emitted a clear, resonant hum.

"Ding!"

It was not the sound of a bell, but a high-frequency tremor that acted directly upon the Soul.

A visible, air-distorting black sound wave, like a venomous snake emerging from its hole, tore through the cold air and swept across the ground toward Xia Lengbai!

Wherever it passed, even the ice surface was plowed into a charred trail.

Xia Lengbai's pupils constricted, and her body stiffened.

"Lower your head!"

Shen Xiao's voice was like an icy needle, instantly piercing through her chaotic thoughts.

Without thinking, driven almost entirely by muscle memory, she abruptly bent her upper body forward!

"Whoosh..."

The black sound wave whistled past her hair, and a few severed locks drifted down.

Immediately after, a deafening explosion erupted behind her.

"Boom!!"

The ice wall she had been leaning against was struck head-on by the sound wave, blasting open a terrifying crater three zhang deep with edges as smooth as a mirror!

Ice crystals mixed with gravel rained down, striking her back and bringing a bone-chilling cold.

Xia Lengbai's back was instantly soaked in cold sweat.

She could even smell the faint, acrid scent of a burning Soul lingering in the air where the sound wave had passed.

"Bailian is currently being manipulated by the soul sound bell. Her attack patterns are limited to three types: Linear Sound Wave, Circular Oscillation, and Soul Piercing."

Shen Xiao's speaking speed was astonishingly fast; every word was like a fire-tempered nail, precisely hammered into her eardrums,

"That was a Linear Sound Wave. In three breaths, she will follow up with a Circular Oscillation, covering a twenty-zhang radius. Follow my command: take six steps to the left, then crouch."

His voice was very low, his warm breath mixed with a heavy scent of blood spraying against her ear, yet it carried a cold, convincing certainty that left no room for doubt.

Xia Lengbai had no time for doubt.

Lin Yun's eyes, burning with golden rage, had already locked onto them, and the copper bell in Bailian's hand tilted slightly once more.

"One."

Shen Xiao began to count.

Xia Lengbai gritted her teeth and kicked off hard with her left foot toward the side!

"Two."

Her steps were unsteady, but her speed was extremely fast. Ice Spiritual Power condensed into a thin layer of ice beneath her feet, reducing friction.

"Three! Crouch!"

Taking the final step, she followed Shen Xiao's command, abruptly bending her knees to crouch and shrinking her entire body behind a protruding ice rock.

Almost at the same instant.

"Hum!!!"

The soul sound bell in Bailian's hand vibrated violently, emitting not a clear ringing sound, but a dull whimper that sounded like ten thousand ghosts weeping in unison!

With her as the center, a circle of dark red, blood-thick sound wave ripples—like ripples on a lake when a stone is thrown—expanded in a perfect ring, roaring outward in all directions!

"Crack! Crack! Crack!"

Wherever the sound wave passed, the ground of profound ice, solidified for ten thousand years, shattered inch by inch like fragile glass, curled up, and was ground into powder!

The violent force of the oscillation swept countless ice chunks into the air, only to be pulverized into ice powder the next second!

As far as the eye could see, it was a scene of apocalypse!

Xia Lengbai only felt an indescribable, terrifying pressure from above, as if an invisible mountain were crushing down, causing her breath to hitch, her eardrums to buzz, and her internal organs to tremble in resonance.

She curled up tightly, able to feel the destructive shockwave graze past the ice rock above her head, shaving off a full half-foot layer from the protruding rock!

Ice shards rained down, covering both her and Shen Xiao.

The Circular Oscillation lasted for about two breaths before slowly dissipating.

Within a twenty-zhang radius, it was already a Hell of shattered ice, yet the small area where she and Shen Xiao were miraculously remained relatively intact.

Lin Yun's pupils constricted sharply.

He saw clearly that the spot where Xia Lengbai was crouching was precisely the gap where the energy distribution of the Circular Oscillation ripples was thinnest, just before the two shockwaves converged!

This was definitely not a coincidence!

Shen Xiao... How could he have seen through the attack patterns and energy weaknesses of the soul sound bell during such a brief, high-pressure encounter?

Is this guy a monster?

He was clearly already half-dead!

"Now!"

Shen Xiao gave Lin Yun no opportunity to think or adjust at all.

His voice exploded in Xia Lengbai's ear again, carrying a kind of desperate, cut-the-bridge ruthlessness.

"You throw me toward Bailian, then instantly seal her copper bell with your Ice Spiritual Power!"

"What?" Xia Lengbai turned her head abruptly to look at him, a flicker of shock flashing in her eyes.

Throw... throw him out?

In his current state, how is ramming into her any different from courting death?

"Do it!"

Shen Xiao's voice was unquestionable; those pitch-black eyes were terrifyingly bright in the dim Ice Cave. There was not a shred of hesitation, only the crazy calculation of a desperate gamble,

"Do you want to die here, or bet on a path to survival?"

Xia Lengbai locked eyes with him for a second.

She saw the determination in his eyes and felt the last trace of power in his body—nearly exhausted yet still being frantically squeezed out—transmitted through the "Telepathic Symbiosis Technique."

There was no time to weigh the options.

"Ah!"

Xia Lengbai let out a low roar, whether from anger or release, and grabbed Shen Xiao's shoulders and waist with both hands, using all her strength to hurl him like a sandbag toward Bailian!

Shen Xiao's body traced an arc in the air.

He was covered in blood, the wound on his left leg hideous, looking terribly fragile, like a withered leaf ready to shatter at any moment.

But his gaze was locked firmly onto the copper bell in Bailian's hand.

Lin Yun's expression changed drastically: "Stop him!"

He pressed his fingers together like a sword, and an incomparably condensed golden Sword Qi formed instantly, about to shoot toward Shen Xiao in the air.

Just at this moment...

"Pfft!"

While in mid-air, Shen Xiao abruptly opened his mouth and spat out a large mouthful of jet-black, foul-smelling, stagnant blood!

That was no ordinary blood; it was mixed with unrefined Blood Poison, the fire poison of the Burning Heaven Pill Fire, and the filthy Qi from the backlash of him forcibly driving his spiritual power!

The black blood exploded upon leaving his mouth, turning into a cloud of thick, impenetrable blood mist that instantly shrouded the area between him and Bailian!

The blood mist possessed strong corrosive and spiritual power interference effects. Lin Yun's golden Sword Qi shot into it and actually made a "hissing" sound; its speed and accuracy were affected, flying past the edge of the blood mist and sinking deep into the distant ice cliff.

With his line of sight blocked, the lock of the soul sound bell also experienced a momentary disruption.

Bailian's reaction was still swift. Her hollow eyes turned toward Shen Xiao's blurry figure in the blood mist, her wrist sank, and the copper bell was just about to unleash a piercing attack targeting the Divine Soul...

This is it!

The moment Shen Xiao was thrown, Xia Lengbai had already begun to mobilize the little remaining Ice Spiritual Power in her Dantian.

She didn't understand Shen Xiao's entire plan, but she grasped the most core point of his instructions: seal the copper bell!

At the very instant Bailian's attention was drawn by the blood mist and Shen Xiao, and the soul sound bell fluctuated slightly due to the chaotic target, a grain-sized point of extreme cold light, condensed at Xia Lengbai's fingertips, shot out like a long-dormant venomous bee!

That cold light was tiny yet condensed, drilling with absolute precision into the small hole of the resonance chamber at the top of the soul sound bell used for threading the cord!

"Click!"

A faint, crisp sound, as if a water droplet were freezing.

The surface of the soul sound bell was instantly covered in a thin layer of crystalline frost, and the piercing sound wave about to erupt from within was forcibly frozen and interrupted by this extreme cold force, emitting only a dull, suppressed "hum" before its light suddenly dimmed.

Bailian's hand holding the copper bell stiffened.

And Shen Xiao, taking advantage of this stiffness that didn't even last a hundredth of a breath, moved his blood-stained body like a ghost through the blood mist and lunged in front of Bailian!

He used no weapons, and his heavily injured body could not support complex Moves.

He simply extended his left hand—the hand scorched and curled by the backlash of the Burning Heaven Pill Fire—and grabbed Bailian's wrist that held the soul sound bell with a death grip!

The touch was cold, not like that of a living person.

At the same time, he pressed his right fingers together, his index and middle fingers like a sword, and condensed the last and most pure wisp of crimson-gold flame within his body at his fingertips.

That was the Origin fire seed of the Burning Heaven Pill Fire, so weak it seemed it could extinguish at any moment, yet it carried a heat and determination capable of burning everything to ashes!

Then, he viciously stabbed his fingers toward a spot one inch below Bailian's throat!

There, beneath her collar, an extremely complex, flickering blood-colored rune mark faintly appeared on the surface of her skin—the core node of the Heavenly Dao Contract!

"Pshhh!"

There was no sound of flesh tearing, but rather a light sound like glass or crystal shattering.

Shen Xiao's fingertips, wrapped in that faint wisp of Origin fire seed, precisely stabbed into the center of the blood-colored rune!

"Crack!"

The crisp sound of shattering was exceptionally clear on the silent battlefield.

The blood-colored rune below Bailian's throat, like a mirror struck by a heavy hammer, instantly covered with spiderweb-like cracks, then exploded, turning into specks of dark red light that dissipated into the air.

"Ugh... ah!"

Bailian's hollow pupils suddenly constricted to the size of needle points!

That unchanging expression, like a delicate doll, showed violent fluctuations for the first time.

Endless pain, confusion, and a certain fear from the sudden loosening of something imprisoned for ten thousand years surged onto her cheeks like a tide.

A hoarse wail, as if squeezed from the depths of her Soul, issued from her throat; her body trembled violently, and she could no longer hold the soul sound bell.

Shen Xiao showed no mercy; his left hand exerted force, forcibly snatching the lusterless copper bell from her stiff fingers!

At the same time, he lifted his right foot and kicked her hard in the abdomen!

"Bang!"

Bailian's body flew backward like a ragdoll, crashing straight into the livid-faced Lin Yun.

Lin Yun instinctively reached out to catch her, but was knocked half a step back by the force of the impact.

As for Shen Xiao, borrowing the reaction force of that kick, his body flipped backward, he stumbled a few steps, and finally managed to kneel on one knee, landing in front of Xia Lengbai.

His left hand tightly clutched the cold copper bell, the sensation from his palm reminding him of the weight of this trophy.

He raised his head, wiped away the black blood constantly overflowing from the corner of his mouth, and pulled a cold smile mixed with blood and mockery, looking at Lin Yun, who was holding Bailian with an expression that looked terrible to the extreme.

"Your bell is mine now."

His voice was hoarse, but it clearly spread across the silent battlefield,

"By the way, when you were using Bailian to attack just now, I conveniently stuffed the core fragments of her Heavenly Dao Contract... into this copper bell."

He shook the dim soul sound bell in his hand.

"Next time you want to control her, ask this bell if it's willing first."

Lin Yun looked sharply at Bailian in his arms.

Bailian leaned in the crook of his arm, her body no longer trembling. Those eyes, which had regained their luster but were filled with endless complex emotions, were staring straight at him with a deep fear and anger that Lin Yun had never seen before.