64: Chapter 64 A High-Stakes Gamble of Fighting Poison with Poison

That tacit permission even carried a hint of reckless abandon: I'll allow you to guide me, but don't you dare see all my trump cards.

Xia Lengbai raised an eyebrow slightly, the lingering doubt in her heart suppressed by the more urgent need to save him.

Whatever tricks he was hiding, she would worry about that after he survived.

Her hands moved rapidly before her chest, forming several complex and ancient hand seals, while the ice shards remaining on her fingertips fell in a rustle.

As the final hand seal was completed, she let out a low shout:

"Rise!"

The temperature inside the Ice Cave plummeted suddenly.

The scorching white mist swirling above the hot spring eye seemed to be roughly twisted by an invisible hand; instead of rising, it began to spread rapidly along the icy surface.

At the same time, from the depths of the hot spring, a wisp of pure, milky-white cold Qi was forcibly extracted.

One red and one white, two streams of Qi about the thickness of a thumb, under the precise guidance of Xia Lengbai's spiritual power, slithered like two tamed spirit snakes toward the ice sculpture of Shen Xiao.

It was visually striking.

Where the red Qi passed, the ice surface did not melt but instead formed eerie, dark red frost patterns; where the white Qi passed, even the air emitted a faint "crack" sound, as if even light itself was about to be frozen.

"Go."

Xia Lengbai's eyes sharpened, and she pointed her right index finger into the air.

The scorching red Qi moved first, circling the ice sculpture for half a turn before diving straight into the area on Shen Xiao's left knee where the black Qi was thickest and the cracks were densest!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a dull sound, like boiling oil poured onto frozen meat...

"Sizzle!!!"

The sound came from inside the ice layer!

Immediately afterward, visible to the naked eye, those frantically writhing black toxic threads beneath the ice layer, as if scorched by a red-hot branding iron, suddenly curled up and twisted, emitting silent shrieks.

Their previously arrogant expansion stalled, and they even retreated slightly.

But this Blood Poison clearly possessed some kind of base ferocity.

After a brief retreat, it was a more frenzied counterattack!

The black Qi, like an enraged hornet's nest, suddenly churned. The ink-like toxic threads were no longer satisfied with local erosion; instead, they transformed into countless sharp black needles, launching a suicide charge in all directions toward the depths of Shen Xiao's fragile Meridians!

The ice layer emitted an unbearable "creak" sound, and more cracks burst open.

Now!

On Xia Lengbai's tense face, her lips pressed into a cold, hard line.

She had been waiting for this very moment when the Blood Poison was enraged and its power was at its most volatile.

"Seal!"

Her left hand, forming a sword seal, pressed down violently.

The extremely cold white Qi that had been lingering at the side finally moved.

It did not intercept the frantically rushing black toxic needles but, with a speed so fast it left afterimages, poured directly into the ice sculpture, targeting precisely Shen Xiao's heart meridian and Dantian!

Ice and fire, no, the dual Hell of extreme cold and scorching poison, collided violently within Shen Xiao's body.

"Ugh!"

Even through the thick ice layer, Xia Lengbai seemed to hear a suppressed, extreme roar of pain coming from the depths of Shen Xiao's consciousness.

The ice sculpture vibrated violently, and countless new, fine cracks burst open on its surface with a "crackling" sound, sending ice shards flying.

The light from the warm jade marrow shone through these cracks, and one could vaguely see the spasms of the body outline inside.

Shen Xiao's consciousness drifted in boundless pain.

The System's notification sound was no longer intermittent but had turned into a waterfall of frantic screen scrolling, the cold mechanical voice even carrying a hint of anthropomorphic urgency:

[Warning! Warning! Host's vital signs are fluctuating violently!]

[Heart rate: Unable to detect (frozen state)... Energy pulse substitute: Peak value exceeded by 387%!]

[Blood Poison activity: Surge! Diffusion path changed, currently striking main Meridian nodes!]

[External high-energy counter-check detected... Attributes: Extreme Yin/Scorching Filth... Counter-check in progress...]

[Body integrity decreased... 62%... 58%...]

[Core energy passive response... Dark Gold Core sequence... Activity increased...]

[Data stream abnormal... Error... Error...#￥%&... Deleting...]

The last few lines of distorted garbled code flashed by, so fast it felt like a hallucination.

Inside the Ice Cave, blue veins appeared on Xia Lengbai's forehead, and sweat beads froze into fine ice crystals the moment they seeped from her pores.

Controlling these two extreme energies placed a burden on her Meridians and Divine Sense that far exceeded her imagination; she felt as if she were walking a tightrope, with an abyss beneath her feet.

She stared fixedly at Shen Xiao's knee.

Under the extreme scouring of alternating ice and fire, the stubborn Blood Poison defense line finally began to loosen.

Wisps of black Qi, thinner than a strand of hair, like filthy blood forcibly squeezed from a crack in a stone, tremblingly detached from the ice layer's bondage. As soon as they touched the cold air inside the Ice Cave, they emitted a "hiss" and dissipated into a wisp of foul-smelling blue smoke.

Effective!

Xia Lengbai's spirit lifted slightly, and just as she was about to increase the intensity—

She "sensed" an anomaly.

Deep within Shen Xiao's Dantian, that dormant Dark Gold Core seemed to have been awakened by this extreme stimulation of internal and external attacks.

It began to rotate. Slowly, but with an unquestionable, savage rhythm.

A weak but incredibly pure suction force radiated from that core.

This suction force did not target the spiritual power guided by Xia Lengbai but precisely captured those scattered, complex energies mixed with Blood Poison remnants and cold spiritual power, drawing them in bit by bit like a whale swallowing water, submerging them into that dark golden glimmer.

Devouring? Conversion?

Xia Lengbai's pupils shrank, and her heart felt as if it were being gripped by a cold hand.

She could not understand the operating principle of this Dark Gold Core, but the eeriness and dominance it displayed at this moment far exceeded her expectations.

It did not resemble a Righteous Path Cultivation Technique, nor even a common Demonic Technique; it was more like some... higher-order, ravenous instinct for plunder!

Just at the moment her focus wavered because of this discovery!

The anomaly happened!

Perhaps the energy collision within Shen Xiao was too intense, or perhaps the "feeding" of the Dark Gold Core had disrupted the energy field.

An extremely weak wisp of cold spiritual power originating from within Shen Xiao (the very part Xia Lengbai had previously probed), mixed with a trace of extremely concentrated Blood Poison residue that had not been completely devoured, actually followed the spiritual power connection that had not yet been fully severed, like a cunning poisonous snake, and suddenly recoiled!

It was too fast!

Xia Lengbai only felt a piercing, bone-chilling numbness and itch at the tip of her right index finger, as if countless ice needles had instantly pierced into her bone marrow and were rapidly spreading upward along her Bloodline!

"Hmph!"

She let out a muffled groan, made a decisive decision, and forcibly severed all spiritual power connections within Shen Xiao's body.

Stumbling backward, she only steadied herself when her back hit the cold cave wall.

She lowered her head and looked at her right hand.

The entire palm, in just two or three breaths, had already turned an abnormal blue-black, like the color of frostbite and decay, and was eroding toward her forearm at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The bone-chilling numbness and itch mixed together, bringing a strange, burning-like pain.

The last trace of color drained from Xia Lengbai's face.

She bit her lower lip hard, almost drawing blood, and gripped her right wrist with her left hand, her fingertips pressing hard in an attempt to physically block the spread of the poison.

It was useless.

The blue-black color was still slowly but firmly creeping upward.

She lifted her eyes and looked toward the ice sculpture.

The light of the warm jade marrow reflected on her pale face and the sudden, ruthless determination gathering in her eyes.

Must... suppress it first.