67: Chapter 67 A Poisonous Alliance

Shen Xiao did not reply; a short, choking cough rolled from his throat, carrying a hint of the taste of rust.

The fingers he used to brace himself against the ice surface curled slightly, his nails scraping across the ice layer, emitting a faint "zzzt" sound.

In his Sea of Consciousness, the red light of the System's warning was still flashing frantically, like a heart on the verge of exploding.

[Energy Reserve: 17%] [Forced plunder of high-density aggregate, backlash probability 87%, risk of permanent damage to host's cultivation: High.]

Fuck the risk.

He pressed the tip of his tongue against his palate; the taste of blood mixed with the chill of ice shards made his temples throb with pain.

Yet, his gaze remained locked onto the three Puppets guarding the spring eye, and the four "mobs" on the outer perimeter that were slowly closing the encirclement.

Seven in total, not one less.

The cinnabar red light at the center of their brows was blindingly eerie under the pale light.

"Hey..."

Shen Xiao's voice was very low, carrying the hoarseness from just coughing, yet it clearly penetrated the oppressive humming of spiritual power within the Ice Cave,

"How much longer can you last while suppressing the poison?"

Xia Lengbai did not answer immediately.

She leaned her back against a protruding ice rock, her left fingertips still gripping her right wrist tightly, her knuckles turning blue-white from the force.

After the Puppet had torn her clothing just a moment ago, the blue-black color on her right palm seemed to be stirring again, spreading a millimeter up along her wrist bone, bringing a needle-like, numbing itch.

The cold sweat on her forehead had not yet dried; it slid down her temples and dripped onto her collarbone, the chill making her shiver.

But those eyes, which always held three parts mockery and three parts vigilance, were terrifyingly bright at this moment.

Like two clusters of ghost fire suddenly ignited in a cold night, they were fixed straight onto Shen Xiao's face.

"Cooperate?"

She pulled at the corners of her mouth; the smile was uglier than crying, and every word seemed to be squeezed out from between her teeth,

"Young Master Shen, with the state we are both in now, who can trust whom?

You just 'plundered' my destiny value and memories the second before, and now you want me to turn my back to you the next second?"

Before her voice had faded.

The female ice sculpture Puppet on the right moved.

Without warning or preparation, her five fingers, formed from ice crystals, closed like a blade, carrying a bone-chilling cold wind as she slashed obliquely toward Xia Lengbai's neck!

The angle was tricky, and the speed was so fast that it only left a pale blue afterimage in the air.

Xia Lengbai's pupils shrank, her body instinctively leaning backward, her left heel slamming into the ground as she tried to slide away.

But the burden on her right arm made her movement slower by just a tenth of a second—and it was this insignificant delay!

Rip!

The edge of the ice crystal hand-blade grazed past her left shoulder.

Her thin clothing was torn open like paper, revealing the fair skin beneath.

There was no blood.

Because the moment the wound touched the extreme cold clinging to the blade's edge, the flesh turned an ominous blue-black, rapidly losing sensation, and even the blood was frozen within the capillaries.

Xia Lengbai groaned, staggering back two steps, her back slamming heavily against the ice rock, causing ice shavings to fall with a rustle.

The blue-black patch on her left shoulder was spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye, bringing a teeth-aching numbness as it eroded toward her heart meridian.

"Fuck..."

She bit the tip of her tongue, using the sharp pain to force herself to steady her mind, while her right hand almost crushed her own wrist bone.

Just at this moment.

Shen Xiao moved.

He didn't look at the dangerous situation on Xia Lengbai's side at all, nor did he pay attention to the other two Puppets slowly approaching from the front and left.

He knelt half-way on the ice, raising his left hand with his five fingers spread, not targeting any specific Puppet, but rather the blue-black, stubborn aura on Xia Lengbai's right wrist—the mass of cold Blood Poison intertwined with her own ice-type spiritual power!

The Dark Gold Core was activated once again.

This time, the suction was extremely refined, like the most precise probe, reaching across a distance of several feet to accurately "bite" onto that small wisp of the most active, darkest black aura on Xia Lengbai's wrist.

"Urgh!"

Xia Lengbai shuddered all over, looking down abruptly at her wrist.

She clearly felt that the foreign energy, which was like a maggot on a tarsal bone and impossible to shake no matter how she flushed it with her spiritual power, was actually being rudely pulled and stripped away by an external force!

Although it was only a sliver, the bone-deep, cold, numbing itch was indeed reduced by an insignificant amount.

But what followed was an even deeper chill and shock.

He... can he really absorb this thing?

This combination of ancient Blood Poison and the cold spiritual power of the Formation, which even she, a proper Cultivator with an ice Spiritual Root, could barely suppress—how could this guy...

"I will temporarily absorb part of the poison."

Shen Xiao's complexion turned visibly gray after activating the core, his lips devoid of color, but those pitch-black eyes were burning with a nearly insane light,

"Use all your power to freeze the spring eye! Even if you can only freeze it for one breath!"

His speech was as fast as popping beans, each word hammering onto the ice surface.

Xia Lengbai's eyes shifted rapidly.

Suspicion, weighing of options, killing intent, and a hint of ruthlessness born from being driven to a dead end intertwined and flashed in her eyes.

Without Shen Xiao's weird devouring ability to restrain the Puppets and alleviate the poison, she could not hold on alone and would sooner or later be worn to death.

If they didn't destroy this damned Formation eye, both of them would perish here today, becoming the same as those seven ice sculptures outside.

The thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant.

"...Fine!"

She burst this word out from between her teeth, as if she had used up all her strength.

No more hesitation, no more holding back.

The left hand that had been gripping her right wrist suddenly let go, her ten fingers flying in front of her chest, forming a hand seal so complex it was dazzling.

With every change in posture, the temperature inside the Ice Cave plummeted by a degree, and the permeating cold air, like subjects summoned by a king, frantically gathered in front of her.

"Hum."

The air vibrated, emitting a low, mournful sound.

In front of her, a point of ice-blue light lit up out of thin air, then rapidly elongated and solidified.

That was not an ordinary ice spike or ice arrow, but a long ice crystal arrow formed entirely from extreme low temperature, crystal clear throughout, as if it had frozen the light itself within.

The arrow body was slender, the tip sharp; the moment it appeared, even the surrounding space produced fine, distorted ripples, light being pulled and bent as it passed.

Xia Lengbai's face turned paper-white instantly, the veins on her forehead bulging, and her body swayed visibly.

Forcibly extracting and compressing such a massive amount of cold air had almost emptied her already depleted spiritual power. Even more terrifyingly, because the poison on her right wrist had lost the suppression of her spiritual power, it surged upward like a floodgate opening, suddenly rushing up a section and directly passing the middle of her forearm!

She bit down harder on her tongue, the metallic, sweet taste of blood spreading in her mouth, buying a moment of clarity.

At the same time, a suppressed, beast-like low roar issued from Shen Xiao's throat.

"Stop... for me!"

His left hand, which had been grasping at the air, suddenly pressed down!

In his Sea of Consciousness, the Dark Gold Core spun frantically at an unprecedented speed, fine cracks even appearing on its surface, releasing a nearly violent suction.

This time, it was no longer targeting the cinnabar at the brow of any single Puppet, but indiscriminately enveloping the cold spiritual power—originating from the same source as the Formation—that was radiating from all seven ice sculpture Puppets in the Ice Cave!

An invisible ripple surged out with Shen Xiao as the center.

The four Puppets that were closing in from different directions all froze in unison.

Even the three guard Puppets flanking the spring eye, whose auras were clearly stronger, had the cinnabar red light at their brows flickering violently and uncertainly; the spiritual power circulating on them was being frantically siphoned as if by invisible tubes, appearing obviously disordered and sluggish.

The flow of spiritual power throughout the entire Ice Cave was forcibly disrupted for an instant by Shen Xiao's unreasonable, plundering-style devouring!

Now!

A fierce look flashed in Xia Lengbai's eyes; she had long been ready, and toward the direction of the spring eye, she let go gently.

There was no sound.

That long ice crystal arrow, which had condensed most of her remaining spiritual power and even pulled on a portion of her Origin cold air, vanished.

No, it did not vanish.

It was just fast to the extreme, leaving no afterimage in sight.

There was only a faint, pale trajectory, as if space itself had been frozen and cracked, shooting straight toward the spring eye beneath the feet of those three Puppets, where bone-chilling cold currents were bubbling and churning!