135: Chapter 135 The Shattered Star Chart
Dead silence.
The entire underground shelter fell into a deathly silence.
Only that massive Ice Crystal Phoenix remained, standing there quietly, emitting a grim, heart-palpitating chill.
Lin Qingzhi's life-risking strike, [Ice Phoenix · profound ice Soul Suppression], completely frozen Night Crow—this Peak Demon Rank powerhouse—along with the ground beneath him.
The deep blue, crystal-clear profound ice spread from his feet all the way to his chest, turning his entire being into an ice sculpture filled with fear and despair.
The Demonic Power within his body was completely suppressed by that overbearing Ice Phoenix Divine Power.
And the [Frost Toxin] I had previously injected into his body finally erupted completely!
"Crack... crack..."
I could clearly "see" that inside his frozen body, his tough meridians and powerful Demonic Power core were being eroded and destroyed bit by bit by that toxic blend of hallucinations and paralysis, with hideous cracks appearing one after another!
He was finished.
Completely finished.
Lin Qingzhi and I slowly stood up from the ground.
We glanced at each other, our eyes filled with the relief of surviving a disaster and... absolute trust in one another.
We won.
With the bodies of two "ants," we successfully slew a peerless monster who was about to step into the King Rank!
Step by step, we walked toward that "ice sculpture."
Night Crow's obsidian-like eyes were still slowly turning. He looked at us, his eyes no longer filled with his previous arrogance and cruelty, nor with anger and resentment.
Replacing them was a sensation I was all too familiar with—the trembling of a prey!
He was afraid.
I could "see" his frozen soul fluctuating violently.
He was in fear! But not fear of death; he was afraid of losing something more important than life! His gaze was fixed tightly on the storage artifact at his waist!
"Don't... you dare..."
However, just as we were about to draw near, a flash of utterly mad, suicidal determination suddenly crossed his fear-filled eyes!
"...get... anything... from me!"
He let out a soul-deep roar filled with endless malice!
He was actually starting to frantically detonate his own Demonic Power core, which was already covered in cracks!
He intended to use self-detonation to drag us, along with all his secrets, into hell!
"Not good! Retreat!"
I was startled and instinctively tried to pull Lin Qingzhi back.
The self-detonation of a Peak Demon Rank powerhouse was powerful enough to level everything within a radius of several kilometers!
However, Lin Qingzhi stood there, motionless.
She looked at Night Crow, who was frantically detonating his Demonic Power. Her pale, pretty face showed no trace of panic; instead, it curled into a cold, calculating, and mocking sneer.
"Finally willing to use this move?"
It seemed she had long anticipated this step.
She didn't try to stop Night Crow's self-detonation.
She simply raised her jade-white right hand slowly and pointed from a distance toward the storage artifact at Night Crow's waist—the one that had developed a crack earlier due to domain backlash!
This time, she didn't mobilize vast True Essence, but a wisp of Soul Power condensed to the extreme and carrying the divinity of the Ice Phoenix! This wisp of Soul Power was like the thinnest ice needle, following the mental link I sensed fluctuating violently due to the self-detonation, and pierced forward with absolute precision without causing any energy fluctuations!
"Pfft!"
A soft sound!
The link broke!
"No... you..."
A look of unprecedented horror flashed in Night Crow's eyes!
In his wildest dreams, he never imagined that Lin Qingzhi's target wasn't his life, but... something on him that was ten thousand times more important than his life!
However, it was all too late!
Without the support of its master's Demonic Power, and under the impact of the energy from Night Crow's completely out-of-control self-detonation, the storage artifact—which already had cracks—could no longer maintain its stability.
"Bang—!"
A crisp sound, like glass shattering, rang out!
That pitch-black storage artifact suddenly... shattered!
A fragmented ancient map, made of an unknown animal hide emitting a faint sweet and metallic scent and shimmering with brilliant starlight, slowly drifted out from the shattered artifact!
From that map emanated a vast and ancient aura of the same origin as the "three-yuan singularity"!
"No—!!!"
Looking at the fragmented star map slowly drifting down from mid-air, Night Crow let out the most shrill, painful, and desperate roar of his life, filled with endless regret and resentment!
That sound even drowned out the earth-shaking blast produced by his demon core's self-detonation!