“The Frigid Depths, the shattered domain of Xuan Yu, the Ice Emperor...” As Yu Suying from the Profound Purity Palace gazed at the frozen lake with a frigid mist rising from it, her eyes suddenly lit up.
WHOOs.h.!.+
The huge silver s.h.i.+p from the Profound Purity Palace returned after having left for quite some time.
Standing at the prow of the s.h.i.+p was a silver-robed young woman with an icy aura, who seemed to only be in her early twenties.
“Senior Martial Sister!” she called out eagerly.
Yu Suying was both surprised and elated to see her. “Little Qing! Why are you here?”
Han Qing was Yu Suying’s junior martial sister. She was currently at the late Saint domain, and she happened to practice ice power.
Yu Suying had previously agreed to help Lu Qingchen deal with Zu Guangyao and the others from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace. The reason was twofold. For one thing, she wanted to hurt the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace. For another, she had hoped to obtain some precious ice-attributed treasures from the Extreme Coldness Palace in order to help Han Qing make her next breakthrough in cultivation.
Yu Suying had complicated emotions towards this junior martial sister of hers.
Her master had taken Han Qing in on her last exploration trip. She had died shortly after her return.
After her demise, Yu Suying had become the sectmaster of the Profound Purity Palace, and quickly advanced to the G.o.d domain.
She was more like a master to Han Qing, even though they practiced different incantations.
However, Han Qing’s cultivation talent had turned out to be amazing. Yu Suying had a feeling that her talent in ice power cultivation even exceeded that of the Ice Soul Divine Daughter from the Ice Soul Divine Sect.
In fact, Han Qing had indeed reached the late Saint domain at a shockingly young age.
She was far younger than the Ice Soul Divine Daughter.
“A late Saint domain ice power cultivator.” Nie Tian took a glance at Han Qing from afar, and found that the woman had icy jade-like skin. Her appearance was every bit as striking as that of the Ice Soul Divine Daughter. Even Yu Suying was outshone by her good looks. He wondered who she was.
“Hmm?!” Nie Tian’s eyes suddenly lit up, his life bloodline detecting something.
As he closely examined her with his bloodline power, he noticed that Han Qing’s bones were clearly different than others’. Not only did they carry ice power, but they contained what looked like tiny icy crystals.
Those tiny icy crystals...
A wild suspicion entered Nie Tian’s mind.
Grand Monarch Ice Bones let out a cold harrumph. Holding his Annihilation Bone Spear, he floated to the center of the Frigid Depths and said aloud, “Go now! The Domain of Frigid Depths will be my personal domain from now on!”
Chu Rui didn’t say a word. Instead, he secretly communicated with Nie Tian through his divine will.
“Let’s avoid fighting him now. We can come back to kill him and retake this domain after we’ve dealt with our other problems, or when either the grand elder or the sectmaster return.
“Besides, the Remote Beginning Heavenly Sect have entered the Domain of Heaven Python. They’re not easy to deal with. Delay means potential trouble.”
Chu Rui tried to persuade Nie Tian to restrain himself for now. Once they solved their other problems, they could come back to deal with Grand Monarch Ice Bones.
Mo Qianfan and Yin Xingtian also fixed their eyes on him.
Nie Tian nodded and said, “Alright, let’s get out of here... for now.”
Immediately afterwards, he flew towards the huge silver s.h.i.+p from the Profound Purity Palace, escorted by Yin Xingtian.
Mo Qianfan and Yu Suying were also vigilant, lest Grand Monarch Ice Bones surprise them with a strike.
Grand Monarch Ice Bones snorted coldly. “It’s hard to say whether your sect itself will be able to survive this tribulation. Perhaps the other three great sects have also noticed the existence of that secret force. It won’t be long before the entire human world is plunged into chaos.”
Finally, Nie Tian and the others safely returned to the huge silver s.h.i.+p from the Profound Purity Palace.
As Grand Monarch Ice Bones spoke, Lu Qingchen and the others from the Extreme Coldness Palace remained silent, knowing that this wasn’t a good time to insult Nie Tian and the others.
“Let’s get out of here, Sectmaster Yu,” Nie Tian said.
Yu Suying nodded and gave the order with a wave of her hand. Then, the huge s.h.i.+p that had been partially dented by Grand Monarch Ice Bones’ fist strike sailed off, giving rise to loud rumbles.
Han Qing frowned slightly. With a curious look in her bright eyes, she got a measure of Nie Tian. “So you’re Nie Tian, the seventh Son of the Stars of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace my senior martial sister told me about? But you’re only at the Soul realm.”
“His actual battle prowess far exceeds his cultivation base,” Yu Suying said.
Surprisingly blunt, Han Qing gave voice to whatever came to mind. “He seems very weak to me. Are you sure he’ll be able to help me break through to the G.o.d domain? I’ve always felt that I can do it on my own. I wanted to make the attempt a long time ago. It’s just that you weren’t certain about it, and forbade me...”
Han Qing grunted with discontent.
Yu Suying gave her a stern look and said, “Your cultivation base advances far too rapidly, so I’ve always suspected that there’s something wrong, and that your cultivation base isn’t stable. The breakthrough from the Saint domain to the G.o.d domain is the most dangerous tribulation we have to transcend as cultivators. How many powerful experts have died during that process? Your breakthroughs happened far too quickly, which means your cultivation base has to be unstable. I won’t allow you to make an attempt before you have an eighty percent success rate!”
Han Qing nodded obediently. “Alright, but I think my cultivation base is stable enough.”
RUMBLE!
The huge silver s.h.i.+p sailed farther and farther away from the Frigid Depths, where Grand Monarch Ice Bones had taken up quarters.
At this moment, Nie Tian suddenly said, “Your junior martial sister is right, Sectmaster Yu. Her cultivation base is indeed rather stable. The way I see it, she might very well be able to break through into the G.o.d domain if she makes an attempt now.”
Yu Suying jerked her head towards Nie Tian and said, “Nie Tian, other than the fact that the Extreme Coldness Palace has been colluding with Grand Monarch Ice Bones, another important reason why I agreed to help you at the Frigid Depths is that I’m hoping you’ll help with my junior martial sister’s breakthrough.”
“If you don’t mind, could I examine her with my power?” Nie Tian asked.
“Examine her? How?” Yu Suying asked, looking suspicious.
The other Saint domain experts from the Profound Purity Palace also found this baffling, as they all wondered how a Soul realm cultivator could possibly examine a Saint domain cultivator.
Looking at Nie Tian, Han Qing muttered, “Such a weird guy.”
Nie Tian took a deep breath before stepping to Han Qing and saying seriously, “She may have a great secret hidden inside of her. Please try not to resist my flesh aura. I’d like to try something.”
Han Qing turned to fix Yu Suying with an inquiring gaze. “Senior martial sister...”
“Let him do it,” Yu Suying said with determination.
“Alright,” Han Qing said, looking reluctant.
In the next moment, Nie Tian reached out and placed his hand on the back of Han Qing’s left hand.
Upon contact, he felt bone-piercing coldness, as if he was touching the Frigid Depths’s frozen surface. He couldn’t stop his teeth from chattering.
Then, a wisp of his flesh aura flew out of his palm into the back of Han Qing’s hand, before going up her arm through her meridians.
Nothing in this universe had a keener perception of unusual qi and blood than his life bloodline.
Therefore, Nie Tian had very keen perception of others’ bloodlines and flesh auras.
The wisp of his flesh aura roamed Han Qing’s insides. After flowing through her meridians and into her bones, it eventually reached her heart.
That was when Nie Tian’s brow gradually furrowed.
Everyone had their eyes fixed on him, and saw his expression growing stranger and stranger.
Even Han Qing herself started to wonder if there was something wrong with her.
Otherwise, why would the expression of this Son of the Stars become increasingly grim and astonished.
Nie Tian’s eyes snapped open, deep astonishment filling his eyes. “Who, who did this...?”
There was an extremely faint ice aura in Han Qing’s blood, meridians, and bones.
Such an aura seemed to have been formed by an extremely subtle bloodline power, not spiritual power from her spiritual sea in her dantian region.
Therefore, only after Han Qing had put her guard down, allowing him to send in a wisp of his life bloodline aura with the keenest perception, had he been able to find signs of it.
He also felt that there was an extremely complicated and mysterious converting mechanism inside of her, which seemed to be constructed from frigid cold qi.
This converting mechanism had gradually suppressed and converted Han Qing’s innate cold bloodline, and redirected the cold power that should have been used to strengthen her bloodline to her spiritual sea in her dantian region, which had allowed her to achieve great results with little effort, and make faster breakthroughs in cultivation than ordinary cultivators.
Though her cold bloodline wouldn’t be able to upgrade, its wonders had been used to strengthen her spiritual sea, allowing her cultivation base to skyrocket.
That was right. Like him, Han Qing was also a hybrid!