Killed By One Slap!
Among the seven invading Gu Immortals, Fang Yuan most wants to face Xue Song Zi. He has the lowest cultivation level, and likely the weakest battle strength. Fang Yuan has fought him before, when the strength path phantom army beat him back, so he already knows his foundation. ch. 874
Still cautious, his first concern is that fighting Xue Song Zi in a larger battle would very likely draw the other side’s reinforcements, and his second is Xue Song Zi’s grown battle strength. Reaching this far without mortal Gu means he now holds at least one Immortal Gu, a secret given away by the true immortal killer move behind his speed. Fang Yuan resolves to plot and sneak attack him, securing his advantage before reinforcement can matter. He is well practiced in turning malice against others. ch. 874
Xue Song Zi speeds through the fog, thrilled by the difference between flying on an immortal killer move and a mortal one. Part of his mind stays on his immortal aperture, where the ice heart Immortal Gu sits: a massive, horse-sized icy statue shaped like a heart, radiating frost energy. The Gu is not his own. Shadow Sect’s Qin Bai Sheng lent it to him, along with several immortal killer moves for attack, defense, movement, healing and more. Xue Song Zi cultivates snow path, a close twin of ice path, so the Gu and its moves suit him well. Qin Bai Sheng has promised to give it to him outright if the mission succeeds. Having once subsidized Ma tribe’s Imperial Court campaign to hunt wooden chicken Immortal Gu, Xue Song Zi wants this one even more. ch. 874
He halts, overjoyed: a cloud building stands before him in the endless white fog. His mission from Qin Bai Sheng is to find and destroy the twelve cloud buildings’ formation cores. Destroying one alone would be a huge merit, worth quite a sum under their agreement. He knows each building is guarded by a desolate beast. A desolate beast descends to meet him: the yellow jade lion, elephant-sized, thickly furred, the beast Fang Yuan once picked up in Starry Sky grotto-heaven and gave to Lang Ya land spirit. It charges in silence, lightning-fast. ch. 874
Excited but wary, Xue Song Zi retreats and blankets it with the immortal killer move cold condensed snow, the only kind usable here. The lion shakes off most of the frost and keeps coming. He keeps retreating, an ice trail slowing its charge. Then he slashes from afar with penetrating ice blade, freezing its blood and spreading frost through its body. ch. 874
The lion roars, its claws igniting on mortal Gu the land spirit bred into it. But the frost still saps its speed, and its wounds pile up until it coughs frozen blood. Xue Song Zi charges the weakened lion. Another penetrating ice blade shatters its armor of light and cuts to the bone, and it collapses. He steps onto its back, lies down, and casts ice heart lock, a thin ice layer that thickens rapidly, freezing its blood, flesh, bones and even its intestines. ch. 874
He notes the move can freeze even a desolate beast, but it expends far too much immortal essence, and he means to stop. Greed changes his mind instead. A living desolate beast fetches great value even in treasure yellow heaven, so he decides to freeze the lion and thaw it later to sell. ch. 874
As he dreams of that profit, the lion explodes beneath him, and a strength path giant hand grabs Xue Song Zi before he escapes. Startled, he raises a thick ice armor, and the hand’s grip cracks it. He detonates the armor, its burst of frost driving the hand back and freeing him. But above him another giant hand is waiting, and with his armor just spent he cannot raise it again in time. It slaps him, and Xue Song Zi is beaten into a lump of meat paste. ch. 874
