22: Chapter 22 Mutation

The Ziyang Elder's corpse slammed onto the ice, and his blood was quickly frozen into red ice shards.

The entire scene was deathly silent.

Li Yifeng stood in the wind and snow, holding his broken sword. Not a single person dared to breathe loudly.

Su Qianxue looked at the plain white figure ahead.

"Sister?" Su Qianxue called out softly.

Gu Han did not respond.

She remained in her previous standing posture, hands hanging naturally, eyes staring straight into the deepest part of the Far North Icefield.

The wind and snow blew against her skirt, but the Lunar Qi surrounding her body showed an extremely subtle disturbance.

Su Qianxue mustered her courage and walked forward to Gu Han's side.

"Sister, the people from Ziyang Holy Land have retreated." Su Qianxue reached out and gently touched Gu Han's sleeve.

Gu Han still had no reaction.

Though her eyes were open, her pupils had lost focus. The shimmering deep blue light was now flickering violently, as if two different forces were clashing within her eyes.

"Girl, get back!" Danqingzi's voice thundered in Su Qianxue's mind.

Su Qianxue was startled and reflexively took two steps back.

"Senior, what's wrong?"

"Something is wrong," Danqingzi's tone was grave. "The aura on her is changing. That extremely cold Origin power is going berserk, yet it's being suppressed by some other force. Her Divine Soul... seems to have a problem."

Eastern Wasteland, Tianxuan Peak Hall.

"Pfft!"

Gu Sheng suddenly bolted up from the main seat, spraying out a mouthful of hot tea.

The teacup fell to the floor and shattered into pieces.

He clutched his head with both hands, his face as pale as paper.

In that instant, it felt as if an iceberg had been shoved into his mind. An incredibly overbearing and pure chill surged back through the Divine Soul connection, nearly freezing his primary consciousness.

Most critically, the connection was severed.

The half of his dual-perspective screen belonging to Gu Han had turned completely into static.

"System!" Gu Sheng roared in his mind, gritting his teeth. "What's going on? Where's my account? Where's my massive, max-level account?!"

The System light screen immediately popped up.

[Ding.]

[Detected unknown Divine Soul anomaly in the Clone's shell.]

[The Divine Soul connection channel is experiencing strong rejection. A safety disconnection mechanism has been automatically activated to protect the host's original Divine Soul from damage.]

"Rejection?" Gu Sheng kicked away a piece of broken porcelain. "Isn't this shell a dead thing you fished out of the River of Time? Where did the rejection come from? Are you selling defective products?"

[great thousand creation system solemnly declares: all products from this System are of the highest quality.]

[Emergency scan analysis: When the original owner of this shell (Luo Qingxue) fell, a sliver of her true spirit fragment hid in the deepest part of the Lunar Origin.]

[Due to the host controlling the shell near the Xuanming Hall ruins, stimulated by the strong resonance of the Far North Icefield's ancient Law and her Lifebound Treasure, the true spirit fragment is awakening.]

[In layman's terms: The original account owner is trying to recover their password.]

Gu Sheng was stunned.

Recover the password?

"You didn't clear the bindings when you stole the account?" Gu Sheng was fuming. "Now I'm in the Eastern Wasteland and she's in the Northern Underworld. If this account gets stolen back, who's going to reimburse me for the hundred thousand exchange points and destiny points I invested early on?"

[System Notification: Risks and rewards coexist.]

[Recommendation: The host should take measures as soon as possible. If the original owner's True Spirit fully awakens, there is a high probability it will devour the host's sliver of split soul.]

"Shut up."

Gu Sheng took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

Now was not the time to bicker with the System.

Thousands of Cultivators were gathered at the outskirts of the Far North Icefield. With a Nascent Soul Elder from Ziyang Holy Land dead, a more frenzied retaliation was inevitable. Gu Han was currently in a crashed state, making her a sitting duck.

"Li Yifeng." Gu Sheng immediately issued the highest command through the System to the Personnel Card.

"Take them away. Find a safe place. Protect that shell at all costs."

Far North Icefield.

Li Yifeng's cloudy eyes shifted slightly.

He heard that unquestionable voice in his mind.

The old man didn't speak; he simply raised his left hand, which was holding the broken sword.

The surrounding Loose Cultivators and Ziyang Holy Land Disciples were in a state of extreme terror. Seeing this killing god raise his hand, they were scared out of their wits, thinking he was about to start a slaughter.

"Run!"

Someone shouted, and the crowd instantly scattered, fleeing in all directions like headless flies.

Li Yifeng didn't bother with these ants at all.

He took a step and appeared directly beside Gu Han and Su Qianxue.

Su Qianxue was startled and instinctively wanted to draw her sword.

"Don't move." Li Yifeng's voice was hoarse, carrying an irresistible Sword Intent.

His withered right hand grabbed Su Qianxue's shoulder, while his left hand, holding the broken sword, lightly tapped Gu Han's shoulder with the hilt.

Buzz.

An incredibly sharp sword light shot into the sky.

The sword light tore straight through the swirling snow, and even the fragmented spatial Law of the Far North Icefield were sliced open.

In the next instant.

Enveloped in the sword light, the three of them vanished instantly.

Their speed was so great that even the Divine Sense of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator couldn't track them.

It wasn't until half an incense stick's time after they had disappeared that the remaining Disciples of Ziyang Holy Land dared to crawl out from the snowdrifts.

They looked at the empty icefield, then at the Elder's corpse sliced in two on the ground, their bodies trembling.

"Quick... send word to the Saint!" one Disciple shrieked. "There is a change in the Northern Underworld! A Soul Transformation Sword Cultivator has appeared!"

Deep within the Far North Icefield.

A hidden underground ice cave.

The sword light dissipated, and Li Yifeng released his grip.

Su Qianxue's legs gave way, and she nearly collapsed. The extreme speed of crossing space just now had sent her internal organs into a churn.

She leaned against the ice wall and retched a few times before finally recovering.

She turned her head to look.

Gu Han was still standing quietly in the center of the ice cave.

Her eyes were closed.

As if she were asleep.

Li Yifeng walked to the cave entrance and sat cross-legged, his broken sword resting across his knees. He closed his eyes, and his Soul Transformation Great Perfection slaughtering Sword Intent sealed off the entire ice cave.

Not even a Snow Mosquito could fly in.

"Senior," Su Qianxue called out to Danqingzi in her heart, "what exactly happened to Sister Gu?"

Danqingzi remained silent for a long time.

"Possession," Danqingzi uttered those two words.

Su Qianxue felt as if she had been struck by lightning.

"Possession? Who is possessing whom?"

"I am not sure either," Danqingzi sighed. "Inside this Miss Gu's body, two completely different Divine Soul forces are clashing. One is the one you were familiar with before, carrying the aura of that 'Young Master Gu'; the other... is very ancient, very cold, and perfectly matches this Lunar MysteriousChar Body."

Su Qianxue clenched her fists.

Looking at Gu Han's cold and peerless face, an indescribable panic welled up in her heart.

If the one who won wasn't the "Sister Gu" who had led her out of Xueluo City, what would she do?