212: A desperate battle on the frozen plains, the Xuanbing Emperor Puppet

The scorching heat of the Western Regions' yellow sands had not yet faded from Xiao Chen's senses when his figure tore through space, stepping into the Northern Reaches—a realm of extreme cold perpetually shrouded in ice, snow, and deathly silence.

The biting cold wind, like billions of ice blades, howled across the heavens and earth. As far as the eye could see, there was only an endless expanse of stark white. Continuous ice mountains, like the fangs of giant beasts, pierced the gloomy sky. The air was filled with an extreme chill that could freeze even the soul.

A thin layer of frost instantly condensed on Xiao Chen's cyan robes, but it was quietly melted away by the Chaos Qi naturally circulating around him. His gaze, like two solid beams of light, pierced through layers of wind and snow, locking onto a majestic, towering Xuanbing Mountain Range in the distance!

That was precisely where he sensed the sixth ancient pagoda! And also, the resting place of the second Emperor Puppet!

"Such a dense ice-elemental Emperor's might..." Xiao Chen's eyes were grave. Unlike the heavy earth laws of the Emperor Puppet in the Western Regions, the Emperor's might here was purer and more domineering! It seemed to want to eternally freeze all things in the world!

He could feel that deep within the mountain range, an even colder and more violent will than that of the Yellow Sand Emperor Puppet was awakening! And its awakening speed was much faster than that of the one in the Western Regions! It seemed something was accelerating this process!

"Must be quick!" Xiao Chen no longer hesitated, his figure transforming into a streak of light that tore through the wind and snow, heading straight for the Xuanbing Mountain Range!

Boom—!!!

Just as he approached the mountain range, a sudden change occurred!

The entire mountain range trembled violently! The millennium-old Xuanbing on the mountain peak exploded with a roar! An ice-blue figure, a thousand zhang tall, burst forth from the ice, standing between heaven and earth!

It was the skeleton of a giant ape! Its entire body was composed of crystal-clear Xuanbing bones, like the most perfect work of art! But the aura it emitted was ferociously monstrous! In its empty eye sockets, two clusters of eerie blue, extreme cold soul flames burned! Embedded in its chest was a constantly pulsating ice crystal heart, each beat drawing in the ice and snow energy from a ten-thousand-li radius, causing it to converge wildly! A terrifying pressure, comparable to the early stage of a Seven-Star Dou Saint, swept out like a tsunami!

"Xuanbing Emperor Puppet!" Xiao Chen's pupils constricted! The strength of this Emperor Puppet was even greater than estimated in the intelligence! Moreover, its awakening level also far exceeded expectations! It seemed as if it had been waiting for a long time!

Roar—!!!

The Xuanbing Emperor Puppet let out a roar that shattered space! It seemed to have no intention of communicating whatsoever! Its massive ice palm suddenly lifted! In its palm, endless cold qi condensed into an ice crystal giant axe that spanned heaven and earth!

"Emperor Art: Eternal Freeze Era!"

The giant axe ruthlessly struck down!

There was no magnificent light, no deafening sound! Only an absolute silence! Wherever the axe blade passed, space, time, and even laws seemed to be frozen! A dark, icy trajectory spread towards Xiao Chen! After the trajectory, everything turned into eternal stillness!

"Freezing laws?!" Xiao Chen's heart was chilled! The Xuanbing Emperor Puppet's attack actually involved absolute freezing at the law level! It was ten, a hundred times more terrifying than simple energy attacks!

"Chaos Sacred Realm... open!" Xiao Chen dared not be careless in the slightest, his five-hundred-zhang Sacred Realm fully unfurled! The power of the world transformed into an invisible barrier, standing before him!

Crackling—!!!

The freezing trajectory collided with the barrier of the Chaos Sacred Realm! A piercing freezing sound rang out! The Chaos barrier was covered with a layer of dark, solid ice at a visible speed! And it rapidly spread inward, even causing the Chaos Qi within the realm to become sluggish!

"Such domineering freezing power!" Xiao Chen's eyes sharpened, his thoughts racing! Within the Chaos Sacred Realm, the four great laws of earth, water, fire, and wind operated frantically! Especially the law of fire and the purifying power of the Chaos Origin were pushed to their limits!

"Burning Heaven... Boiling Seas! Chaos... Transforming Ice!"

Hum—!

In the center of the Sacred Realm, an illusory, chaotic great sun suddenly rose! Endless light and heat erupted! The spreading dark, solid ice made a "hissing" sound, rapidly melting and evaporating! But the power of the laws contained within the freezing trajectory was extremely stubborn, and the speed of melting was far slower than the speed of freezing!

"Cannot... passively defend!" Xiao Chen made a judgment instantly! His figure flickered, actively meeting the freezing trajectory! At the same time, his hands rapidly formed seals!

"Origin Qi as the guide! Chaos... Heaven-Opening... Second Form... World-Splitting... Divine Spear!"

A gray divine spear, entirely composed of highly compressed Chaos Qi, appeared in Xiao Chen's hand! At the tip of the spear, a point of extreme cold light flickered! That was the sharpness that could split open worlds!

"Break!"

Xiao Chen roared, throwing the divine spear with all his might!

Hiss—!!!

The divine spear tore through the frozen space, accurately striking the core of the freezing trajectory!

Boom—!!!!!

This time, an earth-shattering roar erupted! The supreme sharpness of the World-Splitting Divine Spear and the absolute freezing of the Eternal Freeze Era collided head-on! A clash of laws! An annihilation of concepts!

The dark, freezing trajectory broke in the middle! It transformed into scattered ice crystals and dissipated! And the World-Splitting Divine Spear also exhausted its power, slowly dissipating!

"Roar!" The Xuanbing Emperor Puppet, seeing its attack broken, let out an angry roar! Its massive body suddenly took a step forward! All the ice and snow of the Northern Reaches seemed to come alive! Transforming into countless ice dragons, ice phoenixes, and ice giants, they surged overwhelmingly towards Xiao Chen!

"Endless!" Xiao Chen's eyes were cold, and the Chaos Sacred Realm expanded again! Enveloping all those endless ice and snow creatures! The power of the world crushed down!

Bang bang bang bang—!!!

The ice and snow creatures shattered one after another! But for every one that shattered, more ice and snow condensed into form! As if endless!

"Its power... is connected to the origin of these Northern Reaches!" Xiao Chen immediately noticed the key! In this land of extreme cold, this Xuanbing Emperor Puppet almost possessed an inexhaustible supply of power!

"Must... sever its connection to this place! Or... kill it in one blow!"

A cold light flashed in Xiao Chen's eyes! He no longer entangled himself with those ice and snow creatures! His figure flickered like a ghost! Evading attack after attack! He charged directly towards the Xuanbing Emperor Puppet's main body!

"Chaos... Void Return... Domain... unfold!"

He concentrated the power of the Chaos Sacred Realm to the extreme! Forming an absolute domain only a hundred zhang in scope! Within the domain, all laws were under his control! The power of Void Return permeated, beginning to forcibly erode the ice-elemental laws around the Xuanbing Emperor Puppet!

"Roar!" The Xuanbing Emperor Puppet clearly felt the threat! The ice crystal heart in its chest pulsed frantically! Even more massive cold qi gushed out, attempting to freeze this Void Return Domain!

"Now is... the time!" Xiao Chen seized the opportunity! He completely integrated the power of the origin qi seed within him with the origin of the Chaos Sacred Realm!

"By my soul! Sacrifice my blood! Chaos... Origin Sacrifice... Heaven-Opening... Third Form... and also... the final form..."

"—Primordial... Judgment... Chaos... Opening!"

Xiao Chen, his entire being, seemed to transform into a giant axe that split heaven and earth! A supreme artistic conception of the primordial beginning, transcending all laws, erupted!

This strike drained nearly half of his Saint power and soul power! But its might also reached an unprecedented peak!

"Slash—!!!"

A light, whose color could not be described and whose form could not be depicted, was unleashed from Xiao Chen's hand! Where the light passed, there was no sound, no fluctuation! Only a silence where all things returned to their origin!

The massive body of the Xuanbing Emperor Puppet, before this light, melted away silently like ice and snow in the sunlight! Along with the ice crystal heart in its chest, and its connection to the origin of the Northern Reaches, all were completely erased from their very roots by this single strike!

The guardian of the sixth ancient pagoda, the Xuanbing Emperor Puppet, fell!

"Pfft—!" Xiao Chen landed, his face a shade paler, a trace of blood overflowing from the corner of his mouth. The consumption of this ultimate strike was immense! But the effect was also significant!

He looked up, gazing towards the south and east. There, two other equally powerful Emperor Puppet auras were rapidly approaching!

"It seems... Pavilion Master Tianji... wants them... to join forces... against me..." Xiao Chen wiped away the blood from his lips, but the fighting spirit in his eyes grew even higher!

"Then... come!"