Chapter One Hundred: Shoulder It!

Mu Yudie and Diyalan came over, first greeting Beiming Ce, but their attention was immediately drawn to the crystal floating at the center of the great pit.

Both women were radiant with delight, gazing at it in astonishment, clearly sensing the mysterious energy radiating from within.

Any martial artist could tell at a glance that the crystal was no ordinary thing.

Mu Yudie and Diyalan had endured countless perils along the way, outwitted and fought the masters of Dark Nether, and passed through the blockades of the Flame Stone Golems, the Yin Fiends, and the Mud Dragons before finally reaching this place. They had come for this tremendous chance.

As for Shi Yan, the two merely glanced at him once and paid him no further heed.

Beiming Ce wore a mocking, cold smile. He did not even activate his Teleportation Martial Soul, but walked step by step toward Shi Yan.

Shi Yan stood rooted to the ground, motionless, as though waiting for Beiming Ce to make his move.

The Petrification Martial Soul of the Shi Clan had already been secretly unleashed, turning his body a dark brown.

Without a sound, Shi Yan fused the yin force and essence energy within his body, forming three magnetic annihilation fields beside him. With his mind controlling the fields, he slowly spread them apart.

He had witnessed Beiming Ce's Teleportation Martial Soul with his own eyes, and from Han Zhong he had long since learned how formidable it was. Those three magnetic annihilation fields had been prepared precisely to deal with that martial soul.

"You are courting death. Then you have only yourself to blame," Beiming Ce said flatly as he reached ten meters from Shi Yan and slowly raised his left hand.

A mass of icy blue, frigid flame gradually condensed in his palm.

With a flick of his hand, the blue flame transformed into a cold bird with wings spread wide, flying lightly through the air and leaving behind a graceful trail of blue fire.

The cold bird was vivid and lifelike, down to the fine feathers on its tiny, palm-sized head. Threads of blue frostfire pulsed from its beak, gleaming with a bone-deep chill.

Beiming Ce's face was calm and cool, but there was a trace of contempt in his eyes, as though he felt using his Extreme Cold Ice Flame Martial Soul against Shi Yan was somewhat overkill.

Just as the cold bird swooped down like a hunting hawk, a sharp glint flashed in Shi Yan's pupils.

A huge green light sphere, carrying dense yin energy, suddenly shot out from Shi Yan's chest. Lightning crackled around the sphere, and wisps of yin force spilled outward.

Boom!

The green sphere smashed heavily into the cold bird, erupting in a thunderous blast.

Brilliant blue light and green light burst outward like fireworks. The green sphere and the cold bird shattered together, all of them scattering into blue and green light specks.

"Hm?"

Beiming Ce frowned slightly, surprised. He looked deeply at Shi Yan and slowly nodded. "Not bad. No wonder you could take down Mo Zhan. You do have a few tricks."

As soon as those words fell, Beiming Ce's expression darkened.

More Extreme Cold Ice Flame suddenly surged from within his body. Beiming Ce seemed to have become a mass of icy fire, wisps of blue flames continuously gushing out of him and transforming into thousands upon thousands of streaks of frosty brilliance. Like a flock of birds returning to the nest, they surged wildly toward Shi Yan from all directions.

The utterly frigid chill had already seeped over before those frosty streaks even reached him.

Standing still, Shi Yan's heart tightened; he had the eerie sensation that even space itself was being frozen.

The flow of essence energy within his body also began to slow under the cold, the chill penetrating deep into his bones until his sinews and marrow seemed nearly stiff with frost.

At that very moment, however, a strange warmth emerged from his flesh and bones, and under the assault of the cold his body actually began to defend itself on its own.

The Immortal Martial Soul.

Shi Yan's eyes brightened, and delight surged uncontrollably within him.

That warmth flashed through him like lightning, sweeping across his entire body in an instant. In the next moment, the cold within Shi Yan was completely driven out, and he was no longer affected by the frigid energy.

All this happened in the blink of an eye. By the time Shi Yan returned to normal, the thousands upon thousands of frosty streaks were already upon him.

"Yin Wall."

A green light barrier formed abruptly beside him. Built from yin force, it shimmered with dazzling light, eerie and ghostly.

Like an upside-down sea bowl pressed against the ground, the Yin Wall firmly enveloped Shi Yan. Thin and translucent, its glow faintly visible, it allowed Shi Yan to see Beiming Ce clearly ten meters away.

Although the Profound Yin Art was only a mundane martial technique, it could absorb the yin energy of heaven and earth to form Yin Vortices and Yin Pearls.

The Profound Yin Art was a technique for using yin energy. With the aid of the Yin Vortex and Yin Pearls, Shi Yan could instantly shape yin energy into all manner of offensive and defensive techniques. As long as the Yin Pearls remained intact, yin energy could continue to gush endlessly from within his body, enough to deal with many attacks.

This Yin Wall was refined from yin energy, much like how essence energy powered the Blacklight Shield. Having mastered the Profound Yin Art, Shi Yan only tried it once and discovered that it could produce all kinds of special offensive and defensive powers of varying strengths.

As long as one was willing to explore, the Profound Yin Art seemed capable of bringing endless surprises.

Pitter-patter, pitter-patter.

Waves of frosty streaks shot over and landed upon the radiant green Yin Wall, only to be neutralized and dissolved by the yin force within it.

Beiming Ce's Extreme Cold Ice Flame Martial Soul was actually unable to freeze the Yin Wall in an instant, much less injure Shi Yan beneath it.

Shi Yan had not even used negative power yet.

Merely the Yin Wall formed by the yin force stirred up by the Yin Pearls within his body seemed enough to restrain the Extreme Cold Ice Flame Martial Soul. Even so, he could clearly feel the light points of yin force within the Yin Vortex diminishing rapidly.

The yin force of the Profound Yin Art could not be replenished by gathering heaven and earth essence alone; only by collecting more yin energy could it grow stronger.

Whatever was consumed was lost. Unless one found a special place rich in yin energy, the Yin Pearls' power would not increase on its own.

However, Shi Yan had just swept away the heaven-and-earth yin energy that had covered the Absolute Yin Flatlands for thousands of years. The six Yin Pearls he formed contained such terrifying reserves of yin force that he could calmly withstand the slow corrosion and assault of Beiming Ce's Extreme Cold Ice Flame Martial Soul.

One frosty streak after another struck the green Yin Wall. The icy current seeped through the barrier, only to be quickly dissolved by the surging yin force within.

Thus, the battle between Beiming Ce and Shi Yan actually fell into a stalemate from the very beginning.

Beiming Ce did not believe that the green barrier Shi Yan had formed could withstand the chill of his Extreme Cold Ice Flame. In his eyes, Shi Yan, merely at the First Sky of the Human Realm, could last at most a few seconds.

He did not know that Shi Yan had once again taken a step forward and had already entered the Second Sky of the Human Realm.

Therefore, he kept urging more of the Extreme Cold Ice Flame outward, turning it into even more frosty streaks to hammer against Shi Yan's green barrier.

Shi Yan had absorbed so much yin energy from heaven and earth that he had formed six Yin Pearls containing a tremendous amount of yin force. In a battle of attrition alone, he had no fear of Beiming Ce in the Hundred Tribulations Realm.

Not to mention, he still had not used the negative power within his body.

Shi Yan stood with complete confidence, and in fact was rather pleased to keep wearing Beiming Ce down like this.

Mu Yudie and Diyalan stared blankly at the battle between Beiming Ce and Shi Yan, their pretty faces full of curiosity.

They knew very well how strong Beiming Ce was.

A genius in the Hundred Tribulations Realm, cultivating both of his martial souls with the deepest and most profound techniques of the Beiming Clan, he could truly be called a heaven-blessed prodigy.

Even though Beiming Ce was only at the First Sky of the Hundred Tribulations Realm, he could still firmly defeat a martial artist at the Second Sky. Even against someone at the Third Sky, he would not necessarily lose.

Yet in his clash with this youth of the Shi Clan, Beiming Ce's Extreme Cold Ice Flame Martial Soul could not even break through the barrier the other had formed.

That was something Mu Yudie and Diyalan could not make sense of.

Back at the divine stone plaza martial contest, the two women had indeed been deeply impressed by Shi Yan's ferocity, but at that time he had merely been at the Third Sky of the Innate Realm.

Only two months had passed since the contest, and even if Shi Yan were a peerless talent, at most he should have broken through to the First Sky of the Human Realm.

How could a martial artist at the First Sky of the Human Realm possibly withstand Beiming Ce?

Watching Shi Yan stand unshaken beneath Beiming Ce's Extreme Cold Ice Flame, showing not the slightest sign of defeat, the two women were secretly astonished. The looks they cast at Shi Yan had become strangely complex.

Five minutes. Ten minutes. Half an hour.

Half an hour later, the Yin Wall enveloping Shi Yan still had not been broken.

Shi Yan remained calm and composed, his expression cold, without a trace of impatience. He was more than willing to continue.

Beiming Ce, however, could no longer stand it.

After a brief pause, he withdrew his Extreme Cold Ice Flame Martial Soul with a frosty face and ceased his attack, saying coldly, "I cannot be bothered to waste time with you."

He slowly drew out a strange longsword of crimson and ice-blue.

The Heaven-Splitting Sword.

Mu Yudie and Diyalan both drew in a sharp breath. When they looked at Shi Yan again, pity and regret flickered in their eyes, as though they had already concluded that Shi Yan was dead for sure.

The Heaven-Splitting Sword was a spirit-grade weapon. It had originally belonged to Beiming Shang, who had relied on the Beiming Clan's Extreme Cold Ice Flame Martial Soul to enter the depths of a volcano ten thousand zhang deep, where he spent three years tempering it with the earth fire of the volcano and the Extreme Cold Ice Flame.

The sword body of the Heaven-Splitting Sword was split into two colors down the middle: one side fiery red, the other ice blue, carrying both earth fire and Extreme Cold Ice Flame attributes.

With the Heaven-Splitting Sword in hand, Beiming Shang had swept across Skyfall City and never met an opponent. Not only was the Heaven-Splitting Sword indestructible and incomparably sharp, it also bore the dual attributes of earth fire and Extreme Cold Ice Flame.

Any martial artist touched by the Heaven-Splitting Sword would first be frozen solid, then melted by the terrifying heat of the earth fire. It was exceedingly dreadful.

Mu Yudie and Diyalan had both witnessed the sword's power before and knew all too well how terrifying it was.

Thus, the moment the Heaven-Splitting Sword appeared, the two women instinctively thought Shi Yan was finished.

Teleportation.

Beiming Ce gave a low cry in his heart. Gripping the Heaven-Splitting Sword, he appeared in an instant before Shi Yan and slashed down. Two strange glints, crimson and ice-blue, flashed through the void.

Sizzle.

The Yin Wall was split cleanly in two, unable to withstand the sharpness of the Heaven-Splitting Sword after all.

Shi Yan was shocked inwardly. He poured out all his strength and instantly flashed into the magnetic annihilation field behind him.

At the same time, the other two magnetic annihilation fields drifted swiftly over and merged into one with the field where Shi Yan stood.

That patch of space suddenly twisted strangely, as though it had been violently compressed, producing a brief collapse.

Standing within the invisible magnetic annihilation field the size of a house, Shi Yan felt somewhat relieved. His gaze turned even more ruthless as he fixed a cold stare on Beiming Ce.

He was waiting for Beiming Ce to activate the Teleportation Martial Soul again, waiting for him to enter the magnetic annihilation field.

Beiming Ce did not disappoint him. He truly activated the Teleportation Martial Soul once more.