Chapter 43: Fusing the Fragmented Tai'e Sword

The closer they got to the cold pool, the more drastically the surrounding temperature plummeted. The ground began to freeze with fine ice crystals, and even the air felt as though it had solidified into a tangible substance.

An invisible barrier manifested around the two, shielding them from the biting, bone-chilling air.

"The edge of the cold pool is just ahead," Su Wan suddenly stopped, pointing to a stretch of water shrouded in white mist ahead. "Look at that thing on the water!"

Xiao Yi looked in the direction she pointed and saw, floating on the water in the center of the cold pool, half of an ice-blue long sword. Layers upon layers of ice crystals were凝结 (condensed) on the blade, yet it emitted a soft halo of light amidst the mist.

"That is the broken blade of the Tai'e Sword!"

The ice-blue broken blade in the center of the cold pool hovered three inches above the water surface. The ice-crystal-covered blade was covered in spiderweb-like cracks, clearly having suffered a devastating fracture in the past.

Yet even with only half the blade remaining, that faint, majestic imperial sword qi still permeated through the biting cold.

Before her voice faded, massive waves suddenly surged on the surface of the cold pool!

Unlike ordinary water ripples, these waves were actually congealed from pure black ice. A ten-zhang-high ice wall came crashing down with a sound that tore through the air, and countless icicles shot toward the two like a storm of arrows.

"They're coming!" Su Wan brandished her sword to parry, weaving purple lightning into an electric net before her to shatter the icicles into pieces.

The instant the ice wall shattered, a barrel-thick dark shadow lunged out from the bottom of the pool. As its forked tongue flickered, it exhaled a deep blue chilling breath—it was actually a Profound Ice Water Snake nearly ten zhang in length!

The scales of this water snake were a dark cyan, each one covered in a thick layer of ice armor. Its eyes were a pure ice-blue, and its pupils surged with frigid energy.

Coiling above the cold pool, the moisture around its snake body instantly froze into ice shards. Its hissing sound carried a heart-palpitating pressure—it was unequivocally at the Ninth Layer of the Void Refining realm, even half a step more formidable than the Fiery Prison Profound Tortoise!

The massive body of the Profound Ice Water Snake coiled above the cold pool, its ice-blue pupils locked onto Xiao Yi and Su Wan.

As its tongue flickered, it actually uttered a hoarse and icy human voice: "Insignificant mortals, how dare you trespass into my territory and covet the remnant soul of Tai'e?"

The dual-colored fire crystals in Xiao Yi's palm suddenly flared, the golden-red flames crackling as they collided with the surrounding chill. "Are you the guardian of this Netherworld Cold Pool? We mean no offense, we were simply guided here by the sound of the sword."

The Profound Ice Water Snake let out a derisive scoff, its voice sounding like grinding ice blocks: "Heh, just admit you want to seize the broken Tai'e blade. The Tai'e Sword broke here ten thousand years ago and has long been an ownerless object. Do you pathetic creatures think you are worthy of touching it?" Its serpentine body lashed out violently, instantly whipping up several pillars of ice from the pool that hung like sharp swords suspended above their heads.

"Considering you haven't touched the broken blade yet, retreat immediately and I will spare your lives this once."

Su Wan gripped the Flowing Light Purple Electric Sword tighter. The purple lightning on the blade grew increasingly blazing, echoing from afar with the ice-blue halo of the Tai'e broken blade. "Since you have guarded this sword here for ten thousand years, you must know its origin. The Flowing Light Purple Electric Sword resonates with the Tai'e broken blade; perhaps this is destined by the heavens, and now is the time for the Tai'e Sword to see the light of day once more!"

The Profound Ice Water Snake narrowed its snake eyes, a trace of mockery flashing within its ice-blue pupils. "Mere cultivators at the Void Refining realm, yet you wish to seize the Tai'e Sword? Since you refuse to retreat, you shall become my food!"

Before its voice finished falling, it opened its maw wide, and a concentrated blast of freezing breath jetted straight toward Su Wan. Wherever the dragon's breath passed, the air froze into crystalline ice shards.

"Well-aimed!" Xiao Yi roared angrily, pushing his palms forward as the dual-colored fire crystals transformed into a barrier of flames, forcefully blocking the freezing breath before them. "Su Wan, flank it! This breath is more tyrannical than anticipated, end this quickly and don't drag it out!"

"Its inner core is right beneath its seven-inch mark, launch your attack directly at its inner core!" Xiao Yi reminded Su Wan.

"Understood, Senior Brother!"

"Purple Lightning Binding Spirit!" The purple lightning sword suddenly burst forth with several bolts of lightning, striking fiercely at the seven-inch vulnerability of the Profound Ice Water Snake.

The Profound Ice Water Snake emitted a miserably shrill screech. The scales at its seven-inch spot were instantly blasted apart by the lightning, its dark cyan flesh turning outward as a fog of foul-smelling blood gushed forth!

"How is this possible! I am at the Ninth Layer of the Void Refining realm, yet I am severely wounded by a mortal at the sixth layer! How can this lightning be so tyrannical!" Clearly, it had never expected that this seemingly slender bolt of lightning would possess such domineering power!

Its massive body wriggled violently, its eyes filled with incredulous agony, while its heart surged with turbulent waves.

Seizing this split-second opening, Xiao Yi vaulted to the top of the snake's head, summoning the dual-colored fire crystals.

"Right now!!"

"Flame and Ice Mutual Destruction!"

Golden-red flames and deep-blue frost erupted simultaneously around the water snake, the former burning its meridians while the latter froze its inner core.

The Profound Ice Water Snake let out a brief, mournful cry, its massive body convulsing twice before perishing under Xiao Yi's strike, its corpse slowly sinking to the bottom of the pool.

When Su Wan landed and sheathed her sword, her fingertips still tingled with residual numbness from the lightning.

Gazing at the gradually extinguishing flames in Xiao Yi's palm, she softly murmured, "This Southern Ming Departure Fire Art is truly wondrous, actually allowing the powers of ice and fire to originate from the same source. We owe this to your precise timing just now, otherwise it would have taken much more effort. That was truly perilous!"

Xiao Yi wiped the sweat from his forehead and was just about to reply when a cyan light suddenly flickered in the center of the cold pool.

A look of astonishment crossed his eyes: "This light... it originates from the same source as the Tai'e broken blade! To think there is such a miraculous resonance!" As his voice trailed off, the broken blade broke free from the water's surface, its translucent white blade shimmering with faint imperial sword qi as it slowly drifted toward Su Wan.

"Is it acknowledging its master? How incredible!" Before Xiao Yi finished speaking, the broken blade was already hovering before Su Wan.

The Flowing Light Purple Electric Sword suddenly un-sheathed of its own accord, colliding in mid-air with the Tai'e broken blade. Both swords trembled simultaneously, purple lightning and cyan light interweaving into a cocoon that enshrouded Su Wan within.

Su Wan felt a surge of warmth flow through her palm into her dantian, and the bottleneck that had previously trapped her at the seventh layer of the Void Refining realm shattered with a resounding crash, her cultivation unexpectedly breaking through to the eighth layer of the Void Refining realm.

She gasped in pleasant surprise: "This is the imperial qi of the Tai'e Sword! My cultivation realm has actually broken through!"

As the cocoon of light dissipated, an ice-blue pattern had formed along the spine of the Flowing Light Purple Electric Sword, and the phantom of the Tai'e broken blade was gradually merging with the purple electric sword.

The mist by the edge of the cold pool had not yet completely dispersed when the ice layer at the entrance cracked with a "crunch," and several figures strode forward treading on ice prisms.

At the lead was a figure draped in lightning-patterned black robes—none other than Lei Jingxian, the Young Master of the Myriad Thunder Valley. Behind him followed four disciples at the sixth layer of the Void Refining realm, each gripping a long saber crackling with lightning.

"Little scumbags of the Profound Heaven Sect, you really are here!" Lei Jingxian's gaze was like poisoned ice-picks, locked onto the sword in Su Wan's hand. "The broken Tai'e blade is actually in your hands. It seems the commotion from earlier was indeed you lot pillaging the opportunities of this mystic realm!"

Beside him, Yin Qianrou, the Saintess of the Netherworld Gu Palace, gently twirled a bone folding fan, the bloody Gu insect patterns on the fan surface flickering indistinctly in the mist. "Why must Young Master Lei be angry? Such supreme treasures naturally belong to those capable of claiming them."

The fine, thread-like Gu resting on her fingertip suddenly raised its head, its needle-point-sized eyes staring at the fire crystals in Xiao Yi's palm. "Besides, this young gentleman's strange fire is actually far more interesting than the broken blade."

Xie Qinghan, the Young Sect Master of the Azure Blade Sect, stepped forward slowly, his moon-white sword robes snapping wildly in the chilling wind: "The opportunities of the Fallen Immortal Mystic Realm are meant to be contended for through sheer strength. Xiao Yi, Su Wan, you two are merely at the eighth layer of the Void Refining realm—how dare you monopolize the Tai'e broken blade? If you know what's good for you, hand over the swords, and I may spare your lives."