Thin, frigid mist permeated from Gong Yuan’s body. A layer of frost immediately appeared on the delicacies before her, and the cup in her hand shattered.

  Crack! Crack! The frost crawled up the table of white jade, becoming covered in cracks.

  The temperature in the hall plummeted. It was freezing.

  Alarmed cries of mortals rang out in Three Sails city. Adults and children all arrived on the streets, gazing at Main-mast mountain. The rain from above turned into snow and hail when it approached the peak of the mountain, pitter-pattering against the glazed tiles.

  Has the Merfolk Queen finally taken action? The merpeople are just more domineering. The kid is probably done for this time!

  The cultivators that had left the Feilian hall did not return to cultivate like what they had said. Instead, they gazed at Main-mast mountain from a safe distance away.

  “Master, senior brother he…” Peng Jingni gazed at Ye Duanhai as he stood with his hands behind his back and became slightly worried. If Li Qingshan was not the Merfolk Queen’s opponent, then he would definitely order Yu Wufeng to take action. His death would virtually be guaranteed.

  Ye Duanhai said nothing.

  Only if he just dies! Mister Ram sighed inside before shaking his head. Although he had absolutely no reason to believe this, he had a feeling that this kid would not die here. How strange!

  The cold mist slowly pressed towards Li Qingshan, and the crackling of ice grew closer and closer.

  Gong Yuan’s face seemed to be covered in a layer of frost, beautiful but brutal. Her eyes had turned pitch-black, as deep as a sea abyss.

  Ji Changfeng could not help but stand up and leave his seat, avoiding the intensifying coldness from her. He thought, She really has been angered this time. I’ll definitely be blamed once this is all over for not assisting her! Then he grumbled about Li Qingshan, You’ve already gained the upper hand, so why must you take it further? Why don’t you just give Gong Yuan a way out of this situation? What benefit will angering her bring?

  However, he also understood that having come this far, even if Li Qingshan gave Gong Yuan a way out, she might not necessarily take it. Instead, she would probably take advantage of that opportunity to strike.

  Gond Yuan was not Ye Duanhai. She did not have to worry about the safety of her disciples. She was not mister ram either, as what she relied on was her own strength. It was possible to say that she was the strongest on Giant Ship island, and her forces were the strongest in the South sea too.

  Ye Duanhai and mister Ram had reasons that forced them to retreat, but she did not. Although she had some misgivings, that was not enough for her to cast aside her dignity as a king and give in to a second heavenly tribulation lackey of the empire.

  As a result, she chose to take action, pressing closer step by step. If they retreated, then they would immediately show weakness, and she could strike at full force. If they refused to move, then the coldness would slowly freeze them until they completely lost the ability to fight back. If they fought back, then that would be for the best. She could use the time to make the Merfolk elders retreat, and then she would not have any misgivings left at all.

  At this moment, Li Qingshan moved, but he did not retreat. Instead, he advanced, stepping into the domain of ice and frost.

  The Merfolk elders were all cunning and clever. They knew this was the moment for them to retreat from the Feilian hall.

  At this moment, there was a white flash, and Xiao An appeared at the entrance of the hall, observing them emotionlessly!

  “What speed!” The Merfolk elders all stopped in amazement. When they recalled the might of the stroke from earlier, none of them were confident enough to survive before the edge of her sword.

  How despicable, but you’ve actually separated from one another! I’ll deal with you one by one then! Gong Yuan’s dark eyes gazed at Li Qingshan as he made his way over, like she was looking at a dead person.

  She practised a cultivation method of merpeople that had been passed down from the divine kingdom, called All Waters to Ruin’s End.

  Ruin’s End was a legendary, bottomless abyss, the place where all water gathered. Even the celestial rivers would end up flowing there. In order to practise this All Waters to Ruin’s End, she needed to submerge herself in the abysses of the sea all year round, connecting with the mysterious Ruin’s End through the secret techniques of Merfolk.

  The cultivation process was extremely difficult. Not only did the body have to withstand the tremendous pressure of the ocean, but the mind faced severe torture as well. There had been so many times when she was virtually on the brink of despair, where her soul was about to be completely absorbed by Ruin’s End. Compared to that, the pain of her body was nothing.

  Even during the most prosperous age for Merfolk, when their divine kingdom still existed, there were not many people that practised this cultivation method, and there were even fewer that managed to succeed with it. It was exactly this cultivation experience that made her personality cold and sunken. At the same time, it was extremely easy for her to fly into a hysterical rage, so even the merpeople feared her very much.

  The coldness she released right now possessed the power of deathly frigidness of Ruin’s End that attacked all openings. Even Ji Changfeng could not withstand it for long periods of time. Li Qingshan was basically digging his own grave by walking towards her like this.

  Li Qingshan released his dark-red demon qi, but it was completely useless. Under the bone-piercing coldness, his clothes immediately froze and shattered. The demonic armour that replaced his clothes was just as useless.

  His uniform as a White Hawk Commander was virtually equivalent to a defensive supreme grade arcane treasure. It was impervious to weapons, fire, and water, yet it could not even last a moment within the coldness.

  There were less than thirty steps between them, but it felt like they stood at the ends of the world. Every single step he took seemed like he was approaching an abyss. His exposed skin turned blue and violet very quickly, and the demonic armour became covered in a layer of frost too. Who knew when it would shatter like his clothes. His boots had frozen the moment they touched the ground. He needed to use quite a bit of force before he could lift them, continuing onwards.

  Li Qingshan should have been speeding up so that he could shorten the distance between them quickly and drag Gong Yuan into close combat. Otherwise, he could just keep his distance and unleash attacks from there.

  His pace obviously presented Gong Yuan with the opportunity to push the All Waters to Ruin’s End to the limit.

  But for some reason, he simply continued onwards like this, step by step, at a steady pace.

  Is he really that confident in his own strength? Even I wouldn’t try to use my cultivation to compete against Gong Yuan like this, as there’s absolutely no chance for victory. Even if the Fire Devouring King did that, it would be a certain defeat. He might be a great genius, but it’s impossible for him to win. The outcome has already been determined.

  Ji Changfeng could not help but shake his head. He was forced to activate the formation, not because he was trying to assist a side, but because he was afraid Gong Yuan would destroy the Feilian hall.

  Originally, there had still been a few courageous cultivators of the South sea who stuck around, but they had all been forced out by the coldness now. There was no need for them to gamble with their lives just to see a good show. If they had died from the fallout of the battle, now that would be called an accident.

  Large parts of Li Qingshan’s body suffered from frostbite and necrosis. His eyes became fogged up as well, covered in a layer of frost.

  However, he continued to gaze at Gong Yuan with his blind eyes. He could no longer see the noble, cold Merfolk Queen, but a pitch-black, bottomless abyss.

  He could not help but recall a saying, When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.

  That was exactly what he felt right now. The abyss was ice-cold and deathly still, but it seemed to possess its own consciousness. However, what he felt was not terror and despair, but a calling from the depths of his soul.

  It was exactly because of this wondrous feeling that he had not been in a hurry to fight back.

  When the earth had frozen over, the tiger bones had turned brittle, and even the phoenix had lost its endless vitality, but the spirit turtle’s will instead became especially clear. The Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression operated at an unprecedented speed, glowing with a divine light.

  What’s going on?

  Li Qingshan was baffled. He had felt very comfortable even back then when he met Gong Yuan’s gaze on the back of the whale. Now that Gong Yuan was using her full strength, this was not just comfortable anymore, but absolutely delightful. There was not a single hint of malice left on his face. His expression had become extremely peaceful.

  What’s going on? Gong Yuan also wanted to know why Li Qingshan could still walk towards her when he should have been frozen long ago. Why was the expression on his face “baffled”, and why did she take a liking to the aura he gave off, even instinctively wanting to be on closer terms with him?

  What on earth is going on? Even Ji Changfeng found this difficult to understand. If he only looked at their expressions, he would never believe they were about to fight each other to the death.

  Finally, Li Qingshan stepped over the table of white jade that had frozen over and shattered, arriving before Gong Yuan. Their auras entangled together, and the feeling of intimacy peaked.

  If I can remain in this state, breaking through to the fifth layer of the spirit turtle would be a piece of cake.

  Li Qingshan sighed inside, but he also felt a hint of delight. The Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine started off easy and became more difficult as he progressed. The wondrous power that Gong Yuan gave off offered without a doubt a new window of opportunity to the spirit turtle’s cultivation.

  Gong Yuan simply shut her eyes as if she was silently sensing something.

  She practised All Waters to Ruin’s End all year round. Even when she left the ocean and was surrounded by numerous people, she felt like she was still inside the sea abyss, facing the unfathomably deep Ruin’s End. It left her utterly exhausted, leading to a severe inner demon.

  Easily falling into a hysterical rage was one of the external symptoms of an inner demon. If she could not keep the inner demon under control, then not only would she struggle to increase her cultivation, but she would even face the risk of suffering from qi deviation.

  Inner demons were different from a demonic nature. It was very difficult to resolve them through external methods. They could only be settled personally by the cultivator. Many cultivators ended up being destroyed by this aspect, which was the so-called qi deviation, or going insane.

  This was not as simple as falling into the demonic path and becoming a demonic cultivator, but losing control over the mind. It was just easier for demonic cultivators to suffer qi deviation compared to regular cultivators.

  When mortals lost control over their minds, it was only going insane. Cultivators all possessed very great power, so once their minds were unable to keep this power under control, the end result went without saying.

  But at that moment, her mind experienced unprecedented peace. It was so comfortable that she almost wanted to moan.

  Neither Gong Yuan nor Li Qingshan knew that the mysterious Ruin’s End just happened to be the spirit turtle’s home, its final resting place.

  Because newly-born spirit turtles could not survive in Ruin’s End, adult spirit turtles would breed and produce offspring outside Ruin’s End. Once the little spirit turtles grew up, they would return to Ruin’s End like the rivers flowing into the ocean.

  This was a cycle.

  The environment of Ruin’s End was far too deathly still, such that only spirit turtles would take a liking to it. When it came to other water-elemented divine beasts, even if their power rivalled the spirit turtle, they could endure the environment, but they could not remain there for long periods of time.

  However, to the spirit turtle that pursued peace and longevity, that was the ideal paradise. Just like the so-called “Mother River” to humans, they treated Ruin’s End as their mother. At the same time, the mysterious will of Ruin’s End, or perhaps better described as the laws of Ruin’s End, treated spirit turtles like its beloved children.

  That was why such a wondrous reaction would occur between the two of them.

  But at this moment, Li Qingshan was in an extremely dangerous state. His body was powerful, but it was virtually on the brink of being frozen. His expression remained as peaceful as before, gradually extending his hand. With every single movement he made, the sounds of his body cracking and shattering rang out. Even his tiger bones had become extremely brittle in the extreme cold.

  As if ten millennia had passed, his hand finally pressed down on Gong Yuan’s shoulder.

  ps: 哈哈，这个转折你们没想到吧!另告诉大家一个好消息，离前三十只差十几票而已啊……已啊……啊!