Chapter 173 Cold Wind and Hot Wind

A scoff echoed across the snowfield.

Xu Yan frowned slightly.

"Although I don't know... how you obtained this wisp of fire..."

Shen Li raised his head, calmly looking at the gaunt figure in the distance, and said coldly.

"But compared to Brother Gu, it's far too inferior!"

He clenched his fist suddenly!

A ripple of iron reverberated across the snowfield!

The next moment.

Shen Li dashed out, appearing before Xu Yan.

The Eater of Iron roared, vaguely transforming into a towering giant figure behind him!

A year ago, he already possessed the strength of the sixth layer of the Deep Sea Zone!

During this year, he had sparred with Gu Shen nearly a hundred times. His mental state improved rapidly, and his extraordinary ability completed its final breakthrough in the second stage!

Shen Li's rate of progress could be described as meteoric!

The roar of this towering phantom swept across the vast snowfield, and the splashing snow curtain was shattered by a heavy punch!

Xu Yan remained expressionless.

His figure suddenly swayed!

The giant fist brushed past his cheek—

Shen Li's pupils constricted slightly. He had seen this scene before with Gu Shen. During hand-to-hand combat, Gu Shen could always unexpectedly use this "high-frequency tremor"!

The Eater of Iron's punch missed!

Immediately following was a knee strike from Xu Yan!

This strike came from below, heavily hitting Shen Li's abdomen as he pounced forward. Shen Li reacted extremely quickly. Upon seeing Xu Yan use the familiar "tremor," he hurriedly retracted his hands, stacking them to block his abdomen. However, he was still sent flying by the immense force... This guy's close-quarters combat strength was unbelievably strong!

In the "Long Street Inferno" brawl that had spread throughout Snow Forbidden City, Xu Yan was the "victim" who was beaten relentlessly by Gu Shen, unable to retaliate.

But putting aside that image.

He was a genuine "S-level" prodigy who had passed the audit group's assessment!

With a "bang."

Shen Li was sent flying off the ground, bowing slightly. His back pierced through layers of snow mist. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the ground, watching the figure on the ground gradually become "smaller"...

The next instant.

That figure vanished in an instant!

Reappearing behind him!

This was almost "teleportation"-like power... Shen Li felt a massive surge of extraordinary source matter. As he turned his head, he saw a sinister face hidden in the snow mist.

An elbow strike!

In mid-air, a snow-colored ripple dozens of meters in diameter rippled out!

A straight line shot down, striking the depths of the snowfield, carving out a human-shaped crater.

The snowfield returned to silence.

Xu Yan, suspended in the snow mist, shook his numb arm. He frowned, silently watching his elbow... feeling the faint pain, like touching iron.

Just now, with those two "physical strikes," he hadn't held back. An ordinary person wouldn't have been able to withstand even the first strike and would have been knocked unconscious.

However, this kid was really resistant to blows.

An "elbow strike" with eighty percent of his strength, landing on him... felt like hitting iron.

Xu Yan slowly descended.

He landed in the human-shaped crater, narrowing his eyes.

This crater... had shattered and cracked the snowfield...

However, the very center was empty.

A tunnel had been dug out, connecting to the center of the earth.

……

……

Twenty meters deep beneath the snowfield, a lean figure was moving forward, crouching low. Behind him, a horrifyingly tall iron figure was condensed, compressed into the extremely narrow tunnel, continuously throwing punches frantically.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

A tunnel was thus punched out beneath the snowfield!

Shen Li's expression was resolute, only caring about advancing. He and the Eater of Iron threw punches together. Blood was already seeping from his hands. These injuries weren't caused by digging, but by the knee strike he had just endured!

Xu Yan's strike seemed to carry some kind of violent "explosive force"!

Seemingly gentle, but in reality, it contained an incomparably domineering force!

The moment he took the blow head-on, Shen Li only felt that his "iron palms" had been cut open by something, like using his hands to block a gun barrel... the massive explosion directly tore through his flesh!

This seemed to exceed his understanding of "physical techniques."

It was more like... he possessed a second extraordinary ability.

Shen Li's lips were somewhat dry. He recalled the scene of the second strike... Xu Yan only needed to lock his gaze on him to immediately appear, almost transcending the limitations of space.

This was something that couldn't be achieved even with the fastest movement speed.

It was also like... the application of some kind of ability.

An esper could only possess one ability... This was almost the consensus of everyone in the Five Continents.

How did this guy do it?

Did he really have a hidden extraordinary ability?!

With a "boom!"

The Eater of Iron shattered the frozen earth with a punch. A beam of weak light greeted the dark and gloomy depths of the snowfield. Shen Li took a deep breath, escaping from the depths... From the moment he saw Xu Yan's face clearly, he realized that he couldn't fight him head-on.

He had to find a way to escape!

The "truth" within the mausoleum... needed him to reveal it!

Xu Yan was a disciple of Zhu Wang from the Tribunal!

The things he was doing would stir up a storm throughout Nagano!

No... perhaps the storm in Nagano had already arrived. An "S-level" with no file, whose origins were unknown, was massacring people in the Qingzuka Mausoleum. Even Shen Li, a martial arts fanatic with a simple mind, didn't believe it was a coincidence!

There was a massive conspiracy targeting Brother Gu.

Or rather... the entirety of Nagano!

He couldn't die here!

The snowfield on the ground was filled with a faint scent of blood. Shen Li dragged his injured body and moved forward quickly... He needed to find an ally, at least one, to inform them of the current situation.

One frozen silver mountain after another, towering into the clouds, radiating a snow-white chill.

Shen Li's lips turned pale.

His expression also turned pale.

He seemed to feel a "chill" that penetrated into his bones... This was a chill with the intent of annihilation, seeping into his spirit, as if to eternally freeze a person's soul.

His luck was good. After escaping from the original rocky mountain... Xu Yan didn't chase after him.

His luck was also bad, because after walking for a full twenty minutes, he still hadn't seen a single figure.

Shen Li already felt despair.

Finally, Shen Li leaned against a protruding boulder, trying to control his breathing. Perhaps it was because of the increasing blood loss... or perhaps it was because of the annihilative intent carried by these snowflakes, he already felt dizzy, and his vision was becoming increasingly blurred.

But... footsteps came from the snow.

The footsteps were somewhat familiar.

Shen Li struggled to turn his head. He saw a tall figure draped in a crane cloak. In his almost despairing heart, he finally saw a ray of light.

His pale lips trembled.

"Brother Zou...!"

The voice wasn't loud.

But in the desolate snowfield, it was particularly jarring.

The wind and snow seemed to freeze for a moment—

The crane-cloaked figure slowly turned his head, frowning as he looked toward the boulder.

"Junior brother?"

This figure was none other than Zou He.

He slowly walked to the boulder, saw Shen Li's appearance, and his expression immediately turned ugly. A pair of large hands pressed against Shen Li's back... where the flesh was torn open, almost revealing the bone.

A warm "force" poured out from Zou He's palms.

His ability was called "Water Speaker," capable of both offense and defense, with an extremely strong single-target healing ability. He could not only heal himself but also heal others.

However... Shen Li's injuries weren't simple.

His hands and back seemed to have gone through an explosion, "blown open" in general, a bloody mess... At this moment, hundreds of strands of violent extraordinary source matter, like silver needles, had penetrated into Shen Li's skin after the "explosion," rushing wildly through his body along with his blood.

Even someone as tough as the Eater of Iron could barely withstand such an injury from the inside out.

Soon.

Strand after strand of violent force was completely removed by Zou He's "Water Speaker."

After completing all of this, the Eater of Iron's self-healing ability began to take effect quickly.

Shen Li leaned against the boulder, his back already soaked with sweat.

He felt that... the intent of death had already left him.

He had escaped from the gates of hell.

Zou He asked with a gloomy expression, "Who did this?"

The person who did this was extremely vicious.

If he hadn't encountered him, wouldn't his junior brother have died in the mausoleum?!

"Xu Yan..."

Shen Li's voice was hoarse as he spoke, "Senior Brother Li Chong... Senior Sister Yuan Yu, they're all dead... Besides that, many, many people died..."

Zou He was stunned.

He could hardly believe his ears.

After arriving at the mausoleum.

He had explored many places alone... Everywhere he looked, there was only deathly silence. He had originally thought that the special rules of this disaster zone had isolated everyone, thus creating this desolation.

But the truth was that many of the espers who had entered the mausoleum were already dead!

"Could it be that it was only Xu Yan?"

Zou He narrowed his eyes and spoke coldly.

As far as he knew, there were titled figures among those who had entered the mausoleum. The slightly weaker ones, like himself, were also fourth-stage espers who had reached the tenth level.

Xu Yan... judging from the Long Street image, he was at most in the third stage, seventh layer. Even if he was a prodigy capable of fighting beyond his level, his fighting strength would only be at the eighth or ninth layer.

"Perhaps... there are more. But everything I saw was probably done by Xu Yan. He wants to frame Gu Shen..."

Shen Li recounted everything he had seen and heard.

Zou He listened quietly.

He said in a deep voice, "I understand the situation..."

He didn't doubt the truthfulness of what his junior brother had said.

Because he knew that Junior Brother Shen Li was the most innocent one under their master, with no evil thoughts other than cultivation.

However...

From this information, he vaguely saw some inconsistencies.

For example, with Xu Yan's strength, how could he hunt so many espers?

And again, even if Xu Yan was an S-level, how could he possess more than one ability?

"You... rest for a while."

Zou He stood up and said calmly, "I'll go to that snow rock now... and find Xu Yan."

Shen Li wanted to support himself up and set off with his senior brother, but as soon as he exerted force, the Eater of Iron's shadow, which he had barely managed to condense, dissipated. During his previous running, his mental strength had been exhausted too much.

So Shen Li could only sit against the boulder, silently watching his senior brother get up... and walk in the direction he had come from.

At this moment, the falling wind and snow landed on him, as if weighing a thousand pounds. He felt that he couldn't resist the fatigue and uncontrollably closed his eyes.

And when he opened them again.

It seemed that only a few minutes, or maybe a dozen minutes, had passed?

Shen Li saw a swaying figure gradually appearing in the distant wind and snow.

His vision was somewhat blurry.

Shen Li's voice was hoarse as he murmured in confusion, "Senior... brother?"

What responded to him was a very light "bang."

A human head wrapped in a tattered crane cloak was thrown over.

Zou He's head had been cut off at the neck.

On the snow, it rolled, leaving behind a dry, scarlet trail of blood.

Xu Yan's hands were covered in blood.

He walked out of the wind and snow and said softly, "Your senior brother is here."

Shen Li's face turned as pale as death.

"How... is that possible..."

He couldn't believe the scene before him.

Senior Brother Zou He's strength was at the tenth layer of the Deep Sea... a fourth-stage esper.

"Nothing is impossible."

Xu Yan slowly let out a long breath. It was obvious that killing Zou He had also exhausted him somewhat. A slender chain slipped from his drooping fingers. At the end of the chain was tied a small token.

Shen Li was somewhat bewildered.

He could vaguely make out the image on the token.

It was a grape with vines entwined around it.

If he remembered correctly... this was the symbol of the Dionysus Seat of the Source Tower...

Wait a minute.

The Dionysus Seat's symbol?

A very terrifying conjecture emerged in Shen Li's mind.

The Qingzuka explosion... the Five Great Families entering the mausoleum... a super-large disaster zone... the massacre...

All of his previous confusion seemed to be answered when he saw the Dionysus Seat's Token in Xu Yan's hand.

Shen Li murmured, "You are... an Apostle of the Dionysus Seat..."

Xu Yan only smiled.

He didn't make any indication of this.

However, the Apostle's Token tightly held in his hand was enough to explain everything.

"Killing Zou He did take some effort..."

Xu Yan stopped and said with some regret, "When facing higher-level espers stronger than me, I can only use the 'Token.' It really hurts my body... and it's very unelegant, because the Token's power is too great, and it's difficult to control perfectly. So... your senior brother died very painfully."

He smiled.

"But... don't worry, I don't need to use the Token to kill you."

A faint flame ignited on Xu Yan's palm.

He said calmly, "So, you won't suffer."

"Boom—"

An extremely small, dim flame suddenly grew larger against the blizzard.

Xu Yan flicked his hand lightly.

And Shen Li's vision was filled with blazing light.

He roared and stood up, wanting to stretch out his hand and withstand Xu Yan's attack head-on.

But after exhausting all his strength, even the condensation of the Eater of Iron ended in failure!

That familiar, massive mental force directly pressed down...

Countless bright lights shone into his eyes, forcing him to close them.

With a "tearing" sound.

A very slight sound of wind and snow breaking through the air.

Shen Li had the illusion that the wind speed around him had slowed down, and the hot, scalding snow that was about to hit him was now blocked by something—

As for the boundless light, it gave birth to a patch of shade.

He struggled to open his eyes.

A woman's figure, as radiant as the moon, descended before him.

Like a deity.

She opened an umbrella.

The tip of the umbrella vibrated with black fire.

Two flames collided—

The pale snowfield seemed to have been cut open by a knife!!!

Xu Yan frowned. He had never expected that someone would descend from the sky and block his final attack... He vaguely sensed danger from the direction of the umbrella, and as he dodged to the side, a scalp-numbing high temperature rushed over, directly shattering a snow mountain!

"What kind of killing power is this?!"

Xu Yan's expression changed drastically.

In just an instant!

An entire snow mountain was shot and exploded!

His "fake Fiery Blaze" couldn't compete with the black fire shot out from the tip of the umbrella!

It was simply... easily defeated!

……

……

The great cold wind swept across the snowfield.

Became extremely hot.

The swirling fire wind rolled between the ice shards and snow residue, but after only a few seconds, it returned to silence.

Xu Yan maintained his dodging posture, one hand pressed on the ground, raising his head and squinting at the distance.

The fire wind dissipated.

The "person" opposite him closed the umbrella.

Revealing a flawless face... Xu Yan was stunned.

Shen Li was also stunned.

"Are you alright?" Chu Ling tilted her head slightly and asked softly with concern.

"I'm alright..."

Shen Li had never seen such a stunning woman.

He rubbed his buzzing head and subconsciously asked, "Have I seen you before?"

Chu Ling smiled and replied, "I've seen you."

Huh?

Shen Li was stunned and began to rack his brains.

However, this martial arts fanatic racked his wooden head and couldn't figure out the true meaning of this sentence.

But the stalemate on the snowfield didn't last long.

"You are the second successor of divination?"

Countless hot ice fragments slapped Xu Yan's face, melting into snow water. He stretched out a hand and slowly wiped his face, making sure his appearance maintained basic cleanliness, and then spoke softly.

Xu Yan narrowed his eyes, carefully sized her up, and then praised with a smile, "You really are as beautiful as the person in that portrait... truly an otherworldly beauty."

As soon as Xu Yan said this, Shen Li suddenly understood.

He rubbed his head and muttered to himself with some embarrassment, "So she's Sister-in-law..."

The second divination successor?

That made sense. Divination successors were omniscient, so it was only right that she knew him.

This voice naturally didn't escape Chu Ling's auditory capture.

Her expression was slightly strange for a second, and then she returned to calm.

Chu Ling took off the small black flower from her hair.

The previous attack had consumed the "Flame Demon Umbrella's" own energy stored in the Divine Shrine Mountain Realm.

Although the killing power was not bad, the energy was limited.

[Deep Sea]'s calculations told her that in order to repel the man in front of her... she couldn't hold back at all, so with just one attack, she had exhausted all the extraordinary source matter that had been newly accumulated in the umbrella.

Next, if she wanted to open the umbrella, she would need to pay other "costs."

She lowered her head and transmitted her voice to Shen Li, "How is your body recovering?"

The Little Iron Man's expression became serious when he heard the mental guidance in his head.

He clenched his fist.

Thanks to Senior Brother's treatment.

His physical injuries... had improved a lot.

Next, did she need his cooperation with something?

Shen Li raised his head and gave a firm look.

"Then..."

Chu Ling transmitted her voice softly, "I'm going to open the umbrella again."

……

……

(ps: 1, First give everyone a reassurance, today a minimum of 10,000 words of updates. 2, To complain again, because the nucleic acid takes too long to take effect, I was forced to stay one more night, this chapter was coded while squatting at the station, so difficult!)