Yan Tianjiao’s chilling aura enveloped the two as the Ice Frost Crossbow moved with measured grace. He took an ice arrow, placed it on the spirit string, and gripped the nock with two fingers, drawing back with force. Aiming at his target, his Autumn Moon Bow arched, and the arrow flew like lightning.
*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—*
He unleashed over a dozen ice arrows in rapid succession. The arrows, smoking, left trails of cold mist like carved swallowtails, tracing long, ethereal white lines. Dan Ya’s figure moved with extreme speed through the perilous situation. After the fierce wind, the ground and air seemed to frost over, and snowflakes drifted down from the sky, painting the air silver.
The generated ice surface severely restricted Dan Ya’s movements. Yan Tianjiao calmly drew and shot his bow, repeatedly pulling his opponent into his ice realm.
Dan Ya’s ink-dark, gentle eyes stirred with a sudden gust, raising layers of dark, rippling waves. "Ice Frost Crossbow... and refined to the sixth level. You are truly a formidable opponent. I must say, you are indeed a genius of spiritual cultivation, but what you lack is time."
As his voice fell, a patch of mottled green surged from beneath his feet. Amidst the light, several "green vines" extended like whips. They slithered from the ground like iron chains, and like a runaway steed, kicked up dust and frost, raging in mid-air. These thick, flexible "vines" would sting like lashes if they struck.
Dan Ya possessed the Earth Spiritual Root, allowing him to cultivate elemental spells of wood and earth. This was the wood-elemental spiritual root’s exclusive spell in the cultivation world, "Green Vine Entanglement." It wasn't an exceptionally powerful spell; its effectiveness depended on how it was wielded.
Yan Tianjiao retreated two steps, twisting his ankles to steady himself. An ice crystal, bright and clear, immediately condensed in his palm. Its snowy light reflected in his sharp phoenix eyes, and a biting cold wind whistled. Wherever it blew, the "green vines" were completely frozen into ice, then shattered into powder by the force of his energy.
Before him, the ice and green turned into scattered dust, glittering like ice shards in the sunlight, crystalline as silk. In his sight, a figure in a snow-white robe with blue lapels flashed past in an instant. Simultaneously, "green vines" flew again. Before he could cast more ice spells, they surprisingly bloomed petals from their tips and spat out seeds.
These seeds quickly broke their shells, transforming into hundreds of thousands of floating entities amidst the swirling ice dust. They attempted to climb onto Yan Tianjiao's body, like green-clawed jellyfish in the deep sea.
Yan Tianjiao felt a chill. He didn't know if the "green vines" had mutated or if the "Green Vine Entanglement" spell had changed. He swept his robe, formed complex hand seals rapidly, lowered himself, and pressed a palm to the ground. The "ice crystal" in his palm shattered. The wind rose, blowing his ink-black hair. The young man's phoenix eyes turned from black to silver-white, dazzlingly brilliant amidst the ice, snow, dust, and crystal.
Giant ice pillars rose before him with a resounding noise. Various rime crystals appeared in the air. The ice pillars, like ice dragons, heaved and pushed towards Dan Ya.
Dan Ya was affected by the extreme cold, his eyebrows and the tips of his hair dusted with frost. The uniform robes of the Great Deduction Sect, white as blood, with eyebrows like distant, green mountains. His eyes, however, were like murmuring spring water, the surging undercurrent hidden within his elegant, gentle, and deceptive demeanor.
*Boom—* The ice pillars struck the unmoving figure like a cold tide, rumbling loudly. Shattered ice pieces flew in all directions. The snow, like taut crossbow strings, dispersed in billowing white mist. The entire martial arts arena shook.
Yan Tianjiao’s crimson lips curled into a cold, proud smile. He raised his eyes, staring intently ahead.
A fierce, strangling airflow instantly dispersed the mist and white haze. The air was filled with a suffocating scent. The white vision gradually receded, and a figure gradually became clear within it.
Yan Tianjiao’s jaw tightened abruptly. The young man, with his isolated, cold, snowy demeanor, had pupils tinged with the red of blood.
"I must say..." Dan Ya smiled at him, his eyes like crescent moons, his posture leisurely, his demeanor as elegant as a painting. "What I hate the most is scenery filled with snow and frost."
Despite saying he hated it, no aversion showed in his eyes.
Lightning flashed above his head, and the sky grew darker. Instantly, the world became dim and hazy. Streaks of lightning and thunder in the clouds seemed to strive to swallow the entire world. It was like a powerful electric dragon roaming through the clouds, ready to strike directly at Yan Tianjiao the next moment.
Yan Tianjiao looked up abruptly.
White light flashed, and the earth drew lightning. What kind of spell was this?
Gu Junshi, watching from afar as he floated, also sensed an aura that did not belong to a Golden Core stage battle.
Are Golden Core cultivators this competitive now?
One by one, they possessed strength beyond their cultivation, and each was more adept at feigning "ordinariness." When they got serious, their abilities were increasingly terrifying.
Her dark eyes glanced at the martial arts arena between Dan Ya and Yan Tianjiao.
Dan Ya... she had never truly seen him when he was serious. He was adept at disguise, using his harmless elegance to hide his soul, long rotten with resentment.
The lightning flashing across the sky cast a snowy light on his face. He still smiled gently, as if the whole world were hypnotized by his pretense. Until he embraced the "Cloud Thunder Sword" and with a single sword strike, destroyed all obstacles before him, cutting through the sky from bottom to top, cleaving the ground. The earth rumbled, and the sharp cries of black shadows torn by white light froze souls on the spot, leaving them with no escape.
This sword strike headed directly for Yan Tianjiao.
A similar scene, the same sword cultivator. Yan Tianjiao thought of Liu Jiang Fusheng, but this sword strike possessed even greater might than the one Liu Jiang Fusheng had wielded.
No matter how great Yan Tianjiao's talent or how hard he tried, he was, in reality, just a true teenager. While Dan Ya appeared younger, he was decades older than Yan Tianjiao.
Although in the cultivation world, these decades were fleeting, and time was unforgiving, such a small age gap was insignificant. Furthermore, in the cultivation world, one's age could not be used to judge their cultivation level, but this was only true for ordinary individuals.
In the contest between geniuses, especially between Dan Ya and Yan Tianjiao, his advantage of being decades older was an advantage Dan Ya had earned with his life, step by step. Before Yan Tianjiao was even born, he had carried heavy burdens and blood, striving to climb upwards.
Therefore, Yan Tianjiao could not defeat him. He not only lost in terms of cultivation but had long since experienced everything, and things he shouldn't have, at Yan Tianjiao's current age.
If Yan Tianjiao grew to Dan Ya's age, perhaps he wouldn't necessarily lose, but this was a "what if." In reality, facing Dan Ya when he was serious, Yan Tianjiao could only be suppressed.
Moreover, once Dan Ya shed his usual demeanor of holding back, hiding, and concealing half of his abilities, he could devour people, chewing them up and spitting them out, like a demon, without mercy.
—
Gu Junshi looked at Dan Ya, a person who had once given her a bad impression. But she had to admit, his vibrant, split personality was almost wasted if he didn't become a villain. He certainly didn't seem like a good person, no matter how many layers of false pretense he cultivated.
Then, as her gaze inadvertently swept over Yan Tianjiao, she suddenly paused.
Looking again, she was so amused she could have laughed.
Because the "karma thread" that connected her to him... had not broken yet?!
She had been too hasty when her consciousness dissipated and hadn't had time to check. Now she realized that the "karma thread" binding her to Yan Tianjiao was still there.
Hadn't she saved him from her little pampered husband in the Third Realm before?
Could that still not have settled the "debt" she owed?
Heaven's Dao was truly calculating, not converting life for life by quality but by count.
Did it want her to save him again?
Yan Tianjiao’s gratitude for her saving him was so profound that it couldn't be severed no matter what?
Dan Ya, disliking Yan Tianjiao's mutated ice spiritual root, had not held back his strike. If Yan Tianjiao had met the force head-on, he would have been severely injured.
She hesitated for a moment, but feeling annoyed by Heaven's Dao's calculation, she chose to remain indifferent.
But Yan Tianjiao was Yan Tianjiao after all. Even when facing a desperate situation, realizing he was outmatched, he did not panic. Instead, he lowered his gaze, gathered all his spiritual power around him, and forged an ice cage. Ice shards interlocked, stacking thicker and thicker, soon forming a solid, transparent ice mountain that exuded a powerful and majestic aura.
The sword qi, laced with lightning, struck it, making a "clang!" sound. The ice layer cracked and fell bit by bit, and then the entire ice mountain exploded before his eyes.
The "ice mountain" protecting Yan Tianjiao was broken. Although the sword qi had its power significantly weakened, it still had enough force to strike him.
He felt a surge of painful numbness and tearing throughout his body, his bones aching. Especially the skin on his chest felt almost scorching. He was like a powerless snowflake lifted by a strong wind and thrown off the martial arts stage. He could not control his spiritual energy circulation or summon it to cushion the impact. Just as he was about to crash onto the ground, he was caught by a gentle yet powerful force, and slowly brought down.
A sweet, metallic taste welled up in his throat, but he forcefully swallowed it back. His lips were bright red like blood, but his face was pale and ashen. He looked up in shock, instinctively glancing towards the Flowing Light Sect's viewing stand, where he saw his master watching him.
His master, Daoist Crane Immortal, had always been benevolent and smiled at people first. But at this moment, his expression was somewhat worried as he looked at him, yet there was no trace of blame in his eyes.
He often taught Yan Tianjiao that losing was not shameful.
There were always people better than you, and things beyond the heavens.
Fighting with stronger individuals was a good thing; it could urge one not to become complacent or arrogant.
Yan Tianjiao's disposition was too proud and self-centered, just like the moon being full leads to decline, and water being full overflows.
In the past, he had been invincible among his peers. Coupled with his gloomy and cold personality, his extreme actions, and his strong likes and dislikes, Crane Immortal had always wanted to guide him to change through words and deeds, subtly influencing him. But Yan Tianjiao had stubbornly believed he was not wrong and had never considered changing.
Now, defeated by an unknown peer, he worried that this would greatly stimulate him, making his disposition even more difficult to control in the future.
In reality, when Yan Tianjiao was first defeated by Dan Ya, he had a destructive thought in his chest. But for some reason, just as he was about to fall into his most humiliating and unbearable state, that force that held him and steadily delivered him to the ground seemed to pull him out. The negative emotions that had accumulated and erupted within him paused, at the brink, they were somehow pushed back.
Did his master secretly intervene to protect him?
He was not sure.
But among these people, who else could it be besides the sect leader master?
Yan Tianjiao wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.
He had lost.
He had actually lost.
Dan Ya... Yan Tianjiao suddenly looked up at the man on the martial arts stage, dressed in a snow-white robe, exceptionally elegant.
As he savored the name again, Yan Tianjiao felt he had heard it somewhere.
And the facial contours of the other party seemed increasingly familiar.
Suddenly, Yan Tianjiao recalled someone.
He Lianxiu.
Yan Tianjiao had met He Lianxiu a few times as a child. This person was somewhat related to Yan Tianjiao's mother.
He remembered He Lianxiu had a son named... He Lian Dan Ya.
Dan Ya.
He Lian Dan Ya.
Were they the same person?
Although he didn't pay much attention to the disciples participating in the "Rookie Ranking," he had overheard that for the first time in history, this "Rookie Ranking" had a "Heaven Spiritual Root" and an "Earth Spiritual Root"...
Similar inherited features, similar names, the same Earth Spiritual Root. With so many coincidences, it shouldn't be mere chance.
Yan Tianjiao looked coldly at Dan Ya. In terms of kinship, Yan Tianjiao might even have to call Dan Ya his maternal uncle.
He never expected that He Lian Dan Ya, who was called mediocre in the He Lian family back then, now possessed such strength. Recalling He Lian Dan Ya's past, he understood why when Dan Ya looked at him, his gentle eyes always inadvertently revealed a malicious intent and disgust.
He said he hated the scenery of "snow and frost filling the sky," but in reality, he hated that illegitimate son with the mutated ice spiritual root, right?
His mother had mentioned that back then, He Lian Dan Ya's treatment in the He Lian family was worse than that of a servant. And that illegitimate son with the mutated ice spiritual root, resentful of He Lian Dan Ya occupying the position of the He Lian family's direct heir, had once relied on He Lianxiu's favor to secretly bully and torment him.
Yan Tianjiao silently withdrew his gaze.
This year's "Rookie Ranking" had produced many dark horses.
One, Liu Jiang Fusheng, with a Heaven Spiritual Root, and another, Dan Ya, with an Earth Spiritual Root.
And these two were from the same sect, a small sect, which should now be called a chosen sect by the cultivation world.
Because it had gathered the legendary "Heaven Spiritual Root" and "Earth Spiritual Root" that only appeared once in centuries.
Lu Ziyin, standing alone and solitary on the martial arts stage, had witnessed what was called the peak finals. His heart had been held tight. Until Yan Tianjiao, whom he always considered to be at the forefront of his peers in cultivation, was defeated, Lu Ziyin began to panic, his face turning a little stiff and pale.
He had recognized He Lian Dan Ya's true nature even earlier than Lu Ziyin. Because he clearly knew that He Lian Dan Ya was fundamentally different from cultivators like them who had cultivated for generations. He was a ruthless individual who had managed to crawl out of the "Demonic Well," cleanly dispatched that illegitimate son with the mutated ice spiritual root, and escaped the pursuit of the entire He Lian family.
This had happened decades ago. Now, he could only be more powerful than before.
Lu Ziyin thought, he couldn't even defeat Yan Tianjiao. Challenging him on stage now... would it just be pure torment?
Seeing Dan Ya's gaze, like that of a hunter choosing prey, sweeping towards him, Lu Ziyin felt a chill down his spine.