C977 Break Through!
A diminutive frost wyrm emerged.
Swoosh!
The half-meter-long frost wyrm appeared to have been meticulously sculpted from the Dragon Slaying Stage, with crystal chains inside that seemed to encapsulate the essence of bitter cold. Dragon tendons zipped through the air like bolts of lightning.
Within the well, numerous alien beasts lurking in deeper crevices were suddenly frozen in place at the sight of the frost wyrm.
These alien beasts, thrown into disarray by the scent of the deceased frost wyrm, struggled with their confused minds.
The dragon's breath from the frost wyrm, even in death, acted like chilling whirlpools in the perception of the alien beasts, tugging at their souls and consciousness.
The water at the bottom of the well ceased its babbling flow, the surface beginning to ice over.
Snowflakes drifting from the corpse of the frost wyrm landed on the water with a squeaking noise, reminiscent of the sound made when stepping on a fractured ice-covered lake.
At that moment, Yu Yuan's left hand was lightly clasping the neck of the frost wyrm.
Its head resembled the hilt of a sharp blade, its body the blade itself, and its tail the very tip of its edge.
Contemplating briefly, Yu Yuan thrust the blade-like frost wyrm into the wall of the Frost Well and watched as innumerable Ice Shards burrowed into the wall's fissures.
Crack! Crack!
The Frost Well, refined and merged with Ruan Fu's Dao, saw its wall fissures suddenly burst open!
Countless beams of ice light seemed to shatter within those crevices, demolishing the dome and the wall barriers of the well's inner realm.
Clutching the Dragon Slaying Stage, now in the guise of a frost wyrm, Yu Yuan's casual stab caused his Lunar Spirit to become faint and insubstantial.
To his astonishment, this simple action resulted in the loss of a quarter of his Soul Power, so carefully refined by the Lunar Spirit!
"Dragon Slaying Stage!"
Every limb, every drop of vitality within his little world, his meridians, and the pores on his palms were all resonating with the frost wyrm transformed from the Dragon Slaying Stage.
He could even glimpse the sprawling corpse of the frost wyrm within the Dragon Slaying Stage, exuding a frigid sheen and pulsing with dragon's breath and Soul Power.
In the surrounding mountains, more dragon corpses of the eighth and ninth levels were also aglow.
The giant dragons that had been slain here had not vanished. Their immense power, it seemed, had been rekindled and repurposed.
Ahhh!
Ruan Fu, the Chief Elder of Winter's Bite, had just reconstituted his body with the well water when, with a harrowing scream, he burst apart, transforming into a shower of glistening light that cascaded down.
However...
The fragments that tumbled into the Frost Well did not immediately coalesce.
The remnants of Ruan Fu, now a scatter of ice shards, lay upon the frozen surface, unable to sink or merge with the water below.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The ice shards skittered across the icy surface, bouncing like marbles only to fall back down, unable to penetrate the ice and reach the depths of the well.
Yu Yuan, Canli, and the Frost Queen hovered midair, heads bowed, their gazes mocking as they watched the ice shards below.
With a swift motion, Yu Yuan landed and, with a sudden stomp, shattered two nail-sized ice shards beneath his feet.
The shards exploded, and Ruan Fu's soul, wailing, turned into even more ice splinters.
"I won't kill you; I'll simply obliterate the Frost Well," Yu Yuan declared with a smile.
At his words, the Frost Well began to unravel like a mysterious world of extreme cold, becoming riddled with holes and exceedingly unstable.
Outside, above the forbidden area, the sunlight illuminated the cracks in the suspended Frost Well, which now emitted a blinding brilliance.
The peculiar well now resembled a honeycomb, riddled with numerous fissures.
Crack crack!
The frozen well, like a child's toppled tower of blocks, suddenly disintegrated into chunks.
Yu Yuan and Canli emerged together. He wielded the frost wyrm blade and took another swipe at the crumbling Frost Well.
The Frost Well, now in pieces, was dissected further, reduced to even smaller fragments.
The Chief Elder of Winter's Bite also fell to pieces.
His body and soul, like the fragments, were frozen solid by the ice power.
Amidst the debris of the Frost Well and Ruan Fu, the Frost Queen stood with her scorpion-tailed human form, her ice-blue eyes flashing as her figure abruptly expanded.
She swiftly collected all the fragments belonging to the Frost Well and Ruan Fu.
In a flash, she vanished with the fragments, having entered the Crucible of Evil. There, she began refining the pieces in her unique seat within the cauldron, aiming to ascend to an even higher position.
"The destruction of a Frost Well led to a devastating explosion that caused death."
Canli and Yu Yuan stood together, sensing Ruan Fu's essence, energy, and spirit fading away with the departure of the Frost Queen. "Is this the downside of a Dao Integration tool? However..."
Her eyes shifted to Yu Yuan, resting on the miniature blade shaped like a frost wyrm.
"Did he die too easily?"
Ruan Fu, newly ascended to the Unbound Realm and having merged with a Frost Well, had demonstrated formidable strength that Canli had witnessed firsthand.
She even believed that not even Ann Wen, the leader of Colddeath, or Tian Zang could easily escape from Ruan Fu within the domain of the Frost Well.
Let alone defeat him swiftly.
Yu Yuan, whose strength was comparable to an eighth-level Otherkin and who was only at the Spirit Walk Stage, had effortlessly slain Ruan Fu using a fragment of the Dragon Slaying Stage, which Canli found utterly inconceivable.
"Dragon Slaying Stage!"
Yu Yuan was deeply moved as he gazed upon the stone, now a grayish-white with sharp angles.
He hadn't anticipated that such a small piece of the Dragon Slaying Stage could wield such extraordinary power in his hands, leaving a cultivator of the Unbound Realm dead without a trace of resistance.
"The Dragon Slaying Stage's primary burial site for the giant dragon was that frost wyrm. That must be why Ruan Fu, who practiced the Winter's Bite spell and merged with the Frost Well, met such a grim end."
With this thought, he shifted his gaze.
He saw three frost wyrms lying on the ground, one of the ninth level and two of the eighth level, looking bewilderedly towards him.
Their blank eyes were fixed on him and the Dragon Slaying Stage in his grasp.
"Go over there!"
Yu Yuan directed the Dragon Slaying Stage in his hand towards the nine palaces of the Ebon Star, commanding with his thoughts.
His inner voice thundered within the realm of the Dragon Slaying Stage.
Roaring!
The three frost wyrms immediately took to the skies, their bodies undulating as they charged toward the Ebon Star, targeting the palace of Starhaven.
The palace, crafted from the extraterrestrial Moon Soul, had been ravaged by the Evil Statue. The frenzied assaults by the Grey Wolf King had left Starhaven inoperable.
Now, with the arrival of the three frost wyrms, the central area of Starhaven was suddenly engulfed in snow and ice.
"With the Dragon Slaying Stage in my grasp, can the Nagas still be constrained?"
Yu Yuan felt a surge of excitement mixed with surprise as he sensed a further depletion of his Soul Power.
He reflected on how his Lunar Spirit, having roamed the three Dragon Slaying Stages, had refined the spiritual energy left by the previous owner through Wraithbinding. This process had imprinted his Lunar Spirit with various marks, granting him the ability to harness some of the Dragon Slaying Stage's wonders and perform astonishing feats.
With a swift motion, he clutched the Dragon Slaying Stage and found himself standing on the land where Loong Jie and the other Nagas lay prostrate.
Beneath his feet lay two more Dragon Slaying Stages: one entombing the Chronowyrm, the other the golden dragon.
Loong Jie, progeny of the golden dragon, abruptly lifted his head. His golden eyes blazed with resentment and ferocity, as though he wished to reduce Yu Yuan to shreds with his gaze alone.
Yet, his dragon blood, Dragon Soul, and dragon's breath all quivered in fear.
