My Auto Cloning System-Chapter 96: Shattering Cold and Roaring Tiger

Chapter 96: Shattering Cold and Roaring Tiger

Yin Zhe slowly stood up, the blood dripping from his arm and staining the white ice. The wound was already starting to knit back together thanks to the green glow of his [Primordial Life-force], the skin sealing up with a faint, and sizzling sound.

"You’re bleeding, peasant," Lin Xue said, her voice trembling with a mix of genuine fear and white-hot rage. The temperature in the arena dropped even further, and hitting a point where it was painful to even draw a breath. The air was becoming thick with ice crystals. "But you won’t be for long. Blood freezes just like water. I’ll make sure yours stops flowing entirely."

She raised her sword high above her head, and the frost on the ground began to lift into the air, swirling around her. It then formed dozens of floating, razor-sharp ice shards that all pointed directly at Yin Zhe’s throat and chest.

"I’ll show you the true difference between a Root Awakening bug and a Qi Realm cultivatior," she declared, her aura exploding into a blizzard.

Yin Zhe wiped the remaining blood from his arm and licked it off his thumb, his eyes turning dark and focused. "I’m still waiting for that tragic monologue, by the way. You’re very quiet for someone who talks so much trash."

The floating ice shards hummed in the freezing air, their sharp, and jagged tips vibrating with a high-pitched, and deadly sound that resembled a thousand glass needles being struck at once. (Hnnnnnnn!) Lin Xue stood at the absolute center of the frost field, her face was pale, beautiful, and terrifyingly focused. With a sharp, and commanding flick of her Whispering Snow Sword, the air itself seemed to crack under the pressure of her Qi. "Fly," she commanded, her voice a cold whisper.

The dozens of ice needles shot forward in a coordinated swarm, looking like silver bees seeking a target. Yin Zhe didn’t just stand there to be turned into a human pincushion for the entertainment of the judges. He reached over his right shoulder with a fluid motion and gripped the hilt of Roaring Tiger, his 12th-grade sword. The moment his fingers wrapped around the black leather of the hilt, he felt the heavy, and aggressive weight of the blade resonating with his spirit essence. He pulled it from its scabbard with a sound like a metal beast growling deep in its throat. (SHING-GRRRR!)

He swung the sword in a rapid, and overlapping circular motion, creating a protective shield of black steel in front of him. (CLANG! CHING! SHATTER!) The ice shards hit the blade and exploded into fine white powder and sparkling dust. But the force of the Qi Realm frost was no joke for a Root Awakening cultivator. Every time a pressurized icicle broke against his sword, a sharp pulse of freezing energy traveled up the blade and directly into Yin Zhe’s hands.

My fingers are going numb, Yin Zhe monologued to himself, his teeth chattering so hard against each other he almost bit the tip of his tongue. "Even with [Jade Skin] active, this girl’s elemental energy is eating through my defenses like acid through paper. I’m a Root Awakening Stage 6 fighting a Qi Realm frost cultivation who can manipulate the air. This is like trying to block a mountain blizzard with a hot spoon. I need to change the rhythm or I’m going to be a frozen statue in a museum."

[Watched Reactive points +1]

(Lin Xue is tracking his guard)

[Watched Reactive points +1]

(Enforcer Wu is observing the blade’s quality)

Outside the arena, the massive crowd was watching the giant spirit screens with wide eyes and open mouths. Because the sound array made the arena silent to the outside world, they could only judge the fight by the visuals. They saw Yin Zhe holding a high-grade sword and spinning it like a seasoned master, while the "Ice Beauty" flooded the stage with white death.

Ren Tie stood with his thick arms crossed over his chest, his eyes narrowed as he watched the screen. He ignored the minor aches from his own match. "He’s being too defensive," Ren Tie muttered to himself, with his voice low. "Bao Zi, do you see his feet? He’s losing traction on the ice. If he doesn’t change the terrain or find a way to melt that floor, he’s going to be a sitting duck for her next sword technique."

Bao Zi was shaking so hard his shoes were tapping a frantic rhythm against the marble plaza floor. (Tap-tap-tap-tap!) " I can see his muscles bulging! But the cold is making his joints stiff! It doesn’t matter how much raw strength you have if you can’t move your elbows or knees! Look, the frost is already climbing up the Roaring Tiger!" (Gasp!)

Indeed, a thin, crystalline layer of white hoarfrost was beginning to cover Yin Zhe’s black blade, while creeping toward his knuckles. Lin Xue saw this and let out a cold, and melodic laugh that sounded like wind chimes in a graveyard. "Your sword is a fine weapon, Yin Zhe, but even the strongest sword freezes in the heart of a true winter! Frost Bloom: Piercing Vines!"

She stabbed her slender sword into the icy floor. (CRACK!) Jagged lines of glowing blue ice raced across the surface, erupting into tall, sharp pillars of frost that twisted toward Yin Zhe like reaching, skeletal hands.

Yin Zhe uses his [Divine Perception]. The world slowed down into a misty, black-and-white landscape. He saw the "veins" of blue essence moving under the ice before they even broke the surface. He jumped to the left, while barely dodging a pillar that shot up like a spear from the ground. (WHOOSH!) He landed on a patch of slick, and friction-less ice, his boots sliding dangerously.

"Think, Yin Zhe, think! he shouted at himself internally, his pulse racing. She wants me at a distance. She wants to freeze me until I can’t swing my blade anymore. I have the [Nine Breaths Circles], but if I use it now, the pleasure-sensitivity might make this freezing pain feel a hundred times worse! (Gulp!)