Knowing precisely where the surrounding soul beasts were positioned, Wei Xuan's advance was smooth. He easily avoided the various creatures along his path and, within ten minutes, arrived over five kilometers ahead.
Before him stretched a vast snow-covered valley, irregularly shaped and elliptical, more than two thousand meters from end to end. The valley was blanketed in white, filled with frost-borne flora—lush with life despite the cold—yet eerily devoid of any soul beast presence.
Such emptiness did not mean safety; rather, it implied danger. When an area this large was free of other creatures, it could only mean one thing—a powerful soul beast's domain.
Wei Xuan stood upon a cliff, gazing down into the valley. After a cursory look, his eyes fixed on the farthest point. Though he could not see two kilometers ahead with the naked eye, his divine sense revealed every detail.
There, halfway up a fifty-meter cliff, yawned a massive cave—its entrance over ten meters wide, its depths shrouded in pale frost. Inside, a soul beast slept curled upon itself, body glimmering with blue light, wings crystalline like sculpted ice.
Wei Xuan's eyes shimmered with chaotic energy, faint visions of cosmic birth and the laws of creation flowing within. Activating his Heavenly Pupils, his single pupils split into twin layers.
The stone and snow turned transparent—no barrier could obstruct his vision. He saw the creature's blood vessels, bones, and meridians as though through glass, the flow of energy pulsing vividly.
Through those eyes, nothing could remain hidden—not even the beast's weaknesses or the density of its internal energy.
"Just over ten thousand years… a little short of what I planned, but the quality—" he smiled, eyes gleaming, "—is worth taking even if it were only a thousand."
From his analysis, the soul beast had only recently crossed the ten-thousand-year threshold—perfect for his fourth ring.
The Ice Cloud Wings appeared in his hands, automatically fastening to his back under the pull of his Soul Power. He rose into the air, flying toward the distant cliff—not fast, yet steady and controlled.
With a sweep of his palm, the surrounding cold essence condensed into countless ice spears, each a foot long, some as thick as a thumb, others needle-thin.
Swish, swish, swish—!
The spears shot forward like silver streaks, whistling through the air as they pierced the cave's entrance.
The sound of impact echoed. For a heartbeat, silence followed—then came a shrill, resonant cry, the air trembling with fury.
Wei Xuan halted midair, eyes calm, watching the darkened cave mouth.
A piercing phoenix cry split the sky.
A surge of overwhelming energy rolled outward as a radiant figure burst from the cavern—
a phoenix, wings spreading nearly ten meters wide, its body an elegant sculpture of glacial blue crystal.
This was no fiery phoenix—it was an Ice Phoenix, noble and cold, its beauty sharp as frost, its presence pure and unyielding.
As it appeared, the temperature plunged further. Flakes the size of feathers drifted from the heavens, as though nature itself bowed to greet its queen.
The phoenix circled once through the air, then stilled, hovering regally. Its blue eyes locked onto Wei Xuan with glacial hatred; the killing intent that emanated from it was sharper than the cold around them.
In the next instant, it struck.
Its wings snapped open, unleashing violent energy waves— countless ice feathers materialized and streaked toward Wei Xuan in a dazzling storm.
This was its innate bloodline skill—Heavenly Phoenix Feathers.
Despite their delicate appearance, each feather was a blade sharper than steel, lethal enough to shred a Soul Emperor if struck unguarded.
Whether in this world or any other, dragons and phoenixes sat atop the food chain.
In the Douluo Continent, the Ice Phoenix was among the rarest and most powerful of soul beasts—its ten-thousand-year power comparable to ordinary hundred-thousand-year creatures.
Thus, the might of its attack was extraordinary.
Wei Xuan was slightly surprised. He hadn't expected the beast to open with its bloodline technique—it was unusually aggressive.
Against a mere forty-rank Soul Master, such a creature would normally never act in haste. But this Ice Phoenix was different.
From him, it felt something it had never sensed before—true danger.
That innate intuition, born of supreme bloodline, warned it that this human was not ordinary—
that his existence alone threatened its life.
And so it struck first, unleashing its deadliest move in a bid to kill before being killed.
The ice feathers tore through the sky at several times the speed of sound, blanketing the air in a storm of death.
No one short of an agility-type Titled Douluo could possibly evade such an attack.
Yet Wei Xuan did not panic.
With his Heavenly Pupils active, the world slowed to his perception.
The countless ice feathers, invisible to the naked eye, appeared to him in perfect clarity—their angles, trajectories, and impacts all frozen in his gaze.
He raised his hand calmly.
"Divine Sense Shield."
An invisible barrier shimmered into existence before him—so faint it could not be seen, only felt.
Formed purely from condensed spiritual force, it was paper-thin yet boundless, a wall of consciousness that denied all entry.
The storm of ice feathers struck the shield—and shattered instantly.
No sound, no vibration—just fine frost dispersing into mist.
Though intangible, the barrier was real, its defense beyond imagining.
Even a Titled Douluo's full attack could not leave so much as a mark upon it.
The shield existed only because of Wei Xuan's immense mental power.
Unless someone's spiritual strength surpassed his own, it was impossible to break.
Of course, maintaining it drained him greatly; it wasn't something he could use lightly or for long.
But for now, it held—and the Ice Phoenix's most fearsome strike vanished like snow before the sun.
(End of Chapter)