Chapter 230

Chapter 230: Blessing in Disguise?

Human Skin Skeleton frowned hard. For some reason, a trace of fear rose from the human before him.

A Golden Core Stage human was making him feel fear? [How is that possible?] He had lost to the City Lord of Myriad Arts City, true, but he was still a top Tribulation Crossing expert. Why would a Golden Core Stage cultivator make him feel this way?

He stared fixedly at Li Shuang. She was still covered in frost, looking no different at all.

Suddenly, his eyes stung. In his senses, an eternal glacier appeared behind Li Shuang. Countless strange runes were carved into that ice. An ancient, primeval aura seemed to seep from the depths of the mountain of ice.

He tried to keep looking. All at once, cold veins in the glacier gathered into a giant dragon that roared at him. His whole body turned cold, and for a heartbeat he wanted to flee in panic. He forced the feeling down and kept staring at Li Shuang’s back.

In the crushing cold, he barely caught a glimpse of an Azure Lotus slowly blooming behind the human. When he tried to see more, stabbing pain shot through his eyes and he could not help howling.

Human Skin Skeleton let out a cry of pain.

Yi Lan and the other two looked over, shaken and unsure.

Ignoring them, Human Skin Skeleton pressed down the pain and, still rattled, looked again.

This time, Li Shuang only sat quietly in meditation. Nothing seemed different. It was as if everything just now had been his illusion.

His face shifted slightly. But how could a Tribulation Crossing expert’s spiritual sense be wrong? Even now, when he thought of that glacier and the terrible Azure Lotus, he felt a lingering dread.

[Who is this human? What is her background!]

“Senior, it has been a long time; why not serve the next course?” Yi Lan said, eyes flickering.

Human Skin Skeleton shot her a cold look.

Yi Lan rushed to smile and flatter him: “Senior, based on past experience, isn’t it about time for the final round?”

She snuck a tiny glance toward Li Shuang. She had no idea what was going on with the woman. But if the final round started now and Li Shuang stayed like this, she would die for sure on the eighth dish.

Human Skin Skeleton sneered: “Since when do you decide what happens here?”

Yi Lan’s heart tightened as she said softly: “Junior meant no such thing.”

She shut her mouth, though a trace of doubt crept into her eyes. [Is he buying time for Li Shuang? No, no. That must be a mistake. The Wardens of the Eighteen Hells want every human who enters to die. They would never favor a human cultivator.]

Human Skin Skeleton snorted. [Does she take me for a fool?] Li Shuang was going through an extreme transformation. If he forced it to stop, even if he could, just remembering that ancient, grand aura on her made him shiver. Why bring such towering karmic trouble on himself for no reason?

In Gluttony Hell, even the Skeletons who never stopped wailing fell quiet. Every gaze locked on the woman in the center.

How long would Li Shuang keep meditating?

When Yi Lan and the other two had waited so long they grew impatient, the frost covering Li Shuang finally began to melt. The field of extreme cold around her faded away. But she did not open her eyes; her transformation had reached the last moment.

The three exchanged a look and, moving with perfect timing, lunged at Li Shuang.

Closer.

Closer.

She still did not open her eyes. [Have we been overestimating her?]

Joy flashed in Yi Lan’s eyes as her curved blade thrust straight for the space between Li Shuang’s brows.

In the next instant, a terrifying aura burst from Li Shuang. Behind her appeared a profound, boundless Azure Lotus. A Giant raised a huge axe and chopped toward the sky. Heaven wept blood, and the blood dyed the Azure Lotus. The lotus, stained red, gave birth to endless cold.

As the Azure Lotus unfurled, Li Shuang opened her eyes.

Yi Lan’s blade had already reached her face.

Li Shuang only looked at it calmly.

The blade froze segment by segment, then shattered. A slicing cold wind swept over Yi Lan. In a breath, she became a statue of ice.

The girl and Rou Shan dodged fast, but still got clipped. Frost layered thick across their bodies.

“What is going on?” Rou Shan blurted in shock as he glanced at the girl.

Her face looked even worse than his. Eyes wide, voice gone hoarse, the girl said: “Supreme Ice Spiritual Root! The Supreme Ice Spiritual Root has appeared!”

Legend said that every cultivator with a Supreme Spiritual Root had a unique fortune. The woman before them clearly had a root whose fortune was tied to the Azure Lotus.

A Supreme Spiritual Root! Rumor held there were only three owners in the entire Central Continent: the City Lord of Myriad Arts City, the Sect Leader of Divine Heaven Sect, and the mysterious man behind the back mountain of Limitless Sect. In such a vast Central Continent, only these three had appeared.

Yet now, here in Gluttony Hell, she had watched a new cultivator with a Supreme Spiritual Root be born.

Li Shuang! The girl stared at her, fixing the name in her heart.

“Supreme Ice Spiritual Root?” Rou Shan could not hide his fear. A cultivator with this talent, as long as she did not die halfway, was destined to become a peerless powerhouse. If he met such a person outside, he would try every way to get close; if not a friend, at least not an enemy.

But they had already offended her deeply. If she walked out of here, every sect would fight to take her in. Every word she spoke would matter. Their little deal with Yi Lan would never stay hidden.

Li Shuang’s Supreme Ice Spiritual Root had fully formed. She tested herself and felt great. Her training speed had always been fast. Now that her root had advanced, her speed in absorbing spiritual power was astonishing.

It would not take long before she pushed her cultivation to the Nascent Soul Stage. Then she would truly return to the realm she had reached in her last round of training.

Her mood was bright.

Suddenly, applause sounded around them.

Smiling, the girl looked at her and said: “Borrowing the Cold Soul Ice Power, you hit a one-in-ten-thousand chance and advanced your root. Daoist Friend, you really turned misfortune into a blessing.”