"Damn it, why now of all times..."
Zhang Lexuan cursed under her breath, her voice filled with helplessness and anxiety.
Normally, she might have relied on her strength to force a path out, but at this moment, the heart-pounding battle fluctuations behind her hung over her head like the Sword of Damocles; no one knew if that terrifying existence would suddenly shift the battlefield here.
Once entangled by these frenzied Soul Beasts, the consequences would be unimaginable.
She didn't dare to charge through recklessly. Grabbing Caelus, she made a snap decision: "This way, stay close."
She chose a direction where the beast tide was relatively sparse, attempting to take a detour.
Her figure dashed out again, but she was forced to slow down, needing to remain constantly alert for sudden attacks from the herd and to dodge the massive Soul Beasts rampaging in panic.
Ice shards flew, and beastly roars shook the heavens.
Like a swift swallow weaving through a storm, Zhang Lexuan led Caelus with difficulty through the edge of the chaotic beast tide, several times narrowly avoiding discovery by frenzied Ten Thousand Year Soul Beasts in a series of close calls.
Caelus was kept firmly behind her protection. Watching the tense curve of her back and the unavoidable trace of worry in her eyes when she occasionally looked back, the guilt in his heart deepened.
Yet, his gaze remained fixed in the direction the storm was coming from.
Blocked by the beast tide, he was temporarily unable to leave the Far North.
And this was precisely the future he had "chosen."
The World's lines of Karma had already quietly shifted according to the trajectory he had anchored.
While leading Caelus to avoid the Soul Beast tide, Zhang Lexuan released her mental force to search for an exit.
Suddenly, amidst the chaotic Soul Power fluctuations and the earth-shaking beast roars, Zhang Lexuan caught a scent of an aura as majestic, cold, and filled with primal oppression as a ten-thousand-year-old ice abyss suddenly cracking open.
This aura did not come from the center of the World-destroying battlefield in the distance, but was rapidly approaching from the ice valley ahead and to their side.
Her expression changed drastically in an instant.
"A One Hundred Thousand Year Spirit Beast."
This thought exploded in her mind like a clap of thunder.
Without a moment's hesitation or even time to explain, she suddenly pulled Caelus. Her figure, like an arrow shot from a powerful bow, veered off their original detour and dashed toward a seemingly unremarkable iceberg on the side.
The moment she approached the mountain, her gaze locked onto a narrow, deep, natural ice crevice half-hidden by wind and snow.
"Get in!"
She barked in a low voice, practically "crashing" into it with Caelus.
The interior of the ice crevice was narrow and winding, barely allowing one person to pass through sideways.
Not caring for much else, Zhang Lexuan shielded Caelus tightly behind her while she faced the entrance.
Soul Power condensed on her jade-like hands, and she struck the ice wall above the entrance without hesitation.
"Boom!"
It wasn't a loud bang, but a dull, inward-pressing sound of cracking.
Under her Soul Power control, the thick layer of ice above shattered. A large amount of crushed ice mixed with snow tumbled down, instantly sealing the already narrow entrance completely, leaving only a few tiny gaps for faint light and air to seep in.
Almost at the same time the entrance was sealed, the aura around Zhang Lexuan's body vanished like a snuffed-out candle flame, retracting to the extreme until it became nearly non-existent, as if she had merged with the ten-thousand-year-old ice.
She turned back at the same time, making a silencing gesture to Caelus, who was pressed tightly behind her, her eyes filled with unprecedented gravity.
Inside the ice crevice, a dead silence fell instantly. There were only the sounds of their slightly suppressed breathing due to tension and the drum-like thumping of their hearts within their chests—in such silence and proximity, the heartbeats were exceptionally clear.
The space was simply too narrow.
Caelus was practically squeezed entirely between Zhang Lexuan and the cold, hard ice wall.
His chest was pressed against Zhang Lexuan's cool and supple back, and he could clearly feel the stiffness in her back muscles due to extreme tension.
His nose was only an inch away from her waterfall-like hair. A faint scent, like cold pine needles when the sky first clears after snow mixed with a unique fragrance, inevitably lingered in his breath.
Zhang Lexuan's body visibly stiffened.
As the highly anticipated Eldest Senior Sister of the Shrek Inner Court, when had she ever had such intimate, or even embarrassing, contact with any member of the opposite sex?
Even with Bei Bei, whom she had watched grow up, she had never had such close contact.
Even in a crisis, this near-zero-distance proximity still caused a very faint, imperceptible blush to creep from the base of her ears to her neck. Her body instinctively wanted to pull away, but she was held fast by the cramped space and the lethal threat outside, unable to move.
She could only try her best to suppress her body's abnormality, focusing all her attention on sensing the movements outside, praying in her heart that the terrifying existence was just passing by.
Caelus also realized the awkwardness of the moment.
He could feel the stiffness and unnaturalness of the woman in front of him. That was by no means the combat posture one should have when facing a powerful enemy, but rather a type of bashfulness and tension belonging to a young girl that was difficult to suppress in a specific situation.
He immediately retracted all of his own aura as well, even adjusting his breathing to be longer and more subtle, trying his best to minimize any movements or sounds that might cause a misunderstanding.
Sensing Caelus's actions, Zhang Lexuan breathed a sigh of relief; she had truly been afraid that Caelus might do something irrational.
Zhang Lexuan was well aware of her own charm. In such close proximity, she feared Caelus wouldn't be able to control himself and would do something to embarrass her.
Fortunately, Caelus had strong self-control and even tried his best to lean against the ice wall behind him. Even if he risked frostbite, he tried to leave her some space for peace of mind.
Just as the two inside the ice crevice maintained this delicate and tense stillness, the ice valley outside became as silent as if time had stopped. All the clamor and chaos strangely subsided in an instant.
Those Thousand Year and Ten Thousand Year Soul Beasts that were previously roaring and fleeing became as if petrified, frozen in place. Their massive bodies trembled with extreme fear, not even daring to let out a whimper.
Some weaker Soul Beasts even had their limbs go soft, prostrating themselves on the ice and burying their heads deep in the snow, showing absolute submission.
"Thump... Thump... Thump..."
Heavy and rhythmic footsteps approached from a distance. Each step that fell seemed to tread on the heart of the ice plains, causing the earth to resonate with it, and crushed ice shards from the top of the crevice fell pattering down.
Through the tiny gaps in the sealed entrance, Caelus and Zhang Lexuan could barely see a colossal shadow slowly covering the light outside.
That was a Soul Beast of such a suffocatingly massive size.
It resembled a giant crocodile, but its entire body was covered in deep blue ice armor that was as brilliant as diamonds yet as thick as plate armor. Each scale shimmered with a cold light capable of freezing the Soul.
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