Chapter 957: Nothing Special
Facing Li Mingcheng's approach, Yun Che's entire body remained motionless, his hands still clasped behind his back, showing no signs of assuming a defensive or counterattack stance. The onlookers found this unsurprising; they had all sensed the freezing force Li Mingcheng had released. Given Yun Che's strength, there was no way he could struggle under Li Mingcheng's ice seal.
Victory or defeat would be decided in an instant.
To anyone watching, this confrontation was nothing more than a pointless joke.
Watching Yun Che, whose movements had been "sealed" by his cold aura, and recalling his earlier "ingratitude," a sinister look flashed across Li Mingcheng's face. The profound force in his palm, aimed at Yun Che, suddenly intensified... clearly intending to severely injure him with a single strike.
"You asked for this!" Li Mingcheng muttered. His palm, condensed with icy profound force, viciously struck Yun Che's chest.
Bam!
A deafening air explosion erupted in the frozen space. As Li Mingcheng's palm touched Yun Che's body, it passed straight through, dispersing only an afterimage. Caught off guard, Li Mingcheng stumbled forward, nearly falling to the ground. He quickly withdrew his force, steadied himself as fast as possible, and a flicker of surprise crossed his mind.
"First move." Yun Che's voice came from less than three zhang to his right.
This turn of events caught everyone off guard. Li Mingcheng's attack had indeed been slow and easy to dodge, but they had all clearly sensed the icy aura he had released. With Yun Che's level of strength, there was no way he could have broken free...
Could it be that Li Mingcheng hadn't actually sealed him?
"Huh? What happened?" Mu Xiaolan, who had expected Yun Che to be instantly wounded by Li Mingcheng, lifted her eyes, her lips slightly parted.
"Oh... a rather peculiar movement technique. This kid is indeed extraordinary," Mu Sushan murmured softly.
No one understood better than him whether Li Mingcheng had used his icy profound force to seal Yun Che. Just now, the air within several zhang around Yun Che had completely stopped flowing, everything locked tight by the cold aura. Yun Che had been at the very center of that frozen seal... yet within that icy blockade, he had instantly performed a dodge, as if Li Mingcheng's ice seal didn't even exist.
Li Mingcheng's heart was filled with doubt and suspicion, and his face burned with embarrassment. But when he turned around, his expression was one of arrogant praise, the look of a strong man acknowledging a weaker opponent: "Heh, not bad, kid. That was just a little greeting. We've got five moves to play with. If it ended too quickly, that would be no fun at all. With your mere mid-stage Sovereign Xuan cultivation, I was worried you couldn't even dodge that one. Looks like you didn't disappoint me. Come on, let's continue."
As soon as Li Mingcheng said this, the surrounding crowd showed expressions of understanding.
"So that's it. He was just toying with him. I was wondering."
"Isn't it obvious? The cold aura probably didn't even touch Yun Che. Otherwise, forget dodging—being instantly frozen into severe injury would have been the lightest outcome."
"With such a weak opponent, Li Mingcheng still has the mind to toy with him. Could they have a grudge?"
"Li Mingcheng should have been first in the assessment. But Yun Che beat him by cheating, so naturally he's unhappy. This Yun Che has some nerve. A mere lower realm brat, and he dares to cheat as soon as he arrives at the Bing Huang God Sect. It seems he's used to being despicable and shameless in the lower realms."
"But this time, he's going to be thoroughly ruined. Still, I heard he was brought back from the lower realm by one of the Ice Phoenix Palace Masters... but with such weak strength, and daring to cheat in the Cold Snow Hall assessment, that Ice Phoenix Palace Master probably wouldn't bother wasting energy to protect him, right?"
"Heh, he's starting to panic," Mu Sushan said with a mysterious smile.
"Mmm! He must be panicking! But he's still pretending to be so calm... I'm a hundred times more panicked than he is!" Mu Xiaolan said frantically. She thought Mu Sushan was referring to Yun Che.
Mu Sushan glanced at Mu Xiaolan and said, "It seems that although he was brought back from the lower realm by you and the Ice Cloud Palace Master, you don't really understand him that well."
"Of course I understand him!" Mu Xiaolan said indignantly. "He's always been like this. Clearly so weak, yet always putting on an act of fearing nothing. Not only is his mouth foul, but he loves showing off, bragging, and bullying girls... utterly despicable, shameless, and reprehensible! If he did that on his own planet, fine, but now that he's in Yin Xue Realm, he's still the same. As soon as he arrived, he caused such a huge disaster for Master! I don't even know what to do now... It's infuriating!"
"..." Mu Xiaolan started muttering to herself, leaving Mu Sushan speechless.
Although Li Mingcheng forcibly pretended that he had been toying with Yun Che earlier, he knew very well what had actually happened. Escaping his ice seal in an instant was absolutely impossible with mere Sovereign Xuan realm power. He was beginning to feel an uneasy sense of foreboding.
"Yun Che, let's see how you struggle this time!" Li Mingcheng muttered. Two streams of cold air rapidly gathered between his hands. With a shift of his stance, he suddenly struck, releasing the two cold streams, which instantly transformed into two massive icy vortices, hurtling toward Yun Che from left and right.
Swoosh!
The surroundings erupted in gasps. The previous ice seal had been colorless and formless—they had only sensed its aura. But these two icy vortices had materialized into reality. The terrifying cold aura from the divine path made even those with weaker profound strength, standing far away, feel a sudden chill across their entire bodies.
"Ahhh... Is Li Mingcheng trying to... kill Yun Che?" exclaimed a cultivator who had just passed the assessment.
The icy pressure of the two vortices bore down heavily on Yun Che. Li Mingcheng had held back almost nothing this time. Even a divine path cultivator at the early stage of the Divine Origin Realm would find it difficult to move under such suppression. A slight grimace twisted Li Mingcheng's face. He changed his hand gesture, and the icy vortices accelerated sharply, converging on Yun Che.
Boom!!
The cold aura exploded, sending countless fragments of ice flying wildly. But within the space ravaged by the frozen air, only a slowly dissipating afterimage remained.
Li Mingcheng's pupils contracted, but he reacted instantly. The two vortices, their power not yet exhausted, merged together. With a slightly savage roar, he detonated them. The force he had deliberately suppressed in terms of area burst forth violently, and a terrifying icy storm instantly engulfed the surrounding thousand zhang of space.
"Where do you think you're running!"
"Waaahhh!"
The observing cultivators cried out in alarm, hurriedly retreating while defending themselves.
Mu Sushan frowned deeply and quickly extended his hand... but then lowered it again, his gaze fixed on the area in front of Li Mingcheng.
The ice dissipated, but the air still carried an astonishing chill. Yun Che stood only thirty zhang in front of Li Mingcheng, his expression calm and indifferent despite the freezing aura that could freeze the blood of even a cultivator who had just entered the Divine Xuan Realm. He said coldly, "That's the third move."
Li Mingcheng: "!!!!"
It was as if the entire world had frozen solid, leaving dead silence.
Everyone standing here was a powerful cultivator who had stepped onto the divine path. Under the icy storm Li Mingcheng had suddenly unleashed just now, even they had to flee at full speed while exerting all their strength to defend themselves. He had covered such a wide area with the icy storm precisely to leave Yun Che no escape.
But judging by Yun Che's appearance, he had clearly remained not far from Li Mingcheng the whole time, never leaving the storm's range.
Yet he was completely unharmed!?
"Huh? What's... going on?" Mu Xiaolan was stunned again.
A look of surprise also appeared in Mu Sushan's eyes.
He suddenly realized that he might have still underestimated this extremely peculiar lower realm person.
The surrounding spectators were all dumbfounded. This time, even an idiot wouldn't believe that Li Mingcheng had been "toying" with Yun Che again.
"Yun Che, you... you must have used some kind of protective profound artifact!" Li Mingcheng pointed at Yun Che and roared loudly. He absolutely could not accept that a mere level five Sovereign Xuan realm cultivator could come away unscathed from his power!
"Defeated by me in the assessment, you said I cheated. Now that you can't hurt me in a fight, you say I'm using a protective artifact." Yun Che curled his lips, a trace of undisguised mockery appearing. "Is that all you've got?"
"You..." Li Mingcheng's chest heaved as if it might explode. He forced a cold smile and said in a deep voice, "It seems I've hit a nerve. Those three attacks of mine just now—you dodged them all instantly. Clearly, you used some kind of spatial artifact. With your measly Sovereign Xuan profound strength, there's absolutely no way you could withstand my cold aura without a protective artifact. And the fact that you've never dared to face me head-on, only relying on artifacts to dodge and defend—that's the best proof!"
"In that case," Yun Che slowly raised his hand, "this time, you go ahead and attack. I won't dodge."
The moment Yun Che finished speaking, Li Mingcheng let out a low roar and charged straight at Yun Che, as if afraid he might change his mind. His spread fingers were wreathed in ice spirits as he viciously clawed at Yun Che's chest.
This time, Yun Che indeed did not retreat. Instead, he stepped forward half a pace and threw a punch with his right arm, meeting Li Mingcheng head-on.
"You're asking for death!" Seeing Yun Che actually choose to face him directly, Li Mingcheng's eyes burst with fierce light. His entire profound force surged even more violently, and his whole arm was encased in a mass of solid ice. He intended to reclaim all the frustration from the previous three moves in one blow!
Boom!
A thunderous sound rang out. Under everyone's watchful eyes, the two arms collided with no trace of trickery. Space trembled slightly. The ferocity on Li Mingcheng's face instantly turned to terror and disbelief, because what he felt was not the overwhelming crushing force he had expected, but the impact of a ten-thousand-zhang mountain slamming into him.
The next instant, amid the exploding storm of profound aura, both figures flew backward. Yun Che spun in midair and landed steadily on the ground. Li Mingcheng, however, stumbled and nearly fell to his knees. He raised his head to look at Yun Che, his pupils violently contracting. His entire right arm was trembling slightly, completely numb.
"This is your real strength?" Yun Che casually shook his wrist and sneered. "Seeing how arrogant you were earlier, I thought you were something special. Turns out you're nothing special."
"If I cheated in the assessment, then what does that make you?"
The turn of events had completely defied everyone's expectations. They had come to watch this confrontation as if it were a joke, expecting the only possible outcome to be the "cheater" Yun Che revealing his true colors. With his mere level five Sovereign Xuan profound strength, he shouldn't have had even the slightest ability to resist against Li Mingcheng.
But instead, it seemed that the one being toyed with was not Yun Che, but rather Li Mingcheng!
Especially just now—everyone had clearly witnessed it: a direct, no-tricks frontal collision. The astonishing fluctuations of power proved that Li Mingcheng had likely used all his strength. Yet not only had he failed to defeat Yun Che, he had even ended up at a disadvantage!
"Fake... this has to be fake, right?" a cultivator said in terror.
"He... is he really only at Sovereign Xuan Level Five? That's... impossible, right?"
"Li Mingcheng is a peak Divine Origin Level Three! How can this be!"
(End of Chapter)