Chapter 698: Transform
Chapter 698: Transform
Knowing that he could still see and think did nothing to help his current situation though.
—After all, he was still stuck inside a block of ice with no way out.
For the next ten days, all he could do was to stare straight ahead of him while being frozen, unable to do anything.
The Ice Phoenix never emerged since the day she went into that grand frost palace. It would appear that she was comprehending the Ice Emperor’s inheritance she had just acquired.
The lizardmen, dragonmen, and scouts sent by Forefather Dark Wind had all been turned into ice sculptures, shackled inside the frost palaces.
There were no latter reinforcements.
The glaciers had regained their former appearance, and the broken ice wall above the frost palaces was sealed too. The frost palaces at the bottom of Frost Island were covered up once more.
Qin Lie had already been forgotten.
Inside this absolutely quiet frost palace, the frozen Qin Lie tried again and again to break through the ice and free himself from this frozen state.
His muscles, bones, and blood were all frozen. His dantian’s spirit sea was also frozen. Even his Soul Lake and True Soul had been turned into ice. He tried many times to free himself, but discovered that he couldn’t seem to find even a shred of energy from his body to break out of this ice.
He could think, so he could change his emotions. He could feel anger and violent if he wanted to, and he had tried to activate the power of his bloodline like this.
He made a couple of attempts and was pleasantly surprised to find that he could still sense and even use a little of the power of his bloodline despite having his dantian’s spirit sea, bones, muscles, and blood frozen.
Unfortunately, it despaired him to find out that he had exhausted most of his bloodline powers when he was opening a way through the ice earlier.
Moreover, he hadn’t completely recovered his bloodline powers when he went away from Seven Eye Island and entered Frost Island.
After digging a hole through the ice and battling the spirit beasts earlier, he had exhausted nine tenths of his bloodline power.
Even if he managed to squeeze out the last of his bloodline power, it didn’t seem enough to break through the ice seal.
The depletion of his bloodline power also made him feel incredibly weakened. He needed to replenish himself with the tremendous amounts of blood and energy available in the flesh of spirit beasts to be able to recover faster.
But since he was frozen, he obviously couldn’t do so and recover his bloodline powers.
He still had the lifeblood essences he refined with the Blood Refinement Art, but they could only be used with the support of soul power and the circulation of the Blood Spirit Art.
He couldn’t meet either one of this requirements.
His bloodline powers weren’t strong enough, his lifeblood essences couldn’t be used, his soul consciousness couldn’t be unleashed, and his dantian spirit sea was completely frozen…
For another ten days or so, Qin Lie attempted to utilize many of the secrets he possessed, to no avail.
He had no choice but to stay frozen for now.
Another half a month passed.
He was staring towards the front while being frozen in an upright position inside a frost palace as usual.
Today, he saw rays of silvery frost light brimming from the frost palace the Ice Phoenix was in. After the icy light had been unleashed, the crystalline frost rays of light existing inside walls and pillars of ice began to flow like cold stars in a river of stars.
The Ice Phoenix’s crisp cries gradually took on a higher pitch.
Countless dazzling ice lights became scattered from the frost palace, looking like phoenix’ feathers.
The miraculous transformation continued for three days straight.
On the third day, the frost palace abruptly exploded into many pieces. Tiny bits of cold, frigid light spread towards the surrounding from the blast zone.
The palace instantly crumbled into ruins.
Another half a day passed.
A small, white hand stretched out from the top of the pile of shattered ice. It look translucent and shiny like it was literally made out of ice.
The little hand pushed the shattered ice away while the owner of the hand muttered something indiscernible with a small voice. Then, she walked out of the pile of ice ruins slowly.
It was a girl who looked to be around fourteen or fifteen years old.
She was completely naked. Her skin was jade-like, and her body was covered in many complicated and exquisite looking phoenix patterns, The patterns’ color was bright and natural, and they resembled nature itself when complemented with her delicate and bright figure.
At first glance, the patterns looking like many tiny, beautiful phoenixes that had curled themselves into balls across her body. It made her look stunningly beautiful.
The girl looked like she wasn’t completely developed yet. Her breasts were only slightly swollen, and her figure looked underripe and young.
The phoenix patterns that nearly covered the entirety of the girl’s body looked like bright, colorful tattoos that gave her an enigmatic and mysterious feeling.
The frozen Qin Lie stared straight at the naked girl, observing her perfect countenance and flawless body. He was stunned by the sight.
“She’s the Ice Phoenix!”
It took Qin Lie a few seconds to come to the realization that this naked girl who had walked out of a pile of ice was the ruler of this frost kingdom and the new master of Frost Island.
After obtaining the frost diagram, absorbing the ice stream inheritance flowing from the ice giant’s eyes, fusing and comprehending all of its teachings, the Ice Phoenix had obviously experienced a complete make-over. She now possessed a talent that only high rank spirit beasts would possess—the ability of transformation!
Transformation was an astounding talent that only spirit beasts of Rank Seven and above could obtain.
Moreover, not all Rank Seven spirit beasts could transform into all kinds of races through transformation of their body.
Only spirit beasts who possessed special bloodline and were incredibly noble and rare could master this talent after they had evolved to Rank Seven.
The Ice Phoenix was without a doubt one of these high rank spirit beasts.
The Ice Phoenix was obviously still getting used to the transformation ability she recently learned. The phoenix patterns on her body would sparkle while she moved, and sometimes she would lose control of her power and suddenly turn back into her Ice Phoenix form.
When she had transformed back into an Ice Phoenix, she would curl and cover up her entire body in icy wings before transforming into a large ice ball.
The ice ball would shoot out icy light continuously while it was rolling in midair, and the naked girl would walk out of the ice after the ice ball had exploded.
Inside the frost palace, Qin Lie noticed that the Ice Phoenix was continuously transforming between her Ice Phoenix form and naked girl form.
This scene repeated for several days straight as the Ice Phoenix slowly familiarized herself with the transformation ability.
After she had gradually mastered the transformation ability, she showed obvious curiosity towards her new body. She began staying in human form for prolonged amount of time and made baby-like sounds from her mouth. She was slowly learning the common language of humans, and refraining from using her ability to communicate with another person directly through the soul.
She was growing bit by bit.
However, she was ultimately the Ice Phoenix. She seemed unused to putting on clothes on this translucent and flawless human body.
Moreover, she thought that every person in the frost palace, be it the soul, the body or the eyes were completely frozen in a half-dead state. They couldn’t see her, hear her, or even possess their own thoughts.
That was why she continued to study her own naked body inside the frost palace without the slightest scruple.
Qin Lie quietly observed her.
At first, he was very interested in the Ice Phoenix’s naked human girl form. Since he had nothing to do anyway, he spent every day observing her.
Every inch of the Ice Phoenix’s human body was perfectly visible to his eyes, and so he attempted to look at it with a critical eye and find a flaw in this body of hers.
In the end, he discovered that he could find almost no flaws in her human body other than the fact that it wasn’t completely developed yet.
Over time, he grew numb towards the Ice Phoenix’s human body and lost the initial novelty he felt when he first saw her.
No matter how beautiful a thing was, it was only a matter of time before fatigue settled in.
During this process, he noticed that the power of his bloodline was slowly recovering even though he wasn’t taking in any food.
However, without the replenishment of flesh that contained powerful blood and energy, his bloodline was recovering at least dozens of times slower.
Still, it gave him a sliver of hope.
He knew that it was only a matter of time before his bloodline power would recover completely even if he were to do nothing.
Then, he would have a chance at escaping this place and getting out of the frost palace.
A few more days passed, and he suddenly realized that Frost Island itself was trembling.
A frigid light appeared in the Ice Phoenix girl’s translucent pupils. She muttered a few words beneath her breath before exiting the frost palace.
He knew that the Dragonman Race, the Lizard Race, and Forefather Dark Wind had either sent over a new batch of underlings or came personally to this place.
The rumbling sounds were the commotion caused by these newcomers. They were continuing their search for Frost Island’s master.
Qin Lie was the only one left after in this underground frost kingdom after the Ice Phoenix had departed.
He discovered that his life had become dull and insipid after the Ice Phoenix had left. He discovered that even his final bit of pleasure—the view of a naked girl—was mercilessly taken away from him.
The huge frost palace suddenly became truly cold and lifeless.
He started missing the days the Ice Phoenix was around the palace; the strange days she spent in her human form trying learn the common language clumsily.
After he was trapped for an extended period of time and discovered that he couldn’t escape even after using every method that was available to him, he gradually turned numb and even seemed to have accepted his fate.
That lasted until the day he sensed an abnormality inside the Soul Suppressing Orb.
The Soul Suppressing Orb was also frozen inside his forehead under the power of absolute frost.
He couldn’t circulate his soul consciousness, and thus couldn’t enter the Soul Suppressing Orb and the world inside it.
Without his thoughts, the frozen Soul Suppressing Orb seemed to be in an immobile state as well.
But although the Soul Suppressing Orb could stay immobile indefinitely, the six Spirits of Void and Chaos hidden inside the depths of the orb needed to feed after a certain time. They needed the replenishment of six types of spirit materials to be able to grow steadily.
The abnormality had come from the six Spirits of Void and Chaos themselves!
Even without his soul consciousness, Qin Lie knew from the slight shudder of his flesh between his brows that the six Spirits of Void and Chaos were attempting to break through the sealing power of frost with their own strength in so that they could fly out of the Soul Suppressing Orb.
The fact that he could sense it now meant that the six Spirits of Void and Chaos’ efforts had worked slightly!
With his understanding of the Spirits of Void and Chaos, he knew that they had probably awakened since the moment he was encased in ice. They might have even worked to break free since a long time in order to feed!
While he was struggling again and again using all sorts of methods to break free of the ice, the Spirits of Void and Chaos were also doing the same thing!
He wasn’t alone.
In fact, even when he had slowly grown numb to the point where he accepted his fate after numerous failures, the Spirits of Void and Chaos never gave up!
The fact that he could sense abnormality in the Soul Suppressing Orb meant that the Spirits of Void and Chaos’ efforts weren’t completely in vain!
“My willpower actually pales in comparison to theirs?” Qin Lie felt ashamed.
After realizing that the Spirits of Void and Chaos were also struggling to escape the ice seal, he finally regained his spirit and went through all of the secret arts and spirit arts he had ever mastered. He struggled with all his might to find a way to recover his strength.
He recalled his past and the knowledge he had read from many scriptures in attempt to reach a breakthrough.
In this frost kingdom where absolute silence reigned, time seemed to flow at an exceptionally slow rate.
He didn’t lack the time to recall his past.
“The Limit Sublimation Art!” A flash of inspiration flashed through his mind.
The Limit Sublimation Art Duan Qianjie taught him was a secret art that required the cultivator to continue cultivating on his feet and urging out the hidden potential of one’s life even when they exhausted their soul power, spirit power and physical strength after fighting a harsh battle.
This extraordinary secret art didn’t fully count as a spirit art as its propellant was neither spirit energy nor soul energy.
It was a mysterious art that could only be circulated after the cultivator had almost exhausted all of their spirit energy, soul energy, and physical strength. It was something that came from the very depths of one’s life potential.
Right now, he was completely frozen to the point where even his dantian spirit sea, his Soul Lake and even True Soul were completely frozen. He had also exhausted most of his bloodline power, and his physical body was weak and tired.
His current situation was very similar to what one might experience after a great battle, wasn’t it?
Was it possible to activate the Limit Sublimation Art despite his current state?
After the thought had surfaced to his mind, he calmed himself down slowly and recalled the details on how to activate the Limit Sublimation Art. he went through even the tiniest of detail in his mind so that he had every point figured out before he started.
Then, he began thinking about cultivating the Limit Sublimation Art in his mind without being able to use his body or soul consciousness.
He was only seriously thinking about it…
He recalled the various things that happened when he cultivated the Limit Sublimation Art. He imagined that he was cultivating it in full concentration, and that he was digging out his potential and summoning the most mysterious energies that were hidden inside his physical body.
An unknown period of time later.
Qin Lie suddenly discovered that an indescribable tingling sensation was slowly spreading throughout his blood, muscles, bones and internal organs.
It felt like a weak electricity that came from the deepest depths of the human body and was spreading bit by bit towards every part of his body.
His muscles, bones, and flesh were trembling softly as the mysterious energy wriggled like billions of indiscernible tendrils in a trajectory that indicated that the Limit Sublimation Art was working.
His frozen, almost senseless body slowly became sensitive and felt cold.
A strong sense of joy surfaced slowly from the bottom of his heart. The light of hope flashed across his eyes.
Despite being in a state where he wasn’t able to use his spirit energy, soul energy or physical strength, the Limit Sublimation Art could still be executed without problems.
He gained a deeper recognition of how extraordinary Duan Qianjie was.