As one of the exotic spirit-root attributes, the ice attribute was already a one-in-ten-thousand existence, but this Fractured-Ice Constitution was an anomaly among anomalies.

A normal ice attribute could condense frost and ice, putting it to enormous use in both offense and defense—just as Leng Rufeng once had. Those with the Fractured-Ice Constitution, however, were different: they too could condense ice, but the whole process was exceedingly brief, and the moment the ice formed it would invariably melt away into nothing.

Still, do not assume the Fractured-Ice Constitution fell short of a normal ice attribute. In fact, the truth was precisely the opposite.

It could not use fully formed ice as a move for attack or defense, but it possessed another, far more threatening property: as the fractured ice melted with lightning speed, it produced a fearsome effect close to instantaneous freezing—just as with Sun Baimei at this very moment, whose chest had been chilled almost to the point of losing all feeling.

If this property were truly developed to its utmost, the terror of the Fractured-Ice Constitution was all but immeasurable. Wei Zhao had always taken this constitution for a legend, never imagining he would witness it with his own eyes today—and on none other than Leng Leng, with whom he had spent a full half month.

This discovery genuinely elated Wei Zhao. A cultivator only at the early Foundation Establishment stage, Leng Leng would ordinarily have been hard-pressed to help much—especially carrying injuries as she was—but since she possessed the legendary Fractured-Ice Constitution, even Sun Baimei, a late Foundation Establishment expert, faced no small threat. Add Wei Zhao himself, and their odds of victory had soared.

Sure enough, a measure of wariness now showed on Sun Baimei's face. Last time he had struck first from ambush, and after Leng Leng was wounded she had resolutely chosen to flee, so he had subconsciously written her off. Only now, having suffered for it, did he realize: Leng Leng's Fractured-Ice Constitution ranked among the foremost talents in all the Ancient Small Jianghu—it absolutely could not be underestimated.

Thank heavens she was merely at the early Foundation Establishment stage. Had she been a late Foundation Establishment expert as well, that kick alone would already have sealed his death.

At this moment Leng Leng was coughing blood from the blow of his plastic slab, wounded upon wounded and unable to move for the moment. Without hesitation Sun Baimei abandoned Wei Zhao and turned his attention to her.

In his view, the threat Leng Leng posed now far exceeded Wei Zhao's. A few more kicks like that and he might well be frozen stiff alive—while Wei Zhao, a mere primal spirit, could never escape the palm of his hand.

Slapping hard at his own chest, now cold and stiff, Sun Baimei forcibly circulated his true qi and abruptly raised his other enormous sleeve to aim at Leng Leng—yet what came forth was not the peerless suction force, but three pitch-black sharp arrows fired silently and without warning.

Leng Leng's expression changed at once. She strained desperately to dodge, but her injuries left her far less nimble than usual, and there was no evading them at all.

Fortunately Wei Zhao blocked them for her in the nick of time, unleashing three Frenzied Fire Thousand-Leg Strikes in rapid succession like a flash of lightning, deflecting all three black arrows. The speed of his reaction and the precision of his timing were simply inconceivable.

Sun Baimei was struck dumb on the spot. His Sleeve-Within-Qiankun Arrows were a move for ambushing and backstabbing, and they had never once failed—yet here was someone taking three arrows in a row with such ease. And this was merely a primal spirit!

"Th-that was amazing…" Behind him, Leng Leng was dumbfounded as well.

"How many times have I told you—I'm a master of the martial arts world." Wei Zhao turned back with a chuckle. Limited as his strength was now, his eye and his combat experience were a match for the titans of the Mountain-Opening stage; handling the dirty tricks of a mere late Foundation Establishment expert was naturally child's play.

One could only say that Sun Baimei had chosen the wrong strategy from the very start. Had he leaned on his advantage in rank and chosen to clash head-on with the two of them at any cost, then even Wei Zhao would have had no answer for him. Without sufficient strength, the sharpest eye and the richest combat experience were doomed to be mere ornaments.

But he had chosen instead to play these sly tricks—before Wei Zhao, that was nothing short of inviting humiliation, and he would not even know how he died.

As her gaze met Wei Zhao's, the shock and estrangement in Leng Leng's heart vanished like smoke. Whether he was an ordinary man or a cultivator's primal spirit, the feeling from these days together could not be wrong—Wei Zhao was still the same Wei Zhao who brought her meals every day.

"Braggart." Leng Leng pouted as always—and then a smile suddenly bloomed on her face, pure and cold and devastatingly beautiful.

"That's bragging too?" Wei Zhao could not help but smile with her. A moment ago he had still worried that the little cold girl might take some unkind notion into her head, perhaps to part ways with him from then on—but now it seemed his half month of effort had not been in vain after all. This little cold girl was, unexpectedly, thoroughly reasonable.

"Of course!" Though her injuries were far from light, for some reason Leng Leng's mood had suddenly lifted greatly. Before this, she would never have bickered with Wei Zhao like this.

"Hmph, two things about to die, and still in the mood to flirt? Don't tell me you really think that's all the strength I have?" Sun Baimei, seeing this, was stung into a fury.

"Heh, then bring out whatever other moves you have, and be quick about it—otherwise you'll carry them into your coffin and die with your eyes wide open." Wei Zhao smiled faintly.

Facing Sun Baimei alone, he truly had few options—but now, with Leng Leng of the Fractured-Ice Constitution helping to hold him in check, so long as she could interrupt that suction move in time, Sun Baimei would be little different from any ordinary Foundation Establishment expert before him. There was nothing left to fear.

"A mere primal spirit, and I truly don't know what you have to be so arrogant about before me. Last time I was merely caught off guard and stabbed in the back by you, which is the only reason you escaped. Heh heh, this time I won't have to move a single finger—you're already dead beyond doubt." Sun Baimei sneered, then abruptly swung his sleeve.

Wei Zhao and Leng Leng both went on guard at once. One cuff of this thing could draw in primal spirits, the other could wound with hidden arrows—who knew whether it concealed some other underhanded trick as well.

Meow! Meow! Meow!…

A strange chorus of cat cries made Wei Zhao and Leng Leng exchange glances, and then they saw the cuff of their opponent's sleeve stir—a string of black cats came scrambling out one after another, each drenched in blood, nine of them in all!

"These are all primal spirits!" Wei Zhao's gaze sharpened. These bloody black cats were just like him—all of them primal spirit bodies!

"Indeed, primal spirits! It cost me no end of heart's blood—I tortured and killed countless spirit cats to refine and rear these Blood Spirit Cats. They are the natural bane of all spirit beings, and a primal spirit like you is nothing but ready-made food to them. I would rather like to see how you mean to deal with my Blood Spirit Cats!" Sun Baimei laughed coldly in triumph. (To be continued.)