The words had barely left his mouth when walls of ice erupted on every side around Wei Zhao. In the blink of an eye they fused into a cell a meter wide, sealing him inside.

"Oh? Not a bad move." Wei Zhao nodded. In truth, he had felt the fluctuation of true qi the instant the ice cell appeared; if he had gone all out, escaping would not have been difficult. He had simply stayed put on purpose, wanting to test his new ability.

Still, credit where it was due—Bing Wushuang's ice prison formed with astonishing speed. An ordinary cultivator might register what was happening and still lack the speed to escape it, especially while enduring the crushing pressure of the Ruthless Ice Force bearing down at the same time. It was genuinely hard to counter.

"You're really not afraid to die?" Bing Wushuang had already appeared before Wei Zhao. The cell was not unbreakable, but the instant its prisoner broke out, he would inevitably expose an opening—more than enough for Bing Wushuang to kill him.

"Would you actually kill me?" Wei Zhao stood with hands clasped behind his back, making no move to break the ice at all, merely watching the other man with a calm, faint smile.

"A word of advice: the clever ones usually die ugly deaths." A heavy killing intent surged from Bing Wushuang. Dr. Glasses had indeed warned them not to provoke Wei Zhao for the time being—but only once, and without any hint of the deeper reasons. He could follow that instruction in ordinary times, but now Wei Zhao had delivered himself to his door; no one could blame Bing Wushuang for not holding back. At worst, he would take a reprimand from the Center afterward.

"Then by all means." Wei Zhao smiled faintly.

"Die!" The words had barely left Bing Wushuang's mouth when both his hands had already transformed into a pair of indestructible, razor-sharp ice claws, moving with inconceivable speed. A streak of white light flashed through the ice cell—and, without the slightest suspense, through Wei Zhao's body as well.

"Now, shall we begin, Lin Dongfang?" Bing Wushuang did not spare Wei Zhao another glance, turning straight toward Lin Dongfang. As for Wei Zhao, run clean through the chest by his ice claws, he was now certainly dead. And what need was there to look twice at a dead man?

But before he could even take a step, Wei Zhao's voice rang out behind him, utterly unruffled: "Hey, hey—aren't you turning back a little too early to gloat?"

"How can this be?" Bing Wushuang's eyelid twitched. He turned instinctively for a look, and his jaw dropped in shock. Wei Zhao, whom he had clearly run through the chest, stood there wholly intact, not a scratch anywhere on him. Had what he saw before been an illusion?!

Bing Wushuang himself did not notice, but Lin Dongfang, standing off to the side, saw it all clearly. A flicker of surprise crossed his face. "The brat's got some tricks after all. Instant switching between primordial-spirit state and primordial-spirit-body state—and localized switching at that. Master that properly and it's a formidable ability indeed. Looks like these past few months weren't wasted."

Just as Lin Dongfang said, at the instant Bing Wushuang's ice claws touched him, Wei Zhao had switched that portion of his primordial-spirit body into primordial-spirit state. Even run clean through the chest, he took no harm at all. This was the new ability he had been probing and refining lately.

It was, admittedly, only just beginning to take shape. He still could not switch fully between primordial-spirit-body state and primordial-spirit state in an instant; for now he could control only a small portion. But even so it was no small feat—and the shock written across Bing Wushuang's face just now proved it.

In terms of realm and strength alike, Bing Wushuang, a late-stage Golden Core expert, should by all rights have held overwhelming advantage. Wei Zhao was not on the Cloud Stair Island now; he could not cross major realms to fight above his level. Yet in this moment the momentum of the field was entirely Wei Zhao's.

His trademark Ruthless Ice Force had failed from the very start. Then, though he had trapped his opponent in an ice cell, his ice claws had pierced the man's chest and left not a single wound. Faced with such an uncanny adversary, even Bing Wushuang could not help feeling a trace of helplessness.

"How can this be? Just who in the world are you?" Bing Wushuang no longer dared act rashly. His mind drifted back to the time Lin Dongfang had flattened him in a single exchange, and an ominous foreboding took root in his heart, impossible to shake.

"Save that question and dig up the answer yourself, slowly, some other time. All right, old man—time for you to do what you came for." Wei Zhao clapped his hands.

"You brat, you certainly know how to order people around." Lin Dongfang pursed his lips in annoyance, but grumble as he might, his feet did not hesitate for an instant; he walked straight toward Bing Wushuang.

For all that Wei Zhao now appeared to hold an unassailable position, when it came down to it he was only at consummate Foundation Establishment—at most he could stall Bing Wushuang. As for defeating him, that was all but impossible at present.

Seeing the two of them treat him as though he did not exist, Bing Wushuang's fury ignited. He had indeed been rattled by Wei Zhao's uncanny tricks, but to think that alone would make him retreat was utterly impossible—if it did, he would not be Bing Wushuang.

"You two deserve death!" Bing Wushuang struck at once with everything he had, holding nothing back. The range of the Ruthless Ice Force was compressed into a tiny area, but its intensity multiplied several times over in an instant—even the ground around them showed faint signs of sinking beneath the weight of it. Its might was plain to see.

Yet Lin Dongfang simply strolled in, as lightly as if out for a walk—no trace of being suppressed by the Ruthless Ice Force, just as Wei Zhao had shown. He walked until he stood two paces from Bing Wushuang, then raised his hand and threw an utterly plain, unremarkable punch.

The punch looked ordinary, nothing special about it at all—in fact, it moved with extreme slowness, seeming at first glance to carry no force whatever. Even a common street thug would have looked fiercer and more powerful. And yet it was this utterly ordinary punch that turned Bing Wushuang's face deathly pale.

During their last exchange he had not clearly seen Lin Dongfang's fist; he had only felt its overwhelming might at the moment of impact. This time he had finally seen how the man threw his punch—but that was all he managed.

Facing that utterly ordinary punch, Bing Wushuang could not muster the slightest countermove. It was not that he did not want to; he simply could not move. His entire being was pinned in place by the fist's force, heavy as a mountain. The more clearly he saw it, the more irresistible that pressure became. Compared to this, his own Ruthless Ice Force was like a candle beside the sun.

His mind went blank. Though Bing Wushuang was now a late-stage Golden Core cultivator, he felt far more powerless than the last time—back then, he had not thought much of it; the higher his cultivation rose, the more keenly he now grasped the terror of it. Only a bitter smile remained in his heart. To think that with his paltry strength he had come to wipe out his former shame—truly, ignorance made men fearless. (To be continued.)