"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! The Ice Skin and Jade Bones manual was destroyed long ago! Where did you get the martial arts manual?" Xue Jianming still found it hard to believe even now.

His certainty was not entirely unfounded. Back then he too had wanted to try cultivating Ice Skin and Jade Bones, and to that end he had even paid a hefty price; unfortunately, he later discovered that he had no aptitude for it whatsoever. In a fit of rage he had destroyed more than half the manual—and thanks only to his father, the sect's vice-head, covering for him, the matter had been hushed up without anyone being the wiser. Otherwise he would surely have faced severe punishment from the sect.

Without even the martial arts manual, how could she possibly have cultivated it successfully?

"Is that any of your business?" Leng Leng snorted coldly. Her manual had indeed not come from the sect but from Wei Zhao. Among the compendium of sect cultivation methods that Wang Xinyan and the others had sent over, the vast majority of sects possessed only the entry-level methods and basic martial arts they had purchased from the black market, but a handful of sects covered nearly all methods and martial arts—such as the Snow Sword Sect, to which Wei Shenjin belonged.

Given that Leng Leng had already mastered such highly threatening offensive arts as Drawing the Ground as a Prison and Ice Prison Mirror Shatter, she would not consider forcing an assault on the Golden Core stage anytime in the near future. Thus, during the last month or so before the Primordial Trial began, apart from consolidating her realm, she devoted the vast majority of her remaining energy to cultivating a new martial art—the one Wei Zhao had selected for her: Ice Skin and Jade Bones.

Strictly speaking, her Shattered Ice constitution did not fully meet the requirements of Ice Skin and Jade Bones, and she could not pick it up in a very short time the way she had with Drawing the Ground as a Prison and Ice Prison Mirror Shatter. Yet her compatibility was still above eighty percent, so after more than a month she had at last achieved some small success—and now it was proving just the thing.

"Fine, fine, fine! So what if you have Ice Skin and Jade Bones? It just means you're a little tougher to beat—nothing more than speeding up the drain on your own meager remaining stamina and true qi. You can't even scratch a hair on my head. What damn use is it!" Xue Jianming sneered.

Though it smacked of self-consolation, his words were not false in the least. Ice Skin and Jade Bones was purely a defensive art, with no offensive capability whatsoever; at most it made Leng Leng harder to bring down, but it could not fundamentally overturn the balance of strength between them.

But Leng Leng had never deluded herself into thinking she could defeat Xue Jianming—that was unrealistic. She only wanted to hold him back, to buy a little more time for Qiu Lingshan and the others to flee. And so far, her strategy had succeeded.

Almost there! Leng Leng's breathing had grown rather labored now. To truly hold Xue Jianming back, Ice Skin and Jade Bones alone was not enough—she also had to add close-quarters instant strikes. Either one drained stamina and true qi enormously, and on top of what she had already expended, lasting half an incense stick's time was the very limit of what she could endure; any longer and she would be exhausted.

She drew a deep breath and forced Xue Jianming back once more, then turned and fled without the slightest hesitation.

"Heh heh, still trying to run at a time like this? Aren't you a little too naive?" Xue Jianming gave a cold laugh and gave chase at once. Leng Leng's speed was not exactly slow, but the gap in their strength was plain for all to see; unless she had movement techniques like Wei Zhao's, shaking him off was all but impossible.

In the blink of an eye, a palm strike landed on Leng Leng's back. Though Ice Skin and Jade Bones had shed the vast majority of its force, she still spat out a mouthful of blood—yet her feet did not falter in the least. Instead, borrowing the force of his palm, she fled all the faster.

"Hmph, let's see how long you can hold out!" By now Xue Jianming had cast Qiu Lingshan and the others completely from his mind—or more accurately, he had never much cared about them to begin with. Only this Leng Leng before him had to die!

In less than a year she had surged from the early Foundation Establishment stage to its consummate peak, mastered such powerful moves as Drawing the Ground as a Prison and Ice Prison Mirror Shatter, and now even cultivated Ice Skin and Jade Bones—actually managing to contend with him for so long across an entire major realm. The potential Leng Leng had displayed was simply too terrifying.

Even one as proud and arrogant as Xue Jianming had to admit it: if he let her continue unchecked, one day she might well trample him underfoot. Better to strangle her in the cradle while he still could!

A flash of cold light—Xue Jianming's sword left its sheath at once. Leng Leng felt a chill at her back, and the next instant a sword struck her squarely in the heart; a spray of glaring blood burst forth.

"Still not dead?" Xue Jianming stared blankly at Leng Leng, who was still running. That strike of his had been no mere show—he had put his full strength into it—yet all it had left on her back was a tiny wound. The defensive power of Ice Skin and Jade Bones was truly astonishing!

"Again! Let's see just how many of my strikes you can take!" Xue Jianming snarled.

By this point Xue Jianming no longer bothered to conceal his killing intent. Killing a peerless beauty like Leng Leng was a pity, true, but beauties could be found again; if he let Leng Leng grow, the day would come when his own life was at risk.

One pursued, one fled; in less than the time it takes to finish a cup of tea they had crossed dozens of miles of dense forest. By now Leng Leng's back was drenched in blood, with a dozen or more wounds large and small. Only by relying on Ice Skin and Jade Bones could she keep going; otherwise, every one of those dozen wounds would have been a gaping hole, and she would long since have been dead beyond doubt.

Even so, Leng Leng was now teetering on the verge of collapse—not only because the dozen wounds would not stop bleeding, but above all because her stamina and true qi were nearly at their limit.

"Almost! Almost there! It should be just ahead!" Leng Leng kept brainwashing herself along the way; only thus could she force herself to keep from collapsing. They had passed through this area only yesterday, but at the time they had sensed an abnormally powerful spirit beast's aura here, so they had not dared approach rashly and had carefully made a detour. And now this unknown, powerful spirit beast had become her only hope of survival.

Lure the unknown spirit beast into action, make it fix its eyes on Xue Jianming—only thus could Leng Leng possibly escape this calamity. There was no other way.

"Hm?" Xue Jianming quickly sensed something amiss. As a consummate Golden Core expert, his range of perception was naturally far greater than Leng Leng's; a single thought and he understood her scheme at once. Heedless of all else, he leaped high into the air, and a vast white sword radiance descended silently from the heavens—this was the strongest move he had mastered to date: One Sword Falls from the Ninth Heaven!

The shadow of death enveloped Leng Leng in an instant. This was the strongest strike of a consummate Golden Core expert; she was gravely wounded and utterly spent besides—even in her prime she could not have withstood it. Death was certain. (To be continued.)