This was Snow Sword Sect, after all. She did not have to face Xue Jianming alone; the moment a fight broke out, it would quickly draw a crowd and blow the matter out of all proportion—and then it would no longer be her affair alone.

But before Leng Leng could even make her move, a bone-piercing chill had already settled over Xue Jianming, and Bing Wushuang's voice followed close behind: "Who is it that doesn't know better?"

"I said as much, didn't I? The moment Leng Leng runs into trouble, you, Wei Zhao's loyal lapdog, come snarling out first thing. Heh—not a single thing I predicted was off!" Xue Jianming was not startled in the least; instead a smug, mocking curve crept across his lips, as though he had long forgotten the bitter lesson of last time.

"So you came prepared?" Bing Wushuang looked him over again. The man had not struck, nor released any terrifying aura, but instinct told him that this opponent was now a far cry from what he had been. He recalled that Xue Jianming had vanished for several months—with the Center's heaven-defying technology, anything was possible; perhaps he had even advanced to Nascent Soul.

Otherwise, given Xue Jianming's nature—one that only ever bullied the weak and feared the strong—he would never dare come back at a time like this to stir up trouble, and certainly not so brazenly.

At that thought, a sudden clarity flashed through Bing Wushuang. By provoking Leng Leng, the man had deliberately drawn him out—could it be that this creature meant to take his revenge?

"You tell me." Xue Jianming made no attempt to hide it; a savage, murderous light slid through his eyes. "Someone asked me to pass along a message: betrayal comes with a price. A traitor never comes to a good end. I hope you're mentally prepared."

"Is that so." Bing Wushuang's expression did not shift in the slightest. There was no need to ask who that someone was. From the very day he had raised his hand against Xue Jianming, he had been prepared for exactly this. There was no fear in his heart.

The Center was unfathomable—true enough. But was Wei Zhao weak?

The Center's higher-ups had cautioned their people again and again, with the utmost earnestness, never to provoke Wei Zhao. That in itself proved how fearsome Wei Zhao was. Bing Wushuang believed it. Wei Zhao and the power behind him must possess the depth of strength to stand against the Center—that was the only explanation that made sense. Otherwise he would never have thrown in his lot with Wei Zhao so readily. This was a colossal gamble, and a smart man like him did not lightly place his bets.

"You seem awfully self-assured. Do you really think that just because you've become a Nascent Soul monster, you're invincible under heaven—that no one can deal with you anymore?" Xue Jianming laughed at the look on his face, an air of lofty superiority fairly dripping from him, gazing at Bing Wushuang the way one might look at a clown—a clown about to receive his revenge.

"So what you're saying is, you can deal with me?" The corner of Bing Wushuang's mouth curved up as well.

"Naturally. Otherwise all this spittle of mine would have been wasted, wouldn't it?" Xue Jianming's expression grew more smug still—but before he could so much as lift a hand, his body suddenly sank, and a thick layer of ice clamped over him from head to toe, leaving him unable to move a single step. Even raising a hand or a foot became a vain hope.

This time the Heartless Ice Force was more than a notch stronger than before. Though Bing Wushuang's cultivation had not advanced a single step in these months—he had not touched the two top-grade Golden Core Formation Pills Wei Zhao had given him, for everyone knows that haste makes waste; it was only that some people could restrain themselves and others could not, and a man of Bing Wushuang's absolute rationality naturally belonged to the former—its power had nonetheless grown.

Judged purely by immediate effect, apart from that poisonous qi, the Center's improved pills really were far stronger than ordinary ones. Even the top-grade pills Wei Zhao refined by hand could not compare with them. But they carried one enormous drawback: they devoured a person's potential, and the direct consequence was that thereafter self-breakthrough became extremely difficult. What was more, one's foundation was left severely deficient.

Bing Wushuang had not relied entirely on the Center's pills to raise his strength the way Xue Jianming had, but he had taken them once, after all. Had his own innate talent not been truly heaven-defying, no amount of top-grade pills from Wei Zhao would have done him any good. Frankly speaking, that he could overcome the side effects of the Center's pills in such a short time and charge all the way through to a successful Nascent Soul breakthrough—that result had astonished outsiders, and it had astonished Wei Zhao, and even himself.

Yet for all that Bing Wushuang's talent was mighty and heaven-defying, the side effects remained. Before Nascent Soul they had not been obvious, but once he advanced they gradually began to show themselves. The most direct sign was that breakthrough was no longer as easy as before; with his extraordinary gifts, a single dose of medicine had once been enough to break through with ease, but now that was no longer realistic.

Part of this was simply because breakthrough at the Nascent Soul stage was inherently harder—but the side effects were there all the same.

Fortunately, that half-plant of Spirit-Sense Grass as a foundation had done much to alleviate the problem, and now, after several months of deliberate consolidation, it could basically be considered offset. As his strength and cultivation grew more stable, Bing Wushuang's true power, even at the same early Nascent Soul stage, had risen considerably from a few months ago. Even against more seasoned early-stage Nascent Soul experts, he was now strong rather than weak.

So Xue Jianming had come back this time with real confidence—and Bing Wushuang, having anticipated exactly that, was equally confident.

"Hmph. A few paltry tricks like this, and you have the nerve to pull the same stunt on me again?" Xue Jianming, trapped in the ice, gave a cold snort—then a burst of incomparably powerful true qi exploded from his whole body, shattering the ice to fragments on the ground and leaving no obstacle in his way.

At the sight, Bing Wushuang's impassive eyes flew wide. This creature was not early Nascent Soul—he was at the peak of early Nascent Soul!

"Scared, are you?" Xue Jianming was thoroughly pleased by his shocked expression. "Well? Starting to feel a little regret now, are you? What a pity—too late for regret. One step out and there's no turning back. Honestly, I never would have thought that even a thing as rational as you, Bing Wushuang, could have a moment of hot-headedness and walk down such a road of no return. Before I really make my move, why don't you tell me how you feel?"

The peak of early Nascent Soul—that was his greatest trump card!

These past months he had not been nursing his wounds; he had been undergoing further strengthening and enhancement at the Center, and the peak of early Nascent Soul was the result.

Because of the presence of Dr. Luan and the others on Cloud-Step Island, the Center's technological means for mass-producing Nascent Soul experts had long since matured. (To be continued.)

PS: Advertisement: The young powerhouse Zhang Ren enters university—yet at a beauty's entreaty he storms the underground boxing rings, humiliates Muay Thai masters, serves as a starlet's close bodyguard, and subdues the Snow Queen of Siberia. Only amid all this dalliance does he discover that the destruction of his sect was in fact a shocking conspiracy. Watch him turn clouds with one hand and rain with the other as he builds *The Strongest National Martial Arts*! Book number: