Time went by, and before long twenty days had passed since the start of the trial. The blizzard that had seemed endless finally began to weaken. The screaming wind died down, the snow no longer poured from the sky, and the whole land grew quiet.
Everywhere Li Yun looked, the world was covered in silvery white snow, and the pure scenery slowly calmed his mind. Without realizing it, he closed his eyes. His breathing grew fainter and fainter, and his mind emptied.
Then something subtle happened. His presence began to merge with the snowfield around him, and no aura leaked from his body at all. Even someone standing only a few steps away might have struggled to sense him.
Snow gradually piled up on him. His hair turned white first, and then his eyebrows disappeared under the snow. Eventually, his whole body was buried, and from a distance there was no sign that anyone was standing there at all.
Time passed, and Li Yun had no idea how long he stayed in that state. Then his eyes opened, and a brilliant light flashed from them. All the snow covering his body burst outward with a boom.
Li Yun raised his sword and used Fast Sword. The speed was almost impossible to describe. The instant the blade began to move, a mountain peak several hundred feet away exploded.
Then the momentum of his sword changed abruptly as he switched to Slow Sword. The next strike looked unbearably slow, yet an instant later Sword Qi crossed the sky and sliced three mountain peaks cleanly through the middle. A moment after that, all three collapsed.
A faint smile appeared on Li Yun’s face.
"Months of hard cultivation can’t compare with a single moment of true enlightenment."
After such a long period of practice, he had finally finished integrating the Mountain River Sword Art into Fast Sword and Slow Sword. Both techniques had gone through a qualitative change, and their power had risen enormously.
More importantly, Fast Sword and Slow Sword were now completely equal, with neither one superior to the other. One stood for extreme speed and the other for extreme slowness, and they were two opposite expressions of the same sword path. Only now could Li Yun truly say that he had mastered both techniques.
The next step was obvious. He needed to fuse Fast Sword and Slow Sword into one. That, however, would be far more difficult. If integrating the Mountain River Sword Art into the two techniques had a difficulty of one, then fusing Fast Sword and Slow Sword together might have a difficulty of ten, one hundred, or even one thousand.
"Congratulations, Brother Li."
A gentle voice suddenly came from across the snow, and Li Yun’s eyes narrowed slightly.
A figure in pale blue robes came into view. The young man walked at a leisurely pace that seemed neither hurried nor slow, yet every step carried him an enormous distance. Within moments, he had crossed several hundred feet and arrived in front of Li Yun.
"Mu Tianque."
Li Yun became more alert at once. The newcomer was Mu Tianque, the number one genius of the Celestial Prodigy Camp. He was a wandering cultivator who had kept countless geniuses from powerful factions beneath him and held first place firmly.
"Congratulations, Brother Li," Mu Tianque said with a gentle smile. "Your strength has clearly improved again."
He studied Li Yun carefully. "At the rate you’re going, I suspect there are very few people left in the Celestial Prodigy Camp who can really threaten you."
"You’re giving me too much credit, Brother Mu," Li Yun replied politely.
Mu Tianque seemed friendly. His smile was gentle and his tone was calm, yet Li Yun still kept his guard up to a certain degree. He had never forgotten the strange feeling Mu Tianque gave him. He could not work out the reason for it, but his instincts told him not to relax.
Nonetheless, Li Yun didn’t fear Mu Tianque whatsoever.
"Brother Li, I’ll get straight to the point," Mu Tianque said, still smiling. "I came because I want to work with you."
Li Yun raised an eyebrow. "Work with me?"
The request truly surprised him.
"That’s right," Mu Tianque said with a nod. "A few days ago, I found a Sovereign-class Frost Beast. I fought it for several hours, but I was still a little short of killing it, and in the end it got away."
He gave a light sigh. "Since I couldn’t kill it alone, I decided to look for someone capable enough to help. Then I happened to see your breakthrough just now, so I thought of you."
His smile widened. "If the two of us join forces, I believe killing that Monarch-class Frost Beast will be almost guaranteed."
"I see," Li Yun said, nodding slowly.
Even so, a slight crease remained on his brow. Teaming up with someone inside the Frostbound Heavenly Range was no small matter.
He had turned down Bai Yuchen’s invitation even though the two of them got along fairly well, and Mu Tianque was an even bigger unknown. Li Yun knew very little about his true character, his background, or his intentions, so joining forces with him blindly would be reckless.
Mu Tianque seemed to understand his hesitation.
"You don’t fully trust me, Brother Li," he said, without any anger in his voice. "I understand. If you’re worried, I can swear on my Martial Dao Heart that for as long as the two of us are working together, I will never deliberately scheme against you or harm you."
Li Yun’s eyes shifted slightly, and Mu Tianque went on.
"On top of that, I’ll transfer five thousand points to you before we set off. In exchange, if we succeed in killing the Sovereign-class Frost Beast, the ten thousand points from that kill will be mine."
He laughed openly, and his expression looked completely sincere.
Li Yun grew thoughtful. For cultivators, an oath on the Martial Dao Heart was not something to be made lightly.
Breaking one could damage a person’s martial heart or even cause it to collapse, and in severe cases his cultivation itself could fade away. It seemed unlikely that Mu Tianque would risk a consequence like that just to harm him.
"All right," Li Yun said at last, nodding. "I agree."
"Haha! Excellent."
Mu Tianque smiled at once and raised his hand without hesitation.
"I, Mu Tianque, swear on my Martial Dao Heart that during this cooperation with Li Yun, I will not deliberately plot against him or try to harm him."
With the oath complete, Mu Tianque immediately transferred five thousand points to Li Yun. The whole process was simple, and he did not hesitate at any point.
’Maybe I really was overthinking it.’
Li Yun relaxed his guard a little. The five thousand points mattered less to him than the oath did. At least now there was a basis for working together for a while.
"Brother Li, there’s no reason to waste time," Mu Tianque said, turning toward the distance. "Let’s go."
He turned into a pale blue streak of light and flew toward the mountains, and Li Yun followed.
Half an hour later, the two of them arrived at an enormous frozen valley. Massive ice spikes covered the landscape, and some of them rose several hundred feet into the air like miniature mountain peaks. Every spike reflected a cold blue light.
Mu Tianque came to a stop. "This is the Sovereign-class Frost Beast."
Li Yun frowned and looked around. He could see only ice formations, with no obvious beast anywhere. Then a thought flashed through his mind, and his eyes narrowed.
"Wait..."
The frozen ground exploded with a boom. The enormous ice spikes that Li Yun had assumed were part of the valley suddenly moved and began to rise, one after another, hundreds of feet into the air. The surrounding ice sheet cracked apart, and massive chunks of frozen earth were launched into the sky like meteors.
Then the creature underneath finally showed itself. A gigantic beast several hundred feet tall rose from beneath the glacier. It was a Glacier Titan, and the huge ice spikes that had looked like natural formations were actually the scales growing along its back.
"ROAR!"
The Glacier Titan’s roar shook the valley. Its body looked like a moving mountain range, and its two enormous eyes shone like cold blue lanterns. Thick layers of ice covered it like natural armor.
Li Yun’s expression became a little more serious.
"This beast really won’t be easy to kill."
Now he understood why Mu Tianque had been unable to finish it off alone. Even without counting the Glacier Titan’s attacks, its enormous body and thick ice armor made its defense terrifying.
"ROAR!"
The Glacier Titan did not wait for them to attack and struck first. Several enormous ice spikes broke off from its back and shot through the air like giant war spears.
Cold energy spread around them, and even the air along their paths began to freeze. The attacks reached Li Yun and Mu Tianque almost instantly.
"Move!"
Both of them acted at the same moment. Mu Tianque flipped his wrist, and a dark emerald vine emerged from his palm. The vine grew rapidly until it was dozens of feet long.
Holding it by the base, he flicked his wrist and sent the vine twisting through the air, where it wrapped around several of the incoming ice spikes at once. Then he pulled, and the massive projectiles were flung aside.
At the same time, Li Yun raised his sword and unleashed his Sword Qi. Several of the incoming ice spikes were cut straight down the middle, and the two halves of each flew past him on either side. They crashed into the frozen ground behind him and shattered huge sections of ice.
Li Yun glanced at the dark emerald vine in Mu Tianque’s hand, and his eyebrow rose slightly.
"A Plant Spirit Lifeform."

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