The attack by that blood-red shadow was too sudden and too cunning! The timing was also extremely ruthless, hitting Qingxu Immortal Lord at the most critical moment when his mind was slightly shaken by the change in Su Nian's power characteristics, and his old power had just been exhausted and his new power had not yet been generated! The sinister and destructive aura contained in it far exceeded all the previous attacks, as if it had condensed all the essence and killing intent of the attacker, aiming to kill with one blow!
There's no rush to retreat!
Dodge! Your angle is blocked!
To try and fight back would be tantamount to throwing an egg against a rock, given his current critically injured state and the internal and external troubles he faces!
The shadow of death, like the coldest night sky, descended instantly! Immortal Lord Qingxu could even clearly "see" the light flashing at the tip of that blood-red shadow, a light powerful enough to annihilate a primordial spirit!
Su Nian, who vaguely sensed all of this through the soul link, suddenly stopped the beating of the cluster of ice flame cores. A chilling sensation that surpassed fear and was almost suffocating swept over her entire consciousness!
No--! ! !
In that critical moment, when even thought seemed to freeze, a reaction stemming from the symbiotic instinct of the soul, transcending rational calculation, drove Su Nian to take action!
She no longer pondered the strength of the forces, nor did she consider the consequences!
She unleashed her newly acquired soul flames, which coexisted with the laws of ice, with unprecedented intensity, frantically burning, compressing, and condensing them! The goal was not to directly confront the deadly attack from the outside world—that would be futile—but rather… to pour them all into the shaky, almost extinguished soul link between her and Immortal Lord Qingxu!
What she needs to do is not defense, not attack, but... "reinforcement" and "resonance"!
She transformed the essence of "stillness" and "isolation" within her soul, along with all her will and resentment, into the purest and most steadfast "coordinate" and "guidance," forcibly stabilizing and instantly strengthening this link! She wanted his consciousness to, in this instant, clearly "locate" her existence and feel her unwavering protective intent!
At the same time, she poured all her understanding of the Ice Soul Condensation Technique and the Ice Sealing Law, especially the profound meaning of the "stillness" rune that she had just comprehended, into the core of Qingxu Immortal Lord's sea of consciousness without reservation, like a flood breaking through a dam!
This is not a transfer of power, but rather... a sharing of "experience"! It is a resonance of "artistic conception"!
She was using her own soul as a guide, trying in a flash to make him "understand" and "imitate" the sliver of knowledge she had just grasped—how to transform coldness and composure into one's own, how to concentrate one's mind in dire straits, and how to seek a glimmer of hope in a small space...
This process was extremely dangerous for Su Nian! Burning his soul essence and opening his own comprehension at such a high intensity and without regard for the consequences was almost equivalent to destroying his own foundation! The soul ice flame that had just stabilized instantly became flickering, as if it would be completely extinguished at any moment due to overexertion! Even the outer ice crystal seal emitted a faint, strained "crackling" sound!
But she couldn't care less!
Just a fraction of a second before that blood-red shadow pierced through Qingxu Immortal Lord's back!
Just as Su Nian's soul link suddenly shone brightly like a final burst of light, and a massive amount of insights and protective intentions surged forth!
The Qingxu Immortal Lord, who was in an absolute dead end, had his thoughts almost frozen due to the approaching death, as if struck by a cold lightning bolt from the deepest part of his soul!
Su Nian's reckless will, the "stillness" he forcibly shared and forged with the marks of blood and fire, was like the last key, suddenly unlocking a certain instinct within him that had been suppressed and forgotten!
That was... belonging to "Xie Chen," something that had long been ingrained in his soul through countless reincarnations and pursuits—an absolute trust and synchronization with the name "Su Nian" and with this soul's fluctuations!
He had no time to understand or analyze. In that life-or-death moment, he abandoned all thought, abandoned the struggle with his inner demons, abandoned the calculations against external attacks, and instead... purely and instinctively, yielded to the pull and resonance from the connection of their souls!
He gave up on trying to fight head-on with immortal energy or demonic energy, and he also gave up on futile evasion.
Instead, it forcibly incorporated all his remaining power and will, including the insidious power that had invaded his body, the restless demonic energy, and even the wisps of uncontrollable dark golden light, into the trajectory of the "stillness" rune that had just "resonated" with Su Nian!
Take the body as a blessing! Take the soul as the guide!
"Buzz—!"
A strange, soft sound, seemingly emanating from the realm of rules, suddenly rang out centered on him!
Time seemed to stretch out for a moment.
Between his back and the blood-red shadow, in a tiny space less than a millimeter in size, space twisted and blurred eerily! A thin, almost invisible barrier, exuding an ultimate sense of "stillness" and "isolation," seemingly composed of countless tiny ice crystal runes, appeared out of thin air!
The barrier was so weak, so fragile, that it seemed as if a single breath could blow it away.
However, this extremely thin barrier, at the very moment it came into contact with that crimson shadow—
"laugh……!"
There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a faint, almost imperceptible sound, like a drop of water falling into a red-hot iron.
The crimson shadow, which embodied the attacker's lifelong skill and was determined to succeed, experienced an extremely brief but fatal stagnation when it touched the "stillness" barrier that contained a trace of the original law.
It's like a high-speed train that's suddenly stopped!
Although this stagnation lasted only a negligible moment, the barrier shattered and vanished like a bubble.
However, this momentary pause was enough for a being of Qingxu Immortal Lord's level!
His body, which was originally unable to move due to an absolute dead end, was able to move to the side by an inch in this insignificant moment he had gained, relying on the instincts accumulated from countless life-and-death battles!
Just this one inch!
"puff--!"
A dull thud sounded as flesh was torn apart!
The crimson shadow eventually pierced his body, but due to that one inch of deviation, it narrowly avoided a fatal blow to his back! It pierced through below his shoulder blade, leaving behind a tragically beautiful flower of blood!
Severely injured! Still a severe injury that could kill even ordinary immortals and gods!
But it's not instant death!
"How is this possible?!" The blood-red shadow that launched the sneak attack let out a sharp, incredulous screech, clearly unable to comprehend why its sure-fire strike had failed!
As Qingxu Immortal Lord was in excruciating pain from being pierced through his body, he used the force of the impact to lunge forward. At the same time, he swung his sword backhand, and the cold sword energy was like a poisonous dragon emerging from its cave, directly attacking his back!
He didn't check the results because attacks from several other enemies were already upon him!
He endured the excruciating pain in both his soul and body, relying on the sliver of life Su Nian had bought at a great cost, and the profound understanding of the icy power brought about by the soul resonance, he once again plunged into an even more brutal, yet more composed, battle. The "stillness" characteristic within his sword intent seemed to become more pronounced; though still faint, it occasionally proved surprisingly effective, disrupting his opponent's rhythm.
But deep within the frozen prison of the heart.
In the instant that barrier shattered and Immortal Lord Qingxu avoided a fatal blow, Su Nian felt the soul link she had forcibly reinforced, like a bowstring stretched to its limit, suddenly loosen.
An indescribable, profound weakness and excruciating pain, originating from the very source of her soul, engulfed her like a tsunami. The cluster of burning soul ice flames dimmed to its lowest point, flickering and shrinking like a candle in the wind, almost retracting into a tiny speck of light.
She succeeded... He... survived...
The thought flashed through my mind, and then my consciousness began to sink rapidly, sliding into boundless darkness.
However, at the very last moment before she was about to completely lose consciousness.
The immense will that had been silently monitoring from behind the scenes—the Dark Gold Consciousness—was once again alarmed by this unexpected and drastic change, and with a noticeable fluctuation of "calculation deviation," it suddenly descended!
It "looked" at the soul ice crystal that was on the verge of collapse due to overexertion, with even the outer ice crystal showing fine cracks. The dark golden stream of laws reached out like tentacles, instantly scanning all the data that had just happened.
[Extreme self-destructive behavior detected in an individual (anchor point - Su Nian)...]
[It detected an excessive interference with the 'container' consciousness...and caused an unknown deviation in the 'container's' power traits...]
The stability of the symbiotic and integrated system has declined sharply, teetering on the brink of collapse...
[Reassessment...]
The cold stream of thoughts paused for an extremely brief moment, as if it were performing complex calculations far beyond Su Nian's comprehension.
Then, a new, unquestionable command, like a pronouncement of law, was issued:
[To maintain the presence of the observation sample and continue data collection...]
[Implementing emergency health protocols...]
[Initiating... Deep Sleep Freeze Procedure...]
The next moment, a freezing power far deeper and more absolute than before, like the cosmic winter itself, instantly and completely froze and sealed Su Nian's nearly extinguished soul ice flame, along with the cracked ice crystal shell!
Her consciousness sank completely into an endless, absolute darkness where even time seemed to stand still.
The story's suspense reaches a stagnant yet unpredictable point—the female protagonist sacrifices herself to save the male protagonist, falling into a deep slumber, while the male protagonist gains a glimmer of hope and enlightenment through her sacrifice. This devastating crisis is temporarily averted, but the female protagonist's condition, the subsequent actions of the Dark Gold Consciousness, and the male protagonist's future path are all shrouded in a thick fog. Everything awaits a future moment to be awakened once more.
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