Almost five miles away from where Yuan Zhen was, Qi Zixie was engaged in a deathly struggle with numerous Bane-devil spirits.
They surrounded her, a dozen or so of them holding translucent purple chains that pulsed with spiritual energy. Those chains seemed to disappear into her body, attaching to something deep within her.
"Give up, bitch! These chains directly latch onto your soul. There's no way you can resist."
"Submit before your soul breaks! Allow us to possess you body!"
"We must see the great wide world!"
Qi Zixie looked all around at those chains and the spirits holding them. "Tch!"
Qi Zixie glared at them, then looked down at where the chains were entering her body. With her sword in hand, she took a few deep breaths then lowered it.
The spirits began to approach her, thinking she had finally given up. They even loosened their grips on the chains, causing the output of spiritual energy to wane.
Of course, they were wrong.
Tapping into the strength of her soul, she began to draw on that energy and use it to eat away at the chains. The numbing cold actually froze the chains, making them fragile.
Her eyes then opened, a fierce glare causing waves of cold energy to spread out around her.
"Hmph! So she still wants to struggle? Finish her off!"
"Tear out her soul!"
The surrounding spirits all pulled on their chains, but cried out in shock when they found that the chains were no longer attached to her soul.
When they pulled, the chains just shattered and flew back to them.
"She undid the soul lock? Crap!"
Before they could do anything else, the earth around them froze over. Blistering cold spread out for hundreds of feet, eliminating the poisonous energy.
"You don't know who I am, so I'll give you a chance. Sacrifice your lives to me and I'll consider the matter over and done with."
A period of silence prevailed. A cricket chirped, but perhaps it was in their imagination.
"Ahahaha!"
"Kyakyakyaaa!"
"Keekeekee!"
"Jiejiejiejie!!!"
Thunderous laughter erupted, filling the area with the obnoxious sound. Qi Zixie's face was draped in shadow, her cold aura rising slowly.
She kept drawing on the power within her core, unable to find an end to it. As she summoned the power of her soul, her spiritual energy became increasingly cold.
"Think you can scare us! You brainless bimbo! No one's been this brazen since..."
As soon as that spirit said this, the laughter died down. Soon, silence returned, but the spirits moods had dropped severely. That spirit had been about to say Yuan Zhen's name, but for the ordinary bane-devils that name was considered taboo.
"There's only been one person who would dare be unbridled in Bane-devil Grotto."
"Shut up! Even the Nine Elders have forbidden any mention of his name by us lowly spirits."
Qi Zixie finally spoke up. Her patience was running thin. "I am Lord Yuan Zhen's Lieutenant. For your crimes against him, I will slaughter you all."
She had been silently amassing her soul's power and spiritual energy. Within her channels, cold energy swirled and flowed, ready to be released.
Right then and there, the already chilly temperature plummeted to a sub-zero degree.
Her sword sparkled with dazzling flakes of cold energy, giving a stunning brilliance to the metal. Holding it by her side, one could sense the hidden power she was just waiting to explode with.
The spirits were horrified, refusing to believe her earlier words. "She's lying. Trying to scare us! Yuan Zhen's dead, and the dead don't come ba--"
The spirit that had been speaking was sundered at the waist, immediately fading from existence as it exploded into ice crystals.
"What the-"
The next second, another spirit was cut down ...then another... And another.
She was like a mad woman, constantly slashing with her sword. Each cut was clean and efficient, reaping a life each time she attacked.
As she flashed here and there, cutting them down, she had begun kicking up a terrible hailstorm. The clouds above actually became grey instead of fully black, and large chunks of ice began falling.
Oddly enough, there was even a large amount of snowfall as well, which would perplex any ignorant bystander.
In the Bane-devil Grotto, it was inconceivable that something like a snowstorm could even happen. Far less a storm of hail and snow happening at once.
Still, her energy affected the world enough for such an impossible sight to occur.
"So this is that mythical phenomenon ...snow."
"To think I would be able to see something I could only ever dream of. I, Feng Qinghou, can die happy."
A few of the spirits were emotionally moved, allowing their deaths to come swiftly.
Countless ice crystals filled the air, causing an azure mist to blanket the area. The chunks of ice crashed here and there, but landed no where near Qi Zixie.
She was moving at increasingly high speeds while her energy was becoming unimaginably frigid. Before long, the aura around her that leaked into the world became too cold for even the hailstorm to continue.
At that point, an entire cloud itself was frozen solid, crashing down upon a group of bane-devils.
The streaks of blue in her hair spread out, overtaking the black. Before long, the only black in her hair was at the very roots.
"Damnit, we don't stand a chance against her! Someone go alert the Nine Elders!"
The light in Qi Zixie's blue eyes intensified, her vision honing in on the spirit that was preparing to escape.
She suddenly sent out a soul attack without even using a soul art. This inept usage of soul power would barely result in an attack that could match a poke.
However, her soul was clearly different. That paltry soul attack actually flew toward the escaping spirit with great speed.
"Die."
Her frosty, lifeless voice was the last thing that spirit heard before it exploded into minuscule shards of ice.
"This is boring. You all can die now."
Qi Zixie's sword stabbed into the ground, but as that happened not a single sound was heard.
The spirits that had began to flee were all frozen in place. It was as if the flow of time had slowed, creating a picturesque, poetic image.
With a giggle that could freeze souls, her energy blasted forth, covering them all in it.
That bitter temperature was enough to instantly freeze the lake of blood nearby, so of course it seized their lives in an instant.
Hundreds of Bane-devil ice sculptures were left standing for half a second before shattering.
Qi Zixie let out a breath, which was even icier than the air outside.
She slowly retracted her energy, then rewrapped her sword in the white cloth.
"I wonder if Lord Yuan is finished as well."
As the glittering ice crystals slowly dissipated, Qi Zixie refitted her sword to the strap on her back. It hung over her shoulders affixed to the armor.
Looking down at her armor, she saw that it was cracked all over, looking quite fragile.
"Oh dear. I can't have Lord Yuan seeing me like this."
As she was scrutinizing her armor, a tremor shook the earth. A terrifyingly loud explosion of energy brightened the sky, silencing the world.
Looking over at where the explosion was occurring, she realized it was the direction that Yuan Zhen had gone to.
She was about to run to him, thinking he was in trouble, but something occurred that had her frozen in place.
In the sky, after the chaotic energy dispersed, the image of a giant spirit screaming into the sky could be seen.
Qi Zixie looked on in horror as that giant spirit shrunk, soon becoming too small for her to see.
"What was that? The pressure was insane."
At the same time, Qi Zixie heard a grunt next to her. Without her knowing, someone had appeared at her right side.
She spun around, hopping a few feet away to put some distance between her and that person.
Standing where she once stood was an elder, wearing white daoist robes and smiling innocently at her.
"Oh, I didn't mean to scare you child."
Carefully observing him, she noticed there were odd tattoos on his neck, running all the way up to his cheeks.
When she stared into his soulless eyes, she felt an acute sense of danger. "Don't worry. I'm not scared."
Suddenly, her eyes widened.
When Qi Zixie released her perception she was stunned to realize that she could not sense his presence. If he wasn't standing right before her, she would have believed there was no one there.
"Well good. I'd never want to scare a beauty such as yourself." His smile deepened.
Qi Zixie had decided to no longer hide her form. After Yuan Zhen had complimented her, she felt like maybe she was wrong about her looks.
However, hearing that stranger call her a beauty irked her for some reason.
"Do you have any idea what's going on over there?" He turned to look in the direction Yuan Zhen had gone, an astonished look on his face.
By now, the fluctuating energy was no more. There was an unnatural stillness that left her unsettled.
"I have no idea what could be happening. I've only come here to better myself, not to cause large waves in the Bane-devil Grotto."
Qi Zixie tactfully responded after realizing the old man was secretly monitoring her soul's fluctuations. She hadn't realized it herself, but her soul had gotten almost two times stronger.
This allowed her to not only sense she was being closely observed, but was the very reason her soul stood out clearly enough to be observed.
She could easily sense the man trying to get a feel for whether she was lying or not. Knowing that stronger experts were able to discern the truth by using their soul's perception, she chose her words carefully.
Qi Zixie's calculated response was neither truth nor lie, so there was no say he would be able to tell.
The old man nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"It's been some time since your kind came here. They tried to enter our ancestral land a while ago."
Qi Zixie almost let what he said go over her head, but she swiftly caught on. "You're a bane-devil?"
The old man gave her an odd glance and then started cackling like an ancient evil ghost.
"I'm sorry, child. I assumed you knew from the beginning and were being cooperative out of fear. It seems it wasn't fear, but ignorance that allowed you to relax around me."
Qi Zixie frowned, her hand already reaching for her sword. She grew wary, realizing that this bane-devil was strong enough to attain a physical form.
"Come now. Surely you realize that I'm nothing like those cockroaches you were brutishly stepping on earlier."
The old man's arms retreated into his robes as he smiled at her, letting some of his restrained aura ooze out.
The pressure that followed stirred their surroundings, causing the earth to shake. The lake of blackish-red blood thawed and pulsed, coming alive.
Numerous fleshless arms and heads emerged, flailing about to disturb the peace of the lake. The ice thinned further, cracking as even more of those lively limbs splashed about.
Qi Zixie felt her energy channels shiver within her body, affecting her own aura so that it waned just a bit.
She was, clearly and undoubtedly, being suppressed.
"Now you understand?"
The old man's proud smile irked her even more and she took the sword from her back.
The cloth left the blade, falling to the floor. She was taking deep breaths to calm her energy, preparing to fight for her life if need be.
The old man slowly nodded, but sighed after a while. He brought a single arm out from under his clothes, motioning for her to attack.
"Come then, child, and see whether you live or die."
He stood, relaxed but composed, serious yet indifferent.
Qi Zixie was unable to decide how she should attack. Judging by his stance, there were various opening she could exploit.
However she could sense that, at the same time, those openings were not openings at all.
She was beginning to worry that attacking would result in her death no matter what. Such thoughts went against her own instincts, yet she knew them to be accurate.
An indiscernible fear crept into her heart and gripped her formless soul, however something miraculous happened in that moment.
Deep within Qi Zixie's soul, a chill like no other grew. It made her bones ache, stung her flesh and left her pale and dry. In an instant, she appeared to be an ordinary person dying in the cold.
At her feet, the very earth and loose soil froze, becoming like a block of ice beneath her.
The old man's eyes widened momentarily.
Despite her miserable appearance, Qi Zixie felt more alive and powerful than ever. Her new channels perfectly accommodated a rush of profoundly dense and potent energy.
The blood in her body heated up for just a few seconds before blue molecules, like the tiniest of snowflakes, revealed themselves. Those molecules cooled her blood to an insanely low temperature, yet it did not freeze.
Her manifestation appeared behind her, emanating a pressure that, shockingly, was no weaker than the old man's.