Chapter 167: Chapter 162: Breaking the Record
The mont the voice faded, Mu Chen’s purple Purple Sky Demon Pupils began to spin rapidly. With a single thought, the Ice Attribute Primordial Qi around him surged violently. In an instant, three sturdy Profound Ice Walls materialized, tightly encasing his body.
With that done, Mu Chen flicked his wrist, and the Profound Jade Fan snapped fully open. Under his ntal command, his Extre Ice Attribute power swiftly coiled around his arm. The Profound Jade Fan was instantly coated in a pure, dazzling blue as a bone-chilling aura slowly suffused its surface.
He slowly raised his eyes, and an ice-blue Ice Crystal Mark materialized between his brows. An imnse cold instantly enveloped the entire eleventh floor, and the ambient temperature plumted to an extre low. The Mirror Puppet, hiding sowhere, imdiately sensed sothing was wrong and cried out in alarm, "What is this? How can it be this cold? Ah! My feet!"
CRACKLE... CRACKLE...
Accompanied by a series of cracking sounds, the floor, once as still as a lake’s surface, was instantly covered in a layer of blue Profound Ice. Before the Mirror Puppet could even move, it was frozen solid by the sudden transformation.
A smirk touched Mu Chen’s lips. "I do believe I’ve found you," he said softly. "Easy enough..."
With that said, a flash of pure blue flickered within his purple pupils. He gave the Profound Jade Fan a gentle wave, and a voice, like a sacred Brahma Sound, descended from the heavens.
"Nine Waves Technique—Ice Prison Cold Mist!"
CLANG!
The entire space of the eleventh floor seed to shudder and pause. Imdiately after, countless ice spikes materialized from thin air within the icy mist. They spread like a virus; one spike would sprout another, which in turn would sprout several more. One beca two, two beca three, and three beca ten thousand. In a re instant, the eleventh floor of the Tower of Calamity was completely overrun with a forest of Profound Ice thorns. As the spikes continued to erupt outward, the Mirror Puppet’s miserable wails sent a thrill of excitent through Mu Chen.
This was the thrill of absolute domination. The eruption of ice spikes lasted for nearly three minutes. By the ti it was over, the entire eleventh floor—save for the small space where Mu Chen stood—was so densely packed that not even an ant could have found a place to stand.
CRACK... CRACK... CRACK...
With a series of cracks, the three defensive ice walls around Mu Chen shattered, revealing him within. His entire body was suffused with a faint, blue crystalline glow. He slowly closed his eyes, and as he did, the ice-blue mark between his brows gradually faded away. Everything returned to normal.
’Is this the true power of Ice Prison Cold Mist?’
Seeing the effects of the Ice Prison Cold Mist he had just unleashed, Mu Chen felt a shiver run down his spine. The scene was simply apocalyptic. He had used Ice Prison Cold Mist once before, in the Demon Beast Prison. Back then, however, he was only a Sixth-Ring Martial Master. Even at full strength, using the technique would have likely drained all of his Primordial Power. That wasn’t even considering that he had lost a great deal of blood and already expended massive amounts of Primordial Power fighting the Moon-Loving Greedy Wolf. The sudden overdraft had caused him to pass out before he could even witness the true might of the Combat Skill.
This ti, unleashing Ice Prison Cold Mist had instantly drained two of his nine Dantians, a testant to the technique’s imnse cost. His vision was completely blocked by billions of ice spikes, yet Mu Chen wasn’t bothered. He didn’t need to do anything. As he walked forward, any Profound Ice Sword Spikes within three ters of him automatically disintegrated into wisps of white, icy mist and dissipated. He was like the Ice Sovereign himself—wherever he passed, all ice bowed in submission.
Soon, the eleventh floor, once ravaged by Ice Prison Cold Mist, returned to its original state. However, not a single one of the mirrors that once stood on the lake-like floor remained. The surroundings were completely bare, looking sowhat similar to the Phantom Dao from the previous level.
"Mu Chen, eleventh floor, challenge successful. Evaluation: Perfect Clear. Clear ti: one minute."
"What!?" High above, the elder from the Library Tower, who had been about to depart from the Tower of Calamity, abruptly stopped in his tracks and exclaid, "He actually passed! Impossible! How could this be? If he achieved ten consecutive perfect clears, the Guardian of the Puppet Dao should be far beyond the Martial King Realm. Don’t tell
that kid can already tier-jump and defeat a Martial King? Or have Martial King experts beco so pathetically weak these days?"
A series of questions swirled in the elder’s mind, leaving him utterly bewildered. It all felt as unreal as a dream. A boy not yet fifteen, with a crippled limb, who was only an Eighth-Ring Martial Master when he entered the tower... none of these details had escaped his notice. At first, he had rely thought the boy was a little different. But now, he couldn’t understand him at all. Soone as powerful as himself couldn’t see through a re youngster in the Martial Master Realm. A complex mix of emotions churned within him.
If even the elder in the sky found it unbelievable, the students and fellow elders on the ground felt as if they were in a dream. The eleventh floor! A level Amoluo hadn’t managed to clear even at the age of twenty. And yet, a new student, not even fifteen years old, had just passed it—with a perfect clear, at that! How could anyone be expected to just accept that?!
"That kid... he broke Amoluo’s record just like that," Wu Kui muttered to himself, finally shaking off his shock.
Di Cang gave a wry smile. "He really is an enigma. Thankfully, he appeared at the right ti and t the right people. Otherwise, no one would have been able to stop the Holy Hall from declaring its independence."
"I’d say you just got lucky, with maybe a tiny shred of good judgnt," Wu Kui said, tilting his head back disdainfully. "I have a feeling I’ve seen that kid sowhere before. Can you tell
what town he’s from?"
Di Cang pursed his lips. "You stubborn old fool. You just have to find so connection to him, don’t you? Fine, I’ll tell you. He’s from Luofeng City, a small town on the very edge of our Xuanling Empire."
"Luofeng City?" Wu Kui muttered. He suddenly slapped his forehead. "Now I rember! Old Cang, do you recall three years ago when I returned from a trip? I was delayed for a few days by academy recruitnt business."
Di Cang paused. "I think I do recall sothing like that. But you were recruiting on behalf of the Holy Hall, so the students you found were taken directly in, bypassing our outer academy. Who did you recruit back then? And from what town?"
Wu Kui looked slightly embarrassed. "The main student I recruited was Mu Bingling. I can’t quite recall the others. But I rember with absolute certainty that I was recruiting in Luofeng City."
"I’ll grant you that, but how would you have crossed paths with Mu Chen?" Di Cang asked, still skeptical. "Three years ago, Mu Chen was nowhere near as remarkable as he is today."
Wu Kui shook his head. "You’re right. The first ti I saw him, he was on a street, just coming out of a blacksmith’s shop. He happened to run right into us. Oh, and he exchanged a few words with Yan Ruoshui and Tang Hao."
"Yan Ruoshui? You an General Yan’s treasured granddaughter? I’d almost forgotten about her. I rember she graduated from our outer academy. Her talent was decent, and she ended up becoming a qualified teacher in the Holy Hall. Though she’s not particularly prominent, she’s made sothing of herself. But Tang Hao... I recall he’s the Right Minister’s only son, isn’t he? A spoiled, arrogant brat. He has talent, but his heart is crooked. He’s not destined for a good end," Di Cang said, shaking his head grimly.
Wu Kui looked surprised. "As expected of the man who watched them grow up, your assessnt is spot on. If that Tang Hao brat had half of Kong Ye Ming’s sense, his future accomplishnts wouldn’t be insignificant. He’d have no problem at all taking over his father’s post. A pity about that kid... sigh."
Di Cang frowned slightly. "Why bring them up? Weren’t those two responsible for escorting Amoluo to the Celestial Eagle Empire for the exchange with He Long?"
"I only bring them up because it’s related to Mu Chen. As you know, when the academy recruits, we have the major families in each town hold a clan competition. Luofeng City’s four great families included the Mu Family, which must be this kid’s clan. Back then," Wu Kui continued, recalling the scene, "their family was considered the weakest in town, on the verge of losing their status as one of the four great families. The four families started challenging for the top spot, and there was a rather impressive kid nad Chen Qing who defeated an entire family all by himself."
"Chen Qing? I’m not familiar with him. But since you brought up the clan competition, does that an Mu Chen participated?" Di Cang asked.
"Bullshit! He wasn’t even a Martial Disciple back then. How could he have possibly joined the competition? That would’ve been asking for a beating! But the kid had guts. He walked from his family’s section down to the challengers’ waiting room, probably for Mu Bingling. And speaking of that," Wu Kui continued, not waiting for Di Cang to reply, "I just rembered sothing interesting. Do you have any idea how famous that kid was in Luofeng City? He was known by everyone as the town cripple! Haha! Thinking back on it, his situation was pretty pathetic. But now, that title is nothing but a slap in the face to everyone who ever looked down on him."
"Oh, one more thing. He said sothing back then that really stuck with —sothing he said in front of the entire city of Luofeng. Do you know what it was?" Wu Kui asked, once again trying to bait Di Cang.
"If I knew, why would I need you to tell ?" Di Cang snapped.
Wu Kui sneered, "Tch. You’re no fun at all. No wonder you’re fated to be alone forever. Serves you right!"
"Spit it out or get lost!" Di Cang’s face turned livid. That was the one accusation he couldn’t stand. For the sake of the Imperial Academy, Di Cang had sacrificed his entire youth.
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