Boom!

The large hand was about to grab Yi Pin when suddenly, it shattered into many snowy pieces.

“There’s someone else here?”

Inside the bundle of wind and snow, Old Man of Snowy Mountain frowned a little. His senses told him that he and the old Taoist were the only ones in this place, and yet his spell had broken even though the old Taoist hadn’t done anything. He could not sense any ripples of energy or spirit either. It was quite strange.

A bad feeling welled inside Old Man of Snowy Mountain’s heart.

“It should be fine. Even if there is another person, they must be too injured to do anything.”

Old Man of Snowy Mountain consoled himself. Judging from the state of the snowy peak earlier, the person bearing the treasure must be severely injured. At the very least, he did not think that they would be able to return to full strength in just a matter of days.

Besides, he was a Trueman and a champion on the Earth Champions Ranking. Even if his prediction turned out to be wrong, he should be able to handle them regardless. Worst case scenario, he could run away and try another day.

Old Man of Snowy Mountain let out a cold chuckle. When he returned his focus to the old Taoist though, he realized that he had stopped running. In fact, the old Taoist was smiling at him with two-tenths of scorn, three-tenths of ridicule, and five-tenths of schadenfreude.

“Why are you smiling, old fool?”

Old Man of Snowy Mountain’s worry redoubled as he asked in confusion and anger.

“Because you’re amusing.”

Yi Pin’s smile grew even more disdainful as he clasped his hands behind his back. “And because you’re about to die.”

“Pretentious fool! If you desire death this much, then I shall fulfill your wish!”

Enraged, Old Man of Snowy Mountain manipulated the snow storm in the air and weaved a gigantic snow giant into existence.

The snow giant sported three heads and six arms, and one of the arms wielded a giant axe. It looked quite intimidating.

The next moment, the six arms gripped the handle of the axe and swung it straight at Yi Pin.

Even before the axe landed, the storm was split in half, and the land was shaking violently.

Yi Pin remained unperturbed, however. He simply stared wordlessly at the descending axe.

Right before the axe would split Yi Pin in half, a young man suddenly appeared in front of him and caught the blade with one hand.

The giant axe powerful enough to split mountains and rivers stopped in its tracks just like that. It could not move another inch.

“Get through!”

Seeing this, Old Man of Snowy Mountain growled and injected all of his spirit and force into the snow giant. The ground the snow giant was standing on abruptly collapsed, and every snow within a hundred meters of it soared into the sky like a tidal wave.

It was obvious that the snow giant’s strength had increased by several fold. Still, the giant axe did not budge even a little.

“That’s it? You think you can kill anyone with such puny strength?”

Yi Pin’s savior was Ye Qing, of course. He looked up at the old man hidden inside the bundle of snow with a warm, genial smile on his face.

“It will be enough to kill you.”

Old Man of Snowy Mountain retorted with a sneer before waving his sleeve. The next moment, the suspended, towering wave of snow flooded toward Ye Qing.

It wasn’t just a simple snow crash. The snow was transforming into all sorts of celestial birds and strange beasts. There were divine dragons, snow phoenixes, white tigers, black tortoises, qilins and more. Every beast looked extremely lifelike, and the environment further boosted their power.

“When wind and snow turn into dragons and tigers, even winter may fall dead and still!”

Old Man of Snowy Mountain laughed like a madman. “This technique contains a hundred years of my power. Can you stop it?”

“A hundred years of power, is it? Let me try!”

Ye Qing clenched his fingers, and both the axe and the snow giant crumbled without a sound.

The next moment, Ye Qing lifted his foot and stomped the ground hard.

Did you know that you could shake the nine provinces if you lifted your foot one meter into the air before stomping the ground?

Maybe you couldn’t, but Ye Qing certainly could.

The stomp elicited no sound whatsoever, and yet the ground was shaking wildly, the ambient energies and qi were thrown into disarray, and waves of profound light spread out from Ye Qing’s foot.

The snow storm in the sky dissolved as soon as they made contact with the profound light.

The ice and snow on the ground were pushed up and away like it was water.

Rumble!

The incoming stampede of strange birds and anomalous beasts were engulfed by the avalanche of snow and ice just like that.

“Cough! Cough!”

Inside the bundle of wind and snow, Old Man of Snowy Mountain abruptly let out a couple coughs. A trail of blood slowly slid down his lips.

Suddenly, Old Man of Snowy Mountain’s pupils shrank. The alarm bells inside his head were ringing in full force.

The next moment, he saw a blurry figure appearing in front of him in just the blink of an eye.

“Snow Soul Banner, rise!”

Old Man of Snowy Mountain pressed a finger to his forehead, and a snow white banner flew out into the open. It rapidly grew in size.

Suspended above the Great Trueman’s head, the Snow Soul Banner cast wisps of white light to the surroundings as it flapped wildly to the wind. The snow storm immediately intensified in strength and froze even the surrounding space.

In the air, ice began growing from Ye Qing’s fist. The closer he got to Old Man of Snowy Mountain, the faster the ice spread.

Not only that, chains emerged from the snow storm and bound him tight.

When Ye Qing was less than a meter away from Old Man of Snowy Mountain, the ice had spread to his entire body. The chains of wind and snow had wrapped him tight like a mummy as well.

“Phew.”

Old Man of Snowy Mountain let out a sigh of relief.

At this point, he knew that his opponent was a body-tempering Great Grandmaster for sure.

Had he allowed the young man to get close, he could have been in serious danger.

Unfortunately for the young man, a Great Grandmaster generally possessed a weaker mind and spirit despite their horrifyingly powerful body and close quarter combat skills.

Not only that, he knew that the young man was seriously injured. His physical body might be fine, but his mind was a different story.

That was why he chose to deploy the Snow Soul Banner.

The Snow Soul Banner was a Disaster-class Strange Artifact forged from the soul essence of a Spirit of Snowy Mountain. Not only could it control the wind and snow and freeze a person’s body, it could also freeze intangible objects such as a person’s spirit, mind and soul.

Attack the enemy’s weakness and guard against their strength. There lay the path to victory.

“Why do you look so delighted? It’s all fake.”

It was at this moment Old Man of Snowy Mountain heard a soft chuckle behind his back.

“Who—!?”

Old Man of Snowy Mountain felt chills crawling up his spine.

It was because the young man he froze and bound with his Snow Soul Banner was disappearing slowly like a mirage.

“It was fake? It was

fake?

How is this possible?”

Old Man of Snowy Mountain’s eyes widened. He just couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The target he had meticulously plotted and fought against this whole time was just an illusion, and he never realized it from the start until the end!

I need to escape!

Old Man of Snowy Mountain was a Great Trueman. As soon as he realized that he was in grave danger, he acted decisively and transformed the Snow Soul Banner into a bundle of wind and snow. It wrapped around him and took him away.

Or at least, it tried to. As soon as he made a move, a fist suddenly descended from the sky. It punched through the bundle of wind and snow and pierced through his astral qi like nothing.

Bang!

Old Man of Snowy Mountain was aghast. The Snow Soul Banner protecting him had shattered like paper, and the fist struck him squarely on the skull.

Old Man of Snowy Mountain let out a muffled grunt as blood jetted out of his orifices. At the same time, a series of pops erupted from his body like beans. It was the sound of his meridians, his muscles, and his bones breaking into pieces.

After that, Ye Qing opened his fist and gave Old Man of Snowy Mountain a gentle push.

Like a meteor, the Great Trueman crashed against the ground and kicked up a snowy splash that was hundreds of meters tall.

The snow melted before they could land on the ground, revealing a bluish surface and a single head. It was Old Man of Snowy Mountain’s head, of course. The rest of his body had sunk into the ground, and his breathing was weak and shallow.