The time Bai Ning Bing took to break out of the ice was shorter than anyone had imagined.
With a loud crack, the ice crystal began to fracture, the cracks intensifying until it completely broke from within.
The clan elder, Gu Yue Qing Shu, Gu Yue Yao Hong and the others, totaling up to five altogether, had surrounded him. Gu Yue Fang Zheng was standing far away on the mountain slope, staring at the battle from a higher ground while staying vigilant. Once a Bai clan Gu Master group appears, he has to send out a warning immediately.
"Bai Ning Bing, you dare to kill the Gu Masters in our clan, breaking the three clan alliance openly. Paying a life for a life is natural law! What else do you have to say?" the clan elder said with a haughty snort.
Bai Ning Bing did not pay him any mind, staying quiet and staring at his right arm instead.
His left arm floundered in vain, grasping nothing as it was reaching for something that wasn't even there in the first place.
He started to frown, his face dim like water as lightning started to nurture between his eyes.
"Actually forcing me to lose off my right arm, this guy is called Fang Yuan, right…" Listening to Xiong Li and Qing Shu's words, he had already learned Fang Yuan's name.
Muttering, Bai Ning Bing's pair of crystal blue eyes was filled with extremely callous killing intent.
His body emanated the oppressive aura of a Rank three Gu Master. As Fang Yuan had predicted earlier, with the capabilities to seal his own cultivation, Bai Ning Bing was also able to release the restrictions on it. It was just that in the battle earlier, he did not have sufficient time to unlock it.
Now, the white silver primeval essence of Rank three filled his aperture fully. The dense primeval essence placed great pressure on his surrounding aperture walls; Bai Ning Bing knew that he was moving towards the path of destruction.
A Gu Master's aperture produced primeval essence, and the primeval essence in turn, nurtures the aperture.
The truth being, as long as the primeval essence exists within the aperture, it acts as a form of nurturing towards the aperture. It is just that this effect is not very evident, far less effective than the Gu Master using the primeval essence to do so.
This was similar to how a still sea water would still have a corrosive effect towards surrounding rocks, but this effect is less evident than the waves hitting on the rocks.
But to the Northern Dark Ice Soul physique, after attaining Rank three, even if they do not expend primeval essence, as long as the primeval essence is stored in the aperture, the nurturing effect would be the same as if a Gu Master was actively using the primeval essence to nurture their aperture.
This is the secret behind the Northern Dark Ice Soul physique's ability to raise a Gu Master's cultivation at rocket speed.
Moreover, this nurturing effect would become stronger as the primeval essence is refined. At Rank four, as long as primeval essence exists within the aperture, they would nourish the aperture and the effect would be several times better than a regular Gu Master using primeval essence to nurture their aperture.
With ordinary Gu Masters, the higher their cultivation, the slower the speed of cultivation. However, the ten extreme physiques were the opposite—the higher the cultivation, the stronger their aptitude and the faster their cultivation, until they explode into oblivion.
As an analogy, it is similar to a person in free fall, dependent on the posture and qualities of that person, they would continue to accelerate as they descended, albeit dying a horrible death once they reach the ground.
The ten extreme physiques' cultivation technique is falling from the highest point with the most suited conditions to fall faster than anyone else. As their cultivation gets faster and faster, it only gives them the temporary glory that they attain before they face the threat of death approaching.
Like a meteor landing on Earth, moving toward its own destruction; the point where it shines the brightest comes only at the very moment where it burns up completely in the atmosphere.
Earlier, the reason Bai Ning Bing had diluted his white silver primeval essence into red steel primeval essence was for because of this.
Right now, his aperture was completely filled with white silver primeval essence again, and he could feel that every second, his cultivation was steadily rising and improving.
"Actually forcing me to use the white silver primeval essence, and even making me go as far as to sacrifice the Frost Demon Gu! Where is Fang Yuan?" Bai Ning Bing's killing intent intensified as he asked. His blue iris swept across the surroundings, but could not find a trace of Fang Yuan.
The Frost Demon Gu that he sacrificed was a Rank three Gu worm, one that he only managed to refine after three failures and consuming a large amount of resources. Now that it was gone, it is truly a waste.
Although Bai Ning Bing is Rank three, it only happened recently, and even with the clan's support, he could not hog all the resources to himself. Thus, he only had two Rank three Gu worms. Now that the Frost Demon Gu is gone, he only had the Blue Bird Ice Coffin Gu left.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt angered! Since the start of his youth, he had never suffered such a loss!
If Fang Yuan was here, he'd have attacked in a frenzy with no one able to stop him.
Bai Ning Bing's disregard caused the Gu Yue clan elder to feel greatly humiliated.
"Arrogant young lad, eat my moonblade slash!" He shouted, and jumped.
"Hmph!" Bai Ning Bing's left arm swept, and the frost air that gushed out formed into a long ice blade.
The original ice blade he created was only over a meter long, but now it was two meters in length, with an even deadlier edge and greater frost energy.
Ching!
The Clan elder raised both hands shining with moonlight to collide with the ice blade, emitting a metallic noise.
The Clan elder's face was full of shock however as he took a step back, and both his palms clapped together and slashed out.
Golden moon slash!
A curved moonblade, over a meter long with a golden body, emitted a dominating aura as it flew out.
The golden moonlight reflected on Bai Ning Bing's pale face. He laughed as he raised the ice blade in his left hand, attacking head on.
Clank!
Moonblade and ice blade colliding, the golden moon disappeared, and the ice blade broke into small fragments of ice.
"This is a battle between Rank three Gu Masters? Really strong, not only the ice blade, but also that golden moonblade, I cannot block either!" Far away, Fang Zheng watched in fascination, with his lacking knowledge.
"How can this be? A Rank two Ice Blade Gu, managing to block my Rank three Moonhand blade, as well as the golden moon!" Clan elder stared with bulging eyes, disbelief in his tone.
The Northern Dark Ice Soul physique had a strengthening effect towards Ice Gu, a variation of water-type Gu. In addition, this boost grew stronger as the Gu Master's cultivation rose.
Bai Ning Bing, at Rank three in cultivation, can make a Rank two Gu worm display Rank three power. When he is Rank four, if he used a Rank four Gu worm, it would have an effect that can even surpass Rank five.
Firstly, he suppressed his cultivation, thus only the effect of recovering primeval essence remained. Now that his limiter was off and he was back to Rank three, the Northern Dark Ice Soul physique's true ability was starting to show up.
"Hmph, old man, you don't know a lot of things." Bai Ning Bing's feet paused, holding his ice blade horizontally, as he started to rotate.
Huhuhu...
The intense sound of the wind enveloped him as he became faster and faster.
Howl!
The wind seemed to have transformed into a beast howl, a five meter sword storm forming after a matter of minutes.
The tornado-like winds were white in color, whipping out and causing the people nearby to have numbed senses.
"Quickly dodge!" Even a clan elder, upon seeing this, did not dare to challenge it—he quickly avoided.
But the other Rank two Gu Masters could not manage to dodge in time.
The ice blade storm came at once, with a speed three times or even greater than before.
Ah——!
As soon as the two male Gu Masters were caught up in the storm, their cries came to a stop. In a matter of seconds, they were already minced to a paste by the ice blades and lost their lives on the spot.
"Save me!" Gu Yue Yao Hong screamed in fear, seeing that she was about to be swept into the tornado and perish.
Green Vine Gu!
Gu Yue Qing Shu shot out green vines, which quickly coiled around Gu Yue Yao Hong's waist like snakes.
Just as he was about to drag her back, the ice blade storm had already reached her, devouring her in one shot.
Swish swish swish.
The ice blades instantly went to work, cutting this female Gu Master into five or six pieces. The icy air had already frozen her blood before she could bleed.
Soon after, these pieces were further cut into smaller pieces, forming palm-sized frozen corpse fragments.
"Yao Hong!" Seeing this scene, Qing Shu grieved with sorrowful eyes.
"Sister Yao Hong…" On the slope, Fang Zheng could not take such an intense scene, kneeling on the ground with a soulless gaze, tears overflowing from his eyes.
"Damn it, Steel Shirt Gu!" The clan elder took a deep breath as his body glowed with black light, looking as he was covered in a steel armor.
He used both arms to cover his face as his legs sprinted, charging towards the icy blue ice blade storm.
Chink chink chink.
He charged inside bravely.
In a few breaths time, the ice blades hacked on his body numerous times, emitting a crisp sound.
A moment later, the storm ended.
Bai Ning Bing and the clan elder faced each other.
"Old thing, you are asking for death." Bai Ning Bing's blue iris were purer, complementing his white hair and white clothes while standing still in the cold winds.
His left hand's ice blade had already broken into two. But this did not stop it from penetrating the elder's heart.
"Huh…" Clan elder lowered his head, staring at his left chest, his mouth emitting a sound of helplessness and shock.
Bai Ning Bing let go of his right hand, abandoning this ice blade. He walked past the clan elder, steadily approaching.
Behind him, the clan elder's face was covered with a light blue frost, and soon he collapsed onto the ground to never get up again.
Far away, Fang Zheng saw this scene and his irises shrunk to the size of pins, intense fear spreading throughout his body.
This was out of his wildest dreams.
A grand Rank three clan elder actually died like this. This Bai Ning Bing is so strong?!
"Where is Fang Yuan? Tell me, and I can let you die peacefully." Bai Ning Bing walked towards Gu Yue Qing Shu.
"Bai Ning Bing…" Gu Yue Qing Shu sighed deeply, staring at Bai Ning Bing without fear, "You and I have fought over ten times, you are getting stronger, and right now I have to admit that you have surpassed me. But your strength cannot cause me to betray my clansman. Come, fight me!"
"Just you? Hehe." Bai Ning Bing snorted in disdain, turning around to look at Fang Zheng, raising a brow. "That is Fang Yuan's brother?"
Gu Yue Qing Shu's expression changed, taking a big step out and blocking Bai Ning Bing. "Don't think of finding trouble with him!"
Bai Ning Bing's face sank. "You are quite an interesting opponent, keeping you alive can add some colour to my life. But my mood is very bad now, don't take my patience for granted. Tell me nicely, which direction Fang Yuan went."
Gu Yue Qing Shu replied him in the most direct way with action.
He closed his eyes, and opened them again.
Wood Charm Gu!