A deep, thunderous boom shook the snowfield.
The colossal beast straightened its body slowly.
The layers of snow covering it collapsed with a roar, finally revealing the full form of this terrifying creature before their eyes.
It stood over a hundred meters tall.
Its entire body was covered in long, snow-white fur that glimmered faintly with icy-blue light beneath the aurora.
Its head resembled a gigantic ape; pale fangs jutted from its jaws, and in its amber-crystal eyes blazed a savage, bestial light.
Its massive arms, nearly as thick as its torso, hung down past its knees. The enormous, fur-covered hands were smeared with streaks of dark blood.
Its aura was boundless and ferocious.
Cold wind howled across its body, conjuring a blizzard that blotted out the sky.
Visibility plunged to near zero—
only that monstrous silhouette remained in the heart of the storm.
Shui Bing'er and the seven girls were deathly pale; even their blood felt frozen solid.
Oscar trembled like a candle flame in a hurricane.
"Wh–what kind of Spirit Beast is that?!"
"How can something so… so enormous even exist?!"
In this era of the Douluo Continent,
its lands were still unmapped, its terrors still veiled.
A hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast was already regarded as the apex of existence.
The secrets of the Star Dou Forest, the mysteries of the Extreme North—
all remained shrouded in mist.
"Oscar!"
Li Zhexian's sharp command pierced through the storm.
Oscar gritted his teeth, forcing his mind to focus, dragging Li Zhexian and the seven girls through the raging blizzard like kites cut loose on invisible strings.
As the monstrous creature's body rose higher—its head now nearly level with them—Li Zhexian's expression hardened to steel.
"One of the Three Kings of the Extreme North—
the Ice Devil Titan King."
"Its cultivation… two hundred thousand years."
The blizzards of the north—
were never merely the wrath of nature.
There were always mercenaries who licked blood from their blades, men like Snow Bear and his master, who had glimpsed—by luck or misfortune—the hidden terrors of this frozen land.
Since hearing Snowbear's tale of the Snow Lady,
Li Zhexian had sought out all rumors of the Three Kings.
He now recalled the ancient song whispered among old mercenaries—each line piercing his mind like an icicle:
The falling snow is the Snow Lady's hair;
the ringing ice shards are the Ice Jade Scorpion's warmth;
the Ice Devil Titan King's breath becomes the storm;
O foolish, fearless wanderer—do not seek luck.
The moment you step into the heart of the Extreme North…
you have already disturbed the gods.
Exaggerated or not—
the song captured the mystery of the Three Kings perfectly.
"Oscar! Higher—go higher!"
Below—
The Ice Devil Titan King's colossal foot came crashing down.
In an instant, a thousand meters of snowfield froze solid.
The sound of bones and ice shattering filled the air.
Commander Frost Fang and dozens of mercenaries were crushed to powder, their cries devoured by the wind.
In mere seconds,
nearly a thousand lives were extinguished.
The might of a Spirit Beast beyond a hundred thousand years—
was nothing short of a natural disaster.
"Captain Ji… Ji! I… I can't hold it anymore!"
Oscar's face flushed purple, his voice breaking with terror.
Boom—!
Boom—!
The Ice Devil Titan King's molten-gold eyes fixed upon the nine specks in the sky.
Its gaze alone—
sent waves of crushing pressure hurtling upward with the force of a blizzard.
The nine figures' faces went white as they plummeted toward the ground.
"Martial Soul Fusion—Drifting Snow!"
Shui Bing'er and Xue Wu's voices rang through the storm.
Their Martial Souls—Ice Phoenix and Slim Dance Snow Decoration— intertwined in dazzling unity.
All the wind and snow around them surged wildly,
coalescing—
into a crystalline ice phoenix with wings spanning more than ten meters.
"Screeeee!"
The phoenix shrieked,
its wings scattering countless blades of ice.
and with fearless resolve,
the phoenix dove straight toward the monstrous giant.
But—
before Shui Bing'er's horrified eyes,
just as the phoenix neared the beast's face—
two white torrents erupted from its nostrils.
Hiss—!
It was only a breath.
and the Ice Phoenix shattered like fragile glass,
disintegrating into powder that vanished in the storm.
Whoosh—!
Whoosh—!
The lingering effect of the Swift Flight Mushroom Sausage still held,
but the blizzard's fury made it impossible for Oscar to bear their weight.
Face flushed red, veins bulging, he fought to rise—
yet the nine of them continued to fall, uncontrollably, through the whirling snow.
In mere seconds,
they had dropped to the height of the Ice Devil Titan King's chest.
Each strand of its fur was thick as a serpent; brushing one meant shattered bones.
Beneath that towering, two-hundred-meter monster,
the nine were as small as drifting snowflakes.
Then—
The Ice Devil Titan King raised its arm.
That sky-darkening hand swept down toward them.
The faint light of the aurora vanished instantly.
The storm howled.
Death fell upon them.
"Oscar!"
"Shui Bing'er! Shui Yue'er!"
"Jump!!"
Those five fingers—like pillars propping up the heavens—came crashing down, the crushing wind alone enough to suffocate.
Li Zhexian's shout tore through the storm.
In that instant of crisis—
He no longer concealed his identity.
His clear, familiar voice rang out unmasked.
Almost by instinct, Oscar and the seven girls released their Spirit Power and let themselves fall freely.
The furious gale scattered them apart,
allowing them—by the narrowest margin—to slip through the gaps between those descending fingers of doom.
Life and death hung by a thread.
Oscar's eyes widened as realization struck, fear freezing to shock.
"That voice…"
The six other girls were pale as paper, their hearts still racing.
Only Shui Bing'er stared at the black-cloaked figure tumbling through the snowstorm—
and in her azure eyes, light flared.
"You know my name?!"
"Li Zhexian—it really is you!"
The nine of them had narrowly escaped death.
Boom——!!!
The monstrous hand slammed into the snowfield.
The ground quaked violently.
A shockwave of air and snow surged up in waves more than ten meters high,
rolling outward like a white tsunami.
Li Zhexian and the others were hurled through the air.
When the Ice Devil Titan King raised its hand again,
a vast palm print remained embedded in the ground—
frozen solid, exhaling a deadly chill.
But the beast did not stop.
Its colossal arm swept out again,
its shadow blotting out the world as that mountain-crushing palm
smashed toward Shui Bing'er, who was still falling through the air.
The air roared.
The stench of death wrapped around her like chains of ice.
"Big sister—!!"
Shui Yue'er and the other girls screamed, their voices torn away by the wind and snow.
As the Ice Devil Titan King's hand descended to crush Shui Bing'er into a mist of blood—
The Sword Intent that had lain dormant for a year and a half
erupted within Li Zhexian like a volcano.
From the Qinglian mark between Li Zhexian's brows,
a tide of power burst forth.
Zheng——!!!
A sharp, resonant sword cry split the heavens.
The howling blizzard was torn apart.
Within three meters around Li Zhexian,
all wind and snow reversed direction, spiraling upward in defiance.
He lifted his right hand—
and grasped at the empty air before him.
Shhh—! Shhh—!
Countless snowflakes rushed toward his palm,
condensing, shaping, solidifying—
The Sword Intent of Frost exploded outward.
A long, ancient sword—gleaming with the clear, jade-like luster of ice—
took form in his grip.
The Qinglian Sword.
As it met his hand, Li Zhexian's aura transformed completely.
His black cloak, soaked and dusted by endless snow,
seemed to turn white beneath the storm's fury.
"Qinglian Sword…"
Li Zhexian whispered the words,
his voice trembling with emotion beyond description.
The sword hummed in reply—
as if answering its master's long yearning.
A blast of force erupted beneath his feet.
His figure turned into a streak of blinding light,
ripping through the storm—
His figure blurred—
a streak of swordlight tearing through the storm—
and in an instant,
he was between Shui Bing'er and the descending giant hand.