165 Chapter 164: Absolute Zero (1/2)
”Seriously?” my jaw dropped and I stared at Liang Shao Yang incredulously. ”Where did you get that Terminator Profound Bomb from? The Spirit Realm or something?”
”I'm not bluffing!” Liang Shao Yang waved his Terminator Profound Bomb wildly. ”I'm really going to detonate it!”
There was no stopping him now. The very ice that I used to imprison him also protected him, preventing anyone from interfering when he pulled the trigger. The extremely pure lightning and thunder qi swirled within the Terminator Profound Bomb, the volatile energies building up to unleash a massive destructive power that would obliterate the entire Flame Volcano and all the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect members in it.
Liang Shao Yang had gone truly insane.
”This is your fault!” he yelled at me. ”Ever since you showed up, nothing has been going my way! You keep thwarting my attempts to oust Tang Qi Hong and become the sole candidate to be the future sect leader!”
”What attempts?” I asked dryly. ”You mean, trying to assassinate her? What do you think is going to happen if Sect Leader Zi finds out about that? Not even the Great Elders can save you from his wrath.”
”I don't know what you're talking about,” Liang Shao Yang replied coldly. ”I was…talking about something else.”
”Oh, you mean that time when you tried to goad Qi Hong into attacking you, so that the Great Elders can all side with you and decide that you're a better candidate to be future sect leader?” I burst out laughing at that. ”What kind of stupid logic is that? That's based on the assumption that Sect Leader Zi and the majority of the Great Elders are idiots who don't know how to run a sect. What, you think they're going to go, 'oh, Qi Hong is not fit to be sect leader because she attacked Shao Yang!' and then abandon her so that they can invest all their resources in you? They have to be really retarded to do something as stupid as that.”
”For the purpose of plot, normally sect leaders and great elders are conveniently retarded and make the most baffling of decisions,” Liang Shao Yang replied, not denying my comments at all. ”They will definitely side with me and invest all their resources in me if everything went according to plan!”
”That's quite the assumption to make.” I shrugged. ”I mean, let's think about it. you're assuming that Sect Leader will trust you, someone who has only be in the sect for a little over a year and has been known to commit atrocities, and is under suspicion of murder of Senior Hao Ying, over Qi Hong, who has been in this sect for many years and has proven her loyalty over and over again. Why the hell would he abandon her and stop investing resources in her over a single misbehavior, even if she somehow fell for your trap? Especially when considering that you've actually murdered someone, in comparison? Why the gap in treatment? Just because the author wants to contrive a plot device to posit you as a powerful and intelligent antagonist and create unnecessary conflict? And so that I can then conveniently save her from despair and take everything back for her? No, seriously. Think about that and give your head a wobble.”
”Oh, shut the fuck up!” Liang Shao Yang roared and pulled the trigger, activating the Terminator Profound Bomb. Whoops. Maybe I shouldn't have…uh, triggered him.
”Heavens…!” Tong Xue turned pale from fright. ”He's really going to kill us all!”
”Damn it…” Pang Feng spat, his kunckles turning white as he clenched his fists helplessly. ”Is there nothing we can do?!”
Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do. Once Liang Shao Yang triggered the Terminator Profound Bomb, there was no stopping it from blowing up. Not unless…
I took a deep breath and activated my Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula to the maximum. Channeling my frosty qi into my Azure Lotus Sword, I slammed it against the ground again, stabbing the concrete with my crystalline blade.
”Enhance Armament, maximum power!”
”It's useless, Fei Wu!” Tong Xue shouted. ”Run away! You won't be able to stop it even with your ice techniques!”
”I have to try!” I snapped back. ”Or everyone will die here! Besides, there's no way I'll be able to escape in time, will I?”
”Um, actually…you can. You have those footwork techniques!”
Okay, so maybe Tong Xue was right. But like hell I was going to abandon everyone and escape by myself. I was aware that many edgelord readers would call me stupid and claim that I had no reason to save anyone in the sect, and that I should let them all die and survive on my own. That was the most stupid reasoning I had ever heard. For one thing, Tong Xue and Pang Feng were my friends, and Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou were somewhere in the sect too, along with Elder Zhao, Elder Tie, Elder Hai Mo and all the other masters who had taught me when I was here, as well as many seniors in Blood Blades who looked after me.
I might not be a hero and I was certainly not noble, but I wasn't a selfish, callous bastard who would abandon everybody just to save my own skin.
”UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
With a determined yell, I unleashed every bit of purified ice qi from my body, freezing the entire space around me. A cold and frosty aura spread out from my body, drifting over the surroundings and causing the temperature to plummet drastically. Dense fog began to condense, despite being right under the blazing, hot sun.
Channeling my Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula into my Azure Lotus Sword, I gathered whatever purified frost qi inside my dantian and allowed the chilly, azure frost to escape my pores. Channeling the azure mist into my sword, I transformed the reality of the space around me into pure ice, and for a moment it seemed as if a harsh winter had fallen in the small area that I had subjugated. I was not immune to the effects of my own technique, and a large crystalline layer of frost formed over my body, rapidly expanding from my hair and entombed my entire physical form in ice.
Crack!
The ice expanded from my body, filling the space with an unnatural chill and threatening to freeze even the heavens and earth themselves.
”So cold!”
”What…what's going on? Why does it feel like the world is about to get frozen? This…this isn't any ordinary ice technique!”
”Heavens…isn't that the legendary Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula?! Only passed down to the greatest of Blood Blades?!”
”No, it's not just the Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula…it's the ultimate technique and pinnacle of the Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula…Absolute Zero!”
”What?! Absolute Zero? What's that?”
Some of the more experienced masters and elders recognized the technique, but many of the disciples were at a loss, rubbing themselves as they fought to resist the overwhelming chill that had spread across the parking lot and entrance of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. grabbing their clothing and hugging themselves, they stared at my frozen form in wonder even as they instinctively retreated from the cruel winter that had descended upon the space and was spreading its cold reach out to ensnare them in its chilly embrace.
However, there was a limit to my Absolute Zero. When the spectators placed enough distance between themselves and me, they realized that the cold was greatly reduced and they could once again feel the heat of the blazing sun.
”When did Fei Wu learn Absolute Zero?!” Tong Xue demanded, overawed. Pang Feng stared at him, confused.
”Absolute Zero? What's that?”
The guy evidently had not been paying attention to the masters and elders murmuring around him. Then again, he was pretty out of it, having been badly hurt by Liang Shao Yang before. He was still busily recuperating.
”Listen to the elders,” Tong Xue muttered, evidently too lazy to explain. I didn't blame him.
Anyway, I had no idea how I was pulling this off, but I guess in my desperation I must have done what I was taught on reflex, and somehow executed Absolute Zero, which I had failed to achieve until this very moment.
They were right when they said people experienced a breakthrough in a crisis.
”Don't think you can stop me with this!”
Liang Shao Yang pulled another Spirit Artifact from his spatial ring, and fired off a flaming Phoenix Arrow from his Divine Phoenix Bow.
However, layers of thick ice had formed on my body, turning into a natural frost armor. Even if the Phoenix Arrow could penetrate them, it could not break through my hovering Snow Aegis, which automatically flew to block Liang Shao Yang's cheap shot. The flaming phoenix crashed into Snow Aegis and wailed soundlessly before dissipating harmlessly.
”Fuck!”
Liang Shao Yang smashed through the ice from my original Enhanced Armament release from my Azure Lotus Sword, but he once again found himself bound by this new ice. He hurriedly channeled his qi into his Flame Lion Fireglass Barrier to protect himself after he discovered that the earth beneath him had frozen solid and he was unable to escape into the shadows.
”How did he freeze even the shadows?!” he growled, not really expecting an answer. ”It's…as if space itself has become frozen!”
He wasn't given much time to ponder on it. The blue flames of the Flame Lion Fireglass Barrier crystalized into ice, freezing immediately when the thick fog came into contact with them. The azure mist expanded and extinguished the blue flames swiftly, causing the roaring, frenzied lion of fire to scatter like ashes.
It didn't matter. Liang Shao Yang smiled coldly as he threw the Terminator Profound Bomb. It was on the verge of exploding, the volatile qi already leaving its detonating structure…
Crack!
The Terminator Profound Bomb did not explode.
”What?!” Liang Shao Yang stared at it in disbelief.
The Terminator Profound Bomb was presently encased in ice, and even the thunder and lightning qi that once crackled fiercely within its core had been tamed, frozen solid by the frost. Absolute Zero did not care if it was a physical object or qi, it froze everything. The qi's energy had been sapped away by the overwhelming cold, locked away by ice and rendered into nothingness. Absolute Zero had frozen the process of qi fusion or qi fission itself, halting the arcane particles from triggering their destructive explosion.
And just like that, the Terminator Profound Bomb shattered, both its components and the purified, volatile qi exploding into fragments of frost and rendered inert by the sheer cold. The icy crystals rained down harmlessly, resembling snow on a wintry day.
”Impossible…”
Liang Shao Yang never got to finish his sentence. His body suddenly froze.
His arteries and veins themselves clogged, the blood solidifying within his blood vessels. Even his supposedly superior amount of qi froze, turning into a frozen sea in the middle of winter, refusing to circulate in his qi channels.
Crack…!
Liang Shao Yang couldn't move, his eyes seeming to burst as the capillaries within his eyeballs expanded, unable to take the sudden cold. His very blood had frozen, and all over his body, his tortured blood vessels were rupturing as the solidified red crystals burst through them and into his formerly soft but now hard tissue.
”Fei Wu!”
”What happened?!”
At this moment, Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou finally arrived, but Tong Xue gestured them over. seeing the wounded Pang Feng, and unable to draw closer to the territory of Absolute Zero that I had woven over myself and Liang Shao Yang, they could do nothing but obey.
And just like that, the light faded from Liang Shao Yang's eyes bit by bit as his body was transmuted completely into ice.
”Liang Shao Yang is dead!”
”Liang Shao Yang has been killed!”
After a long moment of silence, the shocked spectators began crying out around the entrance.
”No way…” Tang Qi Hong held her mouth in disbelief. ”Fei Wu actually did it.”
”…this means trouble, doesn't it?” Lian Rou asked worriedly.
”Like hell it does!” Tong Xue snapped. ”Liang Shao Yang attacked us first! We have every right to self-defense! Pang Feng and I can testify!”
”Yeah,” Pang Feng agreed weakly with a nod.
”I know, but…will the Great Elders agree? Will they even care about what's right or wrong?” Lian Rou looked dismayed. Tang Qi Hong nodded.
”That's right…they don't care about justice. Fei Wu just killed a head inner sect disciple, one of the prime candidates for the position of future sect leader. A person they treasured and nurtured and invested so much resources in. Even if Fei Wu was in the right and did it out of self-defense, they might not listen…”
”That's fucking bullshit!” Tong Xue shouted. He turned to everyone. ”Everyone, you saw, didn't you? Liang Shao Yang tried to kill all of us! If Fei Wu didn't stop him, we would have all been blown to hell by the Terminator Profound Bomb!”
”Yeah!”
”That's right!”
”Who does that bastard Liang Shao Yang think he is?! Trying to take us all with him! Even if he's the future sect leader, he can't just kill us like that!”
”He doesn't have the right to be a candidate for future sect leader!”
”Everyone, let's stand together! Fei Wu is one of us! We can't let this injustice stand!”
The crowd were riled up, shouting their approval and support.
Even so, Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou remained grim. They knew that the sect wasn't run on democracy or popular support. The patriarchal system was strongly embedded within the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. the Great Elders' words were law, and even the Sect Leader had no choice but to listen to their ”advice”.
There were hurried footsteps coming down from the foot of Flame Volcano. Finally, the rest of the Blood Blades, as well as the martial artists of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect had arrived. They hadn't heard the sounds of combat, and only realized it when they saw social media, which was why Elder Zhao took so long to arrive, having been engrossed in writing his report.
But it was too late. They had arrived just in time to see Liang Shao Yang trigger the Terminator Profound Bomb, but were powerless to stop it. They could only stand by and witness their inevitable death, until I executed Absolute Zero. Even so, while they were relieved that they weren't dead, they were still absorbing the fact that Liang Shao Yang had just died.
”Fei Wu…” Elder Zhao whispered, concerned. ”We've to protect him! We can't let the Great Elders find out about this! Even though he saved all of our lives, they…!”
”Fei Wu! Run!” Tong Xue shouted, trying not to panic. ”Run now! As fast as you can!”
”Before the Great Elders come!” Tang Qi Hong added, tears in her eyes.