Chapter 701: Scheming

“It would be best if you temporarily stopped trying to release the Demon Sealing Tombstone. Otherwise, in my present state, it will quickly seal me after it’s released from the ice.”

The Ice Phoenix uncurled and slowly stood up.

She was still naked. Her youthful skin was covered in mysterious phoenix patterns, which made her flawless beauty look eerie.

The crystal drops of blood that had spilled from her body slowly receded back into her body as she slowly stood up.

Her weak aura was recovering, and the cold energy around her grew stronger.

Qin Lie’s face became serious. Looking at the Ice Phoenix whos aura was strengthening, he didn’t dare to relax at all.

He was not sure if the Ice Phoenix was speaking truth or lying.

“The three that are coming are not the same as before. They are very strong. I… cannot win against them, I am severely injured.” The Ice Phoenix’s gaze was full of urgency as she said, “The walls of the palace contain the frost power of the Ice Emperor but it will not stand for long. They have already found it. There will be a day when the walls will crumble under their attacks. At that time, I most likely will not be able to escape. Rather than that, it’s better to be sealed again by the Demon Sealing Tombstone. In the future… maybe one day… I would be released.”

Qin Lie was silent.

“But before I get sealed, I hope that the inheritance of the Ice Emperor is passed on,” she continued.

“I don’t know if I should trust you,” Qin Lie said gravely.

“You are free to choose.“ The Ice Phoenix suddenly sat down. Her white arms wrapped around her chest and slowly covered her breasts. She said with a bowed head, “If you do not want to receive Ice Emperor’s inheritance, I will not force you.”

After she said this, she stopped speaking. She even closed her eyes.

Qin Lie felt a headache coming on.

At this time, the Demon Sealing Tombstone and the seven godly lights that were sealed in the ice were showing signs of loosening as his lifeblood essences enhanced by the blaze divine characters burned.

The seven icicles were constantly flashing with prismatic light as though the seven godly lights were struggling fiercely.

It seemed that the Demon Sealing Tombstone and its seven godly lights that could seal Ice Phoenix would soon break free.

Qin Lie looked deeply at the Ice Phoenix. After a few moments of hesitation, a sudden thought flashed through his mind.

Three lifeblood essences thawing the ice encasing the Demon Sealing Tombstone and the seven icicles moved with his thought. They turned into bloody jade droplets that rained on his body.

He retracted the lifeblood essences back into his body.

In the air, the Demon Sealing Tombstone and the seven godly lights that were frozen stopped thawing after the blaze divine characters stopped burning.

The cold energy that existed in every corner of the frost palace came over and froze the Demon Sealing Tombstone and the seven godly lights again.

The Ice Phoenix opened her eyes.

“I can give you the Ice Emperor’s core inheritance and the treatise on his power that I obtained from this frost palace.” Her gaze fixed on Qin Lie, she continued, “You only need to open your mind to obtain the mysteries of the Ice Emperor that I have.”

“I still don’t want it.” Qin Lie shook his head.

“You do not want, or you do not dare?” the Ice Phoenix asked coldly.

“Do not dare,” Qin Lie said honestly.

Opening his mind would mean that he would be in an unguarded state. In this state, he could absorb the Ice Emperor inheritance from the Ice Phoenix, or his soul might be instantly extinguished.

Having temporarily stopped trying to release the Demon Sealing Tombstone did not mean that he was not on his guard against the Ice Phoenix, nor that he trusted her.

“You humans always overthink things!” The Ice Phoenix was disdainful.

“Better safe than sorry.” When Qin Lie spoke, his powers still circulated through his body without any signs of relaxing. “Where is the young female that you possessed in the Land of Buried Gods?”

“She is still alive. After the Graveyard of Gods exploded, my own body was released. The Demon Sealing Tombstone was in an unknown place so I did not need her human body as a disguise anymore.” The Ice Phoenix’s tone was cold as she said indifferently, “I threw her onto some desolate island. I also imprinted some of my understanding of the frost power into her memories. When she wakes up, she will find that everything had recovered back to normal, and she will also have obtained a deep understanding of frost for free. When she cultivates in the future, she will not meet any bottlenecks. This is how I repaid her.”

“Oh?” Qin Lie’s eyes were filled with puzzlement.

He found that it was increasingly harder to understand this Ice Phoenix. He didn’t know which things the Ice Phoenix said were truth and which were lies.

“There is a Ghost Eye clansman called the Seven Eyed Monster that should have entered Frost Island. Where is this person now?” Qin Lie asked.

“I have a vague recollection of that person. He was very strong. When fighting him, I had to use the frost energy flows the Ice Emperor left in the palace to freeze him.” The Ice Phoenix thought for a while before saying, “I threw him into the depths of a glacier. In my previous fight against these three people, that glacier exploded. The ice power that sealed him was also melted, and he had been set free. After this, he teamed up with the three to fight against me. My wounds… he’s responsible for some of them.”

When she spoke of La Pu, Ice Phoenix’s eyes betrayed hint of murderous intent.

Qin Lie’s eyes lit up.

Just as he continued to keep asking the Ice Phoenix about the mysteries of the Graveyard of Gods, the sound of explosions occurred again outside the frost palace.

The glowing crystal palaces collapsed.

Many glowing specks of mysterious cold energy shot out of the walls and and slabs of ice lying around. They gathered into swarms like fireflies.

The Ice Phoenix’s eyes turned cold and she said urgently, “I do not have much time! Either you open your mind and I will return the Ice Emperor’s inheritance to you, or… release the Demon Sealing Tombstone and have it seal me!”

“There is no other choice?” Qin Lie frowned.

“No!”

“You cannot flee the frost palace? Cannot flee from Frost Island?”

“The clansmen of the three have sealed the entire Frost Island. If I touch the barrier they have set up, I will immediately attract the three. If I could leave, I would have left a long time ago instead of staying in this palace!”

“That female white barbarian, she also cultivates a frost spirit art. Why do you not use the same method to possess her body and then use her to leave Frost Island?”

“She is too strong and her soul will be able to fight back. I cannot easily take over her body.”

“Couldn’t you kill her first?”

“Dead people do not have soul aura. Even if I take her corpse, the aura that comes out of the body will be mine. Other people will easily detect it. Only when she is alive will the aura that is released from her body be hers. That way, after I possess her, I can avoid other people’s inspection and leave.”

“So that’s how it is?” Qin Lie nodded and then his eyes turned cold. “What about me? I have the lowest cultivation of everyone here, and I also cultivate a frost spirit art. Isn’t it easy for you to possess me?”

The Ice Phoenix suddenly became silent.

Qin Lie smiled coldly, “Is it because you are wounded severely and your soul is relatively weak that it is too difficult to forcefully take over my body? So you… keep on tempting me to open my mind so you can come in?”

As he asked this, Qin Lie’s body flashed with arcs of lightning. The sound of thunder came out of his body.

He believed that his speculation was correct. In the next moment, he received a storm of attacks from the Ice Phoenix.

A change suddenly occurred!

The moment he finished speaking, dozens of icy threads suddenly flew out of a shaking frost palace on the side.

The crystalline ice threads flew and wove a beautiful Ice Phoenix. The phoenix moved its wings to form fierce whirlpools that consumed the nearby ice energies, icicles, ice lines, and arctic ice mist.

The originally crude Ice Phoenix formed from the ice threads gradually turned complex and detailed until it became tangible.

It looked like a newborn Ice Phoenix.

“Whoosh whoosh!”

As it flapped its wings, the Ice Phoenix made from ice energy, ice crystals, and ice seal characters all flew at Qin Lie.

A sharp aura that tore apart the ice walls and space turned into deadly sharp ice energy threads that shot towards Qin Lie.

Ever-present sounds of ice shattering were capable of freezing one’s soul. Qin Lie’s consciousness seemed as though it was about to freeze.

“As expected!”

Lava and raging flames flew out of Qin Lie’s body and formed a fiery flame source that looked like the sun.

His body rattled with sounds of popping joints and suddenly became heavy and built as though he had been pulled taller.

The thunder roared, while lightning wrapped the flaming sun that now carried a thick stench of blood. The whole scene turned into a terrifying storm with Qin Lie in the center.

Much of the icy energy the Ice Phoenix shot over instantly evaporated in the tide of flames before they could even get close to Qin Lie.

The Ice Phoenix that was charging towards him was facing both the flame energy shrouded in lightning and a Blood Dragon Qin Lie had made with Blood Spirit Art.

The Blood Dragon rose into the sky. Its crimson red body was covered in countless small “blaze” divine characters. Then, it shot tens of meters long lightning bolts from its eyes.

The dragon and the phoenix immediately started to wrestle in the air above Qin Lie’s head.

Tens of thousands of ice beams, icicles, bloody lights, lightning bolts, flame tongues, and thunder explosions resounded throughout the frost palace, as if two ancient beings that were made out of pure power fought with their lives on the line, throwing their entire surroundings into chaos.

The frost palaces were crumbling and collapsing.

The Blood Dragon and the Ice Phoenix were trying to tear each other apart. They wrecked havoc everywhere, constantly moving through the air and destroying all obstacles that barred their way.

Qin Lie sat in the middle of that chaos. Rays of blood and lightning mixed with the blaze divine characters floated out of his body and soared to the sky. They imprinted themselves on Blood Dragon’s body, increasing its power. The dragon grew bigger, heavier, and its aura became much stronger.

Countless icy lights, the seal characters on the ice walls, the icicles and the wisps of cold energy hit the Ice Phoenix.

That body of the Ice Phoenix was crystalline and possessed a distinctive sheen. When it flapped its wings, countless ice beams shot out like arrows.

On the other side, the Ice Phoenix’s true body was in the shape of a human female. Her small face was dark, and her silver eyes were cold and without any human emotions.

The phoenix patterns on her body was covered with seemed to come alive. They soared and dove on her body as though it was fighting, struggling and wrestling with its prey..

It seemed that the phoenix markings were the Ice Phoenix that was fighting against the Blood Dragon.