"Nonsense!" Elder Jin snapped, his face darkening. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Where is my son, you bastard?"
The blue-haired man looked at him with disdain.
"Still pretending you know nothing? How amusing."
He flicked his fingers, and several ice shards shot toward Elder Jin. Their chilling aura spread through the air, freezing everything in their path.
"Hmph!"
Elder Jin wasn't about to let himself be killed so easily. Dark shadows surged from behind him, transforming into several serpentine tendrils that swept toward the incoming ice shards.
The two forces collided, shattering the ice into countless fragments. Before the shadows could reach their target, however, the blue-haired man disappeared.
"Too slow."
His voice came from behind Elder Jin.
An ice sword had already formed in his hand, and he swung it toward Elder Jin's neck.
Elder Jin reacted quickly, covering his arms with layers of condensed shadows. The sword struck his defenses with a loud clang, sending shockwaves through the surrounding area. Cracks spread across the ground beneath their feet.
The blue-haired man smiled and stomped his foot.
Frost spread rapidly across the valley floor. In the next instant, dozens of ice spikes erupted beneath Elder Jin, forcing him to retreat.
Elder Jin brought his palms together, summoning a massive vortex of shadows. It swept toward his opponent like a black tornado, threatening to devour everything in its path.
The blue-haired man simply raised his hand.
A burst of cold light erupted from his palm, freezing the surrounding air. A massive glacier materialized above the valley and crashed down toward the incoming vortex.
The two attacks collided, producing an enormous explosion that shook the entire valley. Ice and shadow spread in every direction, tearing apart the ground and leaving deep fissures across the battlefield.
Elder Jin staggered backward, blood trickling from his nose.
He gritted his teeth and waved his hand. The shattered ice fragments suddenly darkened as his shadow energy seeped into them, transforming them into poisonous black blades.
With a single thought, he sent them hurtling toward the blue-haired man.
"Such trivial tricks."
The man snapped his fingers, and a wall of mirrored ice appeared before him. The black blades struck the barrier before being reflected in every direction, destroying nearby cliffs and reducing ancient trees to splinters.
Elder Jin's expression grew increasingly ugly.
He had already realized that his opponent was far stronger than he had expected.
"Mei Lin! Where are you?!"
He sent a message through their spiritual connection, but received no response.
His heart sank.
Had she abandoned him?
Or had she been working with this man from the beginning?
Elder Jin's expression turned vicious. He had no time to investigate the matter now. If he didn't use his strongest techniques, he might not leave this valley alive.
"It seems I've no choice."
A terrifying wave of shadow energy erupted from his body, darkening the sky above the valley. The ground beneath his feet collapsed, forming a vast abyss from which enormous shadow figures emerged.
Thousands of towering figures rose into the air, each one radiating an overwhelming aura. They raised their fists and struck toward the blue-haired man, their attacks powerful enough to shatter mountains.
The man's expression finally changed.
"You're burning your Nascent Soul?!"
He immediately raised both hands. The clouds above the valley froze, and countless glaciers descended from the sky, crashing into the approaching shadow giants.
Explosions shook the surrounding mountains. Ice and shadow collided repeatedly, leaving enormous craters across the valley floor.
Elder Jin coughed up a mouthful of black blood. His veins bulged beneath his skin as he struggled to maintain control over his technique.
"DIE!"
He brought his palms together once more.
The remaining shadow giants suddenly merged, forming a massive black vortex that began devouring everything around it. Rocks, trees, and entire sections of the valley floor were pulled into its depths.
Even the surrounding light seemed to disappear.
The blue-haired man watched the approaching vortex and shook his head.
"Childish. Let me show you what true power looks like."
His hair began to glow with a brilliant blue light. He drove his ice sword into the ground, and ancient symbols appeared along its blade.
The moment those symbols lit up, Elder Jin's expression changed completely.
"Essence power?!"
He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Essence power was a level of strength associated with Heavenly Tribulation Realm experts. It was far beyond anything an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator could hope to contend with.
Before Elder Jin could react, enormous pillars of ice erupted from the ground around the blue-haired man. Their temperature was so low that even the black vortex began to freeze.
In a matter of moments, the destructive vortex was sealed inside a massive crystalline structure.
The blue-haired man casually raised his hand.
The ice prison shattered.
A terrifying shockwave swept across the valley, flattening the surrounding peaks and sending debris flying for hundreds of miles.
Elder Jin was thrown backward. His body was covered in cracks, and blood poured from his mouth.
"No... No!"
He slammed his palms against the ground.
Dark, molten shadows erupted from beneath the earth, spreading like lava and swallowing the frozen battlefield. The shadow lava surged toward the blue-haired man, threatening to engulf everything in its path.
Yet his opponent remained completely unmoved.
"Against essence power, these techniques are useless."
The blue-haired man raised his hand, and the surrounding temperature dropped even further.
A massive ice dragon appeared above him. Its enormous wings covered the sky, and its body radiated a terrifying cold that caused the shadow lava to freeze wherever it passed.
With a deafening roar, the dragon plunged into the darkness, freezing the molten shadows solid.
Elder Jin's face twisted with despair.
He had already burned his Nascent Soul, yet he couldn't even injure his opponent.
Realizing that he had reached the end of the road, he made one final decision.
With a furious roar, he tore out his own heart and detonated the remaining power within his body.
An enormous explosion of darkness engulfed the valley.
Mountains crumbled, rivers vanished beneath the blast, and the ground collapsed into a vast crater. Even the surrounding spiritual energy was swept away, leaving behind a desolate wasteland.
For a moment, everything fell silent.
Then the dust began to settle.
The blue-haired man stood in the center of the devastation, completely unharmed. A massive mirror of ice floated around him, having blocked the full force of Elder Jin's self-destruction.
At the center of the crater, a charred skeleton remained kneeling on the ground.
The blue-haired man glanced at it indifferently.
"What a fool."
He raised one finger, and a thin spear of blue-white light appeared above it. The spear condensed from the surrounding spiritual energy, its surface shimmering with the cold of the void.
With a casual motion, he sent it forward.
The spear pierced the skeleton's skull.
Elder Jin's Nascent Soul had barely emerged when the freezing energy caught it. Before it could escape, it froze completely and shattered into countless fragments.
Another Nascent Soul expert had fallen.
The blue-haired man withdrew his gaze and looked toward the distant horizon.
"If the old master weren't watching over this realm, I would have wiped out his entire clan long ago."
His figure gradually dissolved into countless specks of frost, disappearing from the valley.
---
Two hours later, a figure descended into Sound Soul Valley.
Mei Lin landed near the edge of the enormous crater. Looking at the ruined landscape, she couldn't hide the shock on her face.
The mountains had been destroyed, the valley floor had disappeared, and the remaining traces of spiritual energy were so chaotic that even her divine sense struggled to examine them.
She slowly approached the center of the crater.
"Elder Jin..."
There was no response.
Mei Lin examined the area carefully, but she couldn't find any trace of his Nascent Soul. Only the remnants of his final attack remained.
Her expression grew solemn.
"What terrifying power..."
She had expected Elder Jin to suffer a serious defeat, but she hadn't anticipated such a one-sided battle.
After a moment of hesitation, she looked toward the distant sky.
"Was that a Half-Step Heavenly Tribulation expert? No... His control over essence power was far too strong."
She didn't dare draw any further conclusions.
Whatever the man's true cultivation, he was someone the Shadowclaw Sect couldn't afford to provoke.
Mei Lin immediately turned and left the valley.
She needed to report everything to Xiao Ning.
The situation had become far more dangerous than either of them had anticipated.