"Hmph! Rebellious cat." A trace of coldness flashed in Bing Di's eyes. "If you can do it, then try it. I don't know who it was last time who nearly died in the Extreme North."
Upon hearing this, Tokisaki Kurumi sneered:
"Dragging out some old almanac from a hundred or eighty years ago. Bing Di, only you would stay in the same place without advancing."
"My Dark Devilgod Tiger cannot be compared to a little scorpion like you."
As she finished speaking, faint black zhenqi spread out from her body.
The entire grand hall began to distort, as if the space itself would shatter at any moment.
Bing Di retreated several steps.
This terrifying aura pressed down so heavily that she could hardly breathe, and shock appeared on her delicate face:
"Limit Douluo—no, this level of oppressive feeling, could it be that you've already..."
"Don't compare me to those useless god-level beings here." Tokisaki Kurumi wagged her index finger lightly,
"As the Dark Devilgod Tiger, I am below one person and above ten thousand others. In the end, I will stand at the pinnacle of the heavens."
Tokisaki Kurumi—at this moment, her pressure faintly surpassed the rank of a quasi-god.
Because her cultivation method was different, even the God Realm could not detect her existence.
"You came here just to show off your power?"
Bing Di ignored the chuunibyou words from the other side, her voice becoming as calm as a still pond beyond the initial surprise.
"Show off my power?" Tokisaki Kurumi glanced at Bing Di.
With a "whoosh," she arrived in front of Bing Di.
Bing Di instinctively moved to defend herself, layers of chill intent enveloping her body.
"Bang"
Her wrist was seized, and the frost in her palm turned to fragments that fell to the ground.
Already standing in the corner of the palace, Bing Di staggered and was forced against the wall by an inexplicable force, her back pressing against it.
"You... what do you want to do?" Bing Di's hairs stood on end. Clearly in the frigid center of the Extreme North, goosebumps rose on her skin.
Tokisaki Kurumi's left hand gripped Bing Di's right wrist, while her other hand lifted Bing Di's chin.
"Little scorpion, guess what I'll do?"
She lightly raised her right knee, touching the skin beneath Bing Di's skirt hem. Bing Di shuddered and let out a tremble.
"You... you, get lost!"
"Oh?"
Her hand touched Bing Di's slightly cool chin, and Tokisaki Kurumi's lips curved up.
"Bing Di, isn't this what you wanted to do to Xue Di? Why such a big reaction!"
"Right, could it be that because I'm not in Xue Di's appearance, it makes you nervous?"
Tokisaki Kurumi chuckled lightly, and her entire appearance underwent a massive change.
"Xue... Xue Xue Di!?"
"How about it? Doesn't this look just like her now!" Transforming into Xue Di's appearance, Tokisaki Kurumi maintained the relatively ambiguous posture with Bing Di.
Tokisaki Kurumi's hand paused for a moment, her lips curving slightly: "If one Xue Di isn't enough, then let's add a few more!"
The instant her voice fell, several pitch-black spaces appeared beside her, from which three figures identical in appearance to the current Tokisaki Kurumi slowly rose.
"How about it? Isn't this multiple times the pleasure?"
Four "Xue Di"s, so close like this, nearly suffocated Bing Di.
"You, you're not Xue Di... Dark Devilgod Tiger, get lost from me!"
"Hm?"
The clones dispersed, and Tokisaki Kurumi lightly stepped back a few paces, restoring her original appearance.
Bing Di gasped for breath roughly:
"You this guy, do you only know these kinds of disgraceful things?"
"My bond with Xue Di isn't something an outsider like you can defile!"
"Heh heh!" Tokisaki Kurumi spread her hands, indifferently saying, "What bond? If you don't make a move soon, your Xue Di will be snatched away by someone one day."
"Shut your mouth!" Bing Di yelled angrily.
"Whatever." Tokisaki Kurumi spread her hands again, shaking her head helplessly. "You're just like my unreliable master— all talk and no action."
"I'm different. When I think of it, I just go all out and do it directly."
Bing Di's gaze turned cold and stern. She took a deep breath to calm her thoughts: "Tokisaki Kurumi, you didn't come today just to tease me, right?"
"Of course not." Tokisaki Kurumi put away her playful smile. "After receiving your contact before, I rushed over. But seeing an empty nest scorpion, I particularly wanted to toy with it a bit."
A "well" character furrowed on Bing Di's forehead.
"If you've got the guts, don't just talk big. Go find your Ning Rongrong." Bing Di skipped over Tokisaki Kurumi's unserious words, saying coldly, "Without Ning Rongrong here, how much of your power can you even exert?"
"Not long ago, Xue Di notified me that the black ice phoenix seems to have disappeared."
"Disappeared!" Tokisaki Kurumi's delicate eyebrows furrowed. "You mean Xue Di entered inside the seal?"
"No." Bing Di shook her head. "Xue Di's true body is the Snow Lady, her affinity with ice and snow far surpasses mine. She can infiltrate the perception of snow into the seal."
"Xue Di told me that the black ice phoenix seems to have escaped from the seal, leaving only a clone inside."
"Impossible!" Tokisaki Kurumi pondered. "That's a god-level being, and very likely a first-level god. If it came out, there shouldn't be no reaction from the outside world."
"This is also the point of doubt for me and Xue Di." Bing Di shook her head. "In any case, it's an unstable factor."
"Moreover, Xue Di is hiding something from me. Maybe because my strength is too low!"
"Point the way. I'll take you to see." Tokisaki Kurumi said after thinking.
"Just you..."
"My strength isn't weaker than your Xue Di. As long as we don't go inside, based on my understanding of my master, the seal should still hold for a long time."
"Unless something even stranger is happening inside the seal. Let's go first!"
Silence, a long silence.
Although before Xue Di left, she said to wait for Ning Rongrong to arrive, she hadn't expected Ning Rongrong to be in seclusion, and moreover...
Bing Di glanced at Tokisaki Kurumi, who would make one tremble with anger.
"This guy's strength has improved in such an absurd way."
Back then, when she came to the Extreme North to raid her home, Bing Di alone could chase her away like a little chick.
Later, she was subdued by Ning Rongrong of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, and her strength became much stronger, even able to fight Bing Di to a draw.
And now, it hadn't even been ten years, right?
The Dark Devilgod Tiger's strength—no, more precisely, her pressure—actually made her feel that even Xue Di, borrowing the terrain of the Extreme North, might not necessarily win.
Absurd, simply absurd to the extreme.
In the end, Bing Di still agreed to bring Tokisaki Kurumi to the seal location.
Bing Di staying there alone wasn't something Xue Di felt entirely at ease with.
With Tokisaki Kurumi's spacetime teleportation gate, the two quickly arrived at the massive rift in the Wind Snow Valley.
"Bing Di, how come you came?"
Xue Di, who had been meditating cross-legged, opened her eyes. Her pure gaze quickly noticed the arriving Bing Di and Tokisaki Kurumi.
"She's worried about you. Bing Di was anxious like ants on a hot pot."
Before Bing Di could speak, Tokisaki Kurumi answered for her.
Bing Di's face was full of black lines, just about to retort, when Xue Di's voice rang out:
"Tokisaki Kurumi, how did you come too? Didn't you say Ning Rongrong is still in seclusion?"
"She should arrive in these two days. Tell me about the situation on your side." Tokisaki Kurumi got straight to the point. "What does it mean that the ice phoenix below escaped, and there's a clone?"
"You mean, it's not in the seal anymore?"
"If it had that ability, it shouldn't have waited this long to use it."
It wasn't a masochist, after all. Sealed for so many years—if there was a way to escape like a cicada shedding its carapace, it should have been used long ago.
(End of this chapter)