Ice crystal powder fell in rustling flurries, like ghost-blue snow, blanketing Chen Mo’s kneeling form. His right arm hung limp, its bone armor shattered. Beneath fractures deep enough to expose the marrow, his bare arm bone was a grayish-blue, covered in a fine network of charred black veins from over-calcification. The agonizing pain and numbness radiating from deep within his bone marrow clung to him like a tarsal maggot, and every heartbeat felt like a dull blade scraping against bone. The pinprick of Nirvana Edge in his Sea of Consciousness had gone utterly silent, leaving only a cold, dead, hollow void.
Xingshuang’s massive body shielded Chen Mo. Its heavy breaths sounded like a pulled bellows with a torn windpipe, the light on its platinum fangs dimmed, and deep in its throat came a suppressed growl fraught with pain and immense vigilance. Its blinding white, ice-flame pupils stared fixedly at the huge Hanpo Cave ice sculpture ahead. The ghost-blue chill within the sculpture's hollow eye sockets flickered violently before stabilizing once more, yet the terrifying, all-freezing intent to kill did not dissipate. Instead, like an enraged venomous snake, it locked onto them even more frostily.
Deep within the cavern, that ancient sword hum rang out once more, carrying a cold astonishment and, from even deeper within, a heavy, heartbeat-like throb. With every pulse, the entire Hanpo Cave trembled slightly, and the ice rifts on the cave walls emitted a tooth-aching groan.
Chapter 130