The dead silence of Hanpo Cave was sliced through by two distinct sounds.
One was Xingshuang’s suppressed, ragged breathing that sounded like a torn bellows. Its massive head was pressed hard against the deep blue Condensing Soul Mysterious Ice. With every inhalation, it drew in visible streams of white Hanpo Qi like icy needles, which surged frantically into its mouth, nostrils, and ear canals, even forcing their way into the roots of its new teeth! Under the scouring of the cold air, wisps of extremely fine, bone-chillingly sharp black Nirvana Sword Intent fragments—like expelled toxic blood—kept oozing from beneath its fur, out of its nostrils, and even between its teeth, freezing instantly upon contact with the cold air into tiny black ice crystals that fell with a rustling sound. This process was akin to scraping the bone to remove poison. Every time a fragment of sword intent was forced out, Xingshuang’s colossal body would convulse violently, and a whimper mixed with intense pain and grievance would tear from its throat. The glow of its newly grown Platinum Ice Flames was dimmed to the absolute limit, like a dying candle in the wind, seemingly about to be snuffed out at any second.
The other sound was the tiny, continuous scratching of Chen Mo’s fingernails against the jade paste, a faint "swishing" noise. He sat cross-legged on the bone-chilling ice surface, his left hand—its fingers covered by the Starlight Bone Membrane—acting like the most miserly craftsman. With…
Chapter 131