Chapter 1021: Encounter

"What a pity there's only one set of spirit formations," Su Nü muttered, looking down at the fragments of the jade bracelet, her face filled with regret. Her strength was slightly inferior to the young man's; she had managed to kill him entirely by surprise and with the help of those forbidden artifacts.

As Su Nü pondered the young man's last words, her eyes flickered. She wondered if she had truly overthought things or misunderstood something. However, when she recalled her past tragic experiences—the young girls whose lives had been as vibrant as flowers but died by evil sorcery, and Immortal Aunt Yue's hideous face—she couldn't help but shiver. That experience was a nightmare she could never shake off. Without these memories, she would undoubtedly have believed the East Polar Alliance Leader's regard for her and considered those people true friends and family.

Su Nü sighed softly, then waved her hand to erase all traces. She rummaged through the young man's storage pouch, taking what was useful and destroying everything else. She looked around, about to activate her movement technique and flee.

Suddenly, a muffled rumble came from beneath the ice, rapidly approaching her. Su Nü initially didn't pay much attention, thinking it was just ordinary fierce beasts drawn to the commotion. After all, she had first slain two ice lizards here, then fought a fierce battle with her senior martial brother, and finally detonated forbidden artifacts, creating a significant disturbance.

But the next moment, Su Nü's expression drastically changed. 'Crack!' The ice in the distance suddenly cracked open. An ice flood dragon burst out from the ice surface, its body translucent and crystalline, allowing its blood and bones to be seen with the naked eye. The ice flood dragon flew into the air, looking down at Su Nü with eyes filled with intense madness and murderous intent, appearing vicious and menacing.

"Comparable to a late Core Formation stage..." Su Nü's heart tightened as she felt the ice flood dragon's aura. To gain the young man's trust and lure him into the trap, she had not hesitated to self-injure and feign weakness. After her battle with him, her strength was significantly depleted, far from her peak. Encountering such a powerful fierce beast so suddenly, she truly had little confidence.

Just as this thought crossed her mind, an even more alarming scene unfolded. The surrounding ice began to crackle, and in an instant, cracks crisscrossed the entire ice surface. Beneath the ice, white shadows darted about, moving at astonishing speed to surround her. They were, unmistakably, ice flood dragons of various sizes. She hadn't alerted just one fierce beast, but an entire pack of flood dragons!

Powerful fierce beasts comparable to the late Core Formation stage indeed existed in the trial realm, and one might unluckily stumble upon them. However, disturbing so many at once was extremely rare. It was only because she had stayed in one place for too long. Su Nü felt a bitter pang in her heart. She had indeed overthought things; perhaps she wouldn't even wait for the Merchant Alliance's machinations before meeting her demise here.

"True Devil Wings!" Su Nü's lips moved slightly as she quickly formed hand seals. True Devil Qi surged out from her body, coalescing behind her and finally forming a pair of black wings. The devil wings were very peculiar, resembling bone wings without skin or feathers. True Devil Qi formed individual black bones, piecing together to create a crude set of wings.

'Whoosh!' Her devil wings flapped, and Su Nü surged towards the weakest point of the ice flood dragon pack, in the opposite direction of the ice flood dragon king in the air. The ice flood dragon king roared, its voice piercing. It propelled its body forward, charging swiftly.

'Thump, thump, thump...' The ice layers continuously shattered, and white shadows burst forth one after another, scrambling to pounce on Su Nü.

"Devil Elemental Slash!" Su Nü gritted her teeth, her hand seals changing. True Devil Qi gathered in her palm, instantly transforming into a gigantic black devil blade nearly two *zhang* long. Knowing that if she couldn't escape in time, her chances of survival were slim, Su Nü immediately unleashed her full power. Compared to the massive devil blade, Su Nü's body appeared slender and small. She soared through the air, holding the blade with both hands, and brought it down vertically onto the pack of ice flood dragons!

'Swish!' The shadow of the devil blade was like a black beam of light, strikingly conspicuous against the pristine white ice plain.

'Rip!' The two medium-sized ice flood dragons at the very front were instantly split in half by the devil blade with almost no resistance. But what was alarming was that the other ice flood dragons were not deterred; instead, the scent of blood only made them more frenzied.

'Thump, thump, thump...' The shattered corpses slammed onto the ice surface. Su Nü carved a path forward with her devil blade, pushing aggressively. The ice flood dragon king behind her drew closer, making her hair stand on end, and more and more ice flood dragons gathered beneath the ice, moving towards her.

Finally, after the devil blade slew another ice flood dragon, the path ahead became clear. "I'm out!" Su Nü felt a surge of joy. Her devil wings flapped, and her figure flashed, bursting out of the encirclement. Then, without hesitation, she put away her devil blade and transformed into a black streak of escape light, fleeing into the distance.

The ice flood dragon king raged upon seeing this. Its figure was like lightning as it relentlessly pursued Su Nü. Beneath the ice, white shadows moved like ghosts.

After flying for a while, Su Nü glanced back and saw that the ice flood dragon king was pursuing her with the same persistence as if she were its sworn enemy. What worried her most was that this pursuit created an even greater commotion, already alerting other fierce beasts. If a few more powerful monsters similar to the ice flood dragon king were drawn in, her situation would become perilous. Thinking of this, Su Nü had no choice but to take out a talisman from her storage pouch—one of the life-saving measures the Merchant Alliance had given her before her departure. Activating the talisman, green mist enveloped Su Nü's body, and her escape speed became significantly faster out of thin air.

Elsewhere in the Profound Ice Plain.

Qin Sang, unfazed by the cold, effortlessly slew a fierce beast, then continued on his way as if nothing had happened. Of course, he wasn't completely reckless. The Profound Ice Plain was not without beings that could threaten him. As far as he knew, the trial realm might even contain top-tier demonic beasts comparable to the Nascent Soul stage, and no one could be sure whether they were within the Profound Ice Plain. Those who were overly arrogant rarely ended well.

Not long after, Qin Sang seemed to sense something. He suddenly halted his escape light and looked to his right rear. He then frowned slightly, looked around, flashed away to a distant spot, and then his figure vanished, hiding himself.

Soon after, a series of monstrous roars suddenly came from the direction Qin Sang had been watching, intermingled with piercing sounds of air being torn apart. A moment later, a black streak of escape light appeared in Qin Sang's line of sight. It was clear that a cultivator was being pursued by fierce beasts!

"The Profound Ice Plain really does have powerful fierce beasts lurking!" Qin Sang, hidden in the shadows, thought to himself. His gaze swept over the cultivator, and just as he was about to see what kind of fierce beast was pursuing her, his eyes suddenly narrowed. "How could it be her?"

Qin Sang was surprised to find that the person being pursued was Su Nü! Su Nü had become a trusted confidante of the East Polar Alliance Leader, and her cultivation had rapidly soared to the late Core Formation stage in a short time. This wasn't something that could be achieved by talent alone; the East Polar Alliance must have provided resources and heavily cultivated her. With the Merchant Alliance's support, Su Nü should, in theory, not have found it too difficult to pass the first three trials. But to Qin Sang's surprise, Su Nü was injured for some unknown reason and dared not fight back while being chased by fierce beasts, appearing quite disheveled.

"Hmm?" At this moment, Bai's voice suddenly came from within the corpse puppet bag, "This girl... her cultivation technique is quite special. The wings on her back... they feel very familiar!"