Chapter 981: Ice Domain

Tang Wulin had never fought Long Yuxue before. All he knew was that she possessed extremely powerful long-range offensive prowess. In particular, her control and timing when using soul weapons were both quite exemplary. However, he had no idea what her martial soul and exact soul power rank was.

As soon as the five soul rings emerged from beneath Long Yuxue's feet, Tang Wulin realized that she was an elemental Soul Master. Her martial soul was ice!

A series of ice spikes appeared around her body, making her look as if she were a massive ice hedgehog. The ice spikes were also impeding his field of view, so he couldn't see which one of her soul rings had lit up. The ground beneath her feet was quickly freezing, and a vast expanse of icy blue spread toward all directions. Despite the massive size of the competition platform, the temperature was plummeting rapidly.

Was this a domain? She was only a five-ring Soul King, yet she'd already attained a domain?

Good heavens! Why were there so many freaks in this legion? It was no wonder that she'd already become a lieutenant colonel at such a young age. As expected, this wasn't a case of dumb luck; she'd attained this rank through her own power!

Tang Wulin wasn't planning to lose this match, but he had to give her a handicap. He could tell that Long Yuxue's domain ability required some time to be unleashed, so he decided to give her the time she required.

"Hmm?" Tang Wulin's expression suddenly changed, and he was surprised to discover that Long Yuxue's domain was continuing to spread with no sign of stopping! After just a short while, a third of the entire competition platform had been encompassed by her domain.

This competition platform had a diameter of 500 meters! It was extremely spacious even for a mecha battle. Tang Wulin's Violent Golden Dragon Domain could only cover a diameter of around 100 meters, and a domain with a diameter of 500 meters covered far more than five times the area of a domain with a diameter of 100 meters.

The total area encompassed by Long Yuxue's domain had already far exceeded that of Tang Wulin's Violent Golden Dragon Domain, and what was even more remarkable was that her domain had a self-enhancing effect. The more the domain extended, the lower the temperature within the space became, and the lower temperatures helped the domain continue to expand.

What was she trying to do? Was she going to cover the entire competition platform in her domain? That was way too insane!

Tang Wulin was quite stunned by what he was seeing, but he still remained standing on the spot. He wanted to see just what Long Yuxue was capable of.

The temperature was still dropping steadily, and the ice spikes around Long Yuxue had already concealed her entire body. The area around Tang Wulin had become so cold that a drop of water would instantly freeze into ice. The water vapor being expelled as he breathed instantly froze into powdered ice, and the temperature had at least dropped down to -50°C! [-58°F for mah American homies.] 

In the end, Long Yuxue's domain was unable to encompass the entire competition platform. After almost half of the entire platform was covered by her domain, she finally launched her ice spikes through the air.

When these ice spikes first began to fly through the air, they were traveling toward all directions. They weren't flying particularly quickly within the domain, but their mass was increasing at an alarming rate.

The ice spikes were initially less than a foot in diameter, but after reaching within 50 meters of Tang Wulin, their diameters had already reached in excess of a meter. Their front ends were extremely sharp while their rear ends were quite heavy, and they flew directly toward Tang Wulin, emitting a sharp whistling sound as they did so.

Tang Wulin raised his Golden Dragon Spear before flicking his wrist, and a speck of golden light flashed as an ice spike exploded in mid-air. However, the shattered powder ice refused to dissipate, and Tang Wulin could clearly sense a chill running through his body.

The fact that even he was feeling cold despite his powerful physical constitution and immense blood essence power was a testament to just how low the temperatures generated by the exploding ice spikes were.

All of the ice spikes flew directly toward Tang Wulin as if they had eyes of their own.

The explosions of powder ice naturally couldn't harm Tang Wulin, but he discovered that as the temperature continued to plummet, large patches of ice were beginning to appear on the ground. As a result, Long Yuxue's domain, which had already stopped expanding, began to stretch toward him again.

She can do that? Can her domain continue to grow on its own like this? 

Tang Wulin knew that he couldn't wait any longer. The most terrifying things were those that were unknown; Long Yuxue had lived her entire life in the Skyend Mountain Ranges, so who knew what kind of other strange powers she could possess that were incomprehensible to him?

Tang Wulin tapped his foot against the ground and launched himself toward Long Yuxue.

The ground was very slippery, but that wasn't enough to deter him. A series of rhomboid scales appeared beneath his feet, and the scales stood up on end at his behest before digging into the icy ground. As such, he was able to exert his full power into the ground and quickly charged toward Long Yuxue.

Long Yuxue harrumphed coldly, and her body swayed slightly before shifting horizontally, covering a distance of over 100 meters in a flash.

Tang Wulin was truly stunned upon seeing this. Long Yuxue's domain was already very outlandish to him, but he didn't think that she could utilize it in such a manner. It was undoubtedly the case that she was able to use her domain like this purely because of her personal attribute, and it was very innovative. Now that her domain had been completely established, Tang Wulin had to admit that Long Yuxue was going to be a very formidable opponent. Just the speed that she was displaying alone was too fast for him to catch up to!

Long Yuxue raised a hand, and another string of small ice spikes was sent flying toward him. The ice spikes may have been quite small to begin with, but they could grow during their flight! The ice spikes were like a series of tracking missiles that hurtled directly toward Tang Wulin. No matter how large these ice spikes became, it would be very difficult for them to harm Tang Wulin's immensely powerful body, but the problem was that spikes were slowing him down.

The ice was a handicap to him, but it worked to enhance Long Yuxue's speed.

Summoning this domain had to have expended a lot of Long Yuxue's energy, but conjuring up these ice spikes most likely didn't require much energy expenditure. If things were to continue like this, it would be quite difficult to predict who would emerge victorious in this battle.

A wry smile appeared on Tang Wulin's face. "You can't play dirty like this!"

Long Yuxue said in a cold voice, "Who's playing with you? Why don't you beat me if you can? I won't be holding back!"

Tang Wulin was rather speechless to hear this. 

What could he do? Was he completely powerless here? Of course not!

A resigned look appeared on his face as he said, "Alright, here I come!"

Long Yuxue harrumphed coldly, "Show me what you've got!"

Tang Wulin paused momentarily before taking a deep breath. The simplest way for him to win this battle was to release his suit of battle armor. With his battle armor's flight ability, the domain on the ground would no longer be able to hamper his speed, and he'd be able to catch up to Long Yuxue.

However, she was only a one-word battle armor master, so releasing his two-word battle armor in this battle felt like bullying to him.

As such, he had to defeat her through an alternative method.

After taking a deep breath, Tang Wulin slowly thrust his Golden Dragon Spear forward. He wasn't aiming it at Long Yuxue's direction. Instead, he was thrusting it up toward the air.

At this point, Long Yuxue had opened up some distance between Tang Wulin and herself, and Tang Wulin was standing at the very center of the platform. Long Yuxue faltered slightly at the scene unfolding before her eyes. What was he doing?

However, her expression quickly changed as she could see that a dense layer of golden scales had appeared all over Tang Wulin's body as he unleashed his spear strike. It was none other than his Golden Dragon Body!

Long Yuxue had seen Tang Wulin release those dragon scales before, but as he unleashed that spear strike, his entire body began to light up. His disposition also abruptly changed, and there was no difference in his physical appearance, but Long Yuxue suddenly felt as if she were appraising an immovable mountain. Even the frosty sensation in the air seemed to have been nullified somewhat by his mountainous aura.

As the spear was thrust forward, a spear projection that was over seven meters in length erupted forth. Devastating blood essence fluctuations radiated outward, and a series of rings of light began to emerge beneath Tang Wulin as the four golden soul rings around his body began to intertwine with his five martial soul rings.

At the same time, several dozens of Bluesilver Emperor vines erupted forth in all directions like a series of sharp spears, instantly encompassing a massive area. All of the ice on the ground began to disappear in a soundless manner in the wake of the Bluesilver Emperor vines.

What was even alarming to Long Yuxue was the fact that the Bluesilver Emperor vines were turning into an icy blue color. The blue color then surged toward Tang Wulin, and when it was less than five meters away from him, the icy blue would gradually transform into a faint golden light that fused into his body.

What's happening? 

She had a rough idea that Tang Wulin's martial soul was a plant type martial, but she didn't know exactly what it was, and she was very perplexed by its ability to nullify her domain like this.

Immediately thereafter, Tang Wulin thrust his spear forward once again. The first spear projection was still shimmering in the sky when the second spear projection was unleashed, and this was even brighter and extended even longer than the first projection. At the same time, more vines began to slowly emerge around Tang Wulin's body. The vines didn't spread in a uniform manner, but every time they lashed out, the domain on the ground would recede a little.