But since Leng Leng insisted on refusing the bait, he did not dare strike recklessly either; if by some chance she managed to slip away and in doing so exposed his true strength, his whole carefully laid plan would collapse, and Leng Leng would certainly concede defeat before everyone—leaving him no further chance to act.

"You talk too much." By then Leng Leng had already launched her assault anew, her offense as fierce as a storm from the very start, yet still she could not so much as scratch Xue Jianming.

"Is that so? You may not get to hear this nonsense again—for all you know, this could be the last experience of your life." Xue Jianming grinned meaningfully, then once again put away the Snow Sword, restoring the situation to how it had been at the beginning.

He was now like a patient beast, waiting for the instant the prey showed an opening, then pouncing for the kill; until then he had to keep his claws well sheathed, lest he frighten the prey away.

"What on earth is she doing?" Watching this scene, Bing Wushuang puzzled inwardly.

As a pawn secretly subjugated by Wei Zhao, he of course knew that Leng Leng must long since have understood the balance of strength between them. By all reason, in such a situation there were only two choices: either concede defeat outright the moment she stepped up—surely the safest way to guarantee her safety—or put on an act for a while and then concede, which carried some risk but might serve to lull Xue Jianming into believing his strength had still not been exposed.

Yet what Leng Leng was doing now had gone well beyond mere pretense. All her attacks seemed futile, but they could never be meaningless futile struggles; there had to be a purpose in them. What exactly she meant to do, however, Bing Wushuang could not yet work out.

It was only natural that he could not figure it out. Apart from Leng Leng herself, the only person in the whole arena who knew the answer was Wei Zhao—because this trump card was something he had helped her research and develop.

In the blink of an eye, the two in the arena had exchanged another dozen or so moves. Just as Xue Jianming's patience was being worn away to nothing, Leng Leng suddenly spoke: "How many moves is that?"

"What?" Xue Jianming was taken aback, and answered instinctively, "Thirty-two?"

"That is enough." Leng Leng nodded, then abruptly stopped moving and said calmly from three paces away: "Let me have you test my new move—Drawing a Prison."

The moment the words fell, Xue Jianming's whole body plunged into an icehouse in an instant. As a disciple of the Snow Sword Sect he had ample resistance to the cold, yet at this moment he truly felt what bone-piercing chill meant. This was no longer merely a matter of his movements and speed being impaired—if he could not break free in time, even he would freeze to death outright!

"Drawing a Prison?" Seeing Xue Jianming frozen stiff in that bizarre posture all at once, everyone in the arena was collectively stunned, staring at Leng Leng as though at a monster. Could it be that all she had done before was not futile struggling, but preparation for this one move, Drawing a Prison?!

At the sight, a satisfied arc crept unbidden to the corner of Wei Zhao's mouth. Leng Leng's greatest reliance was of course her ice-shattering constitution, yet all along she had never possessed a unique move that could truly bring out its might.

Had she still been at the early Foundation Establishment stage, that would have been no great matter; but after successive breakthroughs she was now at the peak of Foundation Establishment, a figure on the verge of assaulting the Golden Core stage. If she did not even have one minimal ace-in-the-hole move, that would be far too unreasonable—and once she met a strong foe, she would suffer greatly for it.

Therefore, Wei Zhao had begun scheming and designing for Leng Leng months earlier, and through constant trial and refinement it was finally brought to completion only just before the trial tournament began. It was merely that in the first two rounds the opponents Leng Leng met were not strong enough, so the move had no use—until now, facing the formidable early Golden Core Xue Jianming, it finally had its chance to shine.

The ice-shattering property was fused into her true qi in an imperceptible way, and then by some special means the true qi, once released, would still leave a residue behind. Since this true qi was not powerful in itself and its lethality was not great, a strong foe like Xue Jianming would naturally pay it no mind and would never notice that these remnants of true qi trailed him wherever he went, impossible to shake off. Once enough had accumulated, they became a strange prison that shadowed his every step.

When Leng Leng released the ice-shattering property all at once in an instant, the bone-piercing chill of this prison was something even Xue Jianming could not withstand; and it could neither be shaken off nor escaped. This was Drawing a Prison!

Though it was still a newly created move with much room for improvement in the future, Drawing a Prison was enough to bring out the advantages of the ice-shattering constitution to the fullest; it was no exaggeration to call it Leng Leng's unique trump card.

Against an opponent of her own level, Leng Leng would not have needed such trouble to unleash Drawing a Prison at all—a casual three or five moves of maneuvering would have been enough to release it easily, and its power would have been sufficient to freeze such an opponent to death outright. But Xue Jianming was a formidable early Golden Core expert, and three or five moves were clearly not enough; so Leng Leng had maneuvered heedlessly for a full thirty-two moves, until she had built up this present, ultimate version of Drawing a Prison.

Leng Leng had originally worried whether this move would even work—after all, this was no ordinary fight against a higher level, but a true crossing of a major realm, and even the ultimate version of Drawing a Prison might not necessarily be effective. But now, seeing Xue Jianming's condition, her anxious heart was set at ease at once.

Effective? It was far more than effective—it was simply devastatingly effective!

If Xue Jianming could not think of a way to break Drawing a Prison in time, then in a little while his fate would inevitably be to freeze to death on the spot!

"Impressive." Bing Wushuang cast an imperceptible glance at Wei Zhao, his heart full of awe. Though this move, Drawing a Prison, was Leng Leng's unique technique, in his eyes the truly formidable one was still Wei Zhao.

Compared with the move itself, this soaring, unbridled creativity was the truly fearsome thing; such profound understanding of moves and true qi was far beyond what a mere Foundation Establishment expert could attain—even Golden Core or Nascent Soul cultivators might not possess it. And recalling the wondrous abilities Wei Zhao had displayed before, Bing Wushuang could not help but be startled anew. Just what kind of deity was this man?

The others, however, did not think so incisively. Including Xin Yi'an, all they saw was Leng Leng in the arena; watching Xue Jianming's helpless struggle, there was nothing in their hearts at this moment but shock, and more shock. (To be continued.)