Chapter 808: No Need for a Spokesperson

Chapter 808: No Need for Endorsement

Han Chi, the embodiment of the world’s frost laws, was at the second tier of the Imperial Realm.

Once at the peak of the second tier, Xuanwu could not kill him, only seal him. And that battle likely led to Xuanwu’s severe injuries, eventually dying during the collapse of the era.

In other words, the gap with the ancient Xuanwu was minimal; they were peers.

But after being sealed for so long, his cold energy had been constantly used to suppress something, weakening his strength. Now he was at most mid-second tier… perhaps even less, somewhere between early and mid-second tier, which is why he ranked only eighth at the bottom of the Demon God List.

Amid Zhao Changhe’s heaven-and-earth-oblivious frenzy, he could still maintain basic combat rationality. Amid the clash of energies, a thought clearly emerged—this was the highest level the Eternal Heavenly God could achieve in his own Eternal Heaven, and also the peak level of Xia Longyuan in his prime.

To fight the Eternal Heavenly God, one needed the mortal battlefield to drain his qi channels, reduce his power, and then everyone had to form a siege formation, deploy all divine artifacts, and ultimately suffer collective injuries for a pyrrhic victory.

But now, if he didn’t hold back his tricks, going one-on-one with this guy was almost equal—maybe slightly weaker—but with Ying Wu’s support, it would be a stalemate.

Unknowingly, he had reached such a level, which was rather poignant.

Now that he had given up spatial protection, though mental attacks couldn’t affect his heaven-and-earth-oblivious state, the icy environment began to cause frostbite. The longer it dragged on, the worse it got; he had to end it quickly. Could he achieve a quick victory against an opponent of this level?

There was a chance.

Because his breakthrough to the second tier of the Imperial Realm had happened just two days ago while studying the Four Symbols Formation. No one in the world knew; from the battle reports on the Chaos World Ranking, the judgment could only be first tier. Earlier, he had deliberately fought using only first-tier strength, so Han Chi wouldn’t know his real strength was already second tier.

This information gap was the key to victory.

“Clang!” The icy arm blocked the Dragon Sparrow, and the extreme cold and terrifying force surged forward. Zhao Changhe’s face instantly covered with frost, and his strength seemed to falter, instinctively leaning back, pinned down and unable to move.

Han Chi’s other hand swatted away Ying Wu’s copper coin attack, his eyes growing more ferocious: “The top of the Heavenly Ranking is nothing special. So it’s Lie’s legacy… Even if Lie himself came here, he would only lose, let alone you! Surrender your flesh and blood as the final nourishment and let me out of this abyss!”

A surge of icy energy gathered, freezing toward Zhao Changhe’s heart from behind as he leaned back, as if trying to penetrate his body’s defenses and freeze his internal organs directly.

Attacked from behind, suppressed from the front, Zhao Changhe seemed unable to move, about to be frozen into an ice sculpture.

Ying Wu was shocked, scattering a skyful of copper coins, some helping Zhao Changhe block the cold, others restricting Han Chi’s power.

“This Ying Wu is quite skilled, and he’s hiding his depth,” Ye Jiuyou commented while eating melon seeds. “His spatial dao can already split into different small-space applications in a single strike, but it requires a medium to take effect, which makes it a beat slow. Han Chi could just endure this hit to kill Zhao Changhe first, then deal with Ying Wu later with his wounds.”

This wasn’t time-stop speech but direct soul communication, taking only an instant.

In that instant, before Piaomiao could even reply, the battle situation had changed.

Zhao Changhe suddenly abandoned his blade, twisted his body, and sidestepped away.

Who would suddenly drop their blade while using it to resist an opponent’s pressure? That would let the blade be smashed down, severing head from body.

But Han Chi was stunned to find that the blade was firmly held on its own, never pressing down—the blade had a spirit, operating on its own, needing no strength from Zhao Changhe. Meanwhile, Zhao Changhe had already sidestepped away, a black sword appearing in his hand from nowhere.

The familiar aura in the black sword made Han Chi instinctively recoil in fear: “Ye Wu—”

Before the word “ming” could even leave his mouth, the black sword had already reached his throat.

It wasn’t even speed; it was pure teleportation. From the point of the sword’s emergence to the throat, there was no process, no trajectory—like a jump cut, it appeared directly at the throat.

Spatial leap!

Han Chi had no time to dodge; a layer of ice armor grew directly on his throat, trying to defend.

Given the strength Zhao Changhe had shown earlier, this sword couldn’t possibly pierce Han Chi’s defenses.

But this sword once again exceeded Han Chi’s expectations, erupting with more than double the previous power, cutting through ten-thousand-year-old ice like tofu, stabbing into the throat, and sending the head flying.

Ye Jiuyou: “…”

Piaomiao: “…”

“He was hiding his strength; he’s already at the second tier of the Imperial Realm… And he’s learned spatial techniques. This sword contains two skills: one is spatial leap, and the other is spatial collapse upon stabbing. It was the collapse of space that severed Han Chi’s head from his body, not sword qi—sword qi couldn’t do that.”

Little Xinghe taught her father the art of killing.

Piaomiao twitched her mouth. If Zhao Changhe had hidden his strength and struck her with such a sudden blow, she felt she might also fall for it. Of course, her strength far exceeded Han Chi’s, so even if she fell for it, she would have her own solutions—probably not even injured—but Han Chi wasn’t her; this blow hit him squarely.

She sighed softly: “Han Chi isn’t dead. He is the embodiment of time’s coldness. As long as the world still needs the concept of ‘cold,’ he is immortal. Can Zhao Changhe solve this problem?”

Over there, the flying head happened to meet Ying Wu’s copper coin and was directly blown apart. No blood, only shattered ice scattering everywhere, with eyeballs bouncing around.

Ying Wu himself hadn’t expected the coin to achieve this effect, staring dumbfounded at Han Chi’s headless body standing still.

Could this be victory?

Then Zhao Changhe quickly grabbed back the Dragon Sparrow, wielding both blade and sword, and chopped the headless body into fragments.

Ying Wu snapped back: “The aura is still there; he’s not dead at all!”

Two copper coins accurately struck the two bouncing eyeballs, shattering them.

But Han Chi’s intent still lingered in the air, still not dead.

A voice came from all directions: “Where did you get that sword?”

Zhao Changhe said calmly: “I told you, Ye Wuming is only good-looking. Only a coward would tremble in fear of her.”

Han Chi didn’t get the answer he wanted, paused for a moment, then said slowly: “You… are indeed strong… But so what? Xuanwu couldn’t kill me; how do you compare to Xuanwu? Leave now, and I’ll pretend nothing happened. If you keep wasting time here, you’ll be devoured by this place’s frost.”

At this moment, Zhao Changhe was covered in frost, with large areas of frostbite on his body; Ying Wu wasn’t much better. He had been using spatial isolation for a long time, consuming considerable energy, and the spatial protection around him was already faltering. Their physical training levels differed; once Ying Wu’s spatial protection shattered, he might die instantly—unlike Zhao Changhe, who had done so much work on his physique.

Zhao Changhe frowned, observing the surroundings. This was indeed troublesome. Even if he wanted to learn Xuanwu’s sealing technique, none of them knew the method. Probably even if San Niang came, she wouldn’t know either; many ancient and modern transmission methods were missing. Unless San Niang deduced the sealing method herself based on what she had learned—how long would that take?

Oh, right, could he use the Heavenly Book to deduce?

Ying Wu smiled slightly: “Do you think I came for revenge without considering this?”

He gently opened his palm, and a strange energy bloomed in his hand like a flower.

Han Chi’s voice was somewhat startled: “One flower, one world…”

Ying Wu spoke softly, his voice like a dream: “I know that as long as the world’s frost exists, you will endure. I don’t think I can destroy you, but I will create an independent space, forever isolating all your consciousness in that space, no matter how many eras, eternally trapped in darkness, never seeing the light of day.”

As he spoke, the flower bloomed more fully, gradually filling the entire abyss, completely covering the whole space.

Han Chi sneered: “Your strength isn’t enough to do such a thing. You can’t construct a brand-new independent space out of nothing, nor can you control it. Who are you fooling here?”

“Who said it’s out of nothing?” Ying Wu smiled. “Isn’t my body itself an independent space completely under my control?”

Han Chi was truly shocked this time: “You’re mad!”

“I’ve lived for this day; what madness is there?” Ying Wu’s body began to swell, becoming more like a portly shopkeeper. He turned to Zhao Changhe with a smile and said: “Forget Zhao Si, or else Si’an will cry… How about giving you the fifth rank? The Brotherhood is yours from now on.”

A petal flicked onto Zhao Changhe, space twisted, and Zhao Changhe was directly teleported out of this place, sent outside the ice abyss.

Spatial translocation.

Piaomiao sighed: “Eras change, heroes remain. This matter is over…”

Ye Jiuyou said with a grin: “I say it’s not over, because I don’t believe Zhao Changhe would just stand there dumbly.”

Before the words faded, a violent explosion erupted inside the ice abyss.

It wasn’t Ying Wu’s explosion; it was Han Chi gathering the internal frost, trying to kill Ying Wu before he completed his technique.

Ying Wu smiled slightly, not even dodging. He had been waiting for this moment. He said he would self-destruct his body, and he even got fatter, but it was just a ruse. He didn’t actually know any self-destruction technique; he deliberately tricked the other into helping him explode. The spatial technique was already set; as long as his body exploded, his own flesh and blood would fill this place, forming this independent space with his body. Whether it was Han Chi or whatever he was suppressing, they would never get out again.

But the next moment, a twist appeared before his eyes, and he inexplicably found himself outside the ice abyss, with a large group of frost giants from earlier staring blankly at him.

He could feel the earth shaking beneath his feet; the thousand-zhang-deep ice abyss was exploding wildly, the aftershocks felt even from outside.

Ying Wu was horrified: Spatial swap! Zhao Changhe had swapped himself out, taking the explosion in his place!

He frantically rushed back to the bottom of the abyss. Amid the devastated environment, Zhao Changhe stood there, his blade and sword crossed to protect his body, drenched in blood.

No matter how one defended, it was impossible to shield against the full explosion of the icy breath that filled this abyss; at most, the vital points were protected, but the flesh all over was blasted beyond recognition, even the bones visible.

Yet he still stood unyielding, slowly releasing his blades and reaching forward to grasp.

The icy breath that filled this place was greatly depleted by the blast, and the cold intent had grown very weak. With this grasp, Zhao Changhe gathered all the remaining cold intent into his palm, where a small, hornless ice dragon form appeared, writhing and struggling in his grip.

Turning the void into substance!

Re-manifesting the representative of frost back into a concrete existence.

It was as if Zhao Changhe, through the cold intent of this place, had 'created' a Hanchi.

“Before, the icy breath was too strong; I couldn’t do it. But you chose to explode, so I’ll gladly accept it.” Zhao Changhe gripped the tiny Hanchi with his right hand, while his left hand slowly drew out a golden arrow: “I don’t know how Xuanwu sealed you before, nor do I wish to seal you again. The world’s cold needs no demon god as its spokesperson; it only needs to exist passively in the world… In other words, you need neither form nor consciousness. Let passivity be passivity—stop putting on airs here.”

The Hanchi felt the threat of the golden arrow and writhed madly: “Stop! You’re insane! This defies the Heavenly Way—Ye Wuming only dared to seal me, but you are going against the Way! The epoch will collapse again!”

Zhao Changhe held the golden arrow suspended above the Hanchi’s head and said in a low voice: “One last question: why did she seal you here? What is being suppressed?”

“How would I know!” the Hanchi struggled. “It’s a trace of hatred—enough to overturn the entire world. I don’t know whose it is! And you can’t kill me—only my extreme cold can suppress that thing. If you kill me, the suppressed thing will break free! When it gets out, you’ll all die!”

“That’s Ye Wuming’s business. Since she manipulated causality to bring me here, she will naturally handle what follows. All I need to do is make this demon god disappear.”

With those words, the golden arrow viciously pierced the Hanchi’s body, skewering it from head to tail like a piece of barbecue.

The Hanchi writhed and screamed in agony, then gradually fell silent.

The small ice dragon’s body dissolved into crystalline specks, scattering into the void—a beautiful, starry spray.

The icy breath still lingered in the air, but the demon god’s will had vanished completely. Yet the maddening whispers of the ancient god grew ever denser.

Zhao Changhe leaned on his blades, kneeling weakly on the ground: “Fifth Brother… if you just stand there watching, I’ll go mad from this spiritual invasion. Help me block it out—I have no strength left…”

Ying Wu pursed his lips and walked over slowly: “Do you realize how badly you’re injured? If things go wrong, it won’t just be injury—you’ll die on the spot.”

“Nonsense—otherwise why would I ask you to block it? Can’t I do it myself?”

“What I mean is, that blow you took earlier—it could have killed you.”

“If I took it, I might die, or I might not. But if you took it, you’d be dead for sure.”

“That was what I had prepared for.”

“I knew you were prepared before we even entered… I’ve said it before—too many friends who worked with me have perished. I don’t want that to happen again.”

“…”

“Stop the chatter, I’m going mad, dammit…”

Ying Wu said no more, grabbed his shoulder, and the two vanished from the spot instantly.

A graceful figure appeared, waving a slender hand to first block Ye Jiuyou’s prying gaze: “What are you looking at?”

Ye Jiuyou sneered: “Acting like this will make Zhao Changhe dislike you. He should be fully aware of everything.”

Ye Wuming replied calmly: “So it should be.”

Ye Jiuyou said: “What was being suppressed? Why didn’t I know about it before?”

“There are many things you don’t know…” Ye Wuming ignored her sister and slowly walked toward the original sealing place of the Hanchi, reaching out and pressing her hand down at the center.

A golden light flashed across the sky, and the battle report was only one line:

“April, Qingming. Ying Wu invited Zhao Changhe to slay the Hanchi together in the Extreme Cold Ice Abyss, in memory of old friends.”

“The eighth demon god, Hanchi, annihilated in form and spirit, no longer exists in the world, removed from the list.”

“The cold of the world has no spokesperson henceforth.”