"Cross the river! Quickly!"
Jiang Lin was the first to plunge into the river, the warm water providing a momentary mental refresh.
At the same time, he used the sensory enhancement from 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】 to monitor the conditions within the water.
The others followed closely behind. Despite his severe injuries, Shield Warrior Two summoned his final reserves of strength driven by survival instinct, dragging the Old Scholar through the water.
Jiang Lin did not rush forward. He stood in the river, unleashing three consecutive strikes of eight-colored sword qi to slightly stall the pursuers.
Only after everyone else had reached the river did he begin moving toward the opposite bank behind them.
The pack of molten lizards chased them to the riverbank but stopped.
They growled at the water in disgust, tentatively extending their claws into it before quickly retracting them.
Clearly, this warm but still "cold" environment for them made them feel uncomfortable.
The Molten Lizard King stood on the bank, its dark red eyes fixed on the crossing group, yet it did not enter the water to give chase.
"They are afraid of the water! Move fast!" the Old Scholar shouted with joy.
The group felt a slight sense of relief and accelerated their pace.
However...
Just as the team reached the center of the river, still over ten meters from the opposite bank, a sudden change occurred.
"Splash... splash..."
Unnatural ripples began to surface on the water.
What started as subtle fluctuations quickly turned into whirlpools, with milky-white sprays of water churning up from the bottom.
Then, one, two, three... a total of seven pale figures slowly "floated" up from the river.
They had humanoid silhouettes, their bodies composed entirely of translucent ice with deep blue light flowing inside, and their hollow eye sockets were like abysses.
Frost ghosts.
And seven of them appeared all at once.
"No... it's impossible..." the Old Scholar's voice trembled, and he nearly collapsed in Shield Warrior Two's arms.
"Frost ghosts... are solitary monsters... how can they appear in a pack..."
The veins on Frostblade's hand bulged as he gripped his blade. "Another anomaly... this place has gone completely insane!"
Seven frost ghosts, each possessing the combat power of a 4th-rank elite, specialized in soul attacks, and most of the group could hardly break their defenses.
With wolves in front and tigers behind—the molten lizards were eyeing them from the bank, and seven frost ghosts were surrounding them in the river.
A desperate situation. A truly desperate situation.
However, Jiang Lin remained calm, continuing his rapid dash toward the shore without looking back.
Because just as he sensed the fluctuations of the frost ghosts in the water, a piece of information had suddenly appeared in his mind for some reason.
That was, a frost ghost would first lock onto the soul of the living being closest to it until that being died or moved out of its sensory range. It would not attack two targets simultaneously unless actively provoked.
Therefore, he had not rushed to cross the river earlier but had instead let the seven others go ahead of him.
Jiang Lin speculated that the source of this information was the memory fragments carried within the mysterious crystal inside his body.
Just like the images that had flashed in his mind before.
Coincidentally, there were exactly seven frost ghosts in the river, and there were eight survivors in the team.
Thus, during the crossing, the auras of the other seven had been locked onto by the approaching frost ghosts.
The hollow eye sockets of the seven frost ghosts turned in unison, locking onto those seven people.
Because there were enough people, the hatred was not concentrated on a single individual.
"Watch out!!"
Seven deep blue rays erupted silently, their speed exceeding visual afterimages as they accurately struck the foreheads of the seven people!
"Argh—!"
The screams were short and shrill.
Frostblade only had time to hold his short sword in front of him before the blade was instantly covered in thick ice. He froze in place, his skin turning blue and purple at a visible rate.
Red Flame's twin blades fell from her hands, her lithe body falling backward as the light in her eyes quickly faded.
Shield Warrior Two roared and raised his tower shield, but the deep blue ray actually penetrated the shield's surface and sank into his forehead.
The magic compass in the Old Scholar's hand shattered, and the eyes behind his crystal lenses were quickly covered in white frost.
The archer, the assassin, and the other team member did not even have time to react before falling straight back into the river, splashing into the milky-white waves.
The seven of them were turned into seven ice statues almost in an instant.
A surge of cold air erupted over the river, and the milky-white water quickly froze around the seven people, forming seven eerie ice coffins.
As of now, the entire escort team, except for Jiang Lin, was dead!
At the same moment the seven frost ghosts surfaced, Jiang Lin was already operating 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】 at full power.
His figure was like a streak of pale gold light, skimming across the river toward the opposite bank. Before the frost ghosts could launch their first round of attacks, he had already stepped onto solid ground!
The moisture on his pant legs was instantly dried by his magic essence, and he sprinted toward the frost giant ruins hall they had come from without looking back.
Behind him, the sounds of splashing water and cracking ice intertwined as the seven pale figures fully emerged from the river, their hollow eye sockets turning in unison toward Jiang Lin's direction.
Having consumed the souls of the seven team members, they now set their sights on the fleeing Jiang Lin.
Of course, it wasn't that they didn't want to eat the souls of the molten lizards on the other side.
It was just that there was an elite 5th-rank Molten Lizard King over there, whose attribute was the exact opposite of theirs. The risk of fighting was too high, so it was better to choose easier prey.
The chill followed him like a shadow.
Even with the constant-temperature protective suit as insulation, Jiang Lin could still feel a bone-piercing cold rapidly approaching.
The frost ghosts floated in the air, gliding as if on ice, moving incredibly fast and ignoring terrain obstacles.
He did not dare to stop for a second, pushing 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】 to its limit, pulling out a series of afterimages in the narrow tunnel.
Ahead was the circular hall they had passed through earlier.
The moment Jiang Lin rushed into the hall, his gaze quickly swept the surroundings.
In the center was the mummified corpse named "Valki", and there were three exits in total.
The eastern tunnel was deep and dim, which was exactly the "East Gallery" warned about in the notes.
The western tunnel was relatively level, which was the path he had just come from.
As for the other one, it was the entrance they had used to enter.
"East Gallery..."
The warning from the notes flashed through Jiang Lin's mind: "Do not go to the East Gallery..."
But at this moment, the seven frost ghosts behind him had already caught up, their deep blue light casting a deathly pale glow on the stone doors.
Without hesitation, he turned and rushed toward the eastern tunnel!
During the previous battle, he had already realized something.
His combat power roughly corresponded to a 4th-rank commander-tier monster.
Facing one or two frost ghosts was fine, but facing seven at once, their soul-targeted attacks would be troublesome even for him.
Therefore, what he needed to do now was break the "one-versus-seven" into seven "one-versus-one" fights.
"Whoosh!"
The moment Jiang Lin's figure vanished into the darkness of the East Gallery, the first frost ghost glided into the hall. A deep blue ray grazed his back and hit the ice wall at the tunnel entrance, exploding into a cloud of ice crystals.
Then came the second, the third...
The seven frost ghosts, like soul-reaping spirits, swarmed into the East Gallery.
The East Gallery was more winding and complex than imagined.
The tunnel was only wide enough for two people to walk side by side, with both ice walls covered in jagged ice spikes and hollows, and the ground was an uneven layer of ice covered in thin frost.
In the darkness, only the deep blue light emitted by the frost ghosts dimly illuminated the path ahead, but it also made their movements even more eerie and unpredictable.
Jiang Lin pushed his perception to the limit.
【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】 not only granted him extraordinary speed but also allowed his perception to spread out like a spider web.
Every crack in the ice walls, every rise in the ground, and every fluctuation in the aura of the frost ghosts behind him were clearly presented in his mind.
The first corner was ten meters ahead.
Jiang Lin tapped his toes on the ice, his body sliding sideways like a nimble cat, precisely turning into the right fork.
Almost simultaneously, the closest frost ghost followed the turn, but the narrow corner forced it to put some distance between itself and the companions behind it.
"Now!"
Jiang Lin suddenly halted his steps, turned around, and held his right hand out.
The eight-colored longsword manifested in an instant, its brilliance restrained, with only a tiny cold glint flickering at the tip.
He revealed his trump card immediately!
【Eight Extremities Holy Sword】!
A dazzling sword light appeared in the corridor. With holy light compressed to the extreme, a basic slash fused with eight-colored sword qi transformed into a condensed, silk-like sword light, piercing directly toward the frost ghost's "heart"!
The frost ghost seemingly did not expect the prey's sudden counterattack. While its deep blue ray was still condensing, the sword light had already arrived.
"Chii!"
The sword light accurately struck the deep blue light core in the center of the frost ghost's body.
"Crack..."
The frost ghost's translucent body shook violently, the deep blue light flickering unsteadily as web-like cracks rapidly appeared on its surface.
It tried to let out a silent shriek, but the cracks had already spread across its entire body, finally exploding with a "bang" into countless ice crystal fragments.
A wisp of deep blue light silk drifted out from the fragments and merged into Jiang Lin's chest.
The crystal in his dantian shook slightly, growing a bit stronger once again.
But Jiang Lin had no time to savor it.
The second frost ghost had already rounded the corner, a deep blue ray firing straight at him!
He dodged to the side, successfully predicting the ray's trajectory through 【Chronowalker's Evil Eye】 and 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】.
The ray grazed his shoulder, and a patch of white frost instantly condensed on the surface of his constant-temperature protective suit.
Jiang Lin exerted force with his feet, his figure moving like lightning as he actively charged toward the second frost ghost!
The frost ghost raised its arms, and a deep blue ice shield condensed in front of it.
However, Jiang Lin suddenly changed direction mid-sprint, leaping off the left ice wall and flipping over the frost ghost's head, while simultaneously delivering a backhand slash toward its neck.
"Clang!"
The blade collided with the icy body, sending a shower of ice chips flying.
This strike was not fatal, but it completely drew the frost ghost's attention.
After landing, Jiang Lin did not linger and continued sprinting deeper into the tunnel.
The terrain of the East Gallery was as complex as a maze.
Every twenty or thirty meters, a fork or a corner would appear, sometimes requiring him to climb over ice slopes or crawl through low ice caves.
Jiang Lin made full use of the terrain, ensuring only one frost ghost caught up with him at a time, using that brief "one-on-one" window to launch a thunderous strike.
The second frost ghost was lured into losing its balance at the top of an ice slope and was shattered by a follow-up strike when it rolled to the bottom.
The third frost ghost's movement slowed while crawling through a low ice cave, and it was pierced by the sword light Jiang Lin had set up at the exit.
The fourth, the fifth...
The battles grew more difficult with each encounter.
The frost ghosts were not without intelligence. After their kin were continuously destroyed, the remaining ones began to grow more cautious, even attempting to flank and surround him.
But Jiang Lin's utilization of the terrain had reached a superlative level.
He would feign entering a dead end, only to use 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】 to bounce off the ice walls and counterattack as the frost ghosts approached.
He would intentionally create noise to lure the frost ghosts into dispersing, then pick them off one by one.
The ice-blue crystal in his dantian, after continuously absorbing the essence of six frost ghosts, had grown from the size of a soybean to that of a walnut, and the deep blue light flowing inside became increasingly solid.
Jiang Lin could clearly feel his control over the ice element steadily improving. Even when he swung his sword, the sword light would spontaneously carry a wisp of freezing aura, significantly increasing its lethality against the frost ghosts.
Finally, only one frost ghost remained.
This was a slightly larger individual with even deeper blue light.
It stood in the center of a crossroads, its hollow eye sockets staring fixedly at Jiang Lin. Its arms slowly spread open, and the surrounding temperature plummeted to the point where even the ice walls began to emit faint cracking sounds.
Jiang Lin panted slightly. The continuous high-intensity combat had significantly consumed his physical strength and magic essence.
But his gaze remained calm, his golden eyes reflecting the frost ghost's deep blue silhouette.
The last one.
The frost ghost launched the first attack.
It did not fire a deep blue ray but instead slammed its arms together. The deep blue light around it spread out like a tide, and everywhere it passed, the ice walls, the ground, and even the moisture in the air instantly froze into thick, blue-glowing ice!
Area freeze!
Jiang Lin's pupils contracted. Pushing 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】 to its limit, he retreated rapidly.
But the speed at which the ice layer spread was beyond imagination. As soon as his boot touched the ground, it was firmly stuck by a layer of hard ice.
"Hmph!"
Jiang Lin let out a low shout as the holy light within him erupted. The eight-colored longsword's brilliance intensified as he shattered the ice beneath his feet with a single strike. Simultaneously, he used the force to leap upward, tapping his toes against the ice wall several times to escape the freezing zone like a dragonfly skimming water.
The frost ghost seemed to have predicted his movement. The moment he landed, three deep blue rays in a triangular formation sealed off all possible dodge angles!
Nowhere to run.
Jiang Lin's gaze turned sharp, and he no longer held back.
The ice-blue crystal in his dantian vibrated violently, and an unprecedented surge of freezing aura flooded into the blade, completely merging with the eight-colored sword qi and holy light.
The blade's brilliance shifted from eight colors to a profound, shimmering mixture of deep blue and white-gold. The surrounding air seemed to have all its heat sucked out, and even time felt viscous.
【Eight Extremities Holy Sword · Ice Flower】!
This was a variation Jiang Lin had instinctively comprehended after continuously absorbing the essence of the frost ghosts.
Integrating the ice soul power into the holy sword, he unleashed a strike that could freeze all things.
"Slash!"
The sword light left his hand silently, yet it felt as if even light itself was being frozen.
Everywhere it passed, a pale ice trail was left in space.
The frost ghost tried to condense an ice shield to block it, but this time, the moment the ice shield made contact with the sword light, it shattered completely like fragile glass.
The sword light pierced through the frost ghost's body without any resistance, exiting through its back.
The frost ghost froze in place, its deep blue light dimming rapidly as countless fine cracks appeared on its surface.
The cracks spread quickly, and finally, with a "clatter," the entire body collapsed into a pile of ice crystal dust.
The final wisp of deep blue light silk drifted into Jiang Lin's chest.
The ice-blue crystal in his dantian grew once more, now the size of an egg, with the light inside flowing like liquid, forming a delicate balance with Jiang Lin's own holy light magic essence.
Seven 4th-rank frost ghosts—annihilated!!
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