One could only do so much with what one was given.

Xu Xiaoshou felt that he'd met his match. Regardless of how good he was at duping his opponents with words, there was only so much he could do to one who outright refused to talk.

​​

His Sense had a hard time penetrating through the outside of the icy cage that enveloped the two of them, and he figured that the barrier could really isolate any sound made within.

"You are cautious. No wonder you dare to make a move in the Inner Yard."

Xu Xiaoshou was getting ready to strike. After going through Feng Kong and Shao Yi's assassination attempts, he'd erased all fear of the unknown when facing off against those from the Inner Yard, as he'd realized that those people might not actually be as powerful as he thought.

But, they were still definitely anything but ordinary.

Zhao Shu lifted his hand and twirled his fingers about, but he still didn't attack yet.

Xu Xiaoshou thought of employing attrition warfare with Zhao Shu, as the longer he dragged the fight out, the greater his odds of winning, but then he recalled Zhao Qingteng's snowing technique.

"Is this guy lowering the temperature within the barrier?" he thought.

"He's creating his own terrain!"

Xu Xiaoshou shuddered as he came to realize what the other man was doing.

The other man had gone to establish control as soon as he'd made his move, and, after failing, he was still completely at ease and hadn't gotten more extreme with his moves. That combat sense alone made him a lot stronger than most.

"Can't afford to wait."

Xu Xiaoshou narrowed his eyes and shot forward. With his passive skills at work, he threw a good old punch at the other man, without any unnecessary flare.

Zhao Shu actually didn't bother evading his punch, and looked like he was going to take the hit from where he was.

"Works for me, I guess."

Boom!

Xu Xiaoshou's punch landed squarely on Zhao Shu's chest, causing ice shards to explode.

He should have immediately been sent flying, but only his head and the lower half of his body snapped back for a bit before returning to their original position.

Xu Xiaoshou's hand then got stuck.

His fist was glued to the other man's chest.

"Sh**! What the f**k is happening here?" he thought.

He then launched a palm attack with his left stand, stabbing the other man with Sharpness on his hand.

Clang!

Ice shards were sent flying again, and Zhao Shu's chest bent over backward before returning to its original position.

Not a single drop of blood could be seen dripping.

Xu Xiaoshou was completely baffled.

"Are you malt sugar or sticky cards?" He couldn't help but diss the other man. "Why are you so d*mn sticky?"

Zhao Shu flashed a small smile. "Doesn't matter if you're attacking me or not. No one can make a move while under my control."

Xu Xiaoshou was silent for a bit before retorting, "Quit explaining and just admit that you're disgusting."

Zhao Shu was speechless.

Cursed, Passive Points +1.

Boom!

Xu Xiaoshou then launched a knee strike at the other man, thinking he'd caught Zhao Shu off-guard. As expected, his knee stuck.

Ice crept up him from their three points of contact, and a bone-chilling cold spread all over him yet again. He put all of his Infernal Spiritual Source to work, yet he was still unable to force the cold out of his body.

"Gosh, this is disgusting!" He'd had enough. This was the most disgusting fight he'd ever fought.

He was completely under the other man's control and was unable to do anything about it.

He wanted very badly to just launch his other leg at the man, but he knew that doing so would only render him completely stuck, and he'd be like meat on a cutting board.

"How should I go about defusing this..." he thought. His eyes flickered about him.

The corners of Zhao Shu's mouth twitched, as if this wasn't the first time he'd seen such a speechless and despairing expression on the face of his enemy.

He would develop a twisted sense of accomplishment whenever such a scene appeared.

"Can't do anything, can you? Like I said, under my control…"

Swoop!

A black sword shot out of Xu Xiaoshou's chest before Zhao Shu could finish his line, immediately piercing his chest up to the hilt.

Hmph! Zhao Shu's sentence was immediately cut short. His eyes widened, and red appeared as blood spilled from his chest.

"What the…" he thought. "Why the h*ll is a sword flying out of his chest?"

He took a closer look and found that there was a space ring in the chest area.

Cursed, Passive Points +1.

Xu Xiaoshou chuckled gleefully. "Well, well, an active skill, I see… Even being so close, you didn't manage to react in time."

Crackle, crackle.

The black sword at his chest was immediately encased in ice, causing Xu Xiaoshou to lose control of it.

A small piece of frozen blood dropped from Zhao Shu's mouth. He pulled the sword out and threw it to the ground, freezing his wound as he shot Xu Xiaoshou a threatening look.

"I have to admit, you do have some tricks. But what good are they?

"Petty tricks that amount to nothing. You scored one with that ambush. Do you really think you can score another?"

Xu Xiaoshou grinned and said nothing. He opened his mouth, and inside was an extremely condensed fire seed. It was trembling violently and was emanating a terrifying, scorching heat.

Both of them were mere feet away from each other.

Zhao Shu was baffled.

"What the f**k is with this as**ole!?" he thought. "He can actually attack with his mouth!?"

Cursed, Passive Points +1.

There was an extremely compressed bit of energy within that was very terrifying. Zhao Shu wasn't confident that he could take the attack with his head. As such, he immediately severed all contact with Xu Xiaoshou and backed off in an instant.

Ptuih! Xu Xiaoshou sprung away and spitted without any hesitation.

The bit of flame tore a black line in the air as it shot at very high speeds. Zhao Shu only managed to somehow evade the attack after doing a backflip midair.

Yet, nonetheless, the bit of flames grazed his face, burning off quite a bit of his eyebrows, his eyelashes, and even the hair off his nose.

Arrgghhh!

He was struck by intense pain, and a huge block of ice immediately materialized on his face, managing to alleviate the pain somehow.

One shouldn't hit the face when fighting someone, and one shouldn't involve innocents while killing someone.

Such an attack had apparently infuriated him. Zhao Shu looked absolutely terrifying by the time the ice disappeared.

"Xu... Xiao... Shou!"

Called, Passive Points +1.

Xu Xiaoshou was already cuddling up at the very back end, almost sticking his back against the other side of the wall of the Ice Crystal Barrier. He simply lifted his chin a bit, signaling for Zhao Shu to look behind him.

"What?"

Zhao Shu scanned with his will, and his pupils immediately dilated.

Instead of immediately penetrating through his Ice Crystal Barrier, the compressed bit of flame violently exploded after flying to the end and coming into contact with the wall of the barrier.

Booom!

A heatwave swept across the place, and, despite the ice walls being three layers thick, the heat melted them in an instant.

The scorching heat washed all over Zhao Shu as it traveled in Xu Xiaoshou's direction.

All that cold that Zhao Shu had put in place in the air for a long time was swept away, replaced by that terrifying heat.

Xu Xiaoshou was sent ramming into the wall by the air pressure, and he sunk into the layers of ice.

Both of them immediately lost mobility.

"Sh**…"

At that moment, Xu Xiaoshou realized why his compressed flame had alerted the enforcers and made them barricade the library back then. The explosion was indeed somewhat terrifying.

Zhao Shu, who was still in midair, scorched all over by the heat, reached out his hand as far as he could, trying his best to absolutely contain the explosion. There was no way he could carry on with the assassination if the enforcers were alerted.

The Ice Crystal Barrier was actually forcefully stabilized, preventing it from collapsing from the explosion.

Zhao Shu breathed a sigh of relief and discovered that Xu Xiaoshou had dislodged himself from the ice wall and was now squatting down.

Xu Xiaoshou aimed at his target like how one would with a gun.

A compressed fire seed appeared on the tips of his two fingers.

Zhao Shu was speechless.

"What the f**k!" he thought.

"How did you manage to move again so quickly?

"This is f**king unfair!!"

Doubted, Passive Points +1.

Cursed, Passive Points +1.

Xu Xiaoshou was in glee. This guy was too arrogant.

"Even Elder Sang got a taste of my Lesser Fireball, and you dared to look elsewhere?" he thought.

"You actually thought to maintain the icy wall of yours?

"You're about to die, dude!"

Pew!

Let the bullets fly!