Chapter 23: The Power of Extreme Cold

Shi Qi was instantly frozen into an ice sculpture.

Su Xiaomu panicked. She hurriedly reached out, trying to take the ice lotus from Shi Qi’s hand.

No matter how she tugged, she couldn’t pull it free—the lotus was frozen fast to Shi Qi’s hand.

“What… what should I do?” Su Xiaomu knocked on the frozen Shi Qi, helpless.

Meanwhile, inside Shi Qi’s body, the extreme cold true energy pouring from the ice lotus relentlessly occupied her meridians. Shi Qi felt her meridians were slowly freezing, her body unable to move, numbness spreading from her hands to her feet.

She frantically directed her demon core, unleashing true energy to resist the cold force, but the extreme cold devoured her energy as if it were food—its advance only quickened, not slowed.

Within moments, all Shi Qi’s meridians were frozen by the extreme cold; her true energy ceased to flow, leaving only the orange demon core in her dantian, slowly spinning.

“Is this the end?” Shi Qi gave a bitter laugh. “How ridiculous—falling not on the battlefield, but to a lotus flower.”

Just as she was about to lose consciousness, Su Xiaomu suddenly noticed a faint blue glow shining from Shi Qi’s back.

Before she could take a closer look, there was a sharp crack. The ice on Shi Qi’s back shattered, and a pair of enormous wings burst forth, their blue feathers clear and bright as crystal.

“What is…?” Su Xiaomu stared in astonishment, murmuring, “Big brother… is a demon too?”

At the moment when the demon core was about to be overwhelmed by the cold, Shi Qi felt a chill on her back. Even as her body was being devoured by the extreme cold, she could sense a deeper chill. Something was emerging from her back.

Suddenly, the cold force surged toward her wings. The frozen meridians began to recover; Shi Qi gently guided true energy through her rejuvenated channels, her pallor fading to a healthy flush, the ice on her skin melting away.

She flexed her fingers, feeling her body restored.

The ice lotus still radiated extreme cold, but all its energy was absorbed by the wings on Shi Qi’s back.

After a quarter hour, the lotus seemed to expend its power and dissolved into the lake.

Shi Qi sat on the ground, quietly observing the changes within herself.

First, the sky-blue wings on her back had grown larger than before, spanning over three meters when fully spread, their color more vibrant.

Next, she felt her meridians thicken and strengthen—a sensation she’d last encountered when breaking through to a new realm.

The orange demon core in her dantian remained unchanged, but its hue was much brighter.

“Hm?” Shi Qi sensed something. She opened her eyes, forming claws with her hands before her.

On her left palm, true energy gathered, drawing water from the lake to form a swirling vortex—her water true energy.

Her right hand gathered true energy as well, forming another vortex, but with a flick of her mind, it transformed instantly into a ball of ice.

“Is this…?” Shi Qi gazed at the ice ball in her right hand, pondering, “Is this the power of extreme cold?”

“Could it be that I absorbed the ice lotus’s power and transformed it into my own?”

This change delighted Shi Qi. Her water true energy was abundant, but it lacked offensive strength—she could always defend, rarely attack. But with extreme cold, water could become ice; ice techniques were exceedingly rare on the Twelve Continents, mastered only by wandering cultivators in the far northern lands, and even then only within those frigid territories. Outside, deprived of the ice element, their techniques became difficult to use.

Shi Qi was different. She had absorbed the lotus’s power and could wield extreme cold at will, perfectly remedying the water element’s weakness in attack.

She closed her eyes, savoring the transformation brought by the cold force.

Elsewhere, Su Xiaomu, seeing Shi Qi restored, felt at ease and chased after schools of fish swimming at the lake’s bottom, happily playing.

Shi Qi considered her current techniques, her mind running through tactical possibilities:

Artifacts: Azure Cloud Umbrella, Jade Ruyi

True Energy: Water True Energy, Extreme Cold Force

Techniques:
- Command Character: Water Curtain—summons a curtain of water to defend against attacks
- Prison Formation: Encloses self in a water sphere for defense
- Water Healing: Uses water to heal injuries
- Bind Character: Water Tornado—summons a tornado to entangle the enemy

She could also use Prison Formation to enclose the enemy in a water sphere, restricting their movements.

Attack Character:
- Water Spirit Pellet: Compresses true energy into a drop of water and shoots it with great force
- Water Spirit Scatter Pellet: Compresses true energy into five drops for rapid fire, to hinder the enemy
- Water Clone: Creates two water clones to confuse opponents; clones cannot attack and dissipate when struck

Other simple water techniques

With Shi Qi’s current cultivation, she could barely achieve these water manipulation skills. As her realm advanced, her control would grow, a benefit of the Extreme Five Elements Physique. Ordinary cultivators could train in Five Element techniques but lacked true mastery; at low levels, they could only cast simple spells like fireballs, water balls, wind blades. At higher realms, they could conjure fire dragons, waterfalls, tornadoes, or advanced techniques.

But the Extreme Five Elements Physique allowed one to command elemental power. As Shi Qi’s strength increased, she would wield water freely, endlessly varied.

Now, Shi Qi had gained the power of extreme cold.

She experimented mentally: she could turn water into ice, shape ice into blades, swords, spears, and shields, greatly enhancing her close-combat capabilities.

All her existing water techniques could now be imbued with the property of extreme cold.

Techniques:
- Command Character: Ice Wall—summons an ice wall to block attacks
- Prison Formation (Ice): Encloses self in an ice sphere for defense
- Bind Character: Water Tornado (Ice)—summons a water tornado to entangle the enemy, then freezes it to bind them
- Prison Formation (Ice): Encloses the enemy in an ice sphere, restricting movement
- Attack Character: Ice Armament—forms weapons and armor of ice, including ice arrows for ranged attacks

Shi Qi tried to use Water Spirit Pellet, but when she compressed true energy into a water droplet and tried to infuse it with extreme cold to create an ice pellet, the drop exploded, spilling the energy—her current cultivation and control weren’t sufficient yet.

As for the wings on her back, aside from their beauty, they served no purpose for now. Shi Qi had tried to control them, but it was like she’d lost sensation—there was no response, not even flight. She guessed her cultivation was not yet enough, and as for what kind of demon bloodline she possessed, she had no idea.