The ice pressed against me from every direction. Cold, crushing, suffocating.

I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe properly. Hell, I could barely think as the freezing water surrounding me seemed to slow even my thoughts to a crawl.

This was bad. Really, really bad.

Ming Yue walked toward me through the crystalline prison she'd created, her body phasing through the solid ice like it was nothing more than warm air.

"Master," Azure said quietly in my mind, "your spiritual essence is dropping rapidly. The cold is forcing your body to burn energy just to stay alive."

No kidding. I'd thought fighting underwater was bad enough: every movement felt sluggish, every attack met with resistance from the water around us. My techniques that relied on speed and precision had been reduced to clumsy, predictable motions. Even my Phantom Strike, normally fast enough to surprise opponents when used with Blink Step, had felt like I was moving through thick syrup.

But this? This was infinitely worse.

Being completely encased in ice meant I literally couldn't move. Not my arms, not my legs, not even my fingers. And meanwhile, my opponent glided through her frozen domain like she owned it. Which, I supposed, she did.

This was exactly why I was always paranoid about battles. It didn't matter if my cultivation realm was higher. It didn't matter if I had all these strange techniques that other people couldn't replicate. There were so many factors that determined the winner of a fight, and environment was one of the biggest. I was learning that lesson with painful, first-hand experience right now.

Ming Yue stopped just outside my frozen prison, her silver-highlighted hair floated around her face like she was still underwater, and when she spoke, frost formed with each word.

"You should surrender before I'm forced to do something we'll both regret," she said, her voice carrying clearly through the ice.

I tried to respond, tried to tell her the fight wasn't over yet, but the ice had locked my jaw shut. All I could do was glare at her through the crystalline prison.

She sighed, the sound carrying a note of genuine regret. "I suppose you can't even speak now, and the portal hasn't appeared, so this battle has yet to end. Very well. I'll make this quick and decisive."

Ice began forming around her hands, sharpening into deadly spears that gleamed with lethal intent. She raised them toward my chest, clearly planning to end this in one clean strike.

But I wasn't going to give up. Not yet.

I still had a plan.

The Shockwave Rune on my left palm flared to life as I poured red sun energy into it. Not just the normal amount, but sixty percent of everything I had. The energy coursed through my frozen meridians like liquid fire, and for a moment, the burning sensation was almost as bad as the cold.

The shockwave erupted outward in all directions, not just breaking the ice but obliterating it. Chunks of crystalline water exploded away from my position as the frozen prison returned to its liquid state in a violent burst of pressure and heat.

I gasped as the frigid water rushed in to fill the space where my prison had been, my lungs finally getting the oxygen they desperately needed. The sudden return of mobility sent pins and needles shooting through my limbs, but I forced myself to move anyway.

Before Ming Yue could react to my escape, I was already reaching for the Explosive Seed rune on my right index finger. Instead of creating just one or two seeds, I manifested a dozen, scattering them in a wide arc around my position as I channeled red sun energy into each one.

"Impossible," Ming Yue breathed, her eyes wide with shock. "How did you—"

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The seeds detonated in sequence, each explosion creating a sphere of superheated water that flash-melted the surrounding ice. In seconds, I'd carved out a pocket of liquid water in her frozen domain, giving myself some room to maneuver.

But Ming Yue wasn't about to let me turn this around so easily.

She gestured sharply, and the ice around us began to move. Massive spears of crystalline death shot toward me from every direction, each one sharp enough to punch through armor. At the same time, walls of ice rose up to cut off my escape routes.

I reached out with my spiritual sense, searching for any plant life that might have been freed by my explosive breakout. There—seaweed that had been trapped in the ice was now floating free, along with several species of kelp and some kind of underwater flowering plant I didn't recognize.

The vegetation responded to my call, rising up to meet Ming Yue's ice spears. Thick strands of kelp wrapped around the projectiles, while the tougher seaweed formed a defensive screen. The collision sent shockwaves through the water as ice and plant matter clashed in a bizarre underwater battle.

"Clever," Ming Yue admitted, her cold personality apparently finding my resourcefulness worthy of comment. "But you're still fighting in my element."

She was right, and we both knew it. Even with some mobility restored, I was still at a disadvantage. Every movement felt sluggish, every technique diminished by the aquatic environment. Meanwhile, she was in her natural habitat.

That's when something grabbed my left ankle.

The grip was like a vise, cold and unyielding. Before I could react, whatever had caught me yanked hard, sending me tumbling through the water. I hit a wall of ice with enough force to rattle my teeth, the impact driving the air from my lungs in a burst of bubbles.

I rolled away from the wall, gathering my bearings while scanning for threats. That's when I saw it – a massive hand made entirely of ice, its fingers still flexed from where it had grabbed me. Ming Yue was controlling it from a distance, her cold smile visible even through the water.

"Impressive," I admitted inwardly, rubbing my bruised shoulder. "Her manipulation range is way larger than I estimated."

"Master," Azure observed, "she's not just controlling ice in her immediate vicinity. She's treating the entire frozen ocean as an extension of her cultivation base."

That was terrifying. I'd need to watch for attacks from every direction, not just from Ming Yue herself. Fighting someone who could weaponize the entire battlefield was like trying to duel inside their inner world.

Actually, that's exactly what this was. Ming Yue had somehow managed to project what amounted to a Domain - a technique that shouldn't be possible until the Stellar Realm, which meant despite being a minor realm above her at Pseudo-Elemental, I was the one who was at a huge disadvantage when it came to pure power.

"You're beginning to understand," Ming Yue called out, her voice echoing strangely through the water. "This entire realm belongs to me now. Every molecule is under my command. Surrender, before I'm forced to crush you completely."

I didn't bother replying.

What was it with cultivators and their inability to resist trash talking? Acting like the outcome was already set in stone just because they had a temporary advantage. I'd seen enough supposedly unwinnable situations to know that fights weren't over until someone was unconscious or dead.

Instead of responding to her taunts, I activated Blink Step.

The world folded around me as I teleported behind her, the rune on my thigh flaring.

My Phantom Strike was already in motion before I'd fully materialized, aimed directly at the center of her back. If it connected, even her cold personality wouldn't be able to shrug off the damage.

But Ming Yue had likely seen this combination before on the recordings of the Fallen Realm battles. Without even turning around, she thrust her hand backward, and a shield of crystalline ice erupted between us just as my palm strike connected.

The collision sent shockwaves through the water as enhanced physical force met perfectly formed ice.

My technique shattered her shield, but the ice absorbed enough of the impact that she was able to twist away from the worst of it. Instead of a devastating blow to her spine, my strike glanced off her shoulder, spinning her around but not seriously injuring her.

She countered immediately, her own palm strike wreathed in that bone-deep cold that seemed to freeze the water around it. I barely managed to lean back far enough to avoid having my face frozen solid.

But I didn't mind the exchange. This was all part of my plan.

While she was focused on our close-quarters combat, she didn't notice the subtle movement beneath my robes.

The Scorpion Rune had been dormant for so long, hidden away and waiting for the perfect moment to catch someone unaware.

Now, as Ming Yue prepared another ice technique, the hybrid plant-animal tail burst from its concealment and struck with lightning speed toward her chest,

But Ming Yue's reflexes were sharp.

She twisted at the last second, trying to avoid the attack entirely.

Almost.

The stinger caught her in the abdomen instead, punching through her robes and flesh before she could complete her dodge. Blood bloomed in the water around the wound, turning it a pale pink as the neurotoxin coating began doing its work.

Ming Yue's eyes went wide with shock and pain. She retaliated instantly, ice swirling around her in a furious vortex.

A massive fist materialized above me, easily the size of a small building.

My eyes widened as I watched the colossal construct descend toward my position with terrifying speed, the water around it freezing solid from the sheer cold it radiated.

If that thing landed, there wouldn't be anything left of me to scrape off the ocean floor.

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