Chapter 251: Lock On

Boundless darkness.

A vast glacier, tens of thousands of li wide and of unknown length, slowly flowed in the darkness.

The glacier was entirely a deep azure; translucent mysterious ice within it rubbed and collided, silently sending up great sheets of cold light.

A huge ship drifted forward slowly with the glacier.

The giant ship was thousands of li wide, tens of hundreds of thousands of li long, and entirely forged from deep blue mysterious ice that was chilling to the bone.

The ship's design was filled with exotic flair; on its outer deck, countless sharp, glinting icicles, ice pillars, and ice spikes packed together, making the ship look at first glance like a gigantic porcupine.

Cold Qi filled the ship's interior.

Everywhere was a terrifying cold qi, half‑condensed, half‑flowing.

Trees of green, blue, and purple flowers were frozen in the cold qi, and huge ice blossoms bloomed upon them.

Because of the cold qi, the flowers' fragrance was completely frozen, not a trace of scent drifted; the whole ship felt utterly dead silent, the piercing yin cold controlling everything.

Suddenly, a lively silver light flickered.

A school of thumb‑sized fish darted swiftly in the cold qi; their tails resembled gorgeous veils, layers of thin, transparent silver tails that, with a light flick, shot the fish far forward.

Behind those fish, several palm‑sized, pale‑blue creatures shaped like cats but with two pairs of eyes nimbly ran through the cold qi, emitting a 'chi‑chi' call as they drooled and chased the fish.

Whether the fish school or the tiny beasts, they added only a trace of vitality to the giant ship.

Below the ship, deep in the hold, within the vast cabin space, palaces built of cold ice and mysterious jade stood amidst the endless flower trees; the trees' blossoms flared, almost solidifying into substantive cold qi that enveloped everything.

In the midst of this expansive palace complex, atop a strange ice tower hundreds of li high, a blinding deep‑blue light mass emitted a sun‑like piercing cold radiance.

Wave after wave of immense power surged silently in all directions; the cold qi trembled under the surge, producing a howling roar like a hurricane‑tsunami.

At the center of that deep‑blue, boundless‑power‑emitting light mass could be seen a magnificently splendid suit of armor; behind it stood a weapons rack, on which dozens of cold‑light‑radiating swords, spears, halberds, long bows and heavy hammers were neatly inserted.

Whether armor or weapons, they all exuded terrifying divine might; their forms were exquisitely beautiful, every detail flawless, everywhere covered with mysterious divine patterns.

A deep‑blue great hall suddenly gave a dull shudder, and a pained, wailing cry rang out.

"Save……ah!"

Outside the hall, dozens of deep‑blue suits of armor on all sides lifted their heads simultaneously; within the armor there were no bodies, only a mass of dense deep‑blue cold light.

When the wail sounded, those deep‑blue cold lights simultaneously burst with blinding radiance; from the visors of the helmets and the two empty eye sockets shot forth tens‑of‑meters‑long beams of cold light.

The cold light tore through the cold qi, emitting a terrifying ripping sound.

From within every suit of armor came a low sound laden with doubt.

Inside the hall, various strange ornaments made of cold jade emitted a gloomy cold light; at their center hovered a mass of cold light enclosing a semi‑transparent ice ball, within which a silver‑translucent fluid swayed unsettled, and a stunning figure convulsed violently within.

That figure had a human form with a fish tail, over ninety percent similar to the legendary mermaid, except the tail was more slender, its fins thin and long like blue ribbons, with specks of ice crystals swirling around.

The stunning figure was hazy; she seemed to be half‑flesh, half‑energy, her body neither wholly flesh nor wholly cold light, but a strange existence between the two.

With a horrible scream, the stunning figure, about five meters long, shuddered, pierced the several‑foot‑thick ice ball, and with a 'pa' fell onto the hall's floor, her fish tail thrashing the ground and issuing a muffled 'peng‑peng' boom.

The surrounding cold qi was thrown into chaos by the violent beating of the cold air; within the hall, the various cold‑jade carvings shattered, exploding into countless piercing ice crystals that scattered far away.

She suddenly lifted her head; her facial features were exactly like those of the Xuan Zhu.

But while the Xuan Zhu always emanated an extremely evil aura, her face gave the impression of a flower on the frost‑frozen trees outside—beautiful, clear, pure, holy, untainted by any impurity.

Yet this utterly clear, pure, stunning maiden now had her face twitching, her eyes flashing mad, angry blue divine light, her whole body convulsing, constantly spewing granules of sweat like ice‑crystal pearls from within.

"Who? Who? Who destroyed my Xuan Zhu avatar? Who… tore my true form's soul?" the Xuan Zhu True Form shrieked, suddenly opening her mouth and spewing a deep‑blue blood‑arrow.

Her body being half‑flesh, half‑energy, the blood‑arrow she spewed was likewise; as soon as it left her mouth it exploded into threads of extreme yin cold light that drifted outward.

She shook her head hard; despite her violent aura, she fumbled for the ice‑crystal pendant at her chest, took out a purple, semi‑transparent fruit the size of a human head, and gulped it down quickly.

Threads of pure ice‑crystal divine power surged within her; the Xuan Zhu True Form's aura swiftly steadied, she drew a deep breath, and her body continually emitted strong waves of cold qi.

"Who? So terrifying…" the Xuan Zhu True Form, having steadied her soul's wound, her eyes' blue divine light fluctuating, closed her eyes and with all her focus examined her heavily damaged soul…

"Twenty percent… twenty percent of my soul…" the Xuan Zhu's face twisted, her expression becoming extremely ferocious and fearful.

"What happened over there? No news got back in time; my avatar… what did it encounter? Terrifying, terrifying, truly terrifying power—who… could follow such a faint link, straight to my true form, attack my soul, and tear away twenty percent of its strength?"

"Headache… damn it…"

"Twenty percent of my soul's power…" the Xuan Zhu True Form, wanting to weep but with no tears, lay face down on the ground; large tears turned to ice beads, continually spurting from her eye sockets: "At least ten thousand years of bitter cultivation, ten thousand years of bitter cultivation wasted!"

After weeping for a while, the Xuan Zhu True Form shook her body, rose afloat, flicked her tail, and nimbly slipped out of the hall.

"No matter who it is, find you, kill you…… being able to heavily wound my soul, such an existence is too terrifying, must be erased……" the Xuan Zhu True Form muttered to herself: "Well, I still have one application for a tactical strike deployment permit…… first let me see where my avatar was destroyed……"

The Xuan Zhu True Form swiftly passed through clusters of flower trees, moving with incredible speed along the solidified cold qi; after an hour, she reached the depths of the palace complex tens of thousands of li away from her hall.

An ice‑crystal palace covering a vast area stood on the ground; outside its plaza, dozens of statues a kilo‑meter tall stood in a row.

These statues were all human‑bodied with fish tails; among them were domineering, burly men and lovely, nation‑beautifying women.

They sat on thrones formed of condensed ice crystal, clad head‑to‑toe in splendid ice‑crystal armor like works of art, holding tridents that sprayed cold light, their whole bodies emitting an intense cold radiance too bright to gaze upon.

The Xuan Zhu True Form hovered before those statues, performed a strange, solemn bow, then swiftly swam past them, turning into a cold light that darted into the rear ice‑crystal palace.

Inside the hall, several mer‑men and mer‑women resembling the Xuan Zhu True Form were busy.

From time to time, sheets of ice crystal drifted down from the hall's ceiling, covered densely with twisted script.

They continually took the ice crystals, gave them a brief look, then sorted and placed them on ice platforms in the hall; amidst the flashing cold light, these information‑laden ice crystals were transmitted out, to unknown destinations.

After the Xuan Zhu True Form entered the hall, a young man whose features resembled hers by seventy‑percent lifted his head and greeted her.

"You Jie Ya… my sister… you aren't on vacation, are you? You still have twelve standard great cycles before your holiday ends… are you thinking of coming to help me share some work pressure? I'm glad you have this awareness."

You Jie Ya gave a cold smile: "You Chang, help me contact those crystal brains; I need their Heaven‑Scanning Mirror to lock onto the exact coordinates of the demise of one of my avatars, then I will apply to use my remaining tactical strike deployment permit……"

She paused, then said coldly: "Furthermore… I will expend all my accumulated merit points to apply for the Heaven‑Scanning Mirror to record the entire process of the tactical strike…… I think I might achieve a great merit."

Inside the hall, several men and women simultaneously lifted their heads to glance at You Jie Ya.

You Jie Ya's older brother You Chang…… thinking of You Jie Ya's mount named Cang You, one can imagine how their sibling feelings are.

You Chang gave You Jie Ya a deep look, spread his hands, and sighed: "It seems I overestimated my standing in your heart; I originally thought that if you came to help me I could slack off…… I've already gone three standard great cycles without rest, I'm tired."

Shaking his head, You Chang seized a piece of ice‑crystal‑formed odd token and lightly swayed it toward the floating ice mirror within the hall.

Inside the ice mirror, cold qi roiled; soon the ice mirror flared bright, and a figure entirely formed of five-colored crystal appeared within it, its whole body emitting dazzling crystal light. A sharp, ringing voice, like crystal shattering on impact, rang out.

You Jieya and the others furrowed their brows simultaneously.

The sound frequency of these crystal beings is excessively high; for the special life forms of You Jieya's race, they naturally possess tremendous shock‑attack power. Merely hearing their voice makes their whole body feel ill.

Therefore, the relationship between the two races has never been good.

Even though we are now allies, the relationship between the two races remains bad.

"You Cang… I'm glad you came to me of your own accord… oh, what matter do you require the great Heaven Crystal Divine Clan to attend to?" The crystal‑light figure laughed arrogantly: "I still remember our argument a hundred and twenty standard great cycles ago—whether you admit it or not, there is no doubt that in primeval history, your Ice Spirit Divine Clan were once slaves of our Heaven Crystal Divine Clan."

"Shut up!" You Cang roared.

The entire giant ship and the whole glacier trembled at You Cang's roar.

Several powerful soul undulations swept swiftly across the glacier, then all converged together in this Ice Crystal Hall.

The crystal‑light figure in the ice mirror chuckled a few times, feeling these terrifying soul undulations; he dared not speak rashly, but spoke solemnly: "Then, let's handle this officially—what matter requires our intervention?"

"Cang You… oh, no, it's You Cang"—he let out a heavy sigh.

You Jieya stepped forward, stood before the ice mirror, and stated her request.

"Oh, oh… is that so? Let me check—yes, You Jieya, you still have the right to launch one tactical strike; well, well, I'll order the exact coordinates of your destroyed avatar to be locked."

The crystal‑light figure murmured: "However, you must understand one thing: a few standard great cycles ago we encountered some minor problems—the Heaven‑Scanning Mirror was knocked over by a few idiots. Although it has now been rebuilt, we are still carefully adjusting the exact spatial‑vibration matching values."

Spreading his hands, the crystal‑light figure said in a low voice: "The specific tactical strike deployment, as well as the spatial‑positioning coordinates, may not be perfectly standard… perhaps they could be off by tens of thousands of miles."

You Cang, You Jieya, and the several men and women inside the Ice Crystal Hall all smirked.

Those several powerful soul undulations also left the Ice Crystal Hall.

A man and woman assigned to guard the Heaven‑Scanning Mirror for the Heaven Crystal Divine Clan were having an affair in the hall where the mirror was kept; the woman's fiancé suddenly returned and struck down deadly, accidentally smashing the Heaven‑Scanning Mirror.

This incident had long been known.

You Jieya said angrily: "If it's because of you that my requested tactical strike fails…"

The crystal‑light figure replied calmly: "Then I'll deduct the merit points needed for the full record of your this‑time application for the Heaven‑Scanning Mirror, and my clan will cover the cost. You Jieya, are you satisfied?"

You Jieya pursed her lips and smiled. "Very well, that's settled."

The crystal‑light figure rapidly issued a long string of commands at extremely high frequency and speed.

After a moment, the crystal‑light figure waved his hand, and a stream of seven‑coloured crystal light surged from the ice mirror, quickly tracing out a large ring of light.

"You Jieya, the coordinates of your destroyed avatar have been locked."

"Well, it's in the deep‑layer region… oh, oh, you're really unlucky—according to our observations over many standard great cycles, that area isn't a high‑risk zone, yet your avatar was destroyed there… you really are unlucky."

The crystal‑light figure laughed loudly.

You Jieya had already focused her gaze on the scene appearing within the light ring.