Chương 97: Those Who Scheme Against Others Will Be Schemed Against

"He didn't notice... he didn't notice..." Qin Tian's body had begun turning a bluish purple from the extreme cold, his flesh already starting to break down. If he stayed any longer, the damage to his body would be hard to reverse. But Qin Tian... He couldn't care about that anymore. There was only one thought in his mind: kill Su Zhe. The distance between them— Three meters. Two meters. One meter....

Su Zhe grabbed the purest Tempering Water Essence in the Snow Condensation Zone and placed it into his Essence-Storing Bag. Then Su Zhe suddenly turned his head and looked at Qin Tian. Qin Tian's heart lurched. He... He noticed! Qin Tian's face changed drastically. At a depth of fifty-nine meters in the freezing lake, there was almost no light. Everything was dim and murky. But Qin Tian could still see Su Zhe's bright eyes. And in those eyes... It seemed... There was a thick trace of mockery. Mockery?!

Qin Tian understood Su Zhe's gaze, and the nameless fire in his heart shot up even higher.

"That look is absolutely infuriating!"

"Only young masters of the Qin family have ever looked at others like that. Since when has anyone dared look at me that way?!"

"Die for this young master!" Furious, Qin Tian suddenly struck, launching a sneak attack at Su Zhe. Su Zhe saw Qin Tian attacking, but he did not move at all. In the water, Su Zhe simply shook his head slightly, his face full of helplessness. That expression... In Qin Tian's eyes, it was deeply humiliating. It was as if Su Zhe thought Qin Tian was a complete idiot. Splash! Right at that moment, the surrounding water began surging violently. A giant yuan turtle appeared behind Qin Tian like a ghost.

Just its head alone was the size of a carriage. It opened its huge mouth. The freezing currents around them rushed madly into the giant yuan turtle's maw. That enormous mouth was like the Guixu of the Eastern Sea, swallowing seawater without end. Qin Tian had tried to ambush Su Zhe, but how could he get even a little closer? Under the giant yuan turtle's devouring pull, Qin Tian was dragged along by the current, forced to watch helplessly as he moved farther and farther away from Su Zhe.

"How could a demonic beast appear here? No! Impossible!"

"The Tempering Weapon Lake trial... Zhuxin Manor (Heart-Forging Manor) already set up spirit nets in this area..."

"How could a demonic beast in the lake get close?" This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Qin Tian's eyes widened, bloodshot and full of disbelief. But Su Zhe was destined not to give him an answer. Crack! The sound carried clearly through the water. Qin Tian's body was swallowed by the giant yuan turtle and bitten apart. Only his head remained, drifting in the lake.

The water of Tempering Weapon Lake was a spiritual creation born of heaven and earth, so it was quite miraculous. When a person's corpse fell into it, it sank very slowly. However, the body would not absorb a large amount of lake water and float back to the surface. Tempering Weapon Lake was like a huge abyssal mouth, slowly swallowing everything.

"Wu, wu, wu..." The giant yuan turtle approached Su Zhe, lowered its head, and kept rubbing against him. It looked like a dog wagging its tail, clearly trying to please him. Its little expression, eyes narrowed, seemed to be saying— Praise me! Praise me!...

"All right, all right. I know you did great!" Su Zhe did not know whether to laugh or cry. He stroked the giant yuan turtle's head and praised it through their mental link. The giant yuan turtle opened its mouth and spat out two items. Su Zhe held them in his hands and looked them over. [Name: Flame Tiger Sword] [Quality: Fifth-Grade Treasured Weapon] [Description: Forged primarily from the spine of a fifth-grade demonic beast, the Flame Tiger. A fire-element weapon. When internal force is channeled into it, the sword's temperature can be raised.] [Equipment Requirement: Great Perfection in a Qin family martial art.] [Equipment Traits: Bone Talent Stack, Fire Element Talent Stack. Fire Control Ability, Fifth Grade, increases the ability to command flames. Cold Resistance Ability, Fifth Grade, increases resistance to cold.] [Special Acquisition: Qin Tian's Martial Memories.]...

[Name: Water-Repelling Pearl] [Quality: Peak Fifth-Grade Treasured Weapon] [Description: A pearl nurtured inside a hundred-year treasure clam from the Eastern Sea. Holding it allows one to resist cold and repel water. When using water-element martial arts, their power is increased.] [Equipment Requirement: Extremely high water affinity.] [Equipment Traits: Bone Talent Stack, Water-Element Martial Talent Increase, Water-Repelling Movement, Sixth Grade, greatly increases water affinity and grants immunity to cold water.] [Special Acquisition: None.] Information about the two treasures immediately appeared on the Fortune Immortal Cauldron.

"Two treasures for resisting cold or controlling water... Heh. Qin Tian really came well prepared!"

"Too bad. They belong to Su now!"

"This Water-Repelling Pearl is truly extraordinary... Peak Fifth Grade, yet it actually has a Sixth-Grade trait." Su Zhe was secretly amazed. The Flame Tiger Sword required Great Perfection in a Qin family martial art. Su Zhe had not learned one for the time being, so he could not equip it. But the Water-Repelling Pearl could be equipped perfectly. The Water-Repelling Pearl's equipment requirement was extremely high water affinity.

And if they were talking about water affinity, then with Su Zhe's full set of water-element equipment, if he claimed to be second among Fourth Grade warriors, who in the world would dare claim first? Six immortal apertures: Stone Scabies Demon Scale Inner Armor, Fifth Grade; Ghost-Faced Phantom Shark Mask, Peak Fourth Grade; Fire-Refining Furnace, Fifth Grade; Spirit Turtle Treasure Bone Shell, Seventh Grade; Kan Water Fist Gloves, Fifth Grade; Water-Repelling Pearl, Peak Fifth Grade.

Six god-tier pieces, almost all Fifth Grade or above. And every single one helped with this Tempering Weapon Lake trial. After Su Zhe equipped the Water-Repelling Pearl, his Bone Talent rose once again. However, it still had not broken through to the upper-tier "Dragon-Bearing Heavenly Bones." Even so, his water affinity and cold resistance both rose by another huge level.

"With my current strength, diving to fifty-nine meters is already my limit."

"That's also the limit of the Snow Condensation Zone... Qin Tian didn't have the Fortune Immortal Cauldron cheat like I do, but in the end, he was still a peak Fourth Grade warrior. With the Flame Tiger Sword and Water-Repelling Pearl in hand... even if it was a bit forced, he could still stay at the limit of the Snow Condensation Zone for a short time."

"But now that I've equipped the Water-Repelling Pearl, I can try entering the Mysterious Ice Zone!" Su Zhe made up his mind to step into the Mysterious Ice Zone and test it out. The same martial weapon, once in Su Zhe's hands, could be equipped into an immortal aperture of the Fortune Immortal Cauldron, bringing its power to the absolute limit. An ordinary martial artist could only hold or wear the weapon. Naturally, the effect would be far worse.

And although Tempering Weapon Lake's cold was terrifying, it offered enormous benefits to a martial artist's body. That was the meaning of "break before you build." A martial artist's body had to be tempered a thousand times over, just like forging metal, hammered again and again before it could climb to the peak. Su Zhe continued diving... Sixty meters!

"Cold!" Su Zhe immediately felt the chill seep into his bones. It was as if icy currents were rushing through his body, like the breath of ten-thousand-year mysterious ice, freezing him to the core. His limbs gradually stiffened, and his blood seemed to be frosting over. Every inch of his skin felt invaded by the cold, as though he had sunk into an abyss at the end of the world. Everything in his sight looked like an icy prison.

Cold qi overflowed in every direction, and the surroundings seemed to have become a frozen death zone. Tempering Weapon Lake was truly miraculous. Such a level of cold had long surpassed ordinary ice and snow, yet the lake water still did not freeze.

"I can barely hold on for a few breaths... but I can't stay long..." Su Zhe thought to himself. The five streams of internal force in his body transformed into martial fire, doing their utmost to drive away the cold. Breaking through into the Mysterious Ice Zone was already Su Zhe's limit. One had to know, even though the five Manor Lords could dive deeper than Su Zhe, they were most likely still within the Mysterious Ice Zone as well.

However, if Su Zhe wanted to catch Mysterious Ice Water Essence in the Mysterious Ice Zone, that would be nothing but wishful thinking.

"But Su still has a tiny little backup plan!"

"Giant yuan turtle, come out! Capture the Mysterious Ice Water Essence for your master!" Su Zhe laughed inwardly. The Fortune Immortal Cauldron's divine ability activated. The Seventh-Grade Spirit Turtle Treasure Bone Shell radiated light, and the artifact spirit, the giant yuan turtle, leaped out...