Chapter 137: Emperor’s Palm vs. Dragon God’s Claw

Wang Rui reacted with remarkable speed, while Xue Di's current condition was far from optimistic—within just a few fleeting moments, she had already suffered severe injuries at the hands of Di Tian in the very domain she prided herself on.

Sensing Ice Empress's situation, Snow Empress originally had no intention of engaging in a prolonged battle with Di Tian.

But how could someone as keen as Di Tian not notice her true intentions? The moment she activated Emperor's Frost Heaven, he immediately discerned her actual plan—to seize the Emperor Auspicious Beast as leverage against him.

After all, as an elemental being, an Ice Sky Snow Woman differed from ordinary soul beasts. Within her heart, there was no reverence for the Auspicious Beast whatsoever.

A bloodthirsty gleam flickered through Di Tian's golden dragon pupils.

It was often said that dragons had their reverse scale—touch it, and one would surely die. The Emperor Auspicious Beast's existence was of paramount importance to all soul beasts. By targeting it, Snow Empress had completely enraged the Beast God of the Star Dou Forest.

Even though Di Tian was well aware of the enigmatic power the Emperor Auspicious Beast wielded over destiny—where, should it refuse to die, no one could kill it—he still unleashed his most powerful killing move without hesitation.

The moment Snow Empress's domain spread out, Di Tian's eyes gleamed. The golden irises unique to dragons transformed into a blazing white before shifting into a dazzling nine-colored radiance, swirling ceaselessly around his abyss-like vertical pupils.

Nine-colored light rose from his right fingertips, almost instantly enveloping his entire arm. In the next second, that human arm reverted to its true, ferocious form.

Unlike the widely known "nine colors" that symbolized auspiciousness, the nine-colored light now emanating from Di Tian's claw twisted in a dizzying, chaotic pattern. Those dazzling yet disordered hues represented the authority once possessed by the Dragon God at its peak.

Chaos and disorder—these were the dominant themes of the ancient era.

Dragon God's Claw—a supreme technique personally imparted by the Dragon God to the Black Dragon Clan—contained a trace of the Dragon God's own divine essence. Not even the Silver Dragon King recovering at the bottom of the Lake of Life, nor the Golden Dragon King trapped in the Divine Realm, could use this move now.

In ancient times, the Dragon God was the undisputed ruler of all beasts. At the height of its power, it did not command just the narrow definition of "soul beasts" but instead ruled over all creatures with fur, feathers, or scales—any being that had gained wisdom yet was not human. These were all under the Dragon God's dominion.

However, in the end, the Dragon God still fell.

Yet even now, after countless years when the world had forgotten the Dragon God, its lingering might within the Dragon God's Claw remained capable of suppressing all non-human entities. Once the Dragon God's Claw was unleashed, no soul beast—unless similarly blessed by a deity—could resist it. Any struck by it would face utter annihilation of both body and soul.

Di Tian was no longer holding back—this strike was meant to kill Snow Empress outright.

The Dragon God's Claw met the Emperor's Palm directly, yet there was no deafening explosion—only a muffled impact that dissipated within the Emperor's Frost Heaven domain.

The snowflakes swirling like razor-sharp blades abruptly froze mid-air, before suddenly churning like boiling water. A faint, suppressed groan of pain escaped Xue Di's lips.

Her once pristine white humanoid body now bore a grievous wound—her entire arm, shoulder, and even a portion of her torso had shattered under the might of the Dragon God's Claw.

However, as a pure elemental being, Snow Empress's body was composed of the purest ice elements, devoid of the conventional concept of "flesh and blood."

Her delicate, slender arm disintegrated into countless crystalline shards, refracting the distorted nine-colored light like fragments of a shattered mirror.

Like porcelain smashed upon the ground, like splintered ice… If not for the grim circumstances, it might even have held a tragic beauty.

Yet she did not perish.

With half her body destroyed, her exposed chest cavity revealed an ice-blue radiance pulsing like a heart. This was the core of her ice-elemental form—the very essence of her existence.

From within that light emanated a power beyond mortal comprehension, a force so overwhelming that even Di Tian felt a rare flicker of apprehension.

Such immense power could only belong to a god. Only divine power could withstand the Dragon God's Claw… It seemed the rumors of the Three Heavenly Kings possessing the Ice God's bloodline were not baseless.

For an ordinary being, leaving aside the Dragon God's Claw's innate suppressive effect, suffering such grievous wounds would mean certain death.

But the distinction between an elemental deity's body and mere mortal flesh was clear.

Countless ice-blue threads, resembling veins, extended from the hollow of Snow Empress's shattered shoulder, intertwining with the scattered fragments, preventing them from fully dispersing.

At the same time, ice elements from across the Arctic's vast expanse surged toward her at an astonishing speed. Even the temperature of the eternally frozen Arctic Plain was rising.

Snow Empress's arm… was slowly regenerating!

As an Ice Sky Snow Woman, she was the very spirit of the Arctic's ice and snow, born from this land and inextricably linked to it. This connection granted her the ability to heal so long as she was within this domain. This was the foundation of her confidence in blocking Di Tian with her Emperor's Palm.

A seething rage, like venomous flames, burned on her cold and elegant face. The pain only fueled her fury, making it blaze even fiercer.

Now, heavily wounded, Snow Empress was certain—Di Tian and the Three-Eyed Golden Lion must have already dealt with Ice Empress, and they sought to end her life as well!

For revenge, and for her own survival, despite having half her body crushed and suffering grave injuries, she did not defend her open back. Instead, she drove her Emperor's Sword towards the Auspicious Beast with everything she had.

As long as she could wound the beast—seize it—she would win!

Her response was beyond even Di Tian's expectations.

They said emotions clouded judgment—whether it was his concern that losing the Auspicious Beast would sever soul beasts' fate, or his fear for Wang Rui's safety, a rare shadow of gloom flickered through the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King's eyes before vanishing in an instant.

An infinite, viscous darkness spread forth.

It surged from the sky-shrouding clouds, from the shadow of every snowflake in Emperor's Frost Heaven, even from the black recesses within Snow Empress's own chest cavity—every shadow expanded all at once.

A colossal black dragon's silhouette, spanning over a thousand meters, took form behind Di Tian. Its abyssal wings loomed like an unfathomable chasm in the sky, instilling despair.

Taking the brunt of Snow Empress's Emperor's Palm, even someone as mighty as Di Tian couldn't remain completely unscathed—his right arm was entirely frozen by extreme frost, immobilized.

Given a moment, he could expel the cold with his soul power.

Yet, wild nine-colored flames flared anew along his frozen arm. Ice and scales shattered together, torrents of dragon blood exploding into mist before freezing into crimson frost in midair. Di Tian forcibly ruptured his own flesh to regain mobility!

The draconic shadow behind him mirrored his movements, its foreclaws blazing with nine-colored fire as they lunged for Snow Empress's exposed back.

Yet her Emperor's Sword had already reached the Auspicious Beast's golden-red flame shield.

Ice clashed with fire—the Auspicious Beast was far weaker than Snow Empress, and his flames were naturally suppressed by her extreme cold.

The shield shattered, sending golden-red embers scattering like fireworks. A shadowy soul cannon emerged from the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's back.

Snow Emperor's disdain for humans made her overlook the inexplicable unease brought by that dark soul cannon's barrel. A hint of contempt flashed in her ice-blue eyes.

She never expected that the Emperor Auspicious Beast's trump card was nothing more than a little human-made contraption.

At this moment, Di Tian's second Dragon God Claw was already closing in on her back—

Yet it abruptly halted.

It was as if Di Tian had sensed something. Ignoring his injuries, he forcibly retracted his attack. This caused precious dragon blood to gush from his right arm as if it were worthless, but he couldn't be bothered.

On his usually stern, middle-aged face, an expression of ecstasy and disbelief suddenly emerged. It was almost comical, an emotion so out of place that it appeared absurd.

At the same time, Snow Empress noticed that the Three-Eyed Golden Lion in front of her had vanished into thin air. A vast mist of ice rose up, yet even though it was within her own domain, she could not perceive what lay within the fog.

A human hand reached out from the mist and casually grasped the tip of her deep-blue ice crystal sword—then gently pinched.

One of Snow Emperess's strongest offensive techniques, a weapon of purest cold, hardest substance, and sharpest edge, known as Ice's Absolute Supremacy, was reduced to dust just like that.

A tall man stood in the air before her.

He had a head of messy golden hair, as if he had just woken up without time to comb it. Upon closer inspection, the tips of his hair were tinged with red. He wore a golden robe adorned with scale-like patterns. His eyes—one gold, one red. The golden eye was clear and bright, but the red eye seemed to hold an ocean of boundless blood.

Deep resentment, raw hatred, and the most primal, unfiltered brutality churned within. It was as if all the world's negative emotions had been poured into that single eye.

This man who had appeared so suddenly carried no overwhelming aura, yet just laying eyes upon him made Snow Emperor's heart instinctively surge with a nameless fear.

It was as if death had come to hover over her head a second time.

"So, it's you… who wants to kill my son?" The man spoke in a voice that was both strange and hoarse, as though he hadn't spoken in a long time.

(End of Chapter)