693: One on One

One on One

As she turned around, the looming shadow of a paw came, smacking her head on and launching the cultivator through the air. Her body slammed into a nearby tree, causing it to crack. 

Ming Yue gasped for air as she felt her breath getting knocked out. 

"Wha- what?"

She coughed out blood before leaning forward and stabbing her sword into the ground. With no energy to protect herself, she took that blow fully and it rocked her organs.

Up ahead was the Frostflame Bear King, standing on all fours. 

It breathed heavily, weak groans came as it stared at her. One step after another, the beast slowly moved toward her. Having suffered the brunt of that attack, it could barely move, stumbling forward at times.

The white fur coat was charred black and parts of its body were burnt up. On top of that, the wounds that Ming Yue had inflicted opened up as the shockwave of her techniques rocked its internal organs. 

The cultivator stared at the beast, looking into its eyes. 

"It's still not dead", she muttered to herself.

A groan escaped her mouth as she grabbed the hilt of Blood Moon with both hands and stood back up. While doing so, she grabbed the Black Blade from the ground, wielding both swords before the Frostflame Bear King. Her body ached while her lungs were in searing pain from phishing herself so far. 

It had grown quiet now, there were only the two of them.

After such commotion, no creature would dare come close, not even a Frostflame Bear. 

"It can't use that frost breath anymore. I still have a chance."

She noted, seeing the beast's mouth bloodied up. A majority of its teeth were damaged and some of them were gone. 

Even then, neither of them had much strength left.

But after catching her breath, Ming Yue awaited the Frostflame Bear King. She watched on as it came to her, growling weakly. Its slow pace quickened as it gained some amount of momentum. 

To the beast, she was just a standing target but the cultivator was prepared. 

As it raised its giant paw to crush her, she leaned back, narrowly avoiding the strike as it came down. There was a loud thud as the strike caused the icy ground to crack. Even if it didn't have much strength, there was still great power behind the weight of its body.

She sucked in a cold breath, leaning back in and stabbing Blood Moon into the paw, thrusting it through and into the ground. 

The Frostflame Bear King roared out in pain, trying to pull its paw away. However it was stuck, the long sword was embedded deeply into the icy ground. She pushed even further until the hilt pressed into the beast's paw.

Rearing its head towards her, the beast's jaws opened wide for a bite. 

But Ming Yue still had the Black Blade. 

Rather than avoid it, she leaned forward, pulling the sword back before thrusting it into the open jaws. Then she stabbed down, going through the tongue and the throat before it dug into the icy ground as well. 

But she felt a sharp pain as the beast tried to clamp down on her, what remained of its fangs piercing her armor and into the flesh. A chilling sensation spread throughout her body from that one point, needles prickling at her bones in a matter of seconds. 

"Arghh!"

Grimacing in pain, her sight faded in and out. 

Still, she held on tightly to the sword, lowering herself out of the Frostflame Bear King's jaws. Taking a step back, she clutched her shoulder where the wound was, looking at the hole before turning her attention back to the beast. 

With its other remaining paw, it tried to grab her, clawing at the ice to free itself. Despite its efforts, neither sword gave way to it. After all, they were both Sword Spirits. There was a resonant howl coming from them as if to say that it will have no such luck. 

As for Ming Yue, she just stared at it, breathing heavily while holding her wound closed. She stared into the beast's eyes, seeing its determination, the strong fighting spirit. 

With her other hand, she grabbed the sword pendant from her neck and then climbed onto the best. Standing right over its neck, she held the little sword with just two fingers, hovering it over the beast. It pointed straight down and with what little power she managed to recover, she used it on the pendant. 

The little sword whistled as she let it drop, falling towards the bloodied neck. It shot down, piercing the neck and finally putting an end to it. 

In its last moments, the Frostflame Bear King groaned before turning limp and dying. 

She said nothing, perhaps too tired to say anything. 

And then she plopped down, leaning against the dead beast's body. Still breathing a bit heavily, Ming Yue just closed her eyes and rested her head on the furry body. The cultivator had survived this ordeal and knowing this put a tired but small smile on her face. 

But then there was a scurrying sound as Hei Yue ran back to her. Xiao Yin was close behind, landing in front of their master. 

"Ah, you two, you're both okay." 

She spoke quietly, giving them both a quick scratch. And then Xue Yue suddenly spoke up, reminding her. 

"What are you doing?! Hurry up and meditate, get rid of the cold energy in your body before you turn into an ice statue!" 

"Right, right." 

Pulling her hand away from the pair, Ming Yue straightened up and sat with her legs crossed. Closing her eyes once more, she focused on expelling the cold energy. Circling her own power through her meridians, warmth began to flow as it slowly pushed this invasive force back. 

The chilling numbness slowly faded away. 

She was careful, bringing it out bit by bit before it was all gone. Breathing became a bit easier and her lungs no longer felt like they were burning. It didn't take her long but the process was still difficult. 

All she wanted to do at this point was sleep, dive into a nice warm bed and sleep. 

Unfortunately, the bitter cold was a harsh reminder that she still had plenty to do. 

"Haah, you and Elder Zhen couldn't have said anything earlier?" she asked the two spirits. 

Ming Yue then stood up and turned to face the dead corpse, brandishing her swords. Xue Yue just scoffed at her. 

"Pft, do you think we're awake all the time? It's not like me and the old man are overflowing with energy, we need to rest and recuperate as well."

Using both swords, Ming Yue stabbed into the body and carved out the core. 

"Right, but after all this time, you say something now?" she asked.

Bringing it up to her eyes, it was even larger than the Glacial Doll's Core, about the size of a man's fist. 

"Eh, you looked like you had things under control", Xue Yue answered. 

"Really?" Ming Yue responded in a very doubtful manner. 

Despite that, her counterpart stood by her words. 

"Yep."

The young cultivator just sighed before focusing on the task at hand. 

Looking at Frostflame Bear King's core, Ming Yue then took out the jar, staring at the opening and comparing it with the size of the core. 

"This... this will fit right?" she thought. 

Looking closer, she slowly pushed the core into the glass jar. Much to her surprise, the glass jar's opening expanded, sucking in the glowing blue crystal. And she watched as the shards of Abyssal Ice pulsated with power, growing in size. 

After absorbing that one core, they nearly tripled in size! 

"All of that for that one beast... what if I use the rest?"

She looked up, gazing at all of the subdued Frostflame Bears. She still had plenty of cores to get. 0

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