In Sara’s fading vision, that familiar figure arrived far too quickly, far too suddenly, making her think, for a moment, that it was nothing more than a hallucination before death.
But reality was reality.
Sara opened her eyes, and there he was—Li Xian, standing right in front of her, his back to her, staring down the charging giant troll and the sea of flames blazing behind it.
Li Xian raised one hand.
Frost elements rapidly coalesced, forming a precise and orderly arrangement.
In an instant, a crystal-clear, ice-blue longsword took shape in his grasp.
Without a hint of hesitation, he seized the sword tightly and brought it down in a single, powerful slash.
From a distance, the soldiers watching could almost see a streak of freezing light descend from the heavens, slicing clean through the troll’s enormous body.
A glowing blue line slowly appeared on the troll’s head, then stretched downward—across its face, down its chest, and all the way to its pelvis.
With the sound of cracking ice, the massive body split cleanly in two and crashed to the ground.
And behind it, the young swordsman who had just unleashed that strike stepped into view, his figure outlined by the flickering flames.
The ice-blue longsword was now embedded in the earth, and Li Xian gripped the hilt with one hand, calmly facing the firestorm in front of him—and beyond it, the incoming Crimson Flame Gale Lion.
***
An unending stream of mana surged into the sword at a nearly frenzied pace.
The arrangement of frost elements—originally devised by Matt—was visible again, though Li Xian had made a few minor adjustments.
A magic circle quickly took shape, and in the blink of an eye, it expanded with such speed that the naked eye could barely keep up.
It engulfed a wide stretch of forest.
Then, as if the glacial era had descended, massive ice pillars erupted from the ground with thunderous force—like small mountains rising from the earth, a breathtaking sight to behold.
The entire area covered by the magic circle was now a frozen world.
Even the horizon was painted in endless white and towering blue spires of ice.
The Crimson Flame Gale Lion’s roaring inferno—blasted forth from its mouth—was completely blocked by the massive ice pillar in front of Li Xian.
In truth, it was less a pillar and more a glacier.
A moment later, another ice pillar shot up from the ground and easily pierced the lion’s abdomen.
Li Xian then drew his sword and leapt onto the ice mountain, standing high above.
Looking down at the wounded beast, his contemptuous gaze stabbed into the lion’s pride like a dagger.
This was a legendary beast—an apex predator that had struck fear into the hearts of humans across the continent.
‘How could it possibly endure such humiliation?’
With a deafening roar, its entire body was suddenly engulfed in flames.
Outside the flames, hurricane winds surged.
The fire fed on the wind, growing even more intense.
Enraged, the Crimson Flame Gale Lion charged straight at Li Xian atop the glacier, flames and speed combining to form a blazing trail in its wake.
Like a meteor tearing through the sky, it blazed with both brilliance and destruction.
Faced with this incoming “meteor,” Li Xian made only two movements.
He raised his sword with one hand.
And then, he swung.
The blade slashed diagonally, powerful battle aura wrapped around it, slicing through the air with a shriek that made one’s teeth ache.
It left behind a glowing blue arc, like a crescent moon etched in the sky.
Everything happened too fast.
Only when the Crimson Flame Gale Lion’s massive body crashed lifelessly to the ground did the nearby demons and human soldiers finally react.
They looked at the towering ice pillars beside them, chills running down their spines.
Such a massive spell—cast without any incantation or preparation—and yet executed with such precise control that not a single person was harmed! And that sword strike…
Even from such a distance, they could feel the immense power that surged from that single blow.
One strike to kill a giant troll.
One strike to sever a legendary beast.
With a mere wave of the hand, a thousand miles were frozen over!
‘What kind of overwhelming strength was this? What kind of peerless pride and solitude?’
As everyone stared at the lone figure standing atop the icy mountain—casually plunging his sword into the ground and glancing indifferently at the charred corpse of the Scarlet Flame Gale Lion—their blood boiled with awe.
A fierce, wordless admiration welled up within them, sinking deep into their bones.
What they didn’t know was that at that very moment, Li Xian was staring at the dead body of the Scarlet Flame Gale Lion and seriously wondering if it might taste good roasted.
But the beast was just too massive to carry away, and thinking about it, lion meat probably wouldn’t be very tasty.
So, Li Xian gave up on the idea.
Still, he did remember that high-level magical beasts usually had magic cores, so he casually dug one out for himself.
After that, he turned and walked in Sara’s direction.
That girl… ‘she probably hadn’t even processed what had just happened yet.’
Imagining her frozen in shock, Li Xian couldn’t help but let a small smile tug at the corner of his lips.
***
“Senior!”
A voice called out from behind him—it sounded like someone was trying to get his attention.
Li Xian turned around.
It was that transcendent-level mage.
Come to think of it, the magic he’d used just now had actually borrowed quite a bit from that guy’s spell formation and combinations.
It had saved him a good deal of effort.
Otherwise, dealing with that monster would’ve taken significantly more energy.
“Thank you for your timely help, Senior,” the mage said. “I am Matt, one of the Empire’s Six Ace Mages. On behalf of the Empire, I offer you our highest respect!”
As a transcendent-level mage himself, Matt understood better than anyone just how terrifying Li Xian was.
A single move that froze a thousand miles in an instant—this wasn’t something even a typical legendary-tier mage could accomplish.
The man standing before him was a peak-level legend, without question—someone standing at the summit of human power.
Even the top-ranked Ace Mage of the Empire, Elvis, paled in comparison to this man.
Li Xian shrugged and simply waved his hand in response.
The giant troll was dead, and many of the other demons had already been caught in the aftermath.
With this transcendent-level mage here, wiping out the remaining demons wouldn’t be an issue.
There was no need for him to stay any longer.
He had no idea how deeply Matt was in awe of him at that moment, nor did he notice the bloodied young girl nearby—Ellie—staring at his back with all the strength she had left.
Her gaze was locked on the slight angle of his revealed face.
Her lips were bitten so hard they bled, just so she could etch that partially visible, youthful face into her memory.
Unfortunately, she had endured too much pain.
In the end, she never managed to see him clearly.
Her consciousness slipped into complete darkness…
***
At that moment, Li Xian was still unaware that from this day on, the name “Frostblade Sword Saint” would spread like wildfire throughout the Empire.
Nor did he know that the Empire’s princess, Her Highness Princess Ellie, had fallen madly in love with the Frostblade Sword Saint from that very moment.
She swore that even if she had to dig up the entire continent, she would find him.