The next moment, Xiao Xue's aura began to surge violently.
Almost instantly, her strength rose from a Seven-Star Dou Ling to the Peak of Dou Ling.
And Level 50 was already the upper limit she could currently reach.
This did not mean that the surrounding energy had been drained by her.
Although the energy of the Icy Earth Vein could not compare to the energy accumulated over many years within the Heavenly Flame space, it was certainly not limited to just this much.
The reason she could not continue to Upgrade was because she had reached a Bottleneck again.
If she wanted to continue to Upgrade, she had to add points first and Breakthrough to Dou Wang!
Otherwise, no matter how vast the surrounding energy was, she would remain stuck at the Peak of Dou Ling!
A Breakthrough in a major Realm was different from a normal Upgrade; it required a process of advancement.
And now, the hinterlands of the ice plains were sparsely populated, she had Medusa as a Protector, and there was the energy of the Icy Earth Vein all around.
Therefore, Xiao Xue did not hesitate to click "Breakthrough" on the System interface.
The next moment, the Dou Crystal inside Xiao Xue's body exploded with a roar!
Countless amounts of heaven and earth energy flooded in, and Xiao Xue began to advance slowly and steadily toward the Dou Wang Rank.
One must know that for practitioners of Qi on the Fighting Qi Continent, a Dou Wang was like a natural chasm.
A Dou Practitioner condenses a Qi cyclone, a Great Dou Master condenses a Dou Crystal, and at the Dou Ling Rank, nine sharp spikes appear on the Dou Crystal.
During the Dou Ling period, for every star of strength gained, one spike on the Dou Crystal would retract.
And after breaking through to Dou Wang, there is no longer a Dou Crystal inside the bodies of experts at the Dou Wang Rank and above.
By then, Qi does not need to circulate from the cyclone before it can be used.
At that time, Qi can surge out directly from every part of the body.
Both the power of the Qi and the speed at which it is summoned during use will be greatly improved!
Therefore, the Peak of Dou Ling and a Dou Wang are not the same concept at all; the gap in strength is immense.
It is precisely because of this that a saying circulates on the Fighting Qi Continent—
"Everyone below a Dou Wang is an ant!"
Therefore, this Breakthrough would bring Xiao Xue a transformation akin to being reborn!
The surrounding heaven and earth energy formed a visible vortex of energy, pouring madly toward Xiao Xue.
Such momentum had never been seen, not even when some experts broke through to Dou Huang.
The next moment, Xiao Xue entered into a new state.
Countless water vapors condensed out of thin air, and then, under the low temperature, quickly turned into snowflakes.
The valley, which had been scorched bare while refining the Heavenly Flame, was slowly covered by white snow again.
However, Xiao Xue, whose mind was immersed within her body, knew nothing of what was happening outside.
At this moment, she had only one thought in her mind.
—"This world, how moist!"
Water, it's all water! Water emerging everywhere!
The active Power of Water was calling out to her.
This feeling was very strange, and she did not know how to describe it.
She only knew that this feeling of soaking in a spring was very comfortable, and that was all.
As her Rank rose madly, the Qi between heaven and earth flooded into her body, giving her an unparalleled sense of satisfaction.
Xiao Xue could clearly feel that she was becoming stronger!
With the increase in strength, Xiao Xue felt that her control over water had significantly improved again.
Her water-controlling ability had also been strengthened.
Even with the same three points in "Elemental Affinity", the stronger her strength, the higher her control over water!
"Let there be rain."
With her eyes closed, Xiao Xue, who was in a mysterious state, spoke indifferently.
Immediately after, the snow filling the sky actually melted again, turning into droplets of rain.
Raindrops fell from the sky, becoming denser and larger.
The ice plains, where it had only ever snowed for thousands of years, had unexpectedly welcomed a sudden torrential downpour.
—
Medusa could not help but reach out her hand, letting the rain hit her palm.
It was ice-cold, just like her heart right now.
Actually, if it were just raining, it wouldn't be anything strange; one would only need to melt the flying snow.
Medusa believed that with her own strength and that seven-colored Heaven Swallowing Python flame, creating a light rain in this snow-swept ice plain would not be a problem.
And Xiao Xue had just refined the Bone Chilling Flame with its ice and fire attribute.
For her to melt snowflakes, the difficulty might not even be as hard as controlling the flying snow to kill the wolf pack earlier.
But Medusa was now a Dou Zong.
She could clearly perceive that although Xiao Xue had said "Let there be rain" after entering the mysterious state, in reality, Xiao Xue had only said a sentence and had not moved even a shred of Qi within her body!
This was the most crucial point.
Like her now, she could wave her hand to release a sea of fire, but that required Qi as support.
How could there be someone like Xiao Xue, whose words became law?!
In fact, this was one of the benefits brought by Xiao Xue directly integrating the Bone Chilling Flame into herself.
She only needed to give the order, and the rest was left for the Bone Chilling Flame to do itself!
Therefore, let alone the simplest dissolving of snowflakes to make rain; with the power of the Bone Chilling Flame, if she said to hail, hailstones the size of a human head could be directly smashed down!
As for our protagonist Xiao Xue, she was already about to exit this mysterious state.
At this moment, her perception of her surroundings was becoming clearer and clearer, having changed from a selfless state back to reality.
However, although her eyes were closed, she could "see" all the water around her.
Wherever there was water, it could not escape her perception.
The more water there was, the clearer the perception.
For example, Medusa, who was relatively close.
Women are made of water, after all.
"Inside her body..."
Xiao Xue ultimately gave up the intention of perceiving in detail.
This isn't teenager mode; this is fucking prime-age adult mode!
Xiao Xue withdrew her released Soul Power and immersed her mind back into her body.
In just an instant, she saw everything inside her body clearly.
The Meridians that had been twisted and dried up by the Bone Chilling Flame before were now like crystal-clear, spacious pipes, emitting a faint fluorescent light within her body.
Although she hadn't made any movements, she could clearly feel that compared to before, this set of Meridians inside her body had undergone a qualitative change in both resilience and capacity!
When Xiao Xue rose from a Seven-Star Dou Ling to the Peak of Dou Ling, she did not use the System to add points but instead absorbed the energy of the Icy Earth Vein.
Only when she just broke through to Dou Wang did she use the System to Upgrade.
Using the System to add points has this good point: full health, full mana!
Xiao Xue shifted her mind away from her Meridians and slowly scanned her entire body.
She did not find any place that was even slightly weak; on the contrary, this body now was almost worlds apart from before she refined the Heavenly Flame!
Perhaps, just this body alone, combined with the enhanced "Power of Water", would allow her to exert a combat power that was even more formidable and terrifying than using Qi before!
She nodded in satisfaction, withdrew her mind from her body, slowly spread out her palm, and then, suddenly clenched it.
And her aura, after being silent for a long time, erupted suddenly!
Waves of vigorous Qi, like a flood, surged out abruptly from various parts of her body and finally flowed into her crystal-clear Meridians.
And as the Qi surged, those crystal-clear Meridians were like a river dam that had long been built, being filled by the surging floodwater.
The Meridians contracted and expanded, emitting an inaudible sound of joy.
As she clenched her palm, the space in front of Xiao Xue suddenly fluctuated, and a ball of bone-white Qi energy appeared strangely, finally hovering above her palm.
Within that ball of Qi energy, extreme cold and extreme heat alternated, appearing quite strange.
Within it, there seemed to be a faint trace of pink.
It seems that when refining the Bone Chilling Flame, the Bone Chilling Flame also deepened her connection with the Heavenly Fox Bloodline.
Xiao Xue retracted her hand in satisfaction, her shoulders trembled slightly, and immediately, the Qi in her body surged out violently.
These Qi followed a strange route of Meridians and finally, on her back, condensed into a pair of bone wings.
The bone wings shot out suddenly from behind her, with an arc about a zhang wide, like the wings of a Phoenix, magnificent and stunning.
After breaking through to Dou Wang, Xiao Xue looked at the Icy Earth Vein under her feet and grinned—continue absorbing!
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