Soulbound: Dual Cultivation

Chapter 567: Aftermath of the tornado

The tornado became a nightmare.Inside its spiraling walls, there was no balance, no stability, no direction to properly defend against. The winds twisted violently from every angle at once, carrying pressure sharp enough to tear through celestial defenses as though they were paper.

Ken had experienced powerful elemental techniques before.

Countless times.

But this...

This was different.

The tornado did not merely attack.

It devoured.

Every second spent inside it felt like being trapped inside the wrath of nature itself. Invisible wind blades carved through the storm relentlessly while crushing pressure currents slammed into everything caught within. Ice formed and shattered repeatedly across their bodies as the temperature fluctuated violently inside the rotating destruction.

The two remaining celestials were already in terrible condition.

One of them screamed as a violent current smashed him through spiraling debris and ripped apart the defensive aura protecting his body. Blood sprayed into the storm before immediately vanishing into the raging winds.

The other celestial tried desperately to force himself outward, unleashing burst after burst of power, but the tornado simply dragged him back deeper each time. The pressure within the vortex destabilized every attempt to properly gather energy.

They were being broken apart.

Slowly.

Mercilessly.

Ken himself was no better.

His entire body strained under the force of the storm as he continuously reinforced himself with compressed celestial energy just to avoid being ripped apart completely. Cuts had opened across his arms, shoulders, and chest from invisible wind blades hidden inside the vortex.

Even breathing had become difficult.

The tornado pulled at the air itself so violently that maintaining control over movement felt impossible.

And the worst part...

It never relented.

There were no pauses.

No openings.

No rhythm to exploit.

The storm simply continued grinding everything inside it down without mercy.

Ken’s eyes hardened as he resisted another crushing rotational force trying to tear him sideways into the spiraling core.

Through the chaos, he could still sense the Ice Belle.

At the center.

Calm.

Controlling all of it.

And again, the same realization returned heavily into his thoughts.

If she masters this completely...

The thought remained unfinished.

Because he already knew the answer.

She would become terrifying beyond reason.

Minutes passed like an eternity inside the storm.

Then gradually...

The tornado began slowing.

The violent rotation weakened little by little as the spiraling winds lost cohesion. The colossal pillar connecting sky and earth started thinning while debris rained back down across the ruined district.

The screaming winds faded.

The crushing pressure lessened.

And finally...The tornado dispersed completely.

Silence returned to Rus.

A horrifying silence.

The battlefield looked devastated beyond recognition.

Entire sections of the district had vanished beneath the storm’s path. Buildings had been reduced to shattered rubble while deep scars carved through the city stretched across multiple streets.

At the center of the destruction, the Ice Belle remained hovering weakly in the air for a few moments.

Barely.

Her breathing had become uneven now.

Her face looked slightly pale.

The enormous attack had clearly drained her heavily.

Even maintaining altitude seemed difficult now.

Far below, Ken and the two celestials lay scattered across the ruined ground.

Broken, weakened and bleeding.

One celestial coughed violently as he struggled to even move an arm. The other remained half-buried beneath collapsed debris, his aura unstable and flickering weakly.

And Ken...

Ken slowly pushed himself upward from the shattered ground with visible effort, blood running down the side of his face while cuts and bruises covered his body.

He had been completely overpowered.

The Ice Belle looked down at them briefly.

Then her own body finally gave in.

The winds around her disappeared entirely.

Her control faded.

And she dropped from the sky.

She landed hard against the ruined ground, one knee hitting first before the rest of her body followed. She caught herself partially with one hand, breathing heavily now as exhaustion finally crashed fully into her.

Her vision blurred slightly.

The tornado had consumed too much.

Far too much.

She understood it clearly now.

That technique was not something she was fully ready to wield yet.

Not at this level.

Not for that duration.

Her cultivation simply wasn’t high enough to sustain such monstrous power safely.

If she attempted it recklessly again without improving further...

The backlash might destroy her before the enemy ever could.

For now...

She was vulnerable.

Completely vulnerable.

The battlefield had fallen quiet again.

Broken celestials on one side.

An exhausted Ice Belle on the other.

And all across Rus, the witnesses who survived the battle stared at the devastation around them with fear and disbelief.

Because they had just witnessed something far beyond an ordinary celestial clash.

They had witnessed the birth of a beast the world was not ready for.

The Ice Belle remained kneeling amidst the devastation, one hand pressed against the fractured ground beneath her as she steadied her breathing.

Every muscle in her body felt strained.

The tornado had taken far more from her than she wanted to admit. Even now, lingering currents of unstable energy moved painfully through her meridians from forcing such an incomplete technique beyond its proper limits.

Still...

Her eyes remained fixed on Ken.

He was slowly rising from the ruined ground several meters away, visibly weakened, bloodied, and struggling to stabilize his aura properly. The two surviving celestials nearby looked no better. One could barely stand while the other remained half-collapsed against broken debris, coughing blood intermittently.

If there was ever a chance to kill Ken...

This was it.

The Ice Belle slowly pushed herself upright despite the exhaustion tearing through her body. Frost formed weakly beneath her feet as she stood fully again, her silver hair falling loosely around her shoulders while cold mist drifted from her skin.

Ken noticed immediately.

So did the others.

The atmosphere tightened sharply.

Even weakened, the Ice Belle still radiated danger.

Her gaze remained cold as she looked directly at Ken, clearly measuring whether she had enough strength left to finish this battle permanently.

Then—

She sensed them.

More auras.

Many more.

Her eyes shifted slightly toward the outskirts of the devastated district.

Cultivators that were spectating before were arriving rapidly now.

Dozens.

Perhaps more.

And they were fast approaching.

Worse...

They had clearly sensed her weakened state.

The Ice Belle’s expression darkened faintly.

She could already feel hostile intent mixed among the incoming cultivators. Some approached cautiously. Others greedily. Many carried the instinctive opportunism that appeared whenever powerful fighters showed weakness after battle.

Ken sensed it too.

Despite his injuries, a faint dangerous look returned to his eyes.

The Ice Belle stared at him for a few seconds longer.

Then disgust crossed her face openly.

"You will live today," she said coldly.

Her voice carried clearly across the ruined battlefield despite how exhausted she sounded.

Ken remained silent, watching her carefully.

Then her eyes sharpened further.

"To die another day."

The words settled heavily into the silence between them.

Before anyone could react further, the Ice Belle gathered what little energy remained inside her body.

The air around her trembled weakly.

Not with the overwhelming force from earlier.

Just enough.

She bent slightly....

Then exploded upward.

BOOM.

The ground beneath her shattered outward as she launched into the sky with every ounce of remaining power she possessed. A violent burst of wind pressure ripped through the battlefield while nearby debris scattered in every direction.

Then she was gone.

Her body cut across the sky at terrifying speed, leaving behind only a fading streak of cold mist as she shot away from Rus entirely.

Heading back toward Lechia.

Supersonic shockwaves echoed moments later across the capital from the sheer speed of her departure.

The incoming cultivators arrived too late.

All they found was ruin.

Collapsed districts.

Frozen destruction.

Broken celestials.

And Ken standing amidst it all, battered more severely than any of them had ever seen before.

The battlefield remained silent for several long moments after her disappearance.

Then one of the arriving cultivators spoke quietly in disbelief.

"What... was that?"

No one answered him.

Because even Ken himself was still staring toward the horizon where the Ice Belle had vanished.

And deep within his thoughts, one truth had already settled heavily into place.

If she survived long enough to fully master the power she had shown today...

The balance of the world itself would begin to tilt around her. Ken knew she needs to be eliminated at all costs.

By the time the Ice Belle returned to Lechia, the night sky above the capital had fully darkened.

Her arrival shook the palace grounds.

A streak of pale light descended from the heavens at terrifying speed before slowing abruptly above the inner courtyard. Wind exploded outward as she landed heavily upon the stone floor, cracks spreading beneath her feet while freezing mist rolled weakly across the courtyard.

The guards nearby instinctively stepped back.

The girls had already been waiting there anxiously ever since Henrietta returned alone carrying Lucas.

The moment they saw the Ice Belle descend, they rushed toward her immediately.