Ice Empress, Who Are You Really? (First Update)

Far North Land, deep within.

Brother Sky Dream used Soul Skill: Simulation, silently leading Huo Yuhao through the territory occupied by the Ice Jade Scorpions and into a valley surrounded by snow mountains.

That Snowfield Valley was rich in spiritual energy, its frost crystals hanging everywhere. Ahead lay an emerald-green lake sealed beneath ice, with a faint cold mist drifting across its surface and obscuring the view.

"This Jade Ice Lake is where Ice cultivates. No idle soul beast would dare trespass even half a step," Brother Sky Dream explained. "Watch me call her out."

Huo Yuhao nodded slightly. With his Spiritual Eye open, he could easily see through the rime.

Brother Sky Dream immediately dispelled Soul Skill: Simulation. The dense aura of spiritual power within him could no longer be contained and leaked outward.

Just then.

Crack!

Huo Yuhao focused his gaze and saw a deep fissure appear on the surface of Jade Ice Lake.

Splash!

A jade-green pillar of light shot into the sky, emanating the primordial aura of an unparalleled Ferocious Beast. Terrifying Soul Power fluctuations spread across the area, and the temperature of the entire environment plummeted.

A massive jade-green figure suddenly emerged from the ice covered in rime. Its body faded from icy white to greenish jade, with two pincers at its front and six legs beneath its abdomen. Its scorpion tail was jade-green like a gem, its silver hook hanging inverted and gleaming with a cold, sinister light. Even the Ice Mist could not conceal the chill radiating from its blood-red eyes.

Every detail was clearly reflected in Huo Yuhao's eyes.

One of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North Land!

A three-hundred-ninety-thousand-year soul beast! The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion!

The Ice Empress!

"Ice, I've finally seen you again." Seeing the unparalleled Ferocious Beast emerge from the center of Jade Ice Lake, Brother Sky Dream immediately rushed toward her in delight.

Huo Yuhao broke out in goosebumps at his words.

A cold glint flashed through the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion's blood-red eyes. What greeted Brother Sky Dream was a front pincer embedded with ice-crystal diamonds, striking him squarely in the abdomen—

Brother Sky Dream froze in midair, bent over like a shrimp, and flew backward, crashing into the mountains behind him with a boom.

The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion proved her point through action.

To hell with you, you disgusting dead fat shut-in!

After dealing with Brother Sky Dream, the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion shifted her gaze to the human youth standing by Jade Ice Lake, her eyes flashing with an icy, murderous light.

She sprang forward, her enormous body blotting out the sky as she landed steadily before Huo Yuhao, kicking up sheets of snow and ice prisms.

As the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion approached, she looked down imperiously at the human youth below, aggressively overbearing.

"Human?"

Huo Yuhao remained where he was without retreating half a step, utterly unfazed by her imposing presence.

"Ice Empress, it's been a long time." Huo Yuhao smiled gently.

The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion's gaze narrowed, and she immediately raised a pincer and smashed it toward Huo Yuhao.

The next moment, grayish-brown clouds of mist surged up behind Huo Yuhao, blocking the Ice Empress's pincer as the ice beneath his feet cracked apart.

Something was wrong!

The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion immediately controlled her tail stinger, launching it toward Huo Yuhao within the gray mist.

Seeing this, Huo Yuhao swiftly retreated.

When the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion's tail stinger struck empty air, she immediately scanned her surroundings warily, her gaze settling on the empty sky ahead.

Huo Yuhao stood Soaring in the Sky, thick Gray Silent Cloud Mist swirling around him. Behind him appeared a vertical eye formed from converging purple-gold patterns, radiating powerful spiritual fluctuations.

"A Spirit-type?" The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion was slightly moved.

The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion's six legs stomped on the ice. The surface of Jade Ice Lake suddenly shattered, and massive ice prisms thrust upward in succession, floating in the air as their sharp points locked onto the human figure in the sky.

Huo Yuhao casually snapped his fingers. The Spiritual Eye behind him suddenly erupted with powerful spiritual energy, gathering into a torrent of hundreds and thousands of sharp swords.

Ice prisms large and small rose from Jade Ice Lake one after another, shooting toward Huo Yuhao in the sky like arrows.

A cold gleam flashed in Huo Yuhao's eyes. The hundreds and thousands of spiritual swords behind him converged into a torrent, their tips shining with dazzling white light.

White Emperor Sword!

The spiritual swords met the countless ice prisms head-on—

Yet in the next instant, the sharp edges of the White Emperor Sword intertwined with the ice prisms without producing the slightest collision, as silent as ice sinking into the sea.

The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion realized something was amiss.

Visible but intangible—this was a spiritual attack!

"Yuhao, I'll help you!"

A powerful spiritual tide suddenly burst from Brother Sky Dream's body behind them, rapidly spreading and shaking the spiritual swords Huo Yuhao had condensed. Like opposing ripples of water, it forcibly reduced the White Emperor Sword's power by a third.

Even after being weakened by thirty percent, the Ice Empress was immediately struck by a spiritual storm and fell into confusion on the spot.

Two Gates of the Undead appeared before Huo Yuhao.

Countless ice spikes tore through the air, striking the Gates of the Undead and exploding into nothing more than scattered fragments of Ice Mist.

Taking advantage of the Ice Empress's muddled thoughts, Huo Yuhao raised his hand. Gray mist gathered in his palm into a longsword, and he lunged toward the Ice Empress below—

"Stop—" Brother Sky Dream let out a vicious roar.

Huo Yuhao's mind faltered, and his movement stalled slightly in midair. In an instant, the sharp tail stinger pierced through Huo Yuhao's chest, blood spraying forth.

Brother Sky Dream was stunned at the sight.

He had never expected the reversal to come so quickly.

The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion violently withdrew her tail stinger. Huo Yuhao spat blood and fell from the air, his blood staining the glacier red.

The Ice Empress stared in slight surprise at the human youth lying in a pool of blood.

Why had he hesitated just now?

If that sword had fallen without mercy, it would have been hard to say who would have won.

And—

The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion turned her gaze toward the dazed Brother Sky Dream in the distance.

The enemy had clearly been brought here by this fellow, so why had he helped her again and again?

If he had not weakened the enemy's spiritual attack, she would have remained confused for longer. Perhaps he truly would have succeeded.

"Ice Empress, it's been a long time."

The voice from ahead jolted the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion back to her senses. She focused her eyes and looked.

The human youth stood before her completely unharmed. Behind him, Jade Ice Lake had only a few cracks and had not shattered completely. Everything seemed to have returned to how it was before they had fought.

The Ice Empress was somewhat bewildered. What exactly had happened?

"Who are you really?" The Ice Empress looked down at the human youth before her, but this time, she did not attack immediately.

She seemed to have fallen into some kind of spiritual loop.

"Huo Yuhao. You can also call me Yuhao." Huo Yuhao smiled.

"What is your relationship with that guy?" the Ice Empress asked coldly.

Why was Brother Sky Dream associating with a human? Had this been a trap laid specifically for her? That fellow did not seem to have the nerve for it.

"Brother Sky Dream? I said I would help him become a god, and he said he wanted to bring you along too." Huo Yuhao's tone carried a hint of playfulness.

What he had said was not wrong in essence.

As for the process, did that matter?

"You think I'd believe the nonsense you humans spout?" the Ice Empress said coldly.

"Perhaps you misunderstand. I did not learn all this through Brother Sky Dream," Huo Yuhao said calmly.

"I know you very well, including the Snow Empress, the Titan Snow Demon King, and Xiao Bai." Huo Yuhao remained calm.

The Ice Empress's gaze abruptly narrowed.

This human dared claim to know her, Xue Er, and that big fool?

The first three could perhaps be explained by Brother Sky Dream giving him fragments of information, but how did he know about Xiao Bai?

The Snow Empress had once adopted an ice bear and named him Xiao Bai.

Brother Sky Dream could never have known about that.

"Who are you really?" the Ice Empress demanded, as if interrogating his very soul.