Ice Empress

Jiang Zhen slowly opened his eyes. The deep blue in them, like ten thousand years of frozen ice and a bottomless sea, gradually faded and returned to clarity. He carefully sensed the new power flowing endlessly through his body.

His soul power had stabilized at Rank 41.

Compared to the immense energy he had absorbed, energy that was nearly the origin of heaven and earth itself, this increase could only be called "tiny."

Yet he felt no disappointment. Instead, a wave of realization and delight rose within him.

The vast majority of that energy had not been used to brutally raise his soul power rank, but to reshape his foundation!

The most obvious sign was that he could clearly feel the suppression affecting the Rank 30 to Rank 70 stage had disappeared!

His cultivation speed would no longer be hindered by his ultimate attribute. From now on, his path would be smooth until he reached an even higher bottleneck.

It was time to leave. Jiang Zhen suppressed his excitement.

The greatest purpose of this journey had been accomplished beyond all expectations. He had even formed a mysterious connection with this world's planar consciousness. The gains were immeasurable.

He turned and swept his gaze across this peerless treasure trove, filled with ten-thousand-year ice marrow.

Any one of these ice marrow pieces, if it found its way into the outside world, would be enough to stir up a bloody storm in the soul master world.

Naturally, he would not leave an entire mountain of treasure empty-handed.

His storage ring flashed faintly as he began his "sweep."

With his current mastery over the ice element, as natural as moving his own limbs, he easily extracted each piece of ten-thousand-year ice marrow embedded in the ice walls and emitting a soft white radiance.

Some were as thin as an arm, while others were as thick as a waist. Crystal-clear and translucent, they contained such vast energy that it was intoxicating.

He was not greedy enough to try to empty the entire vein. That would destroy the balance of this place.

Still, he unceremoniously collected several hundred pieces of exceptional-quality ice marrow before finally stopping, though he was still not fully satisfied.

Whether for his own cultivation in the future, building a force, or trading for precious treasures, this ice marrow would serve as an invaluable foundation.

After finishing everything, Jiang Zhen gave the ice-blue orb deep within the hollow one last look.

He cupped his hands and bowed deeply, seemingly offering his thanks.

Then he made his way back.

Along the way, Jiang Zhen saw his reflection in the ice wall.

The youth reflected there was still handsome, but his temperament now held an added icy coldness and mystery.

The most noticeable change was the striking ice-white lock that had silently appeared among his flowing blue hair, beginning at his forehead.

It intertwined with the aqua-blue streak in his hair, like a frozen river.

When he reached the cave entrance, blue-gold light shone from his right leg once more. His flight soul bone skill activated, and his body rose upward, preparing to return along the original path to the surface, however far above it might be.

However, just as he took off and had not yet risen far from the bottom, a sudden change occurred!

The peacefully drifting mist of ice-elemental light around him silently converged, and a mysterious power beyond his understanding and resistance quietly descended.

That power was gentle yet vast, like the light brush of the will of the entire Extreme North.

It transformed into a massive, indistinct palm formed from pure icy mist. It gave Jiang Zhen, who was flying upward, a light upward pat on the backside—one that even seemed slightly teasing!

"Hmm?!"

Jiang Zhen only felt an indescribably immense pushing force from below. A peculiar icy sensation came from his backside. It was not an attack, but more like a... mischievous shove?

He had no time to react at all before the space around him instantly twisted and blurred!

Buzz—

An intense white light filled his vision, instantly swallowing his senses.

When his sight became clear again, the suffocating ice marrow vein and the deep passage through the ice crevasse had both vanished.

Biting winds carrying flecks of snow struck his face. Before him stretched a boundless, snow-covered pale plain beneath an eternally gray-white sky.

In a single instant, he had been directly teleported from the subterranean core, at an unknown depth below ground, back to the surface of the Extreme North!

Jiang Zhen staggered one step before steadying himself, an uncharacteristic trace of shock and confusion appearing on his face.

He instinctively turned to look behind him. There was only a smooth expanse of ice field. Where was there even a trace of that enormous ice crevasse?

It was as though that adventure deep within the earth had been nothing more than a bizarre dream.

But the surging Rank 41 soul power in his body, the ice-blue soul ring behind him, the subtle connection to the Extreme North deep in his soul, and the mountain of ten-thousand-year ice marrow in his storage ring all proved that everything just now had been real.

"Was that the work of the planar consciousness...?"

Jiang Zhen quickly calmed down and understood.

That final "palm" had clearly been the master of this place seeing off a guest in an almost joking manner. Perhaps it had also spared him whatever trouble might have awaited him on his way back.

He shook his head with a laugh, patted his dustless robes, and prepared to determine his direction and leave.

However, at the instant he raised his foot, an incomparably terrifying pressure descended from the sky like an invisible iceberg—bone-chillingly cold and carrying monstrous ferocity—as it locked tightly onto him!

Even the surrounding blizzard seemed frozen in that moment, while the air congealed as hard as iron.

Every muscle in Jiang Zhen's body tensed instantly as he abruptly looked up.

High in the sky, a petite emerald-green figure was slowly drifting down.

She seemed like an ice-and-snow spirit falling from the Ninth Heaven, yet also like a deity who ruled over winter descending into the mortal world.

Her dark green hair danced wildly in the biting wind without the slightest disorder, instead carrying a bewitching beauty.

The four emerald-green demonic markings on either side of her fair, delicate face glimmered beneath the gray-white daylight with a mysterious and dangerous luster.

An emerald-green dress wrapped around her petite, lovely body. As its hem fluttered, countless ice crystals seemed to be born and vanish alongside it.

Most unnerving were her eyes—like two supreme emeralds frozen for ten thousand years, cold and transparent, without the slightest human emotion. They held only pure curiosity and scrutiny...

She descended with elegance and composure, as though beneath her feet was not a howling ice field, but her royal throne.

Every snowflake that approached her consciously circled around her, like an honor guard of subjects welcoming their queen.

Crack... crack... Centered on where she landed, the ice beneath her feet could not withstand the invisible extreme cold and pressure radiating from her.

Countless spiderweb-like cracks instantly spread outward, rapidly becoming covered in a thick layer of solid ice that shimmered with emerald light!

She landed without a sound less than thirty zhang from Jiang Zhen.

Those cold green eyes, like the sharpest ice awls, pierced directly toward Jiang Zhen.

They examined him from head to toe, lingering for a moment on that lock of ice-white hair and the lingering extreme chill on him—nearly of the same origin as her own, yet slightly different.

The Ice Empress looked at the human who had suddenly appeared within the core region of her territory, sensing the strange yet powerful aura around him.

And that trace of... primordial icy aura that even made her feel startled and doubtful. At last, she slowly spoke, her voice crisp yet cold enough to freeze the soul:

"Human, why have you trespassed here?"