Ice Emperor Scorpion

Gu You's chest felt tight. He braced himself against the wall with one hand and clutched his chest with the other as his vision gradually blurred. In his haze, a beam of purple light flew ahead. Gu You tried to catch it, but could not reach it... So the purple light kept flying, and Gu You kept following.

"What just happened?" Gu You came back to his senses. Deep roars echoed from the corridors around him. This place looked like a massive warehouse, with countless enormous iron cages standing tall, though he had no idea what they held.

As he approached, a pair of blood-red eyes emerged.

"Holy shit! You scared the hell out of me." Gu You stared at the enormous creature before him in shock. A hundred-year Ice Crystal Bear, and... so many Hundred-year Soul Beasts!

Mystic Crystal Ice Feather Snakes, Ice Silkworms...

They were all Soul Beasts unique to the Far North. Judging by this, it had to be the work of those Evil Soul Masters.

Roar!

Another howl rang out, carrying a far greater presence than the Hundred-year Soul Beasts. That was... a Thousand-Year Ice Crystal Bear! A mutated form of the Crystal Bear.

Seeing a Thousand-year Soul Beast in reality for the first time, Gu You felt an indescribable excitement, along with a strange sense of relief. In any case, the feeling was peculiar.

A Soul Ring suddenly rose beneath Gu You's feet. A dragon's roar resounded, and the entire cage warehouse fell silent. The eyes of every Soul Beast began to calm.

What was going on? My Martial Soul could release itself? Was it really that advanced?

Gu You frowned and looked up, only to shudder. The Thousand-year Soul Beast was actually lying meekly before him. Its eyes were no longer vicious, but gentle.

What?

Gu You slowly extended a hand and touched the Ice Crystal Bear. Its body felt cool to the touch, and the Soul Beast showed no intent to resist. Even its special passive ability, which could turn someone into an ice crystal in an instant, did not harm Gu You.

Just as Gu You was getting into it, the Ice Crystal Bear turned into specks of light and merged into his mind. A powerful, refreshing chill washed over him, making him let out a soft moan.

The Hundred-year Soul Beasts in the other cages also transformed into specks of light and flowed into Gu You's mind.

Within the Sea of Consciousness, the surface of the spiritual lake boiled. Traces of vitality emerged, and this space continuously expanded. The lake water churned, and in an instant, land appeared. A snowfield appeared. Then the sun and moon followed, and two continents took shape.

From above, the area was not especially large. The snowfield occupied the greater portion, while the plateau forest took up only a small part. It was probably calculated according to the proportions of the Soul Beasts. The only Soul Beasts suited to living in the forest and plateau were Jiji Ba and the Ice Crystal Bears, while there were far more varieties suited to the snowy Far North, in all manner of forms.

There was actually a world inside my mind!!

For a moment, Gu You did not know what to do. The sudden change had been too immense, leaving his thoughts in complete chaos.

"Looks like you aren't bad either." Gu You looked at the clawed hand covered in Dragon Scales and said with a smile.

At that moment, Jiji Ba stared blankly at the huge creature before him. How was it even bigger than him? And where was this place...

After leaving the Sea of Consciousness, Gu You felt his mind brimming with energy, as though he possessed endless Spiritual Power to use.

A boundless spirit sea was the foundation of creation.

This unexpected opportunity had directly pushed his Spiritual Power into the Spirit Sea Realm. It should have reached somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400.

Could accommodating Soul Beasts increase Spiritual Power?

Wouldn't that make me invincible?

As Gu You thought this over, he continued searching for any lone Soul Beasts.

Thud!

Gu You threw aside the wooden board and jumped down. He had spent quite some effort finding this secret chamber, so there had to be something good inside.

The surroundings were damp. Ancient blue bricks formed the only supports holding up the underground space. The farther he went, the clearer his vision became.

Just as expected!

There were once again countless iron cages, imprisoning many Soul Beasts. Most were Thousand-year Soul Beasts, with some Hundred-year Soul Beasts mixed in. There were simply no Ten Thousand Year Soul Beasts.

But on second thought, if they had managed to capture Ten Thousand Year Soul Beasts, that would have been outrageous. Still, Gu You could not help admiring the Evil Soul Masters' methods. They had captured so many living Thousand-year Soul Beasts. If all of them were handed over to the Spirit Pagoda, they would be worth a fortune.

But Gu You was not that heartless. Releasing the aura of his Martial Soul again, he absorbed every one of these Soul Beasts into his Sea of Consciousness.

His Sea of Consciousness expanded once more. The snowfield now occupied nearly all of the space in his mind, leaving only a tiny patch of forest and plateau.

Comfortable.

I should be at the middle stage of the Spirit Sea Realm now, at least, Gu You calculated.

Off we go!

With light steps, some people simply vanished while walking. Gu You once again fell through a hidden passage like a nesting doll. The air around him grew colder, and Gu You curled up. These Evil Soul Masters sure knew how to play—layer upon layer.

It was too cold! Even temperatures of minus twenty degrees had never made him feel like this. It was like an ordinary person standing in temperatures below minus thirty degrees.

"Human!"

What the hell?

A cold voice entered Gu You's ears. In the icy mist ahead, a pair of ice-blue pupils slowly opened. Like frozen emeralds, the figure drew closer and closer, while Gu You grew colder and colder until even breathing became difficult.

What a beautiful scorpion. Pale-blue scales reflected the shimmering icy mist, while the spear-like stinger on its tail seemed less like a weapon and more like a beautiful ornament.

"Die!"

Before Gu You could react, the Ice Emperor Scorpion's massive tail spear stabbed toward him.

Fuck!

Gu You dodged aside, and the enormous scorpion tail plunged into the ground.

"Does that... have venom?" Gu You swallowed. If that had hit him, he would have been pierced to pieces.

"Why don't you find out?" The Ice Emperor Scorpion did not wait for Gu You's nonsense. Its two enormous pincers lunged at him again.

"Stop fighting. You can speak, which means your intelligence isn't low. You should know that we humans have an old saying: harmony is precious." Gu You's Dragon Claw blocked the fatal strike.

"Ah! You're infuriating me! If not for the suppressing formation here, I'd chop you, you human brat, into pieces!" The Ice Emperor Scorpion stamped about in fury.

"I know you're in a hurry, but that won't resolve the conflict. Are you a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast? You can even curse now."

But the Ice Emperor Scorpion did not listen to any of Gu You's words. It merely lay there quietly, without a trace of life, as if it were dead.

"You okay? Don't play dead. I know you Soul Beasts all love pretending to be dead to lure prey in, then kill them with one strike, right? I'm smart. I won't fall for it." Gu You glanced sideways.

"Damn it, still pretending." Gu You moved closer and poked one of its pincers.

"Hehe! You're finished."

"Ah, fuck! Don't come over!!"

Gu You hurriedly counterattacked with his first Soul Skill, but when it struck the Ice Emperor Scorpion, it only produced a series of banging sounds.

It was over. Curiosity killed the cat. This time, he had really fallen into the hands of a Soul Beast. Gu You felt unwilling to accept it.