Heavenly Tribulation Arrives Early, Snow Empress is Born

"Your Bear Lord is here!"

Bear Lord looked toward the mountain-like enormous soul beast. He channeled his full Soul Power, and a roaring bear cry like a tidal wave swept across the Extreme North.

Several peaks instantly collapsed. The massive figure was shaken back step after step, and a blizzard surged forward like a rolling tide.

"Everyone, raise your defensive barrier!"

The caravan master hadn't shown such panic even when facing the wolf pack. All the soul masters in the caravan lined up in a row, unleashing their Soul Power without reservation to form a defensive barrier.

Rumble...

The blizzard swallowed the entire caravan in the blink of an eye, as if erecting a natural tombstone for them.

Jiang Mian's vision went dark. With his current strength, dealing with such a natural disaster was laughable. He could only grip Bear Lord tightly and hold Zhu Zhuqing close in his arms.

Zhu Zhuqing pressed against Jiang Mian's chest, as if this gave her immense security.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Bear Lord had no intention of saving the caravan. He grabbed Jiang Mian and Zhu Zhuqing and shot straight out of the snow layer as a golden light.

Looking down from above, heaven and earth had returned to normal. Only the corpses of a few King Camels from the caravan were exposed, marking the tragic scene that had unfolded here.

"Bear Lord, why did you do this?" Jiang Mian said angrily.

"Only humans are allowed to hunt soul beasts, but soul beasts can't harm humans?" Bear Lord said disdainfully. "What kind of logic is that?"

"They were innocent," Jiang Mian said in surprise. "To harm life like this, Bear Lord, do you still want to undergo your Heavenly Tribulation?"

"You only know one side of it, not the other." Bear Lord frowned slightly and said coldly, "For someone whose Soul Power has reached the fortieth rank, can't you even sense what's in the caravan's carts?"

"What?" Jiang Mian was momentarily stunned. Bear Lord brought them to a mountaintop before explaining slowly: "Those caravan carts are full of living people."

"Men and women alike, all locked up in those carts like livestock." Having lived for hundreds of thousands of years, Bear Lord had that much insight. "This should be a slave-trading or human-trafficking caravan."

"If those people were successfully transported to their destination, they'd wish they were dead." Bear Lord said. "And we couldn't possibly bring them out of the Extreme North, so I kindly dug them graves instead."

"Why didn't you say so earlier? Let's go kill those soul masters who were aiding the villains too." A sharp glint flashed in Jiang Mian's eyes.

"Enough. With a blizzard of this scale, if they survive, they're lucky. No need to finish them off." Bear Lord said indifferently.

"Scum." Jiang Mian spat. He looked at Zhu Zhuqing and said, "Zhuqing, that caravan might be connected to the Star Luo Empire's royal family. I noticed the caravan master looking at you strangely earlier, but I didn't think much of it."

"He did look a bit familiar to me, but I can't remember where I've seen him." Zhu Zhuqing pursed her lips, her expression serious.

"Interesting." Jiang Mian narrowed his eyes. It was still nearly two years before Tang San went to Shrek. Taking Zhu Zhuqing to the Star Luo Empire for a trip wouldn't be a problem.

Suddenly, a thunderclap split the sky.

Bear Lord's face changed drastically. Why was the Heavenly Tribulation early!

"Damn it. It might be because you dealt with those soul masters just now, which increased your cultivation years, causing the tribulation to come early!" Jiang Mian looked at the thunderclouds gathering in the sky and couldn't help stepping back two paces.

"Bring it on!" Bear Lord's eyes turned bloodshot. He suddenly revealed his true form, a bear the size of a small hill appearing beside Jiang Mian and Zhu Zhuqing.

"You two, stay far away. Don't let the tribulation catch you." Bear Lord warned. "A five-hundred-thousand-year Heavenly Tribulation is no joke."

Jiang Mian held Zhu Zhuqing and wisely distanced himself from Bear Lord.

This tribulation could only be endured by Bear Lord alone. Still, Di Tian had sent Bi Ji and the King of Ten Thousand Demons to gather quite a few innate treasures for Bear Lord, so his chances of success were likely high.

Moreover, after Jiang Mian had captured the Auspicious Beast, he had inherited its ability to increase a soul beast's chances of surviving the tribulation. Staying by Bear Lord's side now, his effect was no different from the Auspicious Beast's.

Unfortunately, he had experimented with the Auspicious Beast before. The probability-boosting ability couldn't stack, or else Bear Lord's breakthrough wouldn't have been so troublesome.

Thunder roared across the nine skies. Bear Lord, his fur a dark gold, bared his claws and fangs, as if ready to tear the heavens apart.

To say he wasn't afraid would be a lie. Bear Lord had seen a five-hundred-thousand-year tribulation before. Back when Di Tian had undergone his, Bear Lord was barely a hundred-thousand-year soul beast. In the blink of an eye, it was his turn.

Thunderbolts rained down like a law of heaven. A dark-gold defensive fluctuation rose around Bear Lord. The thunder struck it and vanished like a mud ox sinking into the sea, having no effect at all.

"Bear Lord seems to be handling it easily." Zhu Zhuqing carefully observed Bear Lord's state and said in surprise, "The tribulation isn't as terrifying as I imagined."

"This is only the first stage." Jiang Mian smiled slightly and explained, "The intensity of the heavenly thunder here corresponds to a soul beast that has just reached the hundred-thousand-year level."

"For every additional hundred thousand years, another layer of heavenly thunder appears, and its intensity increases geometrically."

"Then isn't Bear Lord in great danger?"

Zhu Zhuqing said with some worry. Though she usually appeared as cold as an ice beauty, her heart was always warm. She knew very well who treated her well.

Jiang Mian laughed on the surface, but inwardly he was sweating for Bear Lord. Before they came, Di Tian had secretly told him he had arrangements in place. But now that the tribulation had come early, would those plans fall through?

If they did, wouldn't Bear Lord be in danger!

The reason Jiang Mian had brought Bear Lord to the Extreme North for the tribulation was threefold: first, the Extreme North was sparsely populated and relatively safe; second, he wanted to obtain the soul beast Snow Empress; and third, Di Tian had said he had arrangements in the Extreme North.

That old bastard—he'd better not screw me over!

The first stage of heavenly thunder ended quickly. Bear Lord hastily pulled out spirit herbs and stuffed them into his mouth to recover, while the second stage arrived in an instant.

The second stage was unusual. The color of the heavenly thunder shifted from red to blue, and its killing power was likely a step higher.

Deep in the Extreme North, inside a radiant ice crystal palace, a white-haired beauty with a crown of ice crystals, a tall figure, and peerless features slowly looked up at the sky.

Her hair was whiter than snow, her pupils an extreme ice-blue, and her face was so breathtaking that any beautiful woman standing beside her would feel inferior. She sat there like an ice crystal snow lotus, sacred and inviolable.

"Di Tian, is this the youth you spoke of? Can he truly lead our soul beast race back to the heights we once reached?"

Snow Empress's slender, long eyelashes trembled slightly. She raised an arm as fair as a lotus root and instantly dissolved into snowflakes, vanishing from where she stood.

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