Just as Huo Yun'er made up her mind on Douluo Continent, a new change appeared in the Heavenly Screen.
With Ice Empress's aura bolstering him, Huo Yuhao encountered no obstacles on his way to the heart of the Far North.
However, when Huo Yuhao crossed a mountain, the sight before him made his eyes widen.
The heart of the Far North, as Ice Empress had described it, had been reduced to a vast pit! Howling snow gusted over its jagged edges, and the only sound echoing through the land was the mournful howl of the wind.
The wind's wail seemed to be the world itself mourning the departed Lord of the Far North.
Apart from the enormous pit and the snow stretching as far as the eye could see, there was only a gigantic ice bear pacing at the bottom, letting out sorrowful cries from time to time.
"Xiao Bai!" Ice Empress's projection appeared beside Huo Yuhao, unbearable grief filling her jade-green eyes.
Looking down at the enormous ice bear at the bottom of the pit, she said mournfully, "Snow Empress raised it from childhood. It was the one most deeply attached to her..."
"I can sense Snow Empress's aura and the remnants of her life force here... It seems she really may have..."
Ice Empress fell silent, unwilling to utter that cruel word.
"What exactly happened to Snow Empress?" Tian Meng asked in confusion. "By all rights, Snow Empress was about to become a seven-hundred-thousand-year Ferocious Beast, and she was a top-tier being with Extreme Ice, a Heavenly Snow Woman!"
"Even a human Limit Douluo shouldn't have been able to force her to self-destruct, right?"
"Even that damned loach Di Tian shouldn't have been able to leave Snow Empress with no chance to call for help before she fell into Extremis—not in the Far North!"
"Maybe it has something to do with the Blood Moon anomaly we saw earlier..."
Ice Empress came back to herself and said, "The closer we got to the core region, the redder the moon in the sky became. But after that explosion, once the clouds cleared, the Blood Moon had returned to normal."
"But now there's nothing left here. Not a single trace! Perhaps whoever wielded that strange power erased them, or perhaps Snow Empress destroyed them in her final counterattack..."
"Now we won't even have a chance to avenge Snow Empress!"
Ice Empress's spirits sank.
"Wait... What's that?" Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eyes picked up an anomaly. He pointed at the seemingly empty air before them.
In that spot, space was twisting so subtly it was almost impossible to notice! Snowflakes drifting past suddenly vanished, as if silently swallowed by an invisible bag.
Without hesitation, Huo Yuhao activated his Spirit Eyes, gathered a thread of Spiritual Power, and tentatively touched the twisted space!
In an instant, before he could even cry out, his entire body vanished into thin air, as if erased by an invisible eraser!
Only a few scattered footprints remained. The merciless snow soon covered them completely.
Then, the scene abruptly shifted.
It was the same mountaintop, and they stood in the same places. Huo Yuhao's figure appeared, as though he had never moved.
"Something's wrong—" Only then did Huo Yuhao's startled cry escape his lips.
"W-where is this?!" Huo Yuhao stared at the scene before him in stunned disbelief. Tian Meng and Ice Empress's projections appeared beside him, wearing almost exactly the same expressions.
They were still standing on the same mountain, but everything before them had changed. The empty pit was gone!
The ground rolled and mountains soared through the air!
Lava hung upside down in the sky, while an enormous Crimson Gate slowly rotated below!
In this bizarre, fantastical landscape, figures dressed in identical robes wielded energies of every color as they fought the monsters pouring out of the enormous Scarlet Gate!
Huo Yuhao, Tian Meng, and Ice Empress stared at the strange, chaotic scene before them, unable to make sense of up or down, east or west!
Even the mountain beneath their feet was no more than a fragment. It rumbled as it spun through the air!
"Am I dreaming?!" Huo Yuhao murmured, his gaze unfocused.
But when a massive, shattered boulder came hurtling toward him, he still swiftly activated his External Soul Bone.
His Scorpion Tail shot out behind him, extending dozens of meters. It struck a fragment of a nearby mountain, its hook catching in a crack and hauling him toward it.
In the next instant, a rain of rocks like a meteor shower thundered down on the fragment where he'd been standing. It battered the stone until it was riddled with holes, then shattered it into several pieces with a deafening crash!
"Who are those people?!" Tian Meng's projection followed close beside Huo Yuhao, shouting in alarm.
"They don't seem to be Soul Masters!" Ice Empress frowned. "They don't have Soul Rings! But they don't have the aura of Soul Beasts either, so they're not Humanoid Soul Beasts like Snow Empress!"
"I've never seen either side of this battle! But judging by their aura, whatever came out of that Scarlet Gate is definitely no good! They must have something to do with Snow Empress's death!"
Timid by nature, Tian Meng watched the robed figures shatter mountains with casual gestures and even turn the world upside down. He was so terrified he nearly lost control of his bowels, and shrieked nonstop:
"My god! Could those be gods from the Divine Realm descended to the mortal world? Could Di Tian in the Star Dou Great Forest do something like this?!"
"Gods?!" Huo Yuhao's eyes suddenly lit up. "Brother Sky Dream, Ice Empress, if I wait until the battle's over and beg those gods to bring my mother back to life, do you think there's a chance they'll succeed? Would they agree?"
"What are you dreaming about?! We don't even know where we are! Let's just focus on staying alive!" Tian Meng shrieked.
"They don't seem like gods to me. I've sensed divine power from a god before, from a distance, and those people feel different," Ice Empress said, shaking her head.
"Even if they aren't gods, they have power on par with them. Maybe they still know a way to bring the dead back to life!" Light flickered in Huo Yuhao's eyes. He wasn't willing to give up this chance.
During their brief exchange, another enormous mountain fragment, carrying lava and a piercing shriek, came crashing toward them like the War Hammer of doomsday!
Huo Yuhao's expression changed. He instantly cast aside every stray thought and devoted all his attention to the instinct to survive!
He darted away. His Scorpion Tail shot out like a nimble serpent once more, catching the edge of another floating rock wall by the narrowest margin. He forced himself in a new direction, narrowly avoiding the fatal collision at the last possible moment!
In the time that followed, Huo Yuhao pushed himself beyond any limit he'd ever reached. He used all his Spiritual Power to predict trajectories, wielding his Scorpion Tail as nimbly as his own arm.
He dodged among flying boulders, exploding energy storms, pouring lava, and the remains of monsters hurtling through the air!
Every maneuver brought him face-to-face with danger. Every breath felt like one stolen from between the Grim Reaper's fingers!
Before you continue