Emergence

The sky was gloomy. A violent storm swept hard snowflakes across the land, howling and roaring as endless ice dust, wrapped in the wind, battered everything in its path.

Yet this did nothing to hinder Xiong Jun. His thick fur kept the heat from escaping, while his tough defenses withstood the blizzard, which was comparable to a soul skill attack.

An invisible majesty spread out in an instant. The once-overcast sky swiftly turned ink-black, and a core region spanning over ten thousand square kilometers was shrouded by this oppressive pressure.

"Snow Empress, Xiong Jun has arrived!"

Xiong Jun brazenly unleashed his aura like this, greeting the ruler of the Far North Land.

"Xiong Jun?"

Snow Empress slowly rose to her feet, confusion appearing on her flawless face. Her fair, delicate legs stepped forward, and her body turned into drifting snowflakes before vanishing from the spot.

"You filthy bear, how dare you cause trouble in our Far North Land!"

Ice Empress's furious voice rang out. A patch of jade-green gradually spread through the darkened sky toward Xiong Jun. Though Xiong Jun was technically greeting them, his manner was somewhat impolite.

A scorpion roughly one and a half meters long, its entire body glittering like gemstones, soon arrived before Xiong Jun. It was Ice Empress.

Ice Empress watched Xiong Jun with uncertainty. Though her cultivation had once been inferior to his, in the Far North Land, Xiong Jun definitely could not defeat her. The opportunity she had encountered some time ago had greatly improved her strength, so why did she feel a threat of death when facing him?

"Ice Empress? The one I came to find is Snow Empress. You are not qualified."

Xiong Jun did not care about Ice Empress's attitude. Away from home, as an envoy demon beast from the Star Dou Great Forest, he still had to maintain his bearing. He needed to be more composed and could not be as rash as Ice Empress.

"You filthy bear, you..."

Jade-green light flickered around Ice Empress's body as extreme cold gathered at her tail hook.

"Ice, wait."

Snowflakes gathered into Snow Empress's figure. The nominal ruler of the Far North Land had finally appeared.

"Snow."

Ice Empress hesitated, but ultimately withdrew her power, waiting to hear what her Snow had to say.

"Xiong Jun, what do you want with me?"

Snow Empress turned her gaze back to Xiong Jun. As a spirit of the Far North Land, she could better sense the terrifying, abyss-deep power within his body through this blizzard.

"Of course, I have brought the Lord's command. Soul Beasts and humans will soon wage war. This is not merely the Star Dou Great Forest's affair. All Soul Beasts must participate. The Soul Beasts of your Far North Land must also increase their strength to fight humanity."

Xiong Jun spoke with a solemn expression.

He had never underestimated any Soul Beast, much less Snow Empress, a spirit born of heaven and earth. What if she became stronger than him after transforming into a demon beast? Xiong Jun was still willing to show Snow Empress some respect.

"That supreme ruler?"

Snow Empress fell into thought. Naturally, they knew of that supreme ruler. They had sensed his aura when they went to the Star Dou Great Forest back then. But why were Soul Beasts suddenly going to war with humans? If they were launching a Beast Tide, should the Star Dou Great Forest not be acting alone?

"Over there!"

A blue pillar of light that pierced heaven and earth erupted in the distance, radiating a terrifying aura and awakening the entire Far North Land.

"The Ice God's aura."

Snow Empress murmured. She could not be mistaken. That was the Ice God's aura.

"Snow, let's go quickly!"

Ice Empress was already impatient to head over and see what had happened.

"Xiong Jun, I am sorry, but I cannot give you an answer for now."

Apology appeared on Snow Empress's flawless face. A suspected Ice God ruin had appeared, and she had no time to consider those matters for the moment.

"I can come along and take a look, right?"

Xiong Jun did not mind. Whenever a Dragon King ruin had appeared in the Star Dou Great Forest in the past, Di Tian would drop everything to investigate it. At worst, this would only delay things for a while.

Snow Empress hesitated, but eventually agreed. For some reason, her intuition told her it would be better to bring Xiong Jun along.

Ice Empress glared at Xiong Jun but said nothing. Only when she saw him slash open a spatial rift with one claw and enter it did she shudder inwardly.

Meanwhile, Tang San had already obtained the Ice God's divine artifact: a suit of armor, divine artifact armor close to the level of a super divine artifact.

He had not expected the Ice God's divine artifact to be a suit of armor either. Back then, he had only discovered the Ice God's inheritance ground, but the God of Destruction had kept a close watch on him. All his brothers and sisters had already inherited godhood, and there had been no suitable candidate. He truly had not known what form the divine artifact took.

Within the vast ice palace, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong gazed in amazement at the ice sculptures of all shapes and colors. It was their first time seeing an inheritance ground of a god, and they had not expected it to look like this.

"Let's go. Once the war is over, I'll bring you here to undergo the divine trials. It will also speed up your growth."

Seeing the curious looks in their eyes, Tang San could not help sighing. If not for the God of the Sea's divine trials back then, how could the Shrek Seven Monsters have grown so quickly? Most opponents from their generation were still wandering around the Soul Emperor and Soul Sage ranks, while they had already become Titled Douluo.

"Thank you, Lord God of the Sea."

Huo Yuhao answered gratefully.

Though he did not know why the God of the Sea treated him so well, he truly could not resist the temptation of divine trials. This was a god's inheritance ground, one where no one had ascended to godhood for ten thousand years.

Tang San was also considering the Ice God's godhood. He would find a way to talk this Child of Destiny into going to Rong Nianbing. Then their side would gain two first-class gods. Rong Nianbing himself was not weak, and even Tang San envied that set of super divine artifacts.

Originally, he had planned to choose the Butterfly God's godhood for his daughter. He had even shaped her martial soul into a Light Goddess Butterfly, and he had already communicated with the Butterfly God. A second-class godhood was not bad.

But he truly had not considered the Ice God's godhood before. Tang San was already thinking about whether he should reshape his daughter's martial soul with an ultimate ice attribute.

The God of Destruction naturally would not refuse the return of a previously lost godhood to the God Realm. Even if he stood on Tang San's side, he would have to hold his nose and agree. The thought made Tang San happy.

"But why isn't there an Ice God statue? At home, I often see First Father and Second Father worshiping the God of the Sea statue. Why isn't there one here?"

Wang Dong was somewhat puzzled. Other than the divine artifact on the high platform, there were only ice sculptures in all kinds of colors. The most symbolic Ice God statue was absent instead. She had wanted to see what the Ice God looked like.

Hearing that Da Ming and Er Ming often worshiped him, Tang San smiled in satisfaction. He had not expected them to still respect him so much. Once he returned, he would not let Er Ming fight on the front lines in this war.

"Perhaps the Ice God did not have time to repair his inheritance ground. He hurriedly left it behind before dying."

Tang San voiced his guess.

Huo Yuhao recalled the records in his textbook: "The God Realm was moved by the great God of the Sea's radiance and compassion. After the God of the Sea was killed by the evil twin gods of Spirit Hall, the God Realm descended. The God of Food and Nine-Colored Dancer revived the God of the Sea through the bodies of their ancestors, Oscar and Ning Rongrong. In the end, the great God of the Sea used the twin gods sharing the body of ancestor Xiao Wu to kill the evil twin gods of Spirit Hall, restoring peace to the continent."

Gods can die too.

Huo Yuhao did not say those words aloud.

"Fuck, what the hell is that?"

Lu Wu instinctively dodged the spear that shot toward him, thankful that he had escaped the cave early. Otherwise, he would have been trapped inside.

Lu Wu looked back at the other party's burly muscles and felt that crushing him would not be much harder than crushing a chick.

The giant hurled one thing after another at him. Though Lu Wu avoided most of them on instinct, stones still struck him from time to time. It felt about the same as being hit by a dump truck.

After running for who knew how long, Lu Wu saw quite a few strange-looking creatures along the giant's path of pursuit. They looked edible too, but this fellow acted like an idiot, fixating solely on him. It nearly drove Lu Wu mad.

"Is this really necessary?!"

Lu Wu sensed an almost life-threatening danger behind him. Looking back, he saw the giant's muscles tense all over as it actually lifted an entire mountain and hurled it at him.