Setting the Board

What followed went more smoothly than anyone could have imagined.

Ice Empress directly released the overwhelming aura of one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Extreme North, crushing all opposition along the way. No Soul Beast dared approach.

In less than an hour, they found the Ice Bear's lair.

It was an Ice Cave more than a hundred meters beneath the Icy Plains.

The entrance was half-buried in snow, and frost flowers that had not melted for ten thousand years clung to the icy walls. The farther down they went, the heavier the chill became, until even every breath carried fine ice slurry.

The ninety-seven-thousand-year-old Ice Bear was a circle smaller than Xiao Bai, yet it still resembled a small mountain. Its entire body was covered in heavy Ice Armor, every plate glimmering with faint blue cold light.

It lay curled up in the deepest part of the Ice Cave. The wound across its chest was deep enough to expose bone, having torn through its Ice Armor and into its flesh.

It was an old injury left behind years ago when it fought another Soul Beast over territory. More than half of its origin had long since been eroded away, and it had only managed to endure these years through its own cultivation.

It knew perfectly well that the next Heavenly Tribulation would be its death sentence.

Ice Empress got straight to the point and laid out every condition: the inevitable death of the Heavenly Tribulation, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's promise to repair its origin, the path of survival through Soul Spirit Symbiosis, and her identity as an Extreme North Heavenly King.

The Ice Bear had already reached the end of its rope, and it also feared Ice Empress's might. Hesitation flickered several times in its amber beast