Forbidden Love

Relying on the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm Molt's nearly perfect ability to conceal his aura, along with his powerful Soul Skill, Spirit Detection,

Huo Yuhao trekked through the peril-ridden Extreme North for several days, skillfully avoiding most of the hidden deadly threats and never encountering an enemy he could not handle head-on.

Several days later, when the surrounding cold suddenly rose to an entirely new level, and towering dark-blue ice peaks hundreds of meters high began appearing in his field of vision, standing like colossal gods...

Huo Yuhao knew that he had finally entered the true Core Circle of this forbidden region of the Extreme North Continent.

This was an absolute forbidden zone for life, a place where the laws of ice and snow took physical form.

All things lay silent. Only the eternal howling wind and bone-deep cold ruled everything.

"Yuhao, stop here."

After traveling for another half day, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's voice sounded in his mind.

As a Spirit Soul, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's figure instantly solidified on Huo Yuhao's shoulder. Its tiny eyes fixed intently on the terrifying region ahead, which seemed to conceal another world of ice and snow.

"We can't go any farther."

"The Core Circle is fraught with danger. If we barge in recklessly, our lives will be in danger in an instant."

It paused, then said solemnly, "From here on... leave it to me."

As its words fell, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm Molt that had been covering Huo Yuhao's Soul Guidance Suit suddenly wriggled free on its own.

This jade-colored "silk," as though alive, swiftly peeled away from Huo Yuhao and tightly wrapped itself around the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's illusory Spirit Soul body!

Its somewhat phantom-like Spirit Soul body began to solidify and fill out at a visible rate the moment the molt covered it!

Immediately after, brilliant golden spheres of light emerged one after another from Huo Yuhao's brow, entering the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's newly solidified body in an orderly stream.

These spheres of light were originally the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's source power. With every sphere that merged into it, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's aura underwent a qualitative leap!

The next second, vast and surging spiritual power erupted from the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's newly solidified body like an awakening tide!

An invisible spiritual pressure spread outward from it, forcing even the never-ending wind and snow away to create a ring of vacuum. The Ten-Thousand Year Profound Ice beneath its feet emitted faint cracking sounds under the strain.

Its formidable spiritual power transformed into an invisible colossal wave and surged toward the deepest reaches of the Extreme North Core Circle.

Accompanying that spiritual power was the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's deliberately amplified shout.

"Ice Empress!"

"I know you can hear me! Tian Meng is back!"

"This time... I'm here for revenge!"

"Do you dare come out and face me?!"

This gunpowder-laced declaration echoed between heaven and earth, making the surrounding ice crystals tremble and rattle.

Huo Yuhao's expression instantly turned a little strange, and the corner of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly. He had not expected that to be the first thing it said.

Within the Spirit Sea, Xiao Yin's reaction was even more direct.

Its enormous silver eye flew wide open, and one Spiritual Tentacle even sprang up in shock. Without concealing its mockery, it said, "This... is the so-called relationship?! So after all that, they're enemies!"

Time passed second by second amid tense anticipation and the biting howl of the wind.

Yet it was not long before a sudden change occurred!

At the end of the originally lead-gray, low-hanging sky, filled with wind and snow, a dazzling emerald-green radiance suddenly pierced through the pale heavens. Like thick ink dropped into clear water, it spread at a shocking speed!

That emerald green was not the vibrant green of grass and trees, but the cold, crystalline hue of the finest jade.

Wherever the light passed, the sky seemed to be dyed into an incomparably vast sheet of emerald glass. Even the howling gale and swirling snow were reflected in a deep jade hue.

At the same time, a violent, highly aggressive terrifying presence crushed in from all directions like an invisible iceberg!

Then, a crisp voice like shattering ice crystals rolled over from the direction where the emerald radiance was most intense, carrying tangible sound waves and Mental Shock.

"Tian Meng!"

"You useless trash, you're... actually still alive?!"

The identity of the voice's owner needed no explanation.

She was one of the Three Heavenly Kings of the Extreme North, the supreme ruler of the Ice Jade Scorpion Clan, the Beast who wielded Ultimate Ice—Ice Empress!

Had Huo Yuhao been alone at this moment, with the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's lovesickness and obsession bottled up for hundreds of thousands of years, he would likely have been unable to restrain himself. He would have poured out all the nauseatingly sweet words he had prepared over countless ages toward that jade figure haunting his dreams, words enough to give even an iceberg goosebumps.

Yet the reality was that not only was the unfathomable Electrolux silently "watching the ceremony" within the Spirit Sea, there was also Xiao Yin beside him, glaring with its huge silver eye and always at odds with him!

Under so many watchful eyes, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm forcibly suppressed the flood of feelings in its heart for the sake of its "pride."

It could only follow the "avenger" script it had written for itself, twisting those complicated emotions into a stiff-sounding provocation as it replied to the spreading jade light in the sky.

"Ice Empress, if you aren't dead, how could I possibly go first?!"

"How dare you!"

Ice Empress's crisp voice carried undisguised fury and cold murderous intent at being offended.

She clearly had not expected this useless ice silkworm, which in her memory only knew how to run and whose flesh was at least somewhat "nourishing," to dare speak to her in such a tone.

"Whoosh!"

The boundless emerald-green light in the sky suddenly contracted inward before erupting violently!

A dazzling emerald Light and Shadow, like lightning tearing through space, instantly crossed the vast distance and appeared on the ice not far in front of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.

The light faded, revealing her true form.

She was a scorpion about one and a half meters long. Her body was not especially massive, but every inch of it seemed to have been carved and forged from the purest jade and Ten-Thousand Year Profound Ice in heaven and earth.

Her carapace was a deep, noble emerald green, perfectly interwoven with diamond-like ice crystals that refracted a biting chill, forming armor of strange beauty.

Each of her two front pincers was a meter long and covered in strange hexagonal, diamond-like protrusions.

Only the foremost claws and mouthparts were Silver White, gleaming like a Mirror Surface.

The segments of her tail rose one after another toward its hooked tip, which glittered with a deep jade cold light sharp enough to make one's soul ache.

She was the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion with a cultivation of three hundred ninety thousand years—Ice Empress!

Ice Empress's amber-like eyes locked coldly onto the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.

"Tian Meng!"

"Since you still dare appear before me, then after all these years, I'll accept this 'gift' of yours."

"I can sense it. Your source power... is even more tempting than before."

"Devouring you will greatly benefit my cultivation. Perhaps it may even allow me to become the strongest Soul Beast on the continent!"

The strong preyed on the weak, and strength ruled supreme. This had always been the cold iron law engraved into the very foundation of the Soul Beast world.

It had nothing to do with grudges, only evolution and survival.

At this moment, the way Ice Empress looked at the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was fundamentally no different from how she had viewed him hundreds of thousands of years ago.

It was the gaze of a predator standing at the top of the food chain, looking upon an incomparably plump and nourishing prey.

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was hopelessly in love with Ice Empress, but in her eyes, he had likely never been anything more than a delicious feast.

One side's unrequited love ran as deep as the sea, while the other only wanted to eat a hearty meal by "digging out her heart and lungs."

Barring an accident, no matter what happened next, there should be no ending between them.