Tang Ya was so happy she nearly jumped.
"Great! It's a deal!"
Ice Empress looked at her, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly.
Was that a smile?
Maybe.
On the way back to the dormitory.
Yinye walked to Bai Lan's left, and Ice Empress to his right.
The three walked in silence.
Suddenly, Ice Empress spoke.
"Master."
Bai Lan looked at her. "Hm?"
Ice Empress asked, "Why did that girl called Tang Ya smile at me?"
Bai Lan thought for a moment, then said,
"Because she likes you."
Ice Empress froze.
"Likes me?"
Bai Lan nodded.
"She wants to be friends with you."
Ice Empress fell silent.
She lowered her head and looked at the tips of her shoes.
They walked for a long time.
Then, suddenly, she said softly,
"My only friend might be Snow Empress..."
Bai Lan stopped.
He looked at her.
Ice Empress raised her head and met his gaze.
A rare hint of confusion filled her ice-blue eyes.
"Master, what does it feel like to have a human friend?"
Bai Lan was silent for a second.
Then he smiled.
He raised a hand and gently rested it on Ice Empress's shoulder.
"It feels like this."
Ice Empress froze.
She looked at Bai Lan, at his gentle eyes.
Suddenly, she felt as if something inside her were melting.
"Master..." she whispered.
Bai Lan withdrew his hand and continued walking.
"Come on. Let's go back and cultivate."
Ice Empress stood still, watching him walk away.
Yinye came up beside her.
"What's wrong?"
Ice Empress looked at her and asked,
"Do you feel this way too?"
Yinye smiled.
"I do," she said. "Every day."
Ice Empress fell silent for a second.
Then she smiled.
It was the first time she had smiled so gently.
"So this is what friendship feels like."
She started walking and caught up with them.
The two walked side by side behind that small figure.
Sunlight spilled over them.
Their three shadows stretched long across the ground.
Far away.
Tang Ya stood at the entrance to the cafeteria, gazing in that direction.
Bei Bei came up beside her.
"What's wrong?"
Tang Ya turned around, her eyes shining.
"Bei Bei, Ice Empress spoke to me!"
Bei Bei smiled.
"Mm, I heard."
Tang Ya clenched her fist.
"I'm going to become her very best friend!"
Xu Sanshi rolled his eyes beside them.
"She's a seven-hundred-thousand-year Ferocious Beast, and you're a Soul Grandmaster in your twenties. You think you can be her friend?"
Tang Ya glared at him.
"Why not?"
Xu Sanshi shrugged.
"Fine, fine. Whatever makes you happy."
Tang Ya huffed and turned toward the dormitory.
After a few steps, she suddenly stopped.
She looked back.
The three figures were already out of sight.
But she was still smiling.
"Big Sister Ice Empress..."
She whispered,
"See you tomorrow."
Late at night.
The dormitory was quiet.
Moonlight streamed through the window, laying a silvery-white sheen across the floor.
Now and then, a few insects chirped outside, making the night seem even more tranquil.
Bai Lan sat cross-legged on the bed, cultivating with his eyes closed.
Yinye and Ice Empress stood guard on either side of him.
Yinye's eyes were half closed, as if she were dozing.
Her breathing was steady and unhurried, blending into the night around her. Unless one looked closely, it was almost impossible to sense her presence.
Ice Empress leaned against the headboard, once again holding the Record of Continental Customs.
She had read it many times, but every time she opened it, it felt like the first.
She hadn't seen the human world in over four hundred thousand years, so every page was new to her.
The only sound in the room was the occasional turning of a page.
Suddenly—
Bai Lan opened his eyes.
He stopped cultivating.
Yinye noticed immediately and looked at him. "Master?"
Ice Empress also raised her head and closed the book.
Bai Lan didn't answer at once.
He just sat there, gazing at the moonlight outside the window, as if lost in thought.
"Master?" Yinye asked again, a hint of concern in her voice.
Bai Lan came back to himself and looked at her.
"It's nothing," he said. "I just suddenly remembered something."
Yinye and Ice Empress exchanged a glance.
Ice Empress spoke up. "What is it?"
Bai Lan was silent for a second.
Then he looked at Ice Empress and asked,
"Ice Empress, have you ever heard of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm?"
Ice Empress froze.
"Sky Dream Ice Silkworm?" she repeated, frowning slightly. "I've heard of it."
She thought for a moment, then added,
"There are quite a few ice silkworms in the Extreme North, but they're all ordinary, low-level Soul Beasts, at most a few hundred years old."
"The name Sky Dream Ice Silkworm... It does remind me of an annoying fellow, though that one disappeared many years ago. It might have been eaten long ago."
Bai Lan nodded and didn't ask any more.
Of course, he knew who Ice Empress meant.
It was the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
Although the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was born in the Extreme North, it had fallen into an ice fissure long ago. It survived by eating Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow, somehow reaching a million years while simply lying around, without ever facing a single Heavenly Tribulation.
Then, for some unknown reason, it went to the Star Dou Great Forest and was captured.
It never returned to the Extreme North after that.
It was only natural that Ice Empress thought it was dead.
"Why did you ask about it, Master?" Ice Empress looked at him, curiosity in her eyes. "Was there anything special about that ice silkworm?"
Bai Lan was silent for a second.
Then he smiled.
"Nothing," he said. "It just came to mind, so I asked."
Ice Empress glanced at him but didn't press further.
Still, she felt that his expression a moment ago had been unusual.
As if he were thinking about something important.
Yinye had noticed it too.
But she didn't ask either.
She knew that when her master wanted to talk, he would.
The room fell quiet again.
Bai Lan closed his eyes and resumed cultivating.
But his thoughts were anything but calm.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
A million-year Soul Beast.
The first million-year Soul Beast in the history of Douluo Continent.
By eating Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow, it had cultivated from an ordinary ice silkworm all the way to a million years.
It wasn't much of a fighter, but it had two things no other Soul Beast could match—
First, its Mental Attribute.
It was the only million-year mental-type Soul Beast on the entire continent.
Second, the energy it had accumulated inside its body.
It had built up that pure, immense energy by eating Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow for a million years, refining it to the utmost purity.
Hadn't Di Tian and the other Ferocious Beasts trapped it in the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest because they coveted the energy within it?
If he could make a pact with it—
Bai Lan's heart skipped a beat.
It would start at a million years.
And then it could evolve even further.
After reaching a million years, would every evolution still start at a hundred thousand years?
Or would it start at a million years?
After all, it had reached the level of a god.
What did that mean?
And if he fused with some other Soul Beast of the same origin...
Bai Lan took a deep breath, suppressing his excitement.
He knew it was too early to think about that.
According to the original timeline, Huo Yuhao entered the Star Dou Great Forest at around eleven and encountered the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
Huo Yuhao was only six now.
Five years to go.
During those five years, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm should still be in the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest, trapped by Di Tian and his group of Ferocious Beasts and having its energy drained every day.
That place.
Bai Lan's gaze turned grave.
The core region of the Star Dou Great Forest.
The Great Ferocious Land.
Di Tian, a seventy- to eight-hundred-thousand-year-old Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King.
And a group of Ferocious Beasts who were hundreds of thousands of years old.
With Yinye and the Ice Empress around, he didn't need to worry about the rest.
But Di Tian and the Silver Dragon King were another matter.
They had escaped from the Divine Realm.
Though their divine positions and divine cores had been shattered,
they were still genuine old gods.
Their strength couldn't be measured in years.
What's more, Di Tian had the Dragon God Claw, personally taught to him by the Dragon God.
Even a god could risk falling if struck by it.
"Master?"
Yinye's voice sounded again.
Bai Lan opened his eyes and met her silver-violet gaze.
There was a trace of worry in her eyes.
"Master, tonight... you seem troubled."
Before you continue