The Dance of Moon Shadow was a Martial Soul Fusion Skill used by Yue and Ying, the vice-captains of the Moon Shadow Squad. It was also why the royal family had invested so many resources in training them.
As far as Xue Yuheng was concerned, the Moon Shadow Squad's other five members were expendable pawns he could abandon at any time.
Only those two were truly his trusted confidantes.
Without the Holy Shadow Stone Xue Yuheng had given her, Yue would never have reached the Titled Douluo level in her lifetime. The Holy Shadow Soul Core she had condensed contained Yin-Yang Soul Power, making it one of the highest-grade Soul Cores.
That was why the Heavenly Dancing Maiden's strength had advanced so dramatically.
She was so terrifyingly powerful that she could hold her own even against the greatly enhanced Titan Snow Demon King in the Far North.
Watching the two dazzling figures battling fiercely in the sky, Xue Yuheng shouted, "Snow Demon King, His Excellency the Snow Empress and I have reached an agreement to cooperate. From now on, we're all on the same side.
"Why should family fight among themselves?
"Yue, Ying, stop fighting too."
At the Super Douluo level, neither side could simply stop and leave themselves open.
One sneak attack from the other side would leave them gravely wounded at best—or on the verge of death.
Xue Yuheng's words had little effect. The peerlessly elegant Heavenly Dancing Maiden, flying through the air, flew into a rage. The Black and White Holy Sword formed from Yue's external Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone blazed in her hand.
Just then, the Snow Empress's voice rang in everyone's ears from a thousand li away, bringing the battle to a halt.
After the Martial Soul Fusion Skill was undone, Yue and Ying were both badly drained. Xue Yuheng had no choice but to send them back with Xiao Xiao to Beiyuan City, the border city nearest the Far North, to recover.
He himself went to find Rou, Qing, Ling, and Xin, one by one.
As the Snow Empress had said, Xue Yuheng was extremely unlikely to detonate those four Soul Tool Cannonballs. Even the most powerful one—a Level Nine cannonball—had been taken by Rou to the Ice Jade Scorpion Soul Beasts' habitat according to plan.
But at the Snow Empress and Ice Empress's level, they could hardly be held back by fear of collateral damage.
It was like the saying in the cultivation world: better your fellow cultivator die than you.
Unless things deteriorated to the point where he had to fire the Soul Tool Cannonballs first and wipe out the Far North's fighting force, Xue Yuheng absolutely didn't want to see Douling face the calamity of a nation's destruction.
This time, Xue Yuheng had made the right bet.
No matter how much the Snow Empress and Ice Empress despised humans, with their life tribulation looming, they had no choice but to compromise with him.
Even someone as powerful as the Snow Empress wasn't confident that her second plan would succeed.
As for surviving the Seven Hundred Thousand Year Life Tribulation, she hadn't even dared to dream of it.
Now that the Ice God Contract was in place, Xue Yuheng and the Snow Empress were in the same boat. Of course, his original intention had been to help the Two Emperors of Ice and Snow all along.
Those two were top-tier fighters, after all.
Maybe they could even... Ahem.
Using the Positioning Soul Tool, Xue Yuheng found Rou, who was closest. Then they split into two groups, and after more than three hours, the five of them returned to Beiyuan City, the human city nearest the Far North, to rest and recover.
Beiyuan City
Another major city of the Heaven Dou Empire, Beiyuan City stood on the edge of the Far North. Its city lord wielded tremendous power and commanded three legions.
The city lord's wife, the mature Xu Xue, gave Xue Yuheng and his group a warm welcome.
With Xu Xue leading the way, Xue Yuheng and Xiao Xiao toured the entire city.
This mighty fortress gave Xue Yuheng a feeling unlike any city he had ever visited.
Of course, he had his doubts about whether it could really withstand the beast tide from the Far North.
After a day of rest
Xue Yuheng left all six women in Beiyuan City, including Xiao Xiao, whom he had spent ages comforting, and returned to the Far North alone.
This time, he went a little deeper.
Under the Ice Empress's guidance, Xue Yuheng went straight to the Snow Empress's "home."
It was a magnificent Western-style castle carved entirely from ice.
As far as the eye could see, everything was made of ice. Why did Xue Yuheng feel like he'd seen a scene like this in a movie?
Beside the castle's courtyard, Xue Yuheng checked the materials once more to make sure nothing would go wrong at the crucial moment.
After confirming everything several times, the three of them arrived at a boundless, empty snowfield.
The Ice Empress had already driven away the Soul Beasts that lived there. She glared at him and snarled,
"Brat, if anything happens to the Snow Empress..."
Xue Yuheng rolled his eyes and finished for her. "You'll unleash a beast tide and destroy Douling, right?"
The Ice Empress snorted. "Good. At least you know."
The two bickered a little more. Nearby, the Snow Empress floated in the air, communicating with the spirits of more than a hundred kinds of heavenly treasures around her. She had no time to pay them any attention.
Only when the Snow Empress opened her eyes and swallowed the Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Marrow did they fall silent.
Xue Yuheng stared, stunned. Could she really swallow that thing whole? No wonder she was the Snow Empress. She was terrifying.
The instant the Profound Ice Marrow entered her body, the icy mist around the Snow Empress suddenly collapsed inward, and even the wind and snow across the world came to a halt.
The life tribulation of a Seven Hundred Thousand Year Soul Beast.
The first trial: the withering of life.
This was the backlash of seven hundred thousand years of accumulated power, the hardest tribulation for a Soul Beast to overcome—akin to the omens of the Five Decays of Heaven and Man.
The tips of the Snow Empress's long ice-blue hair turned withered and gray before their eyes.
Fine, web-like cracks spread across her once jade-white skin, like ancient ice weathered for countless millennia, ready to crumble into dust at any moment.
The Snow Empress's vast icy origin, as boundless as the Ice Sea, and her immense life force rapidly evaporated and withered away.
Even her seven hundred thousand years of insight into the laws of ice began to blur and scatter.
"Snow Empress!" The Ice Empress's expression changed. Green Soul Power surged out of her as she tried to rush forward, but the Snow Empress raised a hand and blocked her with a barrier of solid ice.
"Don't come any closer." The Snow Empress's voice was cool, but the faint tremor at the end betrayed the agony she was enduring.
In her seven hundred thousand years of life, the Snow Empress had seen countless astonishing Soul Beasts. During this trial, they had been unable to resist in the slightest, eventually turning to a wisp of ash between heaven and earth.
Xue Yuheng came to his senses at once. The Wordless Heavenly Book in his Spirit Sea flipped rapidly, and the transformation procedure he had Deduction-tested countless times over the past two days appeared before him again.
Xue Yuheng raised a hand and used the Power of Creation to dissolve more than a hundred kinds of ice-type heavenly treasures: the Ice God Flower, Ice Spirit Sky Sand, Hundred-Thousand-Year Snow Lotus...
One treasure after another, each enough to drive Soul Masters across the continent into a frenzy, turned under the Power of Creation into streams of pure ice-blue light that flowed toward the Snow Empress.
"Snow Empress, draw on the life force and energy of these treasures to protect your origin.
"Gather your Soul Power along the human meridian pathways and shape a human body!"
Xue Yuheng's voice cut through the wind and snow, ringing clear in the Snow Empress's ears.
Following the plan Xue Yuheng had explained to her again and again, the Snow Empress's ice-blue eyes sharpened, and she drew in all the power she had cultivated over seven hundred thousand years.
She guided the treasure-light filling the sky, slowly repairing her withered origin while shedding her Soul Beast essence and reshaping her human flesh and meridians.
The Ice Empress clenched her fists until they creaked, staring without blinking at the Snow Empress in midair.
She could clearly feel the Soul Beast aura fading rapidly from the Snow Empress, replaced by an increasingly distinct human aura.
Humans really were a species favored by heaven and earth.
Even though they were nothing more than food for Soul Beasts...
After an unknown amount of time, the last trace of the Ice God Flower's essence merged into the Snow Empress's body, and the aura of decay and desolation finally faded away completely.
In midair, the Snow Empress's figure slowly solidified.
She was no longer the imposing, mature woman she had been before. Instead, she had become a little girl who looked only six or seven years old.
Her ice-blue hair fell to her ankles, and her skin was as white as the first snow of the Far North. Her delicate face remained cold, though now it held a child's innocence.
The Snow Empress's human body had taken shape.
With the aid of so many heavenly treasures, the first trial—the withering of life—had passed smoothly, without a single problem.
The Two Emperors of Ice and Snow seemed not to have realized something. Xue Yuheng coughed inwardly. There was no way he could point it out to them in this situation, could he?
Before the Ice Empress could let out the breath she had been holding, a deafening roar suddenly rang out from the heavens.
The snowfield's sky, where light snow had been falling, was instantly covered by ice-blue tribulation clouds. Lightning churned within them, each bolt carrying a destructive aura powerful enough to make even a Super Douluo tremble.
The second trial, the Ice God Thunder Tribulation, had arrived.
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