The divine thunder tribulation was the harshest judgment imposed by the laws of heaven and earth upon the Snow Empress, who sought to break the Soul Beasts' shackles and ascend to godhood.
Ice Empress's expression changed. The plan was one thing, but how could she not feel fear when faced with those terrifying thunderclouds?
Her usual fearlessness vanished before the thunderclouds.
The Snow Empress had only just fashioned a new body, and her essence had yet to stabilize. How could she possibly withstand that world-ending lightning?
"Ice Empress, we should go. The Snow Empress has to face this tribulation alone. If we interfere, who knows what unexpected changes might occur.
"Besides, her body won't be properly tempered."
Xue Yuheng said.
The Demi-God Level Life Tribulation that Soul Beasts faced after five hundred thousand years consisted of these three trials. The Snow Empress had experience with them.
Ice Empress, on the other hand, did not.
Fortunately, Ice Empress knew what was important. She took Xue Yuheng and traveled a thousand miles away before speaking.
"Xue Yuheng, you have no idea what the Snow Empress means to me, or to the Far North."
Damn, I know. You're just gay, aren't you?
Xue Yuheng fell silent.
The Snow Empress, who looked like a little girl, lifted her eyes to the roiling tribulation clouds above. There was not a trace of fear in her icy-blue eyes.
Lord Ice God, is this the trial you've set for your people?
Three Ultimates of the Snow Empress: Emperor's Palm, Great Cold Without Snow!
The first bolt of Ice God Thunder, as thick as a bowl, crashed down, carrying with it a chill that froze the very void.
The lightning struck the Snow Empress's palm. Her newly formed right hand was instantly enveloped in blinding blue light and shattered to pieces.
The Snow Empress did not retreat. With terrifying speed, she absorbed and transformed the world's elemental energy, gathering the icy Soul Power from a hundred-mile radius to rebuild her right hand.
"Ice God Thunder Tribulation, that's all you've got!"
The Snow Empress sneered. It looked as if she had lost that exchange, but her peerless combat experience had allowed her to gauge the thunderclouds' strength.
How boring, just enduring a thunder tribulation.
Today, the Snow Empress would destroy it!
Thinking of Xue Yuheng's promise, she felt a warmth in her heart.
"Thunder tribulations and all that? With me around, go wild."
Ever since Xue Yuheng had turned Xiao Xiao's Three-Colored Lightning Tribulation into more than a thousand Creation Points, the terrifying tribulations that others feared had looked to him like—
A pile of shiny, white Creation Points!
Ice mist gathered in the Snow Empress's hand, forming a long sword.
Emperor's Sword: Ice Extreme Unparalleled!
The second bolt, the third, the fourth...
As she cut down the lightning, the Snow Empress also drew on the lingering power of the heavenly treasures within her, gradually channeling the destructive force of the tribulation into her body.
It tempered her newly formed flesh and meridians, fusing the essence of a Soul Beast into this human body and binding them tightly together.
Each bolt grew more violent than the last. By the end, the entire snowy plain trembled beneath the lightning, and even distant ice mountains collapsed with a thunderous roar.
A thousand miles away, Ice Empress stood with tears welling in her jade-green eyes, but she gritted her teeth and dared not approach and disturb the Snow Empress.
Xue Yuheng stood beside her. He knew that, though the tribulation looked perilous, it was the most crucial step in her transformation.
Only after being tempered to the utmost by the Ice God Thunder could the Snow Empress's Soul Beast marks be completely erased. Only then could she forge a true human foundation for cultivation and escape the shackles of Soul Beasts for good.
If the Snow Empress used the trump card I gave her...
Could she still become a god?
After enduring countless bolts, the final bolt of world-ending Ice God Thunder—ten zhang thick—crashed down on the Snow Empress. Then, the lightning abruptly ceased, and the thunderclouds scattered.
On the snowy plain, the Snow Empress, still in the form of a little girl, landed steadily.
A faint icy-blue glow surrounded her. Her body, which had still been somewhat illusory, was now completely solid, every inch of her skin brimming with the vitality of new life.
The terrifying pressure of a seven-hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast had completely faded, leaving behind an aura no different from that of an ordinary human child.
The second trial, the Ice God Thunder Tribulation, was over.
Ice Empress brought Xue Yuheng forward, but just then, the Snow Empress's eyes suddenly went blank.
She stood motionless, like a soulless puppet. The icy-blue glow around her flickered, and even her breathing grew faint.
"Snow Empress? Snow Empress, what's wrong?!
"Is this... the Heart Tribulation?"
Ice Empress panicked. She rushed forward, but just as she reached for the Snow Empress, an invisible barrier violently flung her back.
All her emotions, at the moment her soul was at its weakest, had become the most perilous Heart Tribulation.
If she became trapped and her Dao heart shattered, then even if her body remained intact, she would become a living corpse without a mind. All their previous efforts would be wasted.
"What do we do?! Think of something, quickly!" Ice Empress cried anxiously.
"Everything is going according to plan. There's no need to rush."
What is this...
Xue Yuheng could clearly feel a thread connecting him to the Snow Empress's Spirit Sea.
The invisible thread was tugging furiously, as though it would snap at any moment.
Could I... go in?
The Wordless Heavenly Book was no longer in Xue Yuheng's mind. It was now in the Snow Empress's Spirit Sea.
It had been Xue Yuheng's trump card for helping the Snow Empress survive the thunder tribulation.
Now, it seemed to be having an unexpected effect.
Xue Yuheng closed his eyes and activated the Wordless Heavenly Book in the Snow Empress's Spirit Sea.
Then he reached out with his soul toward the Snow Empress's Spirit Sea.
The next instant, the world spun around him.
Xue Yuheng found himself standing on an endless snowy plain. Wind and snow howled all around him, and countless shattered scenes of illusion stretched out before his eyes.
The Snow Empress's memories of seven hundred thousand years surfaced in Xue Yuheng's mind.
He saw the Snow Empress fail to transform, her soul scattered. Ice Empress went mad and unleashed a beast tide across the Far North, only to be hunted down by Soul Masters from the entire continent. The Ice Jade Scorpion Clan was completely wiped out.
He saw the Snow Empress succeed in transforming, only to be treated by human Soul Masters as a walking Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring. Countless powerful figures swarmed toward her, the Far North was reduced to scorched earth, and her people were slaughtered.
He also saw himself betray his promise, control the Snow Empress, and plunder all the resources in the Far North. The armies of the Dou Ling Empire trampled this icy world flat.
At the very center of the illusion, the Snow Empress, in the form of a little girl, was curled up in the snowstorm.
Her icy-blue eyes were filled with a bewilderment and helplessness she had never shown before.
For seven hundred thousand years, from the moment she was born, the Snow Empress had been the ruler of the Far North and the faith of every ice-attribute Soul Beast.
The Snow Empress had an identity that no one knew about except Bing'er.
She was a descendant of the ancient Ice God.
The Snow Empress had to be powerful. She had to stay calm. She had to shoulder every responsibility.
But the Snow Empress could be afraid, too.
"None of this is real."
Xue Yuheng's steady voice cut through the howling wind and snow, reaching the little girl's ears clearly.
Xue Yuheng walked up to her, then crouched down to meet her gaze.
"We signed a contract to live and die together. If you die, I won't survive either. I wouldn't gamble with my own life, let alone with the lives of the billions of people in the Dou Ling Empire."
"After transforming, you'll simply be living on in a different way. The Far North is your home. I promise you, as long as I'm here, I won't let anyone destroy it."
"And Ice Empress is still waiting for you outside. You've never had to shoulder all of this alone—not before, and not now."
"You're human now, and you'll become an outstanding Soul Master.
"My Martial Soul, the Wordless Heavenly Book, will allow your Martial Soul to evolve."
"With my help, you'll become a god—an existence even more powerful than the Ice God."
Xue Yuheng held out his hand, his gaze sincere.
Words really were unbeatable.
On the snowy plain, the Snow Empress's vacant gaze finally regained some of its light.
In the illusion, the little girl looked up at Xue Yuheng.
"Why are you helping me?"
Xue Yuheng pretended to ponder before chuckling. "Because you're beautiful. I've never been able to resist beautiful women."
"..."
The little girl stood up and pointed toward the towering snow-capped peak in the distance. "That's Ice God Peak. It disappeared from the Far North more than five hundred thousand years ago.
"I want to... go see it."
How could Xue Yuheng refuse an invitation from a beauty?
What he didn't know was that this visit would last a hundred years.
"It's kind of boring to keep calling you Snow Empress. Besides, you're planning to study at Shrek someday. How about I give you a name?
"How about... Xue Qingwu?"
"Then can I call you Xiao Xue?"
"Sure, but don't call me that in front of Xiao Xiao when we're out."
"Pfft, you really do have a knack for being a playboy."
"You know what a playboy is?"
"Of course. I've lived in your human world before. And it's not just Douluo Continent—here's a secret.
"The world we live in is actually a sphere.
"There are other continents, too..."
"Wow...oh!"
"Hey, could you stop making such an exaggerated face? It's ugly..."
"This is the Ice God Temple from my memories. Outside the illusion, it must have sunk underground because of the movement of the continental plates."
"You grew up here?"
"You didn't know? Didn't you secretly look through my memories?"
"..."
"Why have you grown so much in the past twenty years while I haven't changed at all?"
"Xiao Xue, what are you muttering about over there? I'm going to soak in the hot springs at Ice God Valley. Are you coming?"
"I am! Of course I am. Qingwu, have you and those little friends of yours been talking about me behind my back again?"
"Have we? I don't think so. Stop tickling me... Hahaha... I said, stop... I said it!
"Actually, being little is cute, too!"
"..."
In the blink of an eye, a hundred years passed in the illusion, while only an instant went by in the outside world.
The countless fragments of illusion melted away bit by bit, like snow in spring.
Whoever had created the rule that Soul Beasts had to face a Heart Tribulation probably never imagined someone would use the illusion to relive old memories.
It was much like how Xue Yuheng had used Creation Points to help himself digest his food last time.
With the Wordless Heavenly Book, its bearer could not be troubled by inner demons.
You can take that up with my Power of Creation.
On the snowy plain in the real world, the icy-blue glow around the Snow Empress flared, then vanished into her body in an instant.
The next moment, both their souls returned to their bodies. And in that instant, the Snow Empress's entire seven hundred thousand years of cultivation dissipated.
Xue Qingwu looked at Ice Empress, who was anxiously waiting nearby, then at Xue Yuheng before her. She smiled, a touch of warmth in her expression.
From now on, the continent had one less Snow Empress who had once shaken the world.
And one more dazzling young genius.
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