Today was the fifth day since Xue Yuheng and Xiao Xiao had left Dragon City. Yesterday, the Snow Empress had successfully taken human form.
No—she should be called Xue Qingwu now.
The panel on the Wordless Heavenly Book had changed.
Xue Qingwu was a human recognized by the book.
After Xue Yuheng spent a thousand points of the Power of Creation and gathered the materials required for Xue Qingwu's Martial Soul Evolution, she fully adapted to her human body.
Xue Qingwu had officially become a Soul Master, too.
God-Level Martial Soul: Goddess of Ice and Snow. Innate Soul Power: Level 20.
Xue Qingwu had been born of nature itself and had taken the form of a six- or seven-year-old human at birth, so the book listed her bone age as six.
A six-year-old Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster. And the upper limit for the age of Soul Rings that Xue Yuheng's Power of Creation could grant to an evolved God-Level Martial Soul was incredibly high, determined almost entirely by the Soul Master's physical constitution.
In other words, all nine Soul Rings could reach the upper limit of the age of divinely bestowed Soul Rings.
Xue Qingwu's body had been forged from over a hundred rare treasures of heaven and earth, along with the Ice Lightning Tribulation. No one knew how strong it was. After taking a direct hit from the Ice Empress's Pincer, she had suffered only minor injuries.
The three of them concluded that Xue Qingwu's pure physical strength was at least at the Titled Douluo level, and that her body alone could withstand a Soul Ring equivalent to a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring.
Of course, Soul Ring absorption also depended on Soul Power, so the three of them unanimously decided that the Soul Beast for Xue Qingwu's First Soul Ring should be around two hundred thousand years old.
Though Xue Qingwu had become a human Soul Master, she still couldn't bring herself to kill Soul Beasts in the Far North. The thought troubled her.
North of the Far North lay an icy sea dotted with drifting floes.
With the Ice Empress and the other powerful beings of the Far North helping her, Xue Qingwu successfully obtained two Soul Rings.
One was two hundred thousand years old, and the other was two hundred and fifty thousand.
Terrifying indeed.
"Ice Empress, first of all, you're definitely going to die this time.
"Second, you're definitely going to die.
"Lastly, I'll remind you one more time: why not take the human path instead?" Xue Yuheng earnestly urged the Ice Empress first thing in the morning.
The Ice Empress had seen the Snow Empress overcome her Life Tribulation and had been tempted to try it herself.
But according to the Wordless Heavenly Book's calculations, the Ice Empress had absolutely no chance of surviving her tribulation—not even the slightest.
She had already proven her perseverance and hard work by cultivating the Ice Jade Scorpion until it evolved into the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion.
But she would never overcome this four-hundred-thousand-year Life Tribulation.
The Ice Empress still clung to a sliver of hope. She said coldly,
"Don't think I don't know what filthy ideas you have in mind.
"I don't know why the Snow Empress keeps calling you 'Xiao Xue,' but I will never take the human path!"
From the Ice Empress's perspective, the Snow Empress and Xue Yuheng didn't seem all that close—but they were certainly closer than they had been before the Life Tribulation began.
What had they gone through in the Snow Empress's Heart Tribulation?
The Ice Empress didn't know, and she didn't want to know.
The Snow Empress had become human, after all. That meant the Ice Empress would be the strongest in the Far North from now on. Bearing the honor of the Ice Jade Scorpion Clan, she could never become human.
"I'm serious. Even if a god came down to help you, you'd still die this time," Xue Yuheng said helplessly. Why was this little scorpion so stubborn?
"Why all the nonsense? Are you going to help or not?" The Ice Empress had called Xue Yuheng over for help, not to listen to some brat nagging her.
"Then this king will risk my life to accompany you," Xue Yuheng replied with a smile.
A Soul Beast's Life Tribulation had nothing to do with its age; what mattered was its cultivation.
For instance, the Snow Empress could have reached seven hundred thousand years long ago to stave off her Life Tribulation, but she had never been confident enough to do so.
The Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Marrow had also helped the Snow Empress's cultivation break through, which was why it brought on her Life Tribulation.
The Ice Empress was in the same situation now. She hadn't even told the Snow Empress, who was cultivating in her Ice Palace, about something so important. She had brought Xue Yuheng to face the tribulation alone.
Perhaps she believed what Xue Yuheng had told her after all. She didn't want the Snow Empress to witness her death.
With the few dozen meager points of the Power of Creation Xue Yuheng had left, over forty kinds of ice-type spirit herbs circled the Ice Empress and dissolved into a liquid she could absorb directly.
The Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Marrow slowly flowed from the Ice Empress's tail into her beautiful Soul Beast body, shining with dazzling seven-colored light amid the Ice and Snow World.
The Life Tribulation arrived.
After three hours of effort from the Ice Empress and Xue Yuheng, aided by numerous spiritual treasures, she barely managed to survive the Life Tribulation.
The Ice Lightning Tribulation that followed was converted into more than two thousand Creation Points in Xue Yuheng's hands.
He was rich again.
Compared to the Demi-God Level Life Tribulation she would face five hundred thousand years later, this four-hundred-thousand-year Life Tribulation also had a trial of her own attributes.
Fortunately, Xue Yuheng spent over a thousand points of the Power of Creation to assist the Ice Empress. She narrowly passed the Ice Laws' test.
The fourth trial was the Heart Tribulation.
If the Wordless Heavenly Book's prediction was true, this trial would be perilous.
Xue Yuheng repeated what he had done before and placed the Wordless Heavenly Book in the Ice Empress's Spirit Sea.
When the Heart Tribulation came, he sensed that faint connection between himself and the Ice Empress once more.
Using it, he entered the illusion where the Ice Empress was trapped.
Was this the Ice God Palace?
Xue Yuheng had lived with Xue Qingwu in her illusion for a hundred years. How could he fail to recognize it?
But after entering, Xue Yuheng didn't see the Ice Empress right away. He even searched the entire Ice God Peak.
Still, he couldn't find her.
Just then, the entire Ice God Peak shook—violently.
It collapsed.
The whole Ice God Peak sank underground.
Was this what Xue Qingwu had said? That tens of thousands of years ago, the Ice God Peak had collapsed underground due to tectonic shifts?
Xue Yuheng was buried, too. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the Ice God Palace, at the beginning of his entry into the Ice Empress's illusion.
He could tell that he had lost a point of the Power of Creation.
This time, Xue Yuheng didn't hesitate. He ran toward the depths of the Ice God Palace.
He remembered Xue Qingwu telling him that there was an inner hall behind the Ice God Palace. It was forbidden ground—the Ice God's former bedchamber.
Sure enough, when Xue Yuheng reached the palace, a clear, youthful voice came from within.
"Why? Fine. I'll tell you why today!
"Your Ice Jade Scorpion Clan is nothing more than a pet clan of mine. I set an insurmountable barrier for you to keep you from escaping the control of my Ice and Snow Elf Clan.
"And if I hadn't granted you your opportunity, would you have reached your current cultivation?
"Bing Wushuang, don't forget: my blood flows through your veins, too.
"To advance my godhood, giving up your life is an honor!"
The moment Xue Yuheng pushed open the doors, he saw the Ice Empress kneeling to one side, struck dead by a young man seated on the throne.
It was an immensely grand Western-style ice-carved palace.
It reminded Xue Yuheng of a certain movie.
The entire Ice God Peak began to shake again.
"Who are you?" The young man frowned. This was his Ice God Peak. How could a lowly human have intruded? Then a thought crossed his mind, and he smiled.
"I see. You're a human from four hundred thousand years in the future. And you have the aura of Soul Power.
"So humans in the future have learned how to cultivate Soul Power.
"Let me guess how you entered Bing Wushuang's Heart Tribulation illusion...
"I sense an aura on you no weaker than that of my Ice God Sword.
"You have... a divine artifact."
Xue Yuheng smiled faintly. With Creation Points at his disposal, he hadn't saved the Ice Empress this time—but he could come back a thousand times.
The ice pillars supporting the Ice God Temple snapped with a crash, and massive chunks of ice crashed to the floor.
Xue Yuheng stood amid the rubble, his expression calm.
"Are you the Ice God?"
"Heh... Human, you may call me that..." The handsome man with long blue hair leaned against the throne, resting his hands on its armrests.
A long sword hung beside his throne.
"What level of god are you?" Xue Yuheng asked, voicing the question that interested him most.
"You know that gods have different ranks?" The man looked surprised.
"A thousand years ago, nine gods emerged among humanity," Xue Yuheng said.
He was referring, of course, to the first generation of the Shrek Seven Devils, along with Bibi Dong and Qian Renxue.
"..." The man fell silent, then sighed. "My true form did sense it.
"Have they already ascended to the Divine Realm?"
"Yes."
"Once I succeed in becoming a Third-Class Deity, I'll go to the Divine Realm, too," the man declared confidently.
Xue Yuheng sneered. So he was a Little Scumbag trying to create his own godhood.
The ice walls of the Ice God Temple cracked, and shards of ice pattered down.
The Ice God Peak collapsed once more.
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