Emperor's Cold Heaven

"You're spirit beasts?!"

Di Tian and Snow Empress had none of the disguises Ye Qing had applied. The faint traces of spirit beast aura around them were plain for him to see. Although Ye Qing gave off no such aura, he did not believe spirit beasts of this caliber would live with a human. Without a doubt, this man was a spirit beast too.

The instant he was surrounded, he unleashed his full strength. A Six-Winged Angel appeared behind him, with eight black spirit rings and one red one flashing around him. Yet the power that had allowed him to roam the continent unchallenged gave him no sense of security now.

"An angel martial soul? Are you the current Pope or the Grand Elder? Coming here alone... surely you aren't here for that little Hall Master?"

How do mere spirit beasts know so much about Spirit Hall? Could this all be a conspiracy? Qian Zhenggan thought. As a god-bestowed martial soul, the angel martial soul was inherited by Spirit Hall's Popes and Grand Elders. Even in outlying cities, some people knew nothing of this, yet a spirit beast knew all about it.

Besides, though he would not claim to know spirit beasts particularly well, he did understand their habits. Apart from mates and a handful of species, powerful spirit beasts almost never lived in the same territory, let alone the supreme spirit beasts before him. The auras he sensed from them far surpassed those of hundred-thousand-year spirit beasts.

That raised the question: why had so many supreme spirit beasts gathered together, and precisely when he arrived here? Without a doubt, their target had to be him, Spirit Hall's Grand Elder.

It seemed someone wanted to use spirit beasts to get rid of him.

To be fair, his reasoning was not entirely wrong. It was the natural conclusion to draw. The Ice and Snow Emperors of the Extreme North, Di Tian, Xiong Jun, and Ye Qing—these five stood at the very pinnacle of spirit beast combat strength. Without an anomaly like Ye Qing, it would have been almost impossible for them to gather in the same place at the same time.

Spirit Hall had made no shortage of enemies over the years. But he had never imagined that spirit beasts, which he normally thought he could slaughter at will, possessed such formidable reserves of power.

That fool... he fell into someone else's trap. In his view, someone had manipulated that Hall Master from beginning to end, yet the man had never realized it. They had even used his life to lay this open trap, leaving Qian Zhenggan in such peril.

"Angel Avatar!" If his opponents had been human, he might have exchanged a few words with them, tried to recruit them or persuade them to surrender, or sought out the mastermind. He had no such intention with spirit beasts. To Qian Zhenggan, spirit beasts were merely unusual animals, no different from pigs or dogs. Even the food on his table was usually spirit beast meat. He did not believe he could communicate with the spirit beasts before him. Even if they could speak human language and take human form, that could not change the gulf between spirit beasts and humans.

After all, spirit beasts were still spirit beasts.

Likewise, apart from Ye Qing, none of the spirit beasts intended to waste words on this human who had recklessly intruded here. None of them held any goodwill toward humans.

As Qian Zhenggan unleashed his Martial Soul Avatar, a towering angel appeared above the forest. To Di Tian and the others, this was unquestionably a declaration of war. Qian Zhenggan was wary of the spirit beasts, but were they not just as wary of this human? Battle could erupt at any moment.

"Ninth Spirit Skill, Sword of Judgment!" He opened with the Ninth Spirit Skill granted by his Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring. He knew defeat was certain if he became trapped in a prolonged battle. Though he was a level-99 Peerless Douluo, he had only just reached that level. He could sense that both Ye Qing and Di Tian were stronger than him, while Snow Empress was the weakest among them. He therefore had to break through swiftly and escape before they learned what he could do.

With his angel martial soul's affinity for the sky, he was confident he could escape. An enormous lightsaber formed in his martial soul's hand and swept toward Snow Empress.

"Emperor Sword."

Sword and palm commanded the sky, bringing the chill of ice and snow: Emperor Sword, Emperor Palm, Emperor's Cold Heaven. Snow Empress had not earned her place at the head of the Three Heavenly Kings of the Extreme North through an empty reputation. As the strongest spirit beast in the Extreme North, she had pride of her own. By choosing her as his point of escape, Qian Zhenggan was clearly treating her as an easy target, and that displeased her greatly.

A massive sword formed from ice and snow slashed toward the lightsaber wielded by the Six-Winged Angel. The two blades collided in midair. After a brief clash, it was the angel's lightsaber that shattered first, and the enormous ice-and-snow sword continued straight toward the angelic avatar.

"Shield of Justice!" An instant before the blade struck, an energy shield appeared before him. This was the second spirit skill granted by Qian Zhenggan's Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring. Whatever the attack, it would be weakened to a level the shield could withstand, then blocked by it. Its use was limited to three times a day.

The Snow Empress of the past could never have shattered that lightsaber. But the Snow Empress of today had been strengthened by energy, and her skills were far more powerful than before. Even though her sword was blocked, the freezing power within it still penetrated the shield's defenses. Qian Zhenggan felt as though his meridians had been imprisoned in ice, the cold spreading through his body from within.

However, the Angel God held partial authority over the sun. As her Consecrated Elder, Spirit Hall's Grand Elder and Grand Pontiff, his god-bestowed martial soul naturally possessed a corresponding ability. The sun's warmth soon dispelled the icy chill within him, but his heart remained cold. He knew that if he could not severely wound even the weakest among them with a single strike, his chances were slimmer still.

Di Tian and Ye Qing did not intervene, because this was Snow Empress's battle. Recklessly interfering would have been disrespectful to her. But Ye Qing was hardly someone who insisted on fair play. He never let his guard down, and at the first sign of Snow Empress losing, he would step straight into the fight.

As the battle continued, Snow Empress realized that her opponent's soul power hardly seemed to have diminished.

"Your energy seems to be replenished by the sun."

Qian Zhenggan did not answer. This spirit beast was already difficult enough to handle; he would not be foolish enough to reveal his trump cards. It did not matter, though. Snow Empress had already realized that the sky was his home ground, and that both the sky and the sun strengthened him to some extent.

"In that case... Snow Dance Shining Sun!"

This was Snow Empress's Emperor's Cold Heaven, Snow Dance Shining Sun—a domain-type skill. In the Extreme North, the place best suited to her fighting style, she could instantly turn everything within a ten-thousand-meter radius into her domain. Amid the swirling snowflakes, it would become a forbidden land where not even sunlight could penetrate.

Though this was not the Extreme North, wind and snow engulfed everything within a hundred meters in an instant. Huge, feathery snowflakes fell in the height of summer, utterly transforming the battlefield. It was no longer Qian Zhenggan's home ground.