"Crack~"
As his Soul Power circulated, the cool aura of Ultimate Ice flowed through his body. The thin layer of ice covering him melted, and Xu Lanqing finally felt a little better.
"Hm? An Ultimate Ice Martial Soul?"
The Snow Empress was a little surprised. She hadn't expected this human child to possess such a Martial Soul.
"Hmph!"
But the surprise in her voice turned to anger the next instant.
A killing intent that seemed almost tangible mingled with a terrifying pressure, filling the entire hall and crushing down on Xu Lanqing.
He was forced face-down onto the ground, unable to move. An endless chill seeped into his bones, and his blood began to freeze, leaving his body completely numb.
It wasn't only his body—even his soul seemed frozen, and his thoughts felt sluggish.
Xu Lanqing's cheek was pressed against the ice. He glanced at the miserable old man and swallowed. He really didn't want to find out what it felt like to be sliced in half by a sword.
"Shh~"
Something seemed to be coalescing in the air.
An indescribable fear surged through him. Xu Lanqing's heart pounded wildly, and he hurriedly shouted,
"Wait!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the tip of an ice-blue sword appeared out of nowhere before his forehead.
Xu Lanqing's pupils dilated. His racing heart stopped.
"Do you have any last words?"
A cold, pure voice came from above Xu Lanqing.
The sharp sword tip hovered against the skin of his forehead, pricking him faintly.
Xu Lanqing abruptly came back to his senses. His whole body relaxed, and he gasped for air. His breath turned into tiny ice crystals in the air.
Being alive felt wonderful!
"Could you move the sword away first? I'm afraid your hand might slip and I'll be done for."
Xu Lanqing's answer had nothing to do with her question. As long as he wasn't dead yet, there was still a chance.
"Then you can die now!"
The Snow Empress's voice was as sharp as a sword. Its tip pierced his skin.
"Wait!"
Xu Lanqing shouted again, his voice full of indignation.
"I'm your savior! If I hadn't helped, that old man would have sealed you away and taken you by now!
"Then you'd have been trapped in that seal, waiting to become someone else's Soul Ring, Soul Bone, or Martial Soul, unable to fight back at all!
"I saved you, and now you're repaying my kindness with betrayal?"
It did sound a little like he was holding his favor over her, but he spoke with complete conviction.
"So you're still alive and able to spout all this nonsense, and besides..."
The Snow Empress paused, her tone filled with anger.
"You humans hunt Soul Beasts. Not one of you is any good. You all deserve to die!"
Xu Lanqing was at a loss for words.
How was he supposed to respond to that? He couldn't exactly deny it. She wasn't stupid.
So he was still going to die after all. Whether sooner or later, he was doomed, right?
He didn't want to die in this godforsaken place.
He struggled to raise his head, ignoring the sting as the sword tip cut his skin. The moment a bead of blood welled up, it froze and rolled down his cheek.
The sight before him was so stunning that he forgot what he had meant to say.
A pair of flawless jade feet hovered above his head, less than a meter away.
The petite, delicate feet were not only smooth and lustrous as jade, but as white as snow, as if carved from a single piece of creamy white jade.
If only he could play with them to his heart's content...
Xu Lanqing hurriedly shook his head, driving the strange thought from his mind. What was he thinking at a time like this?
Honestly, did she think he was that kind of person?
His gaze moved upward.
The embryo that had once been a mass of white mist had taken human form.
A girl of seventeen or eighteen had long, snow-white hair that fell behind her all the way to her feet. Her sky-blue eyes were clear and limpid, as if they could see through everything in the world.
Her slender figure was flawless. Though her white dress was completely unadorned, it made her seem so noble and breathtakingly beautiful.
Xu Lanqing's lips parted as he stared at her in a daze, utterly captivated.
Honestly, in either of his two lives, he had never seen a woman so beautiful and so elegant.
For a moment, he felt as if he had wasted his life.
He said without thinking, "So beautiful..."
"Have you had enough?"
The Snow Empress's exquisite face remained unmoved. Holding an ice-blue longsword, she looked down at him with cold, indifferent eyes, her tone pressing.
"So, have you thought of your last words?"
Only then did Xu Lanqing come back to himself. The corner of his mouth twitched.
Fine. Even the most beautiful woman lost her appeal if she wanted you dead.
"You're not denying that I saved you, are you? Otherwise, the Snow Empress, the foremost of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, would have died in the most humiliating way imaginable, without even a chance to take revenge.
"So can't we just talk this out? Do you really have to bring up death every other sentence?"
The Snow Empress lowered her sky-blue eyes slightly, a flicker of surprise passing through them.
"You know who I am?"
Even the old Titled Douluo hadn't recognized her, yet this child knew.
"Don't make yourself sound so noble. You were only trying to save yourself."
The Snow Empress was a Soul Beast, but that didn't mean she was foolish. It didn't take much thought to figure out what had happened.
After living for hundreds of thousands of years, even a pig would have become clever.
"And I'm curious: how did someone as weak as you end up here? Don't tell me it was a coincidence!"
Xu Lanqing was speechless. She'd already answered for him, so how was he supposed to respond?
"Don't worry about how I got here. Shouldn't you be worrying about yourself?"
He shifted uncomfortably, trying to find a more comfortable position. The natural energy around them was already growing restless.
"The process of a Soul Beast reincarnating as a human can't be reversed. It's an ironclad law. Even you, Snow Empress, will suffer a fatal backlash if that process is interrupted.
"If I'm not mistaken, you're already close to losing control of your body."
"So what?"
Xu Lanqing was right. After the old man had interrupted her with the God-Sealing Platform, her fate had already been sealed: death.
She couldn't understand it. The barrier she had painstakingly arranged could absorb energy from the surrounding region and continually strengthen its defenses. It would never have been broken unless a Limit Douluo was there.
Yet somehow a little tray had managed to merge into it. She couldn't make sense of it and could only blame her bad luck.
"So what? Don't you want to live?"
Xu Lanqing was so agitated that he seemed to be reacting more intensely to his own impending death.
But if the Snow Empress died, the explosion of her seven-hundred-thousand-year cultivation would leave Xu Lanqing not even a speck of ash.
"Live? You know this is an ironclad law. How could I possibly survive?"
The Snow Empress's eyes were desolate.
Soul Beasts could only reincarnate as humans after reaching a hundred thousand years of age. After failing to overcome the tribulation at seven hundred thousand years, she had exhausted herself trying to choose reincarnation once more.
Wasn't that because she couldn't accept her fate and wanted to resist it—to live?
She wanted to defy fate, but fate was always playing tricks on her.
Xu Lanqing felt the pressure on him ease slightly.
He smiled. "But rules are made to be broken. There are exceptions to everything, and I have a way to keep you alive!"
The Snow Empress froze, as if she had heard the biggest joke in the world.
Her soft lips curled in undisguised mockery.
"You? I admit you know quite a bit, but even I have no solution. What could a human child like you possibly do?"
Xu Lanqing fixed his starlit eyes on the Snow Empress's beautiful ones, his gaze earnest and serious.
"You're right. I don't have a solution, but my teacher does!"
The Snow Empress was stunned. Her long, narrow eyes met his, and she remained silent for a long time.
The air fell silent.
She lifted her chin, her lips moving slightly.
"Even if I die, I will never accept charity from a human!"
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