The Oath

Inside the elegant Ice Crystal Palace, the atmosphere was unusually tense.

Xu Lanqing lay sprawled on the ice. He struggled to lift his handsome face, a thin streak of blood marking his forehead.

Floating diagonally above him was a woman.

She stood aloof, otherworldly as an immortal, as if she had descended from the heavens. No one dared look directly at her.

Her white dress fluttered without a breeze, and her long white hair streamed down like a waterfall. Her gown was like a flower, her sword whiter than snow. Her beauty and elegance were beyond words, noble and unearthly.

A refreshing fragrance lingered beneath Xu Lanqing's nose, like plum blossoms braving the cold.

But he couldn't appreciate her beauty at all just then. All he felt was a restless unease.

What was he supposed to do?

He tried to calm himself and think it through.

He knew the Snow Empress wanted to live. If there was a chance to survive right in front of you, who wouldn't long for it?

She had certainly been tempted.

But she was also proud. Her pride wouldn't let her yield to a human, much less accept help from one.

Ultimately, it came down to trust. She didn't trust humanity.

What was that saying? Those who aren't of our kind must have different hearts!

She had lived for nearly seven hundred thousand years. She had existed long before humans appeared.

She had watched humanity develop, from the goodwill she'd initially felt toward humans to the loathing and fury that came later.

And when Soul Masters appeared, conflict became inevitable.

Soul Masters needed Soul Rings to grow stronger, and to obtain Soul Rings, they had to hunt Soul Beasts.

How many of those killings were needless?

Yin alone cannot give birth, and yang alone cannot grow.

This was an unbalanced world.

She had seen too many of her people killed. Countless Soul Beasts had been slaughtered for a single Soul Bone.

Her heart had long since been scarred beyond repair. There was no way she could trust humanity.

Prejudice in the human heart was a mountain, impossible to avoid.

Once prejudice took root, it was like shutting a door against the outside world, distorting one's understanding.

So, to persuade her, he first had to remove the prejudice in her heart.

Xu Lanqing's clear, bright eyes were like a still pool. He gazed at her without wavering, his sincerity unmistakable.

Feeling the heat of Xu Lanqing's gaze, the Snow Empress's long lashes trembled slightly. She felt a little uncomfortable.

Why did he suddenly seem less afraid of me? Just a moment ago, he'd been thinking only about how to survive.

After a long silence, Xu Lanqing was the first to speak. His tone was earnest.

"Compared with humans, perhaps this world is unfair to Soul Beasts. It won't let you become gods, and it places a ceiling on your potential.

"It even limits your growth. Every hundred thousand years, a Soul Beast must face a heavenly tribulation. Two hundred thousand years, three hundred thousand years... Again and again.

"But even if you survived ten tribulations, so what? That would be your end. You'd have strength and lofty ambitions, yet could only gaze up at the divine throne and sigh.

"Because there's no place for Soul Beasts in the Divine Realm!

"Never mind that you didn't even survive your seventh tribulation.

"Are you content with that?

"No.

"You're not content!

"That's why you chose to be reborn as a human. You want to live. Humans may have only a hundred years, but their potential is limitless.

"You want to grow stronger. Even becoming a god isn't impossible.

"Don't you want to see what the world above is like? Don't you want to demand an answer from those lofty gods? Why is there no place for you in the Divine Realm?!

"Now there's an opportunity right in front of you. Are you sure you want to give it up?

"Set aside your prejudice against humans. Just as there are Goodness and Evil among Soul Beasts, not all humans are bad.

"Humans hunt Soul Beasts to obtain Soul Rings because that's the rule of this world. The problem lies with the world itself.

"Besides, my teacher and I created a method that lets Soul Masters obtain Soul Rings without hunting Soul Beasts.

"It may not solve the conflict between humans and Soul Beasts, but at least it can reduce a great deal of needless slaughter."

At his final words, the Snow Empress's clear eyes rippled with disbelief. "How is that possible...?"

Just then, the aura around Xu Lanqing suddenly changed. He was still himself, yet in the Snow Empress's eyes, he had become someone else.

"Lan Qing is right. After arriving in this world, I created a special cultivation method based on the relationship between Soul Beasts and humans."

Xu Lanqing—no, Electrolux—answered the Snow Empress's question.

"This aura... Are you a god?"

The Snow Empress stared in shock, shaken once again. She even forgot to ask what kind of cultivation method he meant.

"A god? If I'd wanted to, I would have become one long ago. Now, I'm merely a fragment of a divine consciousness."

Only then did the Snow Empress come back to her senses.

She had been startled by the aura of his divine consciousness. Now that she sensed him carefully, she realized that although Electrolux's spiritual level was incredibly high, his power was far too weak. One sweep of her sword would be enough to kill him with ease.

Still, given that his realm included divine consciousness, she was somewhat more inclined to believe what they were saying.

If it was true, she knew perfectly well what this cultivation method would mean for Soul Beasts. It would change the entire world.

Her slender brows furrowed, and her sky-blue eyes looked down at Xu Lanqing lying on the ice. She hesitated, her heart torn by a fierce inner struggle.

Seeing that the Snow Empress was wavering, Xu Lanqing's eyes lit up. He pressed his advantage.

"Even if you won't think of yourself, you have to think of your people, of the Soul Beasts in the Far North.

"And if I remember correctly, the Ice Empress, one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, is about to face her fourth heavenly tribulation. She probably won't survive it, but I have a way to help her get through this one.

"But if you die, you'll drag me down with you. You and Bing'er are like sisters. You wouldn't want her to die with you, would you?"

The Snow Empress was no longer surprised that he knew these things.

For the first time, she studied this human child intently.

"You...

"Why should I believe you?"

In truth, while she'd been hesitating, she'd already known she would give it a try—not just for herself, but for the Far North.

She wasn't so selfless that she could care for the entire world, but she was the ruler of the Far North. Every Soul Beast there was her people. She couldn't abandon them; she had a responsibility to them.

And then there was Bing'er.

Perhaps all she needed now was a little support, one last push.

Xu Lanqing suddenly realized that the pressure weighing on him had vanished.

He smiled and tried to stand, but his blood was moving sluggishly, and his body had gone numb from lying still for so long. He stumbled several times before finally getting to his feet.

The Snow Empress watched him quietly.

Xu Lanqing steadied himself, raised his right hand above his shoulder, and spoke with solemn dignity.

"I, Xu Lanqing, swear by my Martial Soul that if I deceive the Snow Empress and fail to help her be reborn, may I be struck down by Heaven's wrath and have my Martial Soul stripped away!"

The coldness in the Snow Empress's eyes eased a little. For a human, that was undoubtedly the harshest oath there was.