Vow

Inside the elegant ice-crystal palace, the atmosphere was unusually frozen.

Xu Lanqing lay prone on the ice, struggling to lift his handsome face, a thin trail of blood marking his forehead.

Hovering slightly above him was a woman.

She stood with an otherworldly grace, as if a fairy had descended to the mortal realm, so radiant that one dared not look directly at her.

Her white dress drifted without a breeze, and her three thousand strands of white hair cascaded down like a waterfall. With her dress like a flower and her long sword as pure as snow, she was indescribably beautiful, elegant, and noble.

A refreshing fragrance, reminiscent of plum blossoms in the bitter cold, lingered around Xu Lanqing's nose.

But in his current state, he could not appreciate this beauty at all; he only felt a sense of agitation in his heart.

What on earth should he do?

He tried his best to calm his mind and think it through properly.

He knew that the Ice Empress actually wanted to live; if there was a glimmer of hope for survival before her, who wouldn't crave it?

She was definitely tempted.

Yet, she was also proud. Her pride would not allow her to compromise with a human, let alone accept human help.

The root cause of this was a matter of trust; she simply did not believe in humans.

How did that saying go? Those who are not of my race must have a different heart!

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

She had watched how humanity developed, from her initial goodwill toward them to her later disgust and anger.

And when spirit masters appeared, conflict became inevitable.

If a spirit master wanted to become stronger, they had to obtain spirit rings, and to obtain spirit rings, they had to hunt spirit beasts.

In the midst of this, how much of it was wanton slaughter?

Solitary yin cannot grow, and solitary yang cannot flourish.

This was an unbalanced world.

She had seen too many of her own kind killed; for the sake of a single spirit bone, countless spirit beasts were slaughtered.

Her heart had long been riddled with holes, let alone the possibility of trusting humans.

The prejudice in a person's heart is like a mountain, impossible to avoid.

And once prejudice takes root, it is like a door closed to the outside world, causing one to develop biased perceptions.

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

Xu Lanqing's clear, bright eyes were like a calm pool, meeting her gaze steadily without a hint of wavering, appearing incredibly sincere.

Feeling Xu Lanqing's burning gaze, the Ice Empress's long eyelashes trembled slightly; she felt a trace of unease.

Why does he suddenly seem less afraid of me? Just a moment ago, he was clearly desperate to survive.

After a long silence, Xu Lanqing was the first to break it, his tone sincere.

"Compared to humans, this world is perhaps unfair to spirit beasts. It does not allow you to become gods, sealing off your limits."

"It even restricts your growth; every hundred thousand years, a spirit beast must endure a heavenly tribulation—two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand... time and time again."

"But even if you survive ten heavenly tribulations, so what? That is your limit. You have the power and the ambition, yet you can only stand beneath the godhood and sigh at the vast ocean."

"Because there is no place for spirit beasts in the God Realm!"

"Not to mention that you haven't even survived your seventh heavenly tribulation."

"Are you content?"

"No."

"You are not content!"

"That is why you chose to be reborn as a human. You want to live. Although humans only have a short lifespan of a hundred years, their potential is infinite."

"You want to become stronger; it is not impossible to even become a god."

"Don't you want to see what the world above is like? Don't you want to question those high and mighty gods, why there is no place for your kind in the God Realm?!"

"There is an opportunity right in front of you now. Are you sure you want to just give it up?"

"Cast aside your prejudice against humans. Just as there are good and evil spirit beasts, not all humans are bad."

"Humans hunting spirit beasts to obtain spirit rings is the rule of this world; it is a problem with the world itself."

"Moreover, my teacher and I have created a method for spirit masters to obtain spirit rings without needing to hunt spirit beasts."

"Perhaps it cannot completely cure the conflict between humans and spirit beasts, but at least it can reduce a great deal of unnecessary slaughter."

Hearing the last sentence, ripples appeared in the Ice Empress's clear eyes, and she said in disbelief, "How is that possible..."

At this moment, the aura around Xu Lanqing suddenly changed. He was still himself, but in the eyes of the Ice Empress, he had become someone else.

"Lanqing is right. After I came to this world, based on the relationship between spirit beasts and humans, I created a special cultivation method."

Xu Lanqing—no, it should be Electrolux—answered the Ice Empress's doubt.

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

Ice Empress looked shocked, struck once again, and even forgot to ask about the cultivation method.

"A god? If I were willing, I would have been a god long ago. As I am now, I am merely a wisp of fragmented divine consciousness."

Ice Empress finally snapped back to reality.

She had been startled by the aura of the divine consciousness just now, but now she sensed it carefully.

Although the spiritual level of Electrolux was extremely high, his power was too weak; she could easily annihilate him with a single swing of her sword.

However, given the realm of his divine consciousness, she began to believe what they had said.

If it were true, she knew very well what this cultivation method would mean for soul beasts—it would change the entire world.

Her dark, arched brows furrowed, and her sky-blue eyes looked down at Xu Lanqing, who was lying on the ice. She hesitated, a fierce battle raging within her heart.

Seeing that Ice Empress was wavering, Xu Lanqing's eyes lit up, and he struck while the iron was hot.

"Even if you don't consider yourself, you must consider your own race, and the soul beasts of the Far North.

"Besides, if I remember correctly, Ice Empress, who is also one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, is approaching her fourth heavenly tribulation, isn't she? She likely won't be able to survive it, but I have a way to help her pass this tribulation.

"But if you die, I will be dragged down to the grave with you. You two are like sisters; surely you wouldn't want her to die along with you."

Ice Empress was no longer surprised by how he knew these things.

For the first time, she looked at this human child with such seriousness.

"You...

"Why should I believe you?"

In truth, the moment she began to hesitate, she knew she would definitely give it a try—not just for herself, but for the sake of the Far North.

She was not so noble as to care for the entire world, but she was the ruler of the Far North. All the soul beasts of the Far North were her subjects; she could not abandon them, and she had to be responsible for them.

Furthermore, there was Bing'er.

Right now, perhaps she just needed some support, a final push.

Xu Lanqing suddenly realized that the pressure on his body had vanished.

He smiled and tried to stand up, but his blood was circulating slowly, and his body had gone numb from being still for so long; he stumbled several times before managing to stand.

Ice Empress watched him quietly.

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

"I, Xu Lanqing, swear by my martial soul to the heavens: if I deceive Ice Empress and fail to help her achieve rebirth, I shall suffer divine retribution and be stripped of my martial soul!"

The coldness in Ice Empress's eyes diminished slightly; for a human, this oath was absolutely the most severe.