Deep within the sunless Ice Valley, the Ice Crystal Palace now shimmered beneath the sunlight.
Warm sunlight slanted in through the palace entrance, spreading a golden glow across the pristine ice. It dispelled some of the chill and brought Xu Lanqing's body a renewed sense of vitality.
He narrowed his eyes and looked up at the sky.
The fierce white gale had been torn open into a round hole. Golden sunlight poured down like a waterfall, yet it was not glaring.
A figure floated in the middle of that golden opening, its back to the sunlight. It looked like a god descending with the light, making it impossible for him to see clearly.
He could make out only a rough outline. It seemed to be a scorpion.
"Snow Maiden?"
A clear, melodious voice trembled with uncertainty and echoed throughout Ice Valley, its lingering notes filling the air.
The next moment, the figure vanished in a flash, leaving only an afterimage behind.
Xu Lanqing's heart lurched. A chill crept over the back of his neck, and goosebumps prickled across his skin.
Almost instinctively, he activated Martial Soul Possession, spun around, and swung his pale, frost-covered palm at the figure behind him.
"Feng~"
An endless chill and a surge of Soul Power suddenly burst from the figure, freezing the air.
Xu Lanqing's arm abruptly seized up. To his horror, he found that his body and soul seemed to have frozen as well, sheathed in a thin layer of ice.
Just then, a cool breath welled up from his possessed Snow Empress Martial Soul and collided with the ice.
The two forces met and strangely merged. The ice melted, and Xu Lanqing's aura grew a little stronger.
"Hmm?"
The figure couldn't help making a sound of surprise.
With his body restored, Xu Lanqing didn't have time to wonder what had happened. He retreated several steps, warily staring at the figure before him.
Only then could he see her clearly.
Her delicate face lacked some of Snow Empress's aloofness, but made up for it with a colder beauty and a hint of defiance.
On either side of her lovely, fair face were four dark-green demonic markings. Long, dark-green hair fell down her back.
Her skin was as white as snow, with a translucent sheen. A faint green light shimmered beneath it.
The moment she appeared, the surrounding air grew sharply colder. She wore a long, jade-green dress.
He had to admit, he was captivated all over again.
She was Ice Empress, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North.
Ice Empress made no further move, but her aura remained fixed on the human child before her.
Doubt filled her jewel-like amber eyes. She examined the three-meter-tall ice-blue crystal, which still carried Snow Empress's aura.
She could discern nothing else. When she tried to probe it with her mental power, the crystal's surface blocked her.
Before entering seclusion, Snow Empress had told her that she had sensed a change in Snow Empress's aura and had come to check on her. But the palace was now empty of Snow Empress, and there was a human child instead?
She turned to look at Xu Lanqing, whose appearance had changed dramatically after activating Martial Soul Possession.
"Human, why is your Martial Soul a Snow Maiden? How did you get here? What happened? And where is the one who used to live here?
"Tell me everything you know. Otherwise..."
Ice Empress spoke in a chilling tone, firing off a string of questions and adding a threat for good measure.
She hadn't struck with all her might from the start because she wanted to interrogate Xu Lanqing and get the answers she needed.
With her strength, killing a mere human child would be like crushing an ant. He wouldn't even have time to react.
"Are you Ice Empress?"
Once again enveloped by a similar, terrifying pressure, Xu Lanqing asked. Though it sounded like a question, his tone was certain.
Then he gazed at Ice Empress with tears in his eyes, looking deeply moved. "You came just in time. You're my savior!"
Ice Empress gave him a strange look. Was this human an idiot?
It was one thing not to fear her. He was pitifully weak, so it was understandable that he didn't realize how terrifying she was. But why was he so happy?
What a shame. He was rather handsome, too. Such a waste of a pretty face.
Her phoenix eyes fixed coldly on Xu Lanqing. She suppressed the urge to intensify her pressure and crush him outright, ignoring his question.
Her voice rang out, clear as a wind chime. "You still haven't answered me. Don't test my patience."
"Heh, I got a little carried away."
Xu Lanqing smiled, withdrew his Martial Soul, then reached into his clothes with his right hand and pulled out a palm-sized, round white metal disk.
He fed it Soul Power. A faint white light shone from the disk, drifted upward, and gathered into a shape.
"The answers you want are all in here. See for yourself."
Ice Empress calmly watched Xu Lanqing work. She didn't know what the device was, but she didn't stop him.
What could he possibly do in the face of overwhelming strength?
After a while, the white light on the disk finally took shape, becoming a white screen two meters long and two meters wide.
An image appeared on it: Xu Lanqing talking with Snow Empress.
Good thing I kept a backup. Without proof, I wouldn't have known how to face Ice Empress, he thought with relief.
He had asked someone to make the recording Soul Tool earlier, when he was bored in the imperial palace. All he had to do was explain the idea. How to make it was someone else's job.
In the end, the person who made it had handed it to him and said that Xu Lanqing's idea had inspired him.
Time passed, little by little.
A long silence settled over the air.
The pressure filling the space had faded without anyone noticing. Ice Empress stared blankly at the image with her clear, translucent amber eyes. Her rosy lips parted slightly, and her exquisite face was filled with shock and disbelief.
A moment later,
her glossy, rosy lips moved:
"How is this possible... Is this... is this real?"
In all her long life, she had seen countless things, but never anything like this.
"That's what happened. Whether you believe it or not, I think you can make up your own mind."
Xu Lanqing spoke, then explained everything that hadn't been in the recording. It had started recording when he and Snow Empress began negotiating.
He told her about the contract's drawbacks, the old man's corpse, how he had ended up here, and everything else, so she wouldn't ask him again later.
Ice Empress seemed not to hear him. Ever since the recording began, she had been staring at the ice-blue crystal encasing Snow Empress.
Her slender, delicate fingers gently traced its surface. Her narrow phoenix eyes glimmered, as if filled with an ocean-deep emotion.
"Snow Maiden..."
Watching Ice Empress's lonely, desolate back, Xu Lanqing couldn't help speaking.
"It's not as if you've lost her forever. Once she wakes up, you'll be able to see her again."
"When will she come out?"
"I... I don't know, but she definitely will," Xu Lanqing said awkwardly.
Ice Empress showed no reaction to not getting an answer.
A moment later,
apparently no longer satisfied with gently tracing the crystal with her fingers, she leaned her whole body against it, nestling against the ice-blue surface. Her eyes fell closed, and a look of contentment crossed her exquisite face.
It was like a serene, beautiful painting, filled with an indescribable warmth.
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