Time Flies

The polar sky always changes in the blink of an eye.

The warm sun in the distance climbed arduously along the horizon, only to be defeated by the towering glaciers in the end.

Mu Qian and Snow Maiden returned to the cabin on the ice field.

Although it felt as long as several years to Mu Qian, in reality, only a short day had passed.

The fusion process of the first soul ring went quite smoothly; the danger level of accepting a soul beast's sacrifice was even lower than absorbing a ten-year soul ring, and it was almost guaranteed to produce a soul bone.

This thirty-thousand-year-level Green-Scaled Ice-Armored Dragon also contributed a soul bone to Mu Qian: a right arm soul bone.

Of course, he looked down on it a bit himself and would not choose to absorb it.

If those soul masters in the outside world knew, their jaws would likely drop, and they would curse Mu Qian for being a show-off.

At night, the stars in the sky were exceptionally bright, reflecting the magnificent aurora that filled the heavens.

The snow field under the night curtain also quieted down, as if guarding this rare and tranquil beauty.

The atmosphere inside the ice house was somewhat strange.

Bing'er, that girl, didn't know where she had run off to, hiding away as if she had known something in advance.

Even Little Flower had run outside, curling up in the corner of the kitchen.

Only Mu Qian and Snow Maiden remained in the room, lying in each other's arms on the only wide ice bed, quiet enough to hear each other's breathing and heartbeats.

To say they were in each other's arms, it was actually Mu Qian being held tightly in Snow Maiden's embrace; he could even feel a cool, soft sensation on his face.

It had been years, and only today did he realize that beneath Snow Maiden's seemingly delicate exterior, she actually possessed such abundant assets.

"Sister Xue'er, why did you..."

Mu Qian actually already had a guess regarding this question.

At that time, he was in a state of extreme pain, as if his soul were about to be torn apart, and the appearance of Snow Maiden was like a lake appearing deep in the desert, rescuing him from that pitch-black abyss.

She must have done it to save him, right?

It was a pity that he guessed wrong; of course, that was part of the reason, but the most important factor involved the final trial.

"Call me Xue'er." Snow Maiden's voice held a bit more shyness, and her face was no longer as cold as before, like the first ray of morning light shining down after a warm breeze pushed away the clouds.

Mu Qian didn't quite dare to look at her.

In the past, the two of them, plus Bing'er, would sleep on the same bed at night whenever they weren't cultivating.

But he didn't understand anything back then!

Could it be the same as it was now?

Some things had happened, so they couldn't just act as if nothing had occurred, right?

The awkwardness aside, the main thing was that Mu Qian didn't know how to face it.

Yet, after experiencing that kind of thing once, it was as if a strange door had been opened, and he always felt a wicked fire churning in his lower abdomen.

The feeling of having a beauty by his side, ready for the taking, yet having to hold back, was truly too uncomfortable.

But the key was that his current appearance was also too...

Mu Qian wanted to cry.

No, he couldn't think about it anymore.

"Alright... Xue... 'er." Mu Qian was a bit conflicted, responding in a stutter.

It wasn't that he wanted to shirk responsibility, but looking at his own small body, he just felt a bit awkward.

Without that energy flooding his body, he had returned to the appearance a six-year-old boy should have.

Mu Qian suddenly felt like crying without tears, only hoping that he could grow up quickly: "Sis... Sister Xue'er, why did you?"

Regarding Snow Maiden's strength, Mu Qian always felt it wasn't simple and should be different from what was described in the second part of the original work.

The current Snow Maiden revealed mystery everywhere; she seemed to know many unknown secrets, and at the same time, that cold heart possessed a warmth it shouldn't have originally had.

"According to the customs of you humans, does this count as us being partners?" Snow Maiden asked a question that didn't quite match his, as if she didn't want to answer that question.

The room was a bit dim, making it impossible to see her expression clearly.

"I... I suppose so..." Mu Qian said, stumbling over his words.

He originally wanted to say no, but in the end, he didn't have the heart to.

Although the two of them didn't even have a wedding ceremony to bow to heaven and earth, they already had the reality of a married couple.

He could feel that after today's events, Snow Maiden had changed completely.

He couldn't say exactly what was different, but he felt that nothing about her was like the King of Soul Beasts that had dominated the Far North for hundreds of thousands of years.

If he really had to name it, Mu Qian felt it was two words: humanity.

Before he could reflect, Mu Qian suddenly thought of something and asked: "By the way, can my other soul rings also have soul beasts sacrifice themselves directly like today?"

Snow Maiden shook her head: "That won't work."

"The Master once said that the strength of the Yinglong lies in the fact that it possesses the characteristics of all known attributes simultaneously. Although there are no special requirements for soul rings and the compatibility is extremely high, for the sake of better improvement, only one soul beast of each attribute can be fused."

"Here, you can almost only find ice-attribute soul beasts. Aside from that, beneath the polar volcano you once visited, I also discovered a ten-thousand-year fire-attribute soul beast."

"As for your other soul rings, you will have to find a way yourself. I... have other matters to attend to, and besides, I cannot control other soul beast habitats."

As her voice faded, Snow Maiden fell silent. The dim light felt like an invisible web of the heart, making it difficult for Mu Qian to discern the joy or sorrow within her.

Mu Qian did not speak again, nor did he intend to pursue the matter to the end.

He was already used to it.

Even if he asked, he wouldn't get the answer he wanted.

The same went for that "Master" the other party often mentioned.

What kind of connection did he, this "little master," have with that person?

Mu Qian shook his head.

He had originally been thinking about that million-year-old Ice Silkworm hidden in some corner of the Far North, but it seemed he wouldn't have the chance to get his hands on it now.

Perhaps when he reached level thirty, he should just leave?

He only wondered what time it was on the continent now, and whether the original plot had already begun.

Time flowed, and the years flew by.

On this eternal ice sheet, time seemed to have become a blurred concept.

Slaughter had long since become the norm in this snow-covered world, yet it could not affect the tranquility of the core region.

Mu Qian sat atop the glacier, gazing into the endless distance.

In this forbidden zone of life, cut off from the world, he couldn't remember exactly how long had passed; he only knew that the polar day had appeared four times, and the polar night had appeared just as many.

Four years.

Four years of time had stripped away the lingering traces of youth from his face, making his features increasingly handsome—not in a delicate way, but with a distinct, masculine edge.

Because of the natural tempering his physique received from the Yinglong martial soul, at ten years old, he already stood nearly 1.65 meters tall, his muscles well-defined and much sturdier.

When he stood up, he was already about the same height as Snow Maiden. In the Douluo world, where soul masters generally developed rapidly, this height was likely considered outstanding among his peers.

Mu Qian had mocked this trope back when he watched the anime in his past life, but when it came to his own experience, he still couldn't escape the law of "it's actually pretty good."