Six Years Passed

The sky in the Far North always changed quickly.

The warm sun in the distance struggled to climb along the horizon, but in the end, it lost to the towering glaciers.

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

Though it felt to Mu Qian as if years had passed, in reality, only a single day had gone by.

The fusion of his First Soul Ring had gone smoothly. Accepting a Spirit Beast's sacrifice was even less dangerous than absorbing a Ten-Year Soul Ring, and almost always resulted in a Spirit Bone.

This Green-Scaled Ice-Armored Dragon, which had lived for thirty thousand years, had also given Mu Qian a Spirit Bone: a Right Arm Soul Bone.

Of course, he wasn't impressed by it and had no intention of absorbing it.

If the Spirit Masters outside found out, they would probably be so stunned they'd curse Mu Qian for bragging.

At night, the stars shone especially brightly in the sky, reflected in the brilliant aurora that filled it.

The snowy plain had also grown quiet beneath the night sky, as if guarding this rare and tranquil beauty.

The atmosphere inside the ice house was a little strange.

Bing'er had disappeared somewhere, as if she'd known what was coming and hidden herself in advance.

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

Only Mu Qian and the Snow Maiden remained in the house. They lay quietly in each other's arms on the only wide ice bed, close enough to hear one another's breathing and heartbeat.

Though they were supposedly embracing, Mu Qian was actually held tightly in the Snow Maiden's arms. He could even feel the cool softness against his face.

After all these years, only today had he realized that beneath the Snow Maiden's seemingly delicate appearance, she had such impressive assets.

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

Mu Qian already had some idea of the answer.

At the time, he'd been in such agony that it felt as if his soul were being torn apart. The Snow Maiden's arrival had been like a lake appearing deep in the desert, rescuing him from that lightless abyss.

She must have done it to save him, right?

Unfortunately, he was wrong. That had been part of the reason, of course, but the main one had to do with the final trial.

"Call me Xue'er." A hint of shyness crept into the Snow Maiden's voice, and her face no longer looked as cold as before. She was like the first ray of dawn after a warm breeze swept aside the clouds.

Mu Qian hardly dared look at her.

Before, he, the Snow Maiden, and Bing'er had all slept in the same bed at night whenever they weren't practicing.

But back then, he hadn't understood anything!

Could it be the same now?

Once something had happened, they couldn't just act as though it hadn't, could they?

Awkwardness aside, Mu Qian mainly had no idea how he was supposed to face her.

Worse, after experiencing that sort of thing once, it was as if a strange door had opened inside him. He could feel a rush of Evil Fire churning in his lower abdomen.

Having a beauty by his side, ripe for the taking, yet having to hold himself back was truly unbearable.

But the key was, he was in this state...

Mu Qian wanted to cry.

No, he couldn't keep thinking about it.

"All right... Xue...'er." Mu Qian answered hesitantly, the words coming out in fits and starts.

It wasn't that he wanted to shirk responsibility. It was just that, looking at his small body, he couldn't help feeling awkward.

Without that energy coursing through him, he'd returned to the form of a six-year-old boy.

Mu Qian felt like crying. He could only hope he'd grow up soon. "Xue... Xue'er, why did you do it?"

Mu Qian had always felt that the Snow Maiden's strength wasn't simple, and that it differed from how she was described in the original second volume.

Everything about the Snow Maiden now seemed mysterious. She appeared to know many secrets hidden from others, and that cold heart of hers possessed a warmth it shouldn't have had.

"According to your human customs, does this make us partners?" The Snow Maiden's reply didn't quite answer his question. It seemed she didn't want to address it.

The room was dim, making it hard to see her expression.

"I... I suppose it does..." Mu Qian stammered.

He'd wanted to say no, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to.

They hadn't even held a wedding ceremony, but they'd already become husband and wife in all but name.

He could feel that after what had happened today, the Snow Maiden had changed completely.

He couldn't say exactly what was different, only that she no longer seemed like the Spirit Beast King who had ruled the Far North for hundreds of thousands of years.

If he had to describe it, Mu Qian thought there was only one word for it: humanity.

Before he could dwell on it, Mu Qian suddenly thought of something and asked, "By the way, can my other Spirit Rings be obtained through a Spirit Beast's sacrifice like today's?"

The Snow Maiden shook her head. "No."

"Master once said that Yinglong's strength lies in possessing the traits of every known attribute. It has no special requirements for Spirit Rings and is highly compatible with them, but to improve it further, you can only fuse with one Spirit Beast of each attribute."

"Here, you can find almost nothing but Ice-attribute Spirit Beasts. Besides those, beneath the Polar Volcano you once visited, I also found a Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast with a Fire attribute."

"You'll have to find a way to obtain your other Spirit Rings yourself. I... have other things to do, and besides, I can't control the territories where the other Spirit Beasts live."

After she finished speaking, the Snow Maiden fell silent. The dim light was like an invisible web over her heart, leaving Mu Qian unable to make out whether she was happy or sad.

Mu Qian didn't speak again, and abandoned the idea of pressing her for answers.

He was used to it by now.

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

The same went for that "Master" she'd mentioned.

What connection did he, the "Little Master," have to that person?

Mu Qian shook his head.

He'd once hoped to find the million-year-old Ice Silkworm somewhere in the Far North, but now it seemed he wouldn't get the chance.

Perhaps he'd have to leave when he reached level thirty.

But he had no idea what time it was on the mainland, or whether the original story had begun yet.

Time flowed on, and the years passed swiftly.

On this ancient, unchanging ice field, time had become a hazy concept.

Killing had long since become commonplace in this world beneath the snow and ice, yet it never disturbed the serenity of the Core Zone.

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

In this life-forbidden zone, cut off from the rest of the world, he'd lost track of exactly how much time had passed. He only knew that the polar day had come four times, and the polar night had come four times as well.

Four years had passed.

Those four years had taken away some of the childishness from his face. His features had grown increasingly handsome, though not delicate, but marked by a distinctive, masculine bearing.

The natural conditioning of his body by the Yinglong Martial Soul had brought his height close to 1.65 meters by the time he was ten. His muscles were clearly defined, and he'd grown much sturdier.

When he stood, he was almost as tall as the Snow Maiden. In the Douluo World, where Spirit Masters generally matured quickly, he was probably among the tallest of his peers.

Back in his previous life, Mu Qian had complained about this while watching the anime. But now that it was happening to him, he'd fallen prey to the same "once you've tried it, you can't go back" rule.