Promotion to Soul Douluo 2

Bibi Dong sat by the window, listlessly gazing at the distant scenery, unable to muster any energy.

"Ahh."

Bibi Dong let out a sigh, her entire body going limp and soft as she casually slumped against the windowsill.

She hadn't noticed it before, but now that Hals had left without a word, Bibi Dong suddenly realized she had grown accustomed to having someone by her side. With Hals gone, she felt a strange sense of unease.

Suddenly, a single snowflake drifted down slowly, landing gently on the back of Bibi Dong's hand. She looked up in surprise, staring at the sky as countless snowflakes danced in the air, chaotic yet graceful.

"Almost half a month now," Bibi Dong murmured, her gaze vacant, staring blankly at nothing in particular.

In the distant Extreme North, blizzards raged endlessly throughout the year, and everywhere the eye could see was a blinding expanse of white.

Within this boundless sea of white, a small black dot moved slowly and steadily.

That black dot was Hals. For over ten days, he had traveled from the main hall of the Martial Soul Hall, hunting along the way as he pressed forward toward the Extreme North.

Before reaching the seventh ring, Hals had never truly understood his own Martial Soul—the Soul-Guiding Lantern. He had only used it roughly, guided by instinct and vague intuition. His so-called Self-Created Soul Skill was merely releasing all the souls inside the lantern and using them to crash into his enemies.

Still, that was one way to use the Soul-Guiding Lantern—a fortunate accident, you could say.

It wasn't until Hals became a Spirit Saint and obtained his Martial Soul True Body that he truly grasped the deeper meaning of his Martial Soul. Imprisoning souls was only the most basic function; the deeper layer was to turn them into his own tools and grant them physical forms.

And the easiest physical form to obtain in nature was ice. When the temperature was low enough, ice became incredibly hard, and its malleability was excellent.

Hals had traveled thousands of miles through hardship to reach the Extreme North. On the way, he continuously harvested souls, cultivating them to prepare for a ritual for his upcoming eighth Soul Ring. But more importantly, only in the Extreme North could he find soul beasts capable of producing ice crystals cold enough.

The biting wind howled, sharp and bone-piercing. Even someone as strong as Hals had to temporarily yield to the piercing gale, tightly wrapping his robe and throwing a black Purple Sable Fur Coat over it. Yet no matter how fierce the wind, it could not extinguish the two green flames burning in Hals's hollow eye sockets.

These two green flames had remained since his last enlightenment of the Soul-Guiding Lantern. Their existence continuously refined and elevated the soul level of Hals's true body. The fuel for these green flames was all of Hals's desires. As long as he possessed even a single desire, no matter how faint, the flames would continue to burn and amplify that desire.

Step by step, Hals trudged through knee-deep snow for what felt like an eternity. His black sable coat was completely covered by the blizzard, turning white and blending seamlessly into the snowy landscape.

Hals walked alone, silent, moving forward without a word—until, on the distant horizon, a "forest" of dozens of ice pillars appeared, standing tall and dense. The stiffness on Hals's face finally relaxed slightly, but the green flames in his eye sockets burned even brighter. That was his joy at the upcoming eighth Soul Ring, his thirst for power. These desires continuously fed the green flames, and the roaring green fire endlessly strengthened Hals's soul...

"Finally... I've arrived," a low, hoarse voice rasped from Hals's throat.

The massive ice pillars before him towered into the clouds, each as thick as four men could wrap their arms around.

Hals stepped forward. A faint green flame flickered on his hands as he gently pressed his palm against an ice pillar. A single green light drifted out from the lantern and merged into the flame on his hand. In an instant, the fire shot up to the sky before extinguishing just as quickly. Looking down, the flesh on Hals's right hand had vanished, leaving only a skeletal palm.

This was Hals's latest gain after comprehending his Martial Soul—burning souls to strengthen the bones of his body. But the price was immense pain every time he used it, and the soul used as fuel would be permanently destroyed. In a way, it was a form of utter annihilation.

Fortunately, Hals still retained the last shred of humanity in his heart. He did not slaughter innocent commoners but instead targeted criminals stained with blood debts. Of course, if he encountered ordinary people who had died unjustly, Hals would not spare their souls either. From the day his Martial Soul awakened, his possessiveness over souls had grown stronger and stronger. In his eyes, the final resting place of all souls was him.

After the enhancement, his bones were incredibly hard—sharp enough to cut through iron like mud was an understatement.

Hals raised his five fingers and clawed fiercely at the ice pillar. The bone fingers, which could easily scratch a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone, only left a shallow mark on the pillar's surface.

This was an uninhabited area. After a moment's hesitation, Hals still pulled down his hood. A scarred face revealed a faint smile. Clearly, this was the place he was looking for.

Hals withdrew his hand and walked deeper into the Ice Pillar Forest. The flesh on his hand slowly regrew as it hung by his side, accompanied by constant itching and pain, but Hals showed no expression, as if he felt nothing.

Inside the Ice Pillar Forest was a vast open space, with only a few irregular blocks of ice standing two to three meters high and over four meters wide.

Though an ordinary person would see no living creatures here, in Hals's green-flame-burning eye sockets, amidst the black-and-white world, a few dazzling green lights shone with an undeniable radiance.

That was the light of souls—souls of beings with extremely strong life force and long lifespans.

"So, you are the little-known Dew-Condensing Ice Toads?" Hals said with a playful expression, staring at the ice blocks before him.

No one answered. Hals didn't mind. He walked step by step toward the ice. With each step, a green light flew out from the lantern, landing on the footprint he left behind, then bursting into roaring flames.

Hals walked all the way to the ice blocks, leaving a trail of green fire behind him.

He stood before the ice, waiting silently. Though he had the strength to shatter such hard ice, it would be too exhausting. Attacking their souls was useless as well. Unless necessary, these soul beasts would live inside their ice blocks until they died.

The fuel for the flames on his footprints was souls. The substance released after burning was something every living being dreamed of—it could elevate a creature's soul level, and through the soul, affect the physical body, raising its life level.

The Soul Essence permeating the air caught the attention of the Dew-Condensing Ice Toad. The ice block before Hals began to tremble slowly, shedding flakes of ice and snow. After a long moment, a crack appeared, winding from the top of the ice block downward. As cracking sounds continued, the fissure grew larger.

Finally, with a loud crash, the massive ice block split in two and fell to the ground. A half-meter-tall, one-meter-long ice toad, entirely azure-blue with a smooth body, appeared before Hals.

It ignored the foreign creature beside it and opened its huge mouth to breathe, unlike ordinary toads that breathed through their skin.

The green flames flickered in Hals's eyes as he silently watched everything unfold.

As the ice toad's breathing grew more intense, a faint green mist, barely visible to the naked eye, appeared in the air and was continuously inhaled. Then, a thick layer of glowing green ice formed on the ice toad's body.

Seeing this, Hals finally showed a satisfied expression.

Indeed, those massive ice pillars were all formed by individual ice toads. The toads shed their ice once every ten thousand years, reproduced, and then re-formed their ice pillars. The ice toad before him had already reached an age of ninety-nine thousand years. In another thousand years, it would have advanced to a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. But unfortunately, due to its race, it was destined never to cross that threshold. Still, it was the oldest among this group of ice toads.

Watching the ice dew on the toad's body reach the thickness of five fingers, Hals finally stepped forward. Seven Soul Rings burst forth from behind him. Roaring flames erupted from his body, shooting into the sky, burning away his sable coat while leaving his robe unharmed. Beneath the robe, his body turned to bone, inch by inch.

"Heh heh heh."

Hals laughed.

Countless souls flew out from the lantern, swirling through the air. Their eyes were all fixed intently on the man and the ice toad before them.

"Woo woo woo, heh heh heh~"

The souls wailed, and laughed...