"Xue'er, Xiao Shuangbai, I'm back!"
After taking care of matters within the tribe, Ice Empress returned to her home as usual, calling for Snow Empress and Yu Shuangbai.
Silence.
Getting no response, Ice Empress pushed open the ice door in confusion.
But the room was already completely empty.
"Strange. Where could Xue'er and Xiao Shuangbai have gone at this hour?"
Ice Empress murmured to herself, puzzled.
Neither Snow Empress nor Yu Shuangbai was the type to wander around.
On ordinary days, aside from training in combat with the troops at the rear, the two of them simply stayed home.
She spread out her spiritual power.
Yet she still found nothing.
Ice Empress's brows furrowed slightly.
At the same time, the corner of her eye caught sight of something on the ice table.
It was a rectangular block of ice.
Ice Empress walked over, picked it up, and examined it in her hands.
A message was clearly carved into the ice.
After reading it,
the veins on Ice Empress's fair forehead bulged.
Her small hand involuntarily tightened its grip.
The block of ice shattered with a crash, breaking into scattered shards across the floor.
The message on it had clearly been left by Yu Shuangbai.
It said that he and Snow Empress would be leaving the Far North for a while to visit the human world.
She'd only gone to take care of something in the tribe, and now she'd become a lonely old woman left home alone?
"You bastards!"
"Damn you, Xue'er!"
"Damn you, Xiao Shuangbai!"
Ice Empress stamped her feet furiously, her angry voice echoing through the empty ice house.
Her jade-green twin ponytails bounced up and down.
At that moment,
Yu Shuangbai and Snow Empress had already left the Far North Core and reached the border of the Far North, not far from a human city-state.
"Big Sister Xue'er, is this really all right?"
"Shouldn't we wait for Big Sister Bing'er to come back and tell her first?"
Yu Shuangbai was still a little concerned.
He had originally planned to wait until Ice Empress returned, explain the matter to her, and then leave the Far North.
But Snow Empress had said there was no need; they only had to leave a letter.
That was why Ice Empress had found the block of ice carved with all those words.
"It's fine."
Snow Empress waved a hand, indicating that he needn't worry.
"That girl Bing'er will understand when she sees the message."
"Besides, you know she's always looked down on the human world. She definitely won't come along."
"All you need is me by your side."
If Ice Empress heard Snow Empress say that, she would surely be furious enough to cry and make a scene.
When had she ever said such a thing?
Snow Empress was the one who had always acted completely uninterested in the human world!
"All right." Yu Shuangbai nodded, thinking there shouldn't be any serious problem.
They wouldn't be away from the Far North for long.
A few years at most.
For a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast like Ice Empress, that should pass in the blink of an eye.
Yu Shuangbai simply didn't notice the flash of triumph in Snow Empress's snow-clear eyes.
Suddenly,
Snow Empress stopped, her gaze sharpening.
The aura around her turned dangerous.
She was just about to raise a hand and make a move when Yu Shuangbai stopped her.
"Hmm?"
She glanced at Yu Shuangbai in confusion.
He answered with a faint smile.
"Big Sister Xue'er, leave this kind of thing to me."
As his words fell,
the ice ahead of them suddenly shattered.
Under cover of the ice crystals filling the air, a white figure swiftly burst out, sending a sharp gleam of cold light toward Yu Shuangbai and Snow Empress.
Three ice-blue Soul Rings appeared around Yu Shuangbai, completely defying the Soul Master World's common understanding.
The first ice-blue Soul Ring in the lineup suddenly flashed.
He raised a hand and pointed lightly.
A rose formed of ice crystals bloomed, binding the white figure tightly.
Only then could they see the figure's true appearance.
It was a peculiar Soul Beast.
It had the shape of a wolf,
but lacked the fur usually found on wolf-type Soul Beasts.
Instead, its body was covered in white scales like armor.
A White Lurking Fish-Wolf.
A special Soul Beast unique to the Far North.
It possessed the fish's aptitude for water and the wolf's aggression and agility.
It often lurked beneath the ice of frozen lakes, waiting for prey to appear.
Then, at the right moment, it would break through the ice and strike, eager to claim its prey.
It was also known as the predator hidden beneath the ice.
Since they couldn't afford to provoke the powerful Soul Beasts in the Far North's core region,
White Lurking Fish-Wolves usually hunted along the borders of the Far North.
Snow Empress simply hadn't expected
that after she'd merely concealed the aura of a seventy-thousand-year Soul Beast King, an ordinary Soul Beast that had only just passed a thousand years of cultivation would dare attack her!
This White Lurking Fish-Wolf, barely over a thousand years old, had certainly accomplished something.
Usually, even powerful ten-thousand-year fish-wolves of its kind could only lurk quietly underwater when they encountered Snow Empress, not daring to act out in the slightest.
Yet this one had actually attacked her.
It had surpassed its predecessors in every way.
Although the price of that achievement would probably be steep.
The White Lurking Fish-Wolf was bound fast within the Ice Rose.
A low growl rumbled from its throat as it struggled madly.
But it was completely useless.
The Ice Crystal Rose released by Yu Shuangbai, whose strength was at the Soul Elder level and already close to the Soul Ancestor level, was powerful enough to firmly restrain this Soul Beast that had just passed a thousand years of cultivation.
Only bloodlines as exceptional as that of the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear, or Soul Beasts that relied purely on strength, could break free at this level of cultivation.
The White Lurking Fish-Wolf was an assassin hidden beneath the ice.
Nearly all its threat lay in that sudden, deadly strike.
Its physical abilities weren't particularly exceptional.
Naturally, it couldn't break free.
"Big Sister Xue'er?"
Yu Shuangbai cast Snow Empress a questioning look.
"Kill it," Snow Empress said coldly.
She didn't believe in forgiving someone simply because they didn't know better.
Though the thousand-year-old White Lurking Fish-Wolf had attacked without knowing who she was,
the fact remained that it had dared to attack her and Yu Shuangbai.
Snow Empress had never been the merciful sort.
Countless Soul Beasts of the Far North had died at her hands.
After all...
The Soul Beast Realm had always believed in the law of the jungle. Snow Empress had fought her way to the position of the Far North's strongest, one sword stroke at a time.
At that, Yu Shuangbai didn't hesitate either.
If Snow Empress, the Soul Beast King of the Far North, was so decisive, he wasn't going to play the saint.
He gave it a thought.
The Ice Crystal Rose wrapped around the White Lurking Fish-Wolf bloomed, its petals sinking deep into the fish-wolf's scales like sharp blades.
The scales, like armor, were as defenseless as tofu before those petals.
The petals easily pierced through the scales and sank into its muscles, drawing a pained howl from the White Lurking Fish-Wolf.
Red blood spread along the blue ice crystals.
The pale-blue Ice Rose took on a tinge of red, adding an inexplicable, bewitching beauty.
Just as Yu Shuangbai was about to end the White Lurking Fish-Wolf's life for good,
a clear, urgent voice rang out:
"Young master, please spare it!"
Before you continue