To be fair, unlike the Titan Snow Demon King's rough-hewn appearance, the Ice Empress was truly beautiful!
Yes, the Ice Empress was beautiful. Even though she was only a Soul Beast, Qin Yun couldn't help praising her from the bottom of his heart.
The Ice Empress was about one and a half meters long, not even as large as the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's true form had been.
The Ice Empress was a scorpion—a scorpion of peerless beauty.
Could a scorpion have anything to do with the word "beautiful"?
The answer was yes!
The one-and-a-half-meter-long Ice Empress had two colors on her body: the color of ice and emerald green.
Her body's front end had four stacked segments, each a little over half a foot long. Her head grew from the foremost segment, and her silvery-white mouthparts gleamed with a faint, frigid light.
The front half of her body was covered in a special kind of scale. No—more accurately, they were protrusions.
Each one was hexagonal, glittering with dazzling brilliance like a diamond.
The protrusions densely covered the front half of her body and her six long, powerful legs.
Bathed in the light reflected off the snow, she radiated an unparalleled brilliance.
At that moment, she seemed to have become a source of light, refracting a thousand dazzling colors.
Her two front pincers were each a meter long, and they too were covered with those strange, diamond-like hexagonal protrusions. Only the pincers' tips, like her mouthparts, were silvery white and gleamed like mirrors.
What caught Qin Yun's attention most was her pair of eyes.
They were yellow, as though two yellow diamonds had been set into her face. They were hexagonal too, and their crystalline golden-yellow gleam lent them the look of glittering treasures.
If her upper body was already dazzling enough, then the long, raised tail at her rear was the heart of all that brilliance.
Unlike the many-jointed tails of ordinary scorpions, the Ice Empress's long tail had only six segments. Each one was an alluring emerald green, shimmering with a vitality-filled luster. All six segments were the same shade.
The segment nearest her upper body was the widest, and each one grew narrower toward the end. At the final segment, a diamond-speckled tail barb rose high, its very tip gleaming silvery white like a mirror.
How could a Soul Beast so utterly brilliant, like a gemstone, not deserve the word "beautiful"?
She was not only beautiful; she looked incredibly valuable, too.
In that case, Tian Meng certainly had good taste—and he wasn't interested in taking the long way around. He wanted to go straight to living off a beautiful woman.
When he saw her, a mesmerized look unconsciously surfaced in the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's eyes. He stared intently at the Ice Empress.
"You came."
The Ice Empress seemed rather surprised to see the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's radiant golden body, formed purely from Spiritual Origin.
A strange look flickered in her crystalline golden-yellow eyes.
"Tian Meng, do you think that by hiding your true body and using Simulation to form a body out of Spiritual Origin, you can keep me from finding it?
Even if your Spiritual Origin is powerful enough to condense into a body on its own, and even if you take the form of a human, you still can't be far from your true body."
The Ice Empress spoke coldly.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm smiled faintly, his eyes full of infatuation. He was practically drooling.
"You're still as captivating as ever. I remember that the last time I saw you, your tail had seven segments. Now they've fused into six!
I love that tempting green of yours the most.
It seems my memory was right. In another ten thousand years, you'll reach the end of your lifespan!"
The Ice Empress snorted disdainfully, her clear female voice ringing out once more.
"Bragging will only make you die faster.
You've hidden yourself well all these years. Now you suddenly come back—is it just to get yourself killed?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm spoke with deep affection. "Of course I'm here to let you live! My unrequited love is finally about to end.
All these years, whenever I fell into a deep sleep, I dreamed of you. My darling, at last we can be together forever."
The Ice Empress finally couldn't stand the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's look of rapture. The barb on her raised tail suddenly flashed, and a beam of pure white light pierced straight through his body.
Qin Yun: "..."
We might not be teammates yet, but I have to say, well done!
Even I can't stand a pathetic simp like that!
"I don't know what scheme you're plotting.
But since you've delivered yourself to me, you must die.
Once I've absorbed your energy, I'll be the strongest Soul Beast on the continent—even though my lifespan is nearly over!"
The white beam that had pierced the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm didn't vanish. Instead, it spread through his body, which was made entirely of Spiritual Origin, and wildly tore apart his golden form.
Yet not a trace of pain crossed the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's face. He merely said with some regret, "I wanted to chat with you a little longer. Don't be so heartless.
Still, to bring us together for real as soon as possible, let's begin!"
Soul Beasts at the Ice Empress's level had an acute sense of danger. Almost instantly, she sensed something was wrong.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's golden body suddenly grew indistinct, then lunged straight at her.
There was no doubt that the Ice Empress was fast, but at that very moment, she suddenly felt herself slowing down. Everything around her turned viscous.
Terrifying Spiritual Origin, like a vast ocean, dragged her under.
The Ice Empress's gaze sharpened. Her tail barb swung with force, and her emerald tail shone brilliantly.
"Tian Meng, you're asking to die.
You dare use your Spiritual Origin this way—aren't you afraid you won't be able to return to your true body? And no matter how hard you try, you can't change the fact that you're a good-for-nothing.
How long can you hold me? One second? Two?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm replied gently, "I don't need long. One second is already enough!"
With that, he controlled his shed husk with Spiritual Origin and turned it into a cage, completely suppressing the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion. Seeing the Ice Empress struggle in vain before gradually calming down, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm finally told her his nearly insane plan.
I'm gonna create a god!
I'm gonna force her to love me!
"Ice Empress, stop struggling. You've already tried several times. You should know it won't work."
The Ice Empress said coldly, "What are you planning to do?"
"I only want to be with the one I love forever."
"This is how you love me?"
After spending more than a day thinking it over, the Ice Empress had realized she'd been tricked.
If she hadn't been so close to the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm at the time, he would never have succeeded.
But it was too late now. She had fallen into the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's hands, and she couldn't break free of this strange power.
Having lived for nearly four hundred thousand years, this powerful being naturally wouldn't give up easily. Since she couldn't win by force, she'd have to rely on other abilities.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm smiled faintly. "Don't rush. Just hear me out."
The Ice Empress said icily, "Hear what? That you love me? If you really loved me, why are you still refusing to reveal your true body? I'm already your prisoner. What are you afraid of?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm sighed. "It's not that I'm afraid. I simply have no way to show you my true body!
My true body no longer exists.
Don't you realize that what you've been seeing all along is my Spiritual Origin, not a simulated form?
You've ruled your territory for so long that you've lost your caution. Otherwise, I wouldn't have succeeded so easily."
Before you continue