Qian Xunji folded away the wings behind him, hovering in the air as he looked at her with a gaze that was deep and clear.
"Snow Empress, you've lived for seven hundred thousand years. You should see things more clearly than any other creature on this continent. What sort of situation is your Soul Beast Clan in now?"
"Cut the nonsense," Snow Empress said coldly. "Humans and soul beasts are natural enemies."
"Natural enemies? Don't flatter yourselves," Qian Xunji scoffed, ruthlessly tearing away her last shred of dignity.
"Ever since the Dragon God War, soul beasts have been forbidden from becoming gods for all eternity. In the eyes of the gods, you're nothing but livestock raised in captivity, resources for humans to harvest Spirit Rings and Spirit Bones from."
"You think you can stay in the Far North and keep yourself out of it? When will your next heavenly tribulation come?
"Do you really think you can withstand it with nothing but the Far North's blizzards?
"Without the Companion Profound Ice Marrow from Douluo Planet that I gave you last time, how much longer could you have lasted? And even if you became a million-year soul beast, so what? Would your Spirit Ring look prettier?"
Snow Empress's delicate body trembled slightly, and a trace of sorrow she could barely conceal flashed in her eyes. Heavenly tribulations were the death warrant hanging over every soul beast.
"Perhaps you're still counting on the lord sleeping deep within the Star Dou Great Forest? The Silver Dragon King?"
The three words Qian Xunji uttered made Snow Empress jerk her head up, her face full of shock. The Far North and the Star Dou Great Forest had always kept to their own territories, but as a top Ferocious Beast, she naturally knew of their sovereign.
"Don't be naive."
Qian Xunji coldly shattered her hopes. "Never mind how badly she's injured. Even if she truly awakens one day, do you think she'll care about a Heavenly Snow Woman like you, born of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth?"
"She's half of the Dragon God. She wants to revive the Dragon Race! Ferocious Beasts like Di Tian, with their pure Dragon Race bloodline! What are you, Snow Empress?
"In her grand ambitions, at best, you'd be a high-ranking cannon fodder, sent to die for the Dragon Race. When she challenges the Divine Realm, the Dragon Race will be the first she looks after. What does that have to do with the Far North?"
His words were brutally realistic, like a sharp knife driven straight into Snow Empress's deepest vulnerability.
That was right... The Dragon God only cared about dragons. To the Star Dou Great Forest, the creatures of the Far North were outsiders.
"What exactly are you trying to say..." For the first time, Snow Empress's voice sounded hoarse and weak.
"I'm saying that the Soul Beast Clan has no hope now. Not a little hope—no hope at all!"
Qian Xunji stared straight into her eyes, his voice icy.
"The inheritances of the Sea God, Asura God, Angel God... Every Deity's inheritance is in human hands! The gates of the Divine Realm have long been welded shut against you. If you keep shutting yourselves away and clinging to the ridiculous dignity of a forbidden land, your only end will be to have your soul and spirit annihilated by a tribulation."
Qian Xunji lifted his chin slightly.
"I, Qian Xunji, may be human, but my future path will reach far beyond this continent."
"The Profound Ice Marrow I left you last time was a gift to mark our first meeting. It can help you survive your next heavenly tribulation."
Qian Xunji turned around, and the Wings of Light behind him took shape once more.
"I don't need a tamed pet. I need someone who can watch my back... a fellow traveler."
He glanced over his shoulder.
"Snow Empress, I'll come back to the Far North to find you."
"But that will be the last time."
"Will you come with me, or stay here in the Far North and wait for a heavenly tribulation to strike you to ashes? Next time, give me your answer."
Boom!
A piercing sonic boom tore through the sky. Qian Xunji left without the slightest hesitation, vanishing into the distance as a streak of golden light.
Within the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Abyss, the howling wind gradually died down.
Snow Empress stood alone on the shattered Profound Ice Platform, gazing up at the direction the man had gone. For a long time, she did not look away.
Qian Xunji's cold, cruel, yet bloody truth kept replaying in her mind.
No hope.
High-ranking cannon fodder.
Soul and spirit annihilated.
Snow Empress lowered her head and looked at her trembling, fair hands. For the first time in seven hundred thousand years, she felt that the blizzards of the Far North were so bitterly cold and lonely.
She slowly closed her eyes, yet the image of the man as he left remained in her mind.
"The last time..."
The ruler of the Far North murmured to herself. At last, a crack appeared in the heart that had been frozen for seven hundred thousand years.
He raced off in a blaze of sparks and lightning.
Only after he had flown beyond the endless blizzards on the outskirts of the Far North did Qian Xunji slam on the brakes atop a secluded, barren mountain.
The moment his feet touched the ground, the power of a Level 99 Limit Douluo—the strength to trample the whole world beneath his feet—ebbed away like a receding tide.
The time limit on that Peerless Douluo Experience Card had run out.
"Whew—"
Qian Xunji let out a long breath. As his cultivation fell back to Level 95, he was suddenly struck by the enormous letdown of going from a Rolls-Royce Phantom to a shared bicycle.
"The power of a Level 99 Limit Douluo... It's intoxicating."
Qian Xunji clenched his fist and smacked his lips, still wanting more.
"Too bad. The cheat I bought for three thousand Subversion Points only gave me half an hour as a real man. It was far too short. But it was worth the price. Snow Empress must've been so shaken by my peerless presence that she's questioning everything."
After experiencing the supreme view from the peak of a Limit Douluo's power, Qian Xunji's longing for strength became clearer and more urgent.
He knew the experience card was only an external aid. To stay firmly in control in this mad world, where a Rebirth or transmigrator could pop up at any moment, he needed to break through as quickly as possible and turn Spirit Hall, his home base, into an iron fortress.
"I need to get back and start building things up. I'll be roaming the world to cut in and stir up trouble, raking in Subversion Points. If I go out for a spin and come back to find someone's stolen my home, that'll be a fine joke."
Qian Xunji didn't linger. The Twelve Wings of Light behind him beat sharply, and he shot toward Spirit City as a streak of golden light.
After returning to Spirit City, Qian Xunji acted swiftly, immediately convening a fully closed-door, highest-level meeting of the red-robed cardinals at Pope Hall.
At this meeting, Qian Xunji dropped his previous charlatan act and persuasive tricks, displaying in full the iron-fisted might of a powerful Pope.
"I don't care how you used to line your own pockets or form cliques under my nose. Starting today, discipline within Spirit Hall will be tightened across the board! Anyone who dares defy the rules and oppress civilian Soul Masters will have their cultivation crippled and be thrown into the Inquisition once the facts are confirmed!"
Qian Xunji sat on the lofty papal throne, tapping the armrest with his fingers as his icy gaze swept across the trembling cardinals below.
"Also, we're increasing subsidies for civilian Soul Masters and low-level Soul Masters across the board. Distribute all our idle resources, and establish Martial Soul Awakening stations in remote villages and towns throughout the continent. Awakening will be free, and we'll fully fund any promising candidates to attend a junior Soul Master Academy!"
Before you continue