"I, Xue Bingchen, was raised together by the Far North's most formidable Snow Empress Mama and Ice Empress Auntie! What flows through my body is the purest power of ice and snow in the Far North!"
"When I turn six, I will definitely, absolutely, one hundred percent awaken the strongest and most beautiful martial soul in this world—the Heavenly Snow Woman! I definitely won't let you down!"
The little boy's crisp, resolute voice echoed across the empty mountaintop, piercing through the raging snowstorm as though he were making the most solemn vow to this ancient land.
Hearing Xue Bingchen's forceful declaration, Ice Empress froze for a moment. Then she curled her lips and muttered softly:
"Tch, you arrogant little brat. What's wrong with having my Ice Jade Empress Scorpion as your martial soul...?"
But upon closer inspection, one would see that her emerald-green eyes were shining with immense gratification and anticipation. Even her perpetually tense little face could not help but soften.
Snow Empress, who was holding Xue Bingchen, trembled slightly.
Looking at the little boy in her arms, whose determined gaze made him seem to have grown up in an instant, she felt the softest place in her heart fiercely stirred.
Warmth and emotion unlike anything she had felt throughout hundreds of thousands of lonely years surged through her heart like a tide, causing the eyes of the Ruler of the Far North to redden ever so slightly.
"Good... good child..."
Snow Empress's voice was so gentle, as though she feared disturbing this beautiful dream.
She lowered her head slightly and gently pressed her smooth, jade-like forehead against Xue Bingchen's little forehead.
She extended her slender, icy jade hand and tenderly, lovingly stroked Xue Bingchen's soft white hair.
At that moment, even the snowstorm seemed to soften, slowly swirling around this pair who shared no blood relation yet were closer than mother and son.
Snow Empress's ethereal, melodious voice, filled with endless hope and affection, softly sounded beside Xue Bingchen's ear:
"Alright. Mama believes in you."
"No matter how difficult the road ahead may be, no matter what challenges you face, Mama will always be here, always... waiting for my Chen'er to grow up."
As the stars shifted and time passed, three years went by.
The three-year-old Xue Bingchen, who had just fused with his past-life memories and could still faint from "growing a brain," had now grown into an exquisitely adorable six-year-old boy.
His waist-length white hair was as soft and smooth as Far North ice silkworm thread, shimmering with a faint silver radiance as it drifted in the wind.
His clear ice-blue eyes seemed to contain the purest icy springs in the world.
His skin had been nourished by countless heavenly treasures of the Far North and Millennium Ice Marrow Milk, becoming fair and translucent like the finest mutton-fat jade.
Judging by looks alone, not even the entire Douluo Continent could produce another child who could compare to him.
Over these three years, the daily interactions between Xue Bingchen and the two Ice and Snow Empresses were enough to make anyone jealous. If the Soul Masters of the human world learned of them, they would likely cough up blood from envy on the spot.
Every morning, when the first aurora of the Far North cut through the night sky, Xue Bingchen would wake in Snow Empress's incomparably soft embrace, fragrant with a cool, delicate scent.
Snow Empress would gently wipe down his body with warm water condensed from her Seven-Hundred-Thousand-Year Fierce Beast Ultimate Ice origin, then use a comb carved from Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow to patiently comb through his white hair strand by strand.
Ice Empress, this "godmother," was even wilder.
Every day, her greatest pleasure was racing all over the Far North in search of rare ice-element heavenly treasures that contained immense energy.
Or she would hunt precious soul beasts unique to the Far North, take the finest parts of their flesh and blood, boil them into nourishing meat stew, and force Xue Bingchen to drink it.
"Little Bingchen! Open up! This is the descendant of a Ten Thousand Year Titan Snow Demon that Auntie just caught at the bottom of the Ten-Thousand-Zhang Ice Abyss today. It's a great tonic! Eat it and you'll grow strong!"
"Chen'er, don't listen to your Ice Empress Auntie. That meat is too tough and will hurt your stomach."
"Come, have some Polar Ice Lotus Dew Mama just gathered. It'll soothe your throat..."
Whenever this happened, the Extreme North Core Zone would stage a scene of "two peerless fierce beasts fighting fiercely over feeding rights."
Of course, the final result was usually Xue Bingchen clutching his round little belly, burping in satisfaction as he fell into a deep sleep under Snow Empress's gentle soothing, while Ice Empress sulked nearby and drew circles on the ground.
However, Xue Bingchen was not some greenhouse flower who only knew how to eat, drink, and play.
As a transmigrator with an adult soul, he knew very well what kind of dog-eat-dog world he was living in.
In order to figure out exactly which point in the Douluo Continent timeline he had landed in, Xue Bingchen had truly gone all out over these three years.
Taking advantage of his young age, he would cling to Snow Empress's long, straight jade legs and act cute whenever he had the chance. He even squeezed out a few tears, crying that despite being human, he did not even know what the outside world looked like and had never even seen what his own kind looked like.
Faced with Xue Bingchen's pitiful little eyes, even Snow Empress, the icy Ruler of the Far North, could only surrender in the end.
Thus, several times over the past three years, Snow Empress had quietly suppressed her terrifying Seven-Hundred-Thousand-Year Fierce Beast aura, used her heaven-reaching cultivation to form a concealment barrier from Ultimate Ice, and secretly taken Xue Bingchen out of the Extreme North Core Zone into the human world beyond the Far North.
It was precisely these brief "incognito visits" that allowed Xue Bingchen to completely grasp the current state of the continent—and sent waves of wild joy crashing through his heart.
He discovered that the human world outside still consisted of the Heaven Dou Empire and the Star Luo Empire facing each other from north and south.
And Spirit Hall, that colossal force which stood above all others and intimidated the entire Soul Master world—
was not yet under the control of the peerless and iron-handed Pope Bibi Dong!
As for Shrek Academy, which would become famous throughout the continent in the future, it had not even made a ripple yet.
That renowned "Grandmaster," Yu Xiaogang, was probably still brooding in some corner over his inability to break through Rank 30.
And Tang San, the child of destiny hailed in later generations as the God King of Tang... his story had not even begun!
"In other words, I'm in the timeline of the first part of Douluo Continent! And I may have even gotten a head start on Tang San!"
On the night he confirmed this information, Xue Bingchen was so excited that he did more than ten somersaults across the ice rocks. Even Ice Empress thought the child might have taken the wrong medicine.
Xue Bingchen's eyes gleamed with ambition.
Starting at the same time as him, what did he have to fear?
What did Tang San have?
A washed-up father who drank all day and forged iron, a poor village where people could barely afford to eat, or that so-called Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record?
And what did Xue Bingchen have?
The entire Far North stood behind him!
His "Mama" was a Heavenly Snow Woman with seven hundred thousand years of cultivation, while his "Auntie" was an Ice Jade Empress Scorpion with nearly four hundred thousand years of cultivation!
For the past three years, he had drunk Millennium Ice Marrow Milk like water, eaten Polar Snow Lotus as snacks, and bathed in the essence blood of ten-thousand-year soul beasts and Extreme Cold Spirit Spring!
This body of his had been forcefully built into a flawless treasure trove by the accumulated wealth of the Far North.
What could I possibly lose with? Tell me, what could I possibly lose with?! Xue Bingchen laughed wildly in his heart.
As long as he grew step by step, never mind Tang San—even if Qian Renxue of Spirit Hall became the Angel God ahead of time, he would still dare to face her head-on!
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