Awakening the Heavenly Snow Woman

Time shifts back to the present.

Douluo Continent calendar, a certain year, month, and day.

For the Far North, today is a great day that absolutely deserves to be recorded in the annals of history.

Because that human cub, who carries all the hopes of the Ice and Snow Empresses, has finally turned six years old.

The day of the Martial Soul awakening has finally arrived.

For this day, the Ice and Snow Empresses have truly racked their brains.

Especially Snow Empress; in order to understand the specific process of how humans awaken their Martial Souls, she specifically took Xue Bingchen to sneak into human society again last year when he was five, traveling to a remote town on the far northern border of the Heaven Dou Empire.

Hidden in the void, the mother and son watched like gods looking down upon ants, silently observing how that Soul Grand Master deacon from Martial Soul Hall conducted the Martial Soul awakening for the civilian children in the town.

That experience left a deep impression on Xue Bingchen.

Watching that Martial Soul Hall deacon, who was somewhat arrogant in attitude but dutifully ran to every poor and remote corner to awaken Martial Souls for civilian children for free, Xue Bingchen gave a silent thumbs-up in his heart.

I have to say, setting aside the later factional oppositions, Martial Soul Hall is truly beyond reproach when it comes to how they treat civilian soul masters.

Xue Bingchen, then lying in Snow Empress's arms, muttered in a low voice:

Not only do they awaken Martial Souls for civilians for free, but as long as one has even a sliver of soul power, they also provide them with Gold Soul Coin subsidies. This isn't a villainous faction at all; this is practically the God of Wealth and the Hope Project of the Douluo Continent!

At the time, hearing Xue Bingchen's muttering, Snow Empress only glanced indifferently at the human children below who had awakened "hoes," "sickles," "Blue Silver Grass," and other trash Martial Souls, and possessed no soul power. A trace of the indifference and disdain belonging to a superior flashed in her beautiful eyes.

"Chen'er, these mortals have impure and wretched blood flowing through their bodies; naturally, they can only awaken these useless, inanimate objects."

Snow Empress gently stroked Xue Bingchen's cheek, her tone carrying undisguised pride:

"But you are different. You are the treasure of my Far North, a child favored by this heaven and earth. Your Martial Soul is destined to tower above all living beings."

Recalling that scene from last year, Xue Bingchen took a deep breath of the cold, biting air of the Far North ice plains—air that nonetheless made him feel incomparably comfortable—and slowly opened his eyes.

At this very moment, he is standing at the peak of the highest Ten Thousand Year Snow Mountain in the Extreme North Core Zone.

Beneath his feet is a massive hexagram awakening array, which Ice Empress spent an entire month carving out of the hardest, purest 'Ice Extreme God Crystal' in the Far North.

At every node of the array, a ten-thousand-year ice-attribute soul beast inner core, radiating terrifying cold, is embedded to replace the awakening stones used in human ceremonies.

This level of extravagance—let alone the Pope of Martial Soul Hall, even if the gods of the God Realm were to descend, they would likely have their jaws drop in shock.

The Ice and Snow Empresses stand on the edge of the hexagram array, one on the left and one on the right, their gazes locked tightly onto Xue Bingchen in the center of the array.

Ice Empress's emerald green eyes are filled with nervousness and anticipation. Her fair, delicate hands are clutching her twin tails tightly, and she keeps muttering to herself:

"It must be an Ice Jade Empress Scorpion... It must be an Ice Jade Empress Scorpion... Heavens bless me, let little Bingchen awaken my Martial Soul, so that I can be his legitimate mother..."

Hearing Ice Empress's muttering, Snow Empress only shakes her head helplessly, a calm smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

There is not a trace of worry on her beautiful face, for she has absolute confidence in the foundation she has laid for Xue Bingchen over these past six years.

"Chen'er, are you ready?" Snow Empress's ethereal and melodious voice rings out in the wind and snow, like the music of the heavens.

Xue Bingchen nods heavily, his small face full of seriousness and determination: "Mother, I am ready! Let us begin!"

"Good."

Snow Empress nods slightly, then her flawless, mutton-fat jade-like hand lifts gently, pointing from afar toward Xue Bingchen in the center of the array.

"Hum--!"

Following Snow Empress's movement, a source energy of Ultimate Ice, pure to the extreme and without the slightest impurity, flows from her fingertips like a trickling stream, instantly injecting into the Ice Extreme God Crystal array beneath the ground.

In an instant, the entire hexagram array erupts with an extremely brilliant ice-blue light!

The six ten-thousand-year soul beast inner cores seem to have been ignited, releasing a massive, incomparable power of ice and snow, which transforms into six ice-blue pillars of light that shoot into the sky, converging into a massive vortex of ice and snow above Xue Bingchen's head.

"Close your eyes, use your heart to feel that sleeping power within your body, guide it, and release it!"

Snow Empress's voice explodes in Xue Bingchen's mind like a morning bell or evening drum.

Xue Bingchen closes his eyes as instructed.

At this moment, he feels as if he is situated within a warm, icy womb.

The energy, pulled by Snow Empress, flows into his limbs and bones like a spring breeze bringing rain, following his wide and resilient meridians, rushing toward the deepest part of his soul with the force of a bamboo being split.

He feels that within his body, a heavy door that has been shut for six years is slowly opening under the impact of this power.

"Crack--!"

A sound like a fracture from the depths of his soul rings out.

Immediately following, an indescribable, ultimate chill erupts violently from Xue Bingchen's dantian!

This chill is not the biting cold of frost, but an absolute zero that carries supreme pressure, as if it could freeze time and space and force all things to submit!

"BOOM--!!!"

The moment this chill erupts, the sky above the Far North changes.

The howling wind and snow fall into absolute stillness in an instant. Then, a brilliant ice-blue pillar of light, over a hundred meters in diameter, shoots straight into the clouds from the center of Xue Bingchen's body like a volcanic eruption!

This pillar of light is so dazzling that it seems as if it wants to tear apart the gloom that never leaves the Far North, piercing straight into the God Realm above the nine heavens!

"Success!"

Outside the array, the Snow Empress's ice-blue eyes, which had remained as still as an ancient well for ten thousand years, suddenly erupted with two dazzling beams of light.

A smile that could melt the heavens of ice and snow bloomed across her peerless face.

She watched the small figure in the center of the light pillar with excitement, her voice even carrying a hint of a tremor:

"It really is... it really is the Heavenly Snow Woman martial soul!"

Within that brilliant pillar of light shooting straight into the clouds, countless crystalline ice and snow elements gathered frantically, eventually condensing above Xue Bingchen's head into a stunningly beautiful figure dozens of feet tall.

That figure wore a white dress, her silver hair dancing in the wind, her feet bare, each step blooming with a lotus of ice.

Her appearance, her temperament, and even the cold, aloof pressure radiating from her that stood above all living beings were exactly the same as the ruler of the Far North standing right beside her—the Snow Empress!

However, this phantom appeared even more ethereal and pure, as if it were the embodiment of the laws of ice and snow between heaven and earth.

This was none other than one of the top-tier martial souls on the Douluo Continent, arguably the absolute ceiling of ice-attribute martial souls—the Heavenly Snow Woman!

The momentum of Xue Bingchen's martial soul awakening was truly immense.

This ice-blue pillar of light, shooting into the sky, not only illuminated the entire Far North, but the terrifying fluctuations of law it emitted swept across the entire Douluo Continent in an instant, like a tsunami crossing thousands of mountains and rivers!