Mama Snow Empress, Mama Ice Empress

The Snow Empress did not voice the rest of her thoughts, but the Ice Empress understood her meaning perfectly.

If he failed to awaken the Heavenly Snow Woman martial soul, this human child would lose the value that earned him the Snow Empress's special treatment.

What awaited him would be the cruelest law of nature in the Far North.

The Ice Empress wouldn't even need the Snow Empress to lift a finger; she would toss him into the ten-thousand-foot ice abyss to feed the ice bears herself. He wouldn't have a good end!

"Fine, since you have decided, I will listen to you."

The Ice Empress nodded; she had always followed the Snow Empress's decisions blindly.

She then looked at the male infant and pursed her lips. "Since we are raising him for six years, he needs a name. We can't just call him 'human child' every day."

The Snow Empress pondered for a moment, her gaze deep as she watched the howling wind and snow in the distance, and said softly:

"He was born amidst the ice and snow, like the purest snowflake in this Far North.

Yet, he is human after all, carrying the scent of the mortal world.

In that case, let us call him... 'Xue Bingchen'."

"Xue Bingchen?"

The Ice Empress muttered the name twice, her eyes brightening slightly:

"The 'Xue' from the Snow Empress, the 'Bing' from the Ice Empress, plus the 'chen' for the mortal world.

Hmph, this name is getting off easy for this little brat; it's equivalent to hanging both our names upon him."

The Snow Empress smiled faintly, not refuting her.

She looked down at Xue Bingchen in her arms, who seemed to smack his tiny lips upon hearing his name, and whispered:

"From today on, you are Xue Bingchen."

In the days that followed, a scene both bizarre and heartwarming appeared in the core circle of the Far North.

Two rulers of the Far North, whose mere footfalls could make the entire Douluo Continent tremble, had unexpectedly begun to act as clumsy "full-time nannies."

Raising a child was, for the Snow Empress and the Ice Empress, ten thousand times more difficult than resisting a hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation.

For the first few days, the core circle was in complete chaos.

Although Xue Bingchen had a special constitution and was not afraid of the cold, he was still an infant and needed to eat.

Where in the Far North could one find breast milk suitable for a human infant?

Watching Xue Bingchen wail from hunger, the Ice Empress was so anxious she nearly smashed the ice mountains within a ten-mile radius of the core area. In the end, the Snow Empress remained calm, venturing deep into the oldest glacial crevices of the Far North to forcibly extract "Millennium Ice Marrow Milk" that had been gestating in the depths of the earth for thousands of years.

This Ice Marrow Milk contained immense, gentle vitality and the energy of Ultimate Ice; it was a divine object even soul beasts could only dream of, yet now the Snow Empress used it as "baby formula" for Xue Bingchen.

To ensure Xue Bingchen's fragile human meridians could withstand the energy of the Ice Marrow Milk, the Snow Empress would hold the milk in her own mouth each time, using her seven-hundred-thousand-year-level origin power to repeatedly purify, nourish, and dissolve the violent cold within it. Only after leaving behind the purest, gentlest nutrients would she carefully transfer it mouth-to-mouth into Xue Bingchen's tiny lips.

The Ice Empress was not idle, either.

Though she was proud and temperamental, she poured great effort into this little one favored by the Snow Empress.

To build the most solid physical foundation for Xue Bingchen and maximize his future potential, the Ice Empress turned the habitats of the Far North's heavenly treasures upside down.

Everything from the "Ten-Thousand-Year Polar Snow Lotus" growing on freezing cliffs to the "Extreme Ice Millennium Profound Marrow" buried under thousands of feet of black ice, and even the extremely rare "Ice Dragon Bone Powder," was scavenged by the Ice Empress.

Although Xue Bingchen was only a toddler and could not actively cultivate to absorb these terrifying energies, the Snow Empress and Ice Empress had their own unique methods.

Every so often, the Ice Empress would boil these treasures into a pot of crystal-clear medicinal liquid.

Then, the Snow Empress would place the stark-naked Xue Bingchen into the liquid.

While Xue Bingchen soaked in the medicinal bath, the Snow Empress would press her cool, soft jade hands against his back, injecting wisps of soul power into his body to guide the immense energy of the liquid, extremely slowly and gently washing over Xue Bingchen's bones, meridians, blood, and even every single cell.

Meanwhile, the Ice Empress would stand by, using her exquisite soul power control to massage his acupoints, ensuring every bit of medicinal efficacy was perfectly absorbed by his small body without causing any damage.

Under the cost-no-object, and arguably wasteful, cultivation efforts of the two Far North rulers, Xue Bingchen's body underwent earth-shattering changes.

His skin became increasingly translucent, as if emitting a faint glow.

His meridians were widened to an outrageous degree, becoming as tough as ten-thousand-year ice silkworm silk.

His bones even faintly revealed a jade-like luster, containing explosive potential for power.

Time, in this snow-covered Far North, always flowed silently.

Spring passed and autumn came—though the Far North had no such seasons—three full years had already passed in the outside world of the Douluo Continent.

On this day, at the peak of a towering snow mountain in the core circle of the Far North.

Sunlight filtered through the thin clouds, spilling onto the white snow and refracting into ten thousand golden rays.

A little boy, appearing to be about three years old, was being led by the Ice Empress, sitting on a massive ice rock at the edge of the mountain.

The boy was incredibly exquisite and adorable, his porcelain-like face flushed with healthy color.

Most striking of all was his pure white hair, like fresh snow, and a pair of deep, ice-blue eyes identical to the Snow Empress's.

This was clearly the result of long-term absorption of the Far North's heavenly treasures and the influence of the Snow Empress's origin aura.

He wore an exquisite little white robe woven from ten-thousand-year ice silkworm silk mixed with strands of hair shed by the Snow Empress; not only was it impervious to blades and arrows, but it could also automatically regulate temperature, making him look like a little celestial child who had stepped right out of a painting.

He was none other than Xue Bingchen, now three years old.

At his current age, he could not only run and jump, but he was also exceptionally intelligent, having long since been able to speak with articulate clarity.

At this moment, the Ice Empress was sitting right beside him.

Having taken on human form, the Ice Empress still maintained the appearance of a twelve or thirteen-year-old loli with green twin-tails; three years had passed, yet her features had not changed in the slightest.

She dangled her fair, tender little legs, her emerald eyes filled with excitement and anticipation, while her hands rubbed together incessantly.

"Hurry, hurry, little Bingchen! Today, thanks to you, I actually get to see the Snow Empress dance again!" the Ice Empress said excitedly to the boy beside her, her tone carrying an unconcealable fervor.

In the Far North, who didn't know that the Ice Empress was the Snow Empress's number one "fangirl"?

To be able to watch the Snow Empress dance was, for the Ice Empress, simply the greatest joy in this world.

Xue Bingchen sat on an ice rock, his two small hands cupping his chin, a flicker of confusion that transcended his age flashing through his ice-blue eyes.

He tilted his little head, looked at the Ice Empress who was as excited as a little girl, and asked in a milky, childish voice, "Auntie Ice Empress, why does Mother want to dance for me? Is it because I obediently finished that bowl of bitter Snow Lotus Soup today?"