Third Soul Skill, Soul of the Snow Woman

Hearing the Ice Empress's sudden, sharp cry, Xue Bingchen felt a massive headache coming on; he could only rub the back of his head and offer a helpless, bitter smile.

Just then, an ethereal, cold, and mature female voice—as melodious as the clashing of ten-thousand-year black ice—strangely emanated from within Xue Bingchen's own body!

"Bing'er, stop making a scene. I have explained to you many times that my staying inside Little Chen's body is a form of special cultivation."

"Furthermore, this is not only beneficial to me, but it also provides immense advantages for Little Chen's cultivation progress."

This voice belonged to none other than the true sovereign of the Far North, the seven-hundred-thousand-year-cultivation Snow Empress!

The Snow Empress's figure did not appear, but her cold voice truly and clearly resonated from within Xue Bingchen's chest; if an outsider were to witness such a scene, they would surely be frightened out of their wits.

However, faced with the Snow Empress's explanation, the Ice Empress refused to buy it at all.

She placed her hands on her hips, glared indignantly at Xue Bingchen's chest, and delivered a blunt, aggressive retort:

"So what? What does that matter? I don't care if you're cultivating or not, anyway... I want to see you! Come out here right now!"

The Ice Empress's words, which were blunt to the point of being spoiled, left Xue Bingchen caught in the middle, feeling so awkward he could have curled his toes into the floor.

"Sigh..."

From within Xue Bingchen's body came a sigh of extreme helplessness.

Clearly, even the Snow Empress had no way to deal with this willful best friend who held such special feelings for her.

Accompanying this sigh, a soft, white halo of light suddenly ignited at Xue Bingchen's chest.

Immediately following, a crystal-clear, six-petaled snowflake radiating an aura of ultimate purity drifted slowly out from within his body.

The snowflake spun in the air for a moment before expanding rapidly in the wind, instantly transforming into a breathtaking, peerless, and stunningly beautiful silhouette!

Her long, snow-white hair cascaded down her back, her flawless face carried a hint of coldness and helplessness, and a white dress outlined her proud, graceful figure to perfection.

It was the Snow Empress herself!

Seeing that the Snow Empress had finally emerged, a brilliant smile bloomed on the Ice Empress's face, and she prepared to pounce for a cuddle.

At this moment, Xue Bingchen, trying to ease the awkward atmosphere, couldn't help but interject:

"Auntie Ice Empress, you've seen the wonders of my third soul skill many times over the past few years, why are you still jealous?"

"I promise you, Mom was just inside my body, and she really wasn't slacking off. She was helping me 'make little snowmen'! Yes, that's right, we were definitely engaged in serious cultivation!"

As soon as these words left his mouth.

The previously warm atmosphere instantly froze.

On the peak of the snowy mountain, only the sound of whistling cold winds remained.

The Snow Empress and the Ice Empress both turned their heads simultaneously, their two pairs of beautiful eyes fixed squarely on Xue Bingchen.

"Make... make little snowmen?" The Ice Empress's expression turned somewhat strange.

On the Snow Empress's cold, beautiful face, a rare, faint blush appeared. She glared fiercely at Xue Bingchen and scolded him with annoyance:

"Little Chen! What kind of nonsense are you spouting! What do you mean by making little snowmen? That sounds so awkward!"

Xue Bingchen realized too late that his analogy, in this context, did indeed seem to carry a bit of ambiguity.

"Cough, cough, slip of the tongue, slip of the tongue! I meant that Mom was helping me condense the power of ice and snow!"

Xue Bingchen's face flushed red as he coughed dryly, forcibly changing the subject.

In truth, one couldn't really blame Xue Bingchen for his loose tongue.

The root of all this lay in his third soul skill, which could be called heaven-defying, or even something that shattered the common logic of the Douluo Continent!

Xue Bingchen's third soul skill was named—[Soul of the Snow Woman]!

This was an extremely rare, perhaps even one-of-a-kind, domain-type and auxiliary-type soul skill!

The function of this skill was not for attack or defense, but rather the ability to open up a self-contained "Ice and Snow Space" within Xue Bingchen's body!

As long as this skill was activated, Xue Bingchen could frantically absorb the ice and snow energy from the surrounding world and store it within this internal space.

These violent energies, once absorbed, would be nurtured and filtered by the Ice and Snow Space, gradually transforming into the purest, most gentle power of ultimate ice, which would then feed back into Xue Bingchen, improving his physical fitness in every aspect and greatly accelerating his soul power cultivation speed!

To put it simply and crudely, this so-called "Ice and Snow Space" was equivalent to a super "backup energy reserve" that Xue Bingchen carried with him!

As long as there was stock in this energy reservoir, Xue Bingchen could consume the stored energy to replenish his soul power or use it to boost his cultivation.

And what was most incredible—something even the Snow Empress and Ice Empress found mind-boggling—was...

The Snow Empress, as a Heavenly Snow Woman born of heaven and earth and condensed from the purest ice and snow elements, could actually transform into a snowflake and enter the Ice and Snow Space within Xue Bingchen's body without any obstruction!

This explained why the Snow Empress's voice had emanated from within Xue Bingchen's body earlier.

Just now, the Snow Empress had indeed been inside the Ice and Snow Space, using her absolute control over ice and snow elements as a seven-hundred-thousand-year fierce beast to help him accelerate the nurturing of those complex energies, rapidly converting them into pure ice and snow power that could assist his cultivation.

This was why Xue Bingchen had joked about "making little snowmen," because the Snow Empress was indeed inside helping him mold and refine energy crystals, and some of those crystals did look like little snowmen when piled up—he wasn't wrong.

As for why the Snow Empress was willing to stay inside?

In the Snow Empress's own words, the Ice and Snow Space within Xue Bingchen was filled with the most primitive and pure aura of ultimate ice.

Staying inside gave her a sense of intimacy, as if she were embracing the core origin of the Far North.

In that space, not only did she not need to consume power to resist the suppression of external rules, but she also felt extremely comfortable and at ease while cultivating.

Since staying inside was comfortable for her, and she could conveniently help her most beloved little Xue Bingchen accelerate his cultivation, the Snow Empress saw no reason not to embrace such a mutually beneficial arrangement.

On the Douluo Continent, there had always been an ironclad rule, though it wouldn't be systematically summarized until ten thousand years later.

That rule was—those who possess Ultimate Martial Souls have a cultivation speed far exceeding that of ordinary people before reaching level thirty.

However, once they break through level thirty, because the attributes of their Martial Souls are too extreme and overbearing, their bodies require a vast amount of time to adapt and temper themselves.

This leads to their cultivation speed becoming agonizingly slow, like a crawling tortoise, during the stage between level thirty and level seventy!

This is what is known as the "Curse of the Ultimate Martial Soul"!

It is also the reason why there are so few possessors of Ultimate Attribute Martial Souls on the continent.

Yet, in the case of Xue Bingchen, this ironclad rule was completely shattered!

ps: The next chapter will reveal the Soul Power Level. Everyone, take a guess—whoever guesses correctly gets a rare photo of me in women's clothing [Past of Chengdu]