Leaving the Far North

"This..."

Xue Bingchen scratched his head and let out a dry laugh.

"Hehehe..."

An ethereal, melodious chuckle drifted from within Xue Bingchen's body.

The stunningly beautiful phantom of the Snow Empress flickered in mid-air, her smile exquisite, like ice and snow beginning to melt.

It was indeed so.

Xue Bingchen was someone she had watched grow up, and she had poured a great deal of her heart and soul into him.

If she could not accompany him personally, how could she possibly rest easy letting Xue Bingchen face the treacherous, danger-filled human world all by himself?

As for the Snow Empress following him, Xue Bingchen was actually ten thousand percent willing!

Are you kidding me?

He had a bodyguard who was the Lord of the Far North, possessing seven hundred thousand years of cultivation and combat power comparable to a rank 99 Limit Douluo!

With Mother Snow Empress presiding within his body, was there anyone left on this Douluo Continent that he, Xue Bingchen, couldn't afford to provoke?

Even if that Tang Chen from Slaughter City jumped out, he would dare to walk right up and slap him twice across the face!

Just then, a flash of light emanated from Xue Bingchen's chest, and an exquisite token, radiating an aura of extreme ice and snow and carved with snowflake patterns, drifted slowly toward the Ice Empress.

"Bing'er."

The Snow Empress's cold and majestic voice echoed in the Ice Empress's mind:

"During the time I am away, all matters, large and small, in the Far North shall be decided by you. If you encounter anything that you find tricky or impossible to resolve, you may use this token to contact me across space at any time."

The Ice Empress reached out to take the cold token, gripping it tightly in her hand.

She took a deep breath, and the playful expression on her pretty face vanished instantly, replaced by the terrifying pressure of a four-hundred-thousand-year peerless fierce beast erupting forth!

"Xue'er, Little Chen, you two go with peace of mind!"

The Ice Empress stood proudly amidst the wind and snow, her emerald eyes flashing with a domineering aura that looked down upon the world:

"With me, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, here, who dares to act recklessly in this Far North?!"

Three days later.

Xue Bingchen officially stepped out of the wind and snow barrier of the Far North.

This was the first time in the twelve years since he transmigrated to this world that he had left the Far North for so long.

Over the next month or so, Xue Bingchen did not rush his journey, but instead traveled like a true wanderer, crossing multiple provinces and cities in the northern part of the Heaven Dou Empire.

His slender, one-meter-ninety frame, paired with that incredibly eye-catching white hair and a face as handsome as a banished immortal yet radiating a chill that kept strangers at bay, made him the instant focus of the crowd no matter which city he entered.

Along the way, he witnessed the prosperity and bustle of human cities, tasted various delicacies not found in the Far North, and casually taught a few blind thugs who tried to rob him a lesson.

Meanwhile, in the Ice and Snow Space within his body.

The Snow Empress would occasionally divert a sliver of her spiritual power to observe this colorful world outside through Xue Bingchen's perspective.

Watching the towering buildings, the rudimentary prototypes of Soul Tools, and the bustling crowds, the Snow Empress could not help but let out a soft sigh.

"Human creativity is truly astonishing. A long time has passed since I last paid any attention to the human world. Back then, human soul masters were far less powerful than they are now; I never expected that today, even their towns would have developed to such a prosperous and flourishing state..."

However, this exclamation lasted only for a moment.

For a seven-hundred-thousand-year fierce beast like the Snow Empress, who had experienced endless ages and seen the seas change into mulberry fields, the few hundred years of a human Title Douluo's lifespan, or even the rise and fall of an empire, were nothing more than a snap of the fingers.

Therefore, after the initial novelty faded, the Snow Empress spent the vast majority of her time sitting quietly cross-legged in that Ice and Snow Space, meditating with her eyes closed, while incidentally helping Xue Bingchen purify the complex energy he absorbed from the outside world.

Another half-month passed.

Notting City, Fasnuo Province, on the southwestern border of the Heaven Dou Empire.

The midday sun spilled onto the streets of this small, not-so-prosperous city.

Xue Bingchen wore a casual white martial outfit, holding a skewer of candied haws he had just bought. He walked down the street appearing nonchalant, but his gaze remained locked on a tall archway not far ahead.

In the center of the archway hung a plaque—[Notting Junior Soul Master Academy].

"Finally here."

Xue Bingchen bit into a candied haw, a playful, cold smirk curling the corner of his mouth.

Beyond needing to find immortal herbs in the Sunset Forest, he had another extremely clear—one might even say paramount—goal for leaving the Far North early this time!

That was—to come to Notting City and find the "Child of Destiny" who had just turned six this year and had just awakened his Twin Martial Souls!

Tang San!

The reason Xue Bingchen timed his arrival for this exact moment was to intercept Tang San before a certain disgusting person could get to him!

He absolutely could not allow Tang San to be taken as a disciple by that piece of trash called "Yu Xiaogang"!

At this very moment, outside the gates of Notting Academy.

A six-year-old boy wearing patched, coarse cloth clothes, his skin a healthy wheat color, looked entirely ordinary as he followed behind an elderly village chief, only to be stopped and loudly mocked by the snobbish gatekeeper at the academy entrance.

Isn't this the iconic opening scene from the original work?

Xue Bingchen stood in the shadows not far away, watching the scene with cold, detached eyes.

Based on what he knew from reading the book in his past life, Tang San's personality was actually extremely complex, one might even say twisted.

In his previous life, he was an outer sect disciple of the Bashu Tang Sect, his bones etched with those deeply feudal, rigid ideas of hierarchy and the belief that a teacher for a day is a father for life.

To put it bluntly, he was just a tech-nerd obsessed with hand-crafting the Buddha Fury Tang Lotus, his mind filled only with hidden weapons and poisons!

What was even more fatal was that his profession in his past life was an assassin!

What did an assassin know about human relationships?

What did he know about normal social interaction?

If he were allowed to follow the trajectory of the original story, meeting Yu Xiaogang here and being deceived by that man's swindling theories, only to kowtow and take him as a master...

Then it would be all over!

Once he became a disciple, given Tang San's feudal nature, he would absolutely obey Yu Xiaogang's every word.

By then, under the guidance of someone as selfish and hypocritical as Yu Xiaogang, Tang San would quickly evolve into that nauseating, half-baked "Pure and Noble Tang God King"!

And once Tang San grew a little older and entered that so-called "Shrek Academy"...

After accepting Flender's bullshit bandit logic that "those who dare not cause trouble are mediocre" and "monsters should have the privileges of monsters"...

Then this sapling that was Tang San would be completely warped, beyond saving!

If it truly reached that point of being "extremely double-standard and extremely hypocritical," Xue Bingchen feared that if he ever met him in the future, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from slapping his head straight into his stomach!