Snow Empress's long silver lashes lifted slightly. Though she said nothing, the message in her gaze could not have been clearer:
Bing'er, if you dare spout nonsense in front of Chen'er, ruin my glorious and great image as a mother in his heart, and scare my precious son, then for the next hundred years, don't even think about seeing me perform the Dance of the Heavenly Snow Woman!
"Gulp..."
Ice Empress swallowed with difficulty. Swept by Snow Empress's dual gaze of "maternal radiance" and "sovereign pressure," the words at her lips abruptly took a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn.
Her pretty little doll-like face flushed bright red as she forcibly swallowed her retort, nearly giving herself an internal injury from holding it in.
"F-Fine!"
Ice Empress stamped her foot indignantly, planted her pale little hands on her slender waist, and haughtily raised her delicate chin, putting on an exceptionally magnanimous expression.
"Since you, the 'mom,' have put it that way, what can I, the 'aunt,' possibly say? Even if this little brat reaches six and truly fails to awaken the Ice Heavenly Snow Woman Martial Soul, becoming a useless good-for-nothing who can't cultivate, I'll still raise him! At worst, I'll take him wherever I go. Whoever dares bully him, I'll blast them into scraps with Wrath of the Ice Emperor!"
Having said that, Ice Empress still seemed somewhat unwilling to let it go. Her emerald-green eyes spun around as her gaze swept back and forth between Xue Bingchen and Snow Empress several times. Then, a sly curve suddenly formed at the corner of her lips.
She leaned close to Xue Bingchen, extended a slender finger, and lightly poked his soft cheek before making a shocking declaration.
"But... little Bingchen, anything is possible! The Far North has more than just the Ice Heavenly Snow Woman's top-tier bloodline. Over these three years, I added plenty of treasures from our Ice Jade Empress Scorpion clan into the medicinal baths I prepared for you. I even added a trace of my origin energy!"
The more Ice Empress spoke, the brighter her eyes became, as though she had discovered a whole new continent. She eagerly announced,
"If, when you turn six, you don't awaken Snow Empress's Martial Soul but awaken this Empress's Ice Jade Empress Scorpion Martial Soul instead... heh heh, that'll mean your fate with me runs deeper! When that time comes, you're not allowed to call me Aunt Ice Empress anymore. From then on, you'll have to call me 'Mom'! Do you hear me?!"
"..."
Hearing Ice Empress's earth-shattering words, which could only be described as wildly outrageous, Xue Bingchen was completely speechless.
His clear ice-blue eyes were filled with huge question marks. His little mouth hung slightly open as he blankly stared at the green-haired, twin-tailed little girl before him, who stood with her hands on her hips and an expectant look on her face. For a moment, he did not know how to react.
Good grief, the Far North's two top big shots are actually competing to become my "mom"?!
Xue Bingchen ranted inwardly.
He looked to his left. There stood "Mama Snow Empress," a mature beauty with seven hundred thousand years of cultivation, a cool and noble temperament, peerless beauty, and a figure so exquisite it could make one's nose bleed.
Then he looked to his right. There stood "Mama Ice Empress, candidate," with nearly four hundred thousand years of cultivation, an arrogant and fiery personality, a pretty and adorable face, and a figure...
Well, for now, she was still a perfectly flat, entirely legal little girl.
If the human Soul Masters outside, who fought until their heads bled over a mere hundred-year soul ring, saw this scene, they would probably die on the spot from vomiting three liters of blood in jealousy!
Faced with Ice Empress's sudden declaration that she was "stealing her son," Snow Empress did not become angry or argue back as Ice Empress had imagined.
Instead, an incomparably composed, breathtaking smile with a trace of teasing blossomed across Snow Empress's flawless face.
She gently shook her head, utterly unfazed by Ice Empress's "provocation."
Because Snow Empress possessed absolute confidence.
That confidence did not come solely from her terrifying strength as the foremost being of the Far North. It also came from the wondrous bond she and Xue Bingchen had built over the past three years, one that had seeped into their very bones and even transcended bloodline.
Snow Empress could feel with absolute clarity that, as Xue Bingchen grew day by day, the trace of Ice-Snow Origin within him was continuously strengthening.
Whether it was the rhythm of his breathing or the path of his blood and vitality circulating through his body, everything was gradually drawing closer to the traits of the Heavenly Snow Woman clan.
More importantly, in both his heart and his instincts, Xue Bingchen's dependence on her was something Ice Empress simply could not compare to.
Whenever Snow Empress and Ice Empress transformed into human form and appeared before Xue Bingchen at the same time, the little fellow would always immediately spread his short legs and stagger into Snow Empress's embrace without the slightest hesitation.
He liked hugging her long, straight jade-like legs. He liked burying his fluffy little head in her soft, full chest. Even when sleeping, he had to tightly clutch a strand of her silver hair before he could close his eyes in peace.
When facing Ice Empress, Xue Bingchen was close to her as well, but his attitude was more like how one treated a playmate or a strict elder.
To describe it using those strange terms from the human world, Snow Empress had once seen a term in the memory fragments of a certain human powerhouse—
"Older-woman lover."
Clearly, in Xue Bingchen's human instinctive subconscious, he preferred and felt closer to a peerlessly beautiful mature woman like Snow Empress—gentle, tolerant, and brimming with maternal warmth—rather than a little girl like Ice Empress, who was cute but always noisy and hot-tempered.
"Bing'er, since you're so confident, then let's wait and see."
Snow Empress smiled faintly. Her smile was like the warmest ray of sunlight in winter, instantly melting the bitter cold of the Far North.
She did not argue with Ice Empress. Instead, she simply gazed quietly at Xue Bingchen in her arms with gentle eyes that seemed capable of embracing the entire world.
Xue Bingchen felt the warmth of Snow Empress's embrace, then looked at Ice Empress beside him. Though she was arrogant, deep concern was hidden in her eyes as well.
At that moment, his heart, which had been somewhat lost since the awakening of his memories from his previous life, finally settled completely.
No matter who I am, no matter why I came to this world, one thing will never change.
Xue Bingchen silently told himself,
They are the closest and most important people in this world to me. They gave me a second life. They gave me a home.
With that thought, Xue Bingchen took a deep breath of the cold yet pure air of the Far North. A seriousness and resolve far beyond that of a three-year-old appeared on his exquisitely sculpted little face.
He raised his two pale little hands and gently cupped Snow Empress's flawless cheeks. His ice-blue eyes stared unblinkingly into hers as he spoke loudly, one word at a time, in a childish yet incomparably resolute voice:
"Mom, don't worry! And Aunt Ice Empress, listen carefully too!"
Before you continue