A stretch of wilderness.
Su Hui drew a deep breath and tightened all five fingers around the handle of the Anywhere Door.
"Elder Yi, I'm counting on you from here."
In the Sea of Consciousness, Electrolux's aged voice was as calm as an ancient well: "Do whatever you like."
A bold grin spread across Su Hui's lips. In his mind, he silently repeated: the Far North Ice Plains, where the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion dwelled.
"Click!"
The door burst open!
A wave of frigid air swept toward him like ten thousand ice blades.
A thick layer of frost spread across the ground, crackling softly.
Su Hui's robes whipped in the wind as the cold poured through his collar.
He didn't even furrow his brow. He strode inside.
The instant his feet touched the ground, Su Hui sensed the frigid air filling the entire space.
Layers of deep-blue ice walls stretched out in every direction.
The ice was thick and crystal-clear, glowing with a faint, cold light. Who knew how many thousands of years it had been frozen?
The cavern formed an oval dome, its vaulted ceiling more than twenty zhang high. Icicles hung like a forest of swords, so densely packed that they made his scalp prickle.
The ice beneath his feet was smooth as a mirror, reflecting the icicles above. It was like standing over an abyss.
Cold surged toward him from all sides. Each breath turned into a thick plume of white mist that drifted slowly along the ice walls.
Only then did the wary Su Hui spot the scorpion in the center of the cavern.
The scorpion was over a meter and a half long, its entire body seemingly carved from ice crystals.
Its back plates were joined in a diamond pattern, each plate's edge refracting a cold, ice-blue light like shattered diamonds.
A glimmer of jade-green light flickered at the tip of its tail stinger.
Its two pincers rested one atop the other before its body, motionless, like an ice sculpture that had slumbered for ten thousand years.
The next second.
"Ding!"
The giant scorpion's hexagonal, crystal-yellow eyes suddenly lit up.
"!!!"
A chill ran down Su Hui's back, and his hair stood on end.
Killing intent!
Killing intent so sharp it seemed almost tangible crashed down on him. It was colder than the cavern, deeper, and pierced straight to his bones!
The Ice Scorpion raised its body on its two pincers. Its plates scraped together with the crisp clatter of colliding ice crystals, and a brilliant green chill blazed at the tip of its stinger.
"Human—"
An enraged woman's voice exploded through the cavern. The echoes shook the space, and the icicles on the ceiling trembled and rustled.
"You trespassed into this emperor's territory. Die!"
The Ice Empress.
A 390,000-year-old Ferocious Beast, one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North—the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion!
"Boom!"
The scorpion's pincers crashed down through the air.
The air split with a ripping shriek, and ice shards burst in every direction.
Su Hui's pupils shrank to pinpoints as the shadow of death blotted out the sky and covered the earth.
Every muscle in his body screamed, but his body couldn't keep up with his nerves. His legs felt nailed to the ice.
"Elder Yi—help!!!"
He shouted with all his might.
Gray mist erupted around Su Hui.
Pure death energy spread across the cavern. The deep-blue ice walls turned ashen, and every trace of warmth was ripped from the already frigid air.
The light drained from Su Hui's black eyes, leaving them a deathly gray and utterly indifferent. It was as if someone else had taken over his body in an instant.
Electrolux had officially taken the controls!
"Little scorpion, I'd much rather have a calm conversation than throw hands."
Electrolux raised an arm and pointed forward with his index finger.
"!!!"
An alarm went off in the Ice Empress's heart.
Just a moment ago, this human had been as weak as an ant.
Now, the aura pouring from him made even her, a 390,000-year-old Soul Beast, shudder in terror.
Her Scorpion Tail lashed violently, shattering the ice beneath her as she tried to put some distance between them.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
A streak of gray light shot from Electrolux's fingertip.
The light wasn't dazzling, yet it carried an immense, irresistible power. In an instant, it enveloped the Ice Empress's entire body.
In the blink of an eye, the gray light drew tight into a cocoon, its surface traced with intricate golden patterns.
Each pattern slowly writhed like a living chain.
"What the hell is this?!"
The Ice Empress thrashed wildly inside the Silkworm Slough.
Her pincers hammered against it, each dull thud cracking through the air like a string of firecrackers, but the cocoon didn't budge.
"Why can't I use my powers?!"
The Ice Empress panicked.
Her Ultimate Ice and her strength had both been bound!
"Little one, you're up next."
Electrolux formed a seal with both hands. A gray spiritual bridge appeared out of nowhere, linking the Ice Empress's and Su Hui's brows.
The Sea of Consciousness.
Su Hui's consciousness had barely found its footing when a gray orb of light appeared before him.
The orb dimmed, revealing Electrolux's figure.
His gray robes billowed. His face was as weathered as ancient bark, and blue soul-fire flickered in his hollow eye sockets.
A young woman was bound beside him.
Her long hair fell to her waist, its icy blue strands blending into jade green. The lustrous locks looked like threads spun from frozen ice, shimmering with a faint crystalline glow.
Her oval face was exquisitely delicate, her skin fair as snow and cool as ten-thousand-year-old jade.
Her eyes were narrow and long, with crystal-yellow irises encircled by pale blue halos, like a pair of yellow diamonds preserved in ice.
Her straight brows resembled distant mountains veiled in frost. Her nose was small and high-bridged, and her lips were pressed into a clean, firm line.
She wore a plain dress in icy blue and jade green, its fabric light as ice silk. The sleeves drifted weightlessly, and dark embroidery of ice crystals and scorpion patterns adorned the hem.
A faint mist of cold clung to her as she stood barefoot upon the waters of the Sea of Consciousness.
She had the tall, slender figure of a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl, and exquisite, striking features. Yet she radiated an innate imperial nobility and an icy aloofness that brooked no disrespect.
This was the Ice Empress!
More precisely, this was the Ice Empress's spiritual form.
Golden ropes bound her tightly, outlining her slender, well-proportioned figure.
She struggled twice, but the ropes didn't move.
She raised her crystal-yellow eyes to glare at Su Hui, her voice cool and edged with fury.
"Human! What have you done to me?! Where are we?!"
Su Hui looked her up and down, silently admiring her.
As expected of the spiritual form of a 390,000-year-old Soul Beast. What an overwhelming presence.
Even bound in such a humiliating state,
her imperial arrogance hadn't diminished in the slightest. If anything, she looked all the more vexed at being violated, her fury and killing intent sharpened.
"This is my Sea of Consciousness."
Su Hui's tone was calm. "Ice Empress, you're my prisoner now."
"Impudence!"
The Ice Empress's gaze was cold as an ice blade.
"You insignificant human, you dare—"
"Let me finish first."
Su Hui raised a hand to stop her, then said, "Elder Yi, thanks for the effort."
When he interrupted her, the Ice Empress's killing intent almost became tangible.
"Human, you're asking for death!"
Her voice was cold as ice that had lain for ten thousand years.
Just then, a gray-gold light shone beside Su Hui.
The gray orb slowly rotated, radiating death energy in its purest form.
A thread of light energy wound around it, and the two forces intertwined into a heart-stirring gray-gold halo.
The Ice Empress's pupils suddenly contracted.
That aura—that aura!
This was the thing that had just controlled the frail human before her and subdued her in a single strike.
She couldn't see through its power at all, yet it made her very soul tremble.
Every part of the human before her was strange.
His body was feeble, yet his Sea of Consciousness was abnormally vast, and within it dwelled a powerful spiritual entity she couldn't begin to fathom.
What kind of bizarre combination was this?
Before you continue