Deep within Su Hui's Sea of Consciousness, icy-blue spiritual waves surged like the tide.
"You want me to sacrifice myself to you? Insolent human, are you making a fool of me?!"
The Ice Empress's Scorpion Tail carved a streak of cold light through the air. The chill around her surged, and fine ice crystals formed throughout the entire spiritual space.
Even though this thirty-nine-hundred-thousand-year-old Ice Jade Empress Scorpion was currently only in a spiritual state, her might was still enough to make anyone tremble in fear.
"I've seen countless greedy Soul Masters, but you're the most audacious of them all."
The Ice Empress sneered, her voice as cold as Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice.
"In the end, you just covet my Soul Ring and Soul Bone, yet you're putting on an act and talking about some kind of deal."
Su Hui remained calm, spreading his hands to show that he meant no harm.
"Ice Empress, don't rush to curse me. Hear me out before you judge."
Cold light glimmered in the Ice Empress's compound eyes.
She was indeed furious, but reason told her that this wasn't the time to lash out.
Never mind that she was trapped in this Sea of Consciousness. Just the aura radiating from the gray-robed old man beside her was enough to make her instinctively wary.
It was a power beyond her understanding, imbued with the profound mystery of death and eternity intertwined.
"Fine."
The Ice Empress reined in some of her chill. "I want to hear what sort of nonsense you can come up with."
Su Hui didn't beat around the bush and went straight to the point.
"The sacrifice I'm talking about is completely different from a traditional sacrifice."
"Ordinary sacrifices involve a Soul Beast willingly giving up its life, its soul being annihilated and transformed into a Soul Ring and Soul Bone for a Soul Master."
"But what I need is for you to seal your own source willingly, completing the sacrificial ritual while preserving your soul's consciousness and keeping your spirit alive in a special state."
Without the Ice Empress sealing her source, he, a two-ring Soul Master, wouldn't be able to withstand the sacrifice of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, let alone a Ferocious Beast approaching four hundred thousand years old.
The moment he finished speaking, the Ice Empress flatly rejected him.
"Impossible."
Her tone was firm as a nail driven into wood.
"I've lived for hundreds of thousands of years, and I've never heard of any sacrifice that could preserve a Soul Beast's consciousness."
"The very essence of a sacrifice is the burning of the soul and the exhaustion of life. That's a law of heaven and earth, and it cannot be changed."
"Human, don't even think of deceiving me!"
The Ice Empress's gaze turned cold once more.
In her eyes, Su Hui was a greedy, despicable human who excelled at deception.
"Others can't do it."
Su Hui grinned and pointed at the gray-robed old man beside him.
"But Elder Yi can."
"Do you know this senior's name?"
"Hmm?"
The Ice Empress shifted her gaze to the old man who had remained silent all along.
"Holy Necromancer, Scourge of the Undead, Electrolux."
Su Hui enunciated each word. "The being with the deepest mastery of souls and spiritual power in the world—a demigod-level powerhouse."
The Ice Empress was about to question him when Electrolux lifted a withered fingertip.
A wisp of gray light floated out and silently merged into the Ice Empress's brow.
"!"
The entire process was so swift that she had no time to react.
Gray light spread throughout the Ice Empress's body.
An endless stream of information poured into her consciousness.
It was a ritual she had never known existed, involving such unheard-of fields as soul separation, the sealing of consciousness, and spiritual parasitism.
The knowledge itself carried Electrolux's supreme understanding of the laws governing souls. Every piece of information precisely answered the doubts in her mind.
After a long while, the Ice Empress finished absorbing all the information.
"This method really does exist..."
Her voice was full of disbelief.
As one of the rulers of the Far North, she had thought herself thoroughly familiar with every secret concerning Soul Beasts and Soul Masters.
Yet everything Electrolux had shown her lay completely beyond the limits of her understanding.
His mastery over souls had reached such a sublime level that even calling him an expert seemed inadequate.
When the Ice Empress looked at Electrolux again, her gaze had changed completely.
This gray-robed old man was no ordinary remnant soul. He was a demigod walking among mortals!
"I believe you..."
The Ice Empress's tone softened, but she immediately raised another pointed question.
"But even so, what would I gain from sacrificing myself?"
Her voice held the weariness and indignation she had accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years.
"I'd merely go from being a Soul Beast to becoming a Soul Ring and Soul Bone, at best taking up residence in your Sea of Consciousness as a spiritual entity."
"When the day comes that your lifespan runs out, I'll still disappear along with you."
"Human lives don't even amount to a fraction of a Soul Beast's lifespan."
If she waited for a heavenly tribulation, she might have lasted another few hundred years.
But if she sacrificed herself to Su Hui, even if she scraped by in his Sea of Consciousness, she would last no more than a mere hundred years.
What would be the point?
Su Hui nodded without denying it.
"You're right. If that were all there was to it, you might indeed have less time left after the sacrifice than you do now."
He paused, then abruptly changed tack. "But what if I told you there was a chance at eternal life?"
"Eternal life?"
The Ice Empress's Scorpion Tail paused slightly, then her tone sharpened.
"Su Hui, you should know how long I've lived. There's no point lying to me."
She absolutely refused to believe that eternal life was possible.
Even Soul Beasts with cultivation spanning hundreds of thousands of years couldn't achieve it.
How could a human, even one who became a Titled Douluo and lived for a thousand years, know the secret of eternal life?
"Every hundred thousand years, a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast must face a heavenly tribulation, each one more perilous than the last."
Su Hui spoke calmly, as if stating something perfectly ordinary.
"It's a dead end set by the laws of heaven and earth."
"..."
The Ice Empress didn't reply, but her silence said everything.
Only those who had experienced a heavenly tribulation firsthand understood its horror.
"But have you ever wondered why no Soul Beast has ever broken through to a million years of cultivation?"
Su Hui answered his own question. "Because the laws of heaven and earth don't allow Soul Beasts to become gods."
"No matter how diligently you cultivate or how many tribulations you survive, your ultimate fate is to be reduced to ashes."
"This isn't a matter of strength. It's a shackle imposed by the laws themselves."
"!"
The Ice Empress's mind shook.
She had never heard anyone put it that way.
But when she thought about it, there truly had never been a Soul Beast with a million years of cultivation in the known history of the Soul Beast Clan, spanning hundreds of thousands of years.
"Soul Beasts can't become gods."
Su Hui's voice grew resolute. "But humans can."
The Ice Empress suddenly stared at Su Hui, a storm surging in her icy-blue compound eyes.
"You mean... you can become a god?"
"How is that possible?"
She immediately refuted herself. "That's absolutely impossible!"
"The Sea God."
Su Hui cut her off. "The Asura God, the Angel God, the Rakshasa God, the Nine-Colored Goddess, the God of Speed, the God of Phoenix, the Beast God, the God of Food..."
With each divine title he named, the Ice Empress's shock deepened.
"These are the gods who ascended ten thousand years ago. As a Soul Beast who's lived so long, you must know about the gods' ascension ten thousand years ago, don't you?"
"!!!"
Su Hui's words awakened her from a dream.
That was right. The scene of the gods ascending ten thousand years ago remained vivid in her memory.
She just hadn't realized that so many gods had emerged ten thousand years ago.
Su Hui was referring to Tang San, Bibi Dong, and the others.
"There are places of Godhood Inheritance scattered across Douluo Continent."
He continued, "Find a godhood, earn its recognition, and begin the divine trials. Those who pass the trials can ascend to godhood."
"I happen to know the exact locations, activation conditions, and trials for some of these inheritances."
Of course, they weren't from this era.
The inheritances of this era had all but vanished.
Su Hui felt that Tang San was very likely involved.
Otherwise, how could Huo Yuhao have been the only one to become a god?
However, in the era he originally came from, both Sea God Island and Slaughter City were still actual sites of Godhood Inheritance.
Although Su Hui didn't think much of the Sea God Godhood, that didn't stop him from keeping it as a backup option.
"..."
The Ice Empress was at a loss for words.
The secret of godhood was the supreme mystery that countless Titled Douluo spent their entire lives unable to approach, yet this young human had just casually revealed it.
"And I also have Elder Yi, a demigod, to help me."
As he spoke, he sneaked a glance at Elder Yi.
Seeing that Elder Yi merely smiled gently without objecting, Su Hui immediately grew excited.
Elder Yi was being friendly toward him. That was wonderful.
Suppressing his excitement, Su Hui turned his gaze to the Ice Empress.
"Add you, the second-in-command among the Ferocious Beasts of the Far North, and I think my chances of becoming a god will increase considerably."
He extended his hand, all five fingers spread, as if inviting her to join him in a daring gamble.
"The day I become a god will be the day you are reborn."
"Using divine soul power to forge a new body, you'll break free of the laws that bind Soul Beasts and share eternal life with me from then on."
The corners of Su Hui's mouth lifted into a slightly arrogant smile.
"I'm calling this plan the God-Making Project."
"Well, Ice Empress? Do you dare to wager your very life, with that battered body of yours on the verge of death?"
"..."
A long silence fell over the Sea of Consciousness.
The Ice Empress's Soul Power fluctuations surged and ebbed, mirroring the tumultuous emotions within her.
She scrutinized Su Hui's outstretched hand.
She scrutinized the undisguised ambition in this human's eyes.
She also scrutinized the unfathomable gray eyes of the demigod remnant soul beside him.
At last, she spoke.
"Su Hui, will you truly keep your promise once you become a god?"
The Ice Empress's voice had lost its earlier sharpness, now carrying the weariness and hope she had suppressed for hundreds of thousands of years.
"I've seen too many humans. They're more changeable than the snows of the Far North, greedy beyond measure, and even willing to harm their own companions."
Her tone grew heavy.
"Human promises—what could make me believe them?"
Su Hui didn't try to argue that humans weren't greedy. That kind of sophistry sounded like complete bullshit.
Human greed was written into the people's view of history, shaped over thousands upon thousands of years of human civilization.
Countless major historical events had proven the point.
Su Hui didn't think he had the standing or ability to dispute this view of history.
After all, he was greedy too.
If he weren't greedy, how could he have risked his life to come here?
But he had a way to prove that, although he was greedy, he could still keep his promises.
There was no contradiction between the two.
He raised his right hand, and his Martial Soul appeared in his palm.
A mark gradually formed above the Martial Soul, radiating spiritual fluctuations.
"I swear upon my Martial Soul."
Su Hui's voice echoed through the Sea of Consciousness.
"If I ever ascend to godhood, I, Su Hui, will share eternal life with the Ice Empress!"
"If I break this oath, may my Martial Soul shatter and my divine soul be annihilated."
The soul oath's fluctuations spread, bearing witness to the laws of Heaven and Earth.
Once made, this oath bound itself to the Martial Soul Origin. Any violation would bring backlash.
"!!!"
The Ice Empress stared in astonishment at the oath mark.
In her hundreds of thousands of years of life, for the first time, she felt she had seen a different path.
A path to immortality!
A path to breaking free of fate!
"Su Hui."
The Ice Empress raised her right hand and gently touched the hand he held out.
"I'll join your God-Making Project."
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