The Ice Jade Empress Scorpion was a fairly powerful Beast Martial Soul with Ultimate Ice. Its original form had once been the Ferocious Beast Ice Empress, ten thousand years ago.
She was known as one of the Three Heavenly Kings of the Far North. Later, after the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm pestered her relentlessly and resorted to threats and temptations, she boarded Huo Yuhao's pirate ship and became one of his Soul Spirits. In the end, she ascended to the Divine Realm alongside him when he became a god.
"Although the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion isn't weak, as a Martial Soul, it's still kind of useless to me." Tang Heng muttered as he put the Beast Disk into his backpack.
Rather than turn it into a new Martial Soul through Soul Transformation, he might as well feed it chicken, duck, and fish until it reached a million years of cultivation and have it protect him while he was still weak.
Could Yun Ming, hailed as the strongest person alive, beat a million-year Soul Beast?
Of course, he wasn't talking about that particular Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, the "million-year disgrace."
A race so weak that it had to cultivate for a million years just to rival a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast—across all of Douluo's history, there was only one such case.
Tang Heng glanced at the Beast Disk in his backpack, hoping the little Ice Jade Scorpion that hatched later would be female.
"Heh, whatever else you say, the Ice Empress in the Peerless Tang Sect manga really is great. A tsundere, twin-tailed little loli? You just have to have one, right?"
With no Soul Beasts taking the initiative to attack, Tang Heng continued descending and took out his Enchanted Diamond Pickaxe to mine Life Gold.
He wasn't greedy; two or three stacks would be enough for now.
Nine pieces of Life Gold could be crafted into one Life Gold Block. It took roughly nine pieces to make a cubic meter.
He'd check when he got back to see whether he could make armor and weapons out of the Life Gold.
If he could, then Life Gold would be one of the materials he chose for his Battle Armor.
By the time he teleported from the Lake of Life to the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest, Tang Heng had mined four and a half stacks of Life Gold and filled two buckets with water from the Lake of Life.
Tang Heng dug up four Grass Blocks, then poured the two buckets of Lake of Life water into opposite corners.
Next, he scooped up a bucket of water with an iron bucket. One of the four squares was now empty, and no water flowed in to fill it.
Unfortunately, his idea for an infinite source of Lake of Life water had failed. Like lava in ordinary Survival mode, it didn't have the infinite water property.
Tang Heng didn't get discouraged. He collected all the water and muttered to himself:
"Still, even like this, it's easier to get than an Enchanted Golden Apple. I just need to be brave enough to go to the Core Zone."
"At least the Lake of Life is right here. That's much better than having to rummage through chests or open Lucky Blocks to get Enchanted Gold."
As a horrendously unlucky person, Tang Heng had never believed in his own luck.
That had been true before he crossed over, and it was still true now.
The trees on the outskirts were nowhere near as lush as those in the Mixed Zone and Core Zone. The place even had the comfortable feel of a picnic spot in the countryside.
Tang Heng stretched his limbs and looked at the Ten-Year and Hundred-Year Soul Beasts nearby, then grinned confidently.
"Heh, today I'm going to reign supreme! I'll rule the entire outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest!"
A terrifying aura spread from him, and every one of the weaker Soul Beasts trembled in fear.
The evil Steve was going to bully the weak again. Won't someone come help us?
Half an hour later, Tang Heng successfully caught an Emerald Jade Horned Dragon. It had 432 years of cultivation, a life attribute, and even the bloodline of a dragon.
It was absolutely perfect as Tang Wulin's first Soul Spirit.
Poor little Jade Horned Dragon. Under the threats and temptations of Tang Heng, the "budget Dragon God," it was successfully brought to the Spirit Ascension Platform, where it signed a contract and became an honored Soul Spirit awaiting assignment.
Whenever Tang Wulin reached level ten, the little Jade Horned Dragon would start work.
Until then, Miss Golden Lion would personally look after it, helping it adapt in advance to its future workplace and all that.
For this, Tang Heng planned to align the flow of time in the Minecraft Plane with that of the outside world, down to the same tick rate. That would be enough.
After returning home, Tang Heng eagerly took out the Beast Disk containing the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion and selected Use. A tiny, adorable, crystal-clear Ice Jade Scorpion was born.
At the moment, the Ice Jade Scorpion was still very weak, with a mere one year of cultivation. Its health was so low it didn't even match Allay's.
Tang Heng took out a Name Tag and changed the Ice Jade Scorpion's name to [Ice Empress].
Little Ice Empress was quite attached to Tang Heng, crawling over to his leg and rubbing against his trouser cuff.
"So cute~"
Tang Heng gently cupped Ice Empress in his hands, and a cool sensation immediately spread across his palms. Ice Empress was still very weak, so her so-called Ultimate Ice wasn't as cold as he'd imagined.
But that was all right. He only needed to feed her meat to increase her cultivation.
Soon, after a stack of beef, mutton, and pork, little Ice Empress's cultivation rose with the tide, breaking through to the hundred-year level.
At that rate of cultivation, who knew how many newly born Soul Beasts across the Douluo Continent would be green with envy?
They could grow stronger quickly, instead of getting eaten by a natural predator before they even reached adulthood.
But once Soul Beasts had some cultivation and reached the hundred-thousand-year level, they wished their cultivation would slow down—or even stop increasing altogether. Otherwise, when they broke through the hundred-thousand-year mark, they would face Heavenly Punishment and have to survive a tribulation to keep living.
Even the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, Di Tian, had no choice but to suppress his cultivation under this ironclad rule, despite having long been capable of reaching the million-year level.
Tang Heng continued rummaging through the cupboards. Unfortunately, there wasn't much raw meat left at home, so he could only take out some spirit herbs and medicines, like Century Ice Spirit Fruit and Century Blood Ginseng.
Ice Empress accepted everything without complaint, opening her little mouth to take the food Tang Heng offered her. Her cultivation kept rising, and she soon reached the thousand-year level.
"If I could get some Eternal Steak, that'd solve the shortage of feed."
"But beef alone probably won't cut it if I want to raise her cultivation further. I'll need to get some heavenly treasures or something."
Tang Heng muttered to himself. There wasn't any food left at home to feed little Ice Empress.
It would be great if he could find the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. The place was rich in all kinds of medicinal herbs, and even Immortal Herbs.
Unfortunately, this treasure ground now belonged to the Tang Sect. The line of its former owner, Dugu Bo, had long since disappeared.
Still, in the Minecraft Plane, there was a chance the Sunset Forest's terrain could regenerate with the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. When the time came, he'd find some time to bring Ice Empress and his younger siblings along and look for it.
Immortal Herbs were good stuff. Which protagonist in the Douluo Continent series hadn't eaten them?
Certified by the Tang family—guaranteed quality.
"Stay here and be good. You and the Jade Horned Dragon need to listen to Big Sister Golden Lion, okay?"
Tang Heng shook the Ice Jade Scorpion in his palm, and she nodded quite sensibly.
After leaving the Ice Jade Scorpion in Golden Lion's care and setting the flow of time, Tang Heng left the Minecraft Plane and returned to the Douluo Continent.
The dormitory doors were already locked at this hour, but that was nothing to him. He controlled the wind element beneath his feet and flew back to the dormitory with ease, without disturbing anyone along the way.
Except for a certain aloof young man at the neighboring academy, deep in thought and nursing his sorrow beneath the moonlight.
"Was that fleeting figure just now a student from the Primary Academy?"
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