The Far North, where the wind and snow cut like knives.
Amid the swirling goose-feather snow, a solitary figure stood.
She held a swaddled infant in her arms. Her long purple hair stirred gently in the wind, completely at odds with this world of pure white.
The Saintess of Spirit Hall, Bibi Dong.
She was breathtakingly beautiful. Even in this land of utter despair, her radiance had not diminished in the slightest. But her exquisite face was utterly expressionless, dead as still water.
The infant in her arms seemed to sense something and shifted uneasily.
Suddenly.
A slender, fair hand, yet one containing terrifying strength, closed around the infant's fragile neck.
Her grip tightened, little by little.
This was her son.
And the spawn that bastard Qian Xunji had left behind.
Love and hatred intertwined in Bibi Dong's eyes, until only bone-deep cold remained.
She hated him!
She hated the man who had ruined her life.
But she was barely twenty, only a Soul Sage. How could she possibly take revenge on the Pope, who stood high above her?
Helplessness drove her to transfer all her hatred onto this innocent infant.
Lan opened his eyes.
The sensation of suffocation hit him at once, the air in his lungs slowly being squeezed away.
He saw a face—a face that could drive every man in the world mad, now twisted with a madness that could destroy everything.
It was his mother, Bibi Dong.
Lan's heart was calm.
In his previous life, he had been a top assassin who walked in darkness.
In this life, he was the son of Bibi Dong, the Saintess of Spirit Hall, and the younger twin brother of Qian Renxue, the future Angel God.
He had thought he'd started with a winning hand, destined to inherit Spirit Hall, lie in the laps of beauties, and rule the world when awake.
He hadn't expected that the game would begin in hell.
At his birth, Bibi Dong had insisted on giving birth alone. After delivering twins, she hid Lan away with a secret technique and passed off the girl, Qian Renxue, as the only child to Qian Xunji.
Then she made an excuse to go out and clear her mind, taking him with her.
His own mother had secretly brought him all the way to the Far North, intending to end his life with her own hands.
The corner of Lan's mouth seemed to lift in the faintest hint of a smile.
Even a tiger wouldn't eat its cubs.
Human nature really was darker and uglier than the most venomous Soul Beast.
So be it.
The warmth at her fingertips, and the infant's clear yet utterly still eyes, made Bibi Dong's heart give a sudden lurch.
In the end, her hand loosened around his neck.
"Cough... cough..."
Fresh, frigid air rushed into his lungs, and Lan let out the instinctive coughs of an infant.
"I'll leave you here in the Far North to fend for yourself."
Bibi Dong's voice was soft, so faint it seemed the wind and snow could scatter it at any moment.
"Besides, no one in Spirit Hall knows you exist but me."
With that, she gently set the swaddled infant down on the snow.
Then she turned and left.
Without a trace of reluctance, without so much as a glance back.
So cold.
Lan felt the warmth draining rapidly from his body.
The training in his previous life had given him tremendous tolerance for the cold, but it was no match for the body of an infant only a few months old.
What was more, some strange force in this frozen wilderness seemed to be constantly eroding his life force.
Lan's consciousness began to blur.
Yet his mind had never been clearer.
Of the fifty paths of Heaven's evolution, one always escaped.
All things in the world had a sliver of hope for survival.
Lan slowly closed his eyes. A cultivation formula, long engraved in the depths of his soul in his previous life, flowed through his mind.
The Heart Clearing Technique.
A supplementary technique he had used in his previous life to suppress his endless killing intent and hold fast to his true self.
But it was also a genuine cultivation method.
Lan's thoughts began to move in accordance with its profound verses.
"Let the heart be as clear as ice; let even the sky's collapse leave you unmoved."
"All things fall silent; only my heart sings."
"Turn killing intent into an edge; transform the cold into spirit."
"Follow the natural way; guard my true spirit."
"Absorb the profound ice of heaven and earth; forge an indestructible body."
"Draw in the wind and snow from all directions; temper an untainted physique."
"Life force flows, circling without end."
"My fate is mine to command, not Heaven's!"
The profound verses flowed through Lan's mind, and the Extreme Cold Power that had been eating into his marrow was drawn by his will, transforming into streams of pure warmth that flowed into his tiny limbs and bones.
The flame of life, which had nearly gone out, was not extinguished by the wind and snow. Instead, in this desperate wasteland, it burned ever brighter in a way beyond belief.
Deep in the Core Circle of the Far North, inside a palace forged from Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice.
"This is so boring..."
A voice tinged with languor and irritation rang out.
The speaker was a woman with dark green hair falling to her waist. Her beauty was otherworldly, though touched by a hint of sinister charm. Below her waist, she had no legs; instead, a huge scorpion tail covered in jade-green carapace coiled beneath her, radiating wild, untamed power.
The Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, the Ice Empress.
Bored out of her mind, she tapped the tip of her scorpion tail lightly against the ice, making a steady "tok, tok" sound.
Suddenly, she froze, as if she had sensed something.
"Hmm?"
A flicker of curiosity crossed the Ice Empress's jade-green eyes.
Then, as if she had discovered the most marvelous toy in the world, excitement lit her face. Her massive body blurred into a streak as she rushed out of the palace.
"Xue'er! Xue'er! Come look at this!"
Her voice arrived before she did, her eagerness to show off whatever she had found impossible to hide.
A woman sat upon the throne in the palace.
She wore a pure-white gown, untouched by a speck of dust. Her skin was fair as snow, her features as delicate as a painting, and her snow-white hair flowed all the way to the floor. She seemed to have become one with this world of ice and snow.
The Snow Empress.
The foremost of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, a true sovereign of the snows.
Hearing the Ice Empress's loud, excited voice, she slowly opened her eyes. A trace of helplessness passed through her pale blue gaze.
Her cultivation had been interrupted again.
"Bing'er, what's got you so worked up?"
Her voice was as cool as snow, yet carried a hint of fondness.
"Look over there!"
The Ice Empress raised a slender finger and pointed into the distant depths of the blizzard.
The Snow Empress followed her finger with her gaze, her cool eyes piercing through layer upon layer of snow.
In the next moment, even her placid face couldn't help but show a flicker of astonishment.
Amid the wind and snow, a swaddled infant lay quietly on the snow-covered ground.
He wasn't crying or fussing.
More strangely, the life force within him wasn't being stolen by the extreme cold. Instead, it was growing stronger before their very eyes.
He... seemed to be absorbing the power of ice and snow from the world around him.
Lan's consciousness grew clearer by the moment.
He could feel his frail body undergoing a complete transformation.
Suddenly, two figures appeared in his field of vision.
One was a woman with a scorpion tail: the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion.
The other was a white-haired woman, as noble and imposing as an ice goddess descended into the world, so dazzling he could barely look at her.
Lan's heart remained undisturbed.
A Soul Beast Transformation?
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