Snow Empress slowly stepped forward and stood beside Ice Empress.
She reached out, not to flick Lan's forehead, but to gently brush aside a lock of soaked white hair beside his cheek.
The icy touch of her fingertips was just as familiar as ever.
"Lan'er."
Snow Empress spoke softly, her voice carrying a tenderness Lan had never heard before.
"This isn't a game."
"I know."
Lan nodded.
"But you're my family."
He paused, then added, "This is my home."
Protecting his home was only natural.
Silence fell once more beside the hot spring.
Ice Empress pursed her lips, about to say something, but Snow Empress stopped her with a glance.
Snow Empress looked at Lan for a long time.
It was as if she were trying to see into the depths of his soul through those eyes.
After a long while, she sighed softly. A faint, faint smile appeared on her cool face.
"Very well."
"You've grown up. It's time you went out and faced the snow and wind."
Ice Empress grew anxious.
"Xue'er, are you serious? Taking him along is too dangerous!"
"It's fine."
Snow Empress's gaze remained on Lan.
"With us there, do you think we'd let him get hurt?"
Her voice was soft, yet it carried a reassuring strength.
Then Snow Empress did something Ice Empress never would have expected.
She bent down, opened her arms, and gently drew Lan, who had just risen from the water, into a full embrace.
There was no Soul Power in the embrace.
Only Snow Empress's own cool aura, like snow and ice untouched for ten thousand years, and a warmth she had never shown before—a warmth that belonged only to a mother.
Lan's body stiffened instantly.
He was a little taller than Snow Empress. Held in her arms, he could only lower his head, the crisp, wintry scent of snow lotuses in her hair lingering at the tip of his nose.
"Take care of yourself."
Snow Empress's voice sounded right beside his ear, as soft as a feather.
"This is your first real battle, and it's also the coming-of-age gift I'm giving you."
Lan's eyelashes quivered almost imperceptibly.
He slowly raised his arms and, a little awkwardly, hugged the woman who had raised him for eighteen years in return.
"...All right."
The word slipped softly from his throat.
Ice Empress watched them, parted her lips, but said nothing in the end.
She merely snorted and turned away, though for some inexplicable reason, her eyes had grown a little red.
"Disgustingly mushy."
Snow Empress let go.
The warmth of the hot spring seemed to linger on Lan.
Ice Empress pouted and turned her head aside, muttering something, but in the end, she didn't object again.
Their decision was final.
Lan changed into a neat black outfit, and his long silver hair was simply tied back.
A strangely shaped short blade appeared in his hand.
Abyssal Tide Hunter.
Meanwhile.
The wind and snow still raged across the Far North.
Two figures trudged with difficulty across the vast, snowy plain.
The one in front was a girl of about fourteen or fifteen. Her long, watery blue hair streamed in the wind, making her especially conspicuous.
She had a graceful figure and was already beginning to show the beauty of a peerless woman, but exhaustion and tension filled her pretty face.
The girl was named Shui Bing'er.
Behind her was a still-charming woman, a staff in hand, warily surveying their surroundings.
Liu Ruyan, a sixty-first-level Soul Emperor and Shui Bing'er's teacher.
"Teacher, how much farther do we have to go?"
Shui Bing'er caught her breath. The white mist she exhaled was instantly scattered by the biting wind.
"Not much farther, Bing'er."
Liu Ruyan reassured her.
"The map shows an Ice Crystal Forest just ahead. Soul Beasts suitable for your fourth Soul Ring may well live there."
Shui Bing'er nodded and was about to speak.
Suddenly, the ground shook without warning.
"Boom!"
"Rumble!"
Heavy footsteps drew closer, as though some colossal creature were charging toward them.
Liu Ruyan's expression changed.
"Something's wrong! Hide, quick!"
But it was already too late.
Several enormous figures emerged from the snowstorm and surrounded the two of them.
They stood more than five meters tall, their bodies covered in filthy white fur, their muscles bunched and knotted. Greed gleamed in their blood-red eyes.
Titan Snow Demons!
And there was more than one!
Liu Ruyan trembled with rage and pulled Shui Bing'er behind her.
"Beasts!"
"Bing'er, run! I'll hold them off!"
Liu Ruyan shouted, and the Soul Rings around her lit up in an instant.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black—the six rings revealed her strength as a Soul Emperor.
The leading Titan Snow Demon roared and swung a massive palm at her.
Liu Ruyan's sixth Soul Skill was shattered instantly. She flew backward like a kite with its string cut, spitting blood across the snow, its vivid red stark against the white.
A ten-thousand-year Titan Snow Demon was as powerful as a thirty-thousand-year Soul Beast!
There was no way a six-ring Soul Emperor like her could stand against one.
"Teacher!"
Shui Bing'er cried out, tears spilling from her eyes.
A filthy giant hand was about to seize her.
Just then—
A streak of silver flashed into view, sudden as a startled swan.
Clang!
A crisp metallic ring rang out.
The seemingly unremarkable short blade had stopped the giant hand dead.
Shui Bing'er froze.
Liu Ruyan struggled to lift her head, disbelief filling her eyes.
A figure had appeared in the snowstorm at some point, standing in front of them.
It was a boy.
Silver-white hair, black clothes, a tall, straight figure, and a solitary bearing.
He held the blade in one hand, unmoving.
"Run!"
Liu Ruyan shouted with all her strength.
"That's a ten-thousand-year Titan Snow Demon! You're no match for it!"
Shui Bing'er had also come to her senses and cried out anxiously.
"Big brother, watch out!"
Lan didn't look back.
He didn't even acknowledge the cries behind him.
His pure white eyes calmly regarded the several raging Titan Snow Demons before him.
As if they were nothing but dead things.
Slowly, Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet.
One.
Two.
Three.
Six.
Purple, purple, black, black, black, black!
Two purple Soul Rings and four black Soul Rings!
The moment all six appeared, the entire world seemed to fall silent.
The wind stopped.
The snow ceased.
The Titan Snow Demons' roars caught in their throats.
Shui Bing'er and Liu Ruyan were struck as if by lightning, frozen in place.
A boy who looked no older than his teens.
A Soul Emperor?
And...
What kind of absurd Soul Ring Configuration was this?!
Two thousand-year rings and four ten-thousand-year rings?
H-how was that possible?!
As the two reeled in shock, the boy's calm voice rang across the snowy plain.
It held not a ripple of emotion, yet everyone heard it clearly.
"Darkness grants me light."
As the words fell, he raised his other hand.
"Darkness Domain, open!"
In an instant, endless darkness spread out from Lan like ink dropped into clear water, surging wildly in every direction.
It wasn't the pitch-blackness of light being swallowed.
It was a far purer sensation of being peeled away, born from the depths of the soul.
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