"Is that... ignoring defenses?"
Ice Empress drew in a sharp breath.
"That's not all."
Lan's voice sounded calm.
"If it hits a second time, it also inflicts Execution based on the target's percentage of lost health. And while the mark is active, fifty percent of all damage I deal to the target is converted into my own health."
Ice Empress's little face fell at once.
"Good heavens..."
True damage based on a percentage, plus Execution, plus lifesteal?
How was any beast supposed to survive that?
She counted on her fingers. With her own defenses and health, if she were hit by that skill twice...
Ice Empress shuddered and didn't dare think any further.
"Th-then what about the second one?"
"The second Soul Skill is Tidal Surge Return to Void."
Lan didn't demonstrate it again, only explaining calmly.
"When activated, I can become immune to most physical damage for a short time. I can also turn into a stream of water and make one untraceable move."
Immune to physical damage!
Impossible to lock onto!
Ice Empress fell completely silent, her adorable smiling face now filled with stunned disbelief.
She circled Lan twice, as if inspecting some kind of monster.
After a long moment, she finally managed to force out a sentence.
"Xiao Lan, I'll tell you something from the bottom of my heart."
"Even I couldn't take two hits from your 'Abyssal Sea' whatever-it's-called head-on, not unless there was a huge gap in our levels."
"That skill of yours is just too unfair!"
At her words, Lan only smiled faintly.
Just then,
Snow Empress, who had been seated upon the throne, slowly rose to her feet.
Dressed in white, she was peerlessly beautiful. Just the simple act of standing seemed to dim the light throughout the entire Ice and Snow Palace.
Her gaze was deep and distant as it settled on Lan, carrying a solemnity unlike anything before.
"My son, Lan..."
Her red lips parted. Her voice wasn't loud, yet it rang clearly in every corner.
"You have the makings of a god."
The makings of a god!
Those words crashed down on Ice Empress like a thunderbolt from the heavens, striking her right on the crown of her head.
She whipped around to look at Snow Empress.
A god.
In this world, that meant supreme power, eternal immortality.
Even a million-year Soul Beast that had survived ten heavenly tribulations wouldn't necessarily dare claim it could rival a true god.
Who was Snow Empress?
She was the leader of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, a seventy-thousand-year-old Soul Beast, and the empress of the Heavenly Snow Woman clan.
She was proud and cold, and never praised anyone lightly.
Yet now, she had given Lan a judgment that ranked among the highest praise in all of the Douluo Continent.
Ice Empress knew what troubled Snow Empress.
For Snow Empress, seventy thousand years was both a glory and a death sentence that could descend at any moment.
The next heavenly tribulation would mean certain death for all but one in ten.
That was why she had considered taking human form and cultivating anew, hoping to reach that elusive higher realm by another path.
Her current human form was merely a manifestation of energy, not a true transformation.
But now...
Snow Empress looked at Lan, and in those eyes that had been frozen for millennia, a flame of hope flickered for the first time.
The hidden dragon had emerged from the sea; the young phoenix had given its first clear cry.
Perhaps...
She and Bing'er wouldn't have to take that most perilous path after all.
Perhaps the child she had raised herself might truly be able to help them one day.
"Snow... Sister Snow, you..."
Ice Empress opened her mouth.
A god?
Xiao Lan?
She looked at Lan's calm face, more handsome and resolute than it had been three years ago, and couldn't help picturing him at three years old, clutching her tail as he slept.
Maybe... it really wasn't impossible.
The shock in Ice Empress's eyes gradually turned to delight, then to the pride and joy of a mother watching her child grow up.
She looked at Lan as if he were a priceless treasure.
Suddenly, as though something had occurred to her, she slapped her thigh and let out a heartbroken wail.
"Oh, no!"
"My roasted Sky Silkworms!"
"It's over, they must all be burnt to a crisp!"
Ice Empress stamped her feet, her little face full of anguish.
"I caught the fattest ones especially to help you build up your strength..."
As she spoke, she shot Lan a reproachful look.
Lan felt a little helpless, but he couldn't help wanting to laugh, too.
He stepped forward and ruffled Ice Empress's little head.
"Aunt Bing, it's all right. I'll catch you some more next time."
"That's not the same!"
Ice Empress puffed out her cheeks, but when she saw the smile in Lan's eyes, her bluster faded.
She gave a huff and muttered, "Fine. Since you've gotten so strong, I'll forgive you."
Snow Empress descended from the throne and came to stand beside them, a trace of warmth in her cool gaze.
"All right, Bing'er. Stop fussing."
Her voice wasn't loud, but Ice Empress immediately quieted down.
Snow Empress turned her gaze to Lan, then glanced at Ice Empress and spoke softly.
"There's only one day left."
The words instantly stilled the atmosphere in the hall.
The feeling of parting spread through the room, silent and unseen.
That was right.
There was only one day left.
Tomorrow, Lan would head to Skywater Academy with Ice Empress, who would take human form, and enter the human world.
Snow Empress, meanwhile, would travel deeper into the Far North, to the Abyss of Frozen Ice, to find her little brother, Titan Snow Demon King, A-Tai, who had been asleep for a long time.
The three of them tacitly fell silent, simply savoring the little time they had left together.
"Let's go."
Snow Empress was the first to break the silence.
"Today, we're going nowhere else. We'll visit the Pillar of Eternity."
The Pillar of Eternity.
It was the oldest and most spectacular wonder of the Far North.
It had not been made by human hands, but by the power of heaven and earth.
A massive, crystalline pillar of ice, thousands upon thousands of meters tall, rose from the center of the Far North Ice Plains and pierced the clouds, as if linking the mortal world to the divine realm.
Legend said the pillar had a memory.
It recorded every snowstorm, every emotion, and every profound mark left behind since the Far North came into being.
Standing beneath the pillar that reached the heavens, the three of them looked no bigger than specks of dust.
The pillar's surface was smooth as a mirror, yet within it seemed to hold a dazzling world of light. Countless tiny points of light drifted and swam inside, as dreamlike as an illusion.
"Legend says that if your will is strong enough, you can use Soul Power to carve your mark into it, and it will last for all eternity."
Snow Empress gazed up at the pillar and spoke softly.
At her words, Ice Empress immediately grew eager.
"Then I'll go first!"
She cried out, then pressed her fair little hand against the pillar.
A green glow surged from her palm. She closed her eyes, her expression focused.
A moment later, a line of delicate yet slightly domineering characters slowly appeared on the pillar's surface, about two meters above the ground.
"Bing'er will always be Xiao Lan's best Aunt Bing!"
Ice Empress withdrew her hand, satisfied, and planted it on her hip as she looked at Lan triumphantly.
Lan smiled without a word, then reached out and pressed his hand to the pillar as well.
Unlike Ice Empress, he made no grand display. He simply gathered his thoughts and Soul Power at one point and gently pressed them against the ice.
A single, ancient yet simple character appeared beside the words Ice Empress had carved.
[Home]
Before you continue