Lan Has Grown Up! Ice Empress: Kissy Kiss!

Bibi Dong's figure, like a phantom, appeared instantly before him.

A slender, fair hand clamped tightly around his throat.

"Why?"

She finally asked the question that had been buried in the depths of her heart for nearly a decade.

Her voice trembled, not from excitement, but from a hatred that had seeped into her very bones.

"I loved Xiaogang so much... I only wanted to be with him... Why did you have to do that to me!"

Qian Xunji struggled to breathe, feeling the killing intent radiating from that hand, and he actually laughed.

His laughter was hoarse, like a broken bellows.

"Why?"

"Bibi Dong, you are the Saintess of Martial Soul Hall, the next Pope I poured my heart and soul into cultivating!"

"But what did you do? For the sake of a Yu Xiaogang, a piece of trash from our sworn enemy—the Blue Lightning Tyrant Sect—you were willing to betray Martial Soul Hall and throw yourself into the arms of the enemy!"

In his eyes, there was not a shred of regret, only a twisted, fanatical fervor.

"Martial Soul Hall will never tolerate a traitor!"

"If time could turn back... I would still make the same choice! I only hate! I only hate that I wasn't strong enough!"

"Ah—!"

Bibi Dong let out a shrill, harrowing scream as madness completely seized her reason.

Behind her, a hideous black shadow suddenly emerged.

It was her second martial soul—the Soul-Devouring Spider Emperor!

Eight purple-black spider legs, like sharp spears, instantly pierced into Qian Xunji's limbs and torso.

"Even if I condemn you to eternal damnation, it will not be enough to extinguish the hatred in my heart!"

Bibi Dong's face was twisted by extreme pain and vengeance.

Green light flowed along the spider legs, continuously draining from Qian Xunji's body; it was his soul power, his life force.

"Let me tell you one more piece of information."

Her voice became incomparably venomous, like a curse echoing from the abyss of hell.

"Actually, you have another son."

Qian Xunji's entire body shuddered, his blurred vision fixed intently upon her.

Bibi Dong leaned into his ear, speaking in a voice only the two of them could hear, enunciating every word:

"However, the moment he was born, I personally... threw him into the Far North."

"Calculating the time, by now, he should have long since frozen into an ice sculpture and been fed to the soul beasts."

"..."

Qian Xunji's body began to tremble violently, not because of his fading life force, but because of an indescribable despair and agony.

A son...

His only son... was dead?

"Why... why!"

He used his final ounce of strength to roar.

"He was... your son too!"

Bibi Dong laughed, laughing until tears streamed down her face.

"I was your disciple, your adopted daughter... and yet, you raped me."

She stared directly into his eyes, which were rapidly losing their luster, and said slowly:

"He was your son; what wrong did I commit by killing him?"

The light in Qian Xunji's eyes dimmed completely.

His hair turned gray at a speed visible to the naked eye, his skin sagged, and in an instant, he became a withered old man on the verge of death.

"History... always... repeats itself... the ugly side of it..."

He muttered, filled with endless resentment and pain, before his head lolled to the side, and he drew his final breath.

"Thud."

Bibi Dong released her grip, letting his corpse slide to the floor.

She turned slowly and walked, step by step, out of the secret chamber that had buried all her nightmares.

In the vast, empty Pope Palace, she was alone.

She walked to the Pope's throne, which symbolized the highest power on the continent, and slowly sat down.

The golden seat was bone-chillingly cold.

Bibi Dong buried her face in her palms, her thin shoulders beginning to tremble uncontrollably.

Suppressed, painful sobs echoed for a long time throughout the magnificent and empty hall.

Nine years later.

The Far North, core circle.

Fine snowflakes drifted down over an open-air hot spring that remained unfrozen all year round.

As the snowflakes fell into the rising steam, they melted silently, failing to bring even a hint of chill to the warmth of this place.

In the center of the hot spring, a figure sat cross-legged.

He kept his eyes closed, his striking long silver hair draped behind his shoulders, with a few strands hanging over his chest and soaking in the water.

The youth had handsome features, a high-bridged nose, and thin lips; even while sitting still, he exuded a wildness that warned others to keep their distance.

It was Lan.

At this moment, he was multitasking; the soul power within his body circulated steadily, maintaining the temperature of the hot spring within a three-foot radius of his body so that it would not be disturbed by the bitter cold of the outside world.

Simultaneously, another, more refined stream of soul power cautiously probed above the water's surface.

"Splash."

A stream of water was drawn up by an invisible force, spiraling and dancing in the air.

The moment the water touched the freezing air outside, it rapidly solidified, turning into a palm-sized, lifelike ice sculpture of a shark in the blink of an eye.

The ice shark swam through the air for a moment before falling silently back into the water, melting without a trace.

Immediately following, another stream of water rose.

This had been his daily lesson for many years.

His precise control over soul power had already seeped into his very marrow.

A jade-green figure appeared quietly by the edge of the hot spring.

She was barefoot, stepping on the accumulated snow, yet showed no sign of feeling the cold.

The newcomer had a graceful figure and a face that was both beautiful and alluring; it was the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, the Ice Empress.

"Yo, our little Lan has grown up, knowing how to hide here and practice in secret all by yourself?"

The Ice Empress's voice carried a hint of teasing.

Lan opened his eyes, revealing a pair of rare, pure white orbs like ice and snow; they lacked pupils, yet seemed capable of seeing through everything.

He looked at the Ice Empress, his expression calm, his tone brief.

"Aunt Ice, I am an adult."

The implication was clear: stop calling me little Lan.

"An adult?"

Upon hearing this, the Ice Empress did not restrain herself; instead, she giggled, her frame shaking with laughter.

She stepped into the hot spring, causing the water to ripple, and arrived in front of Lan in an instant.

The warm spring water submerged her thighs, further accentuating the straight, slender lines of her jade-like legs.

"You little thing, you were raised by your Aunt Xue and me since you were this big; is there any part of you I haven't seen?"

The Ice Empress extended a slender finger and lightly flicked Lan's nose.

"Now you're telling me you're an adult?"

A rare look of helplessness appeared on Lan's face.

Just as he was about to say something, the Ice Empress suddenly leaned in.

A warm, soft sensation brushed against his cheek and vanished.

Lan froze completely.

He felt a surge of heat rush uncontrollably from his dantian to the top of his head, and the soul power that had been circulating steadily within his body suddenly went haywire.

"Crack—crackle—"

A harsh sound of freezing erupted abruptly!

With Lan as the center, the entire open-air hot spring, along with the rising steam, solidified into solid ice in less than a single breath!

Lan remained in his cross-legged position, firmly frozen within the ice.

His upper body was bare, his sturdy chest and well-defined abdominal muscles visible beneath the crystalline ice, full of the beauty of strength.

Only his head remained exposed.

His white eyes were now filled with astonishment and embarrassment.