Ice Empress

All the Soul Beasts in the distance felt Jiang Che's arrow and fled like startled birds.

Jiang Che's long whistle still echoed in the high sky, but the vibration of the ice sheet beneath his feet suddenly became violent.

Before the shockwave from the Ice Dragon Bow's arrow had fully dissipated, an aura of extreme cold, far more biting and domineering than the winds of the Far North, surged out from the depths of the ice mountain range.

This aura carried a pressure that looked down upon the world, something no ordinary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast could possess. It forcefully suppressed the dragon might radiating from Jiang Che's soul rings, causing the temperature of the entire ice sheet to drop below freezing in an instant.

The thick, ink-like roiling clouds suddenly trembled violently as if slashed by a sharp blade, a narrow, long rift tearing open in the center of the layer.

The next moment, from the edge of the sky in the depths of the Far North, a biting, icy green radiance swept over with the force of a landslide, swallowing the entire dim firmament in a mere instant.

The pitch-black sky faded away, replaced by a clear, cold ice-green. The color was warm yet carried an inviolable majesty, as if the entire dome of heaven had transformed into an ice-green jade sculpture frozen for ten thousand years.

The oppressive tension in the air caused by the previous soul skill explosion was entirely replaced by this supreme, extreme cold. All things between heaven and earth seemed to fall silent at this moment; even the howling wind slowed its momentum, bowing in submission to the pressure of this Far North sovereign.

"Human! You have quite the nerve, daring to run wild in this Empress's territory!"

The crisp voice rang out from all directions. Its arrival was accompanied by a terrifying sonic wave; the snow on the ground rose nearly three meters high in an instant, like suddenly stirred waves. Only the hundred-meter radius around Jiang Che remained calm.

Jiang Che frowned. The only Soul Beasts in the Far North with such strength could be the Ice and Snow Empresses, but since the Snow Empress was likely gone, it could only be the Ice Empress. Fearing he would be discovered by other Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts and swarmed, he dared not remain in the air and quickly returned to the ground, retracting his aura.

[Warning! Warning! The Ice Empress, one of the three Great Kings of the Far North, has locked onto you. She harbors great resentment toward you. With your current strength, you are nothing but an insignificant bug in her eyes, so try your best to survive!]

The next moment, the Ice Empress appeared.

The dark sky was once again swept by a clear emerald green. A streak of green light flashed across the horizon, leaving behind only a fleeting trail before vanishing without a trace.

Jiang Che instantly focused, his gaze locked firmly ahead. He could no longer recall the original description of the Ice Empress, but he held fast to one common logic: the higher a Soul Beast's cultivation, the larger its size, especially for fierce beasts over one hundred thousand years old.

Yet, when this Far North fierce beast truly fell into his perception and sight, Jiang Che could not help but be stunned, a heartfelt exclamation bursting from his soul: Too beautiful.

Indeed, the Ice Empress was breathtakingly beautiful. This was the first time he had used the word "beautiful" to describe a Soul Beast, and the admiration was entirely sincere.

The Ice Empress was only about 1.5 meters long. Jiang Che had never seen the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion clan before; all his previous guesses were overturned in an instant. Who could have imagined that this fierce beast, which shook the Far North, would be a scorpion—a scorpion beautiful to the extreme?

Scorpions were always associated with ugliness and ferocity. If someone had told Jiang Che before that a scorpion could be beautiful, he would have looked at them like they were a fool, perhaps even thinking they were deliberately provoking him.

But at this moment, Jiang Che only wanted to apologize for his past ignorance, fully convinced that this statement was the truth and that he had simply been too narrow-minded.

The Ice Empress before him was woven with only two colors: the glistening white of ice and snow, and the emerald green of jade.

The front half of her body was stacked in four layers, each layer over half a foot long. Her head was embedded in the foremost layer, her silver-white mouthparts gleaming with a faint, cold light that betrayed the sharpness of a fierce beast.

The carapace on her front body was not covered in ordinary scales, but densely packed with hexagonal protrusions. These protrusions were like top-tier diamonds, radiating a brilliant, dazzling luster. Her six slender, powerful legs were also covered in these crystalline bumps. Under the reflection of the snow and sky, she seemed to become a light source herself, thousands of rays refracting from her body, dazzling to the extreme.

Her pair of front pincers were a full meter long, also covered in diamond-like hexagonal protrusions. Only the tips, like her mouthparts, were a mirror-smooth, glistening silver-white—sharp and luxurious.

What Jiang Che could not tear his eyes away from, however, were her eyes. A pair of bright yellow orbs, like two perfectly cut yellow diamonds embedded in her forehead. Her pupils were also hexagonal, crystalline yellow light flowing within, glowing with treasure-like brilliance, possessing both the majesty of a fierce beast and an extreme, lively intelligence.

If the front half of her body was already dazzling, the long tail arched high behind her was the core of her stunning appearance.

Unlike the bloated, multi-jointed tails of ordinary scorpions, the Ice Empress's long tail had only five segments. Each segment was a transparent, vivid emerald green. As the green light flowed, it exuded a rich aura of life. The five segments were seamless, the one closest to the body being the widest, narrowing toward the end. The tail hook at the tip was raised high, also covered in fine, diamond-like protrusions, the hook tip a biting silver-white with a mirror-like sheen, displaying both lethality and luxury.

How could such a Soul Beast, carved from top-grade gemstones and formed by nature, not deserve the word "beautiful"? To describe her merely as beautiful felt too pale, too shallow.

"Ice Empress, that was just a misunderstanding. If there was anything wrong, I apologize to you first." Although Jiang Che was confident he was not weaker than a Super Douluo, the Ice Empress was an existence that even the level 98 Xuan Zi would find a headache to deal with.

If they fought in the Far North, it was hard to say who would win or lose. After speaking, Jiang Che prepared to leave.

"Hmph! Human, is this a place you can come and go as you please?" The Ice Empress snorted with disdain, her crisp female voice ringing out once more.

"Then what do you want?" Jiang Che asked with an unfriendly tone. He simply didn't want to provoke the Ice Empress for no reason, but her aggressive stance made him very unhappy. Having just obtained his ninth soul ring, he was feeling extremely inflated.

"What do I want? Since you have awakened me, be prepared to leave your life here." The Ice Empress stared fixedly at Jiang Che, her yellow eyes filled with rage.

She had been in deep slumber, only to be awakened by that terrifying icy energy shockwave, which had even cracked the ice layer where she was hiding in several places.

"Ice Empress! I respect you as one of the sovereigns of this land. If you want me to stay and keep you company, you may try, but this Humble One is not a bug to be crushed at will!" Knowing he wouldn't be able to leave without a fight, Jiang Che stopped wasting words and ignited his Martial Soul and soul rings.