Sky Dream Takes Action

Huo Yuhao took a deep breath and walked slowly toward the God-Sealing Platform. The ice-blue soul beast embryo lay quietly in the groove, the halo beneath its thin membrane pulsing rhythmically.

He reached out both hands, but when his fingertips were still half an inch from the embryo, a surge of Ultimate Ice coldness rushed toward him, causing him to instinctively recoil. Huo Yuhao gritted his teeth, reached out once more, and steadily cradled the embryo.

A chilling sensation spread from his palms throughout his entire body. Huo Yuhao shuddered and lowered his head to look at the embryo in his hands.

Jiang Che's voice came from behind him, calm yet tinged with a hint of solemnity: "Sit cross-legged. First, establish a mental connection with the embryo, then guide its origin power to merge with your martial soul. This process will be extremely painful; you must steady your mind and harbor no distracting thoughts."

Huo Yuhao nodded, sat cross-legged on the ice before the God-Sealing Platform, placed the embryo in front of his dantian, and held it with his palms.

He closed his eyes, channeled the soul power of his Spirit Eye martial soul, and slowly extended his mental power, cautiously touching the membrane on the surface of the embryo.

At first, there was nothing unusual; the embryo's halo pulsed steadily as if breathing. Huo Yuhao's mental power followed the rhythm of the halo, seeping into the interior of the embryo bit by bit. He could vaguely perceive a tiny, ice-blue phantom of a phoenix curled up inside, its eyes tightly shut and wings tucked in, as if in a deep slumber.

But the moment his mental power touched the core of the phoenix phantom, a sudden change occurred. The embryo jolted violently, and ice-blue light surged into Huo Yuhao's meridians like a burst dam. The power was wild and tyrannical, far beyond what Huo Yuhao could withstand.

"Pfft!" Huo Yuhao spat out a mouthful of blood, his face instantly turning as pale as paper. His clothes were shredded by the violent ice-attribute soul power, and a thin layer of frost appeared on his exposed skin. His veins bulged, and the blood flowing through his vessels seemed to be boiling and freezing simultaneously.

His body trembled uncontrollably, and his Spirit Eye martial soul flickered in and out of existence under the impact of the icy force, as if it might dissipate at any moment.

"It hurts... it hurts so much..." Huo Yuhao wailed in agony. The residual consciousness of the Silent Frost Ice Phoenix had awakened the moment the embryo was activated. The phoenix's will was instinctively resisting, unwilling to become a human's appendage. That pride and unwillingness, stemming from an ancient fierce beast, transformed into an even more violent icy force, crazily battering Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness.

The temperature in the ice cave plummeted, a thick layer of ice condensed on the surface of the God-Sealing Platform, and even the air cracked with faint, brittle sounds.

Cracks spread like spiderwebs across the ice where Huo Yuhao sat, his thin frame swaying precariously amidst the raging icy power.

Jiang Che frowned deeply, stepped to Huo Yuhao's side, and pressed his right palm against the boy's back. His silver-blue Ultimate Ice soul power flowed into Huo Yuhao's body; the origin aura of his Ice Dragon martial soul acted as a gentle barrier, blocking the majority of the Ice Phoenix's origin impact for him.

However, this was merely treating the symptoms, not the root cause. The Silent Frost Ice Phoenix's origin will refused to submit, and Huo Yuhao's mental power was too weak to soothe the remnant consciousness of this two-hundred-thousand-year-old fierce beast. Forcing a suppression would only make the phoenix's resistance more intense, potentially leading to mutual destruction where both the boy and the embryo perished.

Jiang Che cautiously stabilized the surging Ice Phoenix origin within Huo Yuhao. Suddenly, his Ultimate Ice soul power spread upward along Huo Yuhao's meridians, and the moment it touched the edge of the Sea of Consciousness, it sensed a mental fluctuation that did not belong to Huo Yuhao.

Deep within Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, a dormant consciousness was awakened by his pain.

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had not wanted to reveal itself, especially with Jiang Che right beside Huo Yuhao. That young Title Douluo gave it an indescribable sense of oppression—not a crushing of strength, but the illusion of being "seen through," as if its very existence could not be hidden in front of Jiang Che.

But it could no longer afford to hesitate. Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness was trembling violently, and the ice-blue storm formed by the Silent Frost Ice Phoenix's remnant consciousness was wreaking havoc, each impact causing fine cracks to appear on the mental barriers.

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm could clearly sense that if this continued for even the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness would completely collapse. Not only would the fusion fail, but Huo Yuhao himself would suffer severe damage, perhaps never being able to cultivate mental power again.

Golden light ignited deep within the Sea of Consciousness as the origin aura of a million-year soul beast slowly emerged. Sky Dream Ice Silkworm did not release its full pressure; it carefully controlled its mental power, separating only a portion of extremely gentle, lingering origin mental energy. It transformed into countless golden threads that reached out from the deepest part of the Sea of Consciousness, silently wrapping around the rampaging remnant consciousness of the Ice Phoenix.

Huo Yuhao, who was enduring the agony, suddenly shuddered. He clearly sensed a warm and vast power surging from the depths of his Sea of Consciousness, wrapping around, soothing, and dissolving the resistant will within the Silent Frost Ice Phoenix's remnant.

"Brother Sky Dream!" Huo Yuhao shouted in surprise within his Sea of Consciousness.

"Don't shout." Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's voice still carried its usual laziness, but if one listened closely, a hint of irrepressible exhaustion hid beneath it. "Focus on guiding that power; don't waste Brother's mental energy."

Under the soothing influence of Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, the Ice Phoenix's remnant consciousness gradually turned from violent to docile. That pride and unwillingness from an ancient fierce beast, in the face of a million-year soul beast's origin aura, became like a tamed fledgling, tucking in its wings bit by bit.

The ice-blue halo within the embryo began to pulse steadily. It was no longer the manic impact from before, but flowed as gently as breathing. The lotus-shaped halo bloomed in layers, enveloping Huo Yuhao entirely.

Jiang Che noticed the changes within Huo Yuhao and narrowed his silver-blue eyes slightly. He sensed an extremely powerful, extremely pure mental energy emerging from the depths of Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness. That mental power was as vast as the ocean yet as gentle as the spring sun, clashing not at all with the Ultimate Ice soul power he had channeled into Huo Yuhao, but instead working with it in seamless harmony.

He understood at once that Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had intervened, and his gaze swept calmly over Huo Yuhao's closed eyes without a word.

Ice Empress stood on the other side of the ice cave, her yellow diamond-like eyes also fixed on Huo Yuhao's changes. She sensed the presence of that mental power, and also caught a faint, familiar aura within it.

The ruler of the Far North frowned slightly, a look of contemplation flashing in the depths of her eyes, yet she too remained silent.

The ice cave fell into a strange silence, broken only by the faint sounds of the ice-blue halo circulating around Huo Yuhao and the slow, steady energy resonance between the embryo and the boy.