Lu Ran's gaze showed a moment of astonishment,
then returned to normal in an instant,
and shifted elsewhere.
There was no need for further explanation. In the strange ripple that had just spread,
Ice Empress had already told her everything.
"I believe you,"
Snow Empress's ice-blue eyes rested on Lu Ran's dark eyes,
her voice ethereal, the most beautiful music in the world,
"but I still don't understand. Why are you helping us? Knowing Bing'er will have to face a tribulation within a hundred years, you could easily have forced us to do your bidding."
The original power, Soul Ring, and Soul Bone of a nearly four-hundred-thousand-year-old Ice Jade Empress Scorpion were enough to tempt any human empire to wage war and seize them. They were the most precious, priceless treasures in the world,
Lu Ran shook his head, his gaze at Snow Empress utterly sincere:
"I need you."
"What I want isn't to plunder from you. I want cooperation, or perhaps an alliance..."
He held out his hand,
"We can face things together,"
"helping each other and supporting one another through the storms that may sweep in someday."
"Storms? You mean..."
A hint of puzzlement surfaced in Snow Empress's beautiful eyes.
Lu Ran shrugged,
"The future is impossible to predict. No one can say for sure,"
"But perhaps someday, I'll need your help..."
"Of course, perhaps I won't."
Snow Empress fell silent. She gazed quietly at Lu Ran, this frail human boy whom she could not see through,
then gently nodded:
"I believe you."
"Yeah!"
Ice Empress eagerly coiled her jade-green scorpion tail around three pieces of Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Marrow and handed them to Snow Empress,
her voice brimming with the joy of a bountiful harvest,
"Snow Maiden, you take these three,"
"your origin power is