The Extreme North, Ice Jade Lake.
Bitter cold surged silently as tiny ice crystals gathered and scattered on the wind.
"Why have you come looking for me today?" The Ice Empress stood upon the frozen lake. Ice mist billowed behind her like flowing gauze, making her emerald dress look all the more striking.
"I have a path to godhood. Interested in joining me?" Lin Mo stood at the lake's edge, speaking plainly as the cold wind lifted his white robes.
A path to godhood?
Tian Meng froze, disbelief written all over his face.
Zi Ling found this grand promise strangely familiar.
If she hadn't known how Lin Mo had struggled to get this far, she might actually have believed him.
The Ice Empress frowned slightly.
"Help you become a god?" Doubt filled her voice. Was he playing her for a fool?
"To be precise, I'll bring all of you to godhood. Including... the Snow Empress," Lin Mo said.
The Ice Empress gave a cold snort. The mist swirling around her abruptly took shape, becoming the murderous specter of an ice scorpion. The temperature dropped another few degrees.
"Bring us to godhood? Do you think I'm so easily fooled? Even that black dragon in the Star Dou Great Forest can't do it, yet you claim you can?" The Ice Empress made no attempt to soften her words.
"Or do you want us to take human form and cultivate from scratch, pursuing godhood in human bodies?" she asked coldly. She had nothing but contempt for that path.
Soul Beasts faced limits on their cultivation, shackles imposed by heaven and earth. Ordinary cultivation could never make them gods. Instead, they faced one life-or-death tribulation after another. Survive one, and they could live another hundred thousand years.
The trouble was, that road seemed endless.