"This is... an undead creature? There's an undead living in your Sea of Consciousness?" Ice Empress's voice carried a trace of unconcealed shock.
"Holy Necromancer," Electrolux corrected her, his tone faintly displeased. "Little scorpion, by seniority, you should call me Senior."
Ice Empress's phantom flickered, as if the address "little scorpion" had caught her off guard. She had lived in the Far North for four hundred thousand years, cultivating from an ordinary Ice Jade Scorpion into one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North. It had been a very, very long time since anyone had dared speak to her in such a tone.
But now, all that remained of her was a wisp of remnant soul, dwelling in Mu Chen's Sea of Consciousness. And the aura radiating from the gray orb before her, which called itself the Holy Necromancer, was indeed so ancient and unfathomable that she could not see its depths.
Even at the height of her power, she might not have been able to see through the orb's true nature.
"Hmph." Ice Empress snorted and stopped paying Electrolux any attention, turning instead to Mu Chen's consciousness.
Her expression grew complicated. Less than an hour ago, she had still been one of the lofty Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, while he had been a human Soul Master seeking a Soul Ring from her.
Now she was his Soul Ring, dwelling in his Sea of Consciousness. His fortunes were hers, and his ruin would be hers as well.
Any Ferocious Beast would need time to digest such a reversal of status.
"Mu Chen," she called, her tone awkward and stiff.
It was the first time she had called him by name as an equal.
Mu Chen's consciousness faced her in the Sea of Consciousness and bowed slightly. It was not a Soul Master's deference to his Soul Ring, but the respect one person who had kept a promise showed to another who had done the same.
"Take me to Snow Empress," Ice Empress said. Her voice was so soft that it was almost swept away by the wind in the empty Sea of Consciousness.
Such careful hesitation did not belong to the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion or one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North. It belonged to a companion who had never learned to express herself over the long years, using her own way to say, "I want to see her."
Mu Chen opened his eyes and rose from the ice. The emerald pillar of light had vanished, and leaden clouds once more covered the sky above the Core Area.
The frozen earth beneath his feet had cracked under the force of the offering, spiderweb fractures spreading hundreds of meters outward from where he stood.
In the distance, the auras of several Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were cautiously drawing nearer. They had been attracted by the commotion of the offering, but still feared the lingering pressure of a four-hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast and dared not approach too closely.
He raised his left hand and willed it. The ice-attributed power within the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion Left Arm Bone flowed naturally, and the surrounding cold gathered around him of its own accord, forming a layer of insulation over his body more effective than the Crimson Flame Bead.
With the support of Ice Empress's Left Arm Bone, the extreme cold of the Core Area of the Far North was no longer a threat to him. It had become an aid instead. The Ice Element in the air danced merrily, as if welcoming a long-lost kindred spirit.
Mu Chen set off toward the deepest part of the Core Area.
Ice Empress guided him from within his Sea of Consciousness. She told him Snow Empress had secluded herself in the heart of the tallest ice peak at the center of the Core Area. There was a naturally formed Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Cave there, where the Ice Element was most concentrated in all the Far North. Even the air had been compressed into liquid.
That was Snow Empress's territory, and the most dangerous place in the entire Far North. Even Ice Empress herself would not approach it lightly while Snow Empress was in seclusion.
Snow Empress's aura was extremely unstable during her seclusion. At intervals, she would unleash an unconscious Ice Seal storm. Everything within dozens of miles would freeze into ice statues, and even time seemed to stop in that region.
Guided by Ice Empress's aura, Mu Chen traveled without hindrance.
When several Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts sensed Ice Empress's aura on him, they prostrated themselves and cleared the path from far away. Confusion filled their eyes. How could this human have Lord Ice Empress's aura? Yet the aura was unmistakable. They dared not question it, much less bar his way.
After walking for about two hours, Mu Chen stood at the foot of the tallest ice peak in the center of the Core Area of the Far North.
In the dim light, the peak gleamed a faint blue. It was made entirely of pure Ten-Thousand-Year Ice, without a single impurity in its body.
Its surface was smooth as a mirror, reflecting the clouds slowly circling across the sky. A natural barrier of ice crystals encircled its base. Each crystal stood dozens of meters tall, sharp as a spear, and they were packed tightly together.
Mu Chen quickened his pace.
After passing through the ice-crystal barrier and following a winding ice path inward for the better part of an incense stick, he suddenly stopped at a bend.
Someone stood ahead.
She was a woman dressed in a moon-white robe, with a face that looked to be in her early twenties and snow-white hair falling to her waist.
Her features were so exquisite they seemed unreal. Her skin was as pale as porcelain, and her brows and eyes held a frosty aloofness that brooked no offense.
One of her eyes was ice blue; the other was hidden behind a lock of snow-white hair.
Snow Empress. The foremost of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, the Heavenly Snow Woman with seven hundred thousand years of cultivation. No—in truth, she now had six hundred and ninety thousand years of cultivation. Her attempt to overcome the heavenly tribulation had failed, her cultivation had fallen, and the lingering power of the tribulation continued to erode her.
She raised her ice-blue eyes and stared coldly at the uninvited guest before her. She glanced at him only once before her pupils suddenly contracted, for she had sensed the aura on Mu Chen that she knew so well.
"Who are you? Where did the Ice Empress aura on you come from?" Snow Empress asked coldly.
Mu Chen did not answer. He let the remnant soul of Ice Empress in his Sea of Consciousness project a phantom outward through his body.
An emerald light shone from between his brows, and a miniature image of Ice Empress appeared in midair before him.
She looked at Snow Empress, at that pale face. Her lips moved, but she spoke only two words.
"Xue'er."
Ice Empress had called Snow Empress by her name. Not "Snow Empress," not "Lord of the Far North," but "Xue'er." In the entire Far North, only Ice Empress dared call Snow Empress that, and only when Ice Empress did so would Snow Empress wear that helpless yet indulgent expression.
Snow Empress swayed.
She stared fixedly at Ice Empress's phantom, an unspoken storm rising in her ice-blue eyes.
Her lips trembled. She wanted to say something, but her throat seemed frozen. She reached for Ice Empress's phantom, her fingertips passing through the translucent light and touching nothing but the cold air of the Far North.
"Bing'er." At last, Snow Empress's voice squeezed out of her throat, trembling with barely contained emotion. "What have you done?"
Ice Empress smiled. It was the most peaceful smile Snow Empress had seen in all the hundreds of thousands of years she had known her.
"I did what I wanted to do. I offered myself to him. He has the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow, enough to heal your injuries and help you break through the bottleneck at seven hundred thousand years. Xue'er, I've never been able to beat you. This is the only time I can win against you."