Snow Empress Breaks Through

The Snow Empress's body began to tremble violently. She snapped her head up, her ice-blue eyes erupting with a bone-chilling, frigid light.

Her gaze pierced toward Mu Chen like a ten-thousand-year-old ice blade, and the surrounding temperature plummeted, instantly breaking the lowest record ever recorded in the Far North.

Countless sharp ice spikes condensed upon the ice walls, and the ice crystals suspended in the air ceased all movement, as if even time itself had been frozen by this killing intent.

But Mu Chen knew she was not angry; she was afraid. She feared that the hope Ice Empress had traded her own life for would ultimately come to nothing, and that this was merely a hollow transaction.

"Human. What did she give you?" The Snow Empress's voice returned to its icy state, yet beneath that coldness lay surging emotions, like an undercurrent churning beneath a frozen surface.

"Everything," Mu Chen said.

The Snow Empress closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the killing intent in those ice-blue eyes had vanished, replaced only by a weary, resigned calm.

"What are her conditions?"

"To heal your wounds. To help you break through."

The Snow Empress fell silent. She turned her head to look at the phantom of the Ice Empress, who was watching her in return. The two beings, who had accompanied each other for four hundred thousand years, stared at one another in the ice cavern of the Far North, needing no words.

Then, the Snow Empress made her decision.

"Fine. I agree."

Mu Chen activated his storage soul tool bracelet.

Mu Chen took out all fifteen stalks of Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow, lining them up one by one on the ice surface before the Snow Empress.

The fifteen stalks of Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow were placed side by side, each one crystal clear, with liquid ice-blue halos circulating within them.

The frigid air they emitted wove into a faint blue mist within the ice cavern, and even the air condensed into tiny ice crystals the moment it touched them.

The fifteen stalks of Profound Ice Marrow reflected off one another, turning the entire ice cavern into a dreamlike blue world, with every ice wall reflecting the shimmering, rippling light.

The Snow Empress's pupils contracted slightly. She had seen Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow before, but she had never seen so many appear at once.

Treasures of heaven and earth of this caliber were enough to make soul masters of the ice attribute in the outside world fight to the death; the value of fifteen stalks could no longer be measured by any currency.

"Bing'er," the Snow Empress's voice suddenly became very soft. "Do you truly believe I am worth this much?"

The Ice Empress's phantom flickered. "To ask such a question is to insult my judgment of several hundred thousand years."

The corners of the Snow Empress's mouth lifted slightly. In that moment, she was no longer the leader of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, nor was she the Heavenly Snow Woman who made the entire soul beast world tremble in fear. She was simply someone whose companion had entrusted her with hope using her own life.

The Snow Empress sat cross-legged, her hands hovering above the fifteen stalks of Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow, and began to absorb them.

The energy within the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow surged into her body like a tidal wave.

Those pure, ultimate ice-origin powers flowed along her meridians, repairing every old wound left behind by the heavenly tribulation.

Her cultivation began to climb.

It rose from the brink of falling below six hundred and ninety thousand years: six hundred and ninety-five thousand, six hundred and ninety-eight thousand, seven hundred thousand. When the energy of the final stalk of Profound Ice Marrow was completely absorbed, the aura erupting from the Snow Empress had surpassed any level anyone present had ever perceived.

That aura shattered the dome of the ice cavern and shot straight into the firmament.

The sky beyond the ice peak changed color within seconds, shifting from leaden gray to deep purple. The clouds began to spin frantically, forming a massive vortex with silver lightning dancing at its center.

Old Tang's voice suddenly turned sharp. "Heavenly Tribulation! The Snow Empress has triggered a heavenly tribulation by breaking through to seven hundred thousand years! Little Chen, retreat to a safe distance immediately! With your current strength, a mere graze from the heavenly tribulation will reduce you to dust!"

Mu Chen did not try to be a hero. He activated Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, his figure retreating violently while he recalled the Ice Empress's phantom into his Sea of Consciousness.

The moment the Ice Empress's remnant soul retreated into the Sea of Consciousness, she took one last look at the Snow Empress sitting cross-legged in the center of the ice cavern.

Her lips moved silently. Mu Chen did not hear what she said, but he felt the Ice Empress's remnant soul in his Sea of Consciousness tremble slightly at that moment. It was not a tremble of fear, but the kind of trembling that even a mere remnant soul could not help but feel out of concern for her.

The first bolt of heavenly lightning fell.

The silver lightning, as thick as a water barrel, struck straight down from the center of the vortex, landing precisely on the summit of the ice peak.

The ten-thousand-year-old ice exploded into a sky full of debris under the impact of the thunder, and the top of the ice peak was leveled by several meters. The Snow Empress raised her hand, and an ice-blue light barrier unfolded above her head, catching the lightning head-on. The barrier vibrated violently, countless spiderweb-like cracks appearing on its surface, but it did not shatter.

The second bolt of heavenly lightning followed in quick succession, thicker, brighter, and more violent than the first. Then came the third, the fourth, and the fifth. The bombardment of heavenly lightning was as dense as raindrops, each strike carrying the power to destroy heaven and earth.

The ice peak continued to collapse under the continuous bombardment of the thunder, with massive chunks of ten-thousand-year-old ice peeling off the mountain and falling onto the ice plain at the foot of the mountain, creating deep craters. Mu Chen stood on an ice hill at a safe distance, feeling the shockwaves rushing toward him, his expression gradually turning grave.

This was the might of heaven and earth. Before a seven-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation, the extreme cold of the Far North's core area was not even worth mentioning. The air was filled with the scorched smell of ionization, and every lightning strike illuminated the ice surface for miles around in a ghastly white.

The Snow Empress stood within the ice cavern, her white robes fluttering wildly in the lightning. Her hands continuously formed seals, and layer upon layer of ice walls and light barriers unfolded above her head, only to be shattered one by one by the heavenly lightning.

A trace of blood spilled from the corner of her mouth, but her eyes remained calm. When the final bolt of heavenly lightning descended, she withdrew all defenses and met the thickest, brightest silver lightning with her physical body alone.

BOOM!

The body of the ice peak split open with a massive fissure under this strike. The Snow Empress was swallowed by the heavenly lightning, the silver electric light wrapping around her so completely that even her silhouette could not be seen.

The air was filled with a scorched scent, mixed with the white mist rising from the vaporized ice crystals. Mu Chen's fists clenched involuntarily, and the Ice Empress's remnant soul in his Sea of Consciousness let out a silent scream.

Then, the lightning dissipated.

The Snow Empress descended slowly from mid-air. Her white robes were completely tattered, her snow-white hair scattered in the air, with silver electric arcs still lingering on the tips.

Her body was trembling slightly, but the corners of her mouth were lifted. The purple vortex in the sky began to slowly dissipate, the deep purple clouds receding from the center outward, revealing long-lost daylight. It was the first time in a thousand years that sunlight had appeared in the Far North; the aura of the soul beast, tempered by the seven-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation, had scattered the clouds that hung over the Far North all year round.

The Snow Empress had broken through.

She was no longer a severely wounded being of six hundred and ninety thousand years, but a true, complete seven-hundred-thousand-year fierce beast.

Her aura was several times more powerful than before, and every movement she made carried the rhythm of the laws of heaven and earth.