Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was right at home in this area.
He had originally been an Ice Silkworm with a million years of cultivation. Although only a wisp of his remnant soul remained, dwelling inside Huo Yuhao, his body's instincts were still there.
His phantom wriggled across the snow, and he let out a satisfied sigh. "This is the feeling. This temperature, this concentration of Ice Element—this is the kind of place I grew up in."
Huo Yuhao had no strength left to respond to his reminiscing. Gritting his teeth, he trudged forward one step at a time.
"This is the place. I shed my skin in this area back then. Take out my old husk and put it in the middle of the ice, then retreat a hundred zhang and wait. I'll use the husk as a medium to simulate my aura at my peak. It'll cover a radius of several hundred li. As long as Ice Empress is still in the Core Area, she'll definitely sense it."
Sky Dream Ice Silkworm stopped on an open stretch of ice plains. At last, a trace of solemnity entered his voice.
Huo Yuhao did as instructed. He took Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's old husk out of his Storage Soul Tool. It was a translucent, milky-white membrane, cool and smooth to the touch. Its folds and markings still retained the outline of Sky Dream Ice Silkworm at his peak.
Once spread out, the entire husk was three zhang long and one zhang wide. A gentle silver glow shimmered from it across the ice plains, like fragments of moonlight strewn across the snow. He carefully laid it out in the middle of the ice, then retreated a hundred zhang and ducked behind an ice mound. He wrapped his fur coat tightly around himself. Without the husk to keep him warm, the cold swept over him at once.
The power of Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's remnant soul surged out of Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness and flowed into the husk.
The husk began to glow. This was no longer the faint silver shimmer from before, but a beam of silver-white light that shot into the sky and illuminated even the leaden-gray clouds.
The beam spread through the air, transforming into rings of silver ripples visible to the naked eye as they swept in every direction. Each ripple carried the pressure of Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's million years of cultivation, along with the innate aura unique to Ice Silkworm Soul Beasts—an aura that made every Ice Element Soul Beast covet it.
It was the essence of a million-year Ice Silkworm at its peak. To Ice Element Soul Beasts, this aura was even more precious than Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow. The Ice Element affinity of Ice Silkworms shared the same origin as the Ice Jade Scorpion Clan's, and could be absorbed directly and converted into cultivation.
They waited.
The winds of the Core Area of the Far North had stopped at some point. Nothing stirred between heaven and earth but the silent expansion of that beam of light and the increasingly heavy thud of Huo Yuhao's own heartbeat.
An incense stick's worth of time passed.
Ice Empress did not appear.
Half an hour passed.
There was still no response from the Core Area of the Far North. Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's beam continued to spread in every direction, but Ice Empress's aura seemed to have vanished into thin air. There was no response, no trace of her anywhere.
Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's voice finally changed. "Impossible. Ice Empress couldn't fail to sense my aura. Back then, when I shed a layer of skin, she could smell it from a thousand li away and came charging over to find me. Why hasn't she appeared this time?"
The silver beam over the ice plains slowly faded.
Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's old husk returned to being a translucent membrane, lying quietly on the ten-thousand-year-old ice, its luster a little duller than before. It wasn't because its energy had run out, but because the being that had released its aura no longer had any reason to continue.
Huo Yuhao put the husk back into his Storage Soul Tool, moving very slowly. His fingers were frozen stiff, and it took him two tries to fasten the clasp. The cold wind started blowing through the Core Area again, carrying fine ice crystals that struck his face, but he seemed not to feel them.
"Brother Sky Dream." His voice sounded thin in the wind.
"Hmm?"
"It's all right. If this opportunity is gone, I can look for another. I believe I can do it!"
Sky Dream Ice Silkworm froze for a moment, then laughed.
His laughter echoed through Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, carrying a comfort he couldn't quite put into words. He had chosen this boy not only because his natural mental strength was extraordinary, but also because he had the resilience to pull himself back together in any situation. That strength of character was more precious than any rare treasure.
"Don't worry. If Ice Empress is gone, then she's gone. I'll find you someone even better," Sky Dream Ice Silkworm said.
Huo Yuhao drew his gaze away from the distant ice peak, half of which had been sheared off, and stopped looking. He turned around to face the way they had come. His Spirit Eyes reflected the boundless white wasteland beneath the leaden-gray clouds.
"Find what?"
"Ice Silkworms." Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's tone regained the certainty of a seasoned veteran showing a rookie the ropes. "In your human Soul Master system, you need a Second Soul Ring at level twenty. Your First Soul Ring is mental-type, so it'd be best for your second to be mental-type or a similar attribute, so the Soul Skills complement each other. The thousand-year Ice Silkworms of the Far North share my origins. Their mental attributes are gentle, making them just right for you."
Huo Yuhao nodded. He didn't ask where to find a thousand-year Ice Silkworm. Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was, after all, an Ice Silkworm ancestor with a million years of cultivation. Finding a trace of a younger member of his clan was child's play for him.
"Head northwest." Sky Dream Ice Silkworm began guiding him. "When I released my aura just now, I sensed a fluctuation of kindred mental power in that direction. Judging by its strength, it's probably cultivated for two or three thousand years, right at the limit your Second Soul Ring can bear. The Ice Silkworm Clan is gentle by nature and doesn't attack humans unprovoked. Getting its Soul Ring is much safer than hunting Ice Wolves or Ice Bears. If we're lucky, we might not even have to fight."
Huo Yuhao set off northwest. His steps were still heavy. After six days of trekking across the Far North Ice Plains, both his stamina and Soul Power were nearly spent. Yet his Spirit Eyes remained bright, reflecting the endless ice and snow before him, without a trace of retreat.
After about half an hour, the terrain began to change. The flat ice plains gradually rose into low ice mounds, and crisscrossing crevasses lay between them. From their depths came the muffled groan of slowly shifting ice. A faint sweet scent hung in the air—not like the fragrance of flowers, but more like the aura given off by some rare Ice Element treasure.
"It's just ahead," Sky Dream Ice Silkworm said in a lowered voice. "Behind that ice mound. It's feeding on Ice Marrow Moss growing in the crevasse. That's an Ice Silkworm's favorite food. You can walk over now; it won't run. Ice Silkworms move very slowly. To it, you're just a walking thing with an abnormal temperature. As long as you don't deliberately release hostility, it won't bother with you."
Huo Yuhao held his breath and circled around the ice mound.
A milky-white Ice Silkworm was crouched at the edge of an ice crevasse. It was smaller than any Soul Beast he had seen before, only as long as an adult's arm.