Preventing Someone from Scamming a Reward!

When Lin Yaoyang and the Ice Empress descended from the sky, the Snow Empress was already standing at the palace entrance.

"Xue'er! Yaoyang is back!"

The Snow Empress said nothing. She merely looked at Lin Yaoyang.

Lin Yaoyang released the Ice Empress's hand and walked forward.

"Sister Xue'er, I'm back."

The Snow Empress reached out and touched his head.

Her movements were gentle, just as they had been in the past, her fingertips running through his hair.

"You've gotten thinner," she said.

Lin Yaoyang smiled. "No way. I've been eating very well."

"How good could Shrek's food possibly be?"

The Snow Empress withdrew her hand. Her tone was calm, but the corners of her lips curled up slightly. "Come on, let's talk inside. It's cold out here."

The Ice Empress curled her lips at the side. "Cold? Xue'er, you're a spirit of ice and snow, and you're saying it's cold?"

The Snow Empress ignored her and turned to enter Snow Palace.

Lin Yaoyang followed her, with the Ice Empress hopping along behind him.

The inside of Snow Palace was a completely different world from outside.

Outside, wind and snow raged, but inside, it was as warm as spring.

Of course, it was not because of heating. Where would the Far North get heating? The Snow Empress simply used her Soul Power to maintain a constant temperature inside the palace.

Lin Yaoyang had lived in the Extreme North for twelve years and had long grown accustomed to its temperatures.

Although he had long become immune to the cold here.

Every time he returned from outside and stepped into Snow Palace, he still felt as though he had come home.

The Snow Empress sat in the main seat, with the Ice Empress beside her and Lin Yaoyang seated opposite them.

A small table carved from ice crystal stood between the three of them.

"Tell me," the Snow Empress said, raising her teacup and taking a sip. "How was this past year?"

Leaning back in his chair, Lin Yaoyang selectively recounted some of what had happened during the semester.

He told them about Zhou Yi, the Freshman Assessment, Yan Shaozhe trying to take him as a disciple and being rejected, and Zhang Lexuan approaching him... He told them what he should, and kept the rest to himself.

The Snow Empress listened attentively and occasionally asked a question or two.

The Ice Empress, meanwhile, kept butting in. One moment she cursed Zhou Yi as "damnable," the next she praised Lin Yaoyang for "doing a great job," and then she pressed him about what Zhang Lexuan looked like.

When Zhang Lexuan was mentioned, the Ice Empress's ears visibly perked up.

"That Inner Court senior, why did she come looking for you?"

"To get close to me, obviously." Lin Yaoyang spoke as though it were nothing. "Shrek wants to keep me there, so it sent a pretty senior to get friendly with me. That's perfectly normal."

The Ice Empress's expression changed, and she was about to say something when the Snow Empress spoke first.

"How does she treat you?"

Lin Yaoyang thought for a moment. "She's a pretty good person. Gentle, refined, and considerate."

The Ice Empress's expression turned even uglier.

The Snow Empress glanced at the Ice Empress, the corners of her lips curling slightly, but she did not continue the subject.

"Enough. It's good that you're back. Go get some rest first. You've traveled for so many days."

Lin Yaoyang nodded and rose to his feet.

He walked up to the Snow Empress, paused for a moment, then reached out and hugged her.

It was light and brief, like a dragonfly touching the water.

"Good night, Sister Xue'er," he said before turning and leaving.

The Snow Empress remained seated there, watching his departing figure leave the palace in silence for quite some time.

The Ice Empress said sourly beside her, "He only hugged you. He didn't hug me."

"Didn't you hold him while flying back?" the Snow Empress said blandly.

"And... I don't believe you didn't get handsy when you went to pick Yaoyang up!"

The Ice Empress: "..."

Hehe, (｡•́ωη｡)

The next day.

"Sister Xue'er, there's something I need to tell you."

The Snow Empress looked at Lin Yaoyang.

"While I was outside this semester, I gathered some information," Lin Yaoyang said. "Information about an opportunity that could allow you to break through."

The Snow Empress's hand paused slightly.

The Ice Empress stopped stuffing pastries into her mouth, her bright yellow eyes turning toward Lin Yaoyang.

"Are you serious?" The Snow Empress set down her teacup, her voice lower than usual. "Yaoyang, you can't joke about something like this."

Lin Yaoyang nodded seriously. "Sister Xue'er, I mean it. Why would I lie to you?"

The Snow Empress stared at him for two seconds, then reached out and poked his head.

"Just in case a little pervert is trying to scam a reward."

Lin Yaoyang caught her finger and held it in his hand.

The Snow Empress's finger was cool and soft, like a piece of smooth, warm jade.

"Hehe, how could that be?" he said with a grin. "Sister Xue'er, there's no benefit for me in lying to you. Besides, if you break through, you'll be able to protect me better, right?"

The Snow Empress rolled her eyes at him but did not pull her hand from his grasp.

"Then tell me. Where is this opportunity? What kind of opportunity is it?"

Lin Yaoyang put away his playful expression.

"I heard that within the Earth Dragon Sect's territory, there is a Cold Spring. Beneath it is a cave dwelling, and inside the cave is a metal ore rich in ice-element energy."

The Snow Empress's brow twitched slightly. "You mean... Ice Extreme Divine Crystal?"

"Yes." Lin Yaoyang nodded. "Ice Extreme Divine Crystal is an associated mineral of Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow. If there really is Ice Extreme Divine Crystal there, then Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow must also be nearby."

The Ice Empress's breathing noticeably quickened.

Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow.

It was the treasure she and the Snow Empress had dreamed of obtaining. Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow contained exceptionally pure ice-element energy. Not only could it heal the hidden injuries left behind when the Snow Empress had forcibly condensed her Soul Core, it could also help the two of them safely endure their Heavenly Tribulations.

The Snow Empress had been stuck at the seven-hundred-thousand-year bottleneck for far too long.

So had the Ice Empress. They had been suppressing their cultivation and did not dare break through because they had no confidence in surviving the Heavenly Tribulation.

If they had Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow...

The Ice Empress did not dare think further.

The Snow Empress was far steadier than the Ice Empress, but the light in her eyes had changed as well.

"This is indeed worth trying," she said.

Lin Yaoyang stroked her little hand and added, "Sister Xue'er, even if there isn't any Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow there, it doesn't matter. I know another place too: Sunset Forest."

"Sunset Forest?"

"Yes. There's a place in Sunset Forest called the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. It's a natural treasure basin, exceptionally suitable for plants to grow. There are all kinds of Immortal Herbs there, including the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, Eight-Petaled Immortal Orchid, Narcissus Jade Muscle Bone... They're all said to be there."

The Snow Empress was moved.

She looked at Lin Yaoyang, a complicated light appearing in her sky-blue eyes.

This boy, the boy she had raised since childhood, had spent one semester outside and returned with information like this.

Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow. Immortal Herbs.

Either one was enough to drive any human or soul beast mad.

Yet he had brought this information to her.

"Good." The Snow Empress rose to her feet, pulled her hand from Lin Yaoyang's grasp, then reached out and stroked his head with unimaginable gentleness.

"If we really find the treasure, I'll grant you one request."

Lin Yaoyang's eyes lit up. "Sister Xue'er, any request?"

A faint blush appeared on the Snow Empress's lovely face as she reproached him softly, "We'll talk about it then."

She turned and walked toward the palace entrance.

"Come on. We'll set out right now."

The Ice Empress jumped down from her chair and skipped after her. As she passed Lin Yaoyang, she suddenly turned around and threw her arms around him.

"Yaoyang, I knew I hadn't misjudged you!" she said excitedly, her bright yellow eyes filled with delight. "If we really find it, I'll grant you one request too!"

Lin Yaoyang felt a gaze fall upon him.

He turned his head and saw the Snow Empress standing at the doorway, looking back at him.

There was a faint, indescribable meaning in those sky-blue eyes.

Lin Yaoyang: "..."

He wisely did not respond.

Before setting out, the Snow Empress temporarily handed the affairs of the Extreme North over to A-Tai, the Titan Snow Demon King.

A-Tai was one of the Three Heavenly Kings of the Extreme North, so it was only natural for the Snow Empress to entrust authority to him.

Lin Yaoyang specifically called A-Tai and Xiao Bai aside.

"A-Tai, Xiao Bai, Sister Xue'er, Sister Bing'er, and I are going out for a while. During this time, if anyone enters the Extreme North Core Area, ignore them all."

A-Tai asked in a deep, muffled voice, "Ignore anyone?"

"Yes." Lin Yaoyang nodded. "No matter who it is, unless Sister Xue'er, Sister Bing'er, and I return together, ignore them. Don't show yourselves either."

Xiao Bai tilted his enormous bear head and looked at Lin Yaoyang with his round black eyes.

"Yaoyang, what are you worried about?"

Lin Yaoyang did not answer directly.

He was worried about the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.

If neither the Snow Empress nor the Ice Empress was around, that million-year-old giant silkworm might target A-Tai or Xiao Bai and fool one of them into sacrificing himself to Huo Yuhao.

A-Tai had good strength and potential, while Xiao Bai had been his companion since childhood. He did not want either of them to become someone else's wedding dress.

"Nothing." Lin Yaoyang patted Xiao Bai's bear leg. "When I get back, I'll go catch fish with you."

Xiao Bai's eyes immediately lit up.

"Really?!"

With his cultivation, catching fish was effortless. What he lacked was the fun and companionship.

"Yes."

Lin Yaoyang turned and left.

A-Tai and Xiao Bai stood in the snow, watching three figures rise into the air and fly southward.