Second Soul Skill: Dawn of Creation, Earth Splitting Heaven Opening!!!

The two continued deeper into the forest.

The scenery began to change.

The trees grew sparser, the vines fewer, and an indescribable chill seeped into the air.

Bai Yuan stopped and swept his gaze around.

There was no sign of any Soul Beasts.

It was exactly like when they had encountered the Man Faced Demon Spider in the Beginner Spirit Ascension Platform four years ago.

"Did you notice it, Junior Sister?"

Bai Yuan lowered his voice.

Gu Yuena stood beside him, her violet eyes narrowing slightly as though she were sensing something.

Her brow furrowed tighter and tighter before she forced out a sentence through clenched teeth.

"Yes. Something is wrong with the aura."

The surrounding air was terrifyingly quiet.

There were no Soul Beast roars, no rustling leaves—only the faint breathing of the two of them.

And somewhere in the distance, a barely audible sound like cracking ice.

Bai Yuan stepped forward and entered a new area.

Then he felt it.

The temperature.

It was not a gradual change.

It was as though he had crossed an invisible threshold.

One step was still within the normal forest temperature, while the next felt as if he had stepped into an ice cellar.

Cold flooded in from every direction, boring through his skin and into his bones. Even his breath turned into white mist.

Bai Yuan exhaled a plume of white vapor and looked around.

The trees around them were coated in frost, while the ground was covered by a thin layer of ice crystals.

Sunlight filtered through the canopy, refracting into rainbow-colored light across the ice.

In the distance, he could vaguely make out a small hill blanketed in snow and ice.

At its summit was a dark cave mouth, white frigid vapor pouring from within.

"This is..."

Bai Yuan narrowed his eyes.

"An ice-element Soul Beast?"

He turned to Gu Yuena, who was also observing the surroundings.

"The Star Dou Forest even has this?"

Bai Yuan muttered, his brow creasing slightly.

After thinking it over, though, he found it reasonable.

The Spirit Ascension Platform simulated the complete ecology of the Ancient Star Dou Forest. In ancient times, the Star Dou Forest had been far larger than it was now, and its terrain had been more complex and diverse.

Back then, humans had not yet slaughtered Soul Beasts on a massive scale. Deep within the Star Dou Forest, all kinds of extreme environments had indeed existed.

Ice plains, volcanoes, swamps, deserts—there had been everything.

This place truly had been like this back then.

Bai Yuan tightened his grip on Dawnmaker, his gaze fixed on the frozen hill.

"Let's go, Junior Sister."

He stepped forward.

"Let's see what exactly dares to claim such a large territory."

Gu Yuena followed behind him, the world of ice and snow reflected in her violet eyes.

Elemental power flowed around her fingertips. At this moment, the ice element was especially active, as though responding to something.

Bai Yuan crossed that invisible threshold, and the soil beneath his feet completely vanished.

In its place was a smooth sheet of ice.

It was not the thin layer of frost from before, but true, solid ice that had frozen for countless years.

Beneath the ice, he could vaguely see frozen ancient tree roots and unknown rocks.

The surrounding trees had thinned considerably, replaced by low ice mounds that gleamed with crystalline clarity.

A bone-piercing chill filled the air.

Bai Yuan exhaled another puff of white mist, looked around, and could not help sighing,

"This environment really is nice. It's just a pity that now..."

He stopped halfway through the sentence.

Because he saw Gu Yuena's expression.

The silver-haired girl stood still, her violet eyes staring straight at the ice plain. Her lips were slightly parted, and there was no expression on her face.

Yet that expressionless face was more heartbreaking than any intense emotion.

Her gaze passed through the ice mounds, the layers of ice, and the frozen ancient tree roots.

As though she were seeing something no one else could see.

Bai Yuan's heart skipped a beat.

Damn it, I triggered memories of her homeland again.

He knew that expression all too well.

Whenever Gu Yuena saw scenes of the Ancient Star Dou Forest within the Spirit Ascension Platform, she would reveal that expression.

This was her home, the homeland she could never return to.

Looking at her dazed appearance, Bai Yuan could not help grumbling inwardly.

Well then, I really shouldn't have brought up that keyword.

"This environment really is nice"—wasn't that practically charging straight into the line of fire?

Great. Now she's reliving old memories again, and I have to wait for her to come back to herself before we can keep going.

He stood behind Gu Yuena with both hands in his pockets.

Watching her immerse herself in the past, unable to pull free, a string of complaints surfaced in his mind.

What the hell are you mourning for here?

Didn't you just go off to fall in love afterward?

If the Soul Beasts knew that their Co-Lord of Soul Beasts would one day abandon the great cause of revival for a man, they would probably crawl out of their graves to protest their injustice.

Speak up for me!!!

What kind of Co-Lord of Soul Beasts are you supposed to be?!

Bai Yuan took a deep breath and swallowed those complaints.

He walked over and waved a hand in front of Gu Yuena's face.

"Junior Sister? Snap out of it."

Gu Yuena blinked, her gaze refocusing. Seeing Bai Yuan's face so close, a trace of panic flashed through her violet eyes.

She took a step back and turned her face away, her voice muffled.

"...Let's go."

Just then!

"Roar!!!"

A deafening beastly roar exploded from deep within the ice cave, shaking frost loose from the cave entrance.

Bai Yuan stopped, tightened his grip on Dawnmaker, and narrowed his eyes at the dark cave mouth.

Heavy footsteps echoed from inside. Every step made the ice beneath them hum and tremble, as though a moving iceberg were drawing near.

As the footsteps came closer, the chill spilling from the cave grew heavier.

A massive white bear paw stepped from the darkness of the cave, its five claws sinking deeply into the ice and leaving behind horrifying claw marks.

Then, its enormous body slowly emerged from the darkness.

It was a giant bear covered entirely in snow-white fur, standing over four meters tall, its body as massive as a mountain.

Its fur was like the millennium-old ice and snow of the Far North, every strand gleaming with a cold silver-white luster.

Its thick forelimbs were heavier than the trunks of century-old trees, its muscles bulging like stone.

Its shoulder blades rose high, forming two protrusions like icy peaks.

Most terrifying of all were its eyes.

Those beast eyes were crimson.

They stood out with striking clarity against its vast white body of ice and snow.

Like two burning flames, they held nothing but pure, primal brutality and killing intent.

It stared at Bai Yuan and Gu Yuena, its pupils narrowing slightly.

The red light intensified, as though blood would drip from them the next second.

A Snow Soul Demon Bear.

A three-thousand-year Snow Soul Demon Bear.

Bai Yuan's pupils contracted as information about this Soul Beast flashed through his mind.

The Snow Soul Demon Bear was a powerful ice-element Soul Beast that lived in the Far North, ranking among the very best bear-type Soul Beasts.

Its entire body was snow-white, it stood over four meters tall, and it was known for its terrifying strength and ultimate ice-element attacks.

Bai Yuan did not know much about its origins, but he knew one thing.

On the Douluo Continent, this Soul Beast had once appeared as a Martial Soul. Its owner had been Haote, the leader of the Far North Soul Hunting Mercenary Group.

A level-seventy-six Soul Saint, Haote had relied on the Snow Soul Demon Bear Martial Soul to wield combat strength no weaker than that of a level-eight Soul Master.

The Snow Soul Demon Bear was positioned similarly to the Vajra Bear. Both were top-tier Martial Souls capable of both offense and defense.

However, compared to the Vajra Bear's focus on defense, the Snow Soul Demon Bear possessed even greater attacking power.

Although this three-thousand-year Snow Soul Demon Bear's cultivation was not especially high, combined with its terrifying strength and ice-element enhancement, its combat power far surpassed that of ordinary Soul Beasts at the same level.

Moreover, within this icy plain terrain, its strength would increase even further.

Bai Yuan tightened his hold on the sword hilt, his eyes locked on the giant bear.

The Snow Soul Demon Bear opened its blood-filled maw, revealing two rows of sharp fangs. Its roar shook the entire ice plain.

Purple light flashed beneath Bai Yuan's feet as a Thousand Year Soul Ring slowly rose.

Second Soul Skill: Dawn of Creation, Earth Splitting Heaven Opening!!!