At this point, the pride in Ice Empress's eyes faded, replaced by deep longing and anticipation.
"As long as I didn't let him down, that's all that matters."
"Sister, where do you think... he is now?"
"If he's still on Douluo Continent and watching the Sky Screen, he'll surely recognize us, right?"
Hearing Ice Empress's words, a hint of melancholy and anticipation also crossed Snow Empress's beautiful eyes.
"A godlike being such as him could leave no trace for us to find if he didn't want us to. We could exhaust every means at our disposal and still come up empty-handed."
"But as long as he's still in this world, he'll surely see how we perform."
At that moment, the two peerless queens of the Far North both raised their heads, their eyes brimming with anticipation.
Rainbow Academy, outside Heaven Dou City.
Beside the Pool of Life.
Long Yun sat in a white jade chair, watching the information on the Sky Screen with his usual calm expression.
"Eight hundred thousand years, ranked fifth."
"That girl Bing'er has been improving her strength pretty quickly."
His lips curved slightly into a gentle smile.
Hearing him mutter to himself, Xiao Bai, standing nearby, blinked curiously.
"Master, do you know this Ice Empress?"
Long Yun nodded lightly, his gaze distant as his thoughts seemed to return to tens of thousands of years ago.
"I do."
"Back when I traveled across Douluo Continent, I went to the Far North on a whim."
"Deep in the frozen wasteland, I happened upon two little things being hunted by high-level Soul Beasts."
"Snow Empress and Bing'er had only just reached a hundred thousand years of cultivation back then. When danger found them, all they knew was to foolishly fight head-on."
"I rescued them along the way. Those two little things were clever, though. After escaping danger, they stayed by my side, coming up with all sorts of ways to curry favor with me."
Long Yun spoke softly, his tone carrying a trace of nostalgia.
"I stayed in the Far North for a while after that, watching them cultivate each day and occasionally giving them some pointers."
"It felt a little like raising two daughters."
"Later, once they had established themselves in the Far North and gained enough strength to protect themselves, I chose to leave."
Listening to Long Yun's story, Xiao Bai's big eyes filled with envy.
"I'm so jealous of Snow Empress and Ice Empress. They got to be taught by you personally, Master."
Long Yun only smiled, then picked up the teacup beside him and took a sip.
Just then, the images on the Sky Screen finally began to move.
Vast expanses of raging snowstorms filled the view. The wind howled, and the bone-deep cold seemed to pierce through the Sky Screen and reach everyone watching.
Two figures, still somewhat youthful but already stunningly beautiful, appeared onscreen.
They were Snow Empress and Ice Empress, back when Snow Empress had a hundred thousand years of cultivation and Ice Empress was far weaker.
Standing opposite them was a gigantic ice giant, radiating an aura of terrifying cold.
[Three hundred thousand years of cultivation, former overlord of the Far North—the Extreme Cold Snow King.]
Onscreen, the two women challenged the thirty-hundred-thousand-year overlord, fighting to claim territory in the Far North.
The scene immediately set off a wave of exclamations in the Sky Screen's comments.
"My heavens! These two queens were already this gutsy when they were only a hundred thousand years old?"
"Are all the Soul Beasts in the Far North this crazy? They dared to challenge the Extreme Cold Snow King at a hundred thousand years!"
"No wonder they made the top five of the Soul Beast Ranking. Their ferocity in battle is truly astonishing."
The battle onscreen was brutal.
Snow and ice whipped through the air, Soul Skills crashed against each other, and the entire frozen wasteland trembled violently.
At last, after an earth-shaking battle to the death, the Extreme Cold Snow King let out an unwilling roar. Its enormous body crashed to the ground and dissolved into countless ice shards.
But Snow Empress and Ice Empress had paid a terrible price as well.
They were covered in wounds, their blood staining the snow.
Ice Empress had even passed out after exhausting her Soul Power.
Snow Empress struggled to stay upright, holding the unconscious Ice Empress in her arms. Despair and sorrow were written across her beautiful face.
In that brutally cold world, the two of them were badly wounded and near death. At any moment, they could become food for other Soul Beasts.
Watching the heart-wrenching scene, the viewers couldn't help but sigh in the comments.
"No wonder these Soul Beasts made the ranking. Their strength is terrifying—they actually managed to bring down a three-hundred-thousand-year Snow King."
"But Ice Empress at the time really did look like a pure Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion."
"Exactly. Her aura was noble, but there wasn't the slightest trace of Dragon Clan pressure."
"Then what kind of heaven-defying opportunity did she get later to develop her 'Iridescent Ice Jade Emperor Dragon Scorpion' bloodline?"
Just as Soul Masters across the continent were puzzling over the mystery, the sky onscreen, previously shrouded in gloom, was suddenly torn open by a dazzling burst of nine-colored light.
A thunderous, majestic dragon's roar rang out.
An enormous dragon, its entire body shimmering with nine-colored light, slowly poked its head through the clouds.
Dazzling nine-colored elemental energy formed brilliant rainbows around it, illuminating the frozen wasteland until it looked like a celestial paradise.
The comments erupted.
"This is... that mysterious Nine-Colored Divine Dragon that appeared before!"
"My heavens, it really showed up in the Far North too!"
"It rescued the Demon Soul Great White Shark, snapped the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign's tentacles, and now it's appeared again in the Far North!"
Onscreen, the awe-inspiring Nine-Colored Divine Dragon landed on the ice and transformed into a young man dressed in a moon-white robe.
He walked up to Snow Empress and Ice Empress, looked at the two badly wounded girls, and sighed softly.
The young man raised a hand. Nine-colored light flowed, and gentle life energy and various elemental forces surged into the two women.
Under the healing radiance, their wounds rapidly closed before everyone's eyes.
Ice Empress, who had been unconscious and barely breathing, slowly opened her eyes.
When they saw the young man before them, who seemed like a god descended to earth, shock and fervent adoration filled their beautiful eyes.
The scenes that followed were warm and lighthearted.
The young man stayed in the Far North.
The images showed glimpses of their daily lives together.
The two queens of the Far North, who were lofty and icy toward the outside world, were as docile as little kittens around the young man.
Ice Empress stayed by his side all day, her emerald hair swaying as she tugged at his clothes and chattered away, acting spoiled.
Snow Empress watched quietly from the side, her beautiful eyes full of tenderness and attachment.
The young man would sometimes pat their heads, casually guide the flow of their Soul Power, and even share with them some of the sacred Nine-Colored Divine Spring.
Before you continue