A Bet, Challenging the Snow Emperor

Ice Emperor was silent for a moment, then sighed.

She walked toward the ice palace.

Luo Yun stood where he was, waiting quietly.

At the entrance of the ice palace.

"You've come, Bing'er."

The voice drifted from within the hall, crisp as cracking ice.

Ice Emperor looked up as a white figure drifted slowly down from mid-air, long ice-blue hair fluttering behind her.

Her features were even more exquisite than Ice Emperor's, her brows and eyes carrying a transcendent air, as if she were a spirit born of ice and snow.

Snow Emperor.

"Snow Emperor, long time no see." Ice Emperor spoke, her voice somewhat dry.

Snow Emperor landed before the throne and turned around, her ice-blue eyes scanning Ice Emperor from head to toe, then back again.

"You are injured?" Snow Emperor's voice held no fluctuation, as if stating a fact.

"It is of no consequence."

"Who injured you?"

Ice Emperor fell silent. She looked into Snow Emperor's ice-blue eyes and suddenly found it difficult to speak.

She and Snow Emperor had known each other for hundreds of thousands of years; their relationship was like that of sisters.

"A very strong human youth," Ice Emperor said softly, as if weighing every word.

"Furthermore, I have now chosen to submit to him."

Snow Emperor's ice-blue pupils contracted sharply.

She thought she had misheard.

Ice Emperor, second among the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, an Ice Jade Empress Scorpion with three hundred and ninety thousand years of cultivation, had submitted to a human?

"What did you say?" Snow Emperor's voice turned cold, and the temperature in the great hall plummeted by a dozen degrees.

"He possesses a divine inheritance," Ice Emperor said, looking up into Snow Emperor's eyes.

"He also wields a destructive power akin to a heavenly tribulation. That power fills me with dread."

Snow Emperor stared at Ice Emperor for a long time. She searched for hesitation, regret, or signs of coercion in Ice Emperor's eyes, but she saw nothing.

Ice Emperor's eyes were calm—too calm for a fierce beast that had just lost its freedom.

"So," Snow Emperor's voice returned to that emotionless chill, though something churned in the depths of her eyes, "have you come to persuade me to submit to him as well?"

Ice Emperor opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Snow Emperor suddenly let out a laugh.

The laughter was crisp and cold, echoing through the hall without a hint of warmth.

"Bing'er, you and I have known each other for hundreds of thousands of years." Snow Emperor stepped down from the throne and walked toward Ice Emperor, her long ice-blue dress dragging across the ice floor with a faint rustling sound.

"You should know my temper. As the head of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, my pride is no less than yours."

She stopped before Ice Emperor and looked down at her. There was no anger or disappointment in her ice-blue eyes, only a cold, unquestionable resolve.

"Even if I cannot survive the coming heavenly tribulation, I would choose to undergo transformation and start over from the beginning."

"But to make me a human's slave? That is absolutely impossible!"

Ice Emperor lowered her head.

She did not refute, for she knew Snow Emperor spoke from the heart.

After hundreds of thousands of years of friendship, she understood Snow Emperor all too well.

This spirit born of ice and snow was prouder than anyone else to her very core.

Making her submit to a human was harder than killing her.

Silence reigned in the hall for a long time.

Snow Emperor watched Ice Emperor's bowed head, and that cold, fiery rage dissipated bit by bit. She sighed, the chill in her voice receding to reveal a softness Ice Emperor rarely heard.

"Bing'er, I do not blame you." Snow Emperor reached out, her cold fingertips gently touching Ice Emperor's pincer.

"You have your choices, and I respect them. But I have my bottom line. To submit to a human—unless he is worthy of my submission."

Ice Emperor looked up into Snow Emperor's ice-blue eyes. Her lips moved as if to say something, but in the end, she only nodded gently.

Just then, footsteps echoed from outside the hall.

They were not heavy, but steady, striking the ice corridor with a crisp sound, one after another, unhurried and rhythmic.

Snow Emperor's gaze turned sharp in an instant, her ice-blue eyes locking onto the direction of the hall doors.

A human.

Luo Yun walked into the great hall.

He did not walk fast, the Moon Eclipse Sword held in his right hand, its tip trailing against the ice and carving a thin line into the surface.

Purple-black lightning danced across the blade, emitting a faint crackling sound that rang out with startling clarity in the silent hall.

The Sun Corona Sword remained unsummoned, yet a golden-green radiance flickered in the palm of his left hand, warding off the surrounding chill.

Snow Emperor's gaze fell upon Luo Yun, sweeping from the ice beneath his feet to the Moon Eclipse Sword in his hand, then to the golden-green light in his palm, and finally settling on his scarlet eyes.

Her pupils contracted slightly.

This six-year-old child stirred an inexplicable chill within her.

"Human." Snow Emperor's voice returned to its cold, emotionless tone, her ice-blue eyes looking down at Luo Yun from on high.

"Is it you who made Bing'er submit to you?"

Luo Yun looked up at Snow Emperor.

"Yes."

"To be precise, it was a transaction."

"A transaction?"

"She submits to me, and once I attain godhood, I grant her eternal life."

"Attain godhood? Heh, based on what? You?" Snow Emperor naturally did not believe becoming a god was so simple.

"Then let's make a wager."

Snow Emperor's brows twitched slightly. "Wager what?"

"A duel." Luo Yun gripped the Moon Eclipse Sword, his scarlet eyes locked onto Snow Emperor.

"If I win, you submit to me. If I lose, Ice Emperor's contract is annulled, and you may do with me as you please."

Snow Emperor paused, genuinely amused.

A four-ringed Spirit Master, a six-year-old child, standing before the leader of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North and proposing a duel.

"Do you know what my cultivation level is?"

"I can kill a seven-ringed Spirit Saint with a flick of an ice crystal. What do you have to fight me with?"

Luo Yun did not speak, merely watching her quietly.

Snow Emperor looked into those scarlet eyes and suddenly recalled what Ice Emperor had said earlier.

"He possesses a divine inheritance and has mastered a destructive power akin to a heavenly tribulation."

She re-examined Luo Yun, from the purple-black lightning on the Moon Eclipse Sword to the flickering golden-green light in his palm, and finally to those eyes that did not belong to a six-year-old. This human child was indeed not as simple as he appeared.

Snow Emperor remained silent for a moment, then nodded.

"Very well." She said, her voice calm once more. "I will fight you. If you lose, Ice Emperor's contract is annulled. If you win..."

She paused, a complex light flashing in her ice-blue eyes.

"I, Snow Emperor, will honor the bet and submit to you."

The corners of Luo Yun's mouth curled slightly. "Agreed."

Ice Plains.

Luo Yun and Snow Emperor stood at opposite ends of the Ice Plains, roughly a hundred paces apart.

Ice Emperor had retreated to the distance, standing atop an Ice Hill. Her emerald-blue slit pupils were fixed intently on the two figures in the arena; her pincers were slightly parted, and her tail hook swayed restlessly.

Her gaze lingered on Luo Yun for a moment before shifting to Snow Emperor.

She knew Snow Emperor's pride, and she knew her strength.

With nearly seven hundred thousand years of cultivation, she was the most powerful existence in the Far North; even she, Ice Emperor, could not last more than a few rounds against her.

Yet, for some reason, she harbored a faint intuition.

Snow Emperor would lose.

It was not that Luo Yun was stronger, but the aura he exuded made her feel that anything was possible.

Ice Emperor shook her head, casting the thought from her mind to focus on the two in the arena.

Regardless of the outcome, she had already chosen Luo Yun.

With Snow Emperor's help, this human's chances of attaining godhood would be far greater.

And in that case, her own chances of becoming a god would increase as well.

In the arena, Luo Yun gripped the Moon Eclipse Sword and took a deep breath.

He closed his eyes, sinking his consciousness into the depths of his mind.

Two spheres of light hovered there: the golden-green Light of Life on the left, and the purple-black Light of Destruction on the right. He reached out and grasped the purple-black radiance.

Origin of Destruction, activate.

Luo Yun's eyes snapped open.

In that instant, his entire presence shifted.

His black hair began to turn a dark, metallic purple from the roots.

His attire transformed into a long, purple-black robe, the hem embroidered with silver thunder patterns, the collar and cuffs trimmed with dark gold.

The robe billowed without a breeze, the hem snapping loudly behind him.

Purple-black Destruction Thunder coiled around his body like countless tiny snakes, each spark crackling as it danced across his skin.

The Moon Eclipse Sword hummed joyfully in his hand, the lightning upon its blade several times more violent than before, purple-black electric arcs leaping frantically along the edge.

Standing there, he did not look like a human child, but rather a demon god emerged from the abyss.

Snow Emperor's pupils constricted sharply.

That aura of absolute destruction made even her soul tremble.

Snow Emperor took a deep breath, forcing the tremor down. She looked at Luo Yun, her ice-blue eyes no longer holding the condescending disdain from moments ago, but filled instead with gravity.

She suddenly understood why Ice Emperor had submitted.

But she had no path of retreat.

Her pride would not allow her to withdraw without a fight.

Snow Emperor raised her right hand, ice-blue soul power condensing in her palm. The surrounding temperature plummeted by dozens of degrees, and fine ice crystals appeared in the air, suspended around her like countless tiny diamonds, refracting a cold, biting light.

"Come," she said, her voice as calm as the deepest ice in the Far North.

Luo Yun gripped the Moon Eclipse Sword, purple-black Destruction Thunder crackling as it danced around him. He raised his head, his scarlet eyes fixed on Snow Emperor.

On the Ice Hill, Ice Emperor held her breath.