Recite Soul Skills Before Sleep

Time flew by, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Ice Empress did not take Di Lintian to every corner of the Extreme North as he had anticipated.

Everywhere she went, Ice Empress would release her aura, drawing the surrounding Soul Beasts to gather around them.

This method was highly efficient, yet even so, Di Lintian's progress on his second trial had only reached the halfway mark.

Today, he came to a stop, standing atop a snow-capped mountain in the core area.

I seem to have quite a few soul skills now, Di Lintian calculated to himself.

Aside from my five soul skills, I also possess three Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones.

He hadn't realized it before, but thinking about it now, it really was quite a lot.

"Hey, why are you stopping? Do you have any idea how pressed for time I am?" Ice Empress glanced at Di Lintian, who was standing alone on the mountain peak, looking lost in thought.

"Well, you see," Di Lintian gave a sheepish smile, "I just feel like I have a few too many soul skills. Could you spar with me for a bit? It won't take long."

Ice Empress waved her hand impatiently. "Hurry up."

"Here I go, then." Di Lintian nodded, instantly manifesting his Martial Soul as five soul rings—purple, black, black, black, black—pulsed into view.

"First Soul Skill: Dark Prison Roar."

"Fourth Soul Skill: Dark Abyss Dragon Domain."

"Third Soul Skill: Nirvana Dragon Breath."

A dense darkness spread outward from Di Lintian, enveloping the entire mountain peak in an instant and plunging the surroundings into a pitch-black void where one could not even see their own fingers.

The Dark Demon Dragon King Martial Soul let out a resounding dragon roar, then turned its ferocious head toward Ice Empress and slowly opened its abyssal maw.

A jet-black Nirvana Dragon Breath erupted, tearing through the air and reaching Ice Empress in the blink of an eye.

Ice Empress didn't even take it seriously. With a scoff, she flicked her hand and shattered the Nirvana Dragon Breath.

Di Lintian wasn't surprised; after all, he was merely a lowly Soul King. How could he possibly injure Ice Empress, who possessed over three hundred thousand years of cultivation and the environmental advantage of the Extreme North?

"Again!"

"Fifth Soul Skill: Ten Thousand Dark Dragon Meteor!"

Countless black dragons surged out from behind Di Lintian, their continuous roars filling the air. Like a dark cloud blotting out the sky, they lunged toward Ice Empress.

"All flash and no substance."

Ice Empress cast a sidelong glance at the overwhelming swarm of black dragons and slowly extended a single finger.

In an instant!

An extreme chill erupted, and the sky-covering black dragons were instantly transformed into meticulously carved ice sculptures!

As expected of Ice Empress; she possessed such masterful command over the Ultimate Ice.

Di Lintian could also utilize Ultimate Ice, and if he were in her position, he would have used the same method.

However, he would have frozen all the black dragons within a single massive block of ice.

This was Ice Empress's ultimate control over the ice element—the ability to precisely concentrate it onto every single dragon.

"Watch this soul bone skill," Di Lintian said, his left arm emitting a faint glow. "Left Arm Soul Bone Skill: Eternal Night Rush!"

Eternal Night Rush was an incredibly unreasonable soul skill. It ignored the gap in Soul Power between the user and the target, boosting the user's speed by three hundred percent while slowing the enemy by one hundred percent for three seconds!

Do not underestimate these three seconds; in a high-level battle, they were a fatal window of time.

The Dragon Scale Sword appeared in Di Lintian's hand. He tapped his toes and his figure vanished instantly.

Dozens of biting sword marks appeared around Ice Empress, wrapping around her in a dense web.

Di Lintian returned to his original position, his back to Ice Empress, as the Dragon Scale Sword in his hand slowly faded from tip to hilt.

As the sword vanished, the cold light of the marks flared violently, slashing at Ice Empress like a torrential storm.

"This move is somewhat interesting." Ice Empress stomped her foot, and a powerful surge of Soul Power exploded outward.

"Crack—!"

The sword marks shattered.

They were crushed into nothingness by the sheer force of Ice Empress's Soul Power!

"Your soul skills are all quite decent," Ice Empress said indifferently, "but you are too weak."

?

—I asked you to spar with me, why are you mocking me?

Di Lintian decided to give Ice Empress a taste of some 'real trouble.'

"Head Soul Bone Skill: Mental Interference."

Ice Empress did not detect any mental fluctuations.

—Is this guy trying to trick me?

This doubt surfaced in Ice Empress's mind for a moment, then vanished without a trace.

Her eyes turned vacant, and she stood frozen in place, completely dazed.

"Head Bone Second Soul Skill, Soul Illusion!"

The two soul skills of Di Lintian's head bone worked best when used in tandem; Mental Interference forced the enemy into a state of stupor.

Soul Illusion was quite fragile, and even when activated with the mental power of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast like Di Lintian, it could still be intercepted by a Soul Saint.

Therefore, pairing it with Mental Interference allowed for a surprise effect.

The duration of Mental Interference had already passed, yet Ice Empress still stood there with a vacant gaze.

But from her perspective, things were quite different.

"Xue'er~" Ice Empress suddenly murmured.

Di Lintian didn't know what Ice Empress was seeing, but hearing that slightly infatuated "Xue'er~" allowed him to make a rough guess.

This was the greatest drawback of Soul Illusion; Di Lintian had no way of knowing exactly what the enemy was seeing.

His assessment of it was that it didn't even measure up to a single strand of the Corridor of Heart Prison.

The Corridor of Heart Prison allowed him to generate environments at will based on his intentions, and he could observe the entire process.

For instance, he could make Tang Hao mistake Tang San for Ah Yin.

Or make Yu Xiaogang mistake Luo Sanpao for Liu Erlong.

Di Lintian shook his head, stopping his wild train of thought.

"Snap!"

He snapped his fingers, and Ice Empress's eyes instantly regained their focus.

"Xue'er--!"

Ice Empress let out a loud cry.

Their eyes met.

They stared at each other.

Silence reigned.

"Di Lintian!!!" Ice Empress stomped her foot hard, causing the small mountain peak beneath her to tremble. "What did you do to me!"

She just wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

What did I just see?

She recalled the scene from moments ago, where Xue'er was... meticulous...

The more she thought about it, the more ashamed and furious she became.

Emerald-green Soul Power fluctuations enveloped her, and the petite young girl instantly transformed into a massive emerald-green scorpion.

I have to admit, the Ice Empress's true form is also quite beautiful.

Di Lintian thought to himself.

In the next moment, the mood shifted abruptly.

"Beautiful my foot!"

Ice Ember God Wings sprouted from Di Lintian's back.

Before the Ice Ember God Wings could flap to carry him away, Di Lintian was frozen into a block of ice by the frigid air radiating from the scorpion's maw.

He could have made this Ultimate Ice vanish and flown away from this place.

But he didn't do so; half of his God Trial remained unfinished, and if Ice Empress stopped helping him, how long would it take to complete?

It was better to let Ice Empress stay frozen for a while to vent her anger.

He had many ways to make this Ultimate Ice disappear, such as using Ultimate Annihilation to erase it directly, absorbing it with his ice wings that approached absolute zero, or melting it with fire wings that possessed a fire attribute far exceeding the ultimate level.

Di Lintian still had three soul bone skills he hadn't used, simply because they weren't suitable for use on Ice Empress.

These were the other soul skill of his left arm bone, "Nest of Ten Thousand Abysses," and the two soul skills of his right arm bone, "Soul-Devouring Demon Branch" and "Heart Locust Demon Seed."

With so many soul skills, should I start reciting them every morning when I wake up? Di Lintian pondered from within the ice block.