The Lord of the Extreme North, Snow Empress Appears!

Just as dawn broke, two groups of people parted ways on the official road outside Heaven Dou City right on schedule.

Qing Wan took Xiao Xiao south, heading straight for the Star Dou Forest; Xiao Zhan grabbed Xiao Yan by the shoulder, and with a surge of soul power, they transformed into a long rainbow, speeding toward the northernmost tip of the continent.

With a level-96 Super Douluo traveling at full speed, the wind whistling past their ears quickly merged into a sharp, continuous shriek.

Less than half a day later, the horizon was filled with an endless expanse of white.

On the outskirts of the Extreme North, howling winds carried blade-like ice shards that slammed into them head-on.

There was not a trace of vegetation to be found anywhere, and rolling snow dunes stretched all the way to where the earth met the sky.

Xiao Zhan slowed his pace, his toes landing on a snow-covered rock.

He turned to look at Xiao Yan beside him, intending to suggest they stop for a moment to let their bodies adapt to the low temperature before venturing deeper.

The sub-zero temperatures in this place were truly terrifying; an ordinary Soul Sect would have their blood frozen solid within an hour or two.

But just as he prepared to speak, the words caught in his throat.

Xiao Yan stood in the wind and snow, his moon-white robes not even stained by a single snowflake.

His breathing was long and steady, and with every inhalation and exhalation, a faint phantom of the Taiji Yin-Yang symbol appeared around him.

The endless, primordial energy of the Art of the Fuxi Emperor circulated smoothly through his meridians, perfectly insulating him from the bone-chilling cold.

Seeing this, Xiao Zhan laughed twice: "Good lad! Since you can handle it, let's not dawdle—we're heading straight for the core circle!"

The two took to the air once more, plunging into the heart of the Extreme North.

The further they went, the more bizarre the scenery became.

The original white snow was gradually replaced by deep blue mysterious ice that had remained frozen for ten thousand years.

The moisture in the air was almost entirely frozen; the cold air inhaled into their nasal cavities felt like rows of barbs, stinging their lungs with pain.

Xiao Yan did not dare to be arrogant, silently increasing the output of his Taiji primordial energy to maintain his body temperature.

Above a massive ice valley, Xiao Zhan came to a halt.

"Yan'er, this core circle of the Extreme North is truly intense. It's nothing but ice and snow everywhere, not even a reference point—where are we supposed to start looking?" Xiao Zhan rubbed his hands together, the white mist from his breath instantly crystallizing into ice and falling away.

Xiao Yan did not reply; he held his right hand level with his chest, his five fingers slightly spread.

Deep within his sea of consciousness, the massive Fuxi Bagua Formation Map emitted a low hum.

The formation map suddenly shrank, transforming into a brilliant stream of light that flowed through his meridians and into his palm.

As the light faded, a palm-sized Fuxi Bagua Compass hovered in his hand.

The compass was condensed from illusory starlight, with the eight trigrams—Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, and Dui—slowly rotating along the edge.

Xiao Yan's eyes were half-closed as he performed calculations with his left hand, pouring his spiritual power into the compass.

"Heaven and Earth are positioned; mountains and marshes exchange energy."

Accompanied by his low chant, the Taiji diagram in the center of the compass began to rotate at high speed. The surrounding ice and snow seemed to be drawn by some profound rule, forming a small vortex around him.

The eight ancient runes lit up one by one, and finally, the Kan trigram, representing "water" and "cold," erupted with dazzling brilliance. The light transformed into a thin, thread-like starlight, pointing directly toward a specific location deep within the ice valley.

Xiao Yan opened his eyes, locking his gaze on the direction indicated by the starlight.

"It's over there." Xiao Yan flicked his finger to stow the compass, a sense of urgency in his eyes.

"Let's move quickly. The divination shows that she is at the most critical moment of her transformation."

Following the guidance, the two silently slipped into a hidden, massive ice cavern.

The moment they stepped onto the edge of the cavern, the commotion coming from within made Xiao Zhan stop in his tracks.

In the center of the cavern, a crystal-clear hundred-thousand-year snow lotus had already withered, all its essence being absorbed by a blurry, stunningly beautiful silhouette.

That silhouette was in the final stage of metamorphosis into human form, her aura exceptionally weak.

However, before the transformation could be completed, a man in a dark-colored uniform suddenly lunged from the shadows in the corner of the cavern.

The man was equipped with complex metal flight gear on his back and held a strange-looking level-9 soul tool in his hands—the God-Sealing Platform.

"Hahaha! Heaven truly rewards the diligent! A hundred-thousand-year soul beast embryo, it's mine!" The man's face was full of greed. The God-Sealing Platform in his hand erupted with blinding white light, forcibly dragging the silhouette—who was in her weakened state—inside.

Seeing this, the rage on Xiao Zhan's face exploded instantly.

"You're courting death!"

Without a word, Xiao Zhan stomped his foot, and the pressure of a level-96 Super Douluo poured out like a landslide or a tsunami.

The black Three Lives Soul-Suppressing Cauldron appeared with a boom, and as his seventh soul ring flared with brilliant light, Xiao Zhan directly activated his Avatar of the Martial Soul.

The three giant cauldrons merged into one in mid-air, transforming into a massive black cauldron capable of suppressing mountains. With the momentum to crush everything in its path, it slammed down toward the head of the level-9 soul master.

The soul master was still immersed in the ecstasy of capturing the hundred-thousand-year soul beast; by the time he sensed the fatal threat above his head, the giant cauldron was already inches away.

"Bang!"

The trigger-based defensive soul tool worn by the soul master activated instantly, throwing up a pale golden shield.

But this shield, which could withstand a strike from an ordinary Titled Douluo, lasted only a brief second before the Super Douluo's Martial Soul Avatar, shattering like thin ice.

And that one second was enough for the soul master to realize that he was doomed.

"You want to snatch my things? Then let's all die together!"

The man's eyes were split to the corners, blood leaking from the strain. He did not know that the God-Sealing Platform contained the Snow Empress, the Lord of the Far North, but he knew that once a hundred-thousand-year soul beast broke its seal, it would choose to self-destruct immediately.

The power of such an explosion would leave even a Super Douluo severely wounded or dead.

He exerted all his strength, crushing the God-Sealing Platform he held high above his head, and then detonated his own soul power core.

"BOOM--!"

The giant tripod fell, and the soul master, along with that Class 9 soul tool, were both reduced to dust in the deafening roar.

Xiao Yan stood at the cave entrance, watching the shattered God-Sealing Platform, and sighed helplessly; he had been half a step too late after all.

With the destruction of the God-Sealing Platform, the restraints were forcibly torn apart.

The air inside the ice cavern stopped flowing in that instant.

The temperature, already bone-chillingly cold, plummeted by several dozen degrees in the blink of an eye.

The black ice on the walls of the cavern groaned under the pressure, and thick cracks began to spread across the icy surface.

Large, hexagonal snowflakes materialized out of thin air at the dome of the cavern, swirling as they drifted slowly downward.

At the center of the swirling blizzard, a slender figure gradually became clear.

She stepped barefoot through the void, her snow-white hair cascading down to her ankles.

Her face was so perfect that not a single flaw could be found, and her ice-blue eyes held a ten-thousand-year chill that looked down upon all living things with indifference.

Her white dress swayed in the wind, and the surrounding snow and ice seemed to come alive, joyfully clustering around her to accentuate her inviolable majesty to its peak.

The Lord of the Far North, the Snow Empress, had manifested!