Xiao Yan keenly sensed the energy around Snow Empress shift.
The deadly prelude to self-destruction had been put on pause.
The details of the contract had unfolded in her mind. Those earth-shattering rules had clearly become a sturdy barrier between her and death.
At its heart, negotiation was all about stacking the chips.
Xiao Yan wasn't in a hurry. He strode forward at an unhurried pace.
"Snow Empress, you've lived through countless years, yet now you'd rather abandon your astonishing cultivation and attempt to take human form and start cultivating anew. Naturally, that means you understand the potential of humanity better than anyone." Xiao Yan stopped three paces away from her. His deep black eyes met her ice-blue gaze as he calmly stated an indisputable fact.
"And I, Xiao Yan, am twelve years old. I have Twin Martial Souls, and my Soul Power is now at level fifty. All four of my current Spirit Rings are ten-thousand-year rings."
He raised a hand and pointed to himself, then gestured toward Electrolux, who stood to the side, watching the show.
"Snow Empress, with your insight, how likely do you think it is that I'll become a god one day, given my talent and this senior's protection?"
His words crashed down on Snow Empress's wavering resolve like a heavy hammer.
Snow Empress's gaze settled on Xiao Yan.
With the fearsome senses of a nearly seven-hundred-thousand-year-old Soul Beast, she easily discerned the boy's true bone age.
Twelve years old. There was no faking that.
A twelve-year-old Spirit King with level fifty Soul Power was already the stuff of legends in the history of the Soul Master World.
And all four of his Spirit Rings were ten-thousand-year rings.
Then she looked toward the old man in the black-and-white robe.
Snow Empress's breathing grew heavier despite herself.
The Emperor Sword: Ice Extreme Unparalleled she had just unleashed with all her might was an attack even a Limit Douluo among humans would have treated with caution. Yet the old man had caught it between two fingers as casually as if it were nothing.
With such a formidable being as his guardian, and with the boy's monstrous talent, becoming a god didn't seem like some distant, ethereal fantasy at all. It seemed like a foregone conclusion!
What did becoming a god mean?
It meant breaking free of the world's shackles. It meant eternal life!
Snow Empress had risked her life to take human form in this ice cave precisely because she knew she could never survive the coming seventy-thousand-year Heavenly Tribulation.
Taking human form was nothing more than grasping at an elusive chance for immortality in the face of certain doom.
But now, a broad and open road leading to the Divine Realm, to true eternal life, lay plainly at her feet.
The hardness in Snow Empress's eyes gradually faded, and a complex gleam appeared in her ice-blue gaze.
She was tempted.
She could even say she was utterly unable to refuse.
But she remained suspended in midair, her body rigid, and did not agree for a long time.
Just dozens of breaths ago, she had been so resolute, swearing that "even if I shatter my origin and scatter all my cultivation, I will never become a Soul Spirit."
If she agreed right away now, she would lose too much face.
Embarrassment spread through her heart. A faint blush quietly surfaced on Snow Empress's fair cheeks, pale as Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice.
The flush crept from the corners of her eyes all the way to her ears, standing out against the swirling snow and the ice cave's deep blue glow.
Xiao Yan took it all in.
Watching Snow Empress shed her killing intent and reveal a trace of bashfulness, he couldn't help admiring her.
As expected of a Heavenly Snow Woman nurtured by heaven and earth. Her peerless beauty was already so striking when she was as cold as ice that no one dared look at her directly. Now, with that blush lending her a touch of warmth, she was even more breathtaking, beautiful enough to stir the soul.
Still, admiration aside, Xiao Yan hadn't forgotten the matter at hand.
Since she couldn't bring herself to say it, he would lay out a way forward for her, lest the delay invite trouble.
Xiao Yan stepped forward and frankly extended his right hand.
"Snow Empress, I understand. Here's to a happy partnership!"
His simple, straightforward opening carried no victor's gloating or condescending charity. It was merely an equal invitation, perfectly dispelling the awkwardness in the air.
Snow Empress looked down at the clearly defined joints of his hand, and the unease in her eyes faded.
The Lord of the Far North was, after all, no ordinary woman. Having made her choice, she didn't dither.
She slowly descended from midair, her bare feet lightly touching the profound ice floor.
She extended her right hand, sculpted like white jade, and solemnly clasped Xiao Yan's hand.
The instant their hands met, Xiao Yan clearly felt her touch.
It was an indescribably strange sensation.
Snow Empress's delicate hand was cold to the bone, like the finest piece of cold jade. Her skin was smooth and soft, without the slightest flaw.
Xiao Yan's expression remained composed, his deep black eyes as still as an ancient well.
Their hands parted at once.
Xiao Yan briskly withdrew his hand and turned toward Electrolux.
"Elder Yi, sorry for the trouble." Xiao Yan spoke respectfully, leaving the next part to the Holy Necromancer.
Electrolux clasped his hands inside his broad sleeves and let out an exaggerated sigh.
"This old man, a dignified god of magic, has become your personal laborer. What a hard-luck life I lead." Electrolux shook his head and ambled over to a level patch of ice in the middle of the cave.
"But still, having someone else in the Sea of Consciousness to talk to will be nice. Better than staring at that unromantic clock all day."
He grumbled, but his hands moved without the slightest delay.
He stood straight, his previously hunched back instantly straightening as the vast Spiritual Power of a Divine Level being erupted from him.
Electrolux raised his right hand and slowly traced a line through the air with his index finger.
Pure light energy poured from his fingertip, turning into brilliant golden lines that burned themselves into the hard ten-thousand-year profound ice.
At the same time, he raised his left hand. Gray deathly energy quietly spread, condensing into gray runes that intertwined perfectly with the golden lines.
Light and death, two extreme forces that should have been utterly incompatible, achieved an astonishing harmony and unity in Electrolux's hands.
The golden and gray lines wound across the ice, moving faster and faster.
Complex geometric patterns, ancient magical incantations, and formation cores containing the laws of heaven and earth were inscribed with pinpoint precision, one after another.
The light radiating from the formation illuminated the entire ice cave.
The surrounding snow and ice, drawn by the formation, began circling the edge of the diagram on their own, forming a miniature storm barrier.
This wasn't a traditional Soul Power formation from Douluo Continent. It was a high-level magic array that transcended the limits of the plane and reached straight for the soul's origin.
At the cave entrance, Xiao Zhan stood guard, staring at the dizzyingly intricate array diagram. He couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.
As a dignified level-ninety-six Super Douluo, he couldn't understand the rules governing the flow of energy within the array at all. Even approaching its edge sent a shiver through the depths of his soul.
"The formation is ready. Xiao Yan, bring your new friend into the array."
Electrolux withdrew his hands. The golden-and-gray array diagram let out a low hum, and beams of light shot up from all six formation cores, reaching the dome of the ice cave.
Xiao Yan didn't hesitate. He gestured for Snow Empress to enter.
The two of them stepped onto the profound ice floor and entered the Soul Spirit Magic Array, one after the other.
Xiao Yan stood at the yang formation core in the center of the diagram. His moon-white robe snapped in the currents whipped up by the formation.
Snow Empress stood barefoot at the yin formation core, her white hair flying, the complex magical runes reflected in her ice-blue eyes.
Three feet separated them as they faced each other.
The golden and gray lines beneath their feet began to converge toward the center. An immense yet gentle Spiritual Power tightly linked their auras.
The Soul Spirit Magic Array had officially begun!