Since they couldn't fuse with the Martial Soul, and staying outside would waste energy for no reason, the Ice Empress and Xiao Bai made their decision at once.
The Ice Empress grabbed Snow Empress by the wrist, while Xiao Bai deftly wrapped his arms around Snow Empress's thigh.
"Come on, let's go rest in his Sea of Consciousness."
Three streaks of light shot into Xiao Yan's forehead and plunged straight into the vast Star River Sea of Consciousness.
Inside the Sea of Consciousness, the Ice Empress and Xiao Bai led Snow Empress to a comfortable patch of starlight on the edge of the Fuxi Bagua Formation Map.
The three Ferocious Beasts felt no compunction whatsoever. They simply lay down and settled in, content to coast to victory.
Now that they had chosen this convenient ship that could take them straight to the Divine Realm, they naturally intended to see their "coast-to-victory" strategy through to the end, settling in as carefree residents who paid no attention to the world outside.
Outside, Electrolux brushed the sleeves of his black-and-white robe, his gaze lingering for a moment on the Soul Spirit Magic Array as it gradually dimmed.
Rubbing his chin, he muttered that the array's magical circuits still had room for optimization. Then he turned into a streak of light and dove into Xiao Yan's Sea of Consciousness without looking back, continuing his endless magical calculations.
The ice cave fell completely silent. Only Xiao Yan and his father, Xiao Zhan, remained, staring at each other.
Xiao Yan rubbed his brow.
He sank his divine sense into the Star River Sea of Consciousness. Seeing the three figures lounging comfortably at the edge of the Fuxi Bagua Formation Map, he made his demand without ceremony.
"Don't just lie around. My Fuxi Zither still needs a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast skilled in sound-wave attacks for its fifth Spirit Ring. You know the Extreme North best, so send someone to show us the way."
Inside the Sea of Consciousness, Snow Empress opened her ice-blue eyes. After a moment's thought, she gave him an answer.
"There's a suitable target in the Extreme North. Less than a hundred li from Xiao Bai's tribe, a twelve-hundred-year-old Space-Rending Cold Sound Owl nests on an ice cliff. It cultivates both ice and sound, and its cry is incredibly piercing. It usually likes to circle above the Ice Bear tribe and screech, disturbing everyone's sleep. It relies on its wings and has even awakened the rare talent to travel through space. Xiao Bai can't do a thing about it and gets hopping mad every time."
Xiao Yan was very pleased with this target. Its sound-wave attribute suited the Fuxi Zither, and if its spatial talent could condense into a Soul Bone Skill or Soul Skill, that would be even more useful.
"That's the one. Lead the way."
As soon as he finished speaking, the Ice Empress moved inside the Sea of Consciousness.
The petite, haughty girl lifted her slender leg and planted a solid kick on Xiao Bai's round, white bear backside.
"That bird lives next door to you. You lead the way." The Ice Empress planted her hands on her hips, making the arrangements crystal clear.
Caught off guard, Xiao Bai rolled out of the Sea of Consciousness and took shape on the cave's ice-hard floor as a white bear over a meter tall.
He rubbed his sore backside and let out a muffled series of grunts, clearly displeased with the Ice Empress's crude approach.
But grumbling aside, Xiao Bai obediently turned around, set off on his two sturdy hind legs, and scampered out of the ice cave to lead the father and son.
As they left the ice cave, a swirling blizzard greeted them.
Xiao Bai ran on all fours through the snow, moving at incredible speed.
Xiao Zhan and Xiao Yan followed close behind, weaving between the glaciers of the Extreme North.
In less than half an hour, a steep, rugged ice cliff loomed ahead.
Near the top of the cliff face was a huge natural hollow, surrounded by sharp icicles.
The instant the three men and one bear approached the cliff, a piercing shriek burst from the summit, cutting through the howling snow.
The cry was so shrill that its sound waves condensed into visible ripples in midair, shaking the nearby snowdrifts until they crumbled and slid.
At the top of the ice cliff, a giant bird over five meters long, its body covered in hard, dark-blue feathers, leaned halfway out.
Its inverted triangular eyes held a humanlike mockery as it looked down at Xiao Bai and let out a series of taunting calls.
When enemies met, their eyes burned red.
The Xiao Bai who had been so adorably cuddly in front of Snow Empress now had eyes instantly flooded with blood-red veins.
He threw back his head and let out a deafening roar as his body swelled against the wind.
In the space of a single breath, the adorable white bear vanished, replaced by an ancient behemoth over twenty meters tall, its muscles knotted like ropes.
Ice Bear King Xiaobai slammed a paw into the snowdrift beside him. Using the recoil to launch himself into the air, he charged at the Space-Rending Cold Sound Owl on the cliff, swinging a massive paw powerful enough to smash through a city wall.
Seeing this, Xiao Zhan burst out laughing.
He had hunted plenty of high-level Soul Beasts before and was completely confident he could deal with an ordinary hundred-thousand-year-old bird.
"Beast, where do you think you're going?!"
Xiao Zhan stamped hard, and the black Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron appeared with a thunderous boom.
The seventh Spirit Ring blazed brightly, and he activated his Martial Soul Avatar.
The three cauldrons fused into a colossal black cauldron that blotted out the sky, hovering above the ice cliff.
The giant cauldron flipped upside down, and its heavy gravity field instantly enveloped the entire cliff face.
The Space-Rending Cold Sound Owl had no intention of clashing head-on with the raging Ice Bear King. It had just spread its wings to climb higher when the sudden gravity field pinned it down.
Its wingbeats slowed sharply. Rather than rising, it dropped half a meter.
Xiao Bai seized the opening and struck.
His heavy paw, wrapped in an Ice and Snow Storm, slammed into the giant bird's back.
The crisp crack of breaking bones rang clearly through the blizzard.
The Space-Rending Cold Sound Owl let out a shrill scream. Dark-blue feathers and blood sprayed everywhere as the blow knocked its enormous body off the cliff, sending it crashing into the snow below and gouging out a huge crater.
After taking two of the Ice Bear King's heavy blows, the Space-Rending Cold Sound Owl finally realized how dire its situation was.
Ignoring its injuries, it made the dark-blue light around its body flicker violently. Space began to warp and fold around it like rippling water.
The cunning, feathered beast was about to use its spatial talent to escape.
Xiao Zhan's gravity field could keep its wings from flying, but it couldn't lock down a spatial leap.
"Trying to leave?"
A brilliant gleam flashed in Xiao Yan's eyes. He had been standing to one side the whole time.
He took half a step forward and held out his right hand. The Mystic Yellow Gilded Gold Eastern Emperor Bell pierced through the void and hovered before him.
The dark-purple glow of the thirty-thousand-year Void Sound-Suppressing Hou Right Arm Bone he had fused with lit up, and he activated the Soul Bone Skill "Void: Immeasurable" to its fullest.
The Eastern Emperor Bell's suppressive laws joined with the authority over space, forming an invisible canopy that covered the area around the crater.
Under this supreme force of suppression, the warped, folded space around the Space-Rending Cold Sound Owl was forcibly smoothed out in an instant, becoming as solid as rock.
The spatial passage was brutally cut off.
Halfway through phasing out, the giant bird suffered a severe backlash from the Spatial Law. It spat out a mouthful of blue blood, then tumbled back into the crater, dazed and disoriented.
With its spatial ability rendered useless, the Space-Rending Cold Sound Owl was now a fish in a barrel.
Xiao Bai roared as he dropped from the sky.
Old grudges and new ones piled together, and the Ice Bear King held nothing back. His enormous paws rained down, each strike carrying enough force to shatter a mountain.
Only the giant bear's roars and the muffled crunch of breaking bone and flesh remained in the blizzard.
After little more than a dozen breaths, the Space-Rending Cold Sound Owl's struggles at the bottom of the crater gradually ceased.
Its wings had been bent at grotesque angles, and most of the bones in its body were broken. It lay in a pool of blood, clinging to its final breath.