Preparations Before the Heist

Inside Room Three.

"Bastard. Let me find out who made that bid, and I'll kill him." There were only two people in the VIP room, both appearing to be in their forties. The speaker was Yu Tao.

"I think we'll find out who it was. If we can't bring that item back to the sect, we should at least find out where to steal it from," Lang Ya said after a brief ponder.

Lang Ya narrowed his eyes, and the air inside the VIP room immediately twisted violently like rippling water, turning illusory. The maid in the room bore the brunt of it. After trembling all over, her eyes grew vacant, and she stood there in a daze.

Lang Ya sat back on the sofa and beckoned to the Black-Rank Auctioneer. "Come here."

The Black-Rank Auctioneer stepped forward and stopped before him.

"Go find out who the person that just bid 150 million Gold Soul Coins is," Lang Ya ordered in a low voice.

"Yes." The Black-Rank Auctioneer answered respectfully, then turned and left.

"You're impressive, Lang Ya. Why not just control the people at the auction house and take the item?" A vicious gleam flashed in Yu Tao's eyes. Air surged around his thick right arm, producing a string of crackling sounds.

The maid had barely gone far when she unexpectedly returned. Lang Ya frowned slightly and asked in a deep voice, "That fast?"

Before his words had faded, Lang Ya's gaze passed over the maid's shoulder. He spotted two figures silently approaching from the shadows outside the door, and his eyes instantly sharpened.

"Who goes there?!"

Lang Ya shouted, and his martial soul immediately possessed him. Purple, purple, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black—nine Spirit Rings rose from beneath his feet as violent Soul Power fluctuations and immense spiritual power swept out at once.

Yu Tao quickly noticed Lang Ya's reaction and possessed his martial soul as well. The same nine Spirit Rings—purple, purple, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black—rose beneath his feet. His right arm instantly swelled in size, and powerful Soul Power fluctuations surged from within him.

Yet before either man could fully unleash his Soul Power, a burst of cold materialized out of thin air, instantly sealing off the entire room.

The frigid air seemed to come from the void itself, carrying a terrifying presence that could freeze the soul.

Lang Ya's pupils contracted sharply. He cried out in shock, "A Titled Douluo with Ultimate Ice!"

Yu Tao had just begun to swing his thick right arm when his movement abruptly stalled. The Soul Power in his arm came to a sudden halt as bone-piercing cold invaded his body, as though even his blood were about to freeze.

"Since you're here, why sneak around?" Lang Ya endured the discomfort and shouted in a deep voice. His voice sounded exceptionally dry in the freezing air.

"Bing'er, quickly withdraw the cold."

Following the voice, Lang Ya and Yu Tao looked toward the two people behind the maid.

"Xiao Jinchen?" Lang Ya and Yu Tao blurted out in unison upon seeing one of them clearly.

The newcomers were none other than Xiao Jinchen and the Ice Empress.

"Uncle Lang, Uncle Yu, long time no see," Xiao Jinchen said with a smile.

Looking at the two familiar faces before him, Xiao Jinchen felt an overwhelming sense of warmth.

Back when he had been in the Body Sect, the two men had not only guided him on his path of cultivation, but had personally taken him to hunt Spirit Rings. They had treated him as their own. That bond had long surpassed the relationship between ordinary sect elders and a junior; they were like close family.

"You brat, making such a commotion. I thought we were under enemy attack." Lang Ya stepped forward and unceremoniously smacked Xiao Jinchen on the head.

"You're right, Uncle Lang." Xiao Jinchen smiled faintly and accepted the rebuke without complaint.

"Xiao Jinchen, you've made quite a name for yourself out there lately. Who in the three Douluo kingdoms doesn't know about that Soul Hall you founded?" Yu Tao said as he stepped forward and patted Xiao Jinchen on the shoulder.

"Just luck," Xiao Jinchen said with a smile. He then pulled the Ice Empress in front of him and introduced her. "Uncle Lang, Uncle Yu, this is the Ice Empress. She's also my girlfriend."

"The Ice Empress? She couldn't be the Ice Empress ranked second among the Three Great Kings of the Far North, could she?" Yu Tao asked uncertainly as he looked at her.

"That's right." Xiao Jinchen nodded with a smile. "Bing'er is the Ice Empress ranked second among the Three Great Kings of the Far North."

Lang Ya and Yu Tao were both startled by this.

The Ice Empress had once returned to the Body Sect with Xiao Jinchen, and Lang Ya and Yu Tao had also seen her appearance during an earlier competition. Still, it was not strange that they had failed to recognize her immediately.

After all, they could never have imagined that the Ice Empress was actually a Soul Beast. Furthermore, only a very small number of Body Sect elders knew of her identity as a Soul Beast.

Lang Ya and Yu Tao quickly digested both the fact that the Ice Empress was a Soul Beast and that she was Xiao Jinchen's girlfriend. They then cupped their fists toward her.

"Xiao Jinchen, did you come here for this hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast Embryo too?" Yu Tao asked, pointing at the Soul Beast Embryo on the soul tool screen.

"Mm." Xiao Jinchen nodded. "My target this time really is that Soul Beast Embryo."

"A'chen, I feel like this Soul Beast Embryo is strangely familiar," the Ice Empress murmured.

Of course it feels familiar. You two spent hundreds of thousands of years together day and night, Xiao Jinchen silently sighed.

Xiao Jinchen did not directly tell the Ice Empress that the Soul Beast Embryo sealed inside the God Sealing Platform was the Snow Empress. He knew just how important the Snow Empress was to the Ice Empress, no less than he was himself. Once the truth came out, she would likely lose control of her emotions.

Therefore, he decided to keep it hidden for now. Once he had successfully obtained the Snow Empress's embryo, he would tell her everything.

"Xiao Jinchen, since you're after the Soul Beast Embryo too, let's make our move now." Yu Tao's gaze sharpened as he said in a deep voice, "With Senior Ice Empress here, the few Titled Douluo stationed in the Starlight Auction House are nothing to fear."

"Don't worry, Uncle Yu. Leave the embryo to me." Xiao Jinchen smiled faintly and summoned Emperor Flame.

With a thought from Xiao Jinchen, a wisp of Bone Chilling Flame separated from Emperor Flame, becoming a sub-flame that he gently placed in the Ice Empress's hand.

"Bing'er, I'll leave the task of taking the embryo to you. I'll steal that Ice Jade Scorpion Left Arm Bone," Xiao Jinchen instructed quietly. "After you get the embryo, follow the old rule—burn everything clean with one fire."

"Alright." The Ice Empress nodded and agreed.

The number of 150 million Gold Soul Coins ultimately did not rise any further. Such an astronomical sum was terrifying to any faction.

"They were all scared off by me, just as I thought." In Room Two, Xiao Hongchen snorted and turned to Elder Ma beside him. "Elder Ma, this treasure is absolutely a hot potato. The auction house will certainly guarantee our safety during the handover. Once the transaction is complete, immediately take it back to our academy and hand it to my great-grandfather. Once it enters Mingde Hall, let's see who still dares set their sights on it."

On Shrek Academy's side.

"Beibei, you all go back first. For the sake of peace on the continent, this old man still needs to make a trip," Xuan Zi instructed. He then followed the Black-Rank Auctioneer in the room to settle the payment for the Ice Jade Scorpion Left Arm Bone.

As soon as the transaction ended, Xuan Zi could hardly wait to set off and seize that Soul Beast Embryo.