The Ice Empress is after me?

The Ice Empress faced the same predicament as the Snow Empress.

For the past few days, she had been plagued by the same recurring dream.

Everything that transpired in the dream felt exceptionally real, especially the scene where she chose to sacrifice herself to the human named Tianjue; it felt as vivid as if she had experienced it firsthand.

Reason told her that she would never sacrifice herself for a human, yet in that incredibly lifelike dream, she had acted with such unwavering resolve.

That emotion had even begun to affect her in the waking world.

Driven by this feeling, the Ice Empress, like the Snow Empress, had been wandering the outer perimeter of the Far North, attempting to find the dying infant from her dream.

For several days in a row, the Ice Empress had found nothing.

"As expected... a dream is just a dream. How could it ever come true?"

After another day of fruitless searching, the Ice Empress couldn't help but laugh at herself, feeling as though she had gone mad to waste several days for the sake of a dream.

A dream was, after all, just a dream; how could it possibly become reality?

The Ice Empress shook her head, intending to return to the Ice and Snow Palace to share these past few days of dreams with the Snow Empress and see what it all meant.

But before she could move, the voices of two humans drifted toward her. At first, the sounds were muffled, but as time passed, they became increasingly clear.

Clearly, those two humans were gradually approaching her position.

The Ice Empress frowned instinctively.

In the past, if she encountered humans hunting for spirit rings in the Far North, she would have killed them without a second thought. But perhaps influenced by the person in her dream, or perhaps due to the complex emotions inexplicably welling up in her heart, she did not strike immediately. Instead, she tilted her head to listen.

"Tianjue, you must remember, you are a genius with innate full spirit power, which means you cannot settle for just any spirit ring."

"Like those two spirit beasts we just encountered, they are not suitable for you."

Yu Yuanzhen took this opportunity to offer earnest guidance: "We just encountered two spirit beasts, a Frost Silver Wolf and a Blizzard Sharp-Toothed Bear. While the former has sufficient age and is also a power-attack type spirit beast, its strength is relatively low, and it doesn't quite suit your dragon-type martial soul. As for the latter, although it is a relatively powerful strength-type ice-attribute spirit beast, its age is only a little over a hundred years."

"If you choose these two as your spirit rings, you would be wasting your own talent. Even if you come to hunt spirit beasts alone in the future, you must keep this in mind."

"Grandson understands."

Listening to that aged voice and the youthful one, the Ice Empress's expression gradually turned to one of astonishment, and her entire body froze in place.

What was that person's name?

Tianjue?

The Ice Empress clearly remembered that the person in her dream was also named Tianjue by the Snow Empress!

Was it a coincidence?

Or could it be... that this Tianjue was the very same Tianjue from her dream?

The old voice had just revealed another piece of information: this Tianjue also possessed a dragon-type martial soul, and if nothing went wrong, it was likely an ice-attribute dragon martial soul as well.

If this were a coincidence, it was far too much of one.

The Ice Empress took a few deep breaths, forcing herself to calm down. If she didn't, she feared she wouldn't be able to suppress her impulse to rush out and investigate.

Soon, the figures of Yu Yuanzhen and Yu Tianjue appeared in the Ice Empress's field of vision.

Under the Ice Empress's deliberate concealment, Yu Yuanzhen, who had not yet reached the level of a Super Douluo, failed to detect her presence at all.

No one would have expected a super spirit beast with 380,000 years of cultivation to appear in the outer perimeter of the Far North, where only ten-year and hundred-year spirit beasts roamed.

Across the boundless ice field, two human figures stood.

The Ice Empress easily caught sight of Tianjue's appearance, and it was this single glance that made her lose all restraint.

His features were almost identical to the child version of Tianjue in her dream!

Aside from the temperament he carried, his height and appearance were nearly an exact match!

The Ice Empress was almost certain that this was the Tianjue from her dream—she had no time to ponder why the Tianjue in her dream was an infant while the one before her was a six-year-old child; she simply rushed out.

"Who goes there!"

Yu Yuanzhen's expression turned sharp instantly. He grabbed Yu Tianjue by the collar with one large hand, shielding him behind his back, while simultaneously activating his martial soul.

A blinding electric light erupted from Yu Yuanzhen's body, his frame swelling significantly as a layer of dense dragon scales covered his skin. Nine dazzling spirit rings—two yellow, two purple, and five black—rose from beneath his feet.

But the Ice Empress did not even spare Yu Yuanzhen a glance; her target from beginning to end was only one person: Yu Tianjue!

Yu Tianjue's pupils contracted sharply. Although the Ice Empress was moving at an incredible speed, he managed to catch a glimpse of her movements and clearly saw her face.

This face...

How could he ever forget it!?

In the simulated life, the Ice Empress had always appeared before him in human form to spare his feelings, rarely revealing her true self.

It was precisely because of this that he remembered this face so vividly.

But why would the Ice Empress appear in the outer perimeter of the Far North?

As the Ice Empress moved, a terrifying pressure descended. However, this pressure did not target Yu Tianjue; it was directed entirely at Yu Yuanzhen.

The moment he felt this pressure, Yu Yuanzhen's complexion changed drastically.

A hundred-thousand-year spirit beast... this was actually a hundred-thousand-year spirit beast!

Furthermore, judging by this terrifying pressure, this could never be an ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul beast!

Yu Yuanzhen instinctively wanted to activate his seventh soul skill, Avatar of the Martial Soul, to face such a formidable foe, only to discover that dense, emerald-green crystalline radiance had risen all around him, and pale green cold air was surging toward him like a tide.

In the blink of an eye, the area within several dozen meters was completely enveloped by extreme ice. The air solidified instantly, and the once-flowing wind turned into fine ice crystals suspended in mid-air. A layer of ten-thousand-year black ice with a ghostly green luster rapidly congealed on the ground, its ice patterns spreading in all directions like the markings on a scorpion's tail.

This was the Ice Empress's domain, the Eternal Frozen Domain!

Yu Yuanzhen's body suddenly stiffened. The blood in his limbs felt as if it had been frozen solid in an instant, and the circulation of soul power within his body became sluggish and stuttered; every bit of soul power he tried to mobilize felt like dragging chains of ice.

At this moment, the Ice Empress's figure had already appeared silently before Yu Tianjue.

Meeting the Ice Empress's eyes, which shimmered with a complex expression, Yu Tianjue was slightly taken aback, and a chill immediately gripped his heart.

The Ice Empress... is actually coming for me?

What kind of joke is this!