Snow Empress tried using her Soul Power to guide and separate the lightning, hoping to strip it away from Xue Chen.
But the moment her Soul Power touched the blue arcs, she felt a gentle yet firm force repelling it. Her Soul Power couldn't interfere at all, much less guide them!
It was as if the lightning and Xue Chen were one and the same, rejecting any interference from outside.
For the first time, clear anxiety appeared on Snow Empress's stunning face.
Should she forcibly scatter it?
But the lightning was so closely intertwined with Xue Chen that any violent approach might hurt him first!
Yet if she let this strange lightning continue, who knew what might happen next?
For a moment, Snow Empress, who had ruled the Far North for nearly seven hundred thousand years, found herself caught in an impossible dilemma, her mind in turmoil.
"Snow Maiden, what should we do?" Ice Empress had also realized how difficult the situation was. Her voice was grave.
Snow Empress forced herself to calm down.
She took a deep breath and stopped trying to interfere with the lightning. Instead, she gathered her vast, ocean-like spiritual power into a single thread and cautiously sent it toward Xue Chen, who was wrapped in electric light, carefully sensing his innermost state.
She braced herself to sense pain, weakness, or even injury.
Yet when her spiritual power touched Xue Chen's body, she felt none of the negative conditions she had expected. Instead, she sensed a... vigorous vitality, bursting with life!
A powerful Bloodline Power, like a volcano poised to erupt or a mighty river rushing onward!
Xue Chen's Bloodline Power hadn't weakened in the slightest. On the contrary, it was climbing and growing at a speed that left her dumbfounded!
The lightning coursing through his meridians widened them, while his bones grew denser. His entire body seemed to be undergoing a tempering that would remake him from the ground up!
Snow Empress's eyes flew open. Her icy blue eyes brimmed with incredulous shock, even a trace of bewilderment.
"Th-this... what's going on?"
She murmured under her breath. The scene before her was completely beyond her comprehension.
"What's wrong, Snow Maiden?"
Seeing Snow Empress's expression shift, Ice Empress couldn't help but press her anxiously.
Snow Empress kept her eyes fixed on Xue Chen. A trace of bewilderment, unnoticed even by herself, lingered on her beautiful face as she slowly spoke, her voice tinged with incredulous certainty:
"Chen'er... seems to be absorbing the lightning power brought by this thunderbolt!"
Her words rang out like a sudden peal of thunder, exploding in Ice Empress's and Xiao Bai's ears.
"What did you say? Xiao Chen is absorbing the power of the tribulation lightning?!"
Ice Empress's voice suddenly rose, filled with disbelief.
She had lived for four hundred thousand years and weathered several tribulations. Each time, she had struggled desperately between destruction and rebirth. When had she ever seen—or even heard of—anyone absorbing tribulation lightning as if drawing in nourishment?
This was nothing less than a complete upheaval of their understanding of the laws of heaven and earth!
Xiao Bai's mouth fell open too. His huge bear head swayed as he wondered if the lightning had struck him so hard he was hallucinating.
Snow Empress nodded with difficulty, the shock still plain in her icy blue eyes.
"Though it's hard to believe, my senses can't be wrong... His Bloodline Power is growing at a mad pace... This lightning isn't hurting him at all. Instead, it's... making him stronger!"
Hearing Snow Empress's confirmation, the two rulers of the Far North looked again at Xue Chen, wrapped in docile electric light as his aura steadily climbed. Their expressions were like those of people caught in a dream, full of disbelief.
This was completely beyond their comprehension.
Meanwhile, Xue Chen, enveloped by the lightning, was immersed in a strange sensation.
He clearly felt waves of pure, immense energy pouring into every part of his body!
Every cell was cheering with delight. His Bloodline Power surged like crashing waves, repeatedly breaking through to new heights, while his physical strength underwent a qualitative leap.
But at the same time, an even deeper sense of strangeness stirred within him.
As the surging lightning power washed over him, he felt as if something deep inside his body...
An invisible barrier was being battered by this external force. It was as though something sealed away for a long time was stirring, trying to break free!
Just then, Snow Empress keenly sensed the destructive energy gathering once more in the enormous thundercloud vortex above Ice Crystal Palace. An aura even more terrifying than before was condensing and compressing!
The second thunderbolt was about to descend!
Snow Empress abruptly looked up at the hole in the palace roof. Her gaze instantly sharpened, turning utterly solemn.
Though Xue Chen's condition was strange and seemed to be benefiting him, there was no mistaking the might of this tribulation. The destructive energy it contained made even her heart tremble.
She didn't dare take the chance. She couldn't gamble on whether Xue Chen could truly withstand this clearly stronger second thunderbolt!
"Bing'er!"
Snow Empress made her decision at once, her voice leaving no room for argument. "Stay here and watch over Xue Chen!"
Following Snow Empress's gaze toward the vortex in the sky, where terrifying power was brewing, Ice Empress immediately understood what she intended.
She meant to face the second tribulation herself!
Though the scale of the tribulation was astonishing, Ice Empress had absolute confidence in Snow Empress's strength. With a cultivation base approaching seven hundred thousand years, this tribulation's energy was not yet powerful enough to truly threaten her.
"Snow Maiden, be careful."
Ice Empress didn't try to stop her. She simply offered a solemn warning.
She knew this was the safest approach for now: it would keep Xue Chen from being struck directly by the tribulation and reveal its true target.
Snow Empress gave a slight nod and said no more.
Her aura changed abruptly. The cold she had kept restrained burst forth like a glacier freed from its seal!
The temperature throughout Ice Crystal Palace plummeted. Even the air seemed about to freeze.
She lightly tapped the floor with her jade foot. Her figure became a dazzling streak of white light, shooting straight through the palace and hovering above it, facing the terrifying vortex roiling with purple-gold lightning!
Against the backdrop of dark clouds and raging lightning, her stunning figure looked so small, yet radiated a mighty force that could stand against the power of heaven and earth!
Ice Empress turned her gaze away from Snow Empress and focused it once more on Xue Chen. Her jade-green eyes brimmed with tension and curiosity.
She was eager to see just how many more unbelievable things this Little Monster could bring about!
Inside the palace, Xiao Bai also tensed his massive body, standing guard beside Xue Chen and Ice Empress. His bear eyes stayed fixed on the sky above, ready to respond to any unexpected danger.
As for Xue Chen, he seemed entirely unaware of the second wave about to come. He remained immersed in the strange state of lightning pouring into his body and his seal loosening.
The roar of Bloodline Power surging through him even faintly drowned out the muffled thunder outside the palace.
Snow Empress stood proudly alone atop the shattered dome of Ice Crystal Palace.
Dark clouds hung low overhead. Purple-gold lightning snakes danced wildly within the black-hole-like vortex, casting her white robes and blue hair in shifting light and shadow.
She looked up, her icy blue eyes calmly watching the second thunderbolt rapidly take shape. The energy it contained was far greater than that of the first!
I can't let it fall! Snow Empress had already made up her mind.
Before you continue