Ice Feather Eagle and Ice Jade Scorpion

The Evil Eye floated beside his shoulder, releasing an invisible wave of mental energy that concealed Luo Chen's presence.

Luo Chen began to climb. Ice covered the cliff face, making it terribly slippery. He could only hook his fingers into cracks in the rock and inch his way up.

Ice Feather Eagles were crafty. They loved building their nests on slender ice pillars, which were steep and slippery, leaving them with almost no natural enemies.

Using the heat from the Blazing Wolf—which radiated through the Gulu Ball—he melted one small hole after another in the ice pillar. Only then could he climb it step by step, finally reaching the top.

Atop the pillar, an Ice Feather Eagle was curled up in its nest, watchfully surveying its surroundings.

It was even bigger than Luo Chen had expected—its wingspan was at least four meters. Its pure white feathers trembled slightly in the cold wind, their edges glimmering with a pale blue sheen. Its golden eyes were as sharp as knives, and its hooked beak could tear through armor.

"This one must be nearly a thousand years old!" Luo Chen exclaimed.

Luo Chen lay against the edge of the ice pillar, showing only half his head.

Evil Emperor, Mental Interference! he ordered in his mind.

The Evil Eye floated beside his shoulder, releasing an invisible wave of mental energy that completely concealed Luo Chen's presence. The Ice Feather Eagle seemed to sense something and turned its head, but it noticed nothing unusual.

Luo Chen took a deep breath and slowly pulled out an ordinary Gulu Ball.

Twenty meters... fifteen meters... ten meters...

He couldn't get any closer.

"Evil Eye, Evil Eye Gaze!" Purple light flared in the Evil Eye's eye, and a mental shockwave struck the Ice Feather Eagle with pinpoint accuracy.

The Ice Feather Eagle's body instantly stiffened, its wings locked in place and its golden eyes going unfocused. It let out a short cry and toppled from the edge of its nest. Then Luo Chen sent out several spirits to take turns attacking it. The Ice Feather Eagle was left on its last legs. Games were turn-based, but who said real life had to be? If you could gang up on something, why bother with a one-on-one fight?

Seizing his chance, Luo Chen hurled the Gulu Ball in his hand with all his strength. It traced an arc through the air and struck the Ice Feather Eagle squarely in the back.

It all came down to this. The instant the Gulu Ball hit the Ice Feather Eagle's back, the creature turned into a streak of blue light and was sucked inside.

It struggled twice. Capture successful!

"Excellent! It worked!"

The Ice Feather Eagle was his!

Next, he had to hurry to the crevasse. He was about to enter the Far North Ice Plains. At least the Star Dou Great Forest had a decent ecosystem. The Far North Ice Plains, on the other hand, could be called a thousand-mile wasteland, devoid of people.

With the Ice Feather Eagle, Luo Chen's travel speed increased dramatically.

Riding on its back, he flew north into the freezing wind. The scenery below raced past—forests, grasslands, hills, frozen earth... The climate grew colder and the vegetation sparser with every mile.

Three days later, he finally saw the boundary of the Far North Ice Plains. The plains were the heart of the Far North, home to the Three Heavenly Kings of the Far North: Ice Empress Snow Empress, Ice Jade Empress Scorpion Ice Empress, and Titan Snow Demon King A-Tai. None of them were opponents he could afford to provoke yet.

Evil Emperor: They're not opponents you can afford to provoke, but I am?

A vast white world stretched before him. Snow and ice covered everything, and nothing but endless whiteness met his gaze. The howling wind swept up snowflakes from the ground, forming pillars of white that danced across the plains.

"We're here," the Evil Emperor said. "The Far North Ice Plains."

"Which direction is that ice fissure?"

"Keep heading north. It'll take about three more days," the Evil Emperor said. "But you need to be careful from now on. The territory of the Three Heavenly Kings of the Far North lies deep within these plains. I can help conceal your presence, but if you're unlucky enough to run into one of them..."

"I know." Luo Chen tightened his fur coat and hurried onto the ice plains.

He hadn't been walking for even half a day when trouble found him.

Ahead, a jade-green scorpion lay motionless on an ice-covered rock, its body almost indistinguishable from the surface. It was not very large, barely more than a meter from head to tail, but it gave off a chilling aura that made his heart skip a beat.

Its jade-green shell glinted coldly in the sunlight. Its compound eyes were an eerie ice blue, and its tail arched high, the stinger coated in white frost.

"An Ice Jade Scorpion." The Evil Emperor's voice grew grave. "Kid, your luck's not great."

Ice Jade Scorpions had ice attributes and were among the finest of the ice-attribute Soul Beasts. They usually lived in the core region, where the strongest of their kind, Ice Empress, possessed Ultimate Ice.

"Aren't they supposed to live in the core region? Why did I run into one as soon as I entered the Far North Ice Plains?"

"How was I supposed to know your luck was this lousy? It's a four-thousand-year-old Ice Jade Scorpion. Are you still not running?"

But it was already too late. The Ice Jade Scorpion had spotted him.

It slowly turned around, its ice-blue compound eyes fixed on Luo Chen. Its tail swayed from side to side with a soft scraping sound. The air temperature plunged, and the white mist from Luo Chen's breath instantly froze into ice crystals.

"It's about to attack," the Evil Emperor warned.

As soon as the words left his mouth, the Ice Jade Scorpion sprang forward, moving with astonishing speed. Its tail drew a jade-green arc through the air, stinging straight for Luo Chen's face.

Luo Chen dodged to the side and sent out the Plate Armor Turtle to shield him.

"Clang—"

With just one strike, the stinger pierced the Plate Armor Turtle's shell. It passed out and returned to its Gulu Ball.

Thank goodness the Gulu Ball had saved its life. Otherwise, that single blow would have killed the Plate Armor Turtle outright.

At least it had bought Luo Chen a moment. He couldn't beat a four-thousand-year-old Ice Jade Scorpion. He had to run!

The Ice Jade Scorpion swiftly retreated after missing its strike, a flash of anger in its compound eyes.

Luo Chen turned and ran. A thick layer of ice stretched beneath his feet, while the Ice Jade Scorpion's tail scraped behind him as it gave chase.

"Evil Emperor! Can't you conceal my presence? Figure something out!"

"I am concealing it! But that beast has already seen you. What good will hiding your presence do?" the Evil Emperor scolded. "Run! Head north! There are space-time fluctuations near that ice fissure. The Ice Jade Scorpion might not dare go near it!"

Luo Chen gritted his teeth and sprinted across the ice plains with all his strength.

The wind cut at his face like knives, and the ice underfoot was terribly slick. He nearly fell several times.

The Ice Jade Scorpion was fast. Its jade-green shape stood out starkly against the snow, and its tail kept stabbing at him, nearly catching him several times.

"Faster! Move faster!" the Evil Emperor urged.

Luo Chen felt as though his lungs were about to burst. His Soul Power was draining rapidly, and his legs grew heavier with every step.

Just then, a huge fissure appeared in the ice ahead.

The fissure was about two meters wide, winding forward and plunging into unfathomable depths. The ice around its edges was a strange, dark blue, as if something were churning far below.

"That's it!" the Evil Emperor shouted. "Jump!"

"What?" Luo Chen's eyes widened.

"If you don't jump, the Ice Jade Scorpion will turn you into a sieve!"

Behind him, the Ice Jade Scorpion's stinger was already about to pierce the back of his head.

With no time to think, Luo Chen leapt into the ice fissure.

The wind roared past his ears. Before him was not endless darkness but a strange blue glow.

He fell, and fell, and fell again.

He didn't know how long it went on—perhaps only a few seconds, perhaps a century. He felt himself pass through an invisible barrier, as though he had broken through the thin membrane on the surface of the water.

Then everything fell silent.