At Gu An's words, Ice Empress immediately bellowed in rebuttal.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
Her eyes went wide, and she looked like a scorpion whose tail had been stepped on.
"That dead worm! He escaped the Far North from under my nose just to save his own hide. With his spineless nature, he'd dare show his face in front of me?"
"Isn't he afraid I'll freeze him into an ice sculpture and eat him?"
The more she spoke, the more worked up she became. Her little face was full of disdain and confidence; she hadn't taken Sky Dream Ice Silkworm seriously at all.
"And as for this so-called scheme you mentioned, that's even more ridiculous!"
"Even if he had the guts to show up in front of me, could that dead worm possibly be my match?"
"He's a good-for-nothing! No attack power, no defense. Aside from being a little faster, what does he have?"
"One Ice Empress's Pincer from me would smash him into a pulp! How could he scheme against me?"
Ice Empress planted her hands on her hips and lifted her chin high, her emerald-green hair fluttering in the wind.
As she spoke, her little face showed nothing but confidence.
"And you actually said Snow Empress would be tricked by humans? Hahaha! What a joke! The biggest joke of all!"
She pointed at Snow Empress, her voice thick with even more disdain.
"Kid, you don't know, do you? Snow Empress! The 690,000-year-old Heavenly Snow Woman! The Far North is her home ground. Here, her strength increases by another thirty percent!"
"Across the entire Douluo Continent, no one can defeat Snow Empress in the Far North unless a god from the heavens descends in person!"
"No one! How could mere humans possibly scheme against her?"
No matter how you looked at it, Ice Empress was absolutely confident in their strength.
She didn't believe a single word from the human kid standing before her.
Snow Empress, however, reacted completely differently from Ice Empress.
Though she had her suspicions, she didn't believe the human kid in front of her could know about them.
Besides, she was naturally cool and reserved, and her expression barely changed.
She simply stood there quietly, waiting for Gu An to continue.
Gu An looked at the two women, whose reactions couldn't have been more different, his expression utterly unchanged.
He turned his gaze away from the nonstop chatter of Ice Empress and settled it firmly on Snow Empress.
"Hundred Thousand Year Snow Lotus."
"Seven Hundred Thousand Year Bottleneck."
"Metamorphosis and Re-cultivation."
With every word he uttered, the face of ice that had remained unchanged for ten thousand years showed a violent ripple of emotion.
By the time Gu An finished speaking, Snow Empress's pupils had contracted sharply. Her lips parted slightly, and she stood frozen in place.
Ice Empress had been about to keep mocking Gu An.
But when she turned and saw the change in Snow Empress's expression, she swallowed the words on her lips.
Her gaze darted between Snow Empress and Gu An several times, and her heart gave a sudden lurch.
"Is it true, Snow Empress? You're going to undergo Metamorphosis and Re-cultivation?!"
A trace of panic crept into Ice Empress's voice.
Snow Empress didn't answer Ice Empress's question.
She stared fixedly at Gu An, her voice tight with surging emotions.
"This matter... I have only considered it privately. I haven't mentioned it to anyone, not even Ice Empress."
"Human kid, how did you find out?!"
She suddenly remembered what Zi JI had said earlier. She jerked her head up and looked at Zi JI, her eyes filled with disbelief.
"Could you really be from ten thousand years in the future?!"
Standing to the side, Zi JI watched Snow Empress and Ice Empress reel in shock, and the corners of her mouth lifted slightly.
"Weren't you just acting so calm, convinced we were talking nonsense? What happened to that expression now?"
Her tone was mild, but the teasing in it was unmistakable.
"Would I have any reason to lie to you?"
Snow Empress fell silent for a moment.
It was true. A Zi JI from another world had appeared before her, and she knew of Snow Empress's plan to undergo Metamorphosis and Re-cultivation—a plan she had never told anyone.
Taken together, there was no room left for doubt.
"What will happen to me in the future...?"
Snow Empress's voice remained cool.
But anyone could hear the surging emotions beneath that calm tone.
"When you turn into a human, a human ambushes you and seals you away. Then, after Ice Empress and another human team up to sweet-talk you, you become that human's daughter."
By the time he reached this point, Snow Empress's expression had already turned ugly.
She, the mighty Heavenly Snow Woman and ruler of the Far North, would be ambushed and sealed by a human, then become one's daughter?
Even though she had seen plenty and was not easily shaken, she couldn't help clenching her hand.
But Gu An showed no sign of stopping.
"As for the human who becomes your adoptive father... he seems to be only a little over ten years old right now. Oh, and in a few hours, he'll probably arrive in front of you."
At that, Snow Empress's expression darkened completely.
A human kid barely into his teens would become the adoptive father of her, the Heavenly Snow Woman?
Ice Empress was so furious on the sidelines that her eyes turned red.
"Impossible!"
"How could I ever work with humans to harm Snow Empress?!"
"Ice Empress hates underhanded humans more than anything! You're just trying to drive a wedge between us, aren't you?!"
"You certainly wouldn't do that now."
Gu An spread his hands and continued.
"But if Sky Dream Ice Silkworm talks you into becoming that human's Soul Spirit, things will be different."
"At that point, you'll think you're saving Snow Empress—keeping her from falling into someone else's hands and making sure she falls into yours instead. Isn't that saving her?"
"Besides, Snow Empress would be with you, and you'd be with the person you follow. Doesn't that work out perfectly for you?"
"You've had your eye on Snow Empress for quite some time, haven't you? With such a perfect opportunity in front of you, how could you pass it up?"
Those words tore straight through Ice Empress's disguise.
Ice Empress's little face flushed bright red in an instant, the color spreading from her cheeks to her ears and tinting her neck pink.
She pointed at Gu An, her lips trembling. For a long moment, she couldn't get a single word out.
"You... You..."
"Bullshit!"
The little girl finally managed to force out two words, her voice so shrill it could have cracked the glaciers around them.
But inside, she was in turmoil, panicked beyond belief.
How did everyone know she had feelings for Snow Empress?
She'd hidden them so well!
She'd never told anyone!
Even Snow Empress herself didn't know!
How had this human kid seen through her?!
Snow Empress hadn't wanted to believe Gu An either.
But after hearing him lay out Ice Empress's motives, her eyes flickered a few times.
She had vaguely sensed Ice Empress's feelings for her.
But the idea was so absurd. They were both women, and both Ferocious Beasts. She had always thought it was just a passing illusion.
Besides, it was utter nonsense.
But now this human kid had said it right to their faces.
And Ice Empress's reaction was so intense. If Snow Empress still couldn't see the truth, she would have wasted all these years.
In other words... there was a good chance this human kid was telling the truth about everything.
Snow Empress parted her lips, about to say something to comfort Ice Empress, who was on the verge of exploding, when her expression suddenly shifted.
She raised her head and looked past Zi JI and Gu An, toward the outer reaches of the Far North.
As the ruler of the Far North, nothing that happened across this frozen wilderness escaped her senses.
Just then,
she had clearly sensed an aura similar to Zi JI's, yet different from it, crossing the Far North's border.
Snow Empress drew back her gaze. A complicated look flashed in her eyes, before finally turning into a soft sigh.
Her red lips parted. Her voice was still cool.
But there was a faint air of resignation in it.
"I believe what you said."
"Another Zi JI, bearing an aura similar to yours, has already set foot in the Far North."