Arms Display, Ice Empress Submits!

The black ice at the edge of the deep pit had shattered into irregular massive chunks, piled haphazardly atop one another.

Yun Yi stepped over the scattered ice fragments toward the edge of the pit, his white leather boots producing crisp clicks across the deathly silent ice plains.

Mu En followed half a step behind him, his hands clasped behind his back and his posture relaxed.

At the bottom of the pit, the golden giant hand formed from pure Radiant Holy Dragon Soul Power still firmly suppressed the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion.

Ice Empress's six slender legs were deeply embedded in the ice, while her proud silver-white pincers were pinned tightly beneath the golden light, unable to move.

Her hexagonal yellow-diamond eyes glared fixedly at the approaching pair, filled with hatred.

As one of the three great kings of the Extreme North, she had ruled this world of ice and snow for nearly four hundred thousand years. She had been so proud, yet today she had been pressed to the ground and rubbed around like an insect.

The instant Mu En made his move, she had seen through his true strength.

Someone capable of releasing such heaven-suppressing might with every gesture had to be a Rank 99 Ultimate Douluo who had reached the pinnacle of human soul masters.

Ice Empress stopped her futile physical struggle.

She knew very well that before an Ultimate Douluo, any attempt to flee was a joke.

A crisp female voice brimming with killing intent exploded directly within Yun Yi and Mu En's minds.

"Human powerhouses, don't think you've won! If you want to strip this Empress of her soul ring and soul bone, keep dreaming!"

Before her words had faded, the shell covering Ice Empress's body, originally interwoven with icy white and jade green, was instantly coated in an incomparably dangerous deep dark green.

The surrounding temperature had already been frigid, but now it plummeted like a cliff. Even the icy mist in the air froze into visible grains of ice under the sudden cold, crackling as they struck the ground.

The core origin of her nearly four hundred thousand years of cultivation was burning.

She intended to detonate her origin directly and perish together with these two humans. Even if she could not kill that Ultimate Douluo, she would make sure they got nothing.

Mu En watched the jade-green radiance at the bottom of the pit begin to swell. His brows lifted slightly as he prepared to increase the output of his Radiant Holy Dragon Soul Power and forcibly interrupt her self-destruction.

But Yun Yi raised a hand and stopped him.

He looked down at Ice Empress, who was preparing to die with them, and curled his lips into a mocking smile.

"Stop that ridiculous attempt at self-destruction. If all I wanted were your soul ring and soul bone, you wouldn't even have had the chance to spout nonsense. My senior brother would have already slapped you into minced meat."

Ice Empress's burning of her origin stalled for a moment.

Uncertainty flickered in her yellow-diamond eyes.

What else could human soul masters possibly want when they entered the core region of the Extreme North to hunt high-level soul beasts, if not soul rings and soul bones?

Yun Yi did not explain further. He raised his right hand and lightly clenched his five fingers in the air.

A deep blue glow surged outward from his palm in an instant.

The chill permeating the air seemed to answer the call of that power, wildly rushing back toward him.

A battle spear over ten feet long condensed into form within his hand.

Its deep blue shaft looked as though it had been carved from black ice tempered over countless millennia, with phantoms of raging rivers flowing within it. Its spearhead exuded an edge of ultimate, bone-chilling sharpness.

The instant the Ice Yi Divine Spear appeared, the core region of the entire Extreme North seemed to fall into a strange standstill.

At the bottom of the pit, Ice Empress's eyes widened abruptly. The madness and resolve in her gaze were replaced by unprecedented shock.

The self-destruction process within her origin stopped on its own.

She could clearly sense that the battle spear in this human boy's hand radiated a chill that surpassed her own.

It was true ultimate ice, purer and more tyrannical than the ice attribute she had painstakingly cultivated for nearly four hundred thousand years!

This absolute suppression of rank originating from their martial soul sources made even Ice Empress's soul tremble.

"Y-you... who exactly are you? How could a human possess an ice attribute purer than this Empress's?" Ice Empress's voice echoed through their minds, unable to conceal her terror.

Yun Yi turned his wrist and drove the Ice Yi Divine Spear heavily into the ice beside him.

Frost silently spread in great swathes across the hard black-ice ground.

"I am someone who can let you live and help you break through that four-hundred-thousand-year death tribulation." Yun Yi looked into Ice Empress's eyes as he toyed with the spear shaft. "You should know very well that your final limit is near. With your current foundation, your chance of surviving the next heavenly tribulation is not even ten percent. If you remain in the Extreme North, all you can do is wait for death."

Those words struck precisely at Ice Empress's greatest weakness.

Three hundred and ninety thousand years of cultivation sounded impressive, but it was actually a death warrant hanging over her head.

No one understood better than she did that she simply could not survive the great tribulation approaching her.

Ice Empress fell silent, and the ferocity in her yellow-diamond eyes gradually dimmed.

Yun Yi pressed his advantage and revealed his true bargaining chip.

"I don't need you to sacrifice yourself and become a dead thing. I want you to become the first soul spirit of my second martial soul."

"A soul spirit?" Ice Empress sharply caught that unfamiliar term, her eyes filled with vigilance. "What sort of trick is that? This Empress has seen plenty of human deceit!"

Yun Yi patiently explained, "Unlike soul rings, which are obtained by plundering and erasing the soul, a soul spirit is an equal contract. Once the contract is signed, your physical body will perish, but your soul and consciousness will remain intact within my sea of consciousness. You can control your power freely to assist me in battle, and you can even borrow my martial soul to reshape a body and manifest in the world."

He pointed the spearhead toward the ice beneath them.

"Most importantly, once the contract is signed, you will share my lifespan and fortune. Your four-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation will cease to exist. When I break through the limits of humanity and ascend to the God Realm in the future, you, as my soul spirit, can likewise gain immortality and attain the position of a god. This is a deal with guaranteed profit and no loss."

After hearing this theory that overturned everything she knew, Ice Empress was completely stunned.

Retain her consciousness? Escape the heavenly tribulation? Even ascend to the God Realm?

The terms were tempting beyond measure.

For a ferocious beast that knew it was doomed to die, this was simply a beacon in the darkness.

But after living for so long, she was not some fool who could be sweet-talked with a few words.

Ice Empress let out a cold laugh, her voice thick with mockery. "You make it sound better than a song. You humans only live for a mere hundred years. Even if you eventually become an Ultimate Douluo, you can live at most two or three hundred years. What gives you the right to guarantee that you can ascend to the God Realm? Anyone can boast. Why should this Empress place her fate in the hands of a human brat?"

Yun Yi's expression did not change in the face of Ice Empress's doubts.

He knew that to make a soul beast overlord who had lived for countless years lower her head, words alone were not enough.

He had to reveal a trump card powerful enough to make even her soul tremble.

Yun Yi released the Ice Yi Divine Spear, allowing it to float at his side.

He closed his eyes and fully opened the defenses of his sea of consciousness.

The next instant.

Three completely different yet equally lofty and vast lights—gold, red, and blue—suddenly bloomed from Yun Yi's brow.

A brilliant golden six-pointed star, a roaring crimson Flame Dragon Mark, and a deep blue vortex of water.

Three marks representing the laws of three first-rank principal gods of the God Realm were projected into the air without reservation.

Divine might was like a prison, both grace and authority present.

The moment those three principal god marks appeared, the howling wind and snow in the core region of the Extreme North came to a complete halt.

The ice plains for hundreds of miles around fell silent, and all the elemental energy of heaven and earth was forcibly expelled from this space.

At the bottom of the pit, Ice Empress's entire shell trembled violently beyond her control under the pressure of that divine might, which transcended planes.

The cultivation she had always been so proud of was smaller than even dust on the ground before those three laws.

What had she seen?

Those were genuine divine laws! And there were three of them!

This human boy, who looked barely more than a teenager, had actually been chosen by three gods at once and carried three inheritances of godhood!

Ice Empress's psychological defenses completely collapsed at that moment.

If Yun Yi's earlier promise of ascending to the God Realm had been nothing more than an illusory joke, then these three tangible principal god marks were the sturdiest pass to the God Realm.

Following him, she truly could become a god!

Just as Ice Empress's mind was rocked and her thoughts went blank, Mu En made his move at the perfect moment.

He snorted coldly and stomped his right foot heavily upon the ice.

The cultivation of a Rank 99 Ultimate Douluo, combined with ultimate light, erupted without reserve.

The golden giant hand pressing down on Ice Empress blazed brightly, and the terrifying gravity multiplied several times over.

Crack!

The black-ice layer beneath Ice Empress's body shattered across a vast area.

She felt every Soul Power channel in her body brutally severed, her meridians tightly sealed.

Self-destruction? Now, she had been completely stripped of even the right to mobilize a thread of Soul Power.

Mu En looked down at her, his gaze cold and stern.

"My junior brother has pointed you toward a path of survival. That is your fortune. If you still fail to appreciate it, then only death awaits you."

Grace and authority were both applied, leaving no path of retreat.

Ice Empress stared blankly at the three divine marks slowly withdrawing in midair, then felt the immovable ultimate power pressing upon her body.

After a long silence.

A bitter smile actually appeared on her scorpion face, almost humanlike.

All the pride and resistance faded from her yellow-diamond eyes, leaving only the calm acceptance of fate.

"Human, you win." Ice Empress's voice carried self-mockery as she gave up all resistance. "I can't beat you, I can't escape, and I don't even have the right to kill myself. Other than agreeing to you, does this Empress have any other choice?"

Yun Yi was not surprised by this outcome.

As long as the benefits were laid out clearly and the blade was held to the neck, even the proudest ferocious beast had to learn to bow its head.

This was an open scheme, and it was also the crushing force of absolute strength.

Yun Yi withdrew the divine marks from his brow and gripped the Ice Yi Divine Spear once more.

He stepped back half a pace, clearing the space before him.

"Elder Yi, come out and get to work."

Yun Yi's voice rang through his sea of consciousness.

A gray glow drifted out from between his brows and rapidly condensed in midair.

The figure of the Holy Necromancer Electrolux appeared.

Nourished by divine power of light, his illusory soul body had become much more solid, and the robe he wore emitted a gentle radiance.

Electrolux floated in the air, his gaze sweeping over the massive Ice Jade Empress Scorpion at the bottom of the pit. A knowing smile appeared on his aged face.

"A fine ice-attributed ferocious beast." Electrolux stroked the beard on his chin, raised both hands, and began rapidly forming seals before his chest. "Since you've already tamed her, boy, this old man will lay down a grand soul contract array for you and complete this epoch-making soul spirit transformation."

Gray soul power danced at Electrolux's fingertips as intricate, ancient runes rapidly took shape across the ice plains of the Extreme North.

Mysterious laws from another world began constructing a grand formation between heaven and earth, one that connected the souls of humans and beasts.