No Restrictions, the Contract Begins!

Inside the Ice God Temple, frigid wind passed through the towering ice pillars, letting out low, mournful whines.

Snow Empress stood beneath the nine ice steps, maintaining that rigid posture for several full seconds.

Deep within her sky-blue eyes, the pride of the ruler of the Extreme North was locked in a fierce struggle against the irresistible divine decree in her mind.

She had ruled this icy plain for hundreds of thousands of years, worshipped by countless beasts, proud and arrogant.

Outside just now, when faced with the olive branch Yun Yi had offered, she would rather undergo the incomparably difficult process of taking human form and cultivating anew than entrust her freedom to another.

But reality had directly crushed her pride and scattered it across the ground.

She raised her head, her gaze crossing the layers of steps before settling on Yun Yi.

The ice-blue divine throne mark between the boy's brows had already faded away, but that lofty majesty of one who commanded laws had been deeply branded into her spiritual senses.

Light, fire, water, and now frost.

Four gods, four laws, all favored the human boy before her.

Before such heaven-defying talent, coveted even by gods, her nearly seven hundred thousand years of cultivation and the hollow title of ruler of the Extreme North seemed to amount to nothing.

Snow Empress's lips twitched into a smile filled with bitterness and relief.

Her back gradually relaxed, and the air of hauteur she had maintained dissipated with it.

She looked at Yun Yi. The struggle in her eyes faded, replaced by calm determination.

She bent her knees slightly, folded her hands before her, and solemnly nodded.

"I am willing to become your soul spirit."

Her words echoed through the hall, each one perfectly clear.

Hearing Snow Empress's answer, Yun Yi revealed a smile, as though he had expected it.

In truth, even he had not expected that after assessing Snow Empress, the Ice God's divine position would directly issue such a mandatory divine trial task.

He had originally been planning to wait until Snow Empress failed in taking human form or encountered another bottleneck before finding an opportunity to slowly win her over.

The Icebound Throne had saved him quite a bit of persuasion, directly using a divine decree to pave the way for him.

Meanwhile, Ice Empress, who had been floating in midair all this time, was completely dumbfounded when she heard that.

Her amber-like eyes widened round as she looked at Yun Yi on the throne, then at Snow Empress beneath the steps. Her tiny head was filled with enormous confusion.

Who was it that had sworn outside that she would rely on herself to take human form and cultivate anew? Who had said she was unwilling to submit to anyone? How had Xue'er suddenly defected on her own after entering this hall, without this human brat even saying a word?

Ice Empress tilted her head, and her twin emerald ponytails swayed behind her.

She carefully pondered Snow Empress's bitter smile from earlier and immediately came to her own conclusion.

Xue'er must have suffered a blow.

She had come full of hope to undergo the trial of the god she believed in, only to be told that her aptitude was insufficient. She had not even come close to the divine position and had merely received the status of a high priest who would never be able to break through level one hundred.

Anyone would find it hard to bear such a plunge from the clouds into the abyss.

In Ice Empress's eyes, Snow Empress had completely lost confidence in pursuing godhood herself. Having recognized the cruelty of reality, she had simply chosen to lie flat and cling to Yun Yi's thick thigh, taking the reliable shortcut of becoming a soul spirit.

Thinking of this, Ice Empress not only did not look down on Snow Empress's choice, but her heart blossomed with joy.

Who cared why she had agreed? As long as Xue'er became a soul spirit, they could settle down together in the same spiritual sea from now on.

Her beloved Xue'er could keep her company every day, without having to face the heavenly tribulation of taking human form. In the future, they could even go to the God Realm together and admire the scenery.

No matter how she calculated it, this deal was ridiculously worthwhile.

Ice Empress restrained herself from laughing aloud, merely spinning happily twice in midair. Her carefree appearance made Yun Yi secretly shake his head.

Snow Empress had never been an indecisive person.

Since she had made her choice, she would no longer hesitate or regret it in the slightest.

She turned around and faced the pure-white embryo beside her.

It was the core of her origin, formed from nearly seven hundred thousand years of cultivation compressed for her transformation and renewed cultivation.

Snow Empress raised both hands, her fingers rapidly forming seals.

A resolute light shone in her sky-blue eyes as pure-white Soul Power continuously flowed from her fingertips into the embryo.

She was going to forcibly reverse the process.

The halo around the surface of the white embryo began to fluctuate violently. Its original tendency to contract inward and nurture a human form was forcibly cut off.

The embryo stopped changing in size, and the meridians and bones being reconstructed inside it froze in place as well.

Snow Empress suddenly pulled her hands outward.

The icy shell around the embryo dissolved into specks of starlight, revealing the purest and most fundamental body of energy within.

She completely stabilized the mass of energy. It no longer showed any tendency to take human form and had been fully adjusted into the calm state most suitable for signing a soul contract.

After finishing all this, Snow Empress withdrew her hands, let out a long breath, and quietly stood where she was waiting.

Yun Yi looked at Snow Empress below, who was already prepared, but his brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

A four-hundred-thousand-year Ice Empress and a seven-hundred-thousand-year Snow Empress.

Together, these two super fierce beasts of the Extreme North possessed more than a million years of terrifying cultivation.

Even if the soul spirit contract could greatly reduce the impact of the energy, the combined burden of such massive soul origins on his spiritual sea would still be incomparably enormous.

Although his Soul Power had reached the peak of level fifty, could his spiritual power truly accommodate these two great beings at once?

If, halfway through the contract, his spiritual sea collapsed under the immense pressure of their souls, that would be a real disaster.

Thinking of this, Yun Yi immediately called out in his heart to the most authoritative master of souls.

"Elder Yi, with the foundation of my current spiritual power, can I withstand Snow Empress's soul origin?"

In a corner of the spiritual sea, gray light flowed, and the figure of Holy Necromancer Electrolux appeared.

Hearing Yun Yi's concern, Electrolux stroked the beard on his chin and let out a hearty laugh.

"You brat, you're usually bold enough to pluck even the wool off gods, yet you're being cautious now."

Electrolux floated to the center of Yun Yi's spiritual sea and pointed toward the golden ocean above.

"To be honest, with your current spiritual power realm, contracting this little scorpion as a soul spirit has already reached the limit of what you can endure. Under normal circumstances, if you forcibly stuffed in another seven-hundred-thousand-year soul, your spiritual sea would instantly explode like an overinflated balloon, leaving nothing behind."

Yun Yi's expression remained unchanged as he waited for him to continue.

He knew that since Elder Yi could still laugh, he must have a solution.

Sure enough, Electrolux changed the subject and pointed upward.

"But you've overlooked the most crucial stabilizing force in this place."

Yun Yi raised his head.

At the highest point of his spiritual sea, four divine imprints shone brilliantly.

A golden hexagram, a crimson Flame Dragon Mark, a dark-blue water vortex, and the newly settled phantom of the Icebound Throne.

The four imprints each held one direction, radiating incomparable divine might.

"These are law imprints left behind by four first-class gods!" Electrolux's tone carried deep amazement.

"With these four things suppressing it, the barrier of your spiritual sea has been reinforced to a degree even I cannot comprehend."

He floated closer and continued explaining.

"For you, there is no longer any such thing as 'not being able to withstand it.' After that little snow girl's seven-hundred-thousand-year soul enters, its immense soul pressure will indeed strike your spiritual sea. But once that impact reaches the four divine imprints, it will be mercilessly crushed by the power of laws and then converted in reverse into nourishment for expanding your spiritual sea."

Electrolux clapped his hands and delivered his conclusion.

"Simply put, the more soul spirits you contract and the stronger the soul pressure, the greater the force of expansion rebounded by those four imprints will become. Not only will you not burst apart and die, your spiritual power will instead gain an opportunity for explosive growth through this external force. Others could beg for such a fortune and never receive it, so what are you worrying about?"

After hearing Electrolux's simple yet thorough analysis, Yun Yi's concerns vanished completely.

With those four divine imprints supporting him, he was a monster whose spiritual power capacity had no upper limit in this world.

Since there was no need to worry about being overstuffed, there was naturally no reason to refuse such a feast delivered straight to his mouth.

Yun Yi cut off the internal conversation and returned his thoughts to reality.

He descended the nine ice steps with steady strides.

At the same time, a strand of gray light floated out from between Yun Yi's brows.

The figure of Holy Necromancer Electrolux condensed in the air.

After recovering for some time, his mage robe appeared more solid, and his gray eyes carried a depth that saw through life, death, and reincarnation.

Electrolux floated in midair, his gaze sweeping over Snow Empress below and the stabilized origin embryo. He nodded in satisfaction.

Snow Empress raised her head and looked at the suddenly appearing old man in gray robes. Sensing the mysterious laws surrounding him, distinct from Soul Power and directed straight toward the depths of the soul, a trace of surprise appeared in her sky-blue eyes.

"I am Electrolux. Prepare to begin."

Electrolux did not waste words. He raised both hands, his fingers rapidly forming seals.

Gray soul runes flew from his fingertips, weaving through the air within the Ice God Temple and swiftly outlining a soul contract formation larger and more intricate than the one outside before.

The formation activated, and gray light completely enveloped Snow Empress and the embryo.

Standing at the center of the formation, Snow Empress raised her head and watched Yun Yi approach. She closed her eyes and released all defenses on the spiritual level.

Yun Yi stopped at the edge of the formation and extended his right hand toward Snow Empress.

The contract ritual for his second soul spirit officially began within the Ice God Temple.