Laws of Ice, Douluo Smart Manufacturing!

Within the underground karst cave, the passage of day and night was unknowable. Time had lost its original measure in this deep-blue space.

Several hours passed.

The once brilliant, radiant cave had now dimmed considerably.

The Ice Extreme Divine Crystals hanging upside down from the surrounding rock walls still emitted a faint glow, but the forty-nine Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrows at the center had changed completely.

The pale-blue gelatinous substance sealed within the solid ice had been drained clean, leaving only forty-nine hollow, transparent ice pillars standing forlornly where they had been.

The terrifying chill within the cave, enough to freeze one's soul, had also subsided to the level of an ordinary ice cellar.

In midair, the spiritual forms of Ice Empress and Snow Empress stopped drawing in energy.

Ice Empress maintained the appearance of a little girl with twin ponytails. Her body swayed unsteadily in the air, her steps floating, and even her two ponytails hung limply over her shoulders.

She raised her two fair little hands and vigorously rubbed her temples, her small face flushed red.

Having crazily absorbed such an immense quantity of top-grade ice-elemental energy in such a short time, even though she did not need to digest it herself and merely served as a transfer station and storage container, the bloated pain of being filled with energy still left her dizzy.

She felt like a waterskin forcibly stuffed full of cold water. The slightest movement made the water slosh audibly in her belly.

What drove her most mad was the psychological gap.

Watching so much Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow pass through her hands, only for it all to be sealed away within the depths of the spiritual forms and Yun Yi's right arm bone, while she was not even qualified to have a taste.

This miserable job of handling it without getting to taste it ground the pride of one of the Far North's Three Heavenly Kings into the dirt again and again.

Ice Empress puffed out her cheeks and glared at Yun Yi below.

She was burning with anger, yet could not find any reason to vent it.

Everything this brat had said before was perfectly reasoned, leaving her no room to argue.

She could not beat him, nor could she outtalk him.

Ice Empress simply shut her mouth, too lazy to even offer an extra greeting.

A green glow flashed around her body. She transformed into a streak of light and, full of stifled resentment, plunged headfirst into Yun Yi's brow, fleeing back to the sea of consciousness where she would not have to look at him.

Watching Bing'er flee in furious helplessness, Snow Empress floated in midair and could not help shaking her head, a helpless curve appearing at the corners of her lips.

Snow Empress was in far better condition than Ice Empress, after all, given her deep foundation of nearly seven hundred thousand years.

Even so, several consecutive hours of high-intensity energy compression had left a trace of weariness between her brows.

She smoothed her skirt and lightly landed before Yun Yi.

"Bing'er has an impatient temperament and cannot stand this sort of restraint. Don't take offense," Snow Empress said in Ice Empress's defense. Then she gave a slight nod, preparing to end the day's work.

"The energy has all been stored. With the laws of the Icebound Throne stabilizing your soul bone, the spiritual energy of that Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow will not dissipate. You can draw upon it whenever you cultivate in the future. If there is nothing else, I will return to rest as well."

Snow Empress turned around, about to transform into light and depart.

"Wait." Yun Yi called out to stop her.

Snow Empress halted and looked back, inquiry in her sky-blue eyes.

Yun Yi stepped forward twice.

He did not carry his usual lofty, commanding air, and the casualness on his face had faded.

"You have worked for several hours. You have indeed had it rough." Yun Yi looked Snow Empress in the eyes, his tone sincere.

"Since we signed a contract, we are all one of our own. I have never been in the habit of making my people work for nothing. Making you work without giving you anything in return would be exploitation. Consider this your payment."

As his words fell, Yun Yi raised his right hand, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and gently touched the center of his brow.

Bzz—

A deep, sacred resonance echoed through the cave.

Beneath the skin of Yun Yi's brow, the ice-blue pattern of a divine throne slowly emerged.

Though the throne's phantom was small, it carried the supreme majesty of suppressing eternal glaciers.

Yun Yi closed his eyes, sinking his consciousness into the sea of consciousness.

He connected with the Icebound Throne imprint coiled at the vault of his consciousness, carefully peeling off an infinitesimal yet utterly pure trace of true ice-and-snow intent from those vast divine laws.

He opened his eyes and pulled outward with his fingertips.

A hexagonal snowflake no larger than a fingernail, radiating crystalline blue light, was drawn from the divine mark between his brows.

The snowflake slowly spun in the air. The surrounding temperature did not fall; instead, all ice-and-snow elemental energy bowed and submitted before it.

It was not merely energy, but the laws Ice God had left behind in this world—the most fundamental governing principles of the ice-and-snow element.

The instant Snow Empress saw the blue snowflake, it was as though she had been struck by lightning.

Her eyes, always tranquil as still water, suddenly contracted. Her gaze clung tightly to the snowflake, unable to move away even an inch.

For a soul beast that had cultivated bitterly in the Extreme North for seven hundred thousand years and regarded ice and snow as life itself, the allure of this trace of god-level law was a hundred times greater than all the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow in the entire cave combined.

This was the distant shore she had pursued all her life, yet never managed to touch.

"This... this is the true intent of Ice God's laws..." Snow Empress's voice trembled uncontrollably.

She could even feel that if she could comprehend even the slightest mystery contained within this snowflake, her control over ice and snow would undergo a leap as dramatic as a butterfly breaking free from its cocoon.

Yun Yi curled his fingers and flicked lightly.

The blue snowflake drifted out and landed steadily between Snow Empress's brows.

As the god-level law entered her body, Snow Empress's body shuddered violently.

Vast, profound mysteries of ice and snow spread layer upon layer through the depths of her soul. The bottlenecks and confusion she had encountered in past cultivation showed signs of loosening before this pure law.

Snow Empress took several deep breaths before barely calming her surging emotions.

She stepped back half a pace, folded her hands before her, and performed an exceedingly solemn ancient Far North salute toward Yun Yi.

"Snow Maiden will remember such a gift. Rest assured, Bing'er and I will devote all our strength to comprehending this law."

At this moment, all the bitterness and disappointment in Snow Empress's heart from becoming a "power bank" had been washed away completely by this true intent of law.

With such generosity, no one else on the entire Douluo Continent besides the divine-seat inheritor before her could possibly offer a second example.

Snow Empress did not linger. She could not wait to return and enter seclusion.

Deep-blue light flashed, and she too transformed into a streak of light, entering Yun Yi's sea of consciousness.

The cave fell silent once more.

Yun Yi stood where he was. With a thought, he separated a strand of spiritual power and quietly probed into his sea of consciousness.

In a corner of the sea of consciousness, Ice Empress, who had just run back in a huff, was now holding Snow Empress's hand, their two heads pressed together.

That ice-blue snowflake of law hovered between them. Neither girl even dared blink as they stared intently at the patterns flowing across the snowflake. Their studious appearance was more diligent than that of Shrek Academy's hardest-working students.

Seeing this, the corners of Yun Yi's lips unconsciously lifted.

Mu En, standing behind him, had watched every part of Yun Yi's little operation.

With his hands behind his back, Mu En walked forward. He looked at the drained transparent ice pillars, then turned to his junior brother, shrewd understanding in his eyes.

"You certainly know how to strike a bargain." Mu En stroked the beard on his chin, his tone carrying a hint of teasing.

"You gave them a trace of divine law to comprehend. If they grasp its secrets and their control over ice-and-snow elements improves, that will feed back into your body. The power of your Ice Yi Divine Spear will naturally rise with the tide."

Mu En patted Yun Yi on the shoulder, exposing the truth in a single sentence.

"In the end, aren't they still helping you improve your strength indirectly? Junior Brother, your abacus is clicking so loudly that the whole of Dragon City can probably hear it."

Being ruthlessly exposed by his senior brother did not embarrass Yun Yi in the least.

He turned around, dusted the frost off his clothes, and waved his hand shamelessly.

"No, no, Senior Brother. That is far too crude a way of putting it." Yun Yi raised an index finger and wagged it in the air, correcting Mu En's thinking.

"Simply making them containers for storing energy would be basic manual exploitation, without any technical sophistication. I gave them the core laws, letting them use their initiative to research and improve themselves."

Yun Yi reached his conclusion with a perfectly serious expression. "That is called industrial upgrading. Their role has now successfully transformed from low-end 'manufacturing' into high-end 'smart manufacturing.' There is a fundamental difference."

After hearing this lengthy speech, Mu En's grizzled brows twisted into a knot.

"Smart manufacturing?" Mu En repeatedly mulled over the unfamiliar phrase, his head full of confusion.

Where on the Douluo Continent was there such a bizarre saying?

The old man had roamed the world for nearly a century, yet this was the first time he had heard someone make ordering soul beasts around sound so fresh and high-minded.

Yun Yi had no intention of staying behind to teach this centenarian modern industrial terminology.

He turned around, identified the direction, and strode down the ice passage they had entered through.

"We have the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow. Ma Xiaotao's evil-fire problem now has a solution. There is no need to remain in Dragon City." Yun Yi called over his shoulder to Mu En, who was still pondering the new term.

"Come on, Senior Brother. Let's get back to the surface. The soul beasts of the Star Dou Forest are still waiting for us to choose from."

Mu En shook his head, tossing aside those incomprehensible terms. With a light tap of his toes against the ground, he followed Yun Yi's pace.

The two figures darted swiftly through the deep-blue ice passage. Along the way, they also collected all the Ice Extreme Divine Crystals, quickly arriving beneath the dry well at the cave's exit.

Mu En raised one hand. Golden Soul Power transformed into an upward current of air, carrying them both soaring into the sky.

They passed through the long, dark well shaft, and the bluish-gray stone slab overhead was pushed open by the airflow.

The two landed steadily in the rear courtyard of the Earth Dragon Sect.

The night was still deep. Several Earth Dragon Sect patrol disciples happened to be coming around the corner from the front courtyard, carrying lanterns and chatting cheerfully, wholly unaware of the earth-shaking change that had occurred in the dry well of the rear courtyard.

Those people still slept peacefully, dreaming of their sect's revival, unaware that the greatest fortune beneath their own rear courtyard had already been silently emptied out by two uninvited guests.

Mu En replaced the bluestone slab and even kindly smoothed away the traces around its edges with Soul Power, making the well look exactly as it had when they arrived.

"Go."

Yun Yi gave a low shout. The two vanished into the night once more, scaling the high courtyard wall and disappearing into Dragon City's quiet streets.

The journey into the Star Dou Forest was about to begin.