The Ice and Snow Emperors' Choice

(PS: The protagonist believed his attitude was fairly good and did not reveal his true cultivation. Snow Empress only considered him an ordinary Titled Douluo.)

Snow Empress's gaze burned as she stared intently at Huo Chen below, her eyes filled with scrutiny and wariness. Having lived for seven hundred thousand years, she had witnessed the vicissitudes of the continent and seen countless human experts and soul beasts, yet she had never encountered an existence with such a peculiar aura.

He possessed both the living vitality of human flesh and blood and a supreme divine pressure that stood above all living things. Those two utterly different auras had fused perfectly together—strange, yet powerful.

"Senior Snow Empress has sharp eyes."

Huo Chen gave a slight bow and clasped his hands in salute, his manner humble and courteous, neither servile nor overbearing.

"This junior is Huo Chen, inheritor of the Reincarnation God King. I have presumptuously come to the Peak of the Extreme North today with no ill intent. I only wish to discuss an important matter concerning the future fates of you and Senior Ice Empress."

Snow Empress did not respond at once. Her cold gaze slowly shifted downward to Huo Yuhao beside him, and her brows immediately furrowed deeper as the wariness in her eyes intensified.

"The child beside you carries the unique aura of Heavenly Dream Iceworm." Her tone was cold and sharp. "You have already met that lazy bug who sleeps all day."

"That's right." Huo Chen answered openly, without concealing anything. "Heavenly Dream Iceworm has already formed a contract with my nephew, Huo Yuhao, willingly becoming his soul ring and accompanying him in cultivation."

"A million-year soul ring."

Snow Empress murmured softly, a flicker of surprise passing through her eyes before she gave a cold snort.

"You two humans truly have astonishing methods, daring to absorb a million-year soul beast as a soul ring. Across the entire Douluo Continent, such a thing is unprecedented."

She floated in midair, her robes fluttering as icy, snowy chill spread layer upon layer, forcing the surrounding wind and snow to freeze in place.

"Speak." She lowered her eyes to look down at him, her voice carrying the majesty of the ruler of the Extreme North. "You crossed ten thousand miles of snowfields specifically to find me. What exactly do you want?"

Huo Chen raised his gaze and looked directly at the breathtaking Snow Empress in the air. His voice was steady and resolute, every word clear.

"I came here specifically to ask Senior Snow Empress, together with Senior Ice Empress, to leave the Extreme North and follow me to human territory, where you may live in peace."

The moment those words were spoken, the entire Peak of the Extreme North fell into deathly silence.

The howling wind abruptly ceased, the swirling snowflakes froze in midair, and even the air itself seemed to solidify completely as a stifling pressure enveloped the surroundings.

Snow Empress remained silent for three breaths, then let out a cold laugh.

That laughter carried extreme frost and mockery, wrapped in the pride and disdain of a sovereign who had ruled for seven hundred thousand years, echoing over the empty snowfields for a long while.

"Human."

Coldness surged in her eyes. Her voice was pleasant, yet piercingly frigid. "Do you know how absurd the words you just spoke are?"

"I have guarded the Extreme North for seven hundred thousand years. I am the acknowledged ruler of these snowfields, commanding an icy domain that spans ten thousand miles, free and unfettered, answerable to no one."

"You are merely a human junior, yet you dare ask me to abandon everything and follow you into the human world? On what grounds?"

"On the grounds that I can rewrite your predetermined tragic future."

Huo Chen's tone was calm, yet it carried an unshakable certainty.

"Senior, you should know that the transformation tribulation you have suppressed for many years is already approaching. There is little time left."

That simple sentence exploded in Snow Empress's heart like thunder.

Her calm, mocking smile instantly froze on her face. All color drained from her stunning features, and her eyes filled with incredulous shock.

"You... how do you know about this?"

The transformation tribulation was the deepest secret buried in her heart, as well as the calamity she feared most in her seven hundred thousand years of cultivation. She had never revealed even the slightest hint of it to anyone.

"What I know goes far beyond that."

Huo Chen slowly stepped forward, looking toward Snow Empress in the sky as he gradually revealed the fate she was destined to face.

"I have glimpsed the tracks of the future. Your transformation tribulation will be fraught with extreme danger, leaving only a sliver of hope for survival. And at the moment when you are at your weakest and most helpless during the tribulation, the top human experts who have coveted your origin power for a long time will join forces to surround the Peak of the Extreme North."

"They will strike without hesitation when you are exhausted from the tribulation and utterly unable to resist, capturing and imprisoning you alive."

"You will be stripped of your freedom, your origin sealed away, and reduced to a research specimen in human hands, endlessly drained of your lifetime of cultivation and the value of your origin."

Snow Empress's body trembled slightly, her face growing ever paler as her fingers unconsciously tightened. The deepest fear in her heart had been thoroughly stirred.

She had simulated the dangers of the transformation tribulation countless times, yet she had always feared humanity's greed and cunning. Day and night, she had dreaded the arrival of such an outcome. It had been her greatest inner demon for seven hundred thousand years.

"What makes you so certain that this is my future?" A faint, nearly imperceptible tremor had entered her voice.

"Because of the Eye of Fate of the Reincarnation God King."

Huo Chen's eyes were deep as he slowly recounted what he had once seen.

"During the Reincarnation God's trial, my divine consciousness reflected upon countless future paths of Douluo Continent, and I personally witnessed your ending."

"You fail the tribulation and are captured after exhausting your strength. Unwilling to suffer such humiliation yet powerless to resist, you can only abandon the origin of your physical body and become a soul spirit, forever residing within the body of a human youth as an attachment. You will no longer have freedom, nor the majesty of a ruler."

"That is not the ending you deserve."

The firmness faded from his voice, replaced by a touch of gentle compassion.

After enduring eternal solitude and half a lifetime of hardships, after giving your all to cultivate for seven hundred thousand years, you should not meet such a bleak end.

Snow Empress fell completely silent.

The biting cold wind swept through once more, stirring her snow-white dress and long hair, yet it could not disperse the turmoil churning in her eyes. Fear, unwillingness, anger, grievance, and the faintest trace of hope intertwined within her.

Just as the atmosphere atop the Peak of the Extreme North grew solemn to the extreme, a streak of icy blue light suddenly flashed across the distant snowfields.

The streak moved with incredible speed, tearing through the wind and snow. Within several breaths, it had reached the skies above the Peak of the Extreme North. The blue light abruptly receded, revealing the tall, slender figure of a young girl.

The girl looked no older than seventeen or eighteen. Her neat, ice-blue short hair gave her a valiant, dashing air, while her petite, slender figure trailed a scorpion tail bristling with cold gleams from her back. The tip of the tail was wreathed in a ghostly blue, venomous frostlight. Her features were sharp and breathtakingly beautiful, and her entire body carried an icy, cutting edge.

Yet at this moment, her face was pale as paper, her aura unstable and disordered. A glaring streak of fresh blood hung at the corner of her pale lips. She was clearly badly injured and in terrible condition.

"Bing'er."

At the sight of her, the ever-calm and indifferent Snow Empress's expression changed drastically. She flashed down in a dive, steadily catching the swaying Ice Empress, her voice filled with urgency.

"You forcibly drew upon the power of the heavenly tribulation to temper your origin again? You knew your injuries had not healed, so why were you so reckless?"

"Cough, cough."

Ice Empress coughed softly twice, raised a hand to wipe away the blood at her lips, and gave a weak, bitter smile.

"I sensed the aura of an unfamiliar powerful expert erupting from the Peak of the Extreme North. I thought those greedy humans had come again to spy on and harass you. In my haste to get here, I forced myself onward and accidentally aggravated my old injuries."

As soon as she finished speaking, Ice Empress lifted her eyes. Her sharp gaze instantly locked onto Huo Chen and Huo Yuhao below, and intense wariness and hostility surged into her eyes.

"Humans? And one of them is a Title Douluo with considerable cultivation."

Her brows drew together as she looked at Snow Empress beside her, her voice full of confusion.

"Snow Empress, why did you allow a human to barge into the core region of our Extreme North and ascend the Peak of the Extreme North?"

Before Snow Empress could explain, Snow Empress spoke first.

"This is Huo Chen, inheritor of the Reincarnation God King." Snow Empress introduced him quickly. "He came here with an utterly astonishing request. He wants to take you and me away from the Extreme North and have us live in the human world."

Upon hearing this, Ice Empress froze. The next instant, she burst into loud laughter.

Her hearty laughter carried boundless disbelief and absurdity, but the laughter tugged at her severely injured body, making her cough violently again and again as blood continuously spilled from the corners of her mouth.

"Did I hear that correctly?"

Ice Empress endured the agony within her and raised her eyes to look coldly at Huo Chen, her gaze brimming with mockery.

"A human cultivator traveled thousands of miles into the Extreme North because he wants to take away the two supreme beings of our Extreme North? Did something go wrong with your cultivation and muddle your mind?"

Faced with Ice Empress's ridicule and suspicion, Huo Chen remained composed and showed no anger. He simply waited quietly for her emotions to settle.

Only after Ice Empress's laughter faded did he slowly speak, striking directly at the heart of the matter.

"Senior Ice Empress, all three of your attempts to overcome the four-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation failed. Your origin foundation suffered irreversible damage. The residual poison of the heavenly tribulation has lingered in your body for a long time, and your meridians are fractured and damaged."

"If this continues any longer, you will not survive the next descent of the heavenly tribulation. Your end will be death and the dissipation of your soul."

Those few words were like an icy blade, instantly piercing through every one of Ice Empress's pretenses.

The mockery and astonishment vanished from her face at once, replaced by profound gloom and shock. A sharp killing intent even flashed through her eyes.

Her damaged origin and three failed heavenly tribulations were the greatest hidden pain of her life. Even Snow Empress, who had been by her side day and night, only knew that she had been injured while undergoing tribulation; she did not know that the injuries had already become this severe.

Yet this unfamiliar human had seen through her deepest secret.

"You investigated me in secret?" Ice Empress's voice was cold enough to cut, and her scorpion tail tensed slightly, ready to strike at any moment.

"There is no need to investigate." Huo Chen gently shook his head, his tone calm and unruffled. "I have glimpsed countless threads of fate in this world. I saw your arduous cultivation, your three disastrous failures in heavenly tribulations, and your future end—when, during your fourth tribulation, the Nine Heavens Profound Lightning utterly shatters your origin and scatters your soul."

"I also saw Senior Snow Empress's destined future of being captured by humans and becoming a spirit."

Ice Empress and Snow Empress met each other's eyes. Both were overwhelmed by monstrous shock, their minds utterly shaken.

"Are every one of your words true?" Snow Empress asked hoarsely, unable to quite believe it.

"Every word is true."

Huo Chen answered solemnly, revealing the true purpose of his journey.

"I crossed wind and snow to come here for one reason only: to change your fates. I can completely remove the residual poison of the heavenly tribulation from Senior Ice Empress's body, repair her broken meridians, and restore her damaged origin. At the same time, I can protect Senior Snow Empress as she safely passes the transformation tribulation, avoiding all human covetousness and danger."

Ice Empress bit down on her thin lip. Turbulent waves crashed through her heart as she fell into an extreme struggle of hesitation and choice.

"Even if what you say is true, humans have always been cunning, hypocritical, and full of schemes." She stared fixedly at Huo Chen, her eyes full of vigilance. "Why should we believe that you have no ulterior motives and will not use this chance to plot against our origin power?"

"I can swear a Heavenly Dao oath as proof."

Without the slightest hesitation, Huo Chen immediately raised his hand and swore upon the Dao essence of a God King.

"In the name of the Reincarnation God King, I swear that I harbor goodwill toward Seniors Snow Empress and Ice Empress, with not the slightest malicious intent. I will never covet either of your origins or lives. Should I break this oath, may I fall eternally into reincarnation and suffer the agony of endless sinking through ten thousand lifetimes."

The sacred and majestic Heavenly Dao oath echoed across the snowfield. The laws of heaven and earth trembled faintly. The power of the oath was genuine beyond doubt, with no possibility of falsehood.

Both Ice Empress and Snow Empress were moved.

A Heavenly Dao oath sworn in the name of a God King was among the harshest oaths in the world. Once broken, its punishment would surely come to pass, and no one could escape it. For him to dare swear such a vicious oath was enough to prove the sincerity of the man before them.

Just as their resolve began to waver, Ice Empress's body suddenly swayed. Both hands clutched tightly at her chest as her body trembled violently, and bone-rending pain swept through her entire body.

A large amount of blood seeped continuously through her fingers and dripped onto the pure white snow, glaring crimson and horrifying to behold.

"Bing'er!" Snow Empress's face went pale in alarm. She hurriedly held Ice Empress's tottering body tightly, her heart full of anxiety.

"Let me examine your injuries." Huo Chen strode forward quickly.

"Don't touch me!" Ice Empress instinctively retreated in vigilance, enduring the agony as she rejected him.

"If you still wish to survive this winter and keep your life, then there is no need to resist."

Huo Chen's tone was calm, yet it carried an unquestionable certainty.

The agonizing pain at death's door left the Ice Empress completely unable to struggle. She stared into Huo Chen's clear, open eyes for several seconds before finally gritting her teeth and slowly extending her trembling wrist.

A strand of warm, pure golden soul power slowly entered her meridians and traveled through her entire body. A moment later, Huo Chen's brows drew tightly together, his expression grave.

"Your injuries are far more serious than I anticipated."

He spoke in a low voice, revealing the cruel truth.

"Three core meridians have been completely severed. Your source flame is on the verge of collapse, nearly extinguished. The lingering poison from the heavenly tribulation has long invaded your internal organs and taken root in your origin. If this drags on for another three months, even immortals won't be able to save you. There will be no turning back."

"Is there still a way to save her?" The Snow Empress's face instantly turned pale, and her voice trembled.

"Yes."

Huo Chen answered at once, offering the only chance of survival.

"If I spend a month using the purifying power of the Flower of Reincarnation's Other Shore, along with the God King's soul power to guide it layer by layer, I can completely remove the remaining poison from your body, repair your severed meridians, rebuild your foundation at its source, and free you entirely from the hidden danger of the heavenly tribulation."

"Can I really... recover?"

On the verge of despair, a faint light of survival suddenly lit up in the Ice Empress's eyes. Her voice shook uncontrollably.

"You can."

That single word fell with tremendous weight, giving the Ice Empress her final hope.

After a long, deathly silence, the Ice Empress slowly lowered her head, concealing all the struggle and pride in her eyes.

After a long while, she looked up again. There was no longer any hostility or mockery in her eyes—only the exhaustion and resolve of someone who had found life amid certain death.

"Fine. I'll go with you."

"Ice?" The Snow Empress was stunned. She had not expected the ever-proud and stubborn Ice Empress to make such a choice.

"Snow Empress, I have no way back anymore." The Ice Empress gave a bitter smile. "If I remain in the Extreme North, I'll perish within three months. Rather than wait helplessly for death, I might as well gamble everything."

"I already have nothing. There's nothing left for me to worry about or lose."

Seeing her dear friend's resolute expression, the Snow Empress sighed inwardly. Looking at Huo Chen before her, she finally nodded slowly and made her final decision.

"I'll leave with Ice."

"But let me make my bottom line clear in advance. If I sense even the slightest improper intention from you, Ice and I will join forces. Even if you possess the inheritance of a God King, we will make you pay a painful price."

"Please rest assured, Seniors."

Huo Chen's expression softened, and he revealed a gentle smile.

From that moment on, the two supreme rulers of the Extreme North—the Ice Empress, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, and the Snow Empress, ruler of the Extreme North—both agreed to follow Huo Chen and leave the snowy plains that had imprisoned them for countless ages.

The group packed up and set off, changing direction toward the distant Heavenly Soul Empire.

The journey was long, with wind and snow accompanying them all the way. Having recovered some of her strength, the Ice Empress curiously moved to Huo Yuhao's side, examining the boy from head to toe with confusion in her eyes.

"Kid, you're surrounded by the scent of that lazy bug Tianmeng. It's incredibly strong." She raised a brow. "Did that guy really willingly form a contract with you and become your soul ring?"

Huo Yuhao did not hide anything. Raising a hand, he activated his soul power, and two dazzling golden soul rings slowly rose from beneath his feet. The heavy pressure of a million-year soul ring silently spread outward.

The Ice Empress's pupils suddenly contracted, her face filled with shock.

"Two million-year soul rings? That lazy bug was actually willing to split apart his own origin?"

"It wasn't a split." Huo Yuhao gently shook his head. "Senior Tianmeng sealed most of his origin power inside my body. Once my cultivation rises, my body grows stronger, and I can withstand greater power, it will gradually be unsealed and released. These two soul rings are merely the surface manifestation of that origin power."

"I see." The Ice Empress nodded in realization, a hint of approval flashing in her eyes. "That old bug is cautious and clever enough. This method can preserve his origin while gradually nourishing your body."

She raised a hand and lightly patted Huo Yuhao on the head, her tone carrying both expectation and authority.

"Kid, cultivate diligently. Don't waste your talent."

Huo Yuhao swayed slightly from the pat, but he broke into a pure smile and nodded firmly.

"Don't worry, Senior. I'll cultivate hard and never disappoint your expectations."

The Snow Empress quietly watched the warm scene before her. A rare trace of gentleness and warmth silently passed through her cold eyes.

She raised her gaze toward the tall figure walking ahead and softly spoke, breaking the silence of the journey.

"Huo Chen, those fate trajectories you once saw—the tragic and miserable endings Ice and I faced—were they truly destined and impossible to change?"

Huo Chen's steps paused slightly. The evening wind stirred his clothes as his voice answered, gentle yet firm.

"They were once a predetermined fate. But I crossed through time and space to come here. From this day onward, every predetermined tragedy is void."

The wind and snow swept past her ears. The Snow Empress was silent for a moment, then an extremely soft word of thanks drifted away with the wind.

"Thank you."