The two returned from the scenes in his memories to reality, and both fell silent.
The Ice Empress opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again, but ultimately failed to form a complete sentence. Shock and disbelief churned in her emerald slit pupils, along with a stirring she herself refused to acknowledge.
The Snow Empress broke the silence first.
"Did you create these soul spirits yourself?"
Yang Xing smacked his lips and answered, "Half and half."
The Snow Empress and the Ice Empress both frowned slightly.
"What do you mean?" the Ice Empress asked.
Yang Xing did not keep them in suspense. He explained casually, "I wasn't the one who proposed soul spirits as a form of existence. I only learned about them by chance and thought they were rather interesting."
He paused.
"As it happened, I had a soul skill related to souls, so I spent some time studying the idea and brought it to life."
The Snow Empress nodded, the scrutiny in her sky-blue eyes gradually turning into a measure of approval.
"I have witnessed the rise and fall of many human empires, yet I have never encountered anything like a soul spirit. If such a thing truly existed in the past, it could never have gone unnoticed. The soul spirits you learned about were probably no more than an idea conceived by your human predecessors, something no one had ever realized."
The way she looked at Yang Xing changed. Her gaze no longer held that earlier mixture of indifference and wariness.
"So, from nothing more than a vague description, you developed an entirely new form of existence from scratch, one wholly separate from the soul ring cultivation system the Douluo Continent has followed for thousands of years."
She paused for a beat.
"You have my admiration."