The Tide Turns

"Ice, Bing'er?"

Sensing that familiar aura, Snow Empress suddenly looked up into the sky and murmured softly.

Perhaps knowing that the person she could rely on had arrived, the flames burning atop her origin gradually began to die out. Her injuries were too severe, and as soon as she closed her eyes, she fainted.

Ice Empress's petite figure hovered in midair, her gaze cold as she looked at the soul engineer squad, now reduced to barely more than a dozen people.

After the middle-aged man got a clear look at Ice Empress and sensed her aura, his expression tightened.

"Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion! Ice Empress!"

The remaining dozen or so people were all startled upon hearing the middle-aged man's words. "What? She's Ice Empress, ranked second among the Far North's Three Heavenly Kings and seventh on the list of fierce beasts?"

"I never thought we'd encounter two fierce beasts from the list in a single day!"

Ice Empress looked utterly disdainful, her voice devoid of emotion. "Since you know it is this Empress, why aren't you getting the hell out of the Far North?"

The middle-aged man's expression turned grave. Their original plan had been to capture Snow Empress while she was severely injured. Ice Empress's sudden appearance had indeed caught him completely off guard.

But after only an instant, a cold gleam flashed through his eyes. He spoke to Ice Empress icily.

"Ice Empress, Snow Empress is our only target. If you know what's good for you, let us take her away. Otherwise, I wouldn't mind turning the Far North's Three Heavenly Kings into One Heavenly King."

"What arrogance! Do you really think a pack of ants like you can kill this Empress?!" Ice Empress roared. Yet she had no intention of fighting. What she needed to do now was buy time—buy Yao Shi enough time to get close to Snow Empress.

The moment this soul engineer squad moved toward Snow Empress, Yao Shi had immediately suggested that Ice Empress draw their attention while he took the chance to approach Snow Empress and heal her. That was why Ice Empress had frozen the enemies with Eternal Frozen Domain at the very beginning.

At this moment, Yao Shi was using one snowdrift after another as cover, steadily approaching the severely wounded Snow Empress.

"Heh, who lives and who dies is still uncertain." The middle-aged man snorted. "Snow Empress was badly injured resisting the heavenly tribulation and can't fight, while you only have a little over three hundred thousand years of cultivation. Do you really think you can defeat my soul engineer squad alone?"

Almost there.

He was almost there.

Yao Shi looked ahead. Less than a hundred meters remained between him and Snow Empress, and he quickened his pace. Earlier, he had had to use snowdrifts for cover to avoid being discovered, which had cost him some time.

Just as he was about to reach Snow Empress, a soul cannon shell suddenly flew in from behind Yao Shi and struck him squarely in the back.

Boom—

With a deafening explosion, the shell detonated and kicked up a cloud of black smoke.

The middle-aged man shook the cannon barrel mounted on his right arm and sneered. "Who would've thought that besides Ice Empress and Snow Empress, there was a little rat hiding here as well?"

"Yao Shi!"

Seeing Yao Shi take the shell head-on, Ice Empress cried out anxiously.

"Hmph, stop shouting. A mere Three-Ring dared to come here—commendable courage, but unfortunately, after taking one of my Class 6 soul cannon shells head-on, he must have been blasted to pieces! Hahahahaha!"

Seeing Ice Empress so anxious over a human, the middle-aged man continued to mock her.

As the smoke dispersed, Yao Shi's body emerged, with only his upper half remaining.

Seeing this, Ice Empress concluded that Yao Shi likely would not survive. Her fury instantly reached its peak, and the pressure of the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion's three hundred and ninety thousand years of cultivation erupted in an instant.

Everyone in the soul engineer squad was crushed by the pressure she unleashed, struggling to breathe. The middle-aged man only managed to block that overwhelmingly tyrannical pressure after activating a Class 9 protective barrier.

The middle-aged man shouted, "Brothers, activate your soul tools!"

As his words fell, the dozen or so Soul Douluos and Titled Douluos equipped themselves with Class 7 and Class 8 defensive soul tools, forming an energy barrier. They also took out several Class 8 soul cannons and arranged them into formation, their muzzles aimed at Ice Empress.

Just as both sides entered a standoff, Yao Shi, lying on the snow with only half his body left, was recovering from his wounds at an astonishing speed.

"Damn it, you actually ambushed me and fired a dirty shot into my back. I'm fucking remembering this grudge."

As his body repaired itself, Yao Shi slowly wriggled toward Snow Empress.

He had originally been only a dozen or so meters away from Snow Empress, but that shell had forcibly blasted him dozens of meters away again.

"Heal."

When he was two or three meters from Snow Empress, Yao Shi decisively raised his hand and cast a healing spell on her. Unfortunately, Snow Empress had just burned her origin, so her recovery was somewhat slow. She did not wake immediately; his healing merely healed the wounds she had suffered during her tribulation.

Forget it. I'll put her in the Pure Land first.

With that, Yao Shi opened the Abundance Glazed Pure Land and tossed Snow Empress inside.

Up in the sky, Ice Empress had already begun fighting the soul engineer squad, whose weakest members were all Soul Douluos.

Ice Empress was utterly enraged. First Snow Empress had been severely injured, and then Yao Shi had died.

"This Empress will tear every one of you to pieces!"

As Ice Empress spoke, layers of ice crystals clung to her body and formed a suit of armor. This was her soul skill, Ice Emperor's Protection.

Then she flashed toward them. A massive ice stinger shaped like a scorpion tail condensed behind her and slammed heavily into the enemy's energy barrier.

This attack was incredibly powerful, directly piercing the energy barrier. But only for an instant—another energy barrier immediately covered it once more.

"Tch." Seeing the barrier reform, Ice Empress unwillingly retreated several dozen meters.

"Didn't expect that, did you, Ice Empress? My barrier has more than one layer." As the Class 9 soul engineer spoke, the massive Class 9 soul cannon on his back slowly rose under the support of the dozen or so Class 7 and Class 8 soul engineers. Together with the smaller soul cannons from before, they all aimed at Ice Empress.

Ice Empress could easily dodge those smaller soul cannons with only a slight sidestep. But when the Class 9 soul cannon fired, she immediately felt a jolt of dread and hurriedly flew backward, trying to evade the shell.

It was useless. No matter how fast Ice Empress flew, the shell remained locked onto her. It was so fast that she had no time to use a soul skill to block it.

Just as she was about to be struck by the shell, a voice rang out...

Emperor Sword: Peerless Ice Edge!

An ice crystal longsword appeared and instantly cleaved the shell apart. Though it still exploded, its power was greatly weakened.

Ice Empress used that chance to pull away. The aftershock from the weakened shell struck Ice Empress beneath Ice Emperor's Protection, but it was hardly even a scratch.

Seeing that familiar move, Ice Empress turned toward its source and called out, "Xue'er, is that you?"

But when she turned around, she saw Yao Shi standing where Snow Empress had fallen earlier, smiling at her.

"No. It's me, Yao Shi."

Ice Empress: ...