She was the Heavenly Snow Woman, naturally born from the ice energy of heaven and earth—a one-of-a-kind humanoid Soul Beast.
Yet this Thunder Spirit had personally told them that she had been enlightened by Yao Shi into becoming a spirit of heaven and earth. It was as though Yao Shi had directly transformed that bolt of tribulation lightning into an existence like herself.
In Snow Empress's understanding, perhaps only deities could directly turn an inanimate object into life.
Upon hearing their questions, Yao Shi repeatedly shook his head. "How could I possibly be a descendant of a deity? My martial soul is merely a little unusual, so the soul skills it grants are naturally a little unusual too."
Yao Shi did not explain much further. He was afraid that if he kept talking, Ice Empress and Snow Empress would surely think he was some crown prince from the God Realm who had come down for a stroll.
"Forget it. Let's not worry about anything else for now. In any case, Snow Empress has successfully passed her seven-hundred-thousand-year limit."
Seeing that Yao Shi had no intention of explaining further, the two of them did not press the matter.
"Oh, Bing'er." At that moment, Snow Empress suddenly asked, "If I remember correctly, you were planning to go to the human world with little Yao Shi, weren't you?"
Ice Empress nodded at that. "That's right. This guy came to my doorstep earlier and started smashing things like mad, then knocked out dozens of my clansmen to lure me out, saying he wanted to cooperate with me."
As she spoke, Ice Empress seemed to recall that if she had refused back then, Yao Shi might really have locked her in that space. She immediately shot him a vicious glare.
"Xue'er, why are you bringing this up?" Ice Empress suddenly asked.
Snow Empress smiled and looked at Yao Shi. "I was wondering whether I could go to the human world with you as well?"
"What?!"
Ice Empress was utterly stunned.
Was this really the Snow Empress she knew?
Didn't she hate humans the most?
Why was she now taking the initiative to go to the human world?
Could it be because of Yao Shi?
Snow Empress seemed to see through her thoughts. "Are you wondering whether I want to go to the human world because of little Yao Shi?"
After seeing Ice Empress nod, she continued, "It is indeed because of him. Besides, I've lived in the Far North for far too long. It's time for me to see the outside world. I used to hold far too many prejudices against humans, but little Yao Shi made me understand that there are kind and good people among them as well."
As she spoke, her gaze settled directly on Yao Shi, and she smiled at him. "I wonder if little Yao Shi would be willing to let me travel with you?"
"Of course I am. The more people there are, the livelier it'll be. If it were just Ice Empress and me, someone might get bored every day and keep chattering in my ear like a broken record." Yao Shi readily agreed to Snow Empress's request while taking the chance to tease Ice Empress.
Ice Empress's face instantly darkened. Embarrassed and angered, she clenched her fists. "Yao Shi, who are you calling a broken record? Get back here! I promise I won't whip you with my tail."
Seeing Ice Empress's expression change, Yao Shi had already bolted.
As the ruler of the Far North ice plains, Snow Empress had some matters to arrange before leaving. Thus, over the next two days, Yao Shi and Ice Empress rested within the Glazed Abundance Pure Land.
It was not until the third day that Snow Empress returned, accompanied by an enormous white bear.
Ice Empress's voice sounded beside Yao Shi's ear. "This bear is called Little White. He was a little ice bear Snow Empress picked up when she had just become an emperor. He has been with her for over two hundred thousand years. To him, Snow Empress is practically like a mother."
Snow Empress then brought the bear before Yao Shi and introduced him. "Yao Shi, this is Little White." She then turned to Little White and said, "Little White, this is Yao Shi. Thanks to him, I was able to safely pass my limit."
The Ice Bear King, Little White, froze for a moment, his face looking rather foolish, as though he doubted that this Four Rings human before him could possibly help his mother survive her heavenly tribulation.
Seeing that Little White did not react at all, Snow Empress lightly tapped him on the head and gently said, "Be good. Say hello."
Only then did Little White nod somewhat nervously. "H-hello. M-my name is Little White."
"Uh, hello. My name is Yao Shi," Yao Shi immediately replied, wondering why this bear had such an accent.
Only then did Snow Empress say to Yao Shi, "Little Yao Shi, Little White is not far from his third bottleneck. Without me there to protect him, it may be difficult for him to break through successfully. So I want him to stay with us as well."
Yao Shi did not hesitate and immediately agreed. "Sure. There's plenty of room in the Pure Land space. Accommodating all of you won't be a problem at all. Besides, after I reached Four Rings, the space inside expanded quite a bit."
Thus, Yao Shi had originally only intended to recruit Ice Empress. Yet after all the twists and turns, Snow Empress had joined first, followed by the Ice Bear King, Little White. Oh, and he had also conveniently reached Four Rings.
This harvest had greatly exceeded his expectations.
Another three days swiftly passed.
In the outer region of the Far North, Yao Shi lay leisurely atop a carriage by himself. Since Ice Empress, Snow Empress, and Little White were Soul Beasts, they all remained within the Glazed Abundance Pure Land. However, Yao Shi had granted them permission to enter and leave freely, and they could also freely sense the outside world.
During the two days before departure, while waiting for Snow Empress, Yao Shi had gotten bored and gone to loot the corpses of the Soul Tool squad that had been wiped out while hunting Snow Empress. Sure enough, he had found quite a few good things.
Not only had he obtained several storage Soul Tools with enormous space inside, but the Gold Soul Coins within them totaled at least over a hundred million. This immense fortune made Yao Shi's eyes light up at once. For two straight days, he kept them in the Glazed Pure Land for company, even sleeping sprawled atop them. He could not help it—when he had been young, he had been terrified of poverty from having to earn money.
Seeing Yao Shi like this inside the Pure Land, Ice Empress looked utterly disgusted. "They're just a pile of useless metal pieces. Look at how you guard them like they're treasures."
After saying that, Ice Empress shook out another mountain of Gold Soul Coins from her storage space, even larger than the previous pile. Her explanation was that over the countless years, innumerable human experts had entered the Far North, only to be killed by her and her clansmen. As a Soul Beast, human possessions were of no use to her whatsoever, so they had simply kept collecting them. Over time, the pile had grown larger and larger.
When Yao Shi saw yet another mountain of Gold Soul Coins, his eyes lit up again. He coquettishly pleaded with Ice Empress, "Sister Ice, please support me!"
Ice Empress merely haughtily turned her head away. "Since you like them so much, I'll reward them all to you."
Besides that, he had obtained dozens of seventh- and eighth-grade Soul Tools, a ninth-grade Soul Tool called the Sealing God Platform, and several books about Soul Tools and Soul Engineers.
After looking through them, Yao Shi found them rather interesting. His fourth soul skill seemed particularly suited for Soul Tools as well. Perhaps in the future, he could use it to build an army of intelligent machines.
Since he had already left Shrek Academy anyway, he immediately decided that his next stop would be the Sun Moon Empire to study Soul Tool technology.
Before you continue