Ice Empress Arrives

Ling Xiao's voice was a little unclear, but he pronounced every word with exceptional sincerity.

In his previous life, he had been a blind orphan. He did not know what Snow Emperor looked like, nor did he understand the concept of "beautiful."

He only knew that the woman before him was the first being he had seen upon opening his eyes, and the first warmth he had felt in this life.

When Ling Xiao called Snow Emperor "beautiful," it was the most sincere description he could offer her.

Snow Emperor froze for a moment.

Then she smiled faintly. "You little thing, you certainly have a sweet mouth."

Snow Emperor's tone remained cool, but the trace on her face could not be hidden no matter what.

After smiling, Ling Xiao lowered his head and continued practicing how to control this body.

The Ice Crystal Palace was enormous.

So enormous that it exceeded Ling Xiao's imagination.

He could not help but marvel inwardly. Just how powerful is this mother of mine...?

The palace before him was clearly not something an ordinary person could build.

The scale and grandeur of the palace alone were enough to imagine just how terrifying her strength was.

Moreover, Ling Xiao noticed something else: his mother had never left the Ice Crystal Palace.

Ever since he had awakened.

Whether it was day or night, Snow Emperor remained by his side. During the day, she watched him crawl and play; at night, she held him as he slept.

She never ate and never rested, only occasionally sitting on the ice bed with her eyes closed.

At that moment, Ling Xiao could sense that his mother had something on her mind.

This day.

As usual, Snow Emperor sat on the ice bed, watching Ling Xiao practice crawling at the other end.

Her face remained as cool and calm as ever, without the slightest fluctuation in emotion.

Her gaze drifted into the distance from time to time, and her brows occasionally furrowed faintly.

Ling Xiao stopped crawling and lay on the bed, tilting his head as he looked at Snow Emperor.

"Mom?"

Snow Emperor came back to herself and looked down at him.

"What is it, little thing?"

"Is Mom unhappy?"

Snow Emperor was slightly stunned by his words.

She seemed not to have expected this little thing to notice the change in her emotions.

"..."

Snow Emperor fell silent for a moment, then sighed softly.

She truly did have something on her mind.

And it was a matter of life and death.

The seven-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation.

As the ruler of the Extreme North, Snow Emperor's cultivation had already approached seven hundred thousand years.

To face this heavenly tribulation, Snow Emperor had once tried to condense a second soul core.

Through a second soul core formed by the complementary balance of yin and yang, she hoped to increase her strength and withstand the seven-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation head-on.

If she succeeded, not only would she pass the tribulation safely, but her strength would undergo a qualitative leap.

But she had failed.

Not only had the second soul core failed to form, it had also triggered a severe backlash.

The source of her ice had been heavily damaged, her foundation impaired, and her strength greatly reduced.

In other words.

Not only had she failed to find a way to resist the heavenly tribulation, she had made herself even weaker.

Even after a long period of recovery, her source had yet to fully recover.

Snow Emperor knew very well that in her current condition, withstanding the seven-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation head-on was almost impossible.

So she turned her gaze toward heavenly treasures.

If she could find a heavenly treasure capable of repairing her source, perhaps she could try condensing a second soul core again.

If she could not find one...

She still had a backup plan.

Using the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Lotus as a catalyst, she could take the path of transforming into a human and begin cultivating anew.

Transforming into a human meant abandoning seven hundred thousand years of cultivation and starting from zero.

For the current Snow Emperor, this was the most helpless choice—and also her last.

Only...

Snow Emperor lowered her head and glanced at Ling Xiao, who was crawling all over the ice bed.

If she transformed into a human and cultivated again, what would happen to this little thing?

That was what truly troubled her.

Just as Snow Emperor was immersed in thought, a voice suddenly came from outside the Ice Crystal Palace.

The voice was crisp and urgent, carrying an impossible-to-ignore sharpness.

"Xue'er!"

"You said you found the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Lotus? Are you confident about facing the heavenly tribulation this time?"

That voice drew closer and closer.

Almost the instant it fell silent, the doors of the Ice Crystal Palace were flung open.

Ling Xiao jumped in fright.

His hand was already resting on Snow Emperor's thigh. He had wanted to crawl over and ask what was wrong with his mother, but before he could speak, the sudden commotion interrupted him.

Snow Emperor, however, was not surprised at all.

She lowered her head and glanced at Ling Xiao beside her, then simply reached out and pulled him into her arms.

"Mm?"

Ling Xiao looked utterly confused. Before he could react, he was already sitting in Snow Emperor's embrace.

"Xue'er, you...!"

The visitor rushed before Snow Emperor and was about to say something when she suddenly stopped.

Because she saw what Snow Emperor was holding—a living, breathing baby.

The air froze in that instant.

"Ah!!!"

A scream exploded through the Ice Crystal Palace.

A young woman in an emerald-green dress stared fixedly at Ling Xiao in Snow Emperor's arms with a pair of emerald-green eyes.

Her beauty differed from Snow Emperor's coolness. Hers carried a sharp, flamboyant edge.

Her emerald-green hair was tied into twin ponytails that swayed with her exaggerated movements.

Her face was filled with shock. "Xue'er! Where did this thing come from?!"

Ice Empress looked at Snow Emperor in disbelief.

The Ice Heaven Snow Maiden, who had been cold for countless years, never smiled, and was even stingy with her smiles, was actually holding a baby in her arms?

And she looked incredibly practiced at it!

Was this reasonable?

Faced with Ice Empress's immense reaction, Snow Emperor was not surprised in the slightest.

Instead, she revealed a faint smile, as though she had long expected Ice Empress to react this way.

"Little thing."

Snow Emperor said to Ling Xiao in her arms:

"Ling Xiao, this is Mom's younger sister. You should call her... Auntie."

However, Ling Xiao had no reaction at all, because he was completely dumbfounded.

"Xue'er."

"Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Lotus."

"Tribulation."

The three keywords exploded through his mind one after another like three bolts of thunder.

Snow Emperor.

The Ice Heaven Snow Maiden.

The foremost of the Three Kings of the Far North.

With a cultivation of six hundred and ninety thousand years, she could face the seven-hundred-thousand-year lightning tribulation at any moment.

And the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Lotus Ice Empress mentioned was precisely the key to her transformation.

As for the name "Xue'er."

In all of Douluo Continent, only one person called her that.

Ice Empress.

The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion.

The Ice Heaven Snow Maiden's closest friend.

The second of the Three Kings of the Far North.

With a cultivation of three hundred and ninety thousand years, she too could face the four-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation at any moment.

Ling Xiao abruptly raised his head.

He looked at the young woman who had just entered.

Emerald-green hair.

The iconic twin ponytails.

Emerald-green eyes.

That sharp and flamboyant air.

She was exactly the same as the descriptions of Ice Empress.

Then he looked at Snow Emperor, who was holding him.

Snow-white hair.

Ice-blue eyes.

An incomparably beautiful, cool face.

An inborn pride.

Everything matched perfectly with the written descriptions he had read countless times in his previous life...

Ling Xiao's mind went completely blank.

He had transmigrated!

He had truly transmigrated to Douluo Continent.

The person holding him was the Ice Heaven Snow Maiden, ruler of the Extreme North—his mother, Snow Emperor!

That existence who, in the hearts of countless readers, had been cold, proud, powerful, and forever aloof.

Yet at that moment, she was holding him, enveloping him in the warmth of her body.