"Do we Soul Masters still need coal?" Wu Changkong stood nearby, watching Shui Qinghan tend the stove.
With their Soul Power, the cold was nothing they couldn't withstand.
"Soul Masters are people too, and people like being comfortable."
"Nights in the Far North are long. With coal burning and a thick quilt over you, you'll sleep more soundly."
"Get some rest. Once we enter the Glacier Belt tomorrow, there won't be a hotel to stay in. Tonight's your last chance to sleep in comfort, so make the most of it."
"Okay." Wu Changkong took off his coat and lay down on the bed by the window.
He turned on his side and watched Shui Qinghan crouch in front of the stove.
She wore a plain wool shirt, and instead of being pinned up as usual, her long hair hung loosely over her shoulders.
Head bowed, she tended the coals with care, occasionally turning a piece with the tongs so it would burn more evenly.
He suddenly remembered what his father had told him.
About his birth, and about his mother's death.
It had been a sweltering summer afternoon, so muggy that even the cicadas in the trees couldn't be bothered to sing.
His mother had been hanging laundry in the yard. Though heavily pregnant, she still couldn't sit still.
Then the contractions had struck without warning, a full two weeks before her due date.
The midwife hadn't even arrived when snow began falling from a clear sky.
In the middle of summer, the temperature plunged below freezing within minutes, and great flakes of snow filled the air.
His father said it was the strangest weather he had ever seen. Everyone in Water Source Town had come out to watch snow fall in June, whispering that it was an omen of a child born under an ill star.
His mother had struggled to bring him into the world amid that sudden snowstorm.
Already frail, she had been overcome by the cold during childbirth. She died a few days later.
Before she passed, she had cradled him in his swaddling clothes and whispered to his father, "Don't blame the child. He'll make something of himself one day. Promise me you'll raise him well."
Wu Dachui said it was the only promise he had ever sworn.
And Wu Changkong knew that the ice attribute he had possessed since birth was probably the cause of that June snowfall.
Somehow, his birth had taken his mother's life.
He had never told anyone that secret. He had buried it deep, where it remained a thorn he could not pull out.
"Why are you looking at me?" Shui Qinghan asked suddenly.
Wu Changkong quickly shifted his gaze to the ceiling. "No reason. I'm going to sleep."
Early the next morning, beside the gates of Northguard Pass.
Four sentries on the opposite side, changing shifts, all looked ahead at once.
Stationed on the frontier year-round, they usually saw only traveling women bundled up like dumplings or men out hunting. They had never seen a woman so beautiful, mature, and poised.
The young sentry leading them stared openly.
"You four. Do you think she's pretty?"
"Pretty..."
The young sentry blurted it out before catching himself halfway through.
"C-Commander Shi." All four snapped to attention in fright.
Before them stood Shi Yue, the renowned commander of Northguard Pass in Northguard City.
Commander Shi appeared to be in his early forties, broad and powerfully built, with a square face and thick brows. An old knife scar ran diagonally from his left brow to his cheekbone, lending his stern face an even fiercer look.
"I asked if she was pretty."
"N-no, sir."
"Hmph. You're a disgrace to Northguard Pass! That's Dean Shui of Skywater Academy, a Soul Douluo! If you brats stare at her again, I'll have every one of you cleaning the latrines for a month!"
The four sentries lowered their heads in unison. The young leader's neck had gone bright red.
"Why are you still standing there? Get to your posts!"
"Yes, sir!"
They shouldered their spears and hurried toward the city wall.
Shui Qinghan walked up to Commander Shi. "It's been a while."
"It has, Dean Shui."
"Why were you so angry?"
"These brats only arrived recently. They haven't seen much of the world. Sorry you had to see that. Are you taking your students out to hunt for Soul Rings?"
"I am. These are my students."
"I'm taking them to the outskirts of the Far North for Soul Rings. It'll be good experience for them, too."
Commander Shi glanced over the three young people.
They had ice attributes, and Shui Qinghan had brought them herself. They were unlikely to be ordinary students.
He asked no more. His expression turned serious again.
"Dean Shui, things have been unsettled in the Far North lately."
"How so?"
"Several Soul Hunting parties spotted Ice Demon Giant Apes near the edge of the Glacier Belt a few days ago."
"Be careful once you enter the Glacier Belt."
"Thank you for the warning, Commander Shi. I will."
Shui Qinghan nodded. "When we return from this hunt, I'll buy you a drink."
"Haha! It's a deal." Commander Shi grinned and stepped aside.
The four passed through the gate and entered the Far Northern Wasteland.
As they advanced, the snow beneath their feet grew deeper.
As far as they could see, the world held only two colors: the gray-white sky and the snow-covered earth.
A few stunted pines stood scattered across the wasteland, twisted by the wind, their branches heavy with icicles. Now and then, an unfamiliar Soul Beast howled in the distance.
Shui Qinghan stopped and looked out across the wasteland.
She turned to the others. "From here on, stay behind me. None of you are to leave the group on your own."
"Conserve your strength and Soul Power. Don't try to show off, and don't assume you're safe just because you keep a shield up at the cost of your Soul Power. Real danger often appears the moment you run out."
"Understood, Dean," the three answered together.
Wu Changkong followed behind Shui Qinghan. He had come here before to hunt for his earlier Soul Rings.
But the Far North was very different now from what it would be twenty thousand years later.
In the era he remembered, the Far North was a paradise for Soul Beasts and forbidden ground for humans.
The Snow Empress, the Ice Empress, and the Titan Snow Demon King each ruled their own domain. Countless terrifying beings that had lived for a hundred thousand years lurked beneath the ancient ice of the inner region. Even Titled Douluo dared not venture there lightly.
But once the Snow Empress and Ice Empress left Douluo Continent with Huo Yuhao, everything in the Far North changed.
Without the protection of its two empresses, the Titan Snow Demon King could not hold the line alone. Human forces seized the opening and pushed north in force.
By the time of his previous life, the Far North existed in name only. Great numbers of Soul Beasts had been hunted or kept in captivity, and many areas had become farms for raising ice-attribute Soul Beasts. They had been brought under human control even more thoroughly than those in the Star Dou Great Forest.
It had begun with humanity's ever-growing greed, and with the Spirit Pagoda's gradual corruption in pursuit of profit.
He had not thought about those events in a long time.
Now, standing on this wasteland that humanity had yet to lay claim to, he realized that the Far North was at its height right now. Deep in the glaciers farther north lay the heart of its power.
The two empresses of the Far North were sleeping in their domains, as yet undisturbed by any outside force.
If I grow strong enough, will I be able to meet the legendary Empresses of Ice and Snow?
Before you continue