Yan Jingzhe straightened up. "I'm not here to hunt you. I want to discuss something with you—something that can help you escape the suffering of Life Gold's backlash."
The cove fell silent for a while. Only the faint trickling of stream water seeping through cracks in the rock walls could be heard. The dull-gray tortoiseshell floated two inches beneath the surface, its limbs paddling slowly as its brown eyes stared unblinkingly at Yan Jingzhe.
Yan Jingzhe did not rush it. He remained crouched by the shore and waited for several minutes until the ripples on the water gradually settled.
The tortoiseshell finally let out a muffled voice, as if squeezing the words from its mouth. "Human, how do you know about Life Gold? And what do you mean by a solution?"
"I can't conveniently explain the matter of Life Gold," Yan Jingzhe said mysteriously. "But I do have a solution. It is the Soul Spirit I created."
"What is a Soul Spirit?" The Golden Tortoiseshell rose above the surface, its face full of confusion.
Yan Jingzhe did not answer immediately. Instead, he first closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his Sea of Spirit. A moment later, three clusters of light emerged from his body and hovered at his side.
The first figure was white and carried a heavy chill. Snow Empress's delicate body appeared, her features exquisite and cold. She stood upon the water to Yan Jingzhe's left, her ice-blue hair trailing across the surface as her toes lightly touched the stream.
The second cluster was ice-blue, a full size larger than Snow Empress's, yet its light was denser and gentler. Ice Bear King Little White had been condensed into a small bear roughly half a person's height. He sat on a rock to Yan Jingzhe's right, a