Helping Snow Empress, Gifting Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow!

Lei Chen saw the hopeful yet doubtful look in Snow Empress's eyes and naturally understood what she was thinking.

He smiled calmly, his voice mild yet carrying unquestionable certainty. "There is no need to speak of seeking my guidance. I can tell you clearly that your upcoming seven-hundred-thousand-year Heavenly Tribulation, as well as the subsequent eight-hundred-thousand-year, nine-hundred-thousand-year, and even final Million-Year Heavenly Tribulation, are no great difficulty to me."

"I have my own methods to ensure that you pass through them safely."

The moment those words fell, even Snow Empress, with her state of mind tempered over hundreds of thousands of years, had her ethereal eyes erupt with brilliant light, as though she had seen a warm sun amid an endless winter.

If she could safely overcome every Heavenly Tribulation and retain her heaven-reaching cultivation, who would be willing to abandon everything and gamble on the vague, uncertain future after taking human form?

Yet that excitement lasted only an instant before deeper caution replaced it. Snow Empress slightly furrowed her delicate brows, like frozen ice crystals. Her voice remained cold, but now carried a trace of inquiry. "Esteemed Plane Lord, are... are your words true?"

"You should understand that resisting a Heavenly Tribulation, especially one at the million-year level, is no easy matter. Even for a God-level existence, it requires an enormous price."

She paused slightly, her icy blue eyes fixed on Lei Chen as she asked the most crucial question. "What must I offer in exchange for such assistance? Or rather, what do you wish for me to do?"

Snow Empress's question made Lei Chen laugh despite himself. He shook his head, his tone carrying understanding and a hint of teasing. "You truly are cautious. But rest assured, I am helping you through the tribulation not because I need you to do anything specific for me, nor do you need to offer any additional repayment."

Seeing the confusion in Snow Empress's eyes grow deeper, Lei Chen's smile faded as he spoke seriously. "You, Snow Empress, and even every Soul Beast in this Far North Land are lives nurtured by this plane. Your existence and your strength are already the finest repayment to this plane."

Lei Chen's gaze seemed to pierce through the Ice Cavern and see the very veins of the Douluo Plane. "I am the plane, and the plane is me. When the plane grows stronger, so do I. Helping you is helping myself. So do not overthink it, and do not feel that you owe me anything. Simply accept it with peace of mind."

Upon hearing this, Snow Empress was completely stunned.

She had considered countless possibilities. Perhaps he wanted her to submit and pledge loyalty, or perhaps he wanted her to carry out certain dangerous tasks. Yet she had never imagined that his reason would be so... grand and pure.

He was helping her merely because she belonged to this plane, and because her strength would benefit it?

This perspective, entirely beyond calculations of personal gain, sent ripples across Snow Empress's heart, which had been frozen for hundreds of thousands of years.

The confusion in her eyes gradually turned into a complicated emotion: shock, relief, and finally, a trace of sincere reverence.

She bowed slightly and performed an ancient rite used in the Far North Land only for supreme beings. Her voice was no longer cold, instead carrying a faint, almost imperceptible tremor. "Snow Empress... understands. Thank you, Plane Lord, for granting this to me! Snow Empress and the Far North Land shall remember this grace forever."

Lei Chen waved his hand casually. "No need for such ceremony."

With that, Lei Chen stirred his thoughts. Without any visible movement, the space beside him warped slightly. The next moment, icicle-shaped objects, crystal-clear throughout and radiating extreme cold, appeared out of thin air and floated quietly at his side.

Within those icicles, liquid-like frigid energy seemed to flow slowly, releasing a terrifying chill that caused even the surrounding space to freeze slightly. Their pure, immense ice-attribute energy surpassed every heavenly treasure Snow Empress had ever seen in her life.

The instant she saw those icicles, Snow Empress's gaze froze. Her ethereal voice blurted out with disbelief, "These are... Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow?!"

As the ruler of the Far North Land, how could she fail to recognize such a supreme ice-attribute treasure that existed only in legend?

Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow was a wondrous treasure of heaven and earth, born only from the condensed essence of ten-thousand-year mysterious ice. For ice-attribute Soul Beasts, it was the highest-grade sacred treasure for cultivation!

Skydream Iceworm had, by a fortunate coincidence, fallen into a Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave and consumed a vast amount of Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow. Only then had he broken through the limits of his race and risen all the way to the million-year level.

The energy contained within a single strand of Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow was enough to increase an ordinary ice-attribute Soul Beast's cultivation by ten thousand years out of thin air!

Yet at this moment, there were no fewer than forty-five strands of Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow floating beside Lei Chen!

Lei Chen smiled faintly at Snow Empress's shocked expression and confirmed, "That is correct. It is Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow. This much is enough to make your cultivation surge in a short time and allow you to challenge the million-year level."

With a gentle push, thirty-one strands of Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow, glowing with enticing cold light, slowly drifted before Snow Empress.

"Refine and absorb them one by one."

Looking at the thirty-one strands of Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow floating before her and feeling their incomparably pure ice-attribute energy, Snow Empress drew a deep breath of biting cold air. Then she extended her jade-white hand and solemnly accepted these supreme treasures, enough to drive any ice-attribute Soul Beast mad.

"Thank you." She bowed to Lei Chen once more, her tone utterly sincere.

Such a debt of gratitude could no longer be expressed through words.

Snow Empress no longer hesitated. She sat cross-legged, took the first strand of Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow, clasped it between both hands, and began absorbing it.

The Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow felt icy to the touch, but the vast energy within flowed into Snow Empress's body as swiftly as a gentle river.

Her cultivation had already reached the peak of six hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred years, only a hair's breadth away from the seven-hundred-thousand-year bottleneck.

Now, catalyzed by this pure external power, that solid barrier crumbled the instant it was touched!

Boom—!

A vast and mighty aura erupted from Snow Empress's delicate body. A pillar of icy blue light shot into the sky, instantly piercing through the roof of the Ice Cavern and reaching straight into the heavens!

The wind and snow throughout the Far North's core region seemed to freeze. Every ice-attribute Soul Beast within a thousand li, regardless of strength, sensed it at that moment and instinctively prostrated themselves in that direction. Their sovereign was advancing toward a higher level of life transformation!

Her seven-hundred-thousand-year cultivation had been achieved!

However, almost at the very instant Snow Empress broke through the bottleneck and her aura surged, an even more terrifying pressure—one that made souls tremble—descended without warning from above the ninth heaven and locked onto her tightly!

Snow Empress's icy blue eyes snapped open. A trace of gravity flashed through them, but there was no panic.

She rose to her full height and gave Lei Chen a slight nod. Then her figure transformed into a streak of light, and she shot out of the already damaged Ice Cavern without hesitation, standing amid the biting cold winds of the Far North.