Returning to the Far North, Yuhao's Fortune

At the edge of the Core Circle in the Far North Land.

The biting wind was like countless ice blades, slicing through the thin air and sweeping up ice dust that filled the sky.

Huo Yuhao lay prone on the hard ice. The piercing chill nearly froze his blood, and his teeth chattered uncontrollably. He stared fixedly at the enormous cocoon-shaped barrier ahead, which emitted a gentle white glow, his eyes filled with anticipation.

Within the barrier, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion—Ice Empress—struggled violently, her crystalline, artwork-like scorpion body radiating surging Ultimate Ice energy like raging waves as it continuously battered the barrier.

Under Ice Empress's full-force assault, violent ripples spread across the barrier's surface. It let out teeth-grinding cracking sounds, and distinct fissures rapidly spread before the naked eye!

"No... impossible!!" Skydream Iceworm screamed in disbelief within Huo Yuhao's Sea of Spirit. "Bingbing's strength... how could it be this powerful?! These energy fluctuations... they are definitely beyond three hundred and ninety thousand years! She might be close to the five-hundred-thousand-year mark! My cast-off shell... can't hold on!"

Skydream Iceworm's voice was full of regret.

His original plan had been based on Ice Empress's cultivation of three hundred and ninety thousand years and her despair at facing the Four-Hundred-Thousand-Year Heavenly Tribulation. With his million-year cast-off shell and its resilience, trapping a three-hundred-and-ninety-thousand-year Ice Empress should have been more than enough, enough for him to carry out his "persuasion."

However, the power Ice Empress was unleashing far exceeded his estimates, surpassing them by nearly a hundred thousand years. That enormous disparity had placed his cast-off shell's seal in grave danger.

"Bingbing! Stop! Listen to me! This is a misunderstanding!" Skydream Iceworm made one final effort, his mental fluctuations brimming with urgency.

"A misunderstanding?" Ice Empress's icy, killing intent-filled reply came from within the barrier. "Skydream! You despicable worm! You actually dared scheme against me! Once I get out, I will crush you and this human brat together!"

"Crack... boom!"

At last, when the terrifying power Ice Empress had gathered reached its peak, the enormous barrier could no longer endure. It exploded like shattered glass, countless motes of light scattering in every direction before being instantly annihilated by the extreme cold.

Having broken free, Ice Empress seemed to have grown a size larger. Her jade-like scorpion body gleamed with heart-palpitating cold light, while the diamond-like hook at the tip of her tail pointed directly at Huo Yuhao!

An even more terrifying Ultimate Ice chill erupted. A blizzard abruptly formed around her, transforming into an icy tornado that reached from heaven to earth. Carrying an aura capable of destroying everything, it swept toward Huo Yuhao!

Before the blizzard even reached him, Huo Yuhao felt as though his soul was about to freeze. His thoughts slowed to a crawl, and all that remained in his vision was an expanding expanse of deathly white.

It's over... Only one final thought flashed through Huo Yuhao's mind. Brother Skydream, you've really gotten me killed this time...

At that critical instant, time and space seemed to be gently stirred by an invisible hand.

The terrifying blizzard, roaring as it was about to swallow Huo Yuhao, suddenly froze in midair as if someone had pressed pause.

The flying ice crystals and howling cold wind all retained their motion from the previous instant, yet they had stopped in a bizarre stillness. Along with them, Ice Empress's overwhelming killing intent and surging energy fluctuations were frozen as well.

The shift from utmost motion to utmost stillness was so abrupt that it was suffocating.

A trace of astonishment flashed through Ice Empress's diamond-like eyes.

She could sense that the power she had unleashed had not been neutralized or scattered. Rather, it had been forcibly confined within this space by a more vast, more fundamental power.

This power... was filled with the will of the entire world!

Almost instinctively, she immediately restrained the turbulent ice-elemental energy around her. Her enormous scorpion body lowered slightly, and her towering fury and killing intent instantly transformed into utmost respect.

"Honored Plane Lord, have you descended?"

Space rippled faintly. A figure dressed in simple robes, with black hair and black eyes, silently appeared between Huo Yuhao and Ice Empress. It was Lei Chen.

A faint seven-colored radiance flowed around him, standing in sharp contrast to the pure white of the Far North. He did not even glance at the frozen blizzard, merely resting his calm gaze upon Ice Empress.

Feeling Lei Chen's gaze, Ice Empress became even more respectful.

Lei Chen nodded slightly and looked Ice Empress over, a hint of approval in his tone. "Not bad. In less than a year, your cultivation has risen from four hundred thousand years to four hundred and ninety thousand years. You have made considerable progress during this time."

Hearing this, Ice Empress hurriedly responded modestly, "You flatter me, my lord! All of this is thanks to your bestowed grace!"

"If not for the Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow you gave me, it would have been impossible for me to increase my cultivation by nearly a hundred thousand years in such a short time through cultivation alone!"

She paused slightly, a hint of inquiry in her diamond-like eyes as she respectfully asked, "May I ask why you have descended upon the Far North Land this time? If you have any orders, Ice Empress would not hesitate to die ten thousand deaths!"

Lei Chen's expression remained calm as he spoke indifferently, his voice seeming to merge with this world of ice and snow. "Nothing else. Naturally, I came to protect you and Snow Empress once again, ensuring that you safely pass the next Heavenly Tribulation soon to come. And, incidentally, to save this little fellow's life."

"Save this little fellow's life?" Ice Empress was stunned. Her gaze involuntarily fell once more upon Huo Yuhao, who still stood frozen in place, his face drained of color.

She truly could not understand why this unfathomable Plane Lord would personally intervene for this human youth, whose soul power was low and aptitude ordinary in her eyes. Ice Empress gathered her spiritual power and carefully sensed Huo Yuhao, trying to discover what was so special about him.

Yet no matter how she investigated, aside from sensing that the boy's spiritual power seemed slightly stronger than that of soul masters at the same rank, and that the cold had nearly frozen the blood and qi within his body, she could find nothing unusual that warranted the Plane Lord's personal attention.

That pitifully weak twentieth-rank soul power was no different from an ant in the eyes of a being like Ice Empress.

Why does my lord wish to protect him? Could it be... Ice Empress was filled with doubt, yet she did not dare ask further.

The will of the Plane Lord was not something she could presume to fathom.

Under Ice Empress's scrutinizing and puzzled gaze, Huo Yuhao felt his entire body stiffen. He could not move even a fingertip. The extreme terror of having just brushed past death had yet to fade, and his heart hammered wildly in his chest, nearly leaping out of his throat.

He had believed he was certainly going to die. Before that world-destroying blizzard, he had been as insignificant as dust. Yet this sudden reversal—this mysterious expert whom Ice Empress respectfully called the "Plane Lord"—had saved him with a casual gesture.

Although Huo Yuhao did not know what exactly a "Plane Lord" meant, Ice Empress's attitude had already made one thing abundantly clear: this seemingly ordinary black-haired man was actually an exalted existence beyond the Far North's three great kings, one beyond Huo Yuhao's imagination.

Basic courtesy made Huo Yuhao force down the storm in his heart. In a voice trembling faintly from the cold, he thanked Lei Chen. "Th-thank you, Senior, for saving my life!"