Notting City's main road bustled with people, while dust mixed with the smells of baked flatbread and livestock rushed at them.
Beiming Lieyang walked ahead, with the Ice Empress wrapped in a cloak at his side. Her eyes darted everywhere, and everything she saw felt fresh and interesting.
"I didn't expect such a remote human town to be so lively."
She sniffed, then looked at a corner of the street with utter disgust. "Why are there so many smells? Baked bread, smoked meat, and that... that's horse dung, isn't it?"
"Your nose is sharp." The corner of Beiming Lieyang's mouth lifted.
The Ice Empress rolled her eyes at him. "Still, it's much more interesting than that lifeless expanse of white in the Far North."
The Snow Empress walked on his other side, the edges of her cloak untouched by dust.
She said nothing, calmly sweeping her gaze over both sides of the street. Every so often, her eyes fell on Beiming Lieyang, making sure he remained within her sight.
"Xiaoyang, Xiaoyang, what's that?" The Ice Empress suddenly tugged on his sleeve and pointed at the candied hawthorns stuck into a bundle of straw by the roadside.
"Candied Hawthorn."
"Is it good?"
Seeing the light in her eyes, Beiming Lieyang could not help but smile. "Come on. I'll buy you one."
He stopped before the stall, paid for a skewer, and casually asked for directions to Notting Academy.
The vendor pointed toward the east side of the city. Beiming Lieyang thanked him, returned with the candied hawthorn, and held it out before the Ice Empress.
The Ice Empress took a bite, and her eyes immediately lit up. "It's sweet on the outside and sour on the inside. It's pretty tasty."
She pushed the candied hawthorn toward Beiming Lieyang's mouth. "Try it!"
Beiming Lieyang lowered his head and bit into the same hawthorn she had bitten. After chewing twice, he said, "Mm."
The next second, the Ice Empress stood on tiptoe and poked his forehead.
"Just 'mm'? It's sour, sweet, and crunchy when I eat it, but when it gets to your mouth, all that's left is 'mm'? Tell me, then. Is it sour enough to make your teeth ache, or so sweet it makes you sick?"
Beiming Lieyang's head tilted slightly backward from her poking.
Looking down at the Ice Empress's sparkling eyes, his lips curved. "Sweet. But not as sweet as when Auntie Bing smiles."
The Ice Empress froze for a moment, then burst out laughing and reached out to pinch his cheeks.
"Oh? You've learned bad habits now. You even know how to sweet-talk people!"
Beiming Lieyang let her pinch him. "I'm not sweet-talking you."
The Ice Empress pinched his face and shook it, her eyes crinkling with laughter. "Is Auntie Bing's smile really that sweet? What a smooth talker!"
The Snow Empress quietly watched the two interact, like a mother watching her younger siblings fool around, peaceful and content.
This was the most comfortable time she had experienced in hundreds of thousands of years.
Beiming Lieyang's heart stirred. He took the candied hawthorn from the Ice Empress and held it before the Snow Empress.
"Mother Xue, have some too." The Snow Empress smiled faintly and gently took a small bite from his hand.
The crisp crack of the sugar coating breaking was clear. She chewed twice, her brow relaxing. "It is quite sweet. It's delicious."
"See?" The Ice Empress put her hands on her hips. "I told you it was good!"
Seeing a speck of sugar on the Snow Empress's lips, Beiming Lieyang raised a hand and wiped it away for her.
The Ice Empress clicked her tongue beside them.
"Wow. You snatched my candied hawthorn to feed Xue'er, and after feeding her, you even wiped her mouth. What about me?"
Beiming Lieyang remained expressionless. "You already bit it yourself."
"Didn't you just bite the same one I bit?!"
Beiming Lieyang paused. "That's different."
"How is it different?"
"I'm not telling you."
The Ice Empress put her hands on her hips and glared at him. Just as she was about to press further, the Snow Empress suddenly reached out.
She gently patted the Ice Empress's head, then Beiming Lieyang's head. Her movements were light, carrying a motherly tenderness.
The Ice Empress's voice caught in her throat. Her face reddened slightly before she started yelling again.
"Xue'er! Why are you patting my head? I'm not a child anymore!"
"Mm, not a child anymore." The Snow Empress withdrew her hand, her gentle gaze passing over both of them.
"But when you two fool around, it makes me feel as though I adopted two children."
The Ice Empress opened her mouth as if to say something, but her face only turned redder.
Hmph, Xue'er was talking about adopting children...
I'm not calling you Mom.
At the side, Beiming Lieyang could not suppress the smile on his lips at all.
The Snow Empress's lips rose as she spoke again. "All right. Weren't we still looking for someone?"
"Xue'er, were you laughing at me just now?"
"No."
"You're lying!"
"Have you ever seen me lie?"
The Ice Empress choked on her words, then turned to Beiming Lieyang. "Where's that academy you mentioned?"
"It's right ahead."
Beiming Lieyang led the two women toward Notting Academy in the eastern part of the city. After looking around, he spoke.
"Mother Xue, Auntie Bing, you should watch from the sky."
In any case, neither Mother Xue nor Auntie Bing had sensed any powerful aura. Clearly, Tang San had not arrived yet, and his biological father was not nearby either.
Then they would take to the air and look over Notting Academy.
The Ice Empress was about to reach out and pick him up when the Snow Empress beat her to it, carrying Beiming Lieyang into the air.
The Ice Empress froze for a moment, then followed after them.
The three landed within a layer of clouds above the academy.
Looking down from above, Notting Academy's layout was visible at a glance.
Several rows of drab gray school buildings surrounded a training field, where students practiced basic techniques with uneven movements.
"You came all this way just to confirm someone?" The Ice Empress muttered as she looked below.
"Mm."
"What kind of person is worth making a special trip for?"
"Yu Xiaogang. He calls himself Grandmaster, the foremost authority on Martial Soul theory."
The fact that Beiming Lieyang had never been to human society before, yet had suddenly come looking for a Yu Xiaogang—
And that he even knew the name of the person connected to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well—neither of them found it strange anymore.
After all, for the past few years, the sun in his dreams had occasionally told him things.
From Whale Rubber being able to strengthen the body, to finding the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Cave and the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well—
What else could that be but a deity's guidance?
Besides, they trusted Beiming Lieyang with all their hearts.
The Ice Empress crunched loudly through the candied hawthorn.
"Isn't he just someone who studies theories? What's there to confirm?"
"That depends on which version he is."
"Some versions have white hair, and some have a little crew cut. The white-haired one can still count as someone worthwhile. The crew-cut one..."
"He's Big Shit."
The Ice Empress nearly choked on her candied hawthorn. "What kind of nonsense are you talking about? We're eating here, so why are you suddenly talking about..."
"Can't help it. If he has a crew cut, then he really is the kind who farts like thunder—Heaven-Splitting Luo Sanpao."
The Ice Empress: "??"
The Snow Empress spoke softly. "If that's the case, the difference really is quite large."
"What kind of bizarre name is that?" the Ice Empress complained.
Beiming Lieyang immediately gave them a brief account of some of Yu Xiaogang's deeds.
An External Beast Martial Soul, innate half-rank spirit power, not even reaching rank fifty by the age of thirty, plagiarizing Spirit Hall's theories to publish the Ten Core Theories—and even copying them wrong.
He called himself a master of Martial Soul theory, yet did not know that ten-thousand-year Spirit Rings caused spiritual shock.
The Ice Empress was full of question marks.
"Isn't he just a useless plagiarist? Why did you need to confirm him?"
"To confirm how far the human world has developed."
Beiming Lieyang had come to Notting City to find out whether Yu Xiaogang was the comic version or the anime-and-novel version.
He genuinely wanted to see what kind of nonsense the man could come up with.
If he really was the anime-and-novel version, then Tang San was very likely still the original version as well.
And since Tang San had not yet arrived in Notting City, he could get to a certain rabbit first.
Before that rabbit came to Notting City, she had definitely been staying in some village and obtained a work-study student quota.
Only then would she come to study at Notting City Primary Spirit Master Academy.
After that, the rabbit would fall into a cycle of calling Third Brother over and over.
The Ice Empress looked at him suspiciously, then pointed below. "Is that the crew-cut guy down there?"
Thin, dressed in a gray robe, with gray hair at his temples and an exceptionally eye-catching, sexy little crew cut, he was walking in through the main gate.
He walked slowly, his back held straight, as if deliberately putting on airs. A cloth bag was clenched in his hand.
Beiming Lieyang's mouth twitched.
What was this supposed to be?
Comic versions of Mother Xue, Auntie Bing, and Old Poison, paired with the sexy crew-cut version from the anime original?
A mishmash world?
"That's the person you were looking for?" The Ice Empress leaned closer to look down. "He doesn't look like much. He's skinny and weak, not even half as imposing as my Xiaoyang."
Beiming Lieyang ignored her praise, his eyes falling on two teachers chatting below.
The moment those two teachers saw Yu Xiaogang emerge, they immediately piled on smiles and greeted him.
Yu Xiaogang gave a slight nod, answered indifferently, and continued forward.
Once he turned past the end of the corridor, the expressions on those teachers' faces instantly changed.
"He's still putting on airs? Yet every month, he runs to Spirit Hall to collect his subsidy."
"At least he still bears the title of 'Horn of Wisdom.'"
"What Horn of Wisdom? He can only be the 'Horn of Wisdom' because he's too weak. He just opens his mouth and talks, otherwise what can he rely on with his strength still stuck at rank twenty-nine?"
"Sigh, at least he was once impressive. I heard Liu Erlong from the Golden Triangle likes him."
"Tsk, tsk... She's a famous beauty, with an amazing figure too. How did she end up liking him? Could she be blind?"
"Maybe. Or maybe she has some kind of monster fetish. After all, some people like strange things. The uglier they are, the more they can stomach them."
"Hahaha..."
After gossiping for a few moments, the two left laughing.
At the end of the corridor, Yu Xiaogang's back visibly stiffened. His grip on the cloth bag tightened, and his eyes reddened.
High in the sky, the Ice Empress's expression became extraordinarily colorful.
She turned to Beiming Lieyang, the corner of her mouth twitching.
"That's the crew-cut guy you mentioned? He's the 'Horn of Wisdom'? And someone likes him? That person really must be blind, right? Oh, or maybe she likes ugly freaks?"
Beiming Lieyang fell silent for a moment. "Farts like thunder, Heaven-Splitting Cannon. Maybe Liu Erlong just likes that flavor?"
The underlying code of romance on Douluo Continent, plus a love triangle.
The Ice Empress: "..."
The Snow Empress turned her face away, her shoulders trembling slightly.
"All right, we've confirmed it. Let's go."
"That's it? You're not going to beat him up?"
"Why would I beat him up? Did he provoke me?"
"No."
"Then why would I hit him?" Beiming Lieyang glanced at her.
"He didn't provoke me. I'm not so petty that I step on anyone I dislike."
He certainly knew how outrageous this crew-cut guy was, full of nonsense and wildly overestimating himself.
But he had no conflict of interest with him. If he came over and kicked him just because he knew what happened in the original story—
Wouldn't that make him even more like Tang San than Tang San himself?
Knowing the Third, becoming the Third, surpassing the Third?
After thinking about it, the Ice Empress actually nodded. "Makes sense. So where are we going now?"
"Now that we've confirmed it, it's time to handle serious business."
The Ice Empress hooked an arm around his neck. "What serious business?"
"Finding a hundred-thousand-year rabbit near a human town."
The Ice Empress's eyes widened. "Wait, there's a hundred-thousand-year rabbit in the human world? Has she been kept in captivity?"
"Yes. That rabbit has already taken human form and says she wants revenge for her mother."
"If we find her now and say we'll help her avenge her mother in the future, we can get a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring."
"Even if we don't have a conflict of interest with Bibi Dong yet, we will eventually. That wouldn't count as breaking our word."
"It'll save that stupid rabbit from being made to sacrifice herself by the Tang father and son, only to become a brainless sword sheath afterward, shouting 'Brother, Brother, Brother' all day."
The Ice Empress tilted her head. "You make her sound pretty miserable."
"She really is pretty miserable."
"Then let's go find her!" The Ice Empress patted his shoulder.
The three turned and shot toward the outskirts of the city.
Below them, Yu Xiaogang stood in place with bloodshot eyes for a long while. His breathing grew heavier and heavier, and the hand gripping the cloth bag tightened, loosened, then tightened again.
A moment later, he abruptly turned around and strode out through the gate without looking back.
Before you continue