"Plant another one."
Beiming Lieyang crouched down and pressed his palm against the ground, his Soul Power seeping into the earth like flowing water.
A moment later, a house-sized chunk of Void Mysterious Ice quietly condensed deep beneath the ground.
After finishing, he slowly rose to his feet and dusted off his hands.
After leaving Heaven Dou City, they had not traveled at full speed. Every ten li or so, Beiming Lieyang stopped to bury a chunk of Void Mysterious Ice. Combined with the Mysterious Ice Mark, it would allow them to teleport directly there in the future.
He made the ice hollow so that when they teleported over, they could appear directly inside it. He could then condense a small piece of ice to send them up to the surface, ensuring they would not get stuck underground.
His Void Mysterious Ice now had an energy purity of 12.5 times, with an extremely low temperature and a dense structure. Still, to ensure it would not melt for years, he had to inject additional Soul Power every time to compress and reinforce it.
Fortunately, his Soul Power reserves were eleven times those of others at the same rank, so spending a little was nothing.
"The twenty-seventh piece." The Ice Empress crouched by the roadside, her golden eyes following him intently.
Beiming Lieyang looked ahead. "In the future, travel time between the Heaven Dou Empire and the Far North will be much shorter."
The Snow Empress chuckled softly.
"That way, whenever Bing'er wants to visit human towns to shop and eat, it'll be much more convenient."
"Hmph!"
The moment the Ice Empress heard that, she immediately turned around and planted her hands on her hips.
"You make it sound like you didn't eat any, Xue'er! Who was it that kept drinking bowl after bowl of milk tea slushies without stopping? After you finished that time, you even asked Xiaoyang for two more bowls. I saw it!"
The smile on the Snow Empress's face faltered slightly, and she looked away.
"...That was because Xiaoyang made them with special flavors. It had nothing to do with me."
"You're still making excuses!"
The Ice Empress stood up and pointed at her.
"That night, after going back to your room, you secretly asked Xiaoyang whether there was any left! My hearing is excellent—I heard every word clearly!"
The Snow Empress's ears reddened slightly. She turned away. "You remembered wrong."
"I did not!"
"You remembered wrong."
"I did not."
Beiming Lieyang listened to the two of them bicker without interrupting.
Over the past few days, he had grown used to these two best friends from the Far North squabbling. Their arguments were lively, but their bond ran deeper than anyone's.
The Ice Empress suddenly came back to her senses and quickly caught up to Beiming Lieyang.
"Hey, Xiaoyang, if you keep stopping every stretch of the road to plant them, when are we ever going to get back to the Far North?"
Beiming Lieyang frowned. He had indeed noticed the problem.
Burying a single piece took a full minute. After several dozen pieces, the sky had already started turning yellow.
And this was only one route. If he wanted to lay them across the entire continent, he had no idea how much time he would waste doing it alone.
"It really is too slow."
"Then what can you do? It's not like you can conjure a few people to help you plant them."
The Ice Empress had spoken without thinking, but Beiming Lieyang's eyes suddenly lit up. "Auntie Bing, you're amazing."
The Ice Empress: "????"
Her face filled with question marks. What did that mean??
At that moment, Beiming Lieyang raised a hand and condensed a mass of Void Mysterious Ice in his palm.
Icy-blue light abruptly spread out, enveloping the three of them. In the next instant, the surrounding environment completely changed.
In its place was a vast, boundless expanse of deep-blue space.
Beneath their feet was a crystalline sheet of ice. Countless icy-blue crystals floated all around them, emitting soft yet frigid light.
The Mysterious Ice Illusion.
The moment the Ice Empress entered, she looked as though she had returned home. Her golden eyes sparkled as she looked around.
She sniffed the air, savoring the incomparably pure icy aura, and the corners of her mouth nearly began to drool.
"It smells so good..."
As she spoke, she casually pulled out a cup of pre-made Void Mysterious Ice milk tea from her Storage Soul Tool, inserted a straw, and took a delighted sip. Only then did she narrow her eyes in satisfaction and continue looking around.
Beiming Lieyang ignored her leisurely appearance and summoned his Martial Soul, Solar Star God Apollo.
Accompanied by a sharp clang of metal, crimson metal armor fitted itself over his body.
Scorching light burst from the gaps in the armor, illuminating the entire Mysterious Ice Illusion as brightly as day.
Five Spirit Rings rose from beneath his feet.
Four black and one red, slowly pulsing up and down.
Biting on her straw, the Ice Empress squinted at the radiant armored figure and tilted her head. "What, are you planning to practice some moves again?"
The Snow Empress stood at the edge of the illusion without speaking, quietly watching the crimson figure.
Her gaze fell upon the face covered by armor, her eyes carrying a gentle light.
This child, who had once been a tiny infant picked up from an ice pit, could now release such dazzling brilliance.
Beiming Lieyang did not answer the Ice Empress's question.
He raised a hand and condensed a piece of Void Mysterious Ice, pressing it into the energy core on his chest.
Icy-blue light merged into the crimson armor. In the next instant, his aura surged once more.
"Watch carefully."
Beiming Lieyang's voice came from beneath the armor. Then, he raised a hand and pressed it toward the depths of the illusion.
The void trembled, and an entirely black figure slowly condensed into existence.
Its armor was covered in dark-golden patterns. The eye core on its forehead and the energy core on its chest were both crystalline blue. A blue-gold Corona Sword rested on its back, while its corona halo was dark green.
Its eyes were crimson, emanating a suffocating aura of darkness.
The Apollo Puppet dropped to one knee, its voice respectful.
"Greetings, Master."
The Ice Empress nearly spat out her milk tea.
She stared wide-eyed at the black puppet, then turned to look at Beiming Lieyang, disbelief filling her gaze.
"Xiaoyang, you... You didn't bring this thing out because you want to fight your own puppet, did you?!"
"Not fight."
"I'm having it help plant ice."
"Plant ice?"
"It can help you plant ice?"
"Of course."
"It has all of my abilities and strength, so naturally, it also has the ability to condense Void Mysterious Ice. Having it plant ice will be much faster than doing it alone."
The Ice Empress looked at the black Apollo Puppet, then at Beiming Lieyang. In the end, she could only squeeze out one sentence.
"...Isn't this way too shameless?"
Beiming Lieyang did not respond. Looking down at the puppet, he felt rather pleased with himself.
It was probably because Cosmic Star God had forcibly killed Apollo off for the plot, making him get stabbed through by the Apollo Puppet's sword.
Even though Apollo and Poseidon had joined forces to kill the Poseidon Puppet, Poseidon had been teleported out because of the Mysterious Ice Illusion's mechanics.
Apollo had expended a huge amount of energy, but it was not as though he should have been completely unable to react. Yet he had stood there shaking his head from side to side, as if he had been deliberately waiting for the Apollo Puppet to stab him through.
The mighty Solar Star God, an absolute stat monster among stat monsters, had been blatantly set up for a plot-induced death.
Still, he had discovered that this Mysterious Ice Illusion was becoming increasingly sinister.
Apollo was already a stat monster, and now it could replicate an Apollo Puppet identical to himself.
Moreover, Void Mysterious Ice could be stored and released separately, serving as a backup energy source.
He could exhaust his own Soul Power to create an Apollo Puppet, then use Void Mysterious Ice to replenish the loss and keep creating more.
Tsk, tsk.
Beiming Lieyang nodded in satisfaction. He took out a piece of Void Mysterious Ice from his Storage Soul Tool and stuffed it into the energy core on his chest, replenishing the Soul Power he had consumed creating the puppet.
After all, what he had replicated was himself—and Solar Star God Apollo at that, a stat monster of the highest order. Naturally, the consumption was far greater than that of an ordinary copy.
But it did not matter. With Void Mysterious Ice, he could replenish himself at any time. He was completely unafraid of depletion.
Then, using the same method, he condensed two more identical Apollo Puppets.
The three black figures stood shoulder to shoulder. Six crimson eyes lit up on their cold metal faces, and the oppressive presence nearly made the temperature of the entire Mysterious Ice Illusion drop several degrees.
"Alright. Now go plant ice for me."
"Yes, Master." *3
As the Mysterious Ice Illusion dissipated—
The Apollo Puppets all transformed into planetary forms amid resounding metallic clangs and sped off in three different directions.
The Ice Empress watched the direction in which they disappeared. Only after a long while did she withdraw her gaze and turn toward Beiming Lieyang. Then she suddenly rushed over, grabbed his cheeks with both hands, and kneaded them from side to side.
"Wow! Xiaoyang, your brain works way too fast! You can even turn slacking off into an art form!"
"...This is called maximizing resource utilization, not slacking off."
Besides, the Apollo Puppets he created were merely puppet robots. His actual body did not exist inside them.
He had no desire to create a clone of himself, either.
Having puppets was enough.
"It is slacking off!"
The Ice Empress was utterly righteous. "You just don't want to run around yourself, so you made three copies of yourself run around for you!"
"It's maximizing resource utilization."
The Snow Empress watched the two of them fool around, the corners of her lips lifting slightly. She had no intention of stepping forward to pull the Ice Empress away.
After the Ice Empress had kneaded him to her heart's content, she released him, took half a step back, and examined Beiming Lieyang with her hands on her hips.
"But seriously, isn't your Mysterious Ice Illusion too ridiculous? It can copy puppets with strength identical to yours, and you can even create three of them.
Wouldn't that mean you could make as many as you wanted in the future? You could just bring an army into battle. Who would still be able to beat you?"
Beiming Lieyang rubbed his cheeks, which had been pinched red, and shook his head.
"It isn't that simple. The puppets' existence requires my spiritual power to maintain.
The stronger the puppets I create and the greater their number, the more spiritual power they occupy.
With my current spiritual power, maintaining three puppets at my level is already the limit.
Any more than that, and either I won't be able to control them, or my spiritual power will collapse under the strain."
"Three is already terrifying enough, alright!"
The Ice Empress widened her eyes. "Do you think everyone is like you?
One swing of your sword nearly tears apart Dugu Bo's flood dragon. If all three attack together, who in this world could stop you?
And with your outrageously shameless Void Mysterious Ice, even Di Tian would get chopped down by you."
Beiming Lieyang considered it and felt that she had a point.
After all, Void Mysterious Ice itself was an absurdly overpowered existence.
Control, enhancement, recovery, replication—it could do everything.
Combined with Apollo, a stat monster whose every attribute was maxed out, every puppet he created would be monster-level.
With three attacking together, it truly would be enough to give anyone a miserable time.
But another thought was turning in his mind.
If he could obtain Void Star God Salong as well...
That was a Star God created by the Creator God Odin based on a black hole, and it was just as absurdly overpowered.
With the leaders of both the righteous and villainous sides gathered together, the image alone was enough to excite him.
"Alright."
The Snow Empress stepped forward and raised a hand to straighten Beiming Lieyang's hair, which the Ice Empress had messed up.
"Now that the puppets are helping plant the ice, you no longer need to stop along the way. It's getting late, so let's travel at full speed and return to the Far North first to settle the matter of your Sixth Spirit Ring."
Beiming Lieyang nodded. "Alright."
The Ice Empress immediately perked up.
"The Sixth Spirit Ring! I've already thought it through! In any case, we definitely have to get you a top-tier one!"
Before you continue