Strictest Father of the Elements

Two hours later.

The once-restless purple Soul Ring stabilized and settled around Gu Mingyuan's feet.

Two yellow, one purple. The three Soul Rings shone together.

[Third Soul Skill: Golden Jade Strength Transformation]:

When activated, all attributes doubled. While the Soul Skill remained active, his Defense and Strength could be converted into each other freely, without loss or limit.

At the same time, the system's mechanical voice sounded in his mind:

[Ding—host has successfully acquired a third Soul Ring. Talent selection begins.]

A flash of purple light appeared:

[Purple trait: Strictest Father of the Elements.]

[Description: How could you walk by the river all the time and never get your shoes wet?]

[All damage dealt to you by elemental attributes receives a permanent, absolute 50% reduction.]

[Note: This includes, but is not limited to, ice, fire, lightning, wind, light, and darkness.]

[If an attack also carries physical force, however—such as a piercing icicle, a cutting wind blade, or a falling rock—you must take the full physical damage. Only the elemental portion is reduced.]

Gu Mingyuan opened his eyes and looked at his third Soul Ring.

What was this?

Lossless conversion between Defense and Strength?

Didn't that give him two ultimate attributes?

But the purple trait interested him even more. Pure elemental damage was cut in half. Combined with the Golden Jade Body's ultimate physical defense and immunity to poison, he truly had become Huo Yuhao's worst nightmare.

Just as he withdrew his aura and prepared to stand, he felt a faint heat from a hidden pocket inside his clothes.

Gu Mingyuan's eyes shifted. He reached in and took out the tracking disk. A crimson dot blinked rapidly on its black surface, pointing straight toward the heart of the Far North.

The pursuit squad was in danger.

On the black disk, the crimson dot that had been moving swiftly north suddenly stopped near the Far North's core.

Then violent ripples spread across the disk. An instant later, the dot went dark, leaving only the coordinates of its final flash.

Clearly, the northern pursuit squad, led by a Soul Saint, had run into serious trouble.

Gu Mingyuan glanced at the coordinates and tucked the disk away. He walked over to the two dead Cold Jade-Horned Rhinos and activated the Storage Soul Tool at his waist, barely managing to cram both enormous beasts inside.

"I'll need one with more space when I get back." He patted his belt and looked north into the driving snow.

He knew Huo Yuhao's fusion with the Ice Empress had probably begun.

At the edge of the Far North's core.

The bitter wind drove snow across the ice like blades. Bare-chested, Huo Yuhao gritted his teeth against the agony in his spine, as though it were being sawed open.

The Ice Empress had become a halo of jade-green light that was slowly merging into his torso.

Just then, three dark figures slipped silently through the snowstorm and landed on an icy outcrop nearby.

The Holy Spirit Cult squad had followed an unusual fluctuation of spiritual energy here. The moment they landed, their eyes locked onto the bone blazing with jade light in Huo Yuhao's back.

"That's... a hundred-thousand-year Torso Bone!"

The Soul Saint leading them began to breathe heavily. Killing intent followed at once. The cult's order to capture the target alive vanished from his mind.

"Attack! Kill him and cut that bone out!"

With a fierce shout, the Soul Saint fired a streak of black light from his hand. It was a vicious Soul-Locking Nail, aimed straight at Huo Yuhao's heart. The two Soul Kings unleashed their Soul Skills at the same time and lunged in from either side.

Huo Yuhao's life hung by a thread.

To protect him—and preserve her own last chance of survival—the Ice Empress let out an angry cry before her sacrifice was complete.

She forcibly interrupted the fusion, which should have proceeded slowly.

The uncompressed essence of Ultimate Ice erupted from Huo Yuhao's body.

Crack—

There was no earth-shaking roar, only the brittle sound of ice freezing in an instant. The greed had not even faded from the Soul Saint's face when he and the two Soul Kings in midair became three lifelike ice sculptures.

But an instant before it froze, the Soul-Locking Nail struck Huo Yuhao's left shoulder. It dissolved into a nearly imperceptible wisp of black energy and slipped beneath his skin.

The cost of that forced outburst was devastating.

The fusion spun out of control.

This time, Huo Yuhao had no left arm bone from the Secret Art Soul to serve as a buffer. To keep the rampaging energy from destroying his mind, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm could only pour all his spiritual power into protecting the Sea of Spirit.

Yu Xiaogang could do nothing but pace within the Sea of Spirit.

The Ice Empress had no time to place the planned layers of seals on her four hundred thousand years of power.

Savage cold surged through Huo Yuhao's meridians. With no other choice, the Ice Empress sealed her martial soul seed and most vital essence inside him.

The rest of that immense Ultimate Ice Soul Power escaped through his pores and dissipated uselessly across the vast icefield.

Thud.

Huo Yuhao fell to his knees in the snow. For a moment, he could not even tell where he was. The duke's estate? Shrek? The Far North?

The Ice Empress had lost consciousness from the damage to her essence, while the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had fallen asleep after exhausting his spiritual power.

Only Yu Xiaogang remained awake in the Sea of Spirit, once so full of voices.

The sight of the three ice sculptures shook Yu Xiaogang too, but he forced himself to urge Huo Yuhao on:

"Yuhao, get up! Use Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track and leave this place, now!"

Huo Yuhao's whole body convulsed. The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion tattoo on his back flickered in and out of view, and the red Soul Ring that should have formed was now no more than a dim outline.

"Teacher... I'm... so tired..." Huo Yuhao rasped.

"Don't sleep! If you stay here until their comrades arrive, you're dead!" Yu Xiaogang was frantic in the Sea of Spirit. As he directed Huo Yuhao toward an escape route, he cursed through clenched teeth:

"What has happened to the Douluo Continent? Why do we run into these fallen soul masters everywhere we go?

"Hold on, Yuhao! As long as you survive, you can recover. There's still hope!"

Urged on by Yu Xiaogang, Huo Yuhao dragged his nearly crippled body away, staggering in the opposite direction.

Half an hour later.

Gu Mingyuan appeared on the icefield that Ultimate Ice had swept bare.

No one was there. Only three ice sculptures remained, frozen in twisted poses.

Gu Mingyuan walked up to the Soul Saint's ice sculpture and gathered Mysterious Heaven Skill energy at his fingertip. He tapped its waist. With a crack, the brittle ice broke apart, and a storage belt fell into his hand.

After erasing the lingering spiritual imprint, Gu Mingyuan emptied the belt.

Out came twenty thousand Gold Soul Coins, some odds and ends, and a palm-sized black Soul-Tracking Disk.

On the disk's surface, a faint spiritual marker crept due north, flickering like a candle in the wind.