Imprisoning the Ice Empress

The core region of the Extreme North.

Huo Yuhao flew over snow that reached his waist. He had strapped a pair of makeshift skis to his feet so he wouldn't sink into the deep snow whenever he landed to recover his Soul Power. Behind him, he dragged Li Jun on a rope.

Li Jun had been knocked unconscious by a boulder sent flying in the aftermath of Cheng Gang's battle with the Titan Snow Demon King while the two of them were breaking out.

Huo Yuhao was at a loss for words. Did Li Jun have some special talent for falling asleep? Sky Dream's spiritual power had knocked him out in the Star Dou Great Forest, and now a boulder had done it again.

He couldn't just leave Li Jun behind, so Huo Yuhao had cobbled together a sled from a few planks and was towing him toward their destination.

"Brother Sky Dream, are we there yet?"

Huo Yuhao felt the temperature dropping around him. Even with thermal underwear made of Ice Silkworm Silk beneath a coat of Crimson Flame Fire Fox fur, he could still feel the cold.

"Mm. Almost."

A golden figure drifted out of Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness. It was the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm in human form.

"Yuhao, take out the shed skin I gave you. We'll need it in a moment."

"Oh, right! Brother Sky Dream."

Once everything was ready, golden light blazed around the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm. His voice, carried by spiritual power, rang out into the depths of the Extreme North.

"Ice Empress, come out! I, Tian Meng, have come to find you!"

Tian Meng hadn't spoken loudly, but his voice carried tremendous power. It traveled far without fading.

Before their target, the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, appeared, Li Jun's voice drifted over from behind them.

"Uh... Where am I? What happened to me?"

Huo Yuhao spun around. Li Jun, who had been unconscious, was stirring groggily.

This is bad.

They were in the middle of carrying out Tian Meng's plan. Huo Yuhao couldn't let Li Jun wake up and discover Tian Meng's existence.

Sorry, Uncle Li. You've already slept this long. A little longer won't hurt.

With that thought, Huo Yuhao hurried to Li Jun's side. Before Li Jun could fully wake, he used Spiritual Shock and knocked him out again.

Then Huo Yuhao returned to Tian Meng's side to wait for the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion.

The two of them stood waiting in the swirling snow. Another half hour or so passed. Huo Yuhao was just about to ask whether the Ice Empress would show up when—

Perhaps it was his imagination, but the snowfall seemed to be growing heavier. Thick flakes began to obscure his vision, forcing him to activate his Spirit Eyes Martial Soul to see what lay ahead.

"Tian Meng. After all these years, I never thought you'd dare show yourself to me again."

A crisp, melodious female voice came from the far end of the snowfield. A huge scorpion, nearly three meters long and adorned with emerald-green crystals, raced toward them. In moments, she was less than five hundred meters away.

Her emerald eyes swept over the group. A trace of disdain flashed through them when her gaze passed over Li Jun, but when she looked at Huo Yuhao beside Tian Meng, confusion took its place.

Despite her three hundred and ninety thousand years of cultivation, she couldn't see through Huo Yuhao's secrets. The auspicious aura radiating from him was so strong that, for an instant, she wondered if the Auspicious Beast of the Star Dou Great Forest had taken human form and come to the Extreme North.

"Tian Meng, how thoughtful of you. You knew my next tribulation was coming. Have you delivered yourself here for me to devour?"

"Ahem."

Tian Meng, standing beside Huo Yuhao, cleared his throat and slowly approached the Ice Empress.

"Bingbing, it's been so long since—"

Before Tian Meng could finish, the Ice Empress cut him off sharply.

"Don't call me that. We're not close."

With that, the Ice Empress raised a pincer and lunged straight at Tian Meng.

Faced with her sudden attack, Tian Meng didn't panic. Instead, he went on in what he clearly thought was a tender voice. "Bingbing, you're as impatient as ever. If you won't talk, I'll find another way to have this conversation."

He waved a hand. The shed skin Huo Yuhao held flew toward the Ice Empress as if summoned. It expanded in midair until it became a huge golden cage several meters tall, trapping her inside.

"What's going on?"

The sudden change caught the Ice Empress completely off guard. Tian Meng might have had many years of cultivation, but as far as she knew, he had no power capable of restraining someone by force.

She tried snapping the golden bars with her pincers. Those pincers could crush ice that had been frozen for hundreds of thousands of years in the Extreme North, yet they couldn't break a single slender bar.

"Heh-heh. Bingbing, can you settle down and have a proper talk with us now?"

"I told you not to call me that."

Tian Meng ignored her and shamelessly continued. "Bingbing, how would you like a place in the Divine Realm? Just say the word, and I'll give you one."

"Hah. You?"

The Ice Empress scoffed and looked Tian Meng up and down as though he were a madman spouting nonsense.

"Yes. Me!"

"Bingbing, do you remember what happened ten thousand years ago?"

At the mention of that time, the Ice Empress's expression turned grave.

"You mean when heaven and earth changed color, and three gods appeared?"

"Exactly. That's how I intend to reach the Divine Realm. We'll become the Spirit Rings of a god and ascend with him."

At that, the Ice Empress, who had been relatively calm, grew agitated.

"Tian Meng, don't drag me down with you if you want to die!"

"Bingbing, hear me out. I'm confident we can retain our minds even after becoming Spirit Rings." He added, "If we find a human with the potential to become a god and sacrifice ourselves to him, we can all ascend to the Divine Realm."

Sensing that the Ice Empress was beginning to waver, Tian Meng floated right up to her to make his case.

"Bingbing, look at me. I'm a Spirit Ring right now. And I've already chosen the human for my God-Making Plan."

Still weighing whether Tian Meng's plan could work, the Ice Empress followed his gaze to Huo Yuhao.

"Him?"

"Yes, him!"

Tian Meng puffed out his chest and nudged Huo Yuhao, who had been watching from the sidelines, toward the Ice Empress.

He brought Huo Yuhao before her and introduced him with a fawning grin:

"Bingbing, allow me to introduce the star of my God-Making Plan—Huo Yuhao, a level-twenty human who hasn't even cultivated for ten years!"

Huo Yuhao said, "Brother Sky Dream, I'm only eight. I'm not even ten years old."

The Ice Empress: "???"

The Ice Empress stared at Tian Meng as if he were making a fool of her.

As her stare grew stranger, Tian Meng hurried to add:

"Bingbing, he may not have been around for ten years, but what Yuhao does have is resilience!"