The Three-Thousand-Year Mirror Shadow Beast

"A thousand years? Brother Sky Dream, are you sure you didn't get that wrong?"

Tian Meng's words took Huo Yuhao by surprise. He had assumed the Ice Silkworm prodigy Tian Meng mentioned would be an ancient Ferocious Beast, or at least a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. He had never expected Tian Meng to say it was only a thousand years old.

"That's right, Yuhao. I told you how I grew up, didn't I?"

Huo Yuhao nodded. When he had first merged with Tian Meng, Tian Meng had told him his story. As a young Ice Silkworm, he had fallen into a cavern full of Ten-Thousand-Year Mystic Ice essence while fleeing a predator.

Day after day, he had eaten and slept, then slept and eaten, until his age reached nine hundred thousand years. He had not even faced a single Heavenly Tribulation along the way.

"Exactly. Not every Ice Silkworm has a legendary life like mine."

Now that he knew what they were seeking for his second Spirit Ring, Huo Yuhao asked curiously:

"Brother Sky Dream, is there a special reason you want me to get a thousand-year Ice Silkworm's Spirit Ring?"

Tian Meng leaned close to Huo Yuhao with a mysterious air.

"Yuhao, do you know what we Ice Silkworms are best at?"

Huo Yuhao instinctively looked down at the clothes Xu Jiujiu had prepared for him. They were made from silk spun by Ice Silkworms raised by the Royal Wardrobe Bureau.

The garments were not quite impervious to fire and water, but they were remarkably durable and warm.

"Where are you looking?"

Tian Meng followed Huo Yuhao's gaze to the white Ice Silkworm silk lining beneath his clothes.

"Staying alive!"

The Ice Empress, who had been silent in the sea of consciousness, suddenly spoke.

"Exactly! As expected of you, Bingbing. We Ice Silkworms may not have much else, but we're masters at staying alive!"

"Staying alive?"

Huo Yuhao looked at Tian Meng in surprise. When they first met, he had seen nothing about Tian Meng's plump body that suggested any talent for survival.

"Yuhao, let me explain!"

Tian Meng even used a little Soul Power to conjure a pair of glasses in his hand. Ever since learning that humans had invented glasses, he had been fascinated by them. He was always saying they made him look like a scholar.

"Yuhao, predators in the soul beast world generally find their prey in three ways!"

"What three ways?"

"Sight, smell, and sensing!"

He added, "We Ice Silkworms eat plants, so we don't give off any telltale odors. Other soul beasts can't find us by smell. And because we're spiritual-type soul beasts, our spiritual power can hide us from ordinary soul beasts' senses."

"What about sight?"

Tian Meng slowly removed the glasses from his nose.

"That brings us to our clan's lifesaving trump card: Simulation."

"Simulation?"

"That's right. By spending some spiritual power, we Ice Silkworms can imitate the aura and pressure of all kinds of soul beasts to scare others away. I even frightened Bingbing with Simulation back then."

The Ice Empress punctured his boasting without mercy.

"I was speechless because what you imitated was so absurdly exaggerated."

"Senior Ice Empress, what did Brother Sky Dream imitate?"

The Snow Empress spoke up. "An Ice Jade Scorpion."

"An Ice Jade Scorpion?"

Huo Yuhao turned to the Ice Empress in astonishment. She nodded and explained:

"Tian Meng imitated an outrageously exaggerated nine-hundred-thousand-year Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion. If I hadn't been the leader of the Ice Jade Scorpions, he might actually have fooled me."

"Heh, I didn't have much experience back then, Bingbing! But don't worry, Yuhao. Simulation is absolutely reliable. I traveled almost the entire continent thanks to that ability. If it hadn't been for those brutes in the Star Dou Great Forest..."

Clearly, even after all these years, Tian Meng still resented what had happened to him in the Star Dou Great Forest.

At the edge of the Extreme North, deep within the Frozen Forest.

"Brother Sky Dream, how much farther?"

"Almost there! Another half-day's walk or so."

Huo Yuhao looked at Tian Meng, puzzled.

"Brother Sky Dream, how do you know this place so well?"

Tian Meng chuckled.

"I was born here. I know exactly where my fellow Ice Silkworms usually hide."

"Brother Sky Dream, that's really..."

Huo Yuhao could not find the words to describe what Tian Meng was doing.

"Wait!"

The usually quiet Snow Empress suddenly called the group to a halt.

"What is it, Senior Snow Empress?"

"Look two kilometers ahead."

Huo Yuhao activated his Spirit Eyes Martial Soul and looked where she pointed. At first he saw nothing in the white expanse of grass, only a wisp of gray mist hovering above it that signaled ill intent.

But when he looked closely, he spotted a soul beast crouching in the grass, roughly a meter long. Its body was covered in inverted triangular scales of white and silver. The way those scales reflected the light was why he had missed it at first.

"Yuhao, you've struck gold! That's a Mirror Shadow Beast, a rare sight even in the Extreme North!"

Once Tian Meng got a clear look at the soul beast, his excited voice rang through the sea of consciousness.

"Brother Sky Dream, what's a Mirror Shadow Beast?"

"It's a spiritual-type soul beast from the Extreme North. Its special ability lets it use a medium to copy half the strength of whatever the medium came from."

"It's that powerful?"

"It is! If I'd had an ability like that back then, I could've fought my way out of the Star Dou Great Forest."

The Ice Empress's voice sounded from the sea of consciousness too.

"Yuhao, this Mirror Shadow Beast is only a little over three thousand years old, and its ability is superior to the Ice Silkworm clan's. Choose it."

"Bingbing's right. You can't let a chance like this slip away."

The Snow Empress, who had been standing guard for Huo Yuhao, asked:

"Do you need me to bring it here?"

To her surprise, Huo Yuhao declined her help with a gentle shake of his head.

"Senior Snow Empress, I want to try it myself."

"You? Aren't you getting ahead of yourself? You're still only a Soul Master with one Spirit Ring."

On Douluo Continent, rank was widely understood to be everything. A thousand-year soul beast called for a Soul Elder, let alone a three-thousand-year Mirror Shadow Beast. Even if it was not skilled at attacking, it was no opponent for a level-twenty Soul Master to face alone.

"It's been a long time since I escaped. I want to see what I'm capable of now—and how far I still am from my goal of revenge."

As Huo Yuhao spoke, the hatred in his eyes for the Duke's Estate burned as though it might burst free.

Seeing that Huo Yuhao intended to fight it himself, the Snow Empress did not press him. She simply stepped aside and kept watch. If he proved unable to defeat the Mirror Shadow Beast, she would save him.