Ice Empress! (Please invest! Please vote with recommendation tickets! Please vote with monthly tickets!)

Six months later, the Young Heaven Class's first school year came to an end.

Qin Xu, Vielvi, and Ye Guyi were seeing Xue Zhao off outside the academy. Xue Zhao planned to use the month-long vacation to take Granny Dou back to Xuebian Village for a visit.

"A Liang, come back soon!" Ye Guyi held Xue Zhao's hand, her eyes full of reluctance, as she urged her.

"I will," Xue Zhao replied. Then she turned and waved a hand with easy grace. "I'm off."

Xue Zhao left.

Watching Xue Zhao's retreating figure, Vielvi sighed enviously. "Ah! When will I be able to leave whenever I want, just like A Liang?"

Qin Xu did not respond. His gaze remained fixed on Xue Zhao as she grew more distant, his thoughts swirling. He could say with certainty that she was not merely taking her granny back to Xuebian Village, as she claimed. She might have something else in mind.

"Wei'er, what are you planning to do over the vacation?" Ye Guyi asked.

"Go home," Vielvi answered without hesitation. "My little sister should have completed her martial soul awakening by now. I have to go back and see her."

"You're going home too? Where is your home?" Ye Guyi asked, a trace of envy slipping into her voice.

"Heaven Dou City, of course," Vielvi said. Then an idea struck her. "Oh, right! Yiyi, do you want to come play at my house? It's huge—even bigger than Xu's!"

"How could that be?" Ye Guyi instinctively protested. "Brother Xu lives in a royal palace. How could your home be even bigger than his? Unless yours is an imperial palace..."

As Ye Guyi spoke, her voice gradually dwindled and her eyes widened. Disbelief appeared on her pretty face as she looked at the beaming Vielvi.

"Finally figured it out?" Xue Zhao had disappeared from sight, and Qin Xu's thoughts returned to the present. Seeing Ye Guyi's expression, he could not help laughing. "Wei'er is actually a princess. Her home really is the imperial palace."

"But, but..." Ye Guyi's brain froze. She could not understand. "Isn't Wei'er's martial soul a brain? Sure, her surname is Wei too, but everyone knows the imperial family's martial soul is a snow lotus!"

"It's a long story, and not something I can explain in a few words," Qin Xu said. "Anyway, she really is a princess."

When it came to stereotypes, the Douluo Continent truly reigned supreme. Judging someone's background and origins by their martial soul was practically a universal method of sizing people up across the continent. Ye Guyi had known Vielvi for a year, yet simply because Vielvi had a brain martial soul, she had automatically ruled out the possibility that she was a princess.

"Hehe, so, Yiyi, do you want to come to Heaven Dou City with me?" Looking rather pleased with herself, Vielvi grinned and invited Ye Guyi a second time.

"Uh, I'll pass." Ye Guyi declined. "I'd rather stay at the academy and cultivate."

"All right. Next time, then," Vielvi said in disappointment.

"Wei'er, when are you leaving?" Qin Xu asked.

"Tomorrow morning," Vielvi said. "Then I'll come back three days before school starts. Xu, don't miss me too much this month!"

A few days later.

On the boundless Far North Ice Plains, a tiny figure walked through the heavy snow. Her body looked so frail amid the snowfall, yet her steps were exceptionally steady. The wind and snow settled upon her as though welcoming her, greeting the empress of the Far North as she returned to her kingdom.

That figure was none other than Xue Zhao.

She stopped beside a frozen lake and released her martial soul, allowing her aura to spread naturally and travel with the endless wind and snow to the place she wanted it to reach.

An unknown amount of time passed before a shadow that blotted out the sky and sun rose over the distant land. A terrifying aura swiftly approached the frozen lake from afar. Xue Zhao stood, a trace of anticipation in her eyes as she gazed toward its owner.

"Bing'er, you're here," Xue Zhao called, her voice unusually gentle and tinged with wistful longing.

As Xue Zhao's voice rang out, the owner of that terrifying aura revealed her true appearance—an exquisitely beautiful Ice Jade Scorpion!

She was an enormous scorpion more than a meter and a half long. Her body resembled a work of art meticulously carved from diamonds and emeralds. Every part was exceptionally pure, every part brilliantly clear, every part glittering with dazzling splendor.

Her eyes were bright yellow, like a pair of hexagonal topazes, holding emotions as elusive as the Far North itself. She gazed at Xue Zhao, at this frail human body, and an indescribable feeling quietly showed through.

She was the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, the Ice Empress—one of the Three Heavenly Kings of the Far North and seventh among the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts!

"Snow Empress, it really is you! You actually chose to take human form!" the Ice Empress said. Her voice carried the joy and excitement of a long-awaited reunion, along with a trace of hurt and sorrow at having been let down and left out. "But why didn't you tell me beforehand? Why didn't you let me protect you while you did it?"

The Ice Empress's voice was utterly at odds with her appearance. Beneath that imposing exterior, she sounded like a delicate little girl, her voice clear and lilting. Combined with her current tone, she was the very picture of a hurt, aggrieved child!

"Bing'er, I was wrong, but I didn't want things to turn out that way either." Xue Zhao sighed and explained, "You know my heavenly tribulation was drawing closer and closer. I didn't believe I could survive it, so I considered taking human form and starting my cultivation anew.

"At the time, I happened to discover a hundred-thousand-year snow lotus, and I planned to use it to complete my transformation. I wanted to find you, but my aura intertwined with that snow lotus's energy and directly triggered the heavenly tribulation.

"So I could only choose to take human form to escape the heavenly tribulation that might descend at any moment."

"So that's what happened!" After hearing Xue Zhao's explanation, all the hurt in the Ice Empress's yellow eyes vanished, replaced by concern and self-reproach. "I'm sorry, Snow Empress. I shouldn't have left you. If I'd been by your side, you wouldn't have had to transform alone and end up stranded in the human world."

"Bing'er, it wasn't your fault," Xue Zhao reassured her. "This is my fate. Even if you'd been beside me then, I would still have had to leave the Far North and enter the human world after successfully transforming."

"What?" The Ice Empress shuddered and stared blankly at Xue Zhao. "Snow Empress, you're saying you still have to leave the Far North? You still have to return to the human world? Why? Your strength hasn't recovered yet. Why not stay in the Far North, stay by my side? I can protect you!"

"Bing'er, you don't understand!" Xue Zhao shook her head with a meaningful smile.

If it had been a year earlier, Xue Zhao might truly have chosen to remain in the Far North. But now, the faces of Qin Xu, Ye Guyi, and Vielvi rose unbidden in her mind. There were already bonds in the human world that tugged at her heart.

"What do you mean, I don't understand? You're the one who's changed!" Seeing Xue Zhao actually refuse her, the Ice Empress fumed. "You've only spent six years in the human world, and you've already forgotten hundreds of thousands of years of ice and snow in the Far North? Is the human world really that wonderful?"

"Bing'er, don't sulk." Xue Zhao raised her hand and gently stroked the Ice Empress's head. "You're approaching four hundred thousand years too. It's time to consider whether to face your tribulation or take human form."

Xue Zhao's hand was soft and carried a trace of warmth—a warmth that had never existed in the Far North, leaving the Ice Empress intoxicated.

She said dejectedly, "Snow Empress, I definitely can't survive the four-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation, but I don't want to take human form and start over either. I'm different from you. I still have so many members of my clan. If I leave, what will they do?"

"Don't be discouraged, Bing'er," Xue Zhao said gently. "You still have several decades before your cultivation reaches its limit. Those decades will be enough for this human body of mine to return to its peak. When the time comes, I'll personally help you survive your tribulation!"

"Really?" Brilliant light immediately burst from the Ice Empress's eyes, and her body trembled with excitement. "Wait, Snow Empress, I have a wonderful idea! I'll raise one of my clan members to a hundred thousand years, then sacrifice myself to you and become your soul ring. That way, we can be together forever!"

Hearing this, Xue Zhao brought her fist straight down on the Ice Empress's head. "What nonsense are you talking about?" she demanded angrily. "Who wants your soul ring? A sacrifice, no less? Don't you know you'll die? If you have another outrageous idea like that, I won't come back to see you."

"No!" the Ice Empress immediately pleaded. "Snow Empress, I was wrong! I shouldn't have talked nonsense. Please don't stop coming back to see me!"

"Hmph! That depends on how you behave!" Xue Zhao gave a soft huff, then deftly vaulted onto the Ice Empress's back, as though she had done it countless times before. "Let's go. We'll check on Ice God Lake first. I've been away so long, who knows whether some fool who doesn't know their place has barged in."

"Hehe, Snow Empress, don't worry. I specifically stationed members of my clan outside Ice God Lake. Absolutely no living creature could have gotten in!" the Ice Empress boasted, eager for praise, as she carried the Snow Empress deeper into the Far North.

The human and the scorpion disappeared into the wind and snow.