The Snow Empress's soul imprint did not appear on Huo Yuhao's palm. Instead, it took the shape of a snowflake.
Huo Yuhao could not help taking a deep breath, then asked the Snow Empress in his Sea of Consciousness,
"Stop fooling around, you two. Something different seems to have happened during the fusion. Why do I feel like this soul imprint isn't quite right?"
At those words, the Snow Empress and the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm both stopped.
After all, this concerned Huo Yuhao's future path to godhood. They had no choice but to treat it cautiously.
The Snow Empress curiously closed her eyes to sense what had happened. A moment later, she said to Huo Yuhao in surprise,
"Your martial soul really is domineering, kid. Although it's never appeared on the Douluo Continent before, its standing is frighteningly high. I'm not even worthy of becoming your martial soul."
Huo Yuhao had already expected his martial soul to be exceptionally prestigious. After all, the Qiongqi martial soul was one of the Four Fiends. Strictly speaking, nothing in all of Douluo could compare to it.
The Snow Empress was merely the strongest being he could find under the requirement that she possess the ice attribute. Surely he could not bypass Tang San's barrier right now and go to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to take in the Ice Dragon?
"Then what's going on now? Just what is this martial soul of mine? Why don't I feel any change after releasing it?"
The Snow Empress told Huo Yuhao,
"Your martial soul is what I was before taking form—the very concept of ice and snow. The reason you didn't notice any change after releasing it is that snow is already everywhere in the Far North. Once you leave and release your martial soul again, snow will begin falling around you."
Huo Yuhao clenched his fist slightly, feeling the faint chill brought by his second martial soul. The corner of his mouth twitched as he said,
"It can work like that? Now that's pretty interesting."
The Snow Empress looked at Huo Yuhao and said,
"This gives me even more confidence in our plan to attain godhood. With a martial soul like this, you're destined to be an extraordinary existence."
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm timidly interjected,
"This martial soul is far too frightening. In theory, with my ice spirit serving as its foundation and having spent so long harmonizing with it, there shouldn't have been such a violent rejection."
The Snow Empress helplessly told the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm,
"Under normal circumstances, there wouldn't be. But this martial soul is especially sensitive to the aura of life, so it's destined to be unable to combine with a beast martial soul.
Any soul beast that fuses with Huo Yuhao and tries to become his second martial soul will ultimately be compressed into a tool martial soul."
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm shuddered, clearly badly frightened by Huo Yuhao's martial soul.
Huo Yuhao clapped his hands and told the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and the Snow Empress,
"All right, there's no point in continuing to go over this. My cultivation has hit another bottleneck, so there's no question about what matters most next. I need to obtain a soul ring."
The Snow Empress and the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm both froze. The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm even said to Huo Yuhao,
"You're advancing way too fast. A Soul King who isn't even thirteen yet, that's..."
Huo Yuhao stretched, then told the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm,
"Well, what can I do? You can't deliberately put off adding a soul ring just to keep a low profile, can you? Wouldn't that be even stupider?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm shook his head helplessly, then told Huo Yuhao,
"Then let's go. Luckily, your primary martial soul doesn't have the mental attribute, so finding a suitable soul ring won't be that difficult."
The Snow Empress smiled and said,
"This is also a good chance to test the effects of the soul ring I gave you. I've already fixed your soul bone's two soul skills in place. They're two of my three signature ultimate techniques: Emperor Sword: Ice Extreme Peerless and the Emperor's Palm, Emperor Palm: Great Cold Without Snow. As for the two soul skills attached to the seven-hundred-thousand-year first soul ring I added to your second martial soul, what are they? Because of the mutation that occurred during the martial soul fusion, they've already passed beyond my control."
Somewhat puzzled, Huo Yuhao asked the Snow Empress,
"If the soul ring is beyond your control, how are you appearing in my Sea of Consciousness now?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm explained to Huo Yuhao with an aggrieved expression,
"She forcibly swallowed up my power."
As he spoke, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm pointed at the ten suns in the Sea of Consciousness.
Only then did Huo Yuhao notice that four of the ten suns representing the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's spiritual power had turned icy blue.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm continued,
"After the Snow Empress sensed what had happened just now and realized something was wrong, she forcibly took a portion of my sealed power for herself. Now I'm the one who can't get away from you."
The Snow Empress folded her arms and told the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm,
"Who told you to drag me into this? You dared to scheme against Bing'er and me. With an unexpected complication like this, it was the only option."
Huo Yuhao shrugged and told the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm,
"So when you couldn't beat the Snow Empress just now, Tian Meng, she was actually using your own power to thrash you?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm irritably told Huo Yuhao,
"That's exactly what happened. What can I do? I'm no good at fighting."
Huo Yuhao smiled helplessly and teased the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm,
"You're a total maggot. Forget Sky Dream Ice Silkworm—you should be called Sky Dream Ice Maggot."
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm did not particularly mind the name. After all, silkworms and maggots looked very similar to begin with. He merely snorted and urged Huo Yuhao,
"If you don't want to lose your enrollment, you'd better hurry to the Star Dou Great Forest. Soul hunting takes time too."
Huo Yuhao smiled, steering his Flying Soul Tool toward the outskirts as he said,
"You don't have to worry about that. Even if I only return to the academy a year from now, all I have to do is show my five soul rings, and I'll still be enrolled."
The Snow Empress was now asking the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm about Huo Yuhao's circumstances with great interest. After quite some time, she asked Huo Yuhao,
"What do you think of that Dai Hao?"
Huo Yuhao paused in midair, then said calmly,
"I'll take it one step at a time. I'll treat him the way he treats me. As things stand, I'll at least help him live in peace until he kicks the bucket. After all, there isn't much father-son affection between us. It's essentially just an exchange of interests. If there really were any father-son affection, he wouldn't have taken me onto the battlefield at six years old. At the very least, he can't bear to let Dai Yueheng lead an assault squad into the enemy's main camp."
The Snow Empress sighed softly and told Huo Yuhao,
"Debts like these have always been hard to repay. And whatever you do, someone will probably be unhappy with your actions."
Huo Yuhao gave a bitter smile, then told the Snow Empress,
"There's nothing I can do about that either. I'll just keep my conscience clear."
When Huo Yuhao finished speaking, the Snow Empress nodded. Then Huo Yuhao stopped joining in the conversation and simply pressed on toward the Star Dou Great Forest...
Before you continue