Ice God

Seeing the Snow Empress agree so hastily, looking somewhat dazed,

Lin Xiao merely chuckled and nodded, then continued.

"There's one more thing, Snow Empress. Do you know what this is?"

Lin Xiao took out the pearl the system had given him.

For a moment, the Ice Empress and the Snow Empress froze as though time itself had stopped.

Then the Snow Empress spoke in a slightly trembling voice.

"Lin Xiao, where did you get that?"

Naturally, Lin Xiao could not reveal the system's existence.

So he made up an excuse.

"I picked it up in a patch of grass beside the road when I first entered the Far North. At first, I just thought it looked pretty. But the farther I went, the more it kept giving off some kind of pull, guiding me toward a certain place. I didn't know what it was, so I came to ask you."

The Snow Empress grew serious and slowly spoke.

"This is the Ice God Pearl. In simpler terms, it's the divine artifact that carries the Ice God's inheritance!"

"In ancient times, the first Heavenly Snow Woman of the Far North was the one we now know as the Ice God. She gathered the power of faith from the entire Far North, then vanished without a trace after ascending to the Divine Realm.

And the divine artifact formed from the faith of the countless soul beasts of the Far North is the Ice God Pearl."

The Snow Empress explained:

"Even now, the entire Far North worships the Ice God, despite the fact that she hasn't sent down a single divine oracle in over ten thousand years.

Even I believe that the Ice God might have already fallen."

"But she remains the unchanging object of faith throughout the Far North."

As the Snow Empress continued, a trace of reverence and envy entered her voice.

Her voice unconsciously rose a little.

"Lin Xiao, since you were able to obtain the Ice God's divine artifact, that means she might still be alive! This Ice God Pearl could be a medium."

Lin Xiao nodded, taking a moment to digest the information.

"So you mean the Ice God might still be alive, and she sought me out and temporarily bestowed her divine artifact upon me?"

The Snow Empress inclined her head, apparently agreeing with his interpretation.

"After all, she showed no sign of activity for ten thousand years, yet now it has inexplicably appeared in the mortal world. Perhaps there are some special circumstances."

"So you should still visit the Ice God Palace and see for yourself."

"That would give me an answer, too."

Lin Xiao drained his tea in one gulp.

He stood up and stretched his limbs.

"In that case, there's no time to lose."

They came outside the Snow Empress Palace.

The Snow Empress pointed with her delicate hand.

"Do you see that tallest peak?"

Lin Xiao looked in the direction she indicated. A mountain towering into the clouds stood at the very heart of the Far North.

He nodded.

The Snow Empress then spoke slowly.

"That's where the Ice God Palace stands, the only thing the Ice God left behind in the Far North. Perhaps your Ice God Pearl is trying to guide you there."

"How high is it?" Lin Xiao asked curiously. He could not quite understand why the Ice God had built her palace atop such a high mountain.

The Snow Empress considered for a moment:

"It should be over three thousand meters high, measured from the foot of the mountain.

The weather at the summit is even harsher.

The Snow Empress estimated that the wind speed could approach one hundred and eighty kilometers per hour.

Back then, the Ice God built her palace so high because she didn't want anyone disturbing her secluded cultivation."

There was a trace of helplessness in the Snow Empress's voice.

"For tens of thousands of years, no one besides Bing'er and me has gone up there. Not even A-Tai, the Titan Snow Demon King."

"Though I think he should be capable of it."

Lin Xiao nodded, making some calculations inwardly.

"The summit might be nearly eight thousand meters above sea level. Add the Far North's incredibly harsh climate, and no one would go up there just for something to do."

Then he asked,

"How are we going to get up there?"

He was not the Snow Empress, after all. How could an ordinary soul master who had not even reached Soul Elder scale that summit?

At some point, the Snow Empress had gently taken his hand.

"So I'll take you up. Just the two of us."

She smiled a little playfully and blinked.

"Don't worry. I'll keep you safe."

Ice Empress: I'm getting cheated on! Cheated on!

An icy-blue shield enveloped them, and the Snow Empress slowly rose into the air with Lin Xiao.

Xuan Zi and the Ice Empress quietly waited below.

The Snow Empress could control the climate of the entire Far North.

This place alone was beyond her ability to adjust.

Thus, they flew particularly slowly, wary that a moment's carelessness might lead to an unexpected accident.

Nearly ten minutes later, they finally reached the summit.

Rather than being pointed, the mountaintop was flat and spacious.

It seemed as large as several soccer fields.

An even more magnificent, dazzling palace stood quietly at its center.

"That's the Ice God Palace."

The Snow Empress looked at Lin Xiao, a trace of envy showing in her eyes.

She desperately longed to become a god, just like the first Heavenly Snow Woman.

Yet now, the child before her seemed to have obtained the Ice God's inheritance directly.

How could the Snow Empress not envy him?

They slowly pushed open the palace doors.

Inside lay an entirely different world.

The cold and howling wind vanished the instant they entered, and a warm current curled around their bodies.

Lin Xiao felt an incredibly pleasant sensation wash over him.

It made him instinctively half-close his eyes, wanting to savor it.

The Snow Empress glanced at the Ice God Pearl, whose radiance had reached its peak.

"It really does seem to be the Ice God's summons... Lin Xiao, I don't know what you should do next. Everything is up to you now. Walk straight ahead, and you'll reach the hall. Perhaps the answer you seek is there."

Lin Xiao came back to his senses and nodded at the Snow Empress.

He slowly walked deeper into the Ice God Palace.

The Snow Empress watched him walk inside, step by step.

Shaking her head gently, she sighed, then sat down cross-legged where she stood and began cultivating.

In a deep, dark passage lit only by the faint glow of icy-blue torches,

Lin Xiao felt his way forward, step by step.

After walking for a little while, his view gradually opened up and grew brighter.

A statue bearing some resemblance to the Snow Empress stood in the hall.

Small candle lamps emitting blue-white light adorned the walls and ceiling.

Her hands looked as though they were cradling something.

Lin Xiao looked at the Ice God Pearl in his hand and tried placing it in the statue's hands.

Blue light instantly flared, and his vision went dark again.

When color returned,

he found himself back in a space similar to the one where he had first met the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings.

A woman who closely resembled the Snow Empress stood with her back to him.

Curious, Lin Xiao approached and quietly observed her from a short distance behind her.

The woman turned around.

Her noble, aloof features imprinted themselves on Lin Xiao's mind.

There seemed to be a hint of tenderness in her gaze as she looked at him.

"Hello, Lin Xiao. I am the Ice God, and the first Heavenly Snow Woman the Snow Empress spoke of."

Lin Xiao bowed slightly in greeting.

"Hello."

The Ice God seemed to wear a faint smile throughout.

She inclined her head, and gentle soul power enveloped Lin Xiao, lightly lifting him upright.

"I fell a very long time ago. What remains of me now is merely a remnant soul."

She looked a little sorrowful.

Ever since her fall, her remnant soul had remained within the Ice God Palace.

For untold tens of thousands of years, no one had been able to awaken her.

Until one day, a fluctuation came from the Ice God Pearl, allowing her to briefly awaken from her frozen slumber.

And the source of it all was Lin Xiao, standing before her.

"Since the Ice God Pearl has acknowledged you, you are someone I acknowledge as well."

"The Ice God Pearl's acknowledgment? Isn't it your divine artifact?"

The Ice God's rather puzzling remark left Lin Xiao confused.

The Ice God chuckled softly and explained:

"I formed the Ice God Pearl by condensing the faith of the countless soul beasts in the Far North. It is a quasi-super divine artifact, and it possesses an intelligence of its own."

"I see."

Lin Xiao indicated that he understood, and the Ice God continued.

"I still have my Godhood Inheritance as the Ice God. Your aura tells me that you might not accept it.

But I still intend to give it to you."

"I hope you will treat the current Heavenly Snow Woman well."

The Ice God gave him a meaningful look.

Lin Xiao could not help blushing.

As someone with a weakness for white hair, he naturally liked the Snow Empress very much. Otherwise, he would never have come to the Far North. But he had not expected the Ice God to see through him and point it out at once.

"Although soul beasts cannot become gods, the Heavenly Snow Women are elemental spirits. The most ancient era we can trace our origins to does not necessarily postdate the Dragon God."

"So if you don't wish to become the Ice God, you can give it to that Snow Woman. You carry an existence of an extremely high order within you. It may be able to obscure heaven's secrets and the rules, allowing that junior of mine to slip through a loophole and become a god."

Listening to the Ice God's instructions and explanation, Lin Xiao softly murmured his agreement.

The Ice God smiled in relief.

"The last trace of my power is about to run out. I leave everything to you."

The Ice God Pearl slowly floated back into Lin Xiao's hand as he watched the Ice God's figure dissipate between heaven and earth.

His vision went dark, and he found himself back inside the Ice God Palace.

(The trial run starts tomorrow. Dear readers, please add this story to your collections and support it. Yiyue thanks you all here.)