"Strike."
Nan Qiuqiu slammed her dragon claw into the Voidmark Moth.
That trace of annihilation invaded the moth's body, and its Soul Power structure collapsed instantly.
The moth struggled twice before going still, and a pale purple Soul Ring slowly rose from its corpse.
Zhang Lan withdrew the Gravity Dome and stepped aside.
Nan Qiuqiu stood before the Soul Ring, took a deep breath, then reached out.
The Soul Ring became a stream of light that poured into her body. She shuddered violently, and rouge-colored Soul Power surged out uncontrollably, churning around her.
Nan Shuishui stepped forward and pressed her palm against her daughter's back, using her Soul Douluo-level Soul Power to stabilize the absorption.
Zhang Lan stood guard beside them, keeping a wary eye on their surroundings.
The chaotic magnetic field deep in the rift did not seem to interfere noticeably with the absorption of the Voidmark Moth's Soul Ring, and Nan Qiuqiu's condition gradually stabilized.
After roughly the time it took an incense stick to burn, Nan Qiuqiu opened her eyes.
Her First Soul Ring had solidified, a yellow halo slowly revolving beneath her feet.
She raised her hand, and the rouge-colored dragon claw formed again. This time, a faint layer of dark purple edged the claw-the force-field distortion bestowed by the Voidmark Moth.
"It worked."
Nan Shuishui breathed a sigh of relief.
"Next, we need to find a Soul Beast suitable for me."
With those words from Zhang Lan, the group continued deeper into the rift.
Before long, they encountered a suitable Soul Beast.
A Voidmark Moth over five thousand years old.
Zhang Lan struck, quickly killed it, and began absorbing its Soul Ring.
A Soul Ring over five thousand years old did not take Zhang Lan very long.
He soon finished absorbing it.
"What Soul Skill did you get?"
The Ice Empress asked from beside him.
"Void-Trace Domain, a domain-type control Soul Skill."
Zhang Lan answered.
"It creates a distorted gravitational field with a radius of thirty zhang around me."
"Within the field, gravity changes direction chaotically-up, down, left, right-with extremely rapid shifts and no pattern whatsoever."
"An ordinary person who steps inside will stagger every which way without any control over their body. Even standing steady will be difficult, let alone attacking accurately."
"At the same time, the distorted gravitational field constantly interferes with an opponent's Soul Power perception, throwing off all their judgments of distance, direction, and speed-"
"They might think their enemy is three steps away when they're actually ten steps apart; they might think they're firing a Soul Skill straight ahead when it's actually veering seven or eight zhang off course."
"That's quite a powerful Soul Skill."
The Ice Empress sounded somewhat surprised.
Zhang Lan nodded and was about to speak when he suddenly sensed a faint fluctuation of Soul Power from farther down the rift.
The fluctuation was deep and slow, as though some enormous creature had turned over in its sleep.
Nan Shuishui sensed it too. Her rouge-colored dragon phantom abruptly sprang out, its head releasing a soundless roar toward the depths of the rift.
"There's something down there."
Nan Shuishui lowered her voice.
"And it's no ordinary thing."
Zhang Lan leaned forward to peer farther into the rift.
The darkness there was so thick it seemed impossible to dissolve, with only a few ice crystals still glimmering faintly.
But his gravitational perception told him that, at the very bottom of the rift, lay enormous remains imbued with Soul Power. They had been dead for an unknown number of years, yet their lingering Soul Power still radiated slowly and steadily into the surroundings.
A vast cavity had already been annihilated out of the surrounding ground.
The Soul Power attribute of those remains was exactly the same as the rouge-colored power in Nan Qiuqiu.
Zhang Lan's pupils contracted.
"There's something underground."
His voice was quiet, but everyone heard him.
Nan Shuishui had just helped Nan Qiuqiu stabilize her Soul Ring. At his words, she immediately focused her senses downward. Her rouge-colored dragon phantom sprang out again, its head lowered as it stared fixedly into the impenetrable darkness deep in the rift.
"Bing'er, could you help?"
Zhang Lan pointed to an open patch of ground ahead and to his left.
That patch looked no different from the ground around it, covered in ice and scattered rubble. But Zhang Lan's gravitational perception told him something lay beneath it, and it was huge.
The Ice Empress walked over and glanced down at the spot Zhang Lan indicated without asking any questions.
She raised her hand, palm downward, and a beam of emerald light fell from it, sinking soundlessly into the ice.
A few breaths later, the ice beneath their feet began to crack. Fissures spread outward, growing deeper and denser.
A muffled boom rang out.
The entire patch of ground collapsed, exposing an enormous hollow.
Rubble and shards of ice tumbled over the hollow's edges with a faint clatter that echoed deep in the rift for a long time before fading.
Once the dust cleared, the thing inside was finally revealed.
A skeleton.
It was unimaginably huge.
The exposed section of its spine alone was taller than Zhang Lan.
The entire skeleton lay curled up within the hollow, as though it had huddled into a ball in its final moments before death.
A dark red sheen covered the bones. Between them, extremely faint purple threads of light drifted slowly, like the lingering embers of a life that had yet to die out completely.
The instant Zhang Lan's gravitational perception touched those threads of light, a tingling chill ran down his back.
The power within those threads was far too immense. His perception had barely touched them before it was repelled, and even the Soul Power vortex in his dantian shuddered several times from the impact.
"Annihilation Rouge Dragon."
Nan Shuishui's voice came from behind him, so low it was almost inaudible.
Her dragon phantom had withdrawn completely into her body. She had not recalled it herself; the lingering aura of those remains had forced it back.
Instinctive Martial Soul suppression. Suppression born of the same origin and bloodline.
The powers manifesting on those remains were one overt and one hidden. The overt one was gravity, deep and heavy, like an upturned mountain pressing down overhead;
The hidden one was annihilation, formless and intangible, like something silently devouring everything in the abyss.
The two powers intertwined, with no distinction between them, already fused into one.
Zhang Lan estimated the cultivation level these remains had possessed in life.
Over two hundred thousand years.
He could not determine the exact figure, but he was certain of one thing: if this Annihilation Rouge Dragon were still alive, the Ice Empress would not be able to defeat it.
Even as one of the Three Heavenly Kings of the Far North, even with her Ultimate Ice already touching the limits of this world, she would gain no advantage against this Ferocious Beast.
The Ice Empress had clearly realized this as well.
She stared at the remains for several breaths, pressed her lips together slightly, and said nothing.
She stepped forward and gripped the thickest vertebra with one hand. Emerald light poured from her palm as she lifted the entire enormous skeleton out of the rubble.
The moment the remains left the ground, their dark red sheen rapidly receded. The purple threads of light went out one by one, until all fell dormant.
Then the entire skeleton began shrinking in the Ice Empress's hand.
The bones joined together one by one, compressing and condensing. The dark red sheen faded completely, replaced by a somber purplish brown.
Within a few breaths, the enormous skeleton shrank into a torso bone a little over half a foot long and as thick as a thumb.
The bone was purplish brown throughout, with fine patterns flowing across its surface. Within those patterns, dark purple threads of light still drifted slowly, but they were much fainter now, like a heartbeat in slumber.
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