Electrolux

A single piece of this was enough to raise an ordinary ice-type Douluo to a Super Douluo, yet for the Snow Empress, it would only help her condense her soul core again, and for the Ice Empress, it would merely aid her cultivation.

But Anti-Entropy could not rely on such a narrow range of resources in the future.

It seemed he would have to turn his attention to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

And Shrek's Golden Sacred Tree.

The Far North was unsuitable for growing things. Better to take over Shrek and let the cuckoo occupy the magpie's nest.

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm emerged in his Sea of Consciousness.

"What are you thinking about?"

"The future."

Zhang Lan put away the profound ice marrow.

"Anti-Entropy needs to be built, and we'll need people."

"Nan Shuishui from the Earth Dragon Sect has agreed to join us, but the Earth Dragon Sect alone can't sustain an organization."

"As for the soul beasts in the Far North, the Ice Empress and Snow Empress can help me keep them in line for a while, but I can't rely on them forever."

Tian Meng fell silent for a moment.

"You want to put down roots in the Far North?"

"Heaven is high and the emperor is far away here. Human organizations can't extend their reach this far, and even the Heaven Dou Empire's Worship Hall wouldn't dare set foot here lightly."

"It's a good place to lay a foundation."

"Then you'll have to get past the Ice Bear King first."

There was a hint of teasing in Tian Meng's tone.

"He's only being polite to you now out of respect for the Snow Empress."

"If you want to establish an organization in the Far North, there's no getting around the Ice Bear King."

Zhang Lan glanced at the Ice Bear King lying nearby.

The enormous bear had his eyes closed, pretending to doze, but the tip of his tail tapped the ground now and then. Clearly, he was listening with his ears pricked.

"No rush."

Zhang Lan withdrew his gaze.

"We'll talk about it once the Snow Empress and Ice Empress come out of seclusion."

He settled cross-legged, laid the Star of Eden across his knees, and began circulating his soul power.

The cold energy in the Far North was far denser than elsewhere, and his gravitational field absorbed it more than twice as efficiently as it had in Dragon City.

The soul power vortex in his dantian spun noticeably faster, while his liquid soul power slowly grew more condensed.

He had already obtained his second soul ring, and the Voidmark Moth's power had merged with the Star of Eden. Next came honing his proficiency, practicing the soul skill World of Chaotic Marks until he could deploy it instantly.

Wind and snow howled past the ice cliff. The Ice Bear King's immense body stood like a white barrier, shutting out every presence that tried to approach.

Behind the two ice curtains, the Ice Empress and Snow Empress were each immersed in the power of the profound ice marrow, their auras steady and deep.

Zhang Lan closed his eyes and entered a state of cultivation.

The skies over the Far North darkened, brightened, then darkened again.

A year passed in the Far North faster than Zhang Lan had expected.

The Ice Bear King lay in front of the ice cliff for twelve full months. During that time, he changed positions three times and ate two Icefield Wolves foolish enough to approach. He spent almost all the rest of his time sleeping.

Zhang Lan sat on an icy rock a hundred feet away from him, cultivating with a constancy that not even thunder could shake.

The concentration of soul power in the Far North's core region was so high that he barely needed to activate the Star of Eden's gravitational field. The soul power vortex in his dantian spun on its own, nearly twice as fast as it had in Dragon City.

Rank thirty.

From rank twenty to rank thirty in one full year.

To an outsider, that speed would have seemed downright absurd. But Zhang Lan knew perfectly well that cultivating in the Far North's core region was the equivalent of an ordinary person spending every day soaking in a hot spring of soul power.

Anyone else would have exhausted all their soul power merely resisting the cold, leaving none to spare for cultivation.

The Star of Eden's Gravity Dome solved that problem for him. All he had to do was sit there, and soul power would pour into his dantian on its own.

Time to get my third soul ring.

But Zhang Lan was in no hurry to move.

He was waiting for the Ice Empress and Snow Empress to emerge from seclusion.

The auras behind the ice curtains grew deeper by the day, especially on the Ice Empress's side. Emerald light seeped through gaps in her curtain, tinting the surrounding snow pale green.

A few days earlier, that light had woken the Ice Bear King. He opened his eyes, took a look, and muttered, "Almost four hundred thousand years," before lying down to sleep again.

The Snow Empress's side was much quieter.

Occasionally, the faintest sound came from her ice chamber, like ice crystals rubbing together, or someone gently tapping the ice wall with a fingernail.

Her aura was far steadier than before she entered seclusion. The turbulent fluctuations of her soul power had vanished completely.

The ten-thousand-year profound ice marrow had worked better than expected. Most of her hidden injuries had healed, and although her soul core had not condensed again, at least it was no longer breaking down.

Zhang Lan withdrew his gaze from the ice curtains and looked down into his own Sea of Consciousness.

The gray bead was still floating there.

It had appeared in his Sea of Consciousness after he emerged from the depths of the Rift Valley a year earlier.

He did not know when it had entered, or how. It simply floated silently in a corner of his Sea of Consciousness, emitting an extremely faint gray glow.

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had examined it several times without figuring anything out. He only said that its soul power fluctuations were strange and did not match any soul power system on the Douluo Continent.

Zhang Lan sat cross-legged in the mental space within his Sea of Consciousness, staring at the bead.

Extremely fine patterns flowed slowly across its surface, resembling some sort of writing, or perhaps some kind of formation.

He could not see through it, but whenever he gazed at it, he had a strange feeling that something deep inside the bead was looking back at him.

"Little Lan, you've been staring at it for ages."

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm floated over from the other side of the Sea of Consciousness, a white-gold soul ring flickering behind him.

"Do you know what it is?"

"Yes."

Zhang Lan withdrew his gaze.

"A remnant soul from another world."

Tian Meng froze for a moment.

"Another world?"

"Yes."

Zhang Lan thought for a moment, gathering his words.

"His name is Electrolux. He comes from a world completely different from the Douluo Continent."

"That world's cultivation system is different from ours."

"In life, he was one of the strongest beings in that world. Although he never became a god, his strength was already comparable to the gods of the Douluo Continent."

"Ordinary gods were no match for him."

Tian Meng's soul form tensed briefly.

God.

He understood better than anyone what that word meant on the Douluo Continent.

It was the ultimate destination of a soul master's cultivation, an existence at the very pinnacle of this world's pyramid.

Then Zhang Lan gave a brief account of Electrolux's life.

Tian Meng fell silent for a while. Just as he was about to ask another question, the gray bead suddenly trembled.

It was a tiny movement, like a heartbeat.

Zhang Lan and Tian Meng both fell silent.

The gray glow on the bead's surface slowly brightened. Its intricate patterns began to flow faster, and the light shifted from gray to white, then from white to gold.

The bead's shape began to blur, its edges spreading outward like a cloud of luminous mist taking form.

A voice emerged from the luminous mist.

"To think someone in this world would know of this old man. How interesting."

The voice was quiet but clear, carrying a composure tempered by the passing years, neither hurried nor slow.

Zhang Lan rose to his feet, and Tian Meng retreated half a step.

The luminous mist condensed into a figure within the Sea of Consciousness.

A man stood there.

He looked around thirty. The lines of his face seemed carved by a blade, sharply defined without appearing rugged.