The yin-yang complementary dual soul cores spun at high speed under the tempering of the lightning tribulation, the powers of ice and fire transforming into one another and amplifying each other.
They swallowed the power of every bolt of black lightning, ground it to pieces, then expelled it, making it part of themselves.
When the final bolt of black lightning descended, the entire sky turned black.
That bolt had no shape. It was like a black wall toppling from the heavens, bearing down on the Snow Empress.
The Snow Empress lifted her head and raised both palms. In that instant, the sphere of light between her palms swelled to its utmost limit. Blue-white radiance exploded from it, colliding head-on with the black lightning.
Nothing remained between heaven and earth but light.
The radiance lasted several breaths, then everything fell still.
The black lightning dispersed, the dark clouds scattered, and the sky returned to the grayish white customary to the Far North.
The Snow Empress stood where she was. The ice beneath her feet had shattered into spiderweb cracks stretching hundreds of feet in every direction, yet she herself was completely unscathed.
The hem of her long white dress fluttered gently. The aura surrounding her was deep and still as an abyss, utterly different from what it had been moments before.
Seven hundred thousand years.
She slowly turned and walked toward Zhang Lan and the Ice Empress.
With every step, the broken ice beneath her feet healed on its own, forming a smooth surface again behind her.
She reached the three of them and stopped, her gaze sweeping over the Ice Empress's face before settling on Zhang Lan.
"Sister Snow Empress..."
Zhang Lan began.
"You don't need to call me that anymore. Just call me Sister Xue'er, like Bing'er does."
The Snow Empress interrupted him. Her voice was as cool as ever, but that faint glimmer in her eyes had not faded.
Zhang Lan froze for a moment, then nodded.
"Sister Xue'er."
Beside him, the Ice Empress snorted and folded her arms, turning her head away, though the corners of her mouth curved ever so slightly.
At Zhang Lan's suggestion, the three left the Far North and headed south.
The Ice Empress was reluctant at first.
The Far North was her and the Snow Empress's domain, and she had only just broken through to four hundred thousand years.
She had been looking forward to stretching her limbs properly in her own territory, only for a single remark from Zhang Lan to send her off into human lands.
The Snow Empress, however, said nothing. She simply left the Ice Bear King behind to keep watch over the Far North, then went with them.
Sunset Forest lay on the southern border of the Heaven Dou Empire. Together with the Star Dou Great Forest, one in the north and the other in the south, it constituted the only two large soul beast habitats on the Douluo Continent.
Zhang Lan knew the location of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well from the novel he had read in his previous life.
Sunset Forest fell short of the Star Dou Great Forest in both the density and variety of its soul beasts, but deep within it lay a naturally formed treasure land: the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
That place was a convergence point for the soul power of heaven and earth. The two extreme attributes of ice and fire coexisted there, suppressing yet nourishing each other, giving rise to countless immortal herbs.
That was precisely what Zhang Lan had come for.
The Snow Empress carried him and the Ice Empress through the sky, landing at the outskirts of Sunset Forest.
Standing at the forest's edge, all three frowned at once.
Zhang Lan had never visited the Star Dou Great Forest, but the books described it as lush and vibrant, its canopy blotting out the sky and sun, the roars of soul beasts rising one after another.
Sunset Forest, however, presented an entirely different sight.
Hazy gray poison mist steamed up from the ground, shrouding the entire forest and sealing everything beneath it out of sight.
Here and there, withered black treetops emerged from the poison mist, their branches twisted and leaves sparse, like a multitude of skeletal hands reaching toward the sky.
A sickly sweet stench of decay hung in the air. It was not particularly strong, but breathing it in made the throat tighten, as though something were burrowing inside.
The Ice Empress waved a hand in front of her nose, her expression sour.
"What the hell is this place?"
The Snow Empress closed her eyes.
Her spiritual power spread out like an invisible ripple from beneath their feet, penetrating the poison mist and extending downward.
That spiritual power was calm and immense. Wherever it passed, the distribution of the poison mist, the forest's terrain, and the auras of its soul beasts all unfolded within her perception.
A moment later, she opened her eyes.
"It should be that way."
She raised a hand and pointed toward the northeast of the forest.
"The soul power is most concentrated where the poison mist is thickest."
"Follow me."
She enveloped Zhang Lan and the Ice Empress in her soul power, and the three rose into the air, flying deeper into the forest just above the poison mist.
The farther they went, the thicker the poison mist became. Its hazy gray gradually turned dark green, until nothing remained in their vision but a green blur, and even directions became indistinguishable.
Churning poison mist surrounded them above, below, and on every side. Occasionally, the shadow of a dead tree flashed through the fog before being swallowed again.
Zhang Lan tried probing the way with his gravitational perception, only to discover some kind of interference within the poison mist. Feedback from his gravitational field came and went, making accurate positioning impossible.
Without the Snow Empress using her spiritual power to keep their bearings, an ordinary person would have become lost within a hundred steps.
As they passed through the final layer of poison mist, the scene before them changed abruptly.
A gorge appeared before the three of them.
Its entrance was narrow, with steep rock walls on either side. Some kind of vine covered the walls, bearing palm-sized emerald-green flowers.
The petals were thick, their surfaces coated in an oily sheen. Pale green mist seeped constantly from their centers, drifting upward to join the layer of poison mist above the gorge.
Jade-Scaled Nine-Absolute Flowers.
Zhang Lan recognized them.
These flowers were not particularly poisonous themselves, but they could release poison mist continuously. A connected patch of Jade-Scaled Nine-Absolute Flowers was enough to make soul beasts within several miles give them a wide berth.
The Ice Empress stared at the ring of Jade-Scaled Nine-Absolute Flowers around the gorge's entrance for several breaths, then frowned.
"Aren't these flowers a little too orderly?"
She took a step forward, her gaze sweeping over their arrangement.
"The spacing is identical, they all face the same way, and even their blooming seems synchronized."
"Wild Jade-Scaled Nine-Absolute Flowers couldn't possibly grow like this."
"Why do I get the feeling someone deliberately planted these flowers here?"
The Snow Empress's gaze passed over the flowers, then followed the contours of the rock walls on either side of the gorge. She nodded slightly.
"That's very possible."
"The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well is a treasure basin of heaven and earth. Its value to soul masters is beyond measure."
"If someone discovered this place and wanted its treasures all to themselves, planting a ring of Jade-Scaled Nine-Absolute Flowers around the perimeter to block the entire path would be the cheapest method."
The Ice Empress's brows drew even tighter.
She glanced back at the forest behind them, shrouded in hazy gray poison mist, her voice carrying anger she could not suppress.
"How utterly shameless."
"Sunset Forest used to be a habitat for soul beasts. I swept through it with my perception when we first entered."
"From the outskirts all the way here, I didn't see a single hundred-year soul beast. They're all weak little soul beasts less than ten years old."
"Those over a hundred years old were either driven away by the poison mist or hunted down by that person."
She kicked a loose stone beside the path. It rolled into the flowers and was immediately engulfed by poison mist, its surface rapidly blackening and corroding.
"Now soul beasts can't survive here, and humans can't get in either."
"This was supposed to be a place that benefited both soul beasts and humans."
"After all this meddling, it's become his own private back garden."
"Cutting off his own path forward. What an absolute fool."
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