"Ultimate Ice."
Nether Thunder Douluo's voice was hoarse. His dark-purple eyes fixed on Ice Empress, a flicker of greed passing through them.
"To think I'd encounter a Soul Master with ultimate ice here."
"Who are you?"
Ice Empress did not answer.
She pushed off with her foot. A ring of cracks burst across the ice beneath her as she shot forward once more.
This time, she did not charge straight ahead. Instead, she swept in along a curve, tracing an emerald arc along the edge of the lightning net.
She thrust out her right hand, spreading her fingers. An emerald ice shield formed before her palm, hexagonal diamond patterns flowing across its surface.
The lightning net collided head-on with the ice shield.
Purple arcs savagely tore at the shield. Its surface shattered again and again, only for fresh layers of ice to surge from behind and fill the gaps.
Ice Empress advanced against the lightning net. Every inch cost her a tremendous amount of Soul Power, yet her expression showed not the slightest strain.
Her other hand had already moved to her side. A half-foot-long icicle condensed at her fingertips, translucent emerald, its tip gleaming with cold light.
Nether Thunder Douluo noticed the icicle.
He dared not take it head-on. The bronze mirror swung sharply toward Ice Empress, and a purple beam as thick as the mouth of a bowl erupted from its surface.
The beam carried terrifying heat. The ice along its path melted instantly, sending up steam that the following chill froze into icy mist.
Ice Empress raised her shield to block.
The purple beam slammed into the center of the ice shield. Its surface burst apart from the middle, scattering shards.
But Ice Empress used the force of the blow to slide several yards backward. As she landed, the phantom shapes of six long emerald legs flashed behind her, then vanished.
Nether Thunder Douluo caught sight of those fleeting phantoms.
His pupils abruptly contracted.
"You're not human."
His voice changed, unmistakable wariness creeping into its rasp.
"You're a Soul Beast. A Soul Beast over a hundred thousand years old!"
Ice Empress neither denied nor admitted it.
She merely steadied herself again, her long emerald dress fluttering amid the interwoven lightning and icy mist.
The corners of her lips curved slightly, forming a smile cold to the extreme.
"You talk too much."
She charged again.
This time, she was faster and fiercer than before.
She abandoned the ice shield. In its place, phantom foreclaws formed over her arms, their mirrorlike, silvery-white pincers edged with cold light.
Every strike carried the corrosive power of ultimate ice. She peeled away the lightning net layer by layer and forcibly sheared apart the bronze mirror's purple light with her pincers.
Nether Thunder Douluo was driven back again and again. Cracks began appearing in the lightning patterns on the bronze mirror, and his Soul Power was draining rapidly.
But he was, after all, a level 94 Titled Douluo, and he had absorbed the Soul Power of everyone in the Heavenly Dragon Sect.
His reserves of Soul Power were absurdly vast. Whenever Ice Empress suppressed him, he could squeeze fresh strength from within himself and counterattack.
Though damaged, the bronze mirror still functioned, amplifying every attack he made.
The two battled amid the ruins. Lightning and emerald light flashed across one another, while the ice shattered and reformed time after time.
Ice Empress gradually gained the upper hand, but Nether Thunder Douluo's tenacity exceeded her expectations.
His Soul Power seemed impossible to wring dry. Though the bronze mirror had cracked, it still held together.
If she did not end the battle soon, she would have to reveal more of her Soul Beast traits. Then, all of Dragon City would sense the aura of a Soul Beast from the Far North.
Snow Empress saw this.
She did not hesitate.
Just as the battle between Ice Empress and Nether Thunder Douluo reached its fiercest point, Snow Empress moved.
Her movement was far simpler than Ice Empress's. She merely raised her right hand, pressed her index and middle fingers together, and lightly swept them forward.
A thread of ice shot from her fingertips.
The thread was as fine as a strand of hair and entirely colorless, almost invisible in the air.
It passed through the lightning net, through the icy mist, through the bronze mirror's purple light, and through the protective Soul Power surrounding Nether Thunder Douluo.
Nether Thunder Douluo stopped moving.
He lowered his head and looked at his chest.
An exceedingly fine thread of ice had entered through his back and emerged from his chest, piercing his heart.
The chill clinging to that thread was so pure that the wound froze before any blood could flow.
His mouth opened slightly. Lightning flickered violently a few times in his dark-purple eyes, then dimmed.
The bronze mirror slipped from his hand, struck the ice, and shattered into several pieces.
Nether Thunder Douluo's body pitched forward and crashed onto the scorched earth, stirring up a cloud of black ash.
The Soul Power within him rapidly dispersed. Purple lightning poured from his eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth, crackled a few times in the air, then vanished completely.
His body began to shrivel. His skin turned ashen, as though its last trace of vitality had been drained away.
Snow Empress withdrew her hand, her expression unchanged, as though she had merely done something insignificant.
Ice Empress stood a hundred feet away, breathing slightly faster, a few shards of ice clinging to her long emerald dress.
She glanced at Nether Thunder Douluo on the ground, then looked at Snow Empress. Her lips moved, but in the end, she merely gave a snort.
"Busybody."
Snow Empress ignored her and simply turned to glance at Zhang Lan. Her meaning was clear: it was over. Were they leaving?
Zhang Lan stood where he was. His gaze shifted from Nether Thunder Douluo's corpse, swept across the devastated Heavenly Dragon Sect grounds, and finally settled on Nan Shuishui.
Nan Shuishui stood at the front of the Earth Dragon Sect disciples, her face deathly pale. The rouge-colored dragon phantom had long since dissipated.
Behind her, some disciples sat collapsed on the ground, some bent over retching, and others stared blankly at Nether Thunder Douluo's corpse.
Nan Shuishui met Zhang Lan's eyes for a moment.
Her lips moved slightly, as though she wanted to say something, but in the end, she merely nodded silently.
The Heavenly Dragon Sect was gone.
The Earth Dragon Sect's crisis had ended in a way no one had anticipated.
The matter of the Heavenly Dragon Sect ended sooner than expected.
Nan Shuishui brought Nether Thunder Douluo's corpse back to the Earth Dragon Sect, along with the shattered bronze mirror, a Level 9 Soul Tool, and sealed both away.
Nan Shuishui worked efficiently. Within three days, she had compiled the evidence of the Heavenly Dragon Sect's collusion with the Holy Spirit Cult into a dossier and submitted it to the Heaven Dou Empire's authorities.
The Heavenly Dragon Sect had run roughshod over Dragon City for years, already earning itself considerable resentment.
Now that the wall had fallen, everyone rushed to push it down. With this move, Nan Shuishui firmly seized control of public opinion.
Not only did the Earth Dragon Sect escape being splashed with any dirty water, but it also became the hero that had exposed the Evil Soul Masters' plot.
The Earth Dragon Sect took full control of the Heavenly Dragon Sect's resources.
Its grounds in South City, its mineral veins, shops, and Soul Tool workshops-all were transferred to the Earth Dragon Sect.
In just half a month, the Earth Dragon Sect went from a declining sect teetering on the brink to the greatest power in Dragon City.
Nan Shuishui was so busy her feet barely touched the ground, but whenever she saw Zhang Lan, her gaze grew a little more complicated than the day before.
She knew perfectly well where all of this had begun.
With that seven-year-old boy and the two Titled Douluo of unknown origins behind him.
At Nan Shuishui's repeated insistence, Zhang Lan and his companions settled into the Earth Dragon Sect.
Throughout this time, Zhang Lan had never stopped cultivating.
The Star of Eden's gravitational properties allowed his Soul Power to circulate considerably faster than an ordinary person's.
Before you continue