Although the snowbound Far North and the Star Dou Great Forest were both called paradises for Soul Beasts, the Far North differed from the largely explored Star Dou Great Forest. It was far more mysterious.
If the Star Dou Great Forest was ninety percent explored, then the Far North was only twenty percent explored, or even less.
The fundamental reason was its extreme cold. Even high-ranking Soul Masters had to rely on Soul Power to withstand the bitter weather. With that kind of consumption, even a Titled Douluo could not endure it.
At that moment, a black-haired youth dressed in black broke that rule. Eight pairs of black-and-white wings of light fluttered gently behind him, tracing ripples through the void as he became a streak of light and flew straight toward the Far North's core region.
This black-clad youth was naturally Qian Chongling, wearing his original appearance. He had stopped using his old-grandfather guise because he felt that his face, which captivated young and old alike and could make countless girls unable to keep their legs together, would let him charm the Ice Empress and Snow Empress into handing over their Soul Rings without even fighting.
In a world of boundless white, a black-and-white silhouette sped through the air, with Soul Beasts flashing past below.
They were a herd of Titan Snow Demons!
Once fully grown, Titan Snow Demons generally exceeded fifty meters in height. Encountering creatures like these was an absolute nightmare for human Soul Masters.
After all, you were not even one-twentieth their size. What were you supposed to fight them with, your head? Perhaps a Soul Saint with a Martial Soul Avatar had the slightest chance of inflicting a tiny bit of damage.
But Qian Chongling flew too high. Never mind that the Titan Snow Demons could not spot him-even if they did, approaching him would only mean delivering their Soul Rings to him.
Continuing onward, Qian Chongling spent four or five days traveling before he finally discovered traces of the Ice Empress and Snow Empress.
In the rarely visited core region, everything was white as far as the eye could see. Only the sky farther ahead held a few purplish-black clouds.
Just then, boom!
An earth-shattering thunderclap rang out. Boundless lightning erupted from a vortex of gathered storm clouds, its thunder resounding across the sky with terrifying force, as though illuminating the entire Far North.
Throughout the Far North, countless Soul Beasts fled into their dens and trembled. Even the powerful Soul Beasts in the core region prostrated themselves on the ground. All the Soul Beasts of the Far North reacted this way.
Rather than being startled, Qian Chongling was delighted. He murmured to himself, "A Heavenly Tribulation? Arriving early is no match for arriving at just the right moment."
Before his words had faded, his black-and-white wings swept through the void, and he shot straight toward the vortex of storm clouds.
Beneath the storm clouds in the Far North's core region.
Purplish-black lightning seemed to tear through space as it struck downward with the force to annihilate everything. Its target was a scorpion a meter and a half long, predominantly emerald green and icy white, with silvery-white mouthparts and a body like emerald diamonds. Although she was a scorpion-type Soul Beast, she looked neither hideous nor ferocious. Instead, she appeared exquisitely beautiful and precious. She was none other than an Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion with three hundred thousand years of cultivation.
On a nearby mountain peak stood a woman with a human appearance. Her icy-white hair fell to her heels, and her sky-blue eyes were ethereal and clear, as though they could see through everything in the world. Her slender figure was flawless, and her long white dress bore no adornment. Like a spirit born of heaven and earth, she was noble and breathtakingly beautiful.
The scorpion belonged to the Ice Jade Scorpion Clan and was its leader. She was also a powerful Soul Beast whose status in the Far North was second only to the Snow Empress: the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion with three hundred thousand years of cultivation, the Ice Empress!
The spiritlike woman was not human. She belonged to the Snow Maiden Clan, born and nurtured by the Far North itself, and had looked like a human woman from birth. She was also the only member of her clan and the current overlord of the Far North: the Soul Beast with six hundred and eighty thousand years of cultivation, the Snow Empress!
The woman looked down at the Ice Empress, a trace of worry in her eyes. "Little sister, hold on!"
Adorably furious roars poured continuously from the Ice Empress's mouth, and a bone-piercing chill radiated from her body.
Ultimate Ice surged through the void, forming countless ice walls that covered the sky. As though they would remain frozen for ten thousand years, they completely enveloped her.
After smashing through more than half the ice walls condensed from the power of Ultimate Ice, the purplish-black lightning dissipated into nothing.
Seeing this, a flicker of delighted surprise crossed the Snow Empress's ethereal eyes. After all, this was only the first bolt of the Heavenly Tribulation. The Ice Empress had no trouble handling it, and the tribulation's strength had not increased by much.
The purplish-black vortex began gathering once more. Its bolts of purplish-black lightning rubbed against one another and intertwined, forming a new crimson glow.
Boom!
This time, what descended was not purplish-black lightning, but scarlet lightning! Lightning imbued with heavenly fire was precisely the power that countered any ice attribute.
Half the sky seemed to have been dyed scarlet. Countless glaciers in the Far North seemed to begin melting beneath the intense heat carried by that lightning-and-fire energy.
Under that scarlet bolt, every ice wall the Ice Empress had created shattered and melted in an instant! They offered no resistance whatsoever as the scarlet lightning crashed down from the void with almost crushing force.
At the same time, brilliant rays of light appeared on the Ice Empress's carapace. Her hard, azure shell suddenly flew up, forming an ice-blue shield above her head.
Bang!
The scarlet lightning collided violently with the azure shield. Terrifying shock waves spread through the void, shattering the summit of a distant snow-covered mountain.
Boom!
In an instant, the snowy peak crumbled. White ice and snow swept down with the force to topple mountains and overturn seas, shaking the earth.
The shock waves from the collision gradually dispersed. The scarlet lightning had vanished, and the azure shield returned to the shape of a carapace, covering the Ice Empress's body. Only now, her azure shell was riddled with damage.
It gave the impression that she had instantly gone from a lofty, magnificent Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion to a stinking scorpion, one of the five venomous creatures.
But there was no time for the Ice Empress to lick her wounds. Power was still gathering within the purplish-black vortex of storm clouds.
Boom!!!
The vortex unleashed scarlet lightning again. The flame-wreathed bolts swept down with the vast might of heaven, and this time there were two, descending simultaneously!
The Ice Empress froze for a moment, but still reacted immediately!
Repeating her earlier trick, she sent her battered carapace flying up again. At the same time, her meter-long scorpion tail fired a rainbowlike streak of icy light. In an instant, it condensed into a slender icy beam and struck one of the scarlet bolts.
After the scarlet lightning was hit by the beam from her tail, it was actually frozen solid in the very next instant!
Whether ordinary insects, Soul Beasts with hundreds of thousands of years of cultivation, or even scorpion spirits from myth, scorpions all had a habit of stinging others with the venomous barb on their tails. This instinct was also their ultimate killing move.
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