You two have no future

The other scarlet bolt of lightning, however, had only been weakened slightly by the battered scorpion armor before crashing straight into the Ice Empress with its remaining force unabated.

A howl of pain rang out. The boundless azure light surrounding the Ice Empress was rapidly being devoured, and even her azure eyes seemed to have become tinged with scarlet.

Amid a roar of utter fury and defiance, the azure light around the Ice Empress suddenly blazed brighter, intertwining with the energy formed by lightning and fire as they wore each other away.

Time passed, minute by minute, second by second. One hour, then two...

The purplish-black storm clouds high overhead gradually dispersed. Beneath them, icy-blue light shone from the Snow Empress's slender, fair hands as she healed the Ice Empress, whose body was charred black and still gave off a faint aroma of roasted meat.

Meanwhile, Qian Chongling, who had furtively watched the entire ordeal from hiding, rather shamefully wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and shook his head to drive those thoughts away.

The bull-headed serpent and the giant ape in the Star Dou Great Forest were fair game for eating, but he would leave these two alone. Not only did he have no quarrel with them, he could even try bringing them into his camp.

It absolutely had nothing to do with his dislike of scorpion meat, or his even greater dislike of eating naturally humanoid Soul Beasts such as the Snow Girl.

A faint sob suddenly interrupted Qian Chongling's thoughts. He looked toward its source and saw that the charred Ice Empress had awakened.

The Ice Empress wrapped her two enormous pincers around the Snow Empress's graceful, swanlike neck and sobbed in her arms. "Big sister, the heavenly tribulation almost struck me dead."

The Snow Empress's expression grew grave at those words. Once Soul Beasts reached a hundred thousand years of cultivation, they had two choices!

The first was to retain their strength, but every additional 100,000 Years of cultivation would bring another heavenly tribulation. Surviving meant they could continue cultivating; failure meant being reduced to ashes. Once they reached a million years of cultivation, they could become gods.

The second was to take human form, relinquishing all their cultivation to become human. But once they chose this transformation, they could never return to their beast forms unless they died.

This transformation was entirely different from the ability of Soul Beasts with over two hundred thousand years of cultivation to assume a human appearance.

Simply put, one was a shapeshifting technique, while the other meant abandoning their identity as Soul Beasts to become human.

Their original bodies would become their Martial Souls after they turned human. All their previous cultivation would vanish, and they would have to cultivate their Soul Power anew, bit by bit. They also had to interact with humans and sense the aura humans gave off.

Moreover, choosing this path would give them lifespans like those of humans. They had to reach Level 100 before their allotted time ran out, then inherit a divine position and become gods in the same way humans did.

However, a hundred thousand years of cultivation did not mean they had lived for a hundred thousand years. For a newborn Soul Beast, ten years of cultivation required ten years, a hundred years required ninety years, and a thousand years required roughly seven hundred years.

Newborn Soul Beasts had very little intelligence, much like human infants. They did not know how to cultivate at all and could only absorb Soul Power instinctively rather than cultivate deliberately, so gaining ten years of cultivation took ten years.

As they gradually grew and reached several decades of age, their intelligence improved a little, increasing their cultivation speed. They no longer cultivated purely on instinct; they could act on their own initiative, accelerating their progress.

Thus, a hundred years of cultivation required only ninety years. Once they reached that stage, their intelligence was comparable to that of a three- or four-year-old human, and their cultivation speed increased again.

As Soul Beasts aged, their cultivation speed continued to rise. A thousand years of cultivation therefore required only seven hundred years, while ten thousand years required merely a few thousand years.

Yet neither the Snow Empress nor the Ice Empress, nor even the ferocious beasts beneath the Lake of Life in the Star Dou Forest, would choose to become human. To them, taking human form was betrayal-betraying the Soul Beast race, compromising with humans, and becoming something that was neither human nor Soul Beast.

Humanoid Soul Beasts possessed human appearances and Martial Souls, but upon death, they reverted to their original forms and dropped Soul Rings and Soul Bones. As a result, humans and Soul Beasts alike rejected them.

Thus, the Snow Empress and the others had only one path: endure heavenly tribulation after heavenly tribulation until they attained a million years of cultivation and became gods.

What they did not know was that the final heavenly tribulation awaiting them at a million years of cultivation was certain death. There was no possibility of surviving it.

Million-year Soul Beasts actually served only one purpose: to become Soul Rings for the successors of gods. The Deep Sea Demon Whale near Sea God Island was there for the future successor of the Sea God to hunt down.

Furthermore, each heavenly tribulation grew more difficult. This time, the Ice Empress had nearly been struck dead outright. Her previous tribulation had also consisted of four strikes, but two had never descended together. Facing one at a time and facing two at once were naturally worlds apart in difficulty.

Under these rules, the final outcome would be that powerful Soul Beasts died in heavenly tribulations, while weaker Soul Beasts with long maturation cycles were hunted down continuously, leaving Soul Masters unable to obtain high-age Soul Rings.

They could only settle for hunting lower-age Soul Rings. As the cycle continued, Soul Masters would eventually have no rings left to use, and both the profession of Soul Master and the creatures known as Soul Beasts would disappear from this world entirely!

Could the Five Great God Kings of the God Realm Committee possibly be unaware of this? Perhaps the complete extermination of Soul Beasts was their goal. The truth remained unknown.

The Snow Empress sighed. "Alas, unlike humans, who enjoy nature's special favor, the road we Soul Beasts must travel is fraught with hardship."

"Big sister... I don't want to leave you..." The Ice Empress could not help trembling as she recalled her narrow escape from death beneath the heavenly tribulation.

The Snow Empress gently patted the Ice Empress's enormous pincers with her slender, jade-like hands. "Don't be afraid, Bing'er. Your big sister will always be with you."

Elsewhere, watching the two Soul Beast sisters sob their hearts out, Qian Chongling rubbed his chin. He was rather puzzled.

Afraid of being subjected to that poison again, Qian Chongling had never read Douluo Continent 2. However, he had learned from the lechers in the comments section that these two Soul Beasts were still living in the Far North ten thousand years later.

Over ten thousand years, they would have to endure at least four or five heavenly tribulations. Judging by the Ice Empress's current performance, she could withstand one or two more at most before becoming roasted scorpion.

Could this be the butterfly effect caused by my transmigration?

Qian Chongling entertained that rather unkind thought, but he had not forgotten his reason for coming here. He could only interrupt this scene steeped in sapphic affection between the sisters.

"The Snow Girl is a female Soul Beast, and this Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion is female too. You two have no future."

Those utterly nasty words came from nearby, stunning both the Snow Empress and the Ice Empress. The Ice Empress was severely injured, so setting her aside for the moment, the Snow Empress's cultivation rivaled that of a level ninety-nine Peerless Douluo.

A human had actually approached her without her noticing at all?

The Snow Empress gently pushed aside the Ice Empress's enormous pincers and turned with a grave expression. What met her eyes was a young man in a fitted black robe adorned with golden patterns. He was handsome and tall, with an exceptionally gallant bearing and a cynical smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

By human standards of beauty, he would undoubtedly be the object of young women's affections.