A New Dai Youheng

The arrow was already on the string; it had to fly. With her soul on the verge of scattering, she had no other choice.

"Very well. I'll lend you a hand!"

The Snow Empress gritted her teeth and split off a portion of her already dwindling source power, forcing it into the boy's body to throw open the gates of his dormant potential!

Normally, awakening a martial soul required an array laid out with special Awakening Stones. But with nearly seven hundred thousand years of cultivation and her understanding of the essence of energy, she could forcibly trigger a martial soul awakening without them!

Light gathered in the boy's palm, but what it finally formed left the Snow Empress stunned once again.

It was neither the powerful beast martial soul nor the tool martial soul she had expected, but a medicinal pill the size of a longan fruit, pitch-black all over and gleaming with a faint luster?

"A food-type martial soul?" A trace of bitterness stirred in the Snow Empress's lingering consciousness. She, the mighty ruler of the Far North, would ultimately sacrifice herself to a food-type Soul Master? This was simply...

It wasn't that food-type martial souls were bad. She simply would have preferred to sacrifice herself to a Soul Master skilled in combat.

But then, from that seemingly unremarkable black medicinal pill, she sensed an extremely obscure aura that made even her soul tremble.

It possessed a fathomless, sinister strangeness, an ominous presence that also harbored some indescribable dark power. It was clearly just a medicinal pill, yet the aura within it felt even more oppressive to her than Di Tian's, and its soul power fluctuations were far from weak.

"Level ten innate soul power-the innate full soul power of humans! This is no ordinary food-type martial soul..." The Snow Empress's heart grew solemn.

Without further hesitation, the red light of the sacrifice completely enveloped the boy. Just as the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had done when sacrificing himself to Huo Yuhao, the Snow Empress sealed the vast majority of her cultivation and source power in layer upon layer.

However, Tian Meng had relied on his own million years of spiritual power, while the Snow Empress relied on the miraculous effects of the hundred-thousand-year snow lotus. It was also this snow lotus that protected her soul during the sacrifice. Her power merged into the depths of the boy's body, waiting for his strength to rise in the future so that its seals could be undone one by one.

The wind and snow of the Far North continued as ever, bearing witness to the passing of one sovereign and the quiet arrival of another unknown existence.

The sacrifice soon reached its most intense stage. The Snow Empress's Soul Ring had already attached itself fully to the medicinal pill, but she had lost far too much of her power. Like Tian Meng, she could not produce a Soul Bone, nor had she truly become a martial soul. All she gave the boy was a seven-hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring.

About two days later, the unconscious boy finally woke. Amid the ice and snow of the Far North, he should have frozen stiff, but with the Snow Empress's Soul Ring protecting him, he was perfectly fine.

The Snow Empress had also discovered something very strange. Over the past few days, while the boy slept, Soul Beasts had passed by from time to time.

Yet these Soul Beasts seemed unable to see him. Even vicious carnivorous Soul Beasts instinctively passed him by.

The Snow Empress couldn't help wondering, Does this child's flesh stink? The corpse beside him has been gnawed beyond recognition, yet not a single Soul Beast wants him?

"Where... am I?" the boy murmured.

"This is the Far North of the Douluo Continent. Boy, what is your name?" The Snow Empress's voice rang out inside his mind.

"The Far North of the Douluo Continent?" The boy was startled. Sensing a surge of power, he raised his palm. A black medicinal pill appeared, encircled by a red Soul Ring bearing seven golden markings. "A seven-hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring. So you're... the Snow Empress?"

"You seem remarkably calm. You even managed to guess who I am?" the Snow Empress said in shock.

"I've read plenty of novels with similar plots. I can more or less guess the formula." Dai Youheng's voice was so flat that it held not a ripple of emotion, as though he were discussing some trivial matter unrelated to him. "My name is Dai Youheng. As for where I came from... you probably won't believe me, but a giant hand I couldn't see in its entirety grabbed me from another world, then dumped me right here, crushing that fellow to death."

He pointed at the heap of frozen flesh, his tone even carrying a hint of amusement, as if to say, "That was one rough delivery."

He remembered walking down a street when he suddenly heard an explosion on one floor of an apartment building. The blast tore right through the entire floor. Immediately afterward, a computer tower fell from the sky and struck him squarely on the head, splitting his scalp and leaving him covered in blood. After that, he had fallen into a vegetative state and spent a long time lying in a hospital. In his haze, that hand had grabbed him and brought him here. Whoever had brought him over had probably healed his body.

Although he had been unconscious just now, he had still faintly heard a voice: within five years, you sneaky bastard, cultivation method...

"..." The Snow Empress was utterly speechless. Another world? Snatched here by a giant hand? This was already beyond her comprehension.

Yet the boy's absurd arrival-plummeting like a meteor and crushing a Titled Douluo to death-and his current, unnaturally calm demeanor forced her to try to accept this incredible explanation.

Only after a long while did she slowly say, "Unshaken in the face of danger, with a heart as clear as ice. Your temperament is quite impressive. Perhaps the choice I made in desperation wasn't the worst one after all."

Dai Youheng stood and stretched his limbs, which were somewhat stiff but brimming with new strength. He carefully sensed the soul power flowing through his body. It was around level fifteen. The Snow Empress's sacrifice had increased it considerably. Had her remaining power not been so depleted, and had she not sealed away such a large portion of it, her seven hundred thousand years of cultivation should have raised it by far more than this.

Although this soul power was weak, it was exceptionally pure and resonated perfectly with the black medicinal pill and blood-red Soul Ring. He walked toward the gruesome corpse and, like an experienced hunter, began carefully searching for loot, completely ignoring the deeply disturbing sight.

"What... are you doing?" the Snow Empress couldn't help asking again.

"Looting the drop." Dai Youheng tersely uttered an expression the Snow Empress couldn't understand at all, but his actions made its meaning self-evident. "This fellow was a Level 9 Soul Engineer from the Sun Moon Empire. He must have had some good stuff on him. A Titled Douluo-level expert might even have a Soul Bone."

His movements were deft and efficient, without the slightest hesitation or disgust. Even the stench of rotting flesh did not affect him in the least, as though what lay before him were not the remains of another human, but a treasure chest waiting to be opened.

Soon, with some effort, he pulled a silver ring off a finger frozen stiff and black. Its design was simple and antique, and it shimmered with faint spatial fluctuations.

Then, from a hidden compartment in the lining of the tattered clothes, he retrieved three palm-sized metal blocks. They were cold to the touch and engraved with extremely complex Core Arrays. Judging from the energy fluctuations they contained, they were at least level seven single-use defensive or offensive Soul Tools.

"A Storage Soul Tool ring, and high-grade trigger-activated Soul Tools..." Dai Youheng tried feeding a thread of soul power into the ring.

As

his consciousness reached into the ring, he found that the space inside was far larger than he had imagined, at roughly thirty cubic meters. Many things were piled within: large quantities of high-purity rare metals gleaming with different lusters; seven or eight completed Soul Tools of various kinds, all intricately constructed and at least level seven, with some possibly even level eight; a thick stack of blueprints and experimental notes; some compressed food, clean water, and a Gold Soul Coin card.

There was indeed a Soul Bone as well. He did not know its age, but it was a Left Arm Soul Bone. The man had either left it unabsorbed because it was too young or because its attributes were incompatible with his own.

"Quite a haul." A barely perceptible look of satisfaction appeared on Dai Youheng's face as he slipped the precious storage ring onto the middle finger of his left hand. It automatically adjusted its size to fit perfectly. "These resources, techniques, and knowledge are exactly the starting capital I need most right now."