"By the time I became empress, they had long since vanished. I thought their kind had died out like the Behemoths. I never imagined any still survived down in the abyss!" The Snow Empress spoke urgently, her tone grave. "Legend has it that Abyssal Ice Prison Tigers inhabit the deep-sea ice abysses beneath the polar glaciers. Conditions there are hundreds, even thousands of times harsher than on the surface. Shrouded in darkness all year and covered by ice a thousand meters thick, those depths are almost completely cut off from the world. They excel at stalking and killing in dark ice tunnels and abyssal rifts. Unless they choose to emerge, no one can detect their presence!"
"They must have broken through the ice this time because they were drawn by the pure aura of a top-tier demonic beast released by your Golden Vajra Evil-Repelling Body technique while you cultivated-an aura far beyond your own level! To them, it might be a provocation, or perhaps the scent of irresistibly tempting prey!"
"Youheng, this is extremely bad!" The Snow Empress's voice sank. "Of these two Abyssal Ice Prison Tigers, the larger one has an aura as unfathomable as an abyss, as dreadful as a prison. It has definitely crossed the hundred-thousand-year threshold! The smaller one may be a juvenile, but it has at least ten or twenty thousand years of cultivation. You cannot face either of them head-on as you are now!"
Heh, my luck really is... a curse! Dai Youheng laughed bitterly inwardly, but his movements did not falter.
Fighting was out of the question. His only chance of survival was-running!
He instantly pushed his speed to the limit, pouring Soul Power into his legs like mad. Like a wisp of smoke skimming the ground, he fled for his life toward the maze of icy valleys far from the frozen lake!
At the same time, he unhesitatingly activated the Evil Shadow Demon Tiger Martial Soul's first Soul Skill, Demon Tiger Body, and its third Soul Skill, Shadow Surge. Black light wreathed his body as his speed, strength, and perception received an enormous boost, sending his fleeing figure hurtling even faster!
Yet behind him, the hundred-thousand-year Abyssal Ice Prison Tiger let out a low roar filled with contempt.
All four of its eerie eyes lit up with a sinister glow, and black mist as thick as ink abruptly billowed around it! The mist spread with astonishing speed, catching up to Dai Youheng in the blink of an eye and engulfing the entire vast ice valley!
The moment the black mist enveloped him, Dai Youheng felt his whole body grow heavy, as though he had sunk into a mire. The speed and strength his Soul Skills had granted him ebbed away like a retreating tide. Even his sight and hearing were severely suppressed. Everything around him became dark and indistinct, and he instantly lost his sense of direction!
"No! This is the Abyssal Ice Prison Tiger's Innate Domain Soul Skill, Darkness Zone!" the Snow Empress cried. "Within this domain, it can drastically weaken every attribute of its opponents and block their perception. Worst of all, it forcibly dispels every support and enhancement effect within its range. Your two enhancement Soul Skills have stopped working!"
Without his Soul Skills' support, Dai Youheng's speed plummeted!
In that fleeting instant, a foul wind assailed his nose from behind. Naturally adapted to the darkness, the twenty-thousand-year juvenile Ice Prison Tiger had already caught up!
It released a bloodthirsty roar. Its paw, covered in icy scales and razor-sharp armor, tore through the air with terrifying force as it slammed toward the center of Dai Youheng's back!
With nowhere to dodge, Dai Youheng could only grit his teeth and force himself to turn, crossing his arms before him to block. He drove the Golden Vajra Evil-Repelling Body technique to its limit, and a faint golden glow flickered rapidly over his skin!
Boom!!!
A dull impact rang out. Though Dai Youheng's physique far surpassed others of his level, it remained helpless before such an overwhelming difference in strength! He felt as though a speeding iceberg had crashed into him head-on. Agony threatened to split his arms apart, and he was sent flying like a kite with its string cut!
His body smashed uncontrollably through one ice mound after another. Finally, with a tremendous crash and a sky full of flying ice chips, he slammed into a relatively thin stretch of ice in the distance!
Crack... rumble!
The already battered ice could not withstand the impact and collapsed completely in an instant!
Dai Youheng's vision went black as freezing lake water swallowed him. Crushing water pressure and bone-piercing cold surged in from every direction. Gravely injured, he could barely move, and his body sank uncontrollably toward the dark, frozen abyss at the bottom of the lake.
His consciousness began to blur, and despair drowned him like the icy water.
At that critical moment, the Snow Empress suddenly sensed an incomparably familiar aura.
She was overjoyed.
"Youheng, hold on! Help is here, close by!" The Snow Empress's urgent voice exploded like thunder through his consciousness just as it was about to fall silent!
The next moment, the Snow Empress unhesitatingly took temporary control of Dai Youheng's body. Risking an enormous expenditure of her own spiritual power, she forcibly opened a spiritual shield to protect him.
Then, in the final instant before Dai Youheng's body disappeared into the dark lake water, she thrust one hand above the surface. A pure, dazzling beam of ice-blue light burst from her fingertips, piercing through the lake's surface like a signal flare and shooting into the dim sky!
Meanwhile, the two Abyssal Ice Prison Tigers had reached the lake's edge. Their cold eyes locked onto the figure sinking beneath the surface, and they prepared to leap into the water without hesitation. For creatures that lived year-round beneath the icy abyss, the underwater world was their true home ground!
In that lightning-quick instant-
Roar!!!
A deafening bear's roar, brimming with strength and fury, erupted from the side like thunder striking out of a clear sky!
Immediately afterward, an enormous, terrifying bear paw swept sideways like a mountain, carrying the vast force to crush everything in its path and an ultimate chill that could freeze the soul!
Bang!!!
Two heavy, dull impacts sounded almost simultaneously.
Both immensely powerful Abyssal Ice Prison Tigers were struck squarely by that sudden swipe. Like two enormous punching bags, they flew backward with howls of pain and crashed heavily onto a distant glacier, sending ice chips flying!
Meanwhile, his other equally enormous Ice Bear paw moved with a gentleness and precision utterly at odds with his size. It instantly broke through the freezing lake water, reached beneath the surface, and carefully lifted the sinking figure.
The Ice Bear paw withdrew. Lying in its palm was the thoroughly drenched Dai Youheng.
When the Snow Empress had taken control of his body, she had forcibly shielded his soul with her immense spiritual power. Now, Dai Youheng had only a few superficial injuries, with no internal damage, and his Sea of Consciousness remained undisturbed.
Little by little, he opened his heavy eyelids.
His blurred vision gradually came into focus. Before him was an enormous, furry white bear's head, its honest, good-natured features filled with boundless concern and anger, and a pair of huge eyes as pure as sapphires, brimming with worry.
Ice Bear King Xiaobai had finally appeared!
Half a minute earlier, Xiao Bai had been leisurely padding across the ice in another frozen lake area. Her enormous paws struck with precision, stunning the plump cold-water fish beneath the ice as she prepared to enjoy a fine meal.
As her enormous body moved across the ice fields, she looked endearingly clumsy, a stark contrast to her terrifying strength.
Yet just as she shattered the ice once more and prepared to scoop up some fish, an aura so familiar it was etched into her soul suddenly pierced her senses!
It was the aura of her mother-the Heavenly Snow Woman, the Snow Empress!
Xiao Bai had not sensed her mother's aura in a long time, but this aura was utterly different from its usual vastness, serenity, and majesty. It had become urgent and weak, even carrying a hint of a plea for help!
"Mother?" Xiao Bai's enormous body jolted, and her sapphire eyes instantly filled with shock and blazing fury!
Here in the Far North, who was it? Who dared hurt her mother? Who dared hurt the true sovereign of this world of ice and snow!
Before you continue