Golden hair cascaded like a waterfall. Her noble, commanding face possessed beauty that could topple cities, and her pale yellow feathered robes fluttered gracefully. Holy and elegant, she seemed no mortal.
She parted her crimson lips and introduced herself. "I am the Angel God, Qian Renxue."
After encountering two deities in a single day, the Snow Empress's mental circuits had burned dry. Her brain had completely shut down.
"What on earth is going on?" she murmured.
Xiao Zi regarded her solemnly. "Then now... have you changed your mind?"
A moment later, clarity gradually returned to the Snow Empress's eyes, a resolute light flashing within them. "To be frank, I don't know you well enough to understand your temperament. But time is running out, and I can't afford to worry about so much. I only hope you'll agree to one thing..."
Xiao Zi answered without hesitation. "Once you sacrifice yourself, you're mine. Say whatever you need to!"
As expected of the Far North's foremost sovereign, the Snow Empress neither blushed nor faltered at those almost flirtatious words. "Bing'er's whereabouts are unknown. Once I leave, only the Titan Snow Demon King will remain in the Far North. In return for my sacrifice, could you offer the Far North your protection?"
"I can." Xiao Zi nodded. "But I'm weak at present, only a rank-thirty Soul Elder. For the sake of my greater plan, I'll be staying in human society for a long time. You need to understand that."
The Snow Empress's gaze changed at his words, abruptly sharpening. "Isn't it merely a matter of soul power? I can give you that. But once you have me, you must protect the Far North. Can you do it?"
Xiao Zi nodded solemnly. "Rest assured, I keep my word. Whatever I promise, I will fulfill. If I break my oath, may my martial soul shatter!"
To demonstrate his resolve, he circulated his soul power and cut his arm. Blood dripped down, staining the surrounding ice and snow red and sending a pang through Qian Renxue's heart as she watched.
Xiao Zi continued, "But before that, eat this first."
The Snow Empress took it and glanced down, giving a soft exclamation of surprise. "A ten-thousand-year snow lotus?"
The medicinal herb he had bought at the Treasure Appraisal Fair had finally found its use. Soul beasts had somewhat purer feelings than humans and rarely went back on their vows. Since he dared to take it out, he wasn't afraid she would change her mind.
Xiao Zi said, "When you failed to condense yin-yang dual soul cores, your origin was damaged. Then you fought a Level 9 Soul Engineer, leaving you with less than a tenth of your strength. This snow lotus can heal some of your injuries, allowing you to preserve more of your origin after the sacrifice and prepare for your eventual resurrection."
She had thought that once she agreed to sacrifice herself, he would urge her to hurry, lest a long night bring more nightmares. Weren't all humans like that?
She had seen far too many powerful people who were greedy to the extreme, yet the one before her was different. As expected of someone who had once been a god!
The Snow Empress did not stand on ceremony. She swallowed the ten-thousand-year snow lotus in one mouthful, and the power of ice and snow spread through her body. Though its effects were not comprehensive, it effectively checked the damage to her origin.
That was enough.
She looked at the handsome youth before her and offered her verdict. "You are a true man!"
A soft chant rose from her lips. A speck of icy light became a pillar that shot into the sky, spreading across the Far North from the point between the Snow Empress's brows.
The sacrifice of the Far North's foremost sovereign was destined to be grand and earthshaking. Soul beasts came flocking over, their expressions filled with disbelief.
They involuntarily fell to their knees, some weeping, others wailing, bidding farewell to the strongest ruler of the Far North!
In the Core Area, the sacrifice had fully begun. The Snow Empress's body gradually faded, becoming increasingly transparent. Her clothes slipped away entirely, revealing the jade-white body beneath.
Because the Demon Slayer Race clone had activated its concealment beforehand, no outsider was treated to the sight of the Snow Empress. She was revealed to Xiao Zi alone.
When the Snow Empress's delicate body vanished completely, she became an orange-golden soul ring that soared into the sky, its radiance dazzling.
In the original story, her sacrifice to Huo Yuhao had produced a full four soul rings. Now, at Xiao Zi's request, all her energy gathered into a single ring, which slowly approached in concentric layers.
When it came to rest beneath the Angel God Ring, the enormous ring immediately tightened. Surging soul power seeped inward from the surface, penetrating layer after layer.
How immense was seven hundred thousand years of energy? Yet because the soul beast had sacrificed herself willingly, the fusion caused not the slightest shock. Xiao Zi felt his entire body fill with power!
Gold, orange-gold!
With the sacrifice complete, the Destruction Scepter's two soul rings unfurled together, circling rhythmically around him in radiant splendor.
Although the seven-hundred-thousand-year orange-golden soul ring was astonishing enough to shock the world, it was far inferior to the divine Angel Soul Ring. Its size was nowhere near that of the first soul ring, and it paled beneath its overwhelming pressure.
As seven golden markings burst into brilliance, their undisguised might made every beast bow its head. Without any dispute, Xiao Zi automatically became the supreme ruler of the Far North!
When the Snow Empress entered the Sea of Consciousness and learned about Xiao Zi's past and present lives, she was deeply shaken. Yet compared with the shock of his identity as the Destruction God King, there was one thing she cared about most...
"Why hasn't your soul power risen even a single rank? Where did everything go, including my seven hundred thousand years of origin?"
She had just boldly claimed that her sacrifice would rapidly raise her host's rank, only for reality to slap her in the face so quickly. A suspicious blush colored her exquisite face.
The foremost sovereign of the Far North was actually embarrassed!
Xiao Zi coughed lightly. "I forgot to tell you that my Destruction Scepter is a Super Divine Artifact. It was damaged in the former divine war and urgently needs energy for repairs. With the addition of Xiao Xue's soul ring and yours, its restoration has progressed a little further..."
In other words, all seven hundred thousand years of her origin had been absorbed by the Destruction Scepter.
To put it in even simpler terms, that meant...
It was gone.
Sharing the same plight, Qian Renxue patted her shoulder sympathetically. "You'll get used to it. I went through the same thing."
Utterly speechless, the Snow Empress decisively chose to burrow away under the tangled weight of embarrassment, sorrow, and other emotions, sinking into the Sea of Consciousness and vanishing from sight.
Xiao Zi shook his head helplessly and turned his gaze back to the Destruction Scepter's second soul ring.
Although the seven hundred thousand years of energy were gone, he had still inherited the Snow Empress's innate skills, including the ultimate ice attribute, the Four Absolute Emperor Swords, Emperor's Palm, Emperor's Cold Heaven, and the Snow Dance Extreme Ice Domain.
As the Far North's foremost sovereign, she could also combine this domain with the four-hundred-thousand-year Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion to produce the two-person fusion skill, Pride of the Ice and Snow Emperors.
But with the Ice and Snow Empresses sacrificing themselves to humans one after another, only the Titan Snow Demon King remained to struggle on alone. The Far North was a pearl veiled in dust, awaiting the moment of its next resurgence.
Qian Renxue's graceful figure appeared. "Are we leaving now?"
Xiao Zi shook his head. "Two of the Far North's great heavenly rulers have sacrificed themselves in succession. According to my agreement with the Snow Empress, I am now the sovereign of this region. I need to inform the only remaining one and entrust temporary management to him."
With the Snow Empress as their guide and the Demon Slayer Race clone carrying him, he set off for A-Tai's Lair, home of the Two-Hundred-Thousand-Year Titan Snow Demon King. He would also stay there briefly to familiarize himself with the Heavenly Snow Woman's soul ring and consolidate his cultivation...