[The Ice-Eyed Snow Fox was a spiritual-type Soul Beast unique to the Far North. Snow-white all over, with azure eyes, it was naturally proficient in spiritual illusions and concealment amid ice and snow. Its spiritual power was exceptionally formidable, placing it among the finest Soul Beasts of its rank.]
[You carefully examined the old fox before you-]
[It had neither injuries nor illness, nor any hidden ailments. Though its aura was weak, it was not disordered. Only a heavy air of twilight hung over its entire body, an irreversible aging that spread from within, as though the flame of its life had already burned down to the last stretch of wick.]
[You paused slightly and asked a question of common knowledge: "Do Soul Beasts... have limits to their lifespans too?"]
[Throughout the Douluo Continent series, there had been no instances of Soul Beasts dying naturally of old age. Thus, in your impression, Soul Beasts seemed to have long since escaped the shackles of lifespan, with heavenly tribulation as their only endpoint.]
[Snow Empress nodded gently. "Soul Beasts naturally have limits to their lifespans too. They are simply far longer than those of you humans."]
[She paused, her gaze settling on the Ice-Eyed Snow Fox standing with its head lowered. "What you humans call a Soul Beast's age is, in essence, our theoretical lifespan limit at our current cultivation realm."]
["But deadly battles, injuries, illness, the toll of heavenly tribulations... often make our actual lifespans much shorter. A hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast might not even live fifty thousand years in peace."]
[You nodded thoughtfully.]
[With the experience of Yiyi's sacrifice, you were already well versed in handling this.]
[When a Soul Beast sacrificed itself, its own thoughts and will could, to a certain extent, influence the direction of its Soul Ring's Soul