"I only brought my disciple back two days ago. Di Tian and Bi Ji came this time to seek cooperation on behalf of the Star Dou Great Forest. But before discussing cooperation, my master wants to spar with Di Tian."
As he spoke, he pulled Shui Bing'er out from behind him and introduced her. "Ice Empress, this is my disciple, Shui Bing'er. Bing'er, this is one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, Ice Empress, with four hundred and twenty thousand years of cultivation. You can call her..."
Before Ye Wuchen could finish, Ice Empress sidled up to Shui Bing'er with easy familiarity and said with a grin:
"Little Wuchen used to call me big sister all the time. Since you're his disciple, just call me Auntie Ice."
Shui Bing'er looked at the seemingly petite, adorable girl before her, who was actually a Ferocious Beast more than four hundred thousand years old. She bowed obediently and said sweetly, "Hello, Auntie Ice."
Shui Bing'er's heart was filled with shock and disbelief.
Ever since she had begun following her master, everything she encountered had been on a level utterly beyond her understanding.
First there was her grandmaster, Snow Empress, with eight hundred and fifty thousand years of cultivation, and now an Auntie Ice with four hundred and twenty thousand years had appeared.
And the imposing man opposite them, with dragon horns growing from his head, who was preparing to fight her grandmaster, was clearly also a peerless Ferocious Beast of terrifying strength.
Snow Empress and Beast God Di Tian, the two peerless powerhouses who stood at the very pinnacle of the Douluo Continent's Soul Beasts, finally began fighting in earnest.
Aside from the trump cards they had yet to use, both sides held almost nothing back in this sparring match.
Deafening booms echoed through the glacial canyon. Every collision triggered widespread spatial collapses and avalanches.
They were in the core region of the Far North, the home ground where Snow Empress had been born and reigned, naturally giving her the advantages of both the environment and terrain.
What was astounding was that Snow Empress had not drawn upon the boundless power of heaven and earth in the Far North at all, nor had she used the "Ice and Snow Godhood" awarded by the sky screen.
Relying solely on her own eight hundred and fifty thousand years of cultivation and the "Snow Empress's Three Absolutes," she traded blows evenly with Beast God Di Tian as he fought with all his strength, even faintly gaining the upper hand.
"Emperor Cold Heaven: Snow Dance Shining Sun!"
Snow Empress's cool voice echoed through the wind and snow. In an instant, the blizzard within tens of thousands of meters transformed into a deadly domain.
Every snowflake became a razor-sharp ice blade, blanketing the sky as they swept toward Di Tian to shred him.
Immediately afterward, she gently raised her pale hand and delivered a seemingly soft palm strike-"Emperor Palm: Great Cold Without Snow!"
"Roar-!"
Di Tian let out a dragon's roar that shook heaven and earth, and an intensely dense black radiance erupted from his entire body.
His arms, covered in thick black dragon scales, abruptly tore through space as he attempted to meet Snow Empress's attack head-on.
Crack-! The teeth-grating sound of ice forming rang out.
The instant Di Tian's massive body touched the Emperor's Palm, a thick layer of extreme ice encased him, turning him into an enormous black ice sculpture that plummeted straight down.
Di Tian truly lived up to his name as the ruler of the Star Dou Great Forest, the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King with over eight hundred thousand years of cultivation.
Just before he struck the ground, destructive dark dragon power erupted inside the ice sculpture.
With a thunderous boom, the extreme ice shattered. Di Tian burst free, transformed into a streak of black lightning, and surged upward again, his sharp dragon claws driving straight toward Snow Empress's face.
Watching from a distance, the Emerald Swan Bi Ji could not help knitting her delicate brows, her gentle eyes filled with solemnity and amazement.
As the Star Dou Great Forest's foremost healing-type Ferocious Beast, Bi Ji possessed exceptionally keen perception.
She could clearly sense that, during their exchange just now, Snow Empress had suppressed Di Tian entirely through her own Soul Power.
"Now, even if she left the Far North and went to the Star Dou Great Forest or the human world, Di Tian might no longer be a match for Snow Empress."
Elsewhere, Ye Wuchen stared unblinkingly at the fierce battle in midair.
His Martial Soul was the Heavenly Snow Woman. Raised by Snow Empress since childhood, he had learned all his abilities and the "Snow Empress's Three Absolutes" through her personal instruction.
Seeing his master fight at full strength without holding anything back was simply an unparalleled opportunity for him.
Ye Wuchen watched intently, focusing his spiritual power on Snow Empress's minute manipulation of the ice and snow elements.
He carefully savored the unique quality of his master's Soul Skills as she unleashed them, so utterly natural and in harmony with heaven and earth.
"Snow Empress, keep it up! Beat him good and hard! Show him the might of our Far North!"
Compared with Ye Wuchen's immersive learning, Ice Empress beside him had turned into an ardent cheerleading captain.
Her dainty face was flushed with excitement, and her green twin ponytails swished back and forth in the wind as she cheered and jumped.
Her clear voice pierced the wind and snow, echoing along the edge of the battlefield.
In midair, the fierce exchange paused.
Di Tian panted heavily and lowered his head to look over his body.
His indestructible black dragon scales were covered in patches of frost of every size. Many places had even frozen numb, and even the circulation of his blood and vital energy had become terribly sluggish.
He raised his head. Opposite him, Snow Empress remained spotless, her breathing steady.
"Snow Empress, it seems I'm no longer your match in a conventional exchange."
Snow Empress hovered in midair, the snow and wind filling the sky seeming to bow before her.
She raised her right hand. In her palm, a translucent lotus of ice and snow drifted and spun silently.
"Di Tian, you're too modest." Snow Empress's voice remained cool, but a light of anticipation flickered in her eyes.
"I've heard you possess a secret technique called the 'Dragon God Claw.' Since we're sparring today, and I've never experienced that move before, might you let me broaden my horizons?"
At the mention of the "Dragon God Claw," Di Tian's expression became utterly solemn, and a vast, primordial aura from the ancient wilderness awakened within him.
"Very well!" Di Tian declared in a deep voice, the last flames of his fighting spirit igniting in his eyes. "Since you want to see it, let's see whether this final trump card of mine can defeat you!"
As his words fell, Di Tian raised his right hand.
At that moment, the skies over the Far North abruptly darkened.
This was no longer mere darkness, but a supreme draconic might that towered above all things, as though it could crush the world in its grasp.
Facing a strike powerful enough to destroy heaven and earth, Snow Empress's expression grew solemn.
She did not underestimate it, and for the first time, truly activated her "Ice and Snow Godhood."
An ice-blue divine ring, pure and flawless as white snow, sacred and inviolable, rose from beneath Snow Empress's feet.
At that moment, she was no longer the ruler of the Far North's Soul Beasts, but a true deity who wielded the laws of ice and snow.
Vast divine power of ice and snow surged within her. Under its influence, the surrounding space took on a crystalline state of absolute stillness.
"Come!"
With a clear cry, Snow Empress swept forward with divine power filling the sky to meet the Dragon God Claw that tore through the heavens.
An unprecedented earthquake erupted in the core region of the Far North.
The raging energy storm ravaged the area for a full half-minute before gradually subsiding.
When everyone's vision cleared again, the victor in the sky had already been decided.
Snow Empress hovered silently, but a long gash had been torn in the side of her ice-blue dress, revealing a stretch of a slender, flawless leg, as fair as jade.
Three bloody marks stood out starkly on her right arm and the side of her waist.
Yet before the blood flowing from those marks could drip, it was frozen by the divine power of ice and snow surging within her, turning into poignantly beautiful ruby ice crystals. The wounds were completely sealed as well, no longer bleeding.
Di Tian, by contrast, was in a far more wretched state.
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