"A hundred-thousand-year snow lotus? Is there a snow lotus of that age anywhere around here? Has any of you seen one?" Hearing Huo Yun's words, the Ice Bear King hurriedly roared at those around him.
"Don't rush, Xiao Bai. Let us finish discussing the whole matter first." The Snow Empress stopped her.
Hearing the Snow Empress's words, the Ice Bear King still wanted to say something, but after thinking it over, he kept it to himself and quietly waited for them to finish.
"You just said that as long as I start cultivating again as a human and reach level 99, I can draw the Ice God's Divine Seat to me. Until then, will the Ice God's Divine Seat remain where it originally was?" the Snow Empress asked Huo Yun.
"That's right. In theory, as long as someone is compatible with a divine seat, an unclaimed divine seat will automatically seek them out when they reach level 99. For a divine seat with an owner, if that god is interested in passing it on, the god will sense in advance that the person qualifies to inherit it, then seek them out directly to test and train them." Huo Yun nodded.
"And the Ice God's Divine Seat currently has no god, so it can only appear automatically when I reach level 99.
"After finding a hundred-thousand-year snow lotus, I'll seal the energy inside me and start cultivating again. Even with that energy as my foundation, reaching level 99, what humans call an Ultimate Titled Douluo, will still take over a decade.
"And during that time, not only will the Far North have lost me, but the Ice God's Divine Seat will also remain in its original location. Humans with ambitions of becoming gods will inevitably come looking for it, especially powerful humans like the one today. Am I wrong?"
After hearing the Snow Empress out, Huo Yun could only say that her analysis was very thorough.
"But you still have me, Snow Empress. Just focus on your cultivation in seclusion. With me standing guard, those humans can forget about doing anything to the Far North. Once you become a god, we'll be even safer under your protection," the Ice Empress said. She was confident that, as long as she was in the Far North, she could fight even a level 99 Titled Douluo.
The Snow Empress shook her head. "In the Far North, at most, you could trade blows evenly with the human I fought today. Remaining undefeated would already be your limit, and that's assuming he doesn't use a divine artifact. Once he does, you absolutely won't be his match.
"Besides, you're only one person. How can you guarantee that he's the only top-level powerhouse among humans?"
"But isn't the Beast God here too?" The Titan Snow Demon King looked at Di Tian. The Ice Empress alone could not protect the Far North, but there was still Di Tian. As long as Di Tian was willing to shelter the Far North, the Snow Empress's temporary absence would not greatly affect the balance of its high-level fighting strength.
"I could temporarily take the Snow Empress's place in protecting it." Di Tian nodded slightly. At that moment, he was still digesting the fact that the rule preventing soul beasts from becoming gods had been established by the Dragon God.
He knew that soul beasts could not become gods, and he knew that rule existed, but he had never expected the Dragon God to be the one who had established it.
It was rather ironic. The first sovereign of all soul beasts had led soul beasts and the Dragon Clan to an unprecedented peak, yet had also severed the path to further advancement for soul beasts.
"Don't rush to declare where you stand. If the enemy attacks the Star Dou Great Forest and the Far North at the same time, which one will you defend?" Huo Yun asked.
"Well..." Di Tian was just about to say that humans lacked that ability. Besides, Xiong Jun and the others were still stationed in the Star Dou Great Forest. There would be no great problem if he left briefly.
But Huo Yun gave him no chance to speak and continued, "And if you're going to say humans lack the strength, do you think Tang San is some harmless vegetarian? He exposed the Ice God's Divine Seat to the eyes of the world. Why don't you guess whether he has any further plans for it? You should have just experienced his methods firsthand."
"That was only an accident," Di Tian insisted stubbornly. He had indeed experienced them earlier. His Dragon God Claw had struck the band of light without shattering it, instead allowing it to pass through and activate the Ice God's Divine Seat.
If the other party could bypass the Dragon God Claw this time, then next time, he could also find a way to let someone bypass Di Tian. Could they truly hold it? Di Tian was uncertain, but the pride in a dragon's bones would never let him bow his head over this without even trying.
"Then according to you, the divine seat in our Far North is bound to be taken away by those damned humans?" the Ice Empress demanded angrily.
"No. Perhaps if there's a way for the Snow Empress to become human while retaining her strength, the Ice God's Divine Seat might seek her out directly," the Ice Bear King said.
"But becoming human requires starting cultivation over. No one can avoid that. I think our most pressing task is to move the divine seat away first. Otherwise, as long as it remains in the Far North, humans with ambitions toward it will swarm here. When that happens, the entire Far North could very well be plunged into misery and devastation," the Snow Empress said, shaking her head.
The Ice God's Divine Seat had previously revealed only its approximate location. The various parties had merely sensed that it was deep within the Far North, to say nothing of those who had failed to sense even its general location. To find the divine seat, they would inevitably turn the entire Far North upside down. Moreover, operating in the Far North meant inevitably dealing with its soul beasts. They could not simply avoid so many soul beasts, and clashes would be unavoidable.
And the Snow Empress, the Ice Empress, and the other strongest beings in the Far North could not possibly rush around putting out fires everywhere. This land of peril was simply too vast.
Even the blizzard the Snow Empress had created earlier could only stretch a thousand li, which was not enough to cover even half the Far North's border. Their successful defense against the Sea God Family this time had mainly depended on Huo Yun providing the direction of its attack.
So the divine seat had to be moved quickly, and moved in full public view. Wherever it ended up afterward, they at least had to make people believe it had left the Far North.
Otherwise, the divine seat was a hot potato. The Far North's soul beasts could not use it, and it would instead bring disaster.
"How do we move it? That's a divine seat, the law itself. Unless someone possesses immense strength surpassing the divine seat itself-in other words, a First-Level God-or receives its permission, anyone who touches that thing will be frozen to death on the spot by the energy within it in no time," Di Tian countered. As the only true dragon remaining in the world, the Dragon Clan's inheritance had taught him many things, and he understood even more clearly what a divine seat was.
It was a manifestation of the laws of the universe, not something ordinary people could touch just because they wanted to.
"Is there no way to ignore that?" the Titan Snow Demon King asked, looking at Huo Yun.
"...No," Huo Yun replied coldly, at a loss for words. How was she supposed to ignore something like that?
At that moment, their surroundings fell utterly silent. The Far North's top ferocious beasts gathered there had completely run out of ideas.
Looking at the silent ferocious beasts, Huo Yun proposed her solution. "Since we can't keep them out, don't. Put the Ice God's Divine Seat out in the open and announce to the world that whoever has the ability can claim it."
"What?" All the beasts were stunned by this solution.
"What else can you do? Soul beasts can't become gods, and you might not be able to hold out for the decade or more it takes the Snow Empress to grow. Since that's the case, you might as well put everything out in the open and have the whole world bear witness.
"Let the capable claim it. If you have the ability, take it. If you don't, quit running your mouth."
The Snow Empress was the first to agree and echoed her words. "That's right. Let the capable claim it. Then we'll openly display the Ice God's Divine Seat before everyone. If you have the ability, become a god. If you don't, shut up.
"That way, we won't need to waste words with them, nor worry about the living beings of our Far North suffering their ravages. We can defend it this way, and we won't have to worry about anyone playing tricks behind the scenes, with the whole world bearing witness."
"Exactly. If you have what it takes, take it. If you don't, quit running your mouth. Fair competition. Even if the Ice God's Divine Seat is taken away, we'll accept our defeat wholeheartedly." The Ice Empress followed immediately. She already believed in the law of the jungle. If someone had the ability, she would shut her mouth.
"That also means we won't have to worry about those people playing tricks behind the scenes. Anyone who does will be making an enemy of everyone in the world who wants this divine seat. Deprive them of their hope, and they'll want to skin you and swallow you alive," Di Tian said. He could only say that this was indeed a brilliant move.
Especially after their earlier analysis, defending it would inevitably force the Far North's soul beasts to pay a terrible price. Since that was the case, they might as well stop defending it and put it out in the open.
Besides, as they had said earlier, the divine seat was a tangible manifestation of a law. Anyone who dared touch it without sufficient strength or its recognition would be frozen into an ice sculpture in no time.
Their choice was essentially to place the divine seat out in the open and let its own defenses bear the burden, with the whole world watching.
"Then it's decided. A-Tai, handle this. Take some people and inform those heading to the Far North to investigate that the Ice God's Divine Seat is here. Today, we in the Far North throw our gates wide open. Let the capable claim it." The Snow Empress made her decision decisively and hesitated no further.
"And search the entire Far North for a hundred-thousand-year snow lotus."
The Snow Empress had no desire to miss this grand feast. Of course she would participate too. With this matter in place, people would not attack recklessly, and she would have ample time to grow.
"As for that, about three thousand kilometers east of here, in a deep cave a hundred meters underground, there's a hundred-thousand-year snow lotus. Of course, if you have time to spare, help me gather some thousand-year and ten-thousand-year snow lotuses along the way. I have a use for them." Huo Yun straightforwardly revealed the hundred-thousand-year snow lotus's location.
"No problem. In that case, I'll retrieve it myself. As for everyone else, Xiao Bai, guard me during my cultivation. Bingbing, sorry for the trouble, but I'll leave you to oversee the Far North while I'm in seclusion. The others should gather the Far North's soul beasts into designated areas as much as possible and protect them. Don't spread yourselves too far apart. Reinforce one another immediately if any danger arises." The Snow Empress issued her orders methodically.
Soon, the orders of the Far North's ruler spread rapidly in every direction, like the earlier wind and snow that had expanded across the entire Douluo Continent.
In less than a month, almost the entire continent knew that a divine seat had appeared in the Far North, along with the Titan Snow Demon King's announcement: by the Snow Empress's order, the gates were thrown wide open. Anyone interested in becoming a god could try to take the divine seat. Let the capable claim it.
Upon learning the news, an old man reclining in a lounge chair on Sea God Island at Shrek Academy sighed.
Inside the Clear Sky Sect's castle, atop a towering mountain peak surrounded by drifting clouds of seven colors, Da Ming and Er Ming were utterly astonished.
In a valley near the sea, an old man with dark green hair heard his subordinate's report, and a vast surge of vital energy erupted from him.
In a dilapidated mountain village, countless mysterious figures with cold, sinister auras gathered together. Before them, a man and a woman exchanged looks.
And in a village near the Far North, the Sea God Family's powerhouses, who had retreated there after being injured, wore expressions of disbelief.
Inside the imperial palaces of the four great empires-the Sun Moon Empire, the Star Luo Empire, the Heaven Dou Empire, and the Dou Ling Empire-the people who held supreme imperial power fell silent upon hearing the news.
When Huo Yuhao learned of this from Huo Yun, he too was stunned. "Something that big happened in the Far North?"
"Although I don't know what Tang San wants to do, the Ice God's Divine Seat has already appeared. The longer we delay, the worse things will be for us. I won't be teaching you about soul tools or anything like that for now. I'll teach you cultivation directly, so you can reach level 20 as soon as possible and condense the soul power inside you into a vortex," Huo Yun said. She had originally intended to let Huo Yuhao take his time, but under the current circumstances, securing the Ice God Martial Soul sooner would let her rest easy sooner.
"All right." Hearing that, Huo Yuhao hesitated no further and began cultivating.
With his cultivation speed, aided by all sorts of heavenly treasures, he successfully reached level 20 in less than half a year, when he was around seven years old.
At that point, the soul power inside him had not yet condensed into a vortex, so Huo Yuhao simply used the Eye of Destiny to compress it.
He spent another year on this compression, finally forming a vortex in his dantian as his eighth birthday approached.
The moment the vortex began spinning, Huo Yuhao felt that the circulation and recovery speeds of his soul power during his usual meditation had more than doubled.
Moreover, during that year and a half, Huo Yuhao had improved not only his soul power, but also his physical constitution and spiritual power.
According to Huo Yun, Huo Yuhao's physical constitution alone was now sufficient to withstand a thousand-year second soul ring-and not an ordinary one-thousand-year ring, but a limit soul ring as old as 2,300 years.
One had to understand that an ordinary three-ring Soul Elder's third soul ring was only a little over a thousand years old. Even two thousand years counted as absorbing a ring beyond the normal limit.
His body was so strong that he could kill an ox with one punch.
And that was despite Huo Yuhao having only just reached the cultivation level of a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster.
As for spiritual power, Huo Yuhao had also reached the Spirit Sea Realm. His control over his spiritual power had even reached the point where he could compress it into threads.
This meant that both the quality of his spiritual power and his control over it had reached an extremely high standard.
According to Huo Yun, with his base stats alone, no Soul Grandmaster of the past could have been Huo Yuhao's match. Yes, the past: among all the soul masters recorded by Huo Yun from humanity's birth to the present, not a single one at the Soul Grandmaster level could match Huo Yuhao.
And this accumulation was also enough for him to attempt to obtain his third soul ring.
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