The Auspicious Beast's Prank

Rumble.

In an instant, a heavy roar resounded through the heavens, echoing for dozens of miles around and shaking the surrounding mountains, triggering violent avalanches.

Crack.

A crisp sound rang out. The power of light Yan Shaozhe had released actually began to shatter, turning into countless golden fragments resembling broken glass.

Beside him, Xian Lin'er threw back her head and let out a long cry. With a flash, she shot into the sky. Fierce flames erupted from her body, and their color was actually azure.

At the same time, her height increased to over five meters in the blink of an eye, and a layer of azure armor appeared on her body.

As nine Soul Rings-two yellow, two purple, and five black-rose from beneath her feet, her enlarged body did not look bulky at all. Instead, she seemed to have grown younger, like a girl of twenty, radiating a valiant air.

At some point, a spear had appeared in her hand. She pointed it forward, a deafening dragon's roar bursting from her mouth. The azure flames suddenly brightened, forming a dragon's head that lunged toward the Titan Snow Demon King.

"An Azure Flame Dragon?! Hmph! Showing off your bloodline in front of me, are you? Then let's see who's stronger! Roar!" Standing on the Titan Snow Demon King's shoulder, the Auspicious Beast gave a soft snort at the sight, then threw back her head and roared!

Less than fifty meters from the Titan Snow Demon King, the dragon's head formed from azure flames trembled slightly at that roar, then exploded into azure motes that filled the sky.

The aura around Xian Lin'er also plunged sharply.

Even Yan Shaozhe beside her was slightly affected, his aura noticeably weakening.

"This is bloodline suppression!" Feeling her Martial Soul being suppressed within her, Xian Lin'er's pupils suddenly contracted. This was hardly good news for them.

Dealing with two Ferocious Beasts was difficult enough already, and one of them could even suppress both their Martial Souls through its bloodline. How were they supposed to fight?

As the Emperor Auspicious Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion already possessed an exceptionally pure bloodline. Within her was also the pure bloodline of the Golden Dragon King, one of the Dragon God's avatars, along with the twin attributes of ultimate fire and ultimate light, not to mention her own powerful spiritual power and power of destiny!

Furthermore, she had gained tremendous benefits from awakening the power of destiny with Huo Yuhao earlier. Over the past year and a half, she had absorbed those benefits, and her strength had soared to a terrifying level.

As for Xian Lin'er's Martial Soul, the Azure Flame Dragon, its so-called azure flames were not actually fire-attributed, but wind-attributed. Its wind attribute had simply grown so powerful that it evolved into these so-called azure flames. It was a mutated Martial Soul.

But no matter how powerful the Martial Soul mutation made it, it was still only a subdragon, not yet a true dragon.

Although Yan Shaozhe's Martial Soul was not a dragon, it happened to be a Bright Phoenix. The Three-Eyed Golden Lion possessed ultimate light, and ultimate attributes suppressed non-ultimate attributes, exerting absolute suppression over the same attribute in particular.

It could be said that these two deans of Shrek were thoroughly countered by the Auspicious Beast.

"I've seen that Soul Beast in the academy's illustrated guide. The Three-Eyed Golden Lion, the Emperor Auspicious Beast. How could something like that be here in the Far North?" Strawberry had recognized the Three-Eyed Golden Lion by now, and her expression abruptly changed.

"Whatever it is, run." Zhang Lexuan knew that staying here would only burden their two deans. Activating her Flying Soul Tool, she immediately took to the air with Huo Yuhao and Strawberry.

"Big guy, do me a favor." At this sight, a gleam flashed through the Auspicious Beast's eyes. She turned toward the Titan Snow Demon King beside her and transmitted a message to him.

Although puzzled, the Titan Snow Demon King did as she asked. He raised a finger and pointed in the direction Zhang Lexuan and the others were fleeing, immense spiritual power and the power of ice and snow gathering at his fingertip.

"No! You damned beast!" At this sight, Yan Shaozhe and Xian Lin'er instantly grew frantic. Holding nothing back, they both unleashed their strongest attacks.

Yan Shaozhe's ninth Soul Ring lit up. Brilliant light suddenly blazed behind him, and the image of a Bright Phoenix hundreds of meters in size took solid form at his back.

Xian Lin'er's ninth Soul Ring also lit up. The azure flames around her burned to their utmost, rapidly gathering at the tip of the spear in her hand and forming a giant dragon of flame.

"You two, stay quiet over there." A phantom Eye of Destiny slowly opened above the Auspicious Beast's head, incomparably brilliant rose-gold flames blazing within it.

As the phoenix behind Yan Shaozhe flew out, the giant dragon before Xian Lin'er's spear burst forward with repeated dragon roars.

At that same moment, a brilliant, bewitching golden light also shot from the phantom Eye of Destiny, forming a pillar of light in midair that met the Bright Phoenix and Azure Flame Dragon.

The three collided, and the energies of fire, light, and wind exploded in the air. The terrifying energy even tore open a spatial rift during the collision, and the snow within a thousand miles melted away in an instant beneath the dreadful shock waves.

Meanwhile, a terrifying Blizzard erupted from the Titan Snow Demon King's fingertip, catching up to Huo Yuhao and the two women in the blink of an eye.

The Titan Snow Demon King struck extremely quickly. By the time Zhang Lexuan reacted, the blizzard was already upon her. She only had time to mobilize her Soul Power to protect the two beside her, but that little protection was as fragile as paper beneath the Titan Snow Demon King's attack. It shattered in an instant, and the three were swept along like kites with their strings cut.

Yet precisely because of this, the three were blown beyond the collision range of those three mighty attacks.

"Lexuan, Strawberry, Yuhao!" Yan Shaozhe and Xian Lin'er could only watch helplessly as the three figures gradually vanished from sight.

"You deserve to die." At this moment, Yan Shaozhe and Xian Lin'er were utterly enraged.

As senior figures of Shrek Academy, they understood Zhang Lexuan's and Huo Yuhao's value all too well. Leaving Huo Yuhao aside, Zhang Lexuan had reached Soul Saint at her young age, before even turning twenty. From the look of things, Soul Douluo would also be within reach in just a few years. Once she truly matured, she would become a pillar of their Shrek Academy's future.

As for Huo Yuhao, the mere little they knew about him was enough for them to conclude that he was an absolute genius. No matter how difficult it was to find mental-attribute Soul Masters, with his talent, he might become even stronger than Zhang Lexuan once he matured.

Strawberry's talent was not weak either. As a food-type Soul Master, she already possessed Soul Emperor cultivation. Although she could not compare to the other two, she was still an exceptionally precious talent, someone every faction on the continent would fight over.

Losing even one of them in the Far North would break their hearts, let alone all three here.

"Who's going to die is still up in the air!" the Titan Snow Demon King roared. He was already deeply displeased with humans. These damned humans had been entrenched in the Far North lately, probing around from time to time. If not for the bigger picture, he would have driven them all out long ago.

Now that he had a chance to vent, how could he miss it? He strode forward and charged straight at the two.

Elsewhere, Huo Yuhao and the two women had no idea where the blizzard had blown them. All they could see was raging wind and snow, yet the storm around them seemed to have no destructive force, merely blowing them farther away.

Zhang Lexuan and Strawberry landed first, crashing into the thick snow.

"Strawberry, Yuhao, are you all right?" Zhang Lexuan was the first to climb out of the snow. Clearly unharmed, she immediately looked around for Strawberry and Huo Yuhao, who had been blown away with him.

"I'm fine. Where's Yuhao?" Strawberry climbed out of the snow, also apparently unhurt.

"We were blown here, so he should be nearby too. Hurry and look." As she spoke, Zhang Lexuan immediately took flight to search the surroundings.

But no matter how they searched, even after covering a hundred miles around, neither woman found any sign of Huo Yuhao.

Little did they know that after Huo Yuhao had been blown several hundred miles away, a hand had suddenly reached out of thin air and caught him securely.

"The Auspicious Beast really wasn't afraid of hurting you." Di Tian's voice sounded beside Huo Yuhao's ear. It was inconvenient for him to show himself, so he had asked the Titan Snow Demon King to act in his stead.

But he had not expected this to be the method they used to separate Huo Yuhao from the main group.

Had it been the Titan Snow Demon King alone, he might not have done this, but the Auspicious Beast had wanted to play a prank on Huo Yuhao.

"Long time no see, Senior Di Tian." Held by Di Tian like a little chick, Huo Yuhao turned to greet him, then immediately asked, "Are Sister Lexuan and Sister Strawberry all right?"

"Don't worry. The Titan Snow Demon King knows his limits. The same goes for the two people fighting him and the Auspicious Beast now. They won't take their lives. Once they've fought enough, both sides will retreat.

"Hurry and change. I'll take you to the Ice God's Divine Seat." As Di Tian spoke, he tossed Huo Yuhao a mask that appeared to be made of wood.

"This mask is made from something called phantom morphing demon tree wood. It can conceal your appearance and prevent other people's spiritual power from probing your true face and aura."

It was indeed inconvenient for Huo Yuhao to show his true face in public now, especially near the Ice God's Divine Seat, where people from every faction on the continent had gathered.

Huo Yuhao would still have to travel the continent afterward, so keeping his appearance hidden was perfectly normal.

He quickly took off the coat made from Crimson Flame Tiger fur. In truth, he did not need it.

That was not because he was particularly resistant to the cold. Mainly, Huo Yun had formed a unique space around him, preventing him from feeling it.

He put on the cloak he had prepared beforehand and donned the mask, even changing the clothes underneath.

Once he had changed, Di Tian took him flying in another direction.

The Far North was vast. Although their earlier location could barely be considered within the Far North, they had not truly entered its depths.

The Ice God's Divine Seat lay deep within the Far North, at least three thousand kilometers from where Huo Yuhao and the others had first entered it.

Originally, that place had been a plain without any surrounding mountain ranges, covered in nearly three meters of snow.

But with the appearance of the Ice God's Divine Seat, the ground of that plain had split apart, forming an enormous basin.

Of course, this did not mean the Ice God's Divine Seat was directly in the Far North. Rather, its location had previously been concealed inside a Divine Temple beneath the Far North. Once triggered, the divine seat caused the temple to rise. The force generated during its ascent pushed the surrounding land outward, ultimately forming the basin.

Countless ice sculptures stood within the basin. Judging by their appearances, they seemed to have suffered immense pain before death, frozen solid on the spot. The closer one went to the white light, the more ice sculptures there were.

Waves of chilling cold continuously emanated from that white light. Strangely, however, these cold currents existed only within the basin. They weakened farther out, and at the basin's very edge, they could almost be said to have vanished entirely.

At this moment, quite a few ice-attribute Soul Masters sat cross-legged within the basin, absorbing the cold currents to increase their strength and resistance to them.

The stronger the Soul Masters and the higher the quality of their attributes, the closer they were to the white light.

For precisely this reason, all the major factions were now seeking ice-attribute Soul Masters, the higher their quality, the better. Some even speculated that once one's strength reached a certain level and one developed sufficient resistance to the cold currents, one could enter the light and obtain the divine seat.

This was also why over ninety percent of all ice-attribute Soul Masters in the world had now been gathered here.

Some had advanced recklessly, failed to withstand the cold currents, and already become ice sculptures. Others proceeded steadily, their strength and Martial Soul quality continuously improving within those currents.

And just as those Soul Masters sat around within the basin, silently cultivating to improve their strength and Martial Soul quality.

A figure wore a black robe that shrouded her entire body. Only when the cold currents swept past and lifted the robe could one clearly see that she was a woman, and that her figure was very slender.

Judging by her height, she should have been around seventeen or eighteen. Her skin was exceptionally fair, as frighteningly white as the surrounding snow. Even his feet had turned ice-blue, as though formed from blocks of ice.

Ignoring the surrounding cold currents, she walked into the white light one footprint at a time. Though her steps were slow, her passage was completely unobstructed.

When Di Tian brought Huo Yuhao to the location of the Ice God's Divine Seat, Huo Yuhao looked out from afar. Within the basin, which was nearly a thousand meters across, a white light seemingly only two meters in diameter hovered quietly at its very center.

Within it, there seemed to be several figures sitting cross-legged.

Outside the basin, countless square metal houses were scattered about. Some clustered together, while others stood all alone.

At this moment, countless people had gathered along the basin's edge. Even from far away, they could hear some voices, but because of the distance, Huo Yuhao really could not make out what they were saying.

"What's happened here?" Seeing those people, Di Tian could not help frowning slightly. He knew well that after the initial six months, throughout the remaining year, the various factions gathered here usually only sent one or two people to stand guard beside the basin and protect their disciples. At other times, their leaders all stayed inside the nearby camps.

After all, biting winds swept freely throughout the Far North. No one could endure them indefinitely.

"Someone has entered the Divine Temple."

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