After Luring Away the Snow Empress, Luring Away the Ice Empress
Having settled the matter of his second Martial Soul, Li Jin turned his attention to the Ice Empress again.
The Ice Empress had harbored malicious intent earlier, only to be frozen into an ice sculpture by the power leaking uncontrollably from the Snow Empress.
She had tried to melt the solid ice several times, but had failed every time.
The Snow Empress's Ultimate Ice was stronger than the Ice Empress's.
Sensing Li Jin's gaze now, the Ice Empress, frozen inside the sculpture, looked at him with complicated eyes, though her gaze lingered more on the Snow Maiden in his arms.
The Snow Empress had survived!
To the Ice Empress, that was wonderful news!
She pressed her lips together and stared with her emerald eyes. Whether he wanted to hit her or curse her, she would accept it.
Li Jin walked over with the Snow Maiden in his arms.
"Snow Maiden, let the Ice Empress out."
Hearing his instruction, the Snow Maiden nodded obediently.
"All right, Da... Big Brother!"
Then the Snow Maiden reached out her little hand and touched the ice sculpture imprisoning the Ice Empress.
In an instant, the ice melted into water, which a gust of wind swept into the blizzard.
Free again, the Ice Empress planted her hands on her hips. Her petite figure was not much taller than the six-year-old Li Jin, so she looked him straight in the eye. Her little face remained taut, but her tone softened.
"Human, you succeeded in saving the Snow Empress. I won't forget this kindness. I even wanted to kill you earlier, and I owe you an apology."
"If I'd killed you, the Snow Empress might really be dead now. Then I'd have regretted it beyond all remedy."
"If you want to curse me or hit me, I'll accept it. Blame me all you want. But if you take it out on the Snow Empress, this empress is no pushover. I've got plenty of strength and means."
As she spoke, the Ice Empress raised her little fists, looking not the least bit intimidating.
Li Jin smiled calmly as he looked at the goddess who had haunted the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's dreams even before his death.
"Ice Empress, let's introduce ourselves properly. My name is Li Jin."
"You couldn't have killed me, so I have nothing to blame you for."
"I'm leaving now. I'll take good care of the Snow Maiden from now on. If you want to visit her in the future, hide your identity and come to human society yourself."
With that, Li Jin turned and left the ice cavern, holding the light-as-a-feather Snow Maiden in his arms.
The Ice Empress took a step forward and reached out, grasping at empty air.
At the thought of parting with the Snow Empress, and how difficult it would be to see her once she followed Li Jin to human society, the Ice Empress's hesitation swiftly turned to resolve.
She hurried after him, her tone thoroughly tsundere.
"Hu... Li Jin, I can't stop worrying about the Snow Empress. I want to come with you."
"You've hit the jackpot. This empress is a 390,000-year Ferocious Beast. Aside from the Snow Empress, I'm the strongest in the Far North."
"With this empress protecting you in human society, you'll be able to walk sideways there. I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it for the Snow Empress."
"Now that the Snow Empress has become your Martial Soul, she'll only be well if you're well. If anything happens to you, it'll happen to her too."
Li Jin turned to look at the Ice Empress catching up to him. This really was a double blessing: the Snow Empress as his Martial Soul, and the Ice Empress as his bodyguard.
If anyone stirred up trouble in the future, he wouldn't even need to rely on fortune backlash, which still required a trigger.
The Ice Empress was comparable to a rank-97 Peak Douluo. If anyone stirred up trouble, he could simply have her plant them in the ground to cosplay ginseng.
"All right, then. I'll let you stay by my side."
"But with that Ferocious Beast presence all over you, there's no way you can hide from powerful, high-level Soul Masters."
The Ice Empress lowered her head a little and bit her fingernail.
"I'll fight anyone I can beat and run from anyone I can't. Even if something happens to me, I'll never let anything happen to you."
Li Jin immediately activated Martial Soul Possession. Since the Snow Empress came with her own Soul Core, her Soul Power output was extremely stable and needed no deliberate maintenance from him.
That meant he could now use both Martial Souls simultaneously.
Even with the Snow Maiden outside his body, he could summon his Koi Martial Soul. Two Soul Rings rose into the air, one platinum and one purple.
"As it happens, I have a skill that can perfectly conceal your presence. Don't stray too far from me from now on. If you do, the skill will stop working."
"Second Soul Skill, Simulation!"
The purple Soul Ring blazed with light. Spiritual power spread outward, forming a field of distortion centered on Li Jin's body. Within its range, he could change every sight and every presence at will.
With just a thought, Li Jin completely concealed the Soul Beast presence on the Ice Empress.
Now, anyone who saw her would only think she was an ordinary human girl.
The Ice Empress immediately recognized the Ice Silkworm's Simulation skill, but she was even more astonished by Li Jin's first Soul Ring.
"The Simulation skill is certainly convenient. Though it can't compare to our Ice Jade Scorpion Clan's innate skill, Ice Explosion Technique, it's very useful in certain respects."
"But that first Soul Ring of yours-how do you have a million-year first Soul Ring?"
"Are you actually a human, or a million-year Soul Beast recultivating as one?"
"That inexplicably familiar presence... you're not that worm Tian Meng, are you?"
Li Jin laughed at her words. There was no Tian Meng anymore. Tian Meng had already sacrificed himself for his perfect fusion with the Snow Empress.
"Tian Meng was a good worm. After cultivating to a million years, he sacrificed himself to me."
"He bent his back to the task and gave his all until death."
"To help me fuse smoothly with the Snow Empress, he even burned his soul. Tsk, tsk. I'll remember him."
The Ice Empress, this tsundere little girl, folded her arms across her chest and puffed out her little cheeks in anger.
"That stinking worm was absurdly lucky. He ate an enormous amount of ten-thousand-year profound ice marrow. If he'd come back to the Far North and let this empress and the Snow Empress eat him, we could have survived our heavenly tribulations without trouble. Things wouldn't have turned out like this. I hate that stinking worm!"
"He actually did all that for you, yet he wouldn't let this empress and the Snow Empress eat him. Stinking worm, dead worm, scum of a worm..."
Li Jin glanced at the fuming Ice Empress and spoke as though something had suddenly occurred to him.
"Ice Empress, once we're in human society, I won't call you Ice Empress anymore."
"I renamed the Snow Empress Snow Maiden. As for you, how about Bingbing?"
(PS: If you're not happy with the name Bingbing, feel free to make suggestions.)
The Ice Empress bristled. She was one of the illustrious Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North. Ice Empress sounded so mighty and imposing. What was this Bingbing nonsense? It didn't sound murderous at all.
"I don't want to be called Bingbing! Mere human, don't take a mile when given an inch!"
The corners of Li Jin's lips curled upward, and he hugged the Snow Maiden, who held the Ice God's Pearl, more tightly.
"Snow Maiden, shall we call the Ice Empress Bingbing from now on?"
The Snow Maiden raised her little head, looking up at Li Jin's face with large, ice-blue eyes full of childlike affection and dependence, and answered in a clear voice.
"Yes!"
Hearing the Snow Maiden's decisive answer, Li Jin raised his eyebrows at the Ice Empress beside him.
His meaning was obvious.
From now on, you're Bingbing.
Looking at the Snow Maiden, the Ice Empress lost all her temper and answered listlessly.
"All right, Bingbing it is."
"But I'm not listening to you. I'm listening to the Snow Empress."
Deep in the Far North, amid the blizzard filling the sky, two figures receded into the distance until they gradually vanished from sight.