Less than a hundred li from the core region of the Extreme North.
A woman was sprinting toward the outskirts of the Extreme North.
The woman was stunningly beautiful, with long, pale blue hair falling to her waist and a white-and-blue gauze dress.
But her dress had been torn in many places, and some parts were even stained red with blood.
She kept looking back at the wolf pack drawing ever closer behind her, her ice-blue eyes filled with unease.
"Damn it, these wolves really are hard to shake."
The woman was named Su Tong, and she had come to the Extreme North to hunt for a Soul Ring.
Nothing unexpected had happened along the way, until the scent of blood drew a pack of Icefield Giant Wolves after she hunted down and absorbed her sixth Soul Ring.
There were about a hundred wolves in the pack, led by a forty-thousand-year soul beast.
When Su Tong saw the pack lunging toward her, she took to her heels.
In a one-on-one fight, Su Tong believed that with her Martial Soul, she could definitely defeat it.
But now she faced a hundred Icefield Giant Wolves. If they surrounded her, she would have no chance of surviving.
As time passed, the wolves drew closer and closer.
Su Tong knew that if they caught up, she would not even have a chance.
She gritted her teeth and decided to stake everything on one last fight.
Then she took a deep breath, stopped, and turned to face the approaching pack.
An icy blue gleam flashed through her eyes, and a phantom made of ice and snow swiftly appeared behind her.
The phantom was about 1.8 meters tall, its outline resembling a woman.
The instant the phantom appeared, six Soul Rings rose one after another beneath Su Tong's feet.
"Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black."
Seeing the woman stop, the Icefield Wolf King howled, signaling its subordinates to attack first.
Two wolves behind it heard their leader's command, picked up speed, and lunged toward Su Tong.
Facing the two Icefield Giant Wolves, both close to ten thousand years old, Su Tong remained calm and showed no fear.
The fourth and fifth Soul Rings beneath her feet lit up in succession.
"Snow Maiden's Descent."
As she spoke, the ice-blue phantom behind Su Tong slowly merged with her, and the ice-blue light in her eyes blazed.
This was Su Tong's third soul skill: Snow Maiden's Descent. Its effect was to let the Snow Maiden briefly possess her, increasing all her attributes for a short time.
"Deep Blue Ice Sword."
A deep blue light appeared in Su Tong's palm, and the surrounding ice elements surged toward her hand as though they had gone mad.
In moments, a deep blue longsword covered in ice crystals formed before Su Tong.
Deep Blue Ice Sword: Su Tong's strongest single-target soul skill, which could pierce armor and also had a freezing effect.
The instant the longsword finished forming, Su Tong raised her right hand slightly.
The longsword left her hand and tore through the air.
Then a cold gleam flashed, and Su Tong beheaded both Icefield Giant Wolves with a single strike.
The Icefield Giant Wolf King howled.
Every surviving Icefield Giant Wolf launched a fierce attack on Su Tong.
As more and more Icefield Giant Wolves charged at her, there was no retreat in Su Tong's eyes. Instead, they brimmed with fighting spirit.
An ice sword condensed from Soul Power appeared in her hand, and she charged into the pack.
"My Soul Power is running out."
Watching the wolves about to surround her completely, Su Tong knelt on the ground with her longsword in hand, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and panted heavily.
After the battle, a large stretch of the once pure, spotless snowfield had been stained red with the wolves' blood.
The corpses of wolves Su Tong had slain lay all around her, and the smell of blood in the air was frighteningly thick.
After half an hour of fierce fighting, Su Tong had killed more than thirty Icefield Giant Wolves.
But the Soul Power in her body had nearly bottomed out as well, and now she could barely even stand steadily.
Looking at the utterly exhausted Su Tong, the Icefield Wolf King howled and lunged at her.
Watching the Icefield Wolf King draw closer, Su Tong did not want to give up her hope of survival,
Just as she was about to unleash her sixth soul skill and make one more desperate attempt, a voice rang out.
"Insolent."
Before Su Tong's astonished eyes, a figure descended from the sky and landed in front of her.
The newcomer was a man with a cloak draped halfway over him, long silver-white hair, and ice-blue eyes full of disdain.
It was none other than Yun Luo, returning from the core region of the Extreme North.
Facing the charging Icefield Giant Wolf, Yun Luo simply slapped it away.
The forty-thousand-year Icefield Giant Wolf leader did not even have time to react. Its enormous body rolled over a dozen times through the snow before stopping.
It whimpered and tried to get up, only to discover that the bones on half its body were broken.
Su Tong stared blankly at the handsome man standing in front of her, unable to come back to her senses for a moment.
She had not expected the man before her to be so strong, severely injuring the wolf king with just one blow.
Looking at the pack before him, Yun Luo said:
"You're in luck. You get the chance to see my second Martial Soul."
As he spoke, emerald light appeared in Yun Luo's eyes, and the phantom of an Ice Jade Empress Scorpion appeared behind him.
Four blood-red Soul Rings rose beneath his feet.
Seeing those four blood-red Soul Rings, Su Tong's brain simply crashed.
"Is this really a human?"
Meanwhile, when the wolves saw this and felt the pressure from Yun Luo, as though the Ice Emperor herself had arrived, the entire pack was too frightened to move.
Above them, Du Busi and the others could not help twitching their lips at Yun Luo's showboating.
Du Busi, in particular, wanted to say he did not know him.
"How embarrassing."
Just earlier, they had followed Yun Luo's sensing to this place and discovered a woman surrounded and attacked by wolves.
Looking at the woman in dire straits, Du Busi asked in some confusion.
"Kid, are you sure this is the place?"
Looking at the woman below, Yun Luo sensed for a moment.
"That's right, this is the place. I can feel that woman giving my Martial Soul that feeling."
After he finished, Du Busi and the other two looked at him with some disdain.
Facing their gazes, Yun Luo defended himself:
"Really, it's true. I'm not saving her because she's pretty."
"All right, all right, this old man believes you."
With that, Du Busi was about to act and save the woman.
Seeing Du Busi about to act, Yun Luo stopped him.
"Sect Master, let me try out my second Martial Soul."
"All right."
Seeing this scene now, Du Busi regretted letting him go.
Looking at the wolves that could barely move, Yun Luo could no longer suppress the upward curl of his lips.
"Ha ha, my fists are going to drink blood."
"Domain of Perpetual Ice."
As he spoke, the torso bone at his chest abruptly lit up, and a chill surged from deep within his torso.
With him at its center, the air instantly froze still.
Within a one-kilometer radius, the temperature plunged to near absolute zero, and all the remaining wolves turned into blocks of ice.
The wolves that had still been moving instantly became ice sculptures in all manner of poses.
Looking at his masterpiece, Yun Luo nodded in satisfaction.
Then he channeled Soul Power into his right hand and threw a punch.
Crack, crack.
All the ice blocks began to shatter, then turned into ice and snow that danced across the sky, refracting dazzling light in the sunshine.
While Su Tong was still immersed in the shock of Yun Luo's formidable strength, his words interrupted her thoughts.
"Are you all right?"