The Extreme North, ten li outside the core region.
Snow filled the sky, limiting visibility to less than a hundred meters. Everywhere the eye could see was a boundless expanse of white.
The biting wind swept snowflakes against their bodies, as though it would freeze them straight into ice sculptures.
Sensing that they had reached the outskirts of the Extreme North's core region, Du Busi descended from the sky with Yun Luo. Jin Peng and Li Qing, following close behind, landed as well.
After setting Yun Luo down, Du Busi raised a hand and pointed into the depths of the snowstorm.
"Yun Luo, the core region of the Extreme North lies ahead. The Ice Emperor you're looking for is here."
"To avoid unnecessary trouble, I'll conceal our presence and take you all to find the Ice Emperor."
As he spoke, Du Busi took cloaks out of his storage soul tool, giving one to Yun Luo and keeping one for himself.
Hearing Du Busi's words, Yun Luo reached out to accept the cloak and nodded.
"Sect Master, understood."
In Du Busi's view, the three of them had enough combat strength to hold their own even against the combined might of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Extreme North.
But doing so would be a thankless struggle.
Not only would it reveal that the Body Sect's top fighters had come to the Extreme North, it would also cause their deal with the Ice Emperor to fail.
Thus, this time, Du Busi chose to help conceal the other three's presence as they searched for the Ice Emperor.
As a rank-98 Super Douluo, Du Busi was confident that beneath the cover of his spiritual power, even the Snow Empress, leader of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Extreme North, would be unable to detect them.
After instructing Yun Luo, Du Busi repeated himself to Jin Peng and Li Qing.
"Both of you, remember this too. Don't expose your presence. Follow me into the core region of the Extreme North."
"Yes, understood, Sect Master."
Hearing Du Busi's words, the two men, who had still been taking out their cloaks, nodded.
"Let's go."
Du Busi nodded, then used his Soul Power to envelop them all. An invisible barrier of spiritual power separated them from the outside world.
Once that was done, he took the lead toward the Extreme North.
Seeing this, Yun Luo was the first to follow. After changing into their cloaks, the two elders behind him hurried after them as well.
As they headed toward the core region of the Extreme North, they avoided disturbing any soul beasts so as not to cause unnecessary trouble.
And so, the four of them traveled through the snowstorm.
Du Busi walked at the front, releasing his spiritual power to probe their surroundings.
Yun Luo followed closely behind, his silver hair whipping wildly in the wind, his ice-blue eyes particularly bright amid the snow.
Du Busi and Yun Luo were guarded on either side by two golden pengs, which kept watch over their surroundings.
After walking for about two days, Du Busi saw the scene ahead and waved to the three behind him, signaling them to stop.
"This is the Ice Jade Scorpion clan's territory."
Looking in the direction Du Busi indicated, Yun Luo saw large numbers of Ice Jade Scorpions roaming the snow a short distance away.
Their bodies bore only two colors, lustrous white and jade green. Most of the Ice Jade Scorpions were only about a meter long.
Hexagonal crystals with a diamond-like texture covered their bodies and extended down their six long legs, refracting dazzling light in the snowy glare.
Their enormous, meter-long pincers were likewise covered in crystals. Only the tips of their pincers and their mouths were bright silver, like mirrors.
Their hexagonal eyes resembled yellow diamonds, glittering in the sunlight.
Their tails had only five segments, translucent and lustrous green.
They tapered gradually from base to tip, held high.
Just as Yun Luo was admiring these beautiful scorpions and thinking of catching a few to raise back home, Du Busi pointed to an ice cavern in the center of the Ice Jade Scorpions' territory.
"Stop daydreaming. I just probed the area with my spiritual power and found that the energy fluctuations inside that ice cavern are the strongest.
"And the energy fluctuations there are somewhat unstable right now. This is the perfect opportunity."
Hearing Du Busi's words, the three behind him nodded in unison, agreeing to go inside now to find the Ice Emperor.
"Sect Master, I have no objections. I trust you."
Yun Luo spoke after hearing Du Busi's words.
"Yes, Sect Master, we trust you too."
Hearing Yun Luo's words, Jin Peng and Li Qing spoke in unison.
"Since you all trust me, let's go now."
Hearing their responses, Du Busi headed toward the ice cavern.
When they reached the cavern, Du Busi did not enter immediately. Instead, with Jin Peng and Li Qing's help, the three set up a concealment formation to prevent the Ice Jade Scorpions outside from noticing their activities within.
The formation was composed of spiritual power and Soul Power. Even a rank-99 Limit Douluo would not discover anything unusual without approaching it closely.
The formation spread silently across the cavern entrance, absorbing and dispersing all traces of their presence and Soul Power fluctuations.
From outside, the cavern entrance looked no different than usual.
"Let's go. With this formation here, even if our deal with the Ice Emperor fails, I guarantee no one outside will notice."
Hearing Du Busi's words, the other three followed him inside.
The ice cavern was even colder inside than out. Ice several feet thick covered its walls, giving off a faint blue glow in the gloom.
The farther in they went, the wider the space became, but the lower the temperature fell.
Yun Luo could feel his Soul Power circulating madly, resisting the chill that seeped into his very marrow.
The two elders' expressions grew solemn as well. Clearly, both were secretly channeling Soul Power to protect their bodies.
The reason the Ice Emperor had not noticed their arrival was that she was trying to suppress her cultivation, hoping to find an opportunity to safely pass the four-hundred-thousand-year mark.
When the four reached the depths of the cavern, they found a spacious ice chamber.
At the very center of the chamber, a woman dressed in an elegant white-and-green gown sat cross-legged upon a throne formed from ice.
Her long, smooth, dark-green hair cascaded like a waterfall, tied high into twin ponytails. A translucent crown of ice crystals rested atop her head.
Her skin was as lustrous and translucent as cold jade, with faint green light slowly flowing beneath it.
Her orange-gold eyes were tightly shut.
The girl sat cross-legged on the throne, a jade-green halo flickering around her, her presence fluctuating violently.
"She really is a legal loli."
Looking at the Ice Emperor before him, Yun Luo failed to hold his tongue and blurted it out.
You really couldn't blame Yun Luo for this. Wouldn't you be happy if you saw a sweet-smelling, soft legal loli?
And when he met the Skydream Iceworm in the future, he could even... hehehe.
At that thought, Yun Luo could not help wanting to laugh again.
Hearing Yun Luo's words, Du Busi and the other two looked utterly puzzled.
"Boy, what's a legal loli?"
"Ahem, 'legal loli' is what we call the Ice Emperor where I'm from."
After coughing twice, Yun Luo made up an excuse.
"Ten thousand years from now, are the names for fierce beasts this unusual???"
Hearing Yun Luo's explanation, Du Busi's eyes were filled with incomprehension.
Though Jin Peng and Li Qing also found it strange that she would be called that, with the sect master present, they felt too awkward to ask.
And just like that, the seventh-ranked fierce beast really did gain a title in later generations: legal loli.
Meanwhile, after sensing the presence of the four, the Ice Emperor, who had been sitting cross-legged on her throne, stopped researching ways to suppress her cultivation and opened her eyes.
Looking at the four people who had appeared here so abruptly, her orange-gold eyes filled with fury.
"Who are you?"
"You dare trespass on this emperor's territory? Do you have a death wish?"