"Who wants your company, you little brat!"
The Ice Empress was delighted inwardly, but she put on a disdainful expression.
"I'm going back to my clan's territory first. You don't need to make a special trip to tell me when you leave the Far North!"
"I'll stay here today."
Xue Chen knew the Ice Empress was a tsundere and did not mind her saying the opposite of what she meant.
"Once I've packed my things, I'll come find you in the Ice Jade Scorpions' territory, Sister Bing."
"Hmph, suit yourself!"
The Ice Empress snorted, then finally turned and left the snowy mountaintop.
Only after watching the Ice Empress leave did Xue Chen sit cross-legged on the ground. With a wave of his hand, a screen of light invisible to others appeared before him.
[Character: Snow Empress] [Rating: SSS (highest)] [Affection: 89] [Note: Affection will fluctuate according to the host's actions. When affection exceeds ninety points, the host can receive an additional reward!]
Looking at the Snow Empress's peerlessly beautiful face on the screen, Xue Chen could not help letting out a wry laugh.
"I can get an additional reward when affection reaches ninety?"
"What's this supposed to be? Don't you know I'm a pure-love war god?"
"Could there possibly be a better woman in this world than Sister Xue'er?"
Despite saying that, Xue Chen still frowned after examining the screen carefully.
"Why isn't Sister Bing here?"
"Can Soul Beasts not activate entries... no, that's not right. Sister Xue counts as a Soul Beast too, doesn't she?"
The system gave no response whatsoever to Xue Chen's questions.
Waving away the screen before him, Xue Chen plopped down and lay on the ground.
Looking up at the dark clouds that hung over the Far North all year round, Xue Chen felt rather conflicted.
So much had happened during this time.
The Snow Empress had sacrificed herself, he had awakened Twin Martial Souls, and most importantly, his golden finger had arrived!
"Sister Xue has already sacrificed herself for me. I've got to get my act together too!"
Xue Chen stretched out his right hand as though he meant to grasp the sky.
"The Goddess Illustrated Guide. Activating entries gives rewards, and reaching ninety intimacy points gives additional rewards."
"Looks like I'll have to visit Shrek Academy. Only Shrek Academy can let me activate more entries in a short time."
"But before I go to Shrek Academy..."
Xue Chen turned to look north, where the Ice Jade Scorpion Clan's territory lay.
He had promised to keep the Ice Empress company for a while.
Deep within the Far North, the Ice Jade Scorpions' territory was far more extensive than outsiders imagined.
Xue Chen headed north. Upon sensing the presence he carried, every Soul Beast he encountered along the way retreated, not one daring to step forward and block him.
In the Far North, the Snow Empress held an even higher position than Di Tian did in the Star Dou Great Forest.
All the Soul Beasts of the Far North regarded the Snow Empress as their queen.
Having been raised by both the Snow Empress and the Ice Empress, Xue Chen carried their presence, and no Soul Beast so blind as to court trouble would dare bother him.
At the entrance to the Ice Jade Scorpions' territory, an exceptionally beautiful Ice Jade Scorpion looked as though she had been waiting for quite some time.
"Taking your sweet time! I thought you'd died on the way!"
The Ice Empress waved her pincers before her. Though her words were cutting, a barely perceptible trace of relief lay hidden in her icy-blue eyes.
"Were you waiting for me, Sister Bing?"
Xue Chen smiled.
"Who was waiting for you!"
The Ice Empress immediately turned her head away.
"I just happened to be at the entrance... the entrance... um... sunbathing."
"That's right, I'm sunbathing here. Is that not allowed?"
Xue Chen looked at the dark clouds overhead that never dispersed throughout the year in the Far North, then at the Ice Empress's embarrassed annoyance at having her thoughts exposed. He merely smiled without speaking.
"What are you looking at?"
His gaze made the Ice Empress uncomfortable all over, and she finally could not resist asking.
Xue Chen pointed at the Ice Empress and suddenly spoke in an admiring tone:
"Even in Soul Beast form, you're still so beautiful, Sister Bing."
"You..."
Though the Ice Empress had lived for tens of thousands of years, this was the first time she had heard such direct praise.
Fortunately, she was still in Soul Beast form. Otherwise, those words from Xue Chen would surely have made her blush.
Even so, her heart still betrayed her by beating rapidly twice.
"Who taught you all this!"
The Ice Empress lightly tapped Xue Chen on the head twice with her right pincer, then immediately turned and headed toward an ice cave nearby, leaving only her voice echoing in his ears.
"From now on... you're not allowed to say those things to me again!"
Xue Chen smiled and hurried after the Ice Empress.
These ice caves were where the Ice Jade Scorpion Clan usually rested, and the temperature inside was much higher than one might have expected from outside.
The Ice Empress led Xue Chen down a long passage, finally arriving in a spacious ice chamber.
An ice platform stood in the center of the chamber, with several things laid out on it.
Xue Chen recognized this place. It was the dwelling of the Ice Empress, a four-hundred-thousand-year-old Ferocious Beast.
"These are things I had the youngsters of my clan gather from across the Far North."
The Ice Empress pointed at the things on the platform with a pincer.
"Besides the Storage Soul Tools taken from Soul Masters who came to the Far North to hunt Soul Beasts, take this Soul Bone too."
Xue Chen took two steps forward and saw a complete hand bone resting on one side of the ice platform, translucent and flawless like a piece of icy-blue crystal.
Indeed, this Soul Bone was not one of the six conventional Soul Bones. It was actually an External Soul Bone!
"Sister Xue, this is..."
Rather than taking the Soul Bone, Xue Chen turned to look at the Ice Empress.
"It's just something left behind after a fifty-thousand-year-old junior of my clan died."
There was a hint of mockery in the Ice Empress's tone.
"Unless we Soul Beasts switch to cultivating as humans, these Soul Bones are of no use to us whatsoever."
"But to humans, Soul Bones-especially External Soul Bones like this one-are things they'd crack one another's skulls fighting over."
Xue Chen pressed his lips together and simply looked at the Ice Empress.
"Sister Bing..."
"Don't look at me like that!"
The Ice Empress quickly interrupted him and turned her head away, leaving Xue Chen with only her profile.
"These are just things the clan has no use for. They'd only sit there anyway, so giving them to you counts as clearing out rubbish."
Soul Bones were indeed useless to Soul Beasts, but that did not mean they were not precious.
Just as the Ice Empress had said, if this External Soul Bone appeared in the outside world, it would be enough to make the vast majority of ice-attribute Soul Masters risk death for it!
"Thank you, Sister Bing!"
"What are you thanking me for? Hurry up and absorb this Soul Bone right here!"
The Ice Empress snorted, her tone carrying considerable exasperation, as though lamenting that iron would not turn to steel.
"With me guarding you, no one will disturb you."
Looking at the icy-blue External Soul Bone on the platform, Xue Chen did not refuse again.
He took a deep breath and sat cross-legged before the ice platform. Slowly extending his right hand, he touched his fingertips to the crystal-like hand bone.
Bone-piercing cold instantly spread up his arm, but after being tempered by the Snow Empress's power of origin, Xue Chen was no longer the same as before. Even his expression did not waver in the slightest.
Beside him, the Ice Empress merely watched from the side as Xue Chen, whom she and the Snow Empress had raised since childhood, sat there. For a moment, she found herself spellbound.