The Sun Moon Empire truly had no expert who could stand shoulder to shoulder with her, yet the Sea Princess did not dare provoke the Sun Moon Empire at all.
Just like this time.
Her daughter was a two-hundred-thousand-year Ferocious Beast, and she had brought along two hundred-thousand-year shrimp soldiers and crab generals.
By contrast, Dongyang City's strongest defender was only a Level 8 Soul Engineer. Yet they had still managed to inflict heavy casualties on the Sea Soul Beasts Lijing had brought to attack the city. Even Lijing herself and her shrimp soldiers and crab generals had suffered serious injuries.
If the Ice Sea truly committed all its strength to a decisive battle with the Sun Moon Empire, the Sea Princess did not know whether the empire would fall, but the Ice Sea would certainly never recover, and it was hard to say whether she herself would survive.
The pain of losing her daughter made the Sea Princess desperately want to drown the Sun Moon Empire, but reason left her no choice but to break her teeth and swallow them.
And the murderer who had killed her daughter?
Lijing said the culprit had perished along with Dongyang City, so she would take it that the culprit was dead and her revenge had been taken.
From beginning to end, neither the Mermaid Clan nor the Sun Moon Empire knew of Ming Zhao's existence.
The Sea Princess might have guessed that things were not so simple. At no point had anyone in Dongyang City displayed a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring or the methods of the Mermaid Clan, and the true murderer was most likely still alive.
But only if the person who killed Li Ya appeared before her in person could she sense her daughter's presence on them. Otherwise, finding them would be like fishing for a needle in the Ice Sea, with nowhere to look.
The Sea Princess could only give up in resignation.
There was even less need to speak of the Sun Moon Empire.
They did not even know why the Ice Sea had launched a beast tide or why it had destroyed Dongyang City.
Of course, they did not need to know. Soul Masters and Soul Beasts were enemies to begin with; when they met, even if they did not fight until one side was dead, it was close enough. It was hardly strange for Soul Beasts to attack a city now and then.
"Although there was a flaw in the plan, and this outcome was unexpected, I have to admit, I absolutely love it."
Ming Zhao, the true mastermind, had already dusted off his backside and returned to the Douluo Three Kingdoms.
His assessment of this trip to the Ice Sea was:
Fun.
He would never have dared stir up wind and rain from behind the scenes like this before, but after his strength improved, he had ample confidence to do things he had never dared do before.
Just like this time, when he had guided Lijing into launching a beast tide to attack the city, then reaped the fisherman's profit after Dongyang City was destroyed.
How fun, how thrilling.
Ming Zhao simply adored this sort of plot: manipulating others in the palm of his hand, watching them step into the trap he had laid one step at a time, then offer up all their flesh, blood, and souls to him!
After this, even the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was thoroughly convinced by him.
This guy was a real beast!
He was ruthless not only toward Soul Beasts, but even more so toward humans. He treated the lives of his own kind as if they were nothing, and with a casual arrangement, he had brought about the complete destruction of a coastal city with several hundred thousand inhabitants. The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had watched with his heart pounding in terror.
You bastard, do you have any reverence for life at all?
If the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had actually asked that aloud,
"Reverence... for my stomach? Burp. Yes, it really hit the stomach. I'm full now, thanks."
Ming Zhao would most likely have answered him like that.
In any case, he no longer dared question Ming Zhao. Cowardly maggots had always feared ruthless men. All he needed to know was that Ming Zhao had a good chance of becoming a god. As for himself, as long as he did not court death and obediently acted as a shareholder collecting dividends, Ming Zhao probably would not mind leaving him a sip of soup once he became a god.
After all, he was "one of his own bugs."
After returning to the Douluo Continent, Ming Zhao once again came to Heaven Dou City. Sitting in that familiar barbecue restaurant, he feasted to his heart's content, taking a mouthful of wine and then a mouthful of meat.
On this trip to the Ice Sea, Ming Zhao had more or less confirmed what he was capable of. With his current cultivation at level eighty-five, unless a Limit Douluo made a move, there should be few who could keep him from leaving.
Even if a Level 98 expert came after him, Ming Zhao was confident he could use the characteristics of his Twin Fiend Martial Souls to make his escape.
If the Death Messenger could do it, how could Ming Zhao, the self-proclaimed God of Death, lack the confidence to do the same?
As for his combat strength in a direct fight, in his normal state he should be able to defeat a Titled Douluo with ease and stand on roughly equal footing with a level ninety-five Super Douluo.
Using his self Martial Soul Fusion Skill and unleashing his full power, he could reach the combat strength of a level ninety-seven Super Douluo without issue.
But because he had no Soul Core, his staying power was ultimately inferior to that of a true Titled Douluo. Ming Zhao did not intend to find a Super Douluo to test himself against now, either. He had always preferred to attack those below him from a position of strength and had no interest in fighting above his level.
With combat strength of this caliber, Ming Zhao's purpose in coming to Heaven Dou City was simple.
The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
It was one of the Douluo treasure grounds that countless transmigrators had placed on their must-eat lists. Not only did it contain a great many Immortal Herbs and medicinal plants, but the remains of the Water and Fire Dragon Kings were also buried beneath it.
It would certainly have been a lie to say he had no interest in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. The Immortal Herbs within it were an enormous temptation to Ming Zhao as well.
A large part of the reason he had yet to condense a Soul Core was that he had not seen the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well with his own eyes.
As a monster who had died at the moment of extreme yin and been born at the moment of extreme yang, the attraction of a peculiar place like the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, where ice and fire were twin-born and the two aspects were in balance, was unimaginable to Ming Zhao.
And Ming Zhao had no intention of condensing a Soul Core like an ordinary Soul Master. He did not want to become a mediocrity.
He had his own plan, and to bring his idea to fruition, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was an opportunity he had to obtain.
He might have been sitting in Heaven Dou City eating barbecue,
But before Ming Zhao had even entered the city, he had sent all eighty-eight ghosts with Soul Saint cultivation into the Sunset Forest to brave the dangers in his place and search for the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
After sending out the ghosts, he himself had found a quiet place at random and begun cultivating, digesting the Soul Power that had increased by leaps and bounds, while using the King of Ten Thousand Ghosts' ability to remotely monitor the ghosts who had entered the Sunset Forest.
Searching the Sunset Forest through the ghosts' eyes, Ming Zhao also saw for himself what this Soul Beast habitat looked like after its decline.
Even thousand-year Soul Beasts were hard to find.
Ten thousand years ago, there had been Soul Beasts over fifty thousand years old here, and the forest had been hailed as the Douluo Continent's second-largest Soul Beast habitat, surpassed only by the Star Dou Great Forest.
Now it had declined to this state, becoming practically a barren land.
On the entire Douluo Continent, few Soul Masters still came here for Soul Hunting.
The Sunset Forest's current state made Ming Zhao somewhat certain that Tang San most likely had not made any arrangements in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. There was no need for him to conceal the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well and also stuff his divine sense into the twin-flavor hot pot.
"In that case, Tang San's threat can be disregarded." Ming Zhao stroked his chin.
"The question now is, once I find the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, how do I get through the poison array created by those Jade Phosphor Seven Absolutes Flowers and enter the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well?"
That really was a problem.