Eight red, one gold!
What kind of Soul Ring configuration was that?
The moment they saw Ming Zhao's true form, the Snow Empress and Ice Empress both grew grim, realizing at once how difficult he would be to deal with. But when they heard his arrogant words, both of them laughed despite themselves, so angry they were amused.
"Human, you don't know whether to live or die! How dare you spout such arrogant nonsense before the two of us!" the Ice Empress said coldly, her golden eyes brimming with killing intent.
"So what if you're a Titled Douluo? Since you're courting death, I'll make sure your bones are buried here today!"
The Snow Empress's expression was equally cold. Ming Zhao's declaration that they must submit or die had thoroughly enraged this ruler of the Far North. She would show Ming Zhao what it meant to insult an empress!
Even so, the Snow Empress did not let her anger make her underestimate Ming Zhao. His extraordinary Soul Ring configuration was clearly no simple matter. If anger clouded their judgment and made them underestimate this human Titled Douluo, both sisters might suffer a serious setback.
"Bing'er, let's attack together!"
"Good! Let's show this arrogant human the heavenly might of the Far North!"
The Ice and Snow Empresses exchanged a glance, then took each other's hands and released their domains at the same time.
Emperor Cold Heaven: Snow Dance Shining Sun.
Eternal Frozen Domain.
Domain fusion skill-Snow Dance Extreme Ice Domain!
A violent blizzard surged up once more, forming an enormous vortex around the Ice and Snow Empresses. Flakes of ice turned into razor-sharp blades within the domain, and together with the rapidly plunging, terrifying cold, they transformed this stretch of heaven and earth into a frozen hell.
The Far North had always been their home ground. After activating their domains, the Ice Empress and Snow Empress both received an all-around boost of nearly fifty percent, and their combat power soared in an instant.
A domain's power not only strengthened its user but also suppressed enemies.
Once the domain engulfed him, Ming Zhao distinctly felt as though he had been bound in shackles, his combat power weakened by around ten percent.
Not only that, but the invading chill within the domain also slowed the circulation of his Soul Power somewhat.
He had probably been suppressed by only ten percent because he had formed Yin-Yang Complementary Dual Soul Cores, bringing his combat power to the Limit realm and granting him some of a Limit Douluo's traits, along with a degree of resistance to such suppression.
Someone with combat power like Yan Shaozhe's would normally have been suppressed by twenty or thirty percent.
Seen in that light, the Ice Empress's earlier claims hadn't been entirely bullshit. The Far North really did give ice-attribute Soul Beasts like them a considerable boost. Fighting on their home ground, they could unleash a full 120 percent, or even 200 percent, of their combat power.
"It's just a pity you ran into me." Ming Zhao's gaze turned cold, and the torso beneath his clothes began to glow faintly.
Only a domain could counter a domain. That had been an iron rule in the previous version, and this version was no exception.
Ming Zhao's Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill was itself a kind of domain, an Innate Domain from his Martial Soul.
Besides that, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's Soul Ring had given him a domain called Other Shore Abyss, while the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings' torso bone had given him a domain Soul Skill called Ice and Fire Dual Polarity Dragon King Domain.
The former belonged to the mental illusion domain category, while the latter belonged to the elemental energy domain category.
Had the Soul Bone's domain been solely an ice or fire domain, it would have been called either the Ice Dragon King Domain or the Fire Dragon King Domain. But after combining the domains of both the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings, it had acquired this exceedingly long name.
Not only could it switch between ice and fire forms individually, but both forms could also exist in the domain at once.
The Ice and Snow Empresses' Snow Dance Extreme Ice Domain was indeed powerful. It could almost be called the foremost domain among all ice-attribute powerhouses on the Douluo Continent; no domain surpassed the two sisters' domain fusion skill.
Ming Zhao, however, was an exception.
No matter how powerful their domain was, it was still only a Soul Skill. Ming Zhao's Ice and Fire Dragon King Domain, properly speaking, was a god-level domain skill from a god-level Soul Bone.
How could a firefly compete with the brilliant moon?
Indeed, the Far North was the Ice and Snow Empresses' home ground, but if Ming Zhao also possessed a powerful ice-attribute domain, then the Far North could be his home ground too!
"Ice Dragon King Domain-activate!"
With a soft shout, Ming Zhao shifted the domain's ice and fire polarities entirely to the ice pole and rapidly spread it outward from himself. When it touched the Snow Dance Extreme Ice Domain, there was scarcely any resistance before it effortlessly seized the power of heaven and earth under the Ice and Snow Empresses' control.
The effect was even more astounding than Ming Zhao had expected!
He had only hoped that, after deploying his domain, he could receive the same boost from the Far North's environment as the Ice and Snow Empresses, keeping himself from being at a disadvantage in battle.
Instead, the Ice Dragon King Domain proved so overbearing that it directly claimed the power of heaven and earth, cutting off the boost to the Snow Empress and Ice Empress's combat power.
Their presence began to decline rapidly. Far from maintaining their nearly fifty-percent boost, they were almost suppressed in turn by Ming Zhao's Ice Dragon King Domain. Only by relying on the power of their domain and the freezing snow and ice around them did they maintain a ten-percent boost.
Ice-attribute Soul Beasts had nearly been suppressed by an ice-attribute domain. It was utterly ridiculous.
"Wh-what kind of power is this?!"
"That's impossible! How could anything in this world have an ice attribute stronger than ours?!"
The Snow Empress and Ice Empress went pale with shock, their eyes full of horror. More than half the anger in their hearts was extinguished in an instant.
But Ming Zhao gave them no time to react. He had said they had only two choices: submit or die. Since the sisters had chosen to fight, they most likely didn't want to live, and Ming Zhao didn't mind sending them on their way.
As for being forced to break through realms when he absorbed their Soul Rings...
There was nothing he could do about it. It was better than wasting them. At worst, he could spend some extra time honing his cultivation and building up his foundation once he reached Level 99.
And so Ming Zhao attacked without mercy. He used spatial flash to appear behind the Ice Empress and drove his right fist, burning with candle flames fueled by human fat, toward the center of her back. He was aiming to kill her in a single blow.
His gaze was cold and indifferent, without a trace of killing intent, as though he were merely reaching out to swat a fly.
The Ice Empress could never have reacted in time on her own.
She had no understanding of spatial power and was completely unprepared for Ming Zhao's spatial flash. It was only because the Snow Empress sensed the spatial fluctuation and struck his fist with Great Cold Without Snow that the Ice Empress was saved.
But the immense force of the punch sent the Snow Empress flying backward, her right palm numb and trembling where Ming Zhao had struck it.
Moreover, she could feel that the extreme chill contained in her Great Cold Without Snow had failed to penetrate his body in the slightest. Instead, the sheer force of his punch had nearly inflicted internal injuries on her.
And from that strike, she had also felt the power of heaven and earth from the Far North.
The Snow Empress could only find it absurd.
I, the ruler of the Far North, was struck by the power of heaven and earth from the Far North?