"Only when Huo Yuhao gave this soulless ice its first Soul Ring would his second Martial Soul take physical form."
Du Busi listened in bewilderment. A moment later, realization dawned on him. "I see."
"No wonder Yuhao, despite being born in the White Tiger Duke's Mansion and possessing the orthodox White Tiger bloodline, awakened the Spirit Eyes as a Mutated Martial Soul-which was understandable enough-yet also had an Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion Martial Soul completely unrelated to the White Tiger."
"After all this time, it turns out it was because of this little thing."
Du Busi grew more excited as he spoke. He had finally solved this century-old mystery.
Suddenly, Du Busi raised a crucial question. He asked the Ice Empress, "Wait, how are you going to ask Huo Yuhao to fuse with you?"
"An immortal always has a clever plan." The corners of the Ice Empress's lips curled up slightly, as though everything was under her control.
The Snow Empress put a hand on the Ice Empress's head and rubbed it, sighing. "Alas, Bing'er, are you really so willing to abandon me?"
The Ice Empress looked utterly done with life. "Xue'er, if you keep this up, I won't let you off!"
The way she said it, it sounded as though the Ice Empress had done something wrong.
When it was clearly Xue'er who had led Huo Yuhao's heart into her own.
And made her just like Xue'er, thinking about Huo Yuhao every day in the Sea of Consciousness.
"Boo-hoo-hoo~" The Snow Empress feigned sorrow.
The three did not continue their conversation-or rather, Du Busi could not join in the conversation between the Snow Empress and the Ice Empress.
Was this the world of Soul Beasts?
Du Busi did not understand, but he respected it.
About half an hour later, Huo Yuhao finished absorbing his second Soul Ring and slowly opened his eyes.
The next moment.
Huo Yuhao froze on the spot.
Du Busi should have been the only one in front of him.
Yet when he finished absorbing the Soul Ring, a tall, breathtakingly beautiful mature woman with an icy bearing and a petite little girl with jade-green twin tails and an openly haughty expression had appeared out of thin air.
The Ice and Snow Empresses, two of the Three Heavenly Kings of the Far North!
The Ice Empress and the Snow Empress.
Huo Yuhao's mouth fell slightly open, gradually forming an "O."
WTF?
Wait, what?
How did these three end up together?
Hiss~
Could it be that all three of them knew the others had memories of the future and had accepted it?
Should he come clean too?
Huo Yuhao feigned surprise. "Sect Master, who are these two...?"
Huo Yuhao's surprise was just what Du Busi had expected.
The Ice Empress spoke first. "We came looking for you."
"Looking for me?" Huo Yuhao pointed at himself and played dumb, looking at Du Busi.
Du Busi nodded in confirmation, but said nothing.
The Ice Empress slowly walked up to Huo Yuhao, tilted her haughty little face upward, and studied him for a moment.
Then she extended a fair, delicate finger and gently traced a circle on his chest.
Feeling the Ice Empress's little hand moving against his chest, Huo Yuhao stiffened.
The Ice Empress grinned mischievously. "My name is Ice Empress. I was drawn here by the soulless ice inside you."
"It can help me break through thirty-nine hundred thousand years and reach a cultivation of four hundred thousand years, a level I might never reach in my entire life."
"So, how about a deal?"
"What deal?" Huo Yuhao frowned.
The Ice Empress rose onto her tiptoes and leaned close to Huo Yuhao. "I'll become the first Soul Ring of your soulless ice and become your second Martial Soul, and you'll help me break through to four hundred thousand years."
"Well?"
Huo Yuhao looked at the Ice Empress, so close before him, and caught the faint fragrance coming from her. He hesitated. "Isn't this... a bit too sudden?"
"Sudden?" The Ice Empress raised an eyebrow. "I'm a girl, and even I'm not afraid. What are you, a boy, afraid of?"
The corner of Huo Yuhao's mouth twitched.
Obviously!
When we fuse, it won't be your body getting hurt!
The Snow Empress cleared her throat. "Yuhao, don't worry. With Sect Master Du and me here, nothing will go wrong during the fusion."
Du Busi nodded. "With your current physique, plus the Snow Empress, a six-hundred-and-ninety-thousand-year Ferocious Beast, and this old man, a Super Douluo, here, nothing will go wrong."
"And..." Du Busi paused, his eyes lighting up. "Perhaps you can take this opportunity to complete the Body Sect's Second Awakening."
"The Body Martial Soul Second Awakening is, in essence, a transformation achieved by pushing the body to its limits."
"And the Soul Shock of a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast is the best catalyst."
"The older the Soul Beast, the stronger its Soul Shock, especially for Soul Beasts over a hundred thousand years old."
"However, to accomplish this safely, we'll still need the Ice Empress and the Snow Empress to help."
The Snow Empress asked, "How can we help?"
Du Busi said gravely, "The Ice Empress will handle the fusion, the Snow Empress will stabilize the raging power in Huo Yuhao's body, and this old man will protect his body."
"We'll use the pressure during the fusion to push his Spirit Eyes to their limit and complete the Second Awakening."
"All right, no problem!" the Ice Empress and the Snow Empress answered at the same time.
Huo Yuhao clenched his fists and said firmly, "In that case, I think it's worth a try!"
He remembered that in the original story, Huo Yuhao's Second Awakening had taken place in the deep sea, where the mermaid princess and the sea princess were.
Those Sea Soul Beasts were Tang San's faithful followers.
This time, he could not rely on their power again.
And now that an opportunity for Second Awakening lay before him, he could not let it slip by.
Du Busi looked at Huo Yuhao with relief. "Let's begin."
If anything really happened to Huo Yuhao, this old man would protect him even if he had to stake his life and die doing it!
He and the Snow Empress stepped back, leaving Huo Yuhao and the Ice Empress plenty of space.
Jade-green light flashed, and the Ice Empress appeared before Huo Yuhao in the body of an Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion.
A wave of extreme cold surged into Huo Yuhao's body first.
The chill spread rapidly, numbing Huo Yuhao's nerves. With this step, the Ice Empress gave Huo Yuhao's body a buffer to help it withstand what was coming.
Immediately afterward, the Ice Empress's enormous tail stinger shot out and plunged into Huo Yuhao's chest.
Huo Yuhao's body instantly tensed as the Ice Empress's stinger pierced him.
The next moment, excruciating pain enough to make him shudder swept through his entire body.
His bones creaked with a grating sound. His blood seemed to freeze in an instant, only to be set ablaze by another force.
Huo Yuhao gripped the ground with both hands as the Ice Empress's power poured into his body, scouring every inch of his meridians.
The excruciating pain even broke through the chill's numbing effect, reaching the depths of his soul.
Huo Yuhao's vision went dark, and several times his consciousness nearly sank away completely.
In the Sea of Consciousness, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm prepared to intervene, but Electrolux's presence stopped him.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was baffled. "Old man, what are you doing?"
Electrolux said, "If you intervene now, how will he complete his Body Second Awakening?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was immediately left speechless.
Electrolux continued, "Don't rush. When the time comes, we'll intervene immediately. Once we do, nothing can possibly go wrong."