Samadhi True Fire rampaged through Huo Yuhao's meridians like a ravenous Ferocious Beast, burning him as though ten thousand red-hot steel needles had pierced him at once. He staggered and caught himself against a charred tree trunk. White smoke rose the moment his fingertips touched the bark, and strange crimson patterns surfaced on his skin, as though countless fire serpents were churning and slithering beneath his flesh.
Every breath brought a wave of scorching heat. His clothes turned to ash in the flames, yet, strangely, he remained unharmed-the flames formed an eerie lotus around him. They had penetrated his flesh to strike directly at his soul. (Samadhi True Fire had not burned him; only the fire lotus appeared outside him, but the inside of his body and his spiritual form were suffering the pain of the flames.)
"Heh heh... Teacher, I won..." Huo Yuhao swayed as he dropped to one knee, digging his fingers deep into the scorched earth to support his tottering body. His voice was weak but carried a child's pride. The upward curve of his lips could not hide the exhaustion in his eyes, like a young child who had used up his last ounce of strength to accomplish a great feat.
Inside the lotus Sea of Divine Soul, Nezha frowned slightly, arms folded across his chest, the red mark between his brows flickering. "Didn't this kid cultivate the Eight-Nine Arcane Art? Why is his body still so weak? The flames I withdrew can actually leave lingering effects? Looks like I'll have to teach him how to control this Samadhi True Fire later." After he withdrew the flames, a portion of the Samadhi True Fire continued to burn.
In the Sea of Consciousness, Electrolux's illusory figure trembled violently, his hands, formed from gray-white mist, shaking uncontrollably. "Yuhao!" As a necromancer, his voice carried a rare note of panic.
At that moment, Electrolux, the Holy Necromancer, was frantic with worry, unable to stop the panic in his heart. "What on earth happened? Did the power go out of control? Yuhao, Yuhao!"
Huo Yuhao forced a pale smile. Cold sweat rolled down his forehead and evaporated into white mist on the empty ground. "Teacher, I... really... am fine..."
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm circled anxiously through the air, sending out wave after wave of freezing light. This time, the light waves were not of the Mental Attribute (they could be understood as Tian Meng's One Finger), yet the moment they approached Huo Yuhao's spiritual form, they turned to vapor and dissipated.
"No good! Even the Ultimate Ice I summoned from my origin can't suppress the temperature at the surface!" His anxious voice trembled. "Flames this fierce-only the Ice Empress and the Snow Empress should be able to suppress them completely. Elder Yi, let's hurry to the Far North."
Electrolux hurriedly nodded. "All right, all right, I'll take Yuhao to the Far North right away. Yuhao, hold on!"
"Your teacher won't let anything happen to you. Tang Hao, humph, I'll settle this score with you another day. When the time comes, I'll give you a taste of my Light Magic."
Electrolux instantly possessed him, his divine sense pouring into Huo Yuhao's body like a tide. Huo Yuhao's hair turned gray, and the Necromancy surrounding him temporarily resisted the fire lotus and the heat radiating from his body. "We can't stay here long! Big Worm, help Yuhao suppress it!" (By this point, Huo Yuhao's disguise had already fallen away, and he had returned to his former appearance.)
Before his words had faded, the black-robed youth, his face still pale, sped toward the Far North with swift, steady strides, his robe snapping around him.
Inside the lotus Sea of Divine Soul, Nezha's gaze flickered slightly. "Since they have a way to suppress it," he murmured, "I won't interfere for now."
Along the way, whenever a Soul Beast approached and tried to attack, Electrolux raised a hand and hurled a burst of necromantic flame at it. The charred beast carcasses gave off cold vapor amid the wind and snow, while Electrolux's icy voice echoed over the snowy plain. "Beasts who don't know life from death, you dare lay a hand on my disciple? You'll have to get past me first!"
In the Far North, the freezing wind howled, and ice and snow filled the sky. Everything between heaven and earth was a vast expanse of white. Electrolux arrived without incident, covering a journey that should have taken ten days in a single day.
After a black-robed youth arrived there.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm anxiously shot out of Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, his platinum-white body swelling in midair. He bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Ice Empress! Snow Empress! This is a matter of life and death! If you're here, show yourselves at once!" His voice carried the chill of Ultimate Ice, but the only answer was the howling wind and snow.
"Big Worm! How long are you going to keep shouting like that?" Electrolux's illusory figure materialized behind Huo Yuhao, his long gray-white hair whipping in the gale.
Gray flames rose around the Holy Necromancer, vaporizing snowflakes wherever they passed. The air was thick with the scent of decay and death. He raised a hand and grasped at the sky, and the entire firmament was suddenly stained an eerie gray-black. "Little Scorpion! Snow Woman! Come out, quickly! Don't force me to overturn this Far North!"
As Electrolux's pressure spread like a tide, that emerald-green presence appeared as expected, but instead, a cool, ethereal voice suddenly came from the sky. "Senior, why must you be angry? We have no quarrel with you." Before the voice had faded, countless crystalline icicles descended from the sky, like the Milky Way hanging upside down.
A figure came slowly toward them, walking on the icicles. Her hair was as white as fresh snow, drifting in the gale without gathering a speck of dust. Tiny ice crystals had formed at its tips, refracting a cold, sharp gleam.
Her sky-blue eyes were deep and ethereal, as though they held all the bitter cold of the Far North. Her figure was tall and graceful, and with every step, a hexagonal ice flower formed in the air beneath her. A long white dress clung to her body, sending out waves of chill as she walked.
Her exquisite face had skin like creamy jade and lips like a touch of rouge, while her brows and eyes bore the aloof pride of a plum blossom amid winter snow. Her beauty was breathtaking, yet it made people afraid to approach her lightly. The presence she exuded was cool and noble, seemingly at odds with all the clamor of the world. She was truly like a spirit formed from ice and snow, untouched by dust and standing apart from the world.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm said urgently, "Snow Empress! Please, save Yuhao! You're the only one who can suppress the flames on him!"
Facing the two illusory figures, the Snow Empress's sky-blue eyes frosted over. "Save a human? Tian Meng, you're a Soul Beast of the Far North, yet you want me to save our natural enemy?"
The wind suddenly stilled, and the Snow Empress's gaze fell on the unconscious youth beneath the black robe. Through Huo Yuhao's torn clothes, crimson flames coiled around his body like living things, yet strangely, they did not burn his skin. Instead, they traced an ice-flower-shaped mark over his heart.
When the Snow Empress's gaze reached the youth's pale face, she looked at Huo Yuhao with a complicated expression. An indescribable feeling stirred in her heart.
"Why... why is my heart in such turmoil? Why am I so sad to see him hurt?" The Snow Empress drifted closer without realizing it, her slender fingertips trembling as they hovered above Huo Yuhao's heart.
When she finally touched his body, a miracle occurred. Ultimate Ice burst from within Huo Yuhao, transforming into a gentle icy mist that wound around her wrist like a lover's embrace. Crystalline snowflakes floated out of the youth's body, and when they landed in the Snow Empress's palm, they condensed into a teardrop-shaped ice crystal.
"Big Worm! What's going on?" Electrolux asked. The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was equally dumbstruck, frozen in midair. "I... I don't know either!"
The Snow Empress held the ice crystal, her voice trembling as it never had before. "This is... Snow's Tear. A Heavenly Snow Woman will shed tears for only one person in her entire life. The teardrop formed from them contains her vital essence; it is a token more precious than life itself."
Her gaze remained fixed on the ice flower flickering over Huo Yuhao's heart. It was giving off fluctuations identical to her own origin. "But this human... why does he possess my Snow's Tear?"
"How is that possible..." the Snow Empress said softly.