The Snow Empress's Question

A bone-piercing chill seeped into his body.

Lin Yuan opened his eyes.

Above him was a crystalline wall of ice, with deep blue light flowing slowly through it.

He lay on a bed made of ten-thousand-year profound ice. The cold had sealed his wounds, and though they still hurt, they no longer bled.

"You're finally awake."

The Ice Empress stood leaning nearby, her arms folded.

"You slept for two days."

"This empress thought you planned to die here."

Lin Yuan propped himself up.

The moment he exerted his chest, excruciating pain struck.

He paused, then leaned back onto the ice bed.

The Ice Empress gave a soft snort.

"With a body like that, you still dared to blow up an iceberg."

"Do all humans enjoy courting death this much?"

Lin Yuan did not answer.

His gaze fell on the center of the cave dwelling.

A block of ten-thousand-year profound ice several meters tall floated in midair.

The fragment of the Ambrosial Arbor and the iron arrow were sealed together inside it.

Cold mist swirled around the profound ice.

Yet within the ice, pale golden light still flickered slowly.

Countless tiny roots moved along the ice walls, as though searching for a way out.

The Snow Empress stood before the profound ice, her silver hair hanging down, her expression cold and aloof.

"It has been corroding the profound ice all this time."

"Ultimate Ice can only slow it down. It cannot make it fall completely dormant."

Crack.

Just as she finished speaking, a fissure suddenly opened across the surface of the profound ice.

A pale golden root burrowed out of the ice and plunged into the ground.

In the blink of an eye, a vast patch of golden shoots sprouted from the icy surface.

There was no soil.

There was no sunlight.

They did not even need any nutrients.

They simply grew.

Grew without end.

The Ice Empress swept her hand.

An ultimate chill swept past.

Every shoot froze instantly, shattering into ice fragments that littered the ground.

But those fragments still writhed.

Even finer roots emerged from the broken ends.

The Ice Empress's expression darkened.

"How disgusting."

Lin Yuan raised his right hand.

The Imperial Bow appeared.

The trace of Soul Power he had just recovered slowly flowed into the bow.

Cyan-blue light descended.

The writhing roots all stiffened at once.

Their pale golden color rapidly faded.

In an instant, every fragment turned to ash.

Silence returned to the cave dwelling.

The Snow Empress turned around.

"Is this The Hunt?"

"Yes."

"What exactly is it?"

The Snow Empress gazed at Lin Yuan.

"A Soul Skill, a god's inheritance, or some power that does not belong to this continent?"

Before Lin Yuan could answer.

Laughter suddenly rang out.

"Aha knows."

"Aha knows everything."

Red and white light gathered beside Lin Yuan.

A smiling mask slowly emerged.

This time, it did not appear only in Lin Yuan's eyes.

The Snow Empress and the Ice Empress both saw it.

Boom!

A terrifying chill instantly enveloped the entire cave dwelling.

The Ice Empress stepped in front of the Snow Empress, her emerald eyes fixed on the mask.

"What is that thing?"

She sensed no fluctuations of Soul Power whatsoever.

She had not even seen how the mask had appeared.

The Snow Empress's gaze also grew grave.

"Who are you?"

The mask spun in midair.

"You can finally see Aha?"

"Delighted?"

"Surprised?"

The Ice Empress curled her fingers slightly.

Ice rapidly condensed.

"Spout any more nonsense, and this empress will freeze you to pieces."

"So fierce."

The mask drifted over to the Snow Empress and flew a circle around her.

"This one is ice-cold."

Then it moved up in front of the Ice Empress.

"This one is even fiercer."

The Ice Empress struck with her palm.

Crack!

The mask was instantly encased in ice.

Yet the next moment, laughter came from inside the ice.

"Hahahaha!"

"Interesting!"

Bang!

The ice abruptly exploded.

The mask floated out, completely unscathed.

The Ice Empress's expression shifted slightly.

Though she had not used her full strength in that palm strike, it was enough to make an ordinary Titled Douluo suffer an unexpected setback.

Yet the mask before her had shown no reaction whatsoever.

Lin Yuan raised a hand to his forehead.

"What did you come out for?"

"To answer questions, of course."

The mask floated back beside Lin Yuan.

"They want to know what The Hunt is."

"Aha also wants to hear how you'll explain it."

The Snow Empress looked at Lin Yuan.

"Has it been following you all along?"

"More or less."

"What is it?"

"A very troublesome blessing."

"A blessing?"

The Ice Empress stared at the mask.

"Whose blessing can come running out and speak on its own?"

The mask immediately turned toward her.

"The most interesting one's, of course."

"The great-"

Lin Yuan raised a hand and pushed it aside.

"Shut up."

The mask tumbled through the air, then actually fell quiet.

The Snow Empress took in the scene.

An existence even she could not see through had allowed Lin Yuan to push it aside.

The human before her was far more mysterious than he appeared.

"What is The Hunt?"

The Snow Empress asked again.

Lin Yuan looked at the Ambrosial Arbor inside the profound ice.

"The Hunt is a Path."

The Ice Empress frowned.

"Explain it clearly."

"Abundance grants longevity, recovery, and immortality."

"It allows life to continue indefinitely. Even if the flesh twists and consciousness fades, it will never truly stop."

Lin Yuan gripped the Imperial Bow.

"And The Hunt is unending vengeance and pursuit against Abundance and the Abominations of Abundance."

"No matter where they flee."

"No matter how many times they revive."

"As long as the prey still exists, The Hunt will never stop."

A faint cyan-blue glow rose across the surface of the Imperial Bow.

Inside the profound ice, every pale golden root recoiled at once.

That was no ordinary suppression.

It was instinctive fear.

The Ice Empress glanced at the Ambrosial Arbor, then back at Lin Yuan.

"So you and this sort of thing are natural enemies?"

"You could put it that way."

The Snow Empress asked:

"Are you the inheritor of The Hunt?"

"No."

Lin Yuan shook his head.

"I am merely someone walking this Path."

"Where is the source of The Hunt?"

"Not on the Douluo Continent."

The cave dwelling fell silent.

The Ice Empress could not help looking at the mask.

"What about it?"

The mask instantly moved right up to her.

"Aha comes from somewhere very, very far away."

"Farther than the Star Dou Great Forest."

"Farther than the Far North, too."

The Ice Empress said coldly:

"You might as well have said nothing."

"Correct."

The mask's smile grew even brighter.

The Snow Empress ignored it and turned toward the Ambrosial Arbor.

"How should we deal with this thing?"

"I can't destroy it right now."

Lin Yuan said:

"I can only suppress it with the Power of The Hunt."

The Ice Empress looked at the surrounding ice walls.

"Then leave it here."

"If there's one thing the Far North never lacks, it's ice."

"It can't stay."

Lin Yuan rejected the idea outright.

"It will keep eating into the ice."

"Given enough time, the power of Abundance will seep into the underground ice veins."

"Once the Soul Beasts of the Far North come into contact with it, they could turn into abominations just like Mu Xuansheng."

The displeasure on the Ice Empress's face vanished instantly.

Even now, the thought of Mu Xuansheng's appearance made her sick.

If the Soul Beasts of the Far North mutated en masse, the consequences would be unthinkable.

The Snow Empress asked:

"Are you planning to take it away?"

"There's a seal beneath Spirit City."

"Another section of the Ambrosial Arbor is suppressed there."

The Ice Empress whipped her head around.

"There's more?"

"Yes."

"Just how many of these things are there?"

"I don't know."

Lin Yuan gazed at the pale golden branch inside the profound ice.

"But that cult using the Ambrosial Arbor to refine medicine certainly has more than this one base."

Mu Xuansheng had once called himself the Northern Region Furnace Keeper.

He had also mentioned a central headquarters.

The base beneath the iceberg in the Far North was clearly only one of them.

The Ice Empress sneered.

"You humans really dare to meddle with anything."

"You even dare to use something like this to refine medicine."

"Longevity. Immortality."

Lin Yuan said flatly:

"There will always be people who can't resist."

The Snow Empress watched him.

"If you put two sections of the Ambrosial Arbor together, aren't you afraid they'll affect each other?"

"I am."

"Then why take it back?"

Lin Yuan tightened his grip on the Imperial Bow.

"Because I'm the only one who can suppress it."

"Wherever it stays, I have to stay and watch it."

"Anyone who tries to use it, I'll kill."

The Ice Empress froze for a moment.

Then she gave a soft snort.

"You're only a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor, but you certainly talk big."

The smiling mask floated above her head.

"He just killed a Soul Douluo."

"And blew an iceberg apart."

"That barely qualifies as not boasting."

The Ice Empress looked up and stared at it.

"Whose side are you on, exactly?"

"Aha is on whichever side has something fun."

"..."

The Snow Empress raised her hand.

Even denser cold poured into the ten-thousand-year profound ice.

The cracks on the surface of the ice rapidly closed.

The Ambrosial Arbor was sealed in its deepest reaches once more.

"It will stay here for now."

"Once you've recovered, take it away yourself."

Lin Yuan nodded.

"All right."

The Snow Empress continued:

"But I have one condition."

"Go ahead."

"If this power appears in the Far North again, you must come back."

Lin Yuan did not hesitate.

"Agreed."

Abominations of Abundance were, by their very nature, the prey of The Hunt.

The Ice Empress walked deeper into the cavern dwelling.

Her fingertip brushed across the ice wall, and a drop of milky-white liquid slowly seeped out.

The drop was only the size of a fingernail.

The instant it appeared, the temperature throughout the cavern dwelling dropped again.

Lin Yuan's gaze sharpened slightly.

"Ten-thousand-year profound ice marrow."

"At least you know your stuff."

Holding the drop of profound ice marrow, the Ice Empress glanced at Lin Yuan.

"Too bad you aren't an ice-attribute Soul Master."

"Even if I gave you this, you couldn't absorb it."

The cold contained within ten-thousand-year profound ice marrow was far too overbearing.

Without an ice-attribute Martial Soul to bear it, forcibly absorbing it would only freeze the meridians and damage the body.

The Ice Empress flicked her finger.

The ten-thousand-year profound ice marrow became a streak of milky-white light and sank into the profound ice sealing the Ambrosial Arbor.

Hum!

The entire block of ten-thousand-year profound ice abruptly shuddered.

Milky-white cold light spread outward.

The pale golden rootlets, which had still been slowly moving, were instantly frozen in place.

Even the light on the surface of the Ambrosial Arbor dimmed somewhat.

"Ten-thousand-year profound ice marrow can reinforce the seal."

The Ice Empress said:

"At least until you recover, this lousy piece of wood can forget about getting out."

Lin Yuan took out a healing pill, swallowed it, and sat back down on the ice bed.

The Snow Empress released a wisp of gentle cold, covering the surface of his wounds.

The cold did not enter his meridians; it merely sealed his injuries from the outside.

"Your injuries can only heal through your own recovery."

"Understood."

Lin Yuan closed his eyes and slowly circulated his Soul Power.

The smiling mask landed on the ten-thousand-year profound ice and stared at the Ambrosial Arbor inside for a moment.

"Wood of Abundance."

"Arrows of The Hunt."

"And two ice cubes that know how to beat up Aha."

It turned toward Lin Yuan.

"This place is getting more and more interesting."

Lin Yuan did not open his eyes.

"Quiet."

"Sure."

The mask agreed readily.

The next instant, shrill singing rang out through the cavern dwelling.

A vein throbbed on the Ice Empress's forehead.

Lin Yuan's eyelids twitched slightly as well.

The Snow Empress slowly raised her hand.

The mask's singing cut off abruptly.

"Wait."

"Aha thinks we can all talk this over-"

Boom!

Terrifying cold erupted in an instant.

The smiling mask was frozen into the ice wall once again.

The cavern dwelling finally fell quiet again.

A thought suddenly struck Lin Yuan.

Compared to the Ambrosial Arbor, this mask might be even harder to deal with.