Startled, Chu Qing hurried a few steps closer to the Snow Empress.
The Snow Empress said:
"He's not food. He's an interesting bug."
The Ice Empress didn't believe her. She walked over and examined Chu Qing, reaching out to pinch his face, her brow furrowed in confusion.
She leaned closer and sniffed him.
"He's really not food? He smells pretty good."
Chu Qing's scalp went numb, and he released the Iridescent Shield-Tailed Snake.
With two great Ferocious Beasts present, the Iridescent Shield-Tailed Snake was so frightened that it flattened itself against the ground.
"Hm!"
The Ice Empress was immediately intrigued. She released Chu Qing's face and examined the Iridescent Shield-Tailed Snake's condition.
"Interesting indeed."
The Snow Empress said:
"Ice Empress, it's just as you see. This is called a Soul Spirit."
"We Soul Beasts can temporarily continue living in the form of a Soul Spirit, then be resurrected after becoming gods."
"This bug knows the Soul Spirit Secret Method, and besides that, he also knows where to find Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow."
At that, the Ice Empress finally looked Chu Qing in the eye and asked:
"Is the Soul Spirit Secret Method really reliable?"
"Tell me about it."
Chu Qing smiled and shook his head in refusal.
"I'll tell the Snow Empress the Soul Spirit Secret Method later. I can't tell you now. Otherwise, what if you eat me after finding out?"
The Ice Empress flew into a rage at once.
"Snow Empress, let's force the Soul Spirit Secret Method out of this human and then eat him."
"With the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow and the Soul Spirit Secret Method, one of us can make a breakthrough and the other can start cultivating anew. I refuse to believe that, with all the power of our Far North, we can't produce a single god."
The Snow Empress spoke up to stop her.
"Ice Empress, his life is mine to decide. It's not up to you."
The Ice Empress clenched her fists and looked at Chu Qing through gritted teeth.
The Snow Empress reassured Chu Qing.
"Bug, since I already decided to spare your life, I won't kill you."
"You'll certainly have to leave the Soul Spirit Secret Method and the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow, but you needn't worry about your life."
"Thank you, Snow Empress."
Chu Qing finally relaxed a little.
The Snow Empress then turned to persuade the Ice Empress.
"Ice Empress, I know you're unconvinced, but this bug is a little different."
"Suppress your cultivation to his level. If you can beat him, I'll let you eat him."
The Ice Empress stared at the Snow Empress in disbelief.
"You think I could lose to an ant here in the Far North?"
The Snow Empress said:
"Test his mettle and you'll see."
The Ice Empress couldn't understand it. Did the Snow Empress actually think she would lose?
Seeing that Chu Qing showed no fear of the prospect, she felt insulted.
A long Ice Jade Scorpion tail immediately extended from behind her and stabbed at Chu Qing.
Azure light burst from Chu Qing's eyes in an instant. Radiance of the Azure Eyes and Slow Domain unfolded in turn.
The Ice Jade Scorpion tail stabbing toward him became incomparably slow in his eyes.
The Ice Empress was shocked. She had actually been suppressed to the point where she couldn't move.
Chu Qing grabbed the scorpion tail with both hands and slammed the Ice Empress into the ground, smashing a deep crater into it.
Fearing that the Ice Empress would counter him if he slammed her down again, he threw her away immediately after that single blow.
Seizing the opening, he immediately used Martial Soul Possession. His hair grew wildly, great horns sprouted, and he released his Soul Rings. Two purple, two black, and one red: five Soul Rings slowly rose around him.
After putting some distance between himself and the Ice Empress, he immediately activated the Man Faced Spider Emperor External Finger Bones' Soul Skill, Man Faced Demon Puppet.
The Man Faced Demon Spider Emperor had six Soul Rings: one azure, two purple, two black, and one red. Its Azure Soul Ring immediately lit up.
True Form of the Azure Dragon.
The Man Faced Demon Spider Emperor transformed into an Azure Divine Dragon, and all six of its Soul Rings turned azure.
Chu Qing guided it with his right hand while the Shield Armored Spirit Rhinoceros armguard manifested on his left arm.
His opponent was the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, ranked seventh among the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts and second among the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North. He dared not be careless in the slightest and stood ready for battle.
Watching from the side, even the Snow Empress couldn't help feeling somewhat surprised. Chu Qing was performing far better than she had expected.
Ice Jade steadied herself, her face instantly turning red with anger. Never had any filthy human touched her tail like that.
"I'm going to kill you."
"A mere domain, and you dare show off your meager skills before me? Don't you know the Far North is my natural domain to begin with?"
"Now I'll use my own domain. Let's see how you stop it!"
"Eternal Frozen Domain!"
With her furious roar, solid ice more than a hundred meters thick immediately formed in every direction around her.
Chu Qing had been prepared. He immediately activated the third Azure Soul Ring on the Azure Divine Dragon.
It was Slow Domain as well.
With the Slow Domain he had released himself and the one released by the Azure Divine Dragon, the ice suddenly froze at an incomparably slow pace.
The Soul Rings around Chu Qing lit up one after another.
First Soul Skill: Feathered Transformation.
Second Soul Skill: Ouroboros Mutual Generation.
Third Soul Skill: Nine-Headed Serpent Crown.
Fourth Soul Skill: Bull Python Black Hair Transformation.
Fifth Soul Skill: Imperial Rage Heaven Slaughter.
After Martial Soul Possession, Chu Qing's hair had already reached his waist. Now, after using the fourth Soul Skill he had gained by absorbing Snake-Haired Gorgon Stheno, his hair instantly changed from blackish azure to azure-gold and began growing wildly beyond all reason.
Before long, it wrapped Chu Qing up completely, forming a ball of hair that gave off a strange energy. Snowflakes in the air turned into stone flowers the moment they touched it.
The solid ice generated by the Ice Empress's Eternal Frozen Domain froze toward him, but it all turned to stone as it drew near.
What had been solid ice over a hundred meters thick had now become a tenth as much rock.
The Ice Empress's movements became incomparably slow. She moved forward through the ice, trying to attack Chu Qing.
But Chu Qing broke through the rock first, transforming into an Azure Hair Bull Python woven and gathered from his hair. It soared into the air, over a hundred zhang long and unimaginably huge, coiling in the sky with burning feathers of light drifting all around it. It radiated a terrifying pressure, like a Martial Soul Avatar.
Ice Jade looked up at it, hardly able to believe it.
Brilliant azure light erupted from the eyes of the azure bull python, which then opened its mouth toward the Ice Empress directly below.
Seven shields of seven colors formed an array between them. Energy gathered in the Azure Hair Bull Python's mouth, forming an eighteen-chi-long snake lance that blasted toward the Ice Empress.
With two Slow Domains stacked atop each other and Radiance of the Azure Eyes added to them, the Ice Empress couldn't move, much less use Ice Emperor's Protection.
The terrifying energy exploded, blasting a huge ice cavern through the hundred-meter-thick ice.
When the energy dissipated, however, the Ice Empress remained where she had been, seemingly without the slightest injury.
But the Snow Empress spoke.
"Ice Jade, you saw it yourself. If your body weren't so powerful, and your cultivation had truly been equal to his, then after taking that blow, even if you survived, you'd have had no chance of winning afterward."
Now that the Snow Empress had spoken, Chu Qing withdrew his domains. Maintaining two Slow Domains at once was a considerable drain on him.
As soon as the suppression on her vanished, the still-unconvinced Ice Empress shot upward. Her hands and forearms became covered in a layer of diamond-like granules, turning extremely hard. She used Ice Emperor's Wrath and attacked the Azure Hair Bull Python in the sky.
With one strike, she punched through the Azure Hair Bull Python's body, leaving a terrifying hole.
But it had no effect on Chu Qing. The strands of hair immediately grew wildly, not only filling the hole in the blink of an eye but also winding toward the Ice Empress. They bound her hands and feet, tying her to the outside of the Azure Hair Bull Python, and her body began to petrify where it touched the hair.