The Far North

"Teacher, I can't bring myself to do it. I can't take out the skull myself."

Squish!

Electrolux reached out and casually ripped the Head Soul Bone out of Hui Ye, drawing an enormous amount of blood.

"Ahh~ You're murdering your own disciple!"

Finding him too noisy, Electrolux casually cast a silencing spell on him, then dug out all three remaining Soul Bones.

Once Hui Ye had repaired his body, Electrolux laid out a complicated magic array around him.

He placed the Head Soul Bone in the center of the array as its main core, with the other three Soul Bones distributed around it as secondary cores.

"Little fellow, listen carefully. I'll only say this once.

"In Necromantic Magic, black flames represent the fire of death. That's why I chose it as the main sacrifice. It will improve the quality of your Second Martial Soul as much as possible."

Hui Ye nodded thoughtfully, musing to himself, If I used Ma Xiaotao as the sacrifice, tsk, the quality might be even higher.

"Array, activate."

At Electrolux's low command, the magic array suddenly blazed with light.

The surface of the Head Soul Bone gradually melted, eventually coalescing into a wisp of black flame.

The other three Soul Bones melted into a pool of golden bone liquid and flowed toward the black flame.

Nourished by the liquid, the little flame burned ever brighter, growing into a mass of black fire.

Electrolux closed his hand around a golden staff that appeared in his grasp and traced a complicated magic rune in the air.

The moment he finished, Electrolux's face turned pale. He had exhausted all the life energy he had accumulated over the past dozen or so days to power the magic rune.

Electrolux waved his staff, sending the magic rune into the center of Hui Ye's forehead, where it formed a golden imprint.

He waved it again.

The black flame flew into the imprint. As though alive, it struggled a few times for form's sake before the golden imprint suppressed it.

Hui Ye felt a faint heat on his forehead, and Electrolux's weak voice reached his ears.

"Use your meditation method and absorb it."

Hui Ye answered and silently circulated his Soul Power, gradually assimilating the mass of black flame into his body.

If Hui Ye hadn't possessed pain reduction, the black flame would have burned him to the brink of death and back long ago.

After an hour of struggle, the black flame was imprinted on Hui Ye's forehead.

The magic rune turned into golden threads that wound around the black flame, giving it a touch of divine charm.

Hui Ye opened his eyes and raised a hand to summon his Second Martial Soul. A mass of golden-black flame danced on his fingertip, its presence both righteous and evil.

The black part was a fire of ultimate evil, while the golden part was a fire of ultimate light.

Sensing the presence of light within it, Hui Ye showed not the slightest trace of joy. Instead, his brow grew grave, and he hurriedly called out to Electrolux in his mind.

"Teacher, what's with this presence of light? Did you consume some of the source of your divine power?"

Hearing the worry in Hui Ye's voice, Electrolux smiled weakly.

"I only used a tiny bit of the source of my divine power as a catalyst. It's nothing serious."

"You damned old man, all you ever do is show off. Look how capable you are. Why don't you just give me the whole source of your divine power?" Hui Ye's expression was decidedly ugly.

A warm current welled up in Electrolux's heart. "Little fellow, let's go. It's time to set off."

"In your condition, can you still beat the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North?"

"I'm really fine, so don't worry. I just need to absorb a little more life energy, and I'll recover."

Hui Ye sighed helplessly and set off for the depths of the Far North.

All along the way, Hui Ye repeatedly scolded Electrolux over that wisp of light.

Electrolux, meanwhile, let Hui Ye blame him, just like an old father being scolded by his child.

"Yes, yes, yes. Everything you say is right."

"You're driving me mad! Day after day, all you do is cause trouble for me. You never give me a moment's peace!"

The farther in he went, the harsher the environment became, and the lower the temperature dropped.

Fortunately, Hui Ye had his Second Martial Soul. By activating Ultimate Fire, he could fend off the cold, and with unlimited Soul Power to back him up, he managed to keep his body from freezing stiff.

Without Ultimate Fire, even if he could revive endlessly, he would have wasted a great deal of time reviving and thawing out along the way.

Hui Ye trudged through the snow, one foot sinking deeper than the next, when he suddenly stepped into empty air and fell into a hole in the ice.

He had already lost count of how many ice holes he had fallen into.

Hui Ye climbed out and complained, "This godforsaken place is way too hard to get through. It's driving me crazy. I'm never coming back."

No sooner had he spoken than the rustle of footsteps in the snow came from the distance.

He looked up to see a group of enormous scorpions, their pincers gleaming jade green, crawling toward him.

Hui Ye was overjoyed.

Running into Ice Jade Scorpions meant he wasn't far from the Ice Empress.

Hui Ye had no intention of running or hiding. Instead, he charged straight at them.

When the Ice Jade Scorpions saw that their prey not only refused to flee but even dared to charge at them, they flew into a rage.

A swarm of Ice Jade Scorpions rushed forward and pounced on Hui Ye.

Boom! A tremendous bang rang out.

Hui Ye had blown himself up.

The Ice Jade Scorpions were dumbfounded. What the heck? Why did my food explode?

The next second, Hui Ye revived, leaped onto an Ice Jade Scorpion, and clung tightly to its neck.

No matter how the Ice Jade Scorpion shook itself, it couldn't throw him off. Its companions' attacks with their tail stingers were no use against Hui Ye either.

Whenever Hui Ye died, he revived and clung to the Ice Jade Scorpion again, refusing to leave like a parasite.

After a full day and night of this, the Ice Jade Scorpion finally collapsed from exhaustion.

Its companions had no choice but to carry it back to their clan's habitat.

Deep inside a cave, hundreds of ten-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpions gathered around the exhausted Ice Jade Scorpion.

After they had communicated for a while, a ten-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion that still refused to believe it used its pincer to snip Hui Ye in two.

But it soon regretted it. Not only did Hui Ye revive, he also jumped onto its back, stuck to it like a stubborn plaster, and let out a lecherous laugh.

The exhausted Ice Jade Scorpion felt as though it had been granted a pardon and slipped away with its tail between its legs.

The ten-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion rampaged through the cave, turning everything upside down, but it still couldn't do a thing to Hui Ye.

Humiliating. This is just too humiliating.

I'm a dignified ten-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion, yet a human has toyed with me until I can't even fight back.

It's over. Completely over.

I'll never be able to hold my head high in the Ice Jade Scorpion Clan again.

"Hey, take me to your king. I have business with her."

Seeing that it had calmed down, Hui Ye spoke up and stated his purpose.

The ten-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion turned its head away, its face full of disdain.

Hui Ye gave a sinister chuckle and patted the ten-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion on the head. "Little scorpion, if you don't want me stepping on you for the rest of your life, be good and listen."

Roar!

The ten-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion let out an angry roar, refusing to submit.

"Think carefully. From now on, wherever you go, the other scorpions will see you carrying me. Won't that be embarrassing? Will you ever be able to face your clanmates again?"

The Ice Jade Scorpion turned and plunged into a cave, sealing itself inside, meaning it would simply never see its clanmates again.

"Fine, fine, fine."

Hui Ye brought out his ultimate trump card.

"Little scorpion, you wouldn't want someone watching from the side whenever you mate in the future, would you?"

The ten-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion bristled instantly.

It struggled again inside the cave, but in the end, it compromised.

Like a bullied child, it carried Hui Ye toward the ice and snow palace, looking utterly aggrieved.