"Director Dong, long time since that last meeting…" Su Wen smiled.
"Yes, it's been a while," Dong Zi'an replied quickly with a smile.
The Heaven Dou Auction House had military affiliations. The 'Heaven Dou' name was now nothing but nostalgia—Heaven Dou Nation had collapsed ten millennia ago and was now history.
In fact, the auction was controlled by the Sun Moon Federation's military. The real leader, the Minister of Defense, was the leader of Dong Zi'an's group.
That minister couldn't appear in person, so Dong Zi'an came instead.
As for whether someone needed to guard the Abyssal Plane—
The Abyssal Plane was now little more than a resource dumping ground, its entrance shattered by the Dragon God. There was nothing to block the army. After the Dragon God's cleansing, it would take ages for any leaders to be born again.
As for the Abyssal Holy Lord, he was hiding in the deepest layers, unwilling to emerge.
"Ice God's Heart."
Su Wen was direct.
"Ice God's Heart…"
Dong Zi'an's eyes narrowed, then he quickly decided and turned to the elder.
"Do we have that item in our collection?"
"Yes, we do…" The elder replied quickly.
"Then hurry up," Dong Zi'an urged him quietly.
"Oh, yes!"
The elder left, and in a few short minutes returned with a box. Opening the box, a wave of icy cold air burst out, dropping the room's temperature by tens of degrees in an instant.
"We had once tried to use this to craft a Godslaying Soul Cannon shell, but no matter what, its energy couldn't be extracted—so the idea was abandoned. Its only use seems to be creating extreme cold…" the elder explained.
"Thank you," Su Wen nodded with a smile, weighing the item casually in his palm.
"Be careful!" the elder warned, eyes wide. "That will infect your body with extreme cold if it touches you directly—it's terribly hard to cure, sir—"
But his words faded as he saw what happened next, gaping in shock.
"Thanks for the reminder," Su Wen smiled, putting the item away into Snow Empress's small world. "That was all I came for—so I'll be off now."
The Ice God's Heart was valuable, yes.
But the benefit Su Wen had provided the military minister far outweighed that value; he considered this just interest.
"Take care!" Dong Zi'an, though a fierce-looking brute, was in fact careful and cunning. He grinned as Su Wen left, but only after Su Wen had truly gone did his smile fade.
"Director Dong… who was that, really?" the elder whispered in shock.
"A god," Dong Zi'an replied in a low voice.
There was a strange, tense silence.
The elder twitched fiercely—utterly confused and terrified.
A god?!
"To be precise, he's a god walking among mortals—no one knows where he came from or where he's headed, but you only need to know he stands with humanity…" Dong Zi'an watched Su Wen's departing figure, his tone quiet.
Now
At that moment, the so-called 'god' Su Wen was feeling the Ice God Pearl in his palm, then looked to Snow Empress at his side.
"Can you sense the divine power within it?"
"Yes," Snow Empress replied earnestly.
"Ice Empress, come over here…" she beckoned the Lord of Winter, who dashed over—a green figure by Snow Empress's side, stretching forth slender hands to tightly grasp Snow Empress's own.
It was as if they were using a Martial Soul fusion technique, channeling their power.
A huge icy scorpion phantom and a snow maiden shadow appeared behind them, gradually merging.
"Something's happening… keep going," Su Wen's eyes narrowed.
Buzz—
As the two figures—one elegant, the other a little girl—merged nearly completely, the Ice God Pearl in their hands blazed with a dazzling blue light. The surrounding ice and snow seemed to freeze in time, the world fell utterly still. Su Wen's pupils shrank: What was this?
Even he couldn't sense anything.
"Big Eye?" he called in his mind.
No answer.
Only one being could cut off his spiritual sea so completely—the God of Space and Time.
"You wanted to see me, didn't you?"
Just as sweat beaded on Su Wen's brow, a beautiful female figure materialized. Snow Empress and Ice Empress had vanished, leaving only her, striding toward Su Wen.
He looked on instinctively.
She was a peerless beauty, yet her face seemed to carry the shadow of both Snow Empress and Ice Empress—aloof, chilling, clad in snow-white robes, stepping through the air.
For the first time, Su Wen understood what it meant to long for a dragon and then fear its arrival. All this time, he'd sought the Ancient Ice God, and now that she stood before him, he felt a tinge of fear.
Things were now truly out of his control.
From the look of her, she had appeared because he'd unintentionally used the perfect mix—Snow Empress and Ice Empress's union plus the Ice God Pearl.
Even this incomplete form could bind him completely.
Her power… must be no less than the Dragon God's.
She stepped forward, ice-blue ripples beneath her white feet, freezing the air with every step. Her calm, emotionless bearing was much like Snow Empress's.
"May I ask… are you the Ancient Ice God?" Su Wen asked, gathering his courage.
"Yes, I am," the woman replied, her red lips parting. Her voice was like a mountain spring—crystal clear and melodious.
"We met once before," she added.
"Back then, you were still very young… but to see you now, you have grown into an outstanding powerhouse."
"…."
Su Wen was stunned.
Met before?
That must have been when he and Wang Dong'er performed their Martial Soul fusion.
Still, he relaxed a little. She didn't seem hostile.
"The bloodlines of the Snow Maiden and Scorpion clans are my purest legacy, as is the Ice God Pearl. My appearance here is the work of a dead god."
"But my true self is gone—I have no desire to linger in this world. My divine position came from my own cultivation, not from the God Realm's grant. Should you succeed in recasting it, you would have all the power of the Ice God."
The Ancient Ice God sighed.
"Anything else you would ask?"
"Are you… a soul beast? Or divine beast?" Su Wen hurriedly asked.
"Just an Ice Phoenix. In the past, invited by the Dragon God, I joined this God Realm. But when the Dragon God fell and chaos erupted, my Phoenix clan was wiped out, almost to extinction. All that's left is a sliver of my bloodline."
She shook her head with a rueful smile.
"A Phoenix…" Su Wen murmured, understanding.
An existence on par with the true dragons—the Phoenix, without doubt.
And from her manner, it was clear—this Ancient Ice God had once been the supreme of her kind, equal to the Dragon God.