The moon hung high over Heaven Dou City, a silent, silver coin in a velvet sky. The raucous energy of the amusement park had faded, replaced by the deep, resonant peace of a friendship solidified in laughter and shared joy. Huo Yuhao and Jin Xi walked back to the Weary Traveler's Rest in a comfortable silence, the day's adventures a warm and pleasant memory.
Their parting with Jiang Nannan had been simple. She had thanked them again, her eyes holding a deep, unspoken promise of future gratitude, before heading back to the Spring Dew Pavilion to be with her recovering mother. A bridge had been built, a connection forged between two disparate worlds.
As they entered their inn room, the familiar comfort of the space enveloped them. Jin Xi, humming a tuneless, happy little melody, immediately flopped onto the large, joined bed, her blonde hair fanning out like a golden halo.
"That was fun," she declared, her voice muffled by the pillow. "Those humans certainly know how to build amusing toys. The one that spins you around until your insides feel like soup was my favorite."
Huo Yuhao chuckled, a genuine, lighthearted sound. He began to gather the few belongings they had accumulated—a spare set of clothes, a waterskin, the small pouch of coins which was now considerably lighter after their day of fun.
Jin Xi sat up, a curious frown on her perfect face. "What are you doing, Yuhao? It's late. Are you packing for tomorrow's fish stall already? You're becoming quite the dedicated little merchant."
He paused, turning to face her, his expression now serious, the easy joy of the evening replaced by a quiet, focused gravity.
"We're leaving, Xi'er," he said softly. "Tonight. Right now."
Her playful demeanor vanished, replaced by a sharp, attentive focus. "Leaving? So suddenly? Did that sad girl say something to upset you? Do I need to go and have a word with her?"
"No, nothing like that," he reassured her quickly, seeing the protective glint in her ruby eyes. "Jiang Nannan was wonderful. It's because of what I had to do to help her mother."
He sat on the edge of the bed opposite her, his voice low. "Today, in the clinic, I had to expose my Martial Soul. The Spirit Eyes. To see the problem, I had to activate them fully. That physician, Elder Zhao, he saw it. He may not have understood it, but he saw it."
"And? What is the problem with that?" Jin Xi asked, her head tilted in confusion. "It's your soul. Why should you have to hide it?"
"Because it's a Body Type Martial Soul," Huo Yuhao explained, the words from the book of fate echoing in his memory. "There is a powerful sect on the continent, its main base located right here in the Heaven Soul Empire, called the Body Sect. They are fanatics. They actively seek out Soul Masters with rare Body Type Martial Souls, like mine."
A cold look entered his eyes. "The knowledge I have says they are ruthless in their recruitment. They wouldn't harm me, not directly. They would see me as a precious treasure. They would offer me anything—wealth, status, immense power, the best training imaginable… anything to get me to join them. And if I were to refuse, they would not take no for an answer. They would become… persistently troublesome."
He shook his head, a look of grim certainty on his young face. "I don't want to deal with them. I don't want their training or their power. My path is my own. My allegiance is to our family in the forest. To you. To avoid that inevitable, bothersome confrontation, we need to leave now, before word of a young boy with a unique ocular Martial Soul and miraculous healing abilities begins to spread."
Jin Xi listened, her expression thoughtful. She processed his words, her beast-world logic filtering through the complexities of human sects and politics. Her conclusion was simple and direct.
"Then we leave," she said with a decisive nod, hopping off the bed. "I have had my fill of this city anyway. The food was good, and the spinning toys were amusing, but my spirit yearns for a real challenge. The sooner we get to the North and find your ice scorpion, the better."
A wide, relieved smile broke across Huo Yuhao's face. "I knew you would understand."
"OF COURSE, SHE UNDERSTANDS! BECAUSE IT'S THE SMARTEST THING YOU'VE SAID ALL WEEK!"
Skydream Iceworm's spiritual form erupted from Huo Yuhao's forehead, zipping around the room in a blur of ecstatic, crystalline light.
"FINALLY! The North! The cold! The glorious, beautiful, perfect Extreme North! No more smelly humans! No more greasy fish! We are on our way! My grand plan is back on track! Oh, glorious day! Bingbing, my love, your handsome Skydream is coming for you!"
Jin Xi just rolled her eyes at his dramatic monologue. "Quiet, you noisy bug, or I'll use you to polish the furniture."
Without another word, they gathered their few possessions. Huo Yuhao left a few silver coins on the nightstand to cover the unused night's stay, a small gesture of fairness that was deeply ingrained in his character. Then, under the cloak of midnight, two shadows slipped out of the Weary Traveler's Rest, melting into the quiet, lamp-lit streets of Heaven Dou City, their faces turned towards the distant, beckoning North.
The next four days were a blur of motion. They traveled not on foot, but aboard the roaring, clattering mechanical carriages of the human world. These soul-powered vehicles were marvels of engineering to Jin Xi, who would spend hours staring out the window, watching the landscape fly by with wide-eyed fascination. They rumbled through bustling towns and past vast, golden fields of wheat, crossing the breadth of the Heaven Soul Empire with a speed that was both efficient and exhilarating.
They spoke little during the journey, each lost in their own thoughts. Huo Yuhao reviewed the path ahead in his mind, his focus absolute. Jin Xi simply absorbed the sights and sounds of this new world, a silent, beautiful observer.
Finally, they arrived at the northernmost city of the empire, a hardy, windswept outpost named Frostwind Bastion. It was the last stop, the final bastion of civilization before the world gave way to the endless, frozen expanse of the Extreme North. The air here was already sharp with a biting chill, and the people were rugged and bundled in thick furs.
They did not linger. They passed through the city like ghosts, their destination lying beyond the great northern wall. As they stepped out from the gate and into the wilderness beyond, the world changed. The green grass gave way to sparse, hardy tundra, and the earth itself seemed frozen solid. A relentless wind, carrying the promise of a deeper, more profound cold, whipped at their clothes.
"It begins," Huo Yuaho said, pulling the collar of his fur-lined robe tighter. He felt the gentle warmth radiating from the woven fibers, a gift from Chi Yan that held the biting wind at bay.
Jin Xi, in contrast, seemed to thrive in the cold. She took a deep breath, her veiled face turned towards the north, a predatory, excited gleam in her ruby eyes. "I can feel it. The air here is thin, but it is pure. I like it."
They walked for a full day, the sparse tundra giving way to a landscape of pure, unblemished white. Snow crunched under their boots, and the horizon was a vast, empty canvas of ice and sky. The silence was absolute, a stark contrast to the constant hum of the forest.
As they ventured deeper, they began to encounter the native inhabitants. A pack of ten-thousand-year-old Frostfang Wolves, their fur as white as the snow, appeared on a ridge, their yellow eyes fixed on the two small figures.
Before Huo Yuhao could even reach for a defensive tool, Jin Xi simply stopped. She closed her eyes for a moment, and a faint, almost imperceptible pulse of golden light emanated from her body. It was not an attack. It was a statement. An announcement of her presence.
The lead wolf, a massive alpha whose fangs were the size of daggers, suddenly whined. It lowered its head, its tail tucking between its legs. The entire pack followed suit, bowing their heads in a gesture of absolute, instinctual submission before turning and melting back into the snowscape as if they had never been there.
"That makes things easier," Huo Yuhao commented, a small smile on his face.
"Of course," Jin Xi replied, her tone full of innate pride. "They know their place. It would be terribly inefficient to have to fight every little ice puppy we come across."
Her aura of destiny became their passport. They traveled for days, encountering numerous powerful Soul Beasts—Glacial Bears, Ice-Scale Serpents, great horned Ice Rams. Each time, a simple, subtle pulse of her aura was enough to earn them safe passage, turning a perilous journey into a brisk, uninterrupted trek.
On the fifth day, they encountered a herd of Glacial Mammoths, colossal beasts with shaggy white fur and tusks of pure, blue ice. One of them, a massive bull that stood as tall as a house, knelt before Jin Xi as she approached, its great, intelligent eyes full of a gentle reverence.
"He is offering us a ride," Jin Xi said, a delighted laugh in her voice. "How very thoughtful of him."
The journey, which would have taken weeks on foot, was now drastically shortened. Perched high on the back of the colossal mammoth, they crossed the frozen plains and treacherous glacial fields with ease.
Finally, after a full seven days in the frozen wasteland, they arrived. The mammoth came to a halt at the edge of a colossal chasm, a sheer drop into a canyon carved from solid, ethereal blue ice. The air here was so cold it felt like breathing shards of glass. Even with Chi Yan's fur, Huo Yuhao felt the chill seeping into his bones, a deep, pervasive cold that threatened to slow his very blood. Jin Xi, however, seemed completely unaffected, her inner warmth easily repelling the extreme temperature.
Down below, in the heart of the icy canyon, he could see it. A magnificent palace sculpted from the living glacier, its spires and towers glittering with a cold, unforgiving light. This was the lair of the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion.
They dismounted, thanking the mammoth with a grateful pat, and began their descent.
As they reached the entrance to the ice palace, Jin Xi turned to Huo Yuhao. "Stay behind me. This part requires a formal greeting."
She stepped forward and sent a pulse of her aura, not of destiny this time, but of pure, challenging power. It was a knock on the door of a fellow monarch.
She did not have to wait long. Several figures, humanoid but with gleaming jade-green carapaces and wickedly sharp scorpion tails, materialized from the ice. They were the empress's royal guards, ten-thousand-year-old Ice Jade Scorpions in their human forms. They looked at the two intruders, their expressions cold and hostile.
Jin Xi simply ignored their glares. She looked at the lead guard, her ruby eyes holding an imperious command.
"Inform your Empress that the Emperor Auspicious Beast of the Star Dou Great Forest has come to call," she stated, her voice echoing with an authority that allowed no refusal. "I wish to have a word with her. It is a matter of great importance."
The guards were visibly taken aback. The name held immense weight, even here in the frozen north. They exchanged a look, then one of them bowed stiffly and vanished back into the palace.
Moments later, the world changed.
A wind, colder and sharper than anything Huo Yuhao had ever felt, howled out of the palace. The temperature plummeted to a level that was no longer just cold, but actively, malevolently hostile. The air itself seemed to crystallize. A terrifying pressure, an aura of absolute, ultimate ice, descended upon them.
Huo Yuhao's teeth began to chatter uncontrollably. The warmth from his robes was being stripped away, his body shivering violently. This was a power that could freeze a man's soul solid.
Then, she appeared.
She drifted out from the palace gates, her form breathtaking and deadly. She looked like a human woman of about twenty, her beauty as sharp and flawless as a cut diamond. Her long, jade-green hair flowed around her as if she were underwater, and her eyes were the color of the deepest, coldest part of a glacier. A magnificent, segmented scorpion tail, the color of translucent green ice and tipped with a vicious, glowing stinger, swayed gently behind her.
This was the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion. One of the three great rulers of the North.
Her cold, ancient eyes swept over them, lingering on Jin Xi for a moment before locking onto the shivering Huo Yuhao with a look of pure, undisguised contempt.
"The Emperor Auspicious Beast," she said, her voice like the cracking of a glacier, cold and devoid of any warmth. "It has been many millennia since one of your kind has graced my frozen domain. To what do I owe this unexpected visit? And more importantly," her gaze hardened, "why have you brought a pathetic, shivering human insect with you?"
Jin Xi met her cold glare without flinching, a faint, condescending smile playing on her lips. "He is with me. That is all you need to know." She gestured lazily towards Huo Yuhao. "Alright, big bug. You're up. You said you could convince her. Let's see this silver tongue of yours in action."
Skydream Iceworm's form shot out, shimmering with an indignant light. "It is not a silver tongue, it is the voice of truth and irresistible charm!" He turned his full attention to the Ice Empress, his form pulsing with a romantic fervor.
"Bingbing! My darling! My heart's frozen jewel! Do you know how long I have dreamed of this moment? I have traveled across the continent, braved untold dangers, all for a chance to gaze upon your beautiful, frosty face once more!"
The Ice Empress's flawless brow furrowed in confusion, then her eyes narrowed with a flash of recognition, followed immediately by utter disdain.
"You," she hissed, her voice dripping with contempt. "The cowardly bug who fled when he was being attacked and hid. I thought you had perished in some ditch. I sense your origin… it is that of a million years, yet your power is so weak, so diluted. Pathetic."
Her gaze sharpened, a predatory light entering her glacial eyes. "However, that origin energy… it would be an excellent nourishment to help me face my own coming tribulation. If I were to devour you…"
She paused, her gaze shifting to Huo Yuhao. "And I see you are now bound to this human. A curious thing. No matter. I will devour you both. His life force and your origin will give me a much greater chance of surviving the heavenly tribulation."
"Now, now, Bingbing, my sweet, let's not be hasty!" Skydream said, completely unfazed by her threat. "You don't understand that this won't be the right way! Your 400,000-year tribulation is just over a hundred years away, isn't it? You know you can't survive it. Not alone. But I have found the way! A new path! I have found the vessel for our godhood!"
He gestured dramatically towards Huo Yuhao. "This boy! He has made me into a Soul Spirit...Which is a revolutionary, never seen before path that allows me to maintain my freedom, consciousness, and even have equal partnership with him in this. With my ice attribute origin, I have gifted him a second Martial Soul! It is a formless soul of pure, unadulterated Ultimate Ice! It is a perfect vessel, waiting for a perfect spirit to inhabit it! That spirit is you, Bingbing! Become his Martial Soul, and when he ascends to godhood—which he will, with me guiding him!—you will ascend with him! We will achieve everlasting life, together! It is the perfect plan!"
The Ice Empress listened to his frantic, grandiose speech, her expression unchanging. When he had finished, she simply let out a short, sharp laugh, a sound like ice shattering.
"You want me," she said, her voice laced with incredulous fury, "the Empress of the Extreme North, to willingly become the Martial Soul of a weak, insignificant human? To surrender my freedom, my pride, my very being, to serve as a tool for a mortal?"
Her aura flared, the temperature dropping even further. "I would rather face the lightning of the heavens a thousand times and be scattered to dust than suffer such an ultimate humiliation. Your proposal is an insult. I will not become his tool. I will make a tool of you both. I will consume your origins, take your lives, and use them to forge my own path to survival."
Skydream's confident demeanor finally faltered. He had not expected such a complete, violent rejection.
Just as the Ice Empress was about to act, a voice, cold and sharp as a shard of obsidian, cut through the tense air.
"If you lay a single claw on him, Ice Empress, I will take it as a declaration of war."
Jin Xi stepped forward, the playful amusement gone from her eyes, replaced by a cold, deadly seriousness. The air around her began to shimmer, and behind her, the majestic, ethereal form of the Golden Dragon Martial Soul materialized, its silent roar a wave of pure, divine authority. Six Soul Rings, two of them a terrifying, abyssal black, circled her slender form.
"Do not mistake my presence here as a polite visit," Jin Xi said, her voice low and dangerous. "I am here as his protector. If you threaten him, you threaten me. And if you threaten me, you threaten the entire Star Dou Great Forest."
She pointed the tip of her divine Golden Dragon Spear, which had appeared in her hand, directly at the Ice Empress. "I assure you, Di Tian, Xiong Jun, and every other beast in my forest would be more than happy to come North and personally demonstrate to you the price of harming one of our own. We will shatter your frozen palace, melt your glaciers, and turn this entire wasteland into a steaming bog."
The Ice Empress was visibly, profoundly shocked. The Auspicious Beast, the very symbol of their race's destiny, was threatening all-out war over a single human boy. The weight of that threat, the image of the mighty Di Tian and the other Ferocious Beasts descending upon her isolated kingdom, was a sobering one.
But her pride was that of a ruler, an empress. She would not be cowed, not in her own domain.
Her own aura flared to match Jin Xi's. "You dare threaten me in my own domain, little beast of fortune?" she hissed, her jade-green scorpion tail rising into a striking position. "Do not think your auspicious status makes you untouchable. I am not one of your fawning forest subjects!"
The two female monarchs faced off, their immense powers clashing, the very air crackling with their contained fury. A battle seemed inevitable.
"That's enough."
Huo Yuhao's quiet voice cut through the tension like a warm knife through ice. He stepped forward, placing a gentle, calming hand on Jin Xi's arm.
"Xi'er, calm down," he said softly, giving her a reassuring look. "She is right to be hesitant. How can we expect her to accept such a world-changing proposal so readily? Threats will not win us an ally."
Skydream let out a mental sigh of relief. He had seen Jin Xi's fury and knew those were no idle boasts. He didn't want his Bingbing to be harmed.
Huo Yuhao turned his full attention to the Ice Empress, his expression one of polite, respectful empathy.
"Your Majesty," he began, bowing his head slightly. "Please forgive my friend's fierce words. She is… very protective of me. I understand your skepticism. It is only natural. But please, understand our intentions. Brother Skydream's feelings for you are genuine. He chose you not only for your power, but because he truly does not wish to see you perish in your coming tribulation."
Skydream's spiritual form pulsed with a soft, touched light at Huo Yuhao's words.
"And my promise is also genuine," Huo Yuhao continued, his voice gaining strength, conviction. "I have already promised Lord Di Tian that I will find a way to break the shackles that bind all Soul Beasts, to forge a true path to godhood for your kind. Your participation would not make you a mere tool. It would make you a founder of this new path, a pioneer. And if you help me, I give you my word that I will dedicate myself to helping you achieve true divinity."
He paused, letting his words sink in before delivering his final, crucial point. "But you are also right to not lower yourself to become my Soul Spirit. However, remember that even if you refuse, my path does not end here. It will simply be… more difficult. I will find another powerful beast of an ice attribute. It may take me a bit longer, but I will succeed. The offer we are making is not just for my benefit. It is, first and foremost, for yours. A chance at a future you currently do not have."
The Ice Empress listened, her cold fury slowly subsiding, replaced by a deep, thoughtful silence. The boy's words were not threats. They were not boasts. They were calm, logical, and carried the undeniable weight of truth. A human who was protected by the Auspicious Beast, trusted by Di Tian, and who spoke of breaking the curse that had plagued their kind even before she and Snow Empress came into existence…
"You say this… Soul Spirit… is an equal contract?" she asked finally, her voice still cold, but now laced with a flicker of genuine curiosity. "That bug still has his complete consciousness and he does have freedom?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," Huo Yuhao replied with a nod. "The contract is one of equals. He can even leave my body to explore or fight alongside me, though his range is limited by my current cultivation level. That range will grow as I do. And… should I ever disappoint you, should I ever prove unworthy of your trust, the contract can be broken though you would be in the form of a spirit and will need to sustain your spiritual form with your own spiritual energy. You would be free to leave."
This was the final, critical piece of information. It was not eternal servitude. It was a partnership. An alliance with an exit clause. The proposition shifted from an insult to a calculated, albeit risky, gamble.
She looked at the insufferably smug-looking Skydream, then at the proud, powerful Jin Xi, and finally at the calm, sincere human boy. She let out a long, slow sigh, a plume of frosty air escaping her lips.
"To be forced to live with this cowardly bug…" she muttered, a look of profound resignation on her beautiful face. "It seems a fate almost as cruel as death itself. However…"
Just as she was about to speak her decision, to weigh the humiliation against the promise of survival, a new presence descended.
It was an aura that dwarfed her own.
An aura of Ultimate Snow and Ultimate Ice, so pure it made her own Ultimate Ice feel like a crude imitation. It was a cold that was not just physical, but conceptual.
A woman, even more beautiful than the Ice Empress, her hair the color of freshly fallen snow and her eyes the pale, clear blue of a winter sky, materialized from a flurry of snowflakes. She wore a simple, elegant white dress that seemed woven from frost itself.
Huo Yuhao stared, his heart stopping in his chest. He knew who this was.
The true, undisputed sovereign of the Extreme North.
The Snow Empress had arrived.