Two 200,000-year-old Ice Crystal Snow Lotuses were an unexpected gain for Ma Hongjun and Shui Bing'er.
Soul beasts over 100,000 years old are guaranteed to drop soul bones, but after sacrificing the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus, Ma Hongjun didn't receive a corresponding soul bone.
This time was peculiar; the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus bestowed upon his heart bud.
Introspecting his body, Ma Hongjun discovered his heart was enveloped by lotus leaves.
Shui Bing'er was in the same state.
The Ice Crystal Snow Lotus bestowed upon her heart bone.
Besides protecting the heart and providing vitality, it also possessed a skill: telepathy.
It allowed Shui Bing'er and Ma Hongjun to sense each other's state.
Truly, they were of one mind!
After absorbing this soul ring, Shui Bing'er's soul power level directly broke through to level 66.
This wasn't just due to the increased soul power from the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus's soul ring and soul bone, but also from the Phoenix Ice Wings, at least 100,000 years old, she had obtained during the Phoenix God's inheritance. Moreover,
a large portion of the soul power in this newly acquired 20-year soul ring was sealed by the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus's soul spirit.
This requires Shui Bing'er's physique to improve before it can be integrated into the spirit ring.
Ma Hongjun's spirit power is very condensed. Because he hasn't added an eighth spirit ring, his spirit power hasn't broken through, and all the spirit rings and spirit bones he has absorbed have been integrated into his body.
However, fortunately, Ma Hongjun has absorbed a lot of spirit bones, and after being absorbed, the spirit bones directly become part of his body, which increases Ma Hongjun's body's capacity to a very high level.
In addition, there is the Ice Soul Dragon Spirit.
This is a spirit spirit with independent intelligence. The spirit rings attached to it have all their spirit power integrated into the dragon spirit.
The dragon spirit is a bottomless pit. In its glorious past, it possessed the strength of a god. Now it is slowly recovering, and the spirit rings of the spirit beasts in Douluo Continent are far beyond its capacity to withstand.
"Little Purple, sense the direction. We need to go back to your lair."
Ma Hongjun woke up Little Purple, who was pretending to be asleep in the dragon spirit. It was embarrassed to face others because its affair with Tianmeng had been discovered.
"Just keep going in this direction."
Little Purple stood up, its two little feet pointing in a direction.
This mountain range was completely covered in ice and snow, much like a desert, making it difficult for ordinary people to discern directions.
Summoning their Fire Feather Wind Wings, Shui Bing'er also summoned her Phoenix Ice Wings.
The two flew forward, following the direction Xiao Zi pointed.
Hidden within the snow-covered mountains were many powerful soul beasts, but they didn't hinder Ma Hongjun and Shui Bing'er as they hurried past.
Ma Hongjun had no interest in soul beasts under a hundred thousand years old.
Now, he needed to quickly return to the lair of the Purple-Backed Profound Ice Centipede and seize control of all the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow there. His
dragon soul, after being fused with the Phoenix God's ice seed, had completely transformed into an ice attribute. Currently, its condition was poor; the dragon soul was transparent and needed to absorb extreme ice treasures like the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow to recover.
The journey back was quite long, but fortunately, the scenery outside was diverse, unlike the monotonous landscape inside the ice cave.
This made the journey less tedious, and the snowy scenery along the way was a pleasure.
Moreover, they would occasionally encounter one or two powerful soul beasts, allowing them to stretch their muscles, snatch their treasures, or, if they were foolish enough to provoke them, simply check their bodies for soul bones.
And so, after traveling for over a month, they finally saw the familiar scene: the Ice Centipede Cave!
Actually, at Ma Hongjun's speed, traveling at full speed wouldn't take a month.
However, with Shui Bing'er by his side, he had to consider her speed the entire way.
The ice-attribute phoenix wings weren't known for their speed.
Judging from the return time, Ma Hongjun and Shui Bing'er had probably spent more than a month in the ice cave before.
But with the Phoenix God's test, who knew what other actions might be taking place in the ice cave?
In short, this round trip would have taken at least three months.
"A powerful soul beast!"
the Ice Soul Dragon Soul warned.
Ma Hongjun immediately became alert, unleashing his mental detection soul skill and sharing his mental energy with Shui Bing'er. Sure
enough, there was a powerful soul beast aura in the Ice Centipede Cave, even stronger than the aura of the previous Purple-Backed Profound Ice Centipede.
"It's the Ice Emperor!"
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm exclaimed excitedly.
He remembered the Ice Emperor's aura clearly; the Ice Emperor had once chased him, even though he deeply loved her.
"Ice Empress?"
Ma Hongjun pondered, slowing his pace. They were still ten thousand meters from the Ice Centipede Cave. Ice Empress wasn't a spirit-type soul beast, so she shouldn't have discovered them yet.
"What's Ice Empress's strength now?"
"Ice Empress's cultivation should normally be around 370,000 years, but it's probably more than that now. With the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow, her strength should increase significantly."
"I wonder how Ice Empress discovered this place. We've been gone for over three months. Even if Ice Empress only absorbed it for a month, such a large amount of Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow is enough to greatly increase her strength!"
"The Ice Emperor isn't entirely unbeatable!"
The Ice Emperor's strength is far inferior to Xiong Jun's, if ranked by combat power.
The current ranking of Soul Beasts in Douluo Continent should be: Di Tian, Xue Di, Wan Yao Wang, Xiong Jun, and then the Ice Emperor!
The Ice Emperor is 100,000 years younger than Xiong Jun in cultivation and doesn't possess a powerful skill like the Sky-Tearing Claw.
Actually, the Wan Yao Wang also has 100,000 years more cultivation than Xiong Jun, but its strength hasn't been demonstrated, so it's unknown whether it surpasses Xiong Jun in combat power.
Cultivation and combat power are two different concepts.
The Ice Emperor's combat power is relatively weaker, and her strongest skill is ice control.
Even Ma Hongjun could barely hold off Xiong Jun.
Defeating the Ice Emperor shouldn't be a problem.
Ma Hongjun's ice attribute abilities are already quite strong; not to mention the attack power of ice attributes, his ice resistance alone can hold off the Ice Emperor for a while.
Moreover, he has the powerful Fire Phoenix Martial Soul; ice and fire counter each other, so it's a matter of who is stronger.
Ma Hongjun, Longhun, and Tianmeng paused to exchange a few words,
discussing how to persuade the Ice Emperor to sacrifice herself willingly.
The main reason the Purple-Backed Ice Centipede willingly sacrificed itself was because it couldn't withstand the Heavenly Tribulation.
The Ice Emperor, however, is only 370,000 years old. Even if she absorbs the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow, it's impossible for her to reach 400,000 years in just one or two months, and the Heavenly Tribulation at that age isn't so easy to come by.
It's unrealistic to expect the Ice Emperor to risk everything for Ma Hongjun without any concern about the Heavenly Tribulation.
The Ice Emperor, a queen among soul beasts, is almost impossible to subdue, and as Tianmeng Ice Silkworm said, she's a proud soul beast.
If forced to sacrifice herself, she's very likely to fight back to the death.
And if a ferocious beast approaching 400,000 years old fights back, even Ma Hongjun's current strength could be in danger.
Most importantly, the Ice Emperor also possesses a soul skill called Ice Explosion.
If she were to self-destruct like an evil soul master, Ma Hongjun would definitely not be able to stop her.
"Then let's go in and see if we can negotiate.
This battle is inevitable. Since she's so arrogant, let's fight first and subdue her with strength."
(End of Chapter)