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Word Count: 3,086 Words
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The Extreme North Ice Sea.
A razor-cold wind howled past, carrying the gloomy, briny stench of the deep. Though the climate was bitterly frigid year-round, the Ice Sea had never fully frozen over. Icebergs and floes heaved across the vast surface, and the waters between them teemed with an almost unbroken mass of sea spirit beasts.
They were the Sea God's most devout believers. Answering the Sea Princess's summons, they had rushed from their own domains to forge the final line of defense against the Demon of the Sea.
A great ship cut into the silent Ice Sea, its hull black as ink and jarringly out of place against the pale world around it. Two slender figures could just be made out on the foredeck.
"Mother, the Demon of the Sea is here…"
Li Ya tightened her grip on her golden spear. According to the sea spirit beasts' intelligence, the Demon of the Sea had spent a full month carving a bloody path across the ocean. Any who blocked his way died. The sea spirit beasts had even given the route he left behind a name.
The Road of Death.
Now the Mermaid clan was about to face this incomparably brutal demon, and even as a 100,000-year Golden Crown Mermaid, Li Ya could not suppress the chill prickling at her heart.
The Sea Princess's expression was solemn. The Mermaid clan had ancient ties with the Sea God. Among the Seven Holy God Pillars left behind by the first-generation Sea God ten thousand years ago was the Sea Woman Holy Pillar, and a mermaid had once become Sea Woman Douluo, one of the Seven Children of the Sea God.
Now that the second-generation Sea God Tang San had issued a Sea God Execution Order, the Sea Princess would naturally not sit idle.
As a 600,000-year spiritual-attribute Great Beast, her wisdom far surpassed that of ordinary 100,000-year spirit beasts.
She had not rashly led the Mermaid clan into a headlong charge. Instead, she had dispatched subordinate sea spirit beasts to observe the Demon of the Sea's strength and movements while actively reaching out to the overlords of every sea region, gathering the vast majority of the Sea God's followers in one place.
Many hands fed the fire high. The Sea Princess was determined to cut down the Demon of the Sea in a single stroke and rid Tang San of this scourge once and for all!
"Sea spirit beasts, formation!"
Her cold shout cracked across the water. Sea Demon Mammoths, Devil Rays, giant lobsters, sea crabs… the aura of every sea spirit beast shifted sharply. They threw back their heads and unleashed ear-splitting roars. The combined bellow of tens of thousands of sea spirit beasts made even the icebergs shudder!
One colossal sea spirit beast after another surfaced, releasing powerful, surging spirit power. The kings of the major sea regions appeared in turn.
The Black Pearl rode wind and waves, gradually closing on the Extreme North Ice Sea. Ling Bai leaned against the deck rail, his gaze sweeping over the army of sea spirit beasts that made no effort to conceal themselves. His eyes came to rest on the 100,000-year spirit beasts.
"Sea Princess, Golden Crown Mermaid, Silver Crown Mermaid, Floating Nether Blue Whale, Sword Tail Sea Snake King, Red Pincer Dragon Lobster, Emperor Clear-Water Crab…
The Sea God really is popular. So many 100,000-year spirit beasts willing to die for him."
Ling Qiuxi summoned the Golden Dragon Spear. Her beautiful eyes swept across the sea-region overlords bristling with murderous intent.
"Apart from the Sea Princess, the Floating Nether Blue Whale has also broken through its second heavenly tribulation. It couldn't have been easy for the Sea Princess to herd this lot together in the Ice Sea."
"A whale…"
Ling Bai cast an extra glance at the round blowhole on the Floating Nether Blue Whale's back. This fellow seemed to sense something. Its huge body shuddered violently, and a chill crawled up its spine.
As expected of the Demon of the Sea. I have never seen such an evil gaze!
The Black Pearl came to a halt half a mile out from the sea spirit beast army. Ling Bai stored away the pirate ship that had carried the two of them across the ocean for a month. Angelic wings unfurled from his back, and he rose into the air alongside Ling Qiuxi, flying straight toward the tens of thousands of sea spirit beasts drawn up in battle formation!
They had barely flown three hundred feet when the distant sea suddenly churned. The surface surged upward in a towering wall of water, and the Sea Princess stood upon the waves, her brilliant fish tail swaying lightly.
Golden Crown Mermaid Li Ya and Silver Crown Mermaid Li Jing flanked her like two loyal guards. Borne aloft by the seawater, mother and daughters faced the pair in the sky across the vast expanse.
The Mermaid clan were all devastatingly beautiful. Crowns rested on the brows of all three, and water-blue hair streamed freely in the wind. Their upper bodies resembled those of human women, with white, jade-like shells cupping their chests, while their lower halves were massive fish tails clad in deep blue scales that gleamed like inlaid gems.
"Demon of the Sea, in obedience to the Sea God's command, we have been waiting for you!"
The Sea Princess's voice rang sharp and clear. "You defied the Sea God's oracle, slaughtered sea spirit beasts without reason, and plundered the ocean's resources. We sea spirit beasts will cut you down here today!"
"Well said. You do have a bit of the Sea God's bearing about you."
Ling Bai smiled coldly. Humans and spirit beasts were natural enemies. He had spared the Extreme North and the Star Dou Forest only out of regard for the Snow Empress and Ling Qiuxi. Sea spirit beasts? What were they to him? If he killed them, he killed them, and eighty percent of the creatures gathered here had come trotting obediently to his doorstep, shouting about carrying out the Sea God's orders!
Fists were the only real truth in this world. Ling Bai couldn't be bothered to reason with the Sea Princess. She wasn't worthy of it!
His Martial Spirit shifted to the Death Abyss Spider Emperor, and the gray spirit ring formed from Electrolux's incarnation flared with brilliant light!
Sixteen pitch-black Spectral Gates rose in the empty air. A thunderous roar from the Death Abyss Bone Dragon split the sky, and an endless tide of spectral creatures poured out from the Spectral Demiplane!
Led by the Death Abyss Bone Dragon came Abominations, Skeleton Kings, Death Knights, Corpse Wights… an undead army embodying death itself descended upon the sea. Soul-fire flickered in their hollow eye sockets, locking instantly onto the sea spirit beasts with a ravenous thirst for slaughter!
Undead Scourge!
This was the first time Ling Bai had summoned spectral creatures at full strength. The Undead Scourge's appearance stunned the Sea Princess, and once she had recovered enough to truly behold the hideous, malevolent army before her, her conviction that the Demon of the Sea must be eradicated only grew firmer!
She whipped the waves beneath her feet toward the two in the sky. In the very next heartbeat, goose-feather snow began to fall, and within moments the sea froze solid for thirty miles in every direction, creating a perfect battlefield for the undead. Bone-deep chill blossomed in the air as the breathtaking Ruler of Ice and Snow stepped slowly into view.
Ice and snow wove themselves into a pure white dress. Her sky-blue eyes were so clear and deep they seemed to mirror the world itself. Her hair was like falling snow, spilling down her back. The terrifying aura of ultimate cold, as ancient and vast as the glaciers of the Extreme North, swept out in a single wave and instantly suppressed the Ice Sea's inherent chill!
"You are… the Snow Empress?!"
The Sea Princess stared at the woman in shock. The Snow Empress had always been aloof, devoted solely to guarding the peace of the Extreme North. How could she stand with humans? With the Demon of the Sea himself?!
"Sea Princess."
The Snow Empress's cold yet melodious voice curled through the air as she descended, coming to hover above the waves opposite her counterpart.
Strictly speaking, both were spirit beasts of the Extreme North. The Snow Empress ruled the Ice Plains, the Sea Princess ruled the Ice Sea, and the Snow Empress was known as the common ruler of the entire region. That title meant her cultivation surpassed the Sea Princess's!
"Take the sea spirit beasts and leave. That is your only path to survival," the Snow Empress said evenly.
The Ice Plains and Ice Sea had always coexisted in peace. There had never been war between their spirit beasts, and for that reason the Snow Empress was willing to give the Sea Princess one chance.
"For our faith!"
The Sea Princess's reply was resolute. She would not defy the Sea God's command!
"Stubborn fool!"
The Snow Empress had ruled the Extreme North for hundreds of thousands of years. Her word was law, and her temperament could hardly be called gentle. Otherwise, she would not have shattered every bone in the Ice Devil Titan King's body over a mere confession, forcing the third Arctic King to recuperate for a full thousand years.
One warning was already the limit of her benevolence. If the Sea Princess insisted on courting death, then for the sake of their past acquaintance the Snow Empress would send her off herself!
She traced a pulling motion through the air. Ice-white seawater surged upward to a height of three thousand feet, becoming the backdrop at her back. A violent gale howled, snowflakes whirled, and the sky above the Ice Sea turned into a world wrapped in silver and white.
Empress' Chill: Snowy Dance of Ultimate Ice!
Ice was a mutated form of the water attribute. The Ice Sea might be the home ground of sea spirit beasts, but it was just as surely the Snow Empress's domain!
She slowly raised her left hand. That fair, delicate palm seemed to bear the weight of mountains. The raging ice and snow above began to spin in eerie, clockwise frenzy until a terrifying tornado of ice and snow gathered over the Ice Sea.
Empress's Palm: Snowless Glacier!
The Sea Princess's expression changed dramatically. The Snow Empress had weathered much at Ling Bai's side. Misfortune had given way to fortune, ice and fire had transformed into one another, and beneath the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well she had comprehended the Water Dragon King's true essence of ice. Her realm had risen by more than a single tier compared to the past. The might of Snowless Glacier far exceeded anything the Sea Princess had imagined!
She loosed a stream of water that wrapped around her two daughters and carried them away. She knew well enough that even 100,000-year spirit beasts could not endure Snowless Glacier, not even its lingering aftershocks!
Pale blue lights rose like scattered stars from the sea's surface, gathering swiftly in the heights into a vast, shimmering barrier that braced against the descending blizzard tornado.
Mermaid Protection!
The Snow Empress pinned the Sea Princess down with a single hand. Her frosty features carried the domineering air of a sovereign descending upon the world. She raised her right hand to reveal an ice-blue snowflake, and it erupted in an instant into a blinding pillar of light that tore through the clouds and shot into the sky!
"Xue'er! That's Xue'er's Snow Empress Token!"
Far away in the Extreme North, the Ice Empress jolted upright from her sickbed. She launched into the air and streaked across the sky like an emerald meteor, racing toward the token's signal!
The Snow Empress had vanished for many years. At their last meeting, she had told the Ice Empress she was preparing for her seventh heavenly tribulation. And now, out of nowhere, she had reappeared at the Extreme North Ice Sea!
"Extreme North Ice Sea... Sea Princess!"
The Ice Empress's eyes turned bloodshot. Her hoarse cry tore through the air.
"Sea Princess, if you dare lay so much as a finger on Xue'er, this old lady will butcher the entire Mermaid clan!"
"Aunt Bing, take me with you..."
The Ice Bear King stretched out one enormous bear paw in a pleading gesture, but its bulky, lumbering frame was no match for the Ice Jade Scorpion's speed. It could only barrel along on its short legs, panting miserably.
Elsewhere, the Ice Devil Titan King, whose brain development was for once up to standard, pounded his chest. Thunderous sound waves rolled across the plains.
"Every 100,000-year spirit beast in the Extreme North, every last one of you, charge to the Ice Sea! Follow the Snow Empress!"
The spirit beasts of the Extreme North moved the instant his roar faded, surging forward like a white tidal wave. The Star Dou Forest had Xiong Jun as its destabilizing factor, but the beasts of the Extreme North were united. They were willing to pay any price to protect the Snow Empress!
Ling Bai sensed the powerful auras rushing in from the Extreme North Ice Plains, and his heart could not help but stir. The Snow Empress cherished the Extreme North deeply, yet she was willing to risk losses among its spirit beasts by deploying the Snow Empress Token. She was holding nothing back!
"Leave the two mermaids to me. You handle the rest of the seafood!"
Ling Qiuxi let out a clear, ringing whistle. Her blood-red 100,000-year spirit ring, the last in her array, blazed to life.
Seventh Spirit Skill, Golden Dragon Avatar!
Vast golden wings unfurled. Diamond-shaped scales of gold layered across them, blazing with radiant light. The Golden Dragon's matchless blood essence surged outward and instantly cowed Li Ya and Li Jing.
They were both 100,000-year spirit beasts, but their abilities leaned heavily toward the spiritual attribute. Even combined, their bodies and raw strength were no match for the Golden Dragon, Ancestor of Strength!
Ling Qiuxi's transformation did not stop there. Golden Dragon Body, Dragon's Strength, and the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger torso bone skill Evil God Transformation. One reinforcement layered atop another. Muscles bulged across the Golden Dragon's frame, and the searing golden radiance showed no restraint, blazing as brilliantly as if it were midday.
Li Ya and Li Jing shattered through the ice and dove into the depths, hoping to use the seawater to blunt the Golden Dragon's power while playing to their own strengths. They unleashed the Mermaid clan's spiritual spirit skills against the Golden Dragon's Spiritual Sea!
Ling Qiuxi only curled her lips in contempt. Her dragon wings snapped down, and she plunged after the two mermaids into the depths. Blue-gray ripples spread across her dragon pupils. The ocean did not weaken her in the slightest. If anything, it amplified her power!
Demon Soul Great White Shark King Skull Bone Skill, Devil Shark Domain!
The two mermaids stared in mounting horror at the Golden Dragon bearing down on them. Their spiritual attacks produced no noticeable effect. What blocked them was the Demon Soul Great White Shark King skull bone's second skill, Despair Light Wave!
Above the ice, the spectral army and the sea spirit beasts crashed together with brutal force. The sea spirit beasts fought with the Sea God's faith burning in their hearts and refused to retreat a single step. The spectral creatures knew nothing of pain or fear. They flung themselves at the enemy in a frenzy of pure aggression!
Blood from the sea spirit beasts splashed across the ice. Spirit rings of white, yellow, purple, and black rose into the air. The spectral creatures suffered heavy losses at first as well, until the Necromancers and Liches raised their staves and began chanting. Under their spells, sea spirit beast corpses twisted upright and joined the ranks of the undead army!
At the same time, under the Death Knights' command, the Skeleton Legion moved in perfect unison. They drew out all manner of Sun Moon Empire Spirit Guidance Devices and unleashed a wild bombardment on the sea spirit beasts!
Ling Bai had cleaned out the Holy Spirit Cult. Ling Qiuxi had emptied the Sun Moon warehouses. The Spirit Guidance Devices they had taken were beyond counting!
Cold weapons were OBSOLETE. Now was the era of firepower coverage!
The Death Abyss Bone Dragon held its own two-against-one against the Floating Nether Blue Whale and the Sword Tail Sea Snake King. Ultimate Death alone left it standing on undefeated ground. The Emperor Clear-Water Crab and the Red Pincer Dragon Lobster led the sea spirit beasts in an attempted assault on the spectral creatures, only to be driven back by overwhelming barrages of spirit rays. Abominations and Skeleton Kings, swinging spirit guidance broadswords, swarmed around the two 100,000-year spirit beasts and hacked away in a frenzy.
Beneath the sixteen pitch-black gates that endlessly disgorged spectral creatures, the seemingly calm water suddenly stirred. A vast shadow rose into view. Just as a Destruction Breath was gathering, a golden sword aura descended. Evil-Banishing Slash punched through the ice and slammed into the shadow!
"ROAR—"
A deep purple body burst through the surface and rose skyward. Sunlight glanced off its purple scales and reflected in dazzling flashes. Ice-blue water sheeted down from its hide like ceremonial streamers heralding the arrival of a king.
From head to tail it stretched nearly five hundred feet long, and its outspread wings blotted out the sun. Its thunderous roar echoed across the sea in an instant, cracking the ice inch by inch!
"The Nether Emperor... so it came too..."
The Snow Empress turned her head at that dragon's roar. The instant her gaze fell on the dark violet giant dragon, her pupils contracted sharply.
A handful of sea spirit beasts of comparable cultivation to her own dwelled in the oceans surrounding Douluo Continent. The Sea Princess, sovereign of the Extreme North Ice Sea, was only one of them.
This great dragon's territory lay several sea regions removed from the Sea Princess's, closer to the Sun Moon Empire. Its six hundred thousand years of cultivation were on par with hers, but its attribute and bloodline were so overwhelming that its combat power surpassed hers. Even the Snow Empress at her peak would have to be wary of it.
Destruction attribute. A descendant of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon bloodline!
The Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor!