Author: Ju Mao Hen Wei (The Mighty Orange Cat)
"Just what did you give that scorpion spirit for her attitude to change so quickly?" Tokisaki Kurumi asked with suspicion the moment they stepped out of the spatial rift.
The Ice Empress' sudden shift in attitude had practically blinded her titanium-alloy clock eye.
"Nothing much!" Ning Rongrong shrugged. "Just a novel documenting the pure bonds of friendship between girls. Something like that, I guess!"
"Huh?"
A giant question mark practically floated above Tokisaki Kurumi's head. Even after living for tens of thousands of years, she couldn't make sense of this situation!
"If you want the details, you can ask Dugu Yan about it." Ning Rongrong coughed lightly. "She studied at the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy for several years. When it comes to aristocratic knowledge, she's far more well-versed than I am."
"Oh, really?" Tokisaki Kurumi nodded thoughtfully. "Then I'll ask Dugu Yan later. Seems like there's still so much for me to learn in the human world!"
"Alright, alright, let's drop this topic."
Ning Rongrong's voice was calm as she scanned the surroundings from the cliff's edge.
"Hmm, this should be the location the Ice Empress mentioned, but it seems we're quite far off."
It appeared that moving without preset coordinates was still quite risky.
What if they opened a portal and ended up in front of some bizarre, overpowered boss? Wouldn't that mean an early retirement?
"Let's go, we'll look around." Ning Rongrong took a step forward and leaped off the cliff, accelerating into flight.
"Honestly, this is the Extreme North! Just because you have strong perception abilities doesn't mean you can run around recklessly. What if some weirdly inclined soul beast captures you? Won't that just be trouble for me?"
Tokisaki Kurumi couldn't help but complain as dark energy surged around her, propelling her forward to catch up.
There was no helping it—it was part of the contract's rules.
If Ning Rongrong died by accident, she'd be done for too. As for herself, unless Ning Rongrong's Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was completely destroyed, she was fragile but incredibly hard to kill.
After a series of searches, they finally discovered a cave hidden behind a cliff, its entrance concealed by tree branches and leaves.
Was this carelessness? Or was it confidence in its own oppressive aura to deter intruders?
At the very least, it had more power than that licking-obsessed Sky Dream Iceworm.
"Humans, leave this place."
Before Ning Rongrong and Tokisaki Kurumi could get close to the entrance, a deep, furious voice echoed through the air.
"Leave now, or I'll devour you."
"Sorry, big iceworm," Ning Rongrong replied. "But today, you've incurred a death sentence. The Ice Empress has issued a martial world bounty on you, and we're here to clean up the mess."
"Damn it!" At the mention of the Ice Empress, the cave embedded in the cliff trembled violently as a massive head emerged from within.
This iceworm had a scar running down the corner of its right eye, as if left by a blade, adding a fierce edge to its appearance.
"That inherently evil scorpion spirit! What did our Sky Dream Iceworm clan ever do to her? For tens of thousands of years, she's been hunting our kind relentlessly!"
The white-spotted, caterpillar-like iceworm's voice seemed to come from nowhere.
Inherently evil? Another "inherently evil"?
Damn, did all the creatures in the Extreme North learn their catchphrases from Senju Tobirama?
Every other sentence was "inherently evil."
"I sympathize with your clan, but we're humans, and we've made a deal with the Ice Empress. Simply put, she's sold you—as food—to us," Ning Rongrong stated.
"Damn it! That wicked Ice Jade Scorpion! Our Sky Dream Iceworm clan is not their prey!"
After observing the giant iceworm for a moment, Ning Rongrong spoke again: "You fight for your justice, and the Ice Empress fights for hers. The conflict between your two races is just ordinary soul beasts clashing over their own versions of righteousness."
"Today, I'm only here to hunt a soul beast. So, my apologies."
Judging by its age, this iceworm was indeed over 90,000 years old. It was unclear how it could speak, but today, it had to die—unless the Sky Dream Iceworm came to save it.
In that case, Ning Rongrong would immediately spare its life.
After all, if a million-year soul beast was available, who would settle for one that wasn't even a hundred thousand years old?
"Fine, fine! Our Sky Dream Iceworm clan may be weak, but my 98,000 years of cultivation weren't just spent eating! Today, you two brats will die here!"
The iceworm let out a furious roar, and the surrounding space rapidly twisted.
"Humans, if it were the Ice Empress, I'd fear her a little. But what are you two worth?"
"Mental Pressure!"
"Oh? Using spiritual power to distort space and tear enemies apart with spatial distortions?" Ning Rongrong remarked in surprise. "The Sky Dream Iceworm has moves like this?"
Did that mean the one in the Star Dou Great Forest was just useless?
"Space—"
"Kurumi, attack already! That's a near-hundred-thousand-year soul beast! Even if it's weak and nowhere near as beautiful as the Ice Empress or Snow Empress, I can't take it head-on!"
Tokisaki Kurumi's face darkened at her words.
"Zafkiel!"
A bullet fired from her standard-issue pistol.
"Time and space are complementary—time affects space, and space radiates into time."
The bullet collided with the pale, distorted spatial beam.
In an instant, the twisted space smoothed out, while the bullet itself vanished, worn away by the spatial distortion.
"Not bad," Tokisaki Kurumi said with a smile. "But crude mastery over space-time is no match for me!"
Her figure vanished, and in the next moment—as if time itself had accelerated—she reappeared beside the giant iceworm.
"No… impossible!" The iceworm, though slow to react, quickly regained its senses. "Just who are you? How could you block my full-powered strike?"
"Me? Tokisaki Kurumi. Some also call me—the Dark Devilgod Tiger."
"Dark Devilgod…"
The iceworm's pupils dilated to the size of copper bells—clearly, it recognized the name.
However, before it could finish speaking, a bullet pierced through its forehead.
No blood spilled out. Instead, the iceworm's entire body froze as if time had stopped, suspended in a state of near-death stillness.
"Hey, you didn't kill it, did you?" Ning Rongrong sighed. "I was planning to use it to experiment with a hundred-thousand-year soul ring!"
"Ahhh, relax!" Tokisaki Kurumi shook her gun, letting it return to normal as she glanced at Ning Rongrong.
"A big worm like this won't die so easily. Besides, can't you just take the soul ring directly? Does it really matter who kills it?"
"The experiment needs to be complete. What if the soul ring is incomplete when I take it, causing the plan to fail? Wouldn't that be a huge loss?"
Could she really ask the Ice Empress for another near-hundred-thousand-year soul beast if this one was ruined?
"Also, the Ice Empress was already baring her fangs at us earlier."
"True, that scorpion spirit is a bit of a handful." Tokisaki Kurumi casually opened a spatial rift and tossed the giant worm inside before stepping in herself.
"This girl… she's becoming more and more unreliable." Ning Rongrong sighed and followed her into the spatial portal.