"Ice Bing'er, you—"
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm cried out in shock.
If Neuvillette hadn't reacted with such speed just now, they would already have been frozen into ice sculptures.
The Ice Emperor had not held back in the slightest just now.
"Heh… impressive strength."
The emerald hue radiating from the Ice Emperor's body deepened to a dark green. Storms laced with frost and snow raged outward, dyeing the entire sky a different color.
"Tianmeng, you have indeed swayed me. My final tribulation is near, and with my talent, I truly cannot survive it."
"I am unwilling to fall simply, but I will never offer myself in sacrifice to just any stray cat or dog."
"So then, human—"
Her crystalline voice echoed through the entire Extreme North.
"If you can withstand this one strike from me, I will willingly offer myself to you in sacrifice, just as Tianmeng proposed, for the creation of a god."
"But if you cannot…"
"Heh."
"Tianmeng, keep a close watch on Yutong. The rest… I'll handle."
Neuvillette floated in the air, gaze steady and solemn as he met the Ice Emperor's eyes across the distance.
"Then… you must be careful!"
Tianmeng sighed and guided the young girl down to the ground, wrapping her in a cocoon of spiritual power to shield her from the aftershocks of the coming battle.
At this point, everything he could do had been done. What happened next depended entirely on Neuvillette—this human he had pinned his hopes on—and whether he could pass the Ice Emperor's test.
But…
This was a strike from a nearly four-hundred-thousand-year-old soul beast. Even a Super Douluo would likely die instantly.
He could only hope… for a miracle.
The young girl pressed her lips together, her beautiful eyes full of worry.
Her delicate hands clasped tightly against her chest as she closed her eyes and prayed.
"Your Excellency, please… you must succeed…"
"Young one, you have courage. I've seen countless humans before—even Titled Douluo would turn and flee upon seeing me, lacking even the courage to face me directly."
The Ice Emperor's clear, crisp voice rang out as she gazed at the tall, composed figure before her.
"Then make your move," Neuvillette said calmly.
"Since I have the confidence to become a god, I naturally possess the strength to back it up. It so happens that today, I would like to witness the power of a ruler of the Extreme North."
"Interesting."
The Ice Emperor chuckled softly.
Her resplendent emerald tail arched slightly.
"Domain of Eternal Frost!"
In an instant, a colossal phantom formed behind her—an immense Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, her true form.
A massive gale surged up from the ground, ice and frost engulfing the world.
This was the full, unrestrained power of the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, ruler of the Extreme North for 390,000 years!
Countless living beings fled in desperation, terrified of being caught in the blizzard.
Yet many were still too slow, swept into the storm and transformed into lifeless ice sculptures…
In the deepest reaches of the Extreme North—
A graceful figure appeared, a beautiful young girl with flowing snow-white hair cascading over her shoulders. Her bare, delicate feet stepped lightly across the snow.
Her beauty was otherworldly, as though she were the purest thing.
Her gaze turned skyward. There, the heavens had been split—one half stained dark green, the other retaining its natural deep blue, divided by a sharp boundary.
Her rosy lips parted, her voice as melodious as a lark, though her eyes shone with puzzlement.
"That's the Ice Emperor's aura… has an outsider entered the Extreme North?"
"To force the Ice Emperor to fight with full strength… it seems this visitor is no ordinary being. I'll go take a look…"
With those words, her figure vanished.
At the same time—
A towering giant over a hundred meters tall halted its steps, turned its gaze toward the horizon.
Its entire body was covered in snow-white fur, resembling an enormous ape.
"Ice… Emperor…"
The Titan Snow Demon King's voice rumbled low like thunder, hoarse yet heavy.
The next moment, it bent its knees and, with a powerful leap, sent snow exploding three meters into the air, the ice beneath quaking violently. A depression hundreds of meters long was left where its feet had been.
Each leap carried it over a kilometer closer—toward the Ice Emperor.
The blizzard descended, and the snow-covered world seemed frozen in absolute silence.
In this stillness, no life could endure.
The Ice Emperor gazed toward the distant ice sheet, now risen dozens of meters high, entombing the young man entirely.
She sighed softly.
She truly wished the boy could withstand her strike—after all, a few hundred more years of life paled beside a gamble for godhood, however slim the odds.
But…
"Such is fate."
The magnificent, jewel-like Emperor Scorpion slowly turned to search for Tianmeng's corpse—that something would enhance her slim chances of surviving her tribulation.
A delicacy like this, delivered to her door, was not to be wasted.
Yet in the next instant—
The thick ice trembled—almost imperceptibly.
"Hm?"
The Ice Emperor turned back, eyes narrowing toward the ice below.
Before her gaze, cracks spread rapidly across the ice, spiderwebbing outward in all directions. From above, they looked like a dense, jagged net, enough to make the scalp tingle.
An ancient, primal aura began to seep out.
"This… is a dragon's aura!"
Her diamond-bright eyes widened. She stared in disbelief at the ice beneath her feet. Something vast—monstrous was about to break through from below.
"How could a human… be connected to the Dragon Clan?"
"And this bloodline—so pure! Only the one in the Star Dou Forest could…"
BOOM!
A deafening roar shook the ice from below.
The next instant—before her shocked eyes—
Shards of ice exploded upward, layer upon layer of frozen sheet shattering at once.
Beneath them, the ice gave way to bottomless seawater, its dark surface rippling ominously.
ROAR!
A deep, ancient dragon's cry seemed to descend from the heavens themselves, as though a true dragon were about to surge forth from the abyss.
The sky dimmed, the ocean heaved violently.
From above, within the gaping void where the ice had split, a massive shadow loomed beneath the waves.
The surging waters parted—
Two enormous dragon horns, each dozens of meters long, broke the surface, followed by a scaled head. Dark-blue scales sliced open the sea, a massive vertical pupil opened to reveal the pressure of pure dragon bloodline, its invisible might sweeping across the entirety of the Extreme North.
And upon that colossal dragon's head—
A lone figure stood, staff in hand. His elegant bearing was as calm as ever.
Neuvillette looked up at the Ice Emperor—still frozen in shock above—and smiled faintly. His voice was unhurried yet carried across the frozen world.
"Tell me, Ice Emperor… do you deem me worthy of your sacrifice?"
(End of Chapter)