In the far north, sky and earth melded into one—an endless world of ice and snow, ruled only by howling wind.
This was paradise for ice-element soul beasts, and an adventure ground for countless soul masters seeking powerful ice-attribute soul rings.
Three figures trekked across the soul-freezing white wilderness. Though they appeared to move slowly, the footprints they left in the snow were shallow and quickly erased by wind and flakes.
Chen Yi's breath instantly froze in the air. Looking around, all he could find was the boundless snowy plain and faint outlines of glaciers. The cold was so sharp it seemed to pierce to the very bone.
"The Extreme North's reputation is truly deserved," Chen Yi thought to himself, even as his clear voice carried easily on the storm. "'It's said only those at the pinnacle of ice can survive in the core lands.' It's certainly so."
Beside Chen Yi, Shui Bing'er was shrouded in a faint blue icy glow. With Chen Yi's help, she'd cultivated her Frostwing. Now, her Ice Phoenix had attained the realm of ultimate ice, her aura clear and pure, moving as freely as a fish in water.
"Which direction should we search first?" Shui Bing'er's cold voice queried as she looked out over the endless plain.
The aim of this journey was to find the fifth spirit ring most suited to her—a rare, extreme ice-attribute soul beast. Such beasts were not only powerful, but often backed by large clans, making them both hard to find and extremely dangerous.
"We don't know the exact location,"
Chen Yi shook his head, staring into the blurred, wind-and-snow filled world ahead.
"Most extreme ice soul beasts live in the core of the world. All we can do is search slowly based on what clues we have."
He turned his head to the middle-aged man walking at their side, whose aura seemed to blend perfectly with the icy landscape. The man nodded politely.
"Elder, thank you for accompanying us on this trip."
The old man surveyed the surroundings, a flicker of memories in his eyes, and smiled faintly.
"It's fine. I've been further north before, helping our sect master find the Diamond Mammoth's soul ring. It was livelier then—the sect's people chased that old fellow all the way out here. Coming again now, it feels like visiting an old haunt. Only—this wind and snow feels so much lonelier than before."
The three continued onward, deeper into the icefields without another word. The further north they went, the colder it grew, the wind and snow worsened, the light dimmed—as if eternal night was falling. Nothing could be heard but the wind.
They had no sense of how long they'd walked; in this vast white world, time itself seemed to lose meaning.
Suddenly, as if sensing something, the Elder, who'd walked with eyes closed, stopped abruptly. Chen Yi and Shui Bing'er instantly grew wary, silently gathering spiritual power.
The Grand Elder did not open his eyes, but furrowed his brow as if probing something rare, an uncharacteristic tone of doubt entering his voice.
"Hmm? What sort of soul beast is this? That aura is subtle and clever, almost perfectly blended with the essence of this ice world…"
"Heaven and earth spirit? But… it also feels a little different..."
"Heaven-and-earth spirit?" Chen Yi's heart skipped. These were extraordinarily rare beings, born purely from elemental energy, usually with talents and potential far exceeding ordinary soul beasts. His first soul ring had been acquired from such a rare lightning-element spirit. Whenever such a being appeared, it was always the top pick for spirit rings.
He looked along the Elder's line of sight, spiritual power quietly radiating out. At the edge of a dark ice crevasse, a nearly transparent white figure floated lightly atop the snow. The form was slender—neither human nor entirely other, looking as if carved from pure ice and snow, suffused with gentle, cold white light.
Most striking of all, it had a human girl's face—aloof, crystal-blue eyes like ice, its gaze unfocused, mysterious.
When it moved, its feet did not actually touch the snow—they glided several inches above it, leaving no trace.
It was a soul beast, radiant with pure, extreme ice aura, yet its humanoid shape and spiritual presence were wholly unlike any ordinary soul beast.
"Snow Empress?"
Chen Yi's heart clenched. Legends said that long after, the ruler of the Extreme North would indeed manifest as a humanoid soul beast. But he immediately dismissed the guess—
No, the difference in strength is too vast. If it really were the ruler of the Extreme North, even the Elder couldn't have scouted this close undetected, supernatural powers or not.
"Xiao Yi, Bing'er, look." The Elder's voice sounded directly in their minds, carrying rare curiosity.
"This soul beast is truly interesting. The pure essence of heaven-and-earth spirit runs faintly within, yet at the same time, a strange ice spirit body is fused within it. Its nature… truly peak ice—so pure."
After a pause, the Elder's divine sense enveloped the icy, crystal-like creature.
"Cultivation—about 19,000 to 21,000 years. Just right."
The Elder sounded satisfied. "Perfect cultivation. If Bing'er absorbs an ordinary soul ring, her life force would grow much longer—but an ultimate ice soul beast like this would completely compensate, or even surpass any difference in years. Bing'er, what do you think?"
Chen Yi turned to Shui Bing'er. She was staring at the blue-white form, her eyes sparkling with rarely-shown excitement and longing. Clearly, she also felt the unparalleled, pure, ultimate ice aura the beast radiated—and was utterly captivated by it.
Shui Bing'er, sensing Chen Yi's gaze, turned and looked at him with questioning and determined eyes. Chen Yi nodded lightly to the Elder, no longer hesitating.
"Elder, thank you again for your help."
"Very well," the Elder nodded, then stood still.
In an instant, the dozen-meter space around the bluish-white figure seemed to be gently grasped by an invisible hand. Falling snowflakes froze motionless mid-air, the whistling wind suddenly fell silent. The icy blue spirit beast, sensing deadly danger, flickered, its ghostly eyes blazing as it tried to melt into the wind and snow and escape.
But the surrounding space was solidified like the hardest amber, locking it completely within.
Moments later, a needle-thin thread of condensed spiritual force bypassed the spatial barrier and plunged straight into the blue-white creature's core consciousness.
Aaahhhhh…
A faint moan spilled from the beast's lips, the icy flame in its eyes flickered violently for an instant, and then faded. Its ethereal, spirit-like face showed confusion and pain more human than beastly.
Its ice body crumpled and dropped to the snow, unmoving.
With a wave of his sleeve, the Elder brought the unconscious blue-white creature before them. Closer, it was even stranger: neither true ice nor flesh, but some odd halfway state, radiating pure, ultimate ice aura.
Shui Bing'er gazed at it, complicated emotions flickering in her eyes. Then, stepping forward, she bowed deeply to the Elder once more.
"Thank you for your guidance, Elder."
At the same moment, an icy glint appeared in her palm, a short blade flashing out. She pointed and thrust it straight into the ice spirit's heart.
No blood spurted. The moment the dagger penetrated, the ice spirit's body seemed to melt, transforming into countless tiny icy-blue starlights, slowly fading away.
All that was left behind, floating in the air, was a black spirit ring suffused with the chill of ultimate ice.
Without hesitation, Shui Bing'er sat cross-legged, calmed her breath, focused her will, and deployed her total soul power—slowly pulling down the 20,000-year ultimate ice spirit soul ring, imbued with the ice fairy's life brand, over her head.
Chen Yi and the Elder stood guard. The Elder's divine will shielded them from any outside interference.
At the very instant Shui Bing'er began absorbing the spirit ring, as the snow spirit fully faded—
…
—In the Extreme North's deepest, darkest region—a palace built entirely of transparent sapphire ice crystals stretched on.
High upon the throne, a woman in white with long white hair slowly opened her eyes.
Her pupils were icy blue, deeper than the purest sapphire, holding the cold and desolation of the entire Extreme North. Her beauty was unmatched, her temperament ethereal—otherworldly, yet exuding an unapproachable majesty.
The instant her eyes opened, the entire palace's temperature dropped abruptly; even the airborne snowflakes seemed instantly frozen. She tilted her head, gaze piercing through the thick walls and snowstorms toward a distant corner. Surprise flickered deep in her frosty blue eyes.
"The aura of an Ice Soul… one has vanished?"
Her frigidly melodious voice, bearing infinite desolation, echoed through the empty hall.
In the next instant, the throne was empty.
...
Next bonus chapter at 500 PS