Chapter 50: Is the Titan Snow Demon King Stronger Than Ultraman?
Furina and her companions reached the Far North with little trouble. After bidding farewell to City Lord Lei Bao, she and Huo Yuhao donned the insulating and defensive soul tools she'd purchased from the system, along with protective talismans capable of concealing their presence—items originating from a certain cultivation novel, likewise acquired through the system shop.
Though these talismans only lasted about half a month, even Savage Beasts with spiritual attributes would struggle to detect them. The reason she'd bought talismans with a limited duration was simple: they were cheap. Furina figured she should save as many points as possible and reserve them for emergencies.
Besides, these talismans weren't even that necessary on the Douluo Continent. People here didn't have particularly devious hearts—unlike certain cultivation worlds where you had to guard against being backstabbed no matter where you went. Just look at how rare soul bones were: back in the day, Tang San had openly displayed his external spirit bone during a tournament. That thing was a treasure capable of evolution. And the result? Barely anyone even thought to scheme for it. The only person who came looking for trouble, Shi Nian, simply wanted to kill him—he never even brought up the soul bone. At the time, Tang San hadn't yet revealed himself as Tang Hao's son, and Shrek Academy wasn't particularly powerful—they didn't even have a single Titled Douluo. The Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect and Poison Douluo had some ties to them, but not enough to openly back them. And yet—no major clan or sect actually tried to seize it. In any other world, they'd have been swarmed and annihilated. One could only conclude that the people of the Douluo Continent, for the most part, were rather... simple-hearted. Evil soul masters excluded, of course.
Killing and plundering treasures didn't seem to have become a cultural norm here. The fact that Furina's own Church of the Water God had developed so smoothly, without encountering too many obstacles, was probably related to this. In another world, people would have long since grown envious of all the good things she possessed.
The moment the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm saw Furina pull out the talismans, it started shouting in the spiritual sea again: "See? I told you this young lady's got plenty of good stuff! Even has things that can hide your aura."
Electrolux, still in slumber, sensed the aura of the talismans Furina and Huo Yuhao had put on. He opened his eyes and offered a slow, measured comment: "These objects are rather intriguing... A pity they have such a limited duration." Having said this, he fell silent once more.
Tianmeng let out a huff, its pride slightly stung. "What's with the mysterious act."
Huo Yuhao paid no mind to Tianmeng's grumbling and asked, "Brother Tianmeng, which way do we go from here? You're a native of the Far North—you should know your way around, right?"
"Of course. You're asking the right silkworm. Keep heading north. Once we're in the core region, we'll talk. Have you brought enough food? I don't want you collapsing from hunger halfway there."
Huo Yuhao laughed. "Brother Tianmeng, have you forgotten? Sister Furina's first martial soul is literally cake. Even if our food runs out, she can just use her soul power to whip up more cakes. You might get sick of eating them after a while, but it beats starving. Besides, Sister Furina gave me a storage ring—I stuffed it full of food before we left. She always says you can never be too prepared, and there's no harm in having extra."
Tianmeng smacked its own head—though it currently had no physical form to speak of. "I forgot. You two think things through better than I do."
"Then let's get moving. No time to waste."
Along the journey, with the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm—a "local silkworm"—guiding them with its powerful spiritual force, steering them toward fortune and away from disaster, they truly didn't encounter any troublesome soul beasts.
Furina walked while looking all around her. The scenery of the Far North was certainly unique—an endless expanse of white that made her eyes swim if she stared too long. She was even musing to herself: if this place could be developed into a tourist attraction, maybe it could make some money... though she guessed not many people would actually dare come. Perhaps after she became a god, that might be feasible.
As they pressed onward, the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm suddenly shouted in the spiritual sea: "Quick! Get down! Bury yourselves in the snow! Whatever happens, don't move!"
Huo Yuhao reacted instantly, grabbing Furina and pulling her down. Furina offered no resistance, obediently flopping into the snowdrift with him. She knew this meant they'd encountered something enormous—most likely one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, the Titan Snow Demon King.
Even though the timing was completely different from the original story, they'd still run into this creature. The world line's self-correcting power really is something else!
Still, being buried in snow was far from pleasant. Even with insulating soul tools, the sensation of snow creeping into your clothes was thoroughly disagreeable. What was worse was the crushing pressure that followed—that oppressive, suffocating force was enough to make one gasp for breath. Furina grumbled inwardly: a two-hundred-thousand-year Savage Beast was truly something else. This aura was simply overwhelming. Though she wasn't panicking too much—in a few years, who knew who'd be the one to fear whom.
Several dozen seconds later, that terrifying presence gradually receded. The two crawled out of the snow. One look at the ground, and—good heavens. An enormous footprint, five meters long and two meters wide, like a small swimming pool.
Huo Yuhao stared, dumbfounded. "Wh-what kind of soul beast was that?!"
Before the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm could even open its mouth, Furina answered: "That should have been the Titan Snow Demon King, one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North. They say it stands a hundred meters tall, and the adults of its kind generally reach fifty meters in height."
"The Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North all possess exalted bloodlines—the blood of the Ice God flows through their veins. The Titan Snow Demon King that just passed is said to be the descendant of the ancient Ice God's union with a Titan giant. Its race is called the Titan Snow Demon."
This speech was practically lifted word-for-word from the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's introduction in the original story. Tianmeng listened in stunned disbelief within the spiritual sea, its heart full of shock and suspicion: How does this young lady know such details? These are secrets known only to us soul beasts of the Far North—there's no way human society could have records this thorough... Unless she truly is a god... that wouldn't be impossible...
Furina paused, then added: "But honestly, this size isn't that exaggerated. I've heard of even more formidable races—only forty or fifty meters tall, yet two or three of them working together could defeat an existence over two hundred and fifty meters. Even annihilating the entire Douluo Continent would be a trivial matter for them."
She was, of course, talking about Ultraman. But neither Huo Yuhao nor the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm had ever heard of such a thing. Huo Yuhao quietly asked Tianmeng in the spiritual sea: "Brother Tianmeng, is there really a race like that?"
The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm scoffed, its voice thick with disbelief: "She's just making things up! I've lived on the Douluo Continent for a million years, and I've never once heard of a creature exceeding two hundred meters in height, let alone any soul beast that could effortlessly destroy the entire continent. Not even Di Tian could do that—not unless we're talking about gods. However..." It shifted gears, conceding one fact. "If we're talking about defeating a colossus like the Titan Snow Demon King even at a severe size disadvantage—that is indeed possible. Because size, after all, has never been the sole determinant of combat strength."
"After all, the Titan Snow Demon King may be one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, but it is the weakest among them, with a cultivation of only two hundred thousand years. The other two—the Ice Emperor and the Snow Empress—are nowhere near as enormous, but both have cultivations exceeding three hundred thousand years. If it really came to a fight, the Titan Snow Demon King would only be brutalized."
What it didn't mention was that the Titan Snow Demon King had once been in love with the Snow Empress, had even pursued her—and in the end, the Snow Empress had beaten it half to death.
Huo Yuhao remained half-skeptical of Furina's words—it was simply too absurd. But he had no mind to dig deeper right now. Tianmeng was already urging him onward: "Forget all that. Keep moving. Time waits for no one."