The Ice Empress and the Snow Empress didn't say much. After all, the Snow Empress was naturally cold and rarely spoke, while the Ice Empress didn't know what to say for a moment because of the incident where she overheard sounds outside the wall.
She was currently in a state of shame and indignation mixed with guilt, as well as a few hints of inexplicable expectation. It was very strange, so strange that it made her heart as messy as tangled flax.
The Ice Empress sat like this, her gaze seemingly unintentionally drifting toward Kong Mingan in the distance, who was talking with the Ice Butterflies, only to withdraw it rapidly after a brief moment.
The Snow Empress took in all these little movements. Her ice-blue eyes remained calm as she broke the silence between the two first:
"Bing'er, aren't you going back with him?"
The Ice Empress stiffened slightly but quickly returned to normal. Shaking her head, she said seriously:
"No, I'm staying here to accompany you."
The Snow Empress's expression was calm as she reached out a slender finger and gently pinched the Ice Empress's puffed-out cheek.
The touch was cold, delicate, and a bit soft—very easy to pinch.
"Duplicitous."
Her voice was light, carrying a hint of inexplicable certainty: "No regrets?"
The Ice Empress pursed her lips and turned her face away, looking at neither the Snow Empress nor Kong Mingan in the distance, only muttering:
"How could I possibly regret anything because of him!"
The Snow Empress spoke no more, simply watching her quietly.
Feeling that gaze, the Ice Empress's eyes began to wander. The bit of confidence in her heart gradually dissipated, and her sense of guilt grew heavier and heavier.
After pausing for a good while, she emphasized again, as if cheering herself up: "In short, I don't regret it."
The Snow Empress pondered for a moment and decided to try a different approach: "After my cultivation stabilizes, I will go to his place. Do you want to come along?"
The Ice Empress's small face immediately turned serious, putting on a business-like air: "I will accompany you."
The Snow Empress shook her head, looked into the Ice Empress's golden eyes, and said indifferently:
"Utterly duplicitous."
"..."
The Ice Empress remained silent, refusing to admit the Snow Empress's claim even if it killed her.
Looking at the Ice Empress's appearance, a hint of helplessness flashed in the Snow Empress's eyes. It seemed she had to think of a way.
The Snow Empress's eyes flickered slightly as she fell into thought.
And after giving her answer, the Ice Empress's gaze uncontrollably and secretly drifted toward Kong Mingan in the distance again.
However, as soon as her vision touched that slender figure, those blurry yet burning images she couldn't see clearly began to surge uncontrollably in her mind.
Unconsciously, her cheeks heated up rapidly, stained with a faint crimson flush.
As if burned, she snapped her gaze back, her heart beating uncontrollably fast.
But after a few seconds, her gaze was drawn back involuntarily like a magnet, only to panic and look away again due to those churning memories.
After repeating this several times, the Ice Empress felt dizzy and her heart was in turmoil, her legs feeling inexplicably weak.
...
...
After handling the related affairs of the Extreme North Land, Kong Mingan did not stay for long.
After all, in his original plan, his main purpose for coming to the Extreme North Land was to handle the Snow Empress's promotion and the refinement of the Stairway to Godhood concept.
The trip, which was originally expected to take only two or three days, had been extended to over a week due to the Snow Empress's affairs.
If he didn't go back soon, he was really going to burn out.
After a simple farewell to the Snow Empress and the still-awkward Ice Empress, Kong Mingan's form merged into a spatial ripple and disappeared.
The next moment, in the Sun Moon Empire's Mingdu, within the Kong Family Chamber of Commerce and Kong Mingan's exclusive Laboratory, space distorted slightly and abruptly, and then his figure stepped out silently.
His gaze swept around, and his eyes stopped with a slight surprise in a corner of the Laboratory.
There, a pretty figure was sitting cross-legged, spirit power flowing around her as she entered a deep state of meditation. It was Wang Dong'er.
At this moment, the young girl's exquisite face was full of focus and seriousness. Her breath was long and peaceful, and judging by her spirit power fluctuations, her cultivation had reached around level forty-three or forty-four.
After experiencing so many things, Wang Dong'er's changes were indeed significant. She lacked the laziness from the original work and was exceptionally hardworking in her cultivation.
The Sea God Martial Soul on her body was an extremely important research sample. The stronger her strength, the more the Sea God Martial Soul itself would be nourished and improved accordingly.
This could be considered a casual move he had laid out against Tang San's sea gods god seat. Cultivating her was worth the investment, whether as an assistant or as a potential future pawn.
Thinking of this, a trace of interest flickered in his eyes. He was very much looking forward to the "devoted father and filial daughter" scene that would likely play out in the future.
He did not disturb Wang Dong'er's cultivation and silently went to an experimental bench on the side.
Connecting to the "Spiritual Pivot," the light screen lit up, and countless star systems rose, listing several conceptual plans for the next step of strengthening the "Body Cultivator" system.
However, he only browsed through them briefly before his brows furrowed unconsciously.
The reason why the progress of the "Body Cultivator" system was so difficult was fundamentally due to the lack of sufficiently powerful and representative research samples.
The "Spell Cultivator" path could advance rapidly, and even the construction of the Stairway to Godhood went smoothly, largely because he had high-level samples to learn from.
As for the "Body Cultivator" path, it lacked a "template" of a similar level for reference.
Kong Mingan sighed softly and murmured to himself:
"A pity. Lacking relevant top-tier physical samples, and it's impossible for the God of Destruction's side to agree to release the sealed Golden Dragon King for me to'slice' and study. That thing is hard to control and the risk is too high."
He set aside this temporarily unsolvable problem and instead turned his attention to other projects such as "mass-produced Thousand-Refined Metal," "Mechas," and the preliminary concept of "Battle Armor."
Although these also presented huge challenges, at least the directions of these projects were clear. As for the reinforcement of the "Body Cultivator" path, he would take his time with it.
Soon, Kong Mingan entered his state and began processing the forging samples provided by Xiao Hongchen that had accumulated over the past few days. Time slowly passed in his focused research.
At a certain moment, Kong Mingan, who was in the middle of an experiment, paused slightly, a hint of astonishment flashing in his eyes.
He sensed for a moment, and his expression became strange.
"The plane will is so efficient this time?"
...
...
At the headquarters of the Kong Family Chamber of Commerce, the above-ground portion of this behemoth standing in the heart of the Mingdu was a commercial area for receiving guests, bright and orderly.
However, its core area was the underground space buried deep beneath, extending down over a hundred floors with a structure as complex as a labyrinth.
This place was not only a storage warehouse for the Chamber's vast resources but also housed many laboratories and researchers conducting soul tool technology R&D and various secret studies; it was heavily guarded.
At one point, the soul tool elevator door on the twelfth underground floor slid open silently.
A female staff member wearing the standard Chamber of Commerce uniform was looking down, focused on the light screen projected by her "Spiritual Pivot," handling affairs as she stepped out.
And right behind her, a tall figure, like a ghost blending into the air, used the moment the door opened to follow her in silently.
(End of Chapter)
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