The human group quickly came into Ye Nanxiao's sight.
Everyone was wounded, some wounds still bleeding.
The leader was a middle-aged man with a fierce expression, carrying a small cage in his left hand.
Inside the cage were three blocks of blue ice, arranged in a triangle, with a small beast vaguely visible in the center.
"Looks like they're here to capture a soul beast. What kind of soul beast is this?"
Ye Nanxiao transmitted his voice in his spiritual sea.
"Azure Mirror Spirit Beast, a rare species.
They have very special soul skills that can completely reflect soul skills," Xue Di said.
"However, Azure Mirror Spirit Beasts are social soul beasts.
It seems these humans have broken into an Azure Mirror Spirit Beast tribe and forcibly captured one."
Xue Di's voice was cold, her killing intent rising.
"These people have probably paid a heavy price; they're all injured.
Xue'er, what do you think?" Ye Nanxiao made a telescope shape with his hands.
"Kill them," Xue Di said coldly.
"My years of playing the assassin are finally coming in handy.
I'll sneak over here, Lao Bai, wait for my signal."
Ye Nanxiao crawled forward, disappearing into the snow.
"Use the various objects in the environment, and press the spacebar to enter stealth mode when you get close."
Ye Nanxiao was about to hide under several large blocks of ice when
a sharp-eyed Soul Master spotted the sneaky Ye Nanxiao and immediately shouted, "Who's there! Be on guard!"
"Huh?
You even detected my master-level stealth?"
Ye Nanxiao was bewildered.
"Attack!" Snow Empress said.
"Lao Bai! Charge at them!" Ye Nanxiao swung an ice disc, giving the command to the Snow Wolf King.
"Woo!" The Snow Wolf King leaped up, its fur covered in icicles, like an ice hedgehog.
"Damn it, where did this kid come from, trying to ambush your grandpa?"
The middle-aged man put down the cage, holding a large, earthen-yellow knife in his hand.
Black fur grew all over his body, and his mouth was sharp, emitting strange noises.
Ye Nanxiao erupted instantly, charging into the crowd.
"My mental eye senses the energy of ten people.
Judging from their soul rings, most are around three rings, with only one four-ring, and all are injured."
His martial soul activated, he punched one of the men's shields, sending a three-ring Soul Master staggering backward and crashing into his companions.
Meanwhile, Lao Bai, having disrupted the formation, approached the Soul Master, his jaws wide open, his wolf fangs turning deep blue and biting at the Soul Master with frost.
"Here, borrow your shield."
After knocking back the Soul Master, Ye Nanxiao quickly followed, sweeping out a leg that struck the Soul Master squarely in the head.
Already suffering from a punch that caused his blood to surge, the Soul Master was caught off guard and kicked in the head, instantly collapsing to the ground unconscious.
After snatching the shield, Ye Nanxiao turned and forcefully swung it, hitting a Soul Master wielding two short sticks who was attempting a sneak attack from behind.
"You little brat, you've got guts!"
The Soul Master with the Iron Bucket Martial Soul closest to Ye Nanxiao grabbed his own Martial Soul and slammed it down on Ye Nanxiao.
"Hey big guy, buckets aren't for hitting people, they're for learning geometry!"
Ye Nanxiao turned and dodged, kicking the Soul Master's wrist.
The Iron Bucket Martial Soul Soul Soul Master winced in pain and released his grip on the bucket.
Ye Nanxiao seized the opportunity to leap into the air using the bucket, blood-red Soul Rings appearing on his body, and huge ice pillars rapidly condensing behind him.
"Blood, blood-red Soul Rings, this kid, he's not human!"
The Iron Bucket Soul Master exclaimed, stunning all the Soul Masters surrounding Ye Nanxiao.
"Happy holiday, everyone."
Ye Nanxiao flashed a big smile, and his Soul Skill erupted behind him.
The Snow Empress's intervention aided Ye Nanxiao in unleashing his Soul Skill, boosting its power several levels, but also depleting two-thirds of Ye Nanxiao's Soul Power.
Like a flock of birds taking flight, a dense barrage of ice spikes rained down, plunging the group of Soul Masters into darkness after they only remembered Ye Nanxiao's last words.
Ye Nanxiao landed flat on the snowdrift, his small head struggling to emerge from the snow, spitting out a mouthful of snow he had swallowed, cursing, "Such a cool scene and I just collapsed on the spot?"
Climbing out of the snow pit, Ye Nanxiao assessed the situation of the group of Soul Masters.
They were all already injured, and coupled with the shock of Ye Nanxiao's blood-red soul ring, no one dared to take the full force of his soul skill defensively.
The result was naturally that no one survived.
"Where's Lao Bai?"
Ye Nanxiao quickly searched for the Snow Wolf King's whereabouts.
"Damn it!" The Soul Master with the Roaring Rat martial soul, having barely dodged the Snow Wolf King's claws, saw his subordinates being wiped out from afar and coughed up blood in anger.
"I never imagined that after all my scheming, murdering two Soul Saints and a large force, and finally capturing the Azure Mirror Spirit Beast, I'd be selling it for a good price and retiring from this life of crime.
But alas, I've encountered a humanoid beast! Heaven is against me!"
The Roaring Rat Soul Master tore open his clothes, revealing a body covered in scars.
"That's just bad luck. You were trying to keep the spoils and ran into me."
Ye Nanxiao jumped to the Snow Wolf King's side.
"Old Bai, Frost Breath! Spray it on him!"
Ye Nanxiao pointed at the Roaring Rat Soul Master and gave the command to the Snow Wolf King.
The Snow Wolf King howled, lying on the snow, its two large paws covering its head.
"I forgot you don't know this skill," Ye Nanxiao sighed.
"You brat, prepare to die!"
The Roaring Rat Soul Master placed its claws between its mouths, emitting a visible sonic spike.
"Stop dawdling!" The Snow Emperor appeared beside Ye Nanxiao, waving her hand to disperse the sonic spikes.
"What?! What kind of monster are you?!"
The Roaring Rat Soul Master reacted swiftly, pulling several small spheres from its waist, which exploded on the ground in a puff of smoke.
It then turned and fled at its fastest speed ever, abandoning even the cage containing the Azure Mirror Spirit Beast.
"Don't dawdle!" The Snow Empress stretched out her hand and pointed in the direction the Roaring Rat Soul Master had fled.
A blue soul force mixed with snowflakes caught up with the Roaring Rat Soul Master, lifting it into the air to strangle it.
The soft, cotton-candy-like snowflakes transformed into sharp blades, ending the Roaring Rat Soul Master's life in an instant.
"Collecting boxes!"
Ye Nanxiao happily cleaned up the battlefield.
First, he picked up the cage containing the Azure Mirror Spirit Beast.
The little creature resembled a cat, with three small squeaks on its head and two large eyes staring at Ye Nanxiao.
Ye Nanxiao opened the cage, grabbed the Azure Mirror Spirit Beast, and tossed it onto the Snow Wolf King's back.
"Deliver the package, Old Bai." After instructing the Snow Wolf King, Ye Nanxiao headed towards the battlefield.
Seeing the gruesome state of the corpses, Ye Nanxiao immediately covered his mouth and ran to the side to vomit.
After vomiting, he bent down, picked up a piece of clean snow to wipe his mouth, and continued licking his bag.
"Ugh!" Ye Nanxiao couldn't remember how many times he had vomited.
Excitedly, he pulled out a storage bracelet, which he had found on the Soul Master; the other Soul Venerables basically only carried dry rations.
Ye Nanxiao happily licked the box, obtaining a low-level bracelet-type storage soul tool, only about ten cubic meters in size, but almost entirely filled with gold soul coins.
Ye Nanxiao rolled around on the mountain of gold soul coins for a long time, until Xue Di couldn't stand it anymore and slapped him awake to prevent him from embarrassing himself.
He finally found some relatively high-end-looking clothes in the soul tool bracelet, but Ye Nanxiao noticed a problem.
"Um, these clothes are all so big."
Ye Nanxiao stared at the men's clothing in his hand, lost in thought. A man should never admit he's small! -
Separator
After obtaining the supplies, he prepared for three days.
Ye Nanxiao stood on the outskirts of the far north, breathing in the icy air, and took a big bite of the frozen jerky in his hand.
"This stuff isn't as good as the Geldono that Old Bai caught. Isn't grilled rabbit head better?"
After finishing the jerky, Ye Nanxiao grabbed a handful of snow and wiped his hands.
"I hope that when I return, Old Bai won't have been slaughtered and used as a soul ring."
Ye Nanxiao glanced back at the far north. "Snow Empress, we're leaving."
He greeted the Snow Empress, but she didn't respond.
Ye Nanxiao continued walking towards the outermost edge of the far north.
After all, it was the Snow Empress's home, and leaving her like this would inevitably bring some sadness.
Ignoring the fierce blizzard, Ye Nanxiao's feet moved rhythmically across the snow.
Each time he stepped onto the snow, only a shallow, almost invisible footprint remained.
This was a method Ye Nanxiao had devised to train his soul power control—attaching his soul power to his feet to conceal his footprints.
After traveling for a day, Ye Nanxiao sat cross-legged in a sheltered snow valley to cultivate.
A few days ago, when the Snow Empress was combing through Ye Nanxiao's body, she finally saw something from Ye Nanxiao's world.
Ye Nanxiao's consciousness sank into his sea of consciousness.
The Snow Empress, standing atop a snow-capped mountain within the sea of consciousness, beckoned to him.
Ye Nanxiao floated over and saw a blood-red sphere of light floating at the base of the mountain, its contents obscured by its appearance.
Ye Nanxiao approached, and the sphere seemed to sense his approach, not resisting but instead emitting a beam of light.
This faint light passed through the Snow Empress's seal and connected to Ye Nanxiao, giving him a sense of kinship.
Seeing the resonance between Ye Nanxiao and the sphere, the Snow Empress asked, "I vaguely sense that this thing is you."
"This is a part of me?
Could it be another big surprise?"
Ye Nanxiao said.
His face was filled with excitement.
He already had two golden legendary items; could he get another one?
"Xiao'er, this orb of light is hidden within your other half of your bloodline.
I only found it after I finished processing the power within you. See if you can open it," said the Snow Empress.
She released the seal, allowing Ye Nanxiao to approach the orb.
Ye Nanxiao slowly approached and placed his hand on the orb.
As soon as his hand touched it, the orb began to ripple, then slowly dimmed and disappeared, leaving only a golden scroll in Ye Nanxiao's hand.
"Gold! Gold! It's golden!" Ye Nanxiao shouted excitedly.
Ye Nanxiao unfurled the scroll, squeezing it slightly with his fingers.
He couldn't tell what it was made of. The writing on it was strange, but Ye Nanxiao knew its meaning.
It was demonic script from Qingqiu, a bloodline contract.
The content meant that a blood pact could be signed between a demon and a recognized person.
Once signed, betrayal by one party would result in a backlash from the blood pact for both.
Ye Nanxiao stared in astonishment at the blood pact in his hand, then sighed after a long while, saying, "Has I really become a fox demon? And can I even find a master?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the scroll in his hand emitted a bright light, quickly transforming into specks of golden-red light that entered Ye Nanxiao's body.
When the golden light entered Ye Nanxiao's body, he felt an intense heat throughout his body, especially his heart, which pounded violently.
The sudden heat was unbearable for Ye Nanxiao, and his consciousness was about to leave his sea of consciousness.
Outside, pale blue light surged from all parts of Ye Nanxiao's body, wrapping around him and enveloping him in a sphere of light.
After forming the sphere, it began to change color, gradually matching the color of the surrounding snow.
The sphere pulsated slightly with Ye Nanxiao's breathing, inconspicuous in the vast snowfield.
"The power throughout his body is being filtered, leaving behind very pure soul power.
Has his bloodline awakened?"
The Snow Emperor sensed the changes throughout Ye Nanxiao's body, quietly waiting for the process to end.
The ball of light lasted for a long time before disappearing.
Ye Nanxiao felt that the other half of his bloodline had been activated, and his blood and energy flowed.
The comfortable feeling made Ye Nanxiao subconsciously stretch.
However, the sensations returning from various parts of his body made Ye Nanxiao feel somewhat uncomfortable, especially his hands.
He looked at his hands in front of his eyes.
(End of Chapter)