Chapter 48: Return to the Extreme North, Huo Yuhao's Fortune
Edge of the core circle, Far North Land.
The biting cold wind was like countless ice blades, slicing through the thin air and whipping up a sky full of ice dust.
Huo Yuhao lay prone on the hard ice layer. A bone-piercing chill threatened to freeze his blood solid, his teeth chattering uncontrollably. He stared fixedly ahead at the massive, cocoon-shaped barrier of soft white light, his eyes filled with desperate hope.
Inside the barrier, the Ice Empress—the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion—was struggling violently. Her crystalline, art-like scorpion body radiated surging waves of Ultimate Ice energy that crashed against the barrier walls like furious tides.
Under the Ice Empress's full-force assault, intense ripples spread across the barrier's surface, accompanied by an ear-grating crack sound. Clear fissures were spreading across it at a visible speed!
"No... impossible!!" Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's voice shrieked with disbelief within Huo Yuhao's spiritual sea. "Bing Bing's power... how can it be this strong?! This energy fluctuation... it's definitely not just 390,000 years! It's probably close to the 500,000-year mark! My shed skin... it can't hold!"
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's voice was filled with regret.
His original plan was based on the Ice Empress's 390,000-year cultivation and her desperate mindset facing the 400,000-year heavenly tribulation. With the toughness of his million-year shed skin, trapping a 390,000-year Ice Empress would have been more than sufficient, giving him ample time for his "persuasion" work.
However, the power the Ice Empress was unleashing now far exceeded his estimates—by nearly 100,000 years. This massive gap made the seal formed by his shed skin perilously fragile.
"Bing Bing! Stop! Listen to me! It's a misunderstanding!" Tianmeng Ice Silkworm made a final attempt, his spiritual fluctuations brimming with urgency.
"A misunderstanding?" A response, icy to the bone and saturated with killing intent, came from within the barrier. "Tianmeng! You despicable worm! How dare you scheme against this king! Once I break free, I will crush you and this human brat to dust!"
Crack... Boom!
Finally, when the terrifying power the Ice Empress had accumulated reached its peak, the massive barrier could no longer withstand it. It exploded like shattered glass, countless points of light scattering in all directions, instantly extinguished by the extreme cold.
Freed from confinement, the Ice Empress seemed to have grown in size. Her emerald-green scorpion body gleamed with a heart-stopping cold light, the diamond-like tip of her tail pointed directly at Huo Yuhao!
An eruption of Ultimate Cold far more terrifying than before burst forth. A blizzard suddenly took shape around her, transforming into an ice-cold tornado that connected heaven and earth, carrying an aura of utter destruction as it surged toward Huo Yuhao!
Before the blizzard even reached him, Huo Yuhao felt as if his very soul was about to freeze. His thoughts slowed to a crawl, his vision filled only with the expanding, deathly expanse of white.
"It's over..." was the only thought that flashed through Huo Yuhao's mind. "Brother Tianmeng, you've really screwed me this time..."
At this critical moment, it was as if an invisible hand gently plucked the strings of time and space.
The roaring, terrifying blizzard that was about to engulf Huo Yuhao, as if someone had pressed pause, suddenly solidified in mid-air.
The swirling ice crystals, the howling frigid wind—all maintained their motion from the previous instant, yet were eerily frozen in place. Along with them, the Ice Empress's overwhelming killing intent and surging energy fluctuations were also immobilized.
The shift from extreme motion to absolute stillness was so abrupt it was suffocating.
A flicker of astonishment passed through the Ice Empress's diamond-like eyes.
She could sense that the power she had released wasn't being neutralized or dispersed, but was being forcibly imprisonment within this space by a force that was vaster, more fundamental.
This power... was filled with the will of the entire heaven and earth!
Almost instinctively, she immediately withdrew the agitated ice-attribute energy around her. Her massive scorpion body lowered slightly, the previous towering rage and killing intent instantly transforming into utmost reverence:
"Respected Plane Master, is it Your arrival?"
Space rippled slightly. A figure clad in simple robes, with black hair and black eyes, appeared soundlessly between Huo Yuhao and the Ice Empress. It was Lei Chen.
A faint, flowing seven-colored halo surrounded him, forming a stark contrast against the pure white of the Extreme North. He didn't even glance at the frozen blizzard, his calm gaze simply settling on the Ice Empress.
Feeling Lei Chen's gaze upon her, the Ice Empress's posture became even more respectful.
Lei Chen gave a slight nod, appraising the Ice Empress, a thread of approval in his tone. "Not bad. In less than a year, your cultivation has risen from 400,000 years to 490,000 years. Your progress during this time has been significant."
Hearing this, the Ice Empress hastily replied with humility, "You flatter me, Honored One! All of this is solely due to Your grace!"
"Without the Ten Thousand Years of Mysterious Ice Marrow You bestowed, relying on my own arduous cultivation, it would have been absolutely impossible to advance nearly 100,000 years in such a short time!"
She paused briefly, a hint of inquiry in her diamond-like eyes as she asked respectfully, "Might I inquire as to the purpose of Your Honored Self's descent to the Far North Land this time? If You have any commands, this Ice Emperor will carry them out even at the cost of ten thousand deaths!"
Lei Chen's gaze remained placid as he spoke indifferently, his voice seeming to merge with this world of ice and snow. "Nothing major. Naturally, it is to once again ensure you and the Xue Di safely pass the next heavenly tribulation that approaches. And, incidentally, to spare this little fellow's life."
"Spare this little fellow's life?" The Ice Empress was taken aback, her gaze involuntarily shifting back to Huo Yuhao, who remained frozen in place, his face devoid of color.
She found it extremely difficult to comprehend why this profound and inscrutable Plane Master would specifically intervene for this human youth who, in her view, possessed pitifully low Soul Power and unremarkable aptitude. The Ice Empress focused her spirit, carefully sensing Huo Yuhao, trying to discern any special qualities he might possess.
However, no matter how she probed, aside from sensing that the boy's spiritual power seemed slightly stronger than Soul Masters of his rank, and that his lifeblood was nearly frozen solid by the Ultimate Cold, she could detect nothing else worthy of the Plane Master's personal attention.
That pitifully weak level 20 Soul Power was, in the eyes of an existence like the Ice Empress, no different from an ant.
'Why would the Honored One want to spare him? Could it be...' The Ice Empress's heart was filled with doubt, but she dared not ask further.
The will of the Plane Master was not something she could presume to fathom.
Under the Ice Empress's scrutinizing and perplexed gaze, Huo Yuhao felt his entire body go rigid, unable to move even a fingertip. The extreme terror of having just brushed shoulders with death had not yet dissipated. His heart pounded wildly in his chest, almost leaping out of his throat.
He had thought death was certain. In the face of that world-obliterating blizzard, he had been as insignificant as a speck of dust. Yet, this sudden reversal—this mysterious powerhouse whom the Ice Empress reverently addressed as 'Plane Master'—had saved him with such casual ease.
Although Huo Yuhao didn't fully understand what 'Plane Master' truly signified, the attitude displayed by the Ice Empress made it crystal clear: this seemingly ordinary black-haired man before him was actually a supreme existence, far above the The Three Heavenly Kings of the Far North, beyond his imagination.
Basic courtesy compelled Huo Yuhao to forcefully suppress the tempest of shock in his heart. With a voice trembling slightly from the cold, he expressed his gratitude to Lei Chen. "Th-thank you, Senior, for saving my life!"