"Such strong gale winds, so this is the Extreme North?"
After sensing the changes in the surrounding environment, Shui Binger was greatly surprised.
One must know, this was only the outer perimeter of the Extreme North. Even the gale winds here were already this powerful—what kind of scene would lie deeper inside?
Although Shui Wuhen's expression remained unchanged, he was inwardly somewhat shocked as he said, "No wonder the Extreme North is a human forbidden zone. With such low temperatures, combined with these violent gale winds, even Spirit Masters of low rank would probably have to exert everything just to survive here, let alone the fierce soul beasts within the Extreme North."
Then, Shui Wuhen sent a voice transmission to Articuno: "Articuno, descend a little lower."
Although with the siblings' level of Ultimate Ice, this degree of gale wind could not affect them at all—in fact, it even helped speed up their soul power recovery—the wind not only was violent but also obstructed their vision, making it difficult to spot soul beasts in this endless white snowy land.
Moreover, this was the Extreme North after all. A wind pressure equivalent to Soul Ancestor level was not the limit, but merely the beginning.
So although descending might expose them to attacks from the ground, after overall consideration, it was still better to leave this gale zone.
"Uhh~~"
Upon hearing this, Articuno immediately began to slowly descend from the hundred-meter-high sky.
Only after the gale disappeared did Articuno stop, and Shui Wuhen finally regained a clear view of the ground below.
The landscape below was just as one would imagine of an icy land—endless white snow everywhere. However, compared to other snow-covered regions, this place felt even more lifeless.
Despite flying for so long, they still had not seen a single soul beast.
"Am I still too far at the edge right now? It seems if I want to obtain a suitable spirit ring, I'll need to go deeper."
Seeing this, Shui Wuhen thought inwardly.
As if sensing his thoughts, Articuno flapped its wings, its body once again accelerating, turning into a streak of ice-blue light as it flew rapidly deeper into the Extreme North.
Not long after Shui Wuhen and the others entered the Extreme North—
Inside a certain ice cavern, a soul beast suddenly awakened from its slumber.
It was a scorpion-type soul beast about 1.5 meters in size, its body a gemstone-like emerald green. The hook on its tail shone like a dazzling diamond, giving it an artistic beauty.
Although its size was not large, the aura it emitted was extremely terrifying—so much so that even legendary ten-thousand-year soul beasts would appear insignificant in front of it.
Because she was one of the Three Heavenly Kings of the Extreme North—the Ice Empress!
"The aura of Ten-thousand-year Profound Ice Marrow… is it Tianmeng?"
The Ice Empress stretched lazily and moved her body. A clear female voice came from the mouth of this ice scorpion, but just after waking up, she seemed somewhat groggy, her tone carrying a hint of drowsiness.
However, she quickly adjusted herself. Her hexagonal golden eyes flashed with a special light.
"Tianmeng, this time I won't let you escape again. Just obediently become my food!"
She had already missed it once before. This time, she absolutely could not miss again—otherwise, the next great tribulation would be her death sentence.
In the next instant, the Ice Empress transformed into a green streak of light, rapidly rushing out of her cavern toward the direction of the aura she sensed.
...
Double Blizzard!
As Shui Wuhen and Articuno went all out, a giant bird nearly seven meters tall finally could not hold on any longer and crashed down heavily.
After it fell, strands of black light converged into a black spirit ring floating above its massive corpse.
"Phew~"
At this moment, Shui Wuhen descended from the sky and exhaled deeply.
Then, looking at the spirit ring above the bird's corpse, a faint smile appeared on his face.
Even he did not expect this journey to go so smoothly. Shortly after entering the core region of the Extreme North, they had already encountered a top-tier ice attribute bird-type soul beast of over seventy thousand years.
Although it was still somewhat short of his ideal ultimate configuration, this result was already acceptable.
After slightly recovering his soul power, Shui Wuhen slowly walked forward and raised his hand, about to draw the spirit ring over and begin absorbing it.
No matter what, this was the Extreme North—human forbidden land. The faster the actions, the better.
"Tianmeng, you cannot escape!"
However, at this moment, a terrifying roar echoed out, causing Shui Wuhen's ears to ring.
In the next instant, a crystalline emerald-green figure appeared in his line of sight.
"Hm?"
At this moment, the Ice Empress also realized something was not as she expected. Looking at Shui Wuhen and Shui Binger, she said in surprise, "Two humans?"
But very quickly, she discovered that the aura of Ten-thousand-year Profound Ice Marrow she craved was coming precisely from these two humans and one bird—especially that unfamiliar bird, whose aura was so dense it was practically overflowing.
Slurp~
The Ice Empress swallowed and asked them, "Humans, have you ever eaten a kind of liquid inside a white ice pillar before?"
"Speaking human language?"
Shui Wuhen's pupils contracted sharply, a chill rising in his back.
Because speaking human language meant only one thing—this was a ten-thousand-year soul beast.
"Damn it, why now of all times!"
Shui Wuhen gritted his teeth inwardly. If this soul beast had appeared later, after he absorbed his seventh spirit ring and obtained his True Body of Martial Soul, then even against a ten-thousand-year soul beast, he and Articuno together might still have a chance to fight.
But this ten-thousand-year soul beast had appeared precisely before he absorbed his seventh spirit ring. With his current strength, he was no match for it.
A ten-thousand-year soul beast—even the weakest of them would normally require the combined effort of multiple Titled Douluo-level combatants to hunt. Soul Emperors and Soul Kings would be almost useless unless they were massed together to create a quantitative change.
Otherwise, there would not be so many Titled Douluo whose ninth spirit ring was still only ten-thousand-year level.
Did they not want ten-thousand-year spirit rings with so many benefits?
On the other side, Shui Binger had originally been happy for her brother about obtaining his seventh spirit ring, but upon seeing the Ice Empress, she instantly felt as if she had fallen into an ice abyss.
The two of them exchanged a glance and immediately understood each other's intent.
Run!
There was no second choice.
In an instant, Shui Wuhen's wings flapped, his figure disappearing from the spot. Along with him disappearing were Articuno and Shui Binger.
"Trying to escape?"
Seeing this, the Ice Empress' eyes flashed with disdain. A Soul Emperor and a Soul King daring to flee in front of her—truly foolish beyond belief.