Although Caelus was enduring extreme agony, as if his bones were being shattered and his flesh sliced away piece by piece—a pain so intense his Soul was screaming and he could barely breathe—his spiritual core remained like steel tempered a hundred million times, becoming increasingly condensed and steadfast.
Though his eyes appeared somewhat unfocused due to the agonizing pain, the golden light deep within them never once flickered out.
However, only Caelus knew that he could endure so tenaciously not just because of his own indomitable will, but also because of a crucial, unknown reason—
...Holy Spirit Cult Headquarters, Secret Chamber
At the same time, tens of thousands of miles away, deep within the Evil Demon Forest, in a certain secret chamber at the very heart of the Holy Spirit Cult.
Castorice, who was also sitting cross-legged, suddenly snapped her eyes open.
Her beautiful purple eyes were now filled with pain, fine beads of cold sweat instantly covered her smooth forehead, and her delicate body trembled uncontrollably.
"Ugh...!"
She let out a suppressed groan, one hand clutching her chest while the other pressed firmly against the ground, her fingernails turning slightly white from the force.
In that instant, an indescribable, terrifying sensation of pain—as if her entire skeletal structure was being crushed and reshaped—crossed the distance of space. It surged into her perception like a tide, creating a powerful resonance with her own Soul.
This pain was not transmitted physically, but originated from their essential connection of having One Soul, Two Bodies.
When Caelus's Soul endured extreme agony due to the reshaping of his torso bone, Castorice, as the other half of the same Soul, inevitably and clearly felt that pain as well.
"One Soul, Two Bodies... there's even this kind of benefit,"
Castorice said through gritted teeth.
With the main body enduring the pain and Castorice sharing it, the agony was split in two, greatly easing the suffering of the Fusion with the Ice Empress.
And because of Castorice's existence, it was impossible for Caelus to lose consciousness... Extreme North Ice Cave
The moment Castorice began to share the pain, Caelus suddenly felt the tidal wave of agony from the depths of his Soul—which had nearly drowned his consciousness—seem to... weaken slightly.
Although the physical pain of his torso bone being crushed and reshaped still existed, the extreme torment that threatened to tear, freeze, and obliterate his Soul was partially diverted to Castorice.
This allowed his mental will, which was on the brink of collapse, a precious moment of respite, enabling him to focus more on guiding the surging energy within his body and accelerating the Fusion process.
Time passed slowly amidst the extreme pain.
Inside the ice cave, a jade-green light completely enveloped Caelus, forming a massive luminous cocoon.
On the surface of the cocoon, countless tiny ice crystal runes moved and flickered like living things, emitting increasingly powerful energy fluctuations and a heart-stopping Ultimate Ice chill.
Under the influence of this cold, the surrounding ice walls became even more translucent, even spontaneously condensing more and sharper ice prisms.
Zhang Lexuan, leaning against the ice wall, had long since been shocked beyond words by the scene before her.
She watched Caelus struggle in pain, saw him being wrapped in the jade-green cocoon, and felt the aura emanating from it—which was rapidly approaching the Soul King level and still rising—as well as that Ultimate Ice attribute that made even her, a Spirit Douluo, feel her Soul tremble.
She knew she was witnessing the birth of a miracle, the rise of a future powerhouse.
Shrek Academy—no, the landscape of the entire continent—might undergo earth-shattering changes because of everything happening inside this ice cave today.
And she was the sole bystander.
An unknown amount of time passed; perhaps it was an instant, perhaps an eternity.
The massive jade-green cocoon suddenly shrank inward, and all the light and energy were drawn back into Caelus's body like a whale swallowing water.
The ice crystals on his body shattered and fell away, revealing skin beneath that seemed reshaped, appearing even more lustrous and smooth.
The bulging veins subsided, and his pained, distorted expression returned to calm, even carrying a hint of solemn and dignified grace.
On his back, a complex and magnificent jade-green scorpion-shaped tattoo could be faintly seen for a fleeting moment, emitting a heart-stopping majesty.
Caelus slowly, very slowly, opened his eyes.
What kind of eyes were those?
His left eye remained its original brilliant gold, as if it contained fragments of the sun—warm and profound.
But his right eye's pupil had turned into a jade-green like ten-thousand-year profound ice—cold and sharp, as if it could freeze a person's Soul.
Gold and green, time and frost; two completely different powers and temperaments were now perfectly fused within the same person.
Second Spirit, Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, Fusion successful.
Ice Jade Empress Scorpion torso bone, Fusion successful.
With a slight thought, an unprecedentedly majestic power surged from the depths of his Dantian, flowing through his entire body.
Behind him, an exquisite and lifelike phantom of the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion suddenly emerged. Its entire body seemed carved from green jade, its tail arched high, emitting an extreme chill and prehistoric vicious might that made the Soul tremble.
At the same time, a brilliant and dazzling blood-red circle expanded from beneath Caelus's feet; it was remarkably a hundred thousand year spirit ring.
But unlike an ordinary hundred thousand year spirit ring, this blood-red spirit ring was clearly imprinted with four brilliant golden patterns.
Those four golden patterns were precisely the manifestation of the Ice Empress's cultivation.
She originally had a cultivation of three hundred and ninety thousand years, so by normal logic, the spirit ring should only have had three golden patterns.
However, at the final moment of Fusion, Istaroth, who was seated within the Hall of Time, quietly looked up. A wisp of extremely pure time power crossed the boundary between reality and illusion, flowing into the Ice Empress's nearly formed mental imprint. This helped her cultivation, which had been stuck at a Bottleneck for countless years, to violently break through the four-hundred-thousand-year threshold at the moment of her sacrificial ascension.
Therefore, the first spirit ring of Caelus's second Spirit was a genuine, four-hundred-thousand-year level Vicious Beast spirit ring.
The energy it contained and the Spirit Abilities it brought were far more powerful than a normal hundred thousand year spirit ring.
Under the massive energy feedback, Caelus's own Soul Power Rank also began to skyrocket.
The Rank 42 Bottleneck melted away like snow, and his Soul Power surged forward irresistibly, finally stabilizing at Rank 45.
And this was only because the Ice Empress had actively sealed the vast majority of her own Origin, with only a small portion of energy overflowing to provide this boost.
A Vicious Beast's energy is incredibly violent; had the Ice Empress not willingly sealed herself, and had Istaroth not reinforced the Seal with time power, the only outcome for Caelus with his Spirit Ancestor cultivation would have been his body exploding.
Being able to increase his Soul Power by three Ranks was already an unexpected pleasant surprise.
After all, the original Huo Yuhao's Rank didn't increase much after fusing with the Ice Empress, and Huo Yuhao's cultivation at that time was Rank 20, whereas he was Rank 42.
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