Upon hearing Furina's words, the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm immediately bristled: "Hey! Little Furina! Who are you calling a silkworm baby? Who are you saying has less combat power than a thousand-year Soul Beast? Is my million-year cultivation just for show? And what's with the 'mount' thing?! This is too insulting to silkworms!"
Furina ignored Tianmeng's protests entirely and continued speaking to the Ice Empress, her words coming out fast as if she were delivering an important manifesto: "Furthermore, he's not a free agent anymore! He has honorably become Huo Yuhao's Wisdom Spirit Ring! Ever heard of it? The first-ever Wisdom Spirit Ring in history! So, Huo Yuhao is now his host—in a sense, Huo Yuhao is his 'boss'! Understand?"
"Wisdom Spirit Ring?" A flicker of doubt flashed in the Ice Empress's eyes. This unfamiliar term clearly touched upon a blind spot in her knowledge, but she cared more about Furina's previous words: "The Pope of the Water God Cult and the Water God? Just you?"
She carefully sensed Furina's aura. Her strength level was indeed not particularly startling, but vaguely, she could feel a peculiar essence from this person. It was a... high-level, divine resonance, bearing some similarities to the auras of the Sea God and other deities she had occasionally sensed ten thousand years ago, albeit very faint.
Seeing the Ice Empress's skeptical expression, Furina suddenly sighed. She shook her head with feigned depth and spoke in a slightly theatrical tone: "Sigh, I wanted to get along with you all as a Mortal, but all I received in return was distance and doubt. Fine, I'll stop pretending."
As her voice fell, she slowly raised her right hand, palm upward with fingers slightly spread. In the next moment, a point of warm blue radiance quietly emerged from beneath the skin on the back of her hand, as if a slumbering star had been suddenly awakened. The glow rapidly condensed and extended, tracing a complex and profound pattern—it was no mundane tattoo or mark, but something flowing with pure and lofty divine energy. Just looking at it, one could feel a sense of awe and pressure originating from the very Origin of life.
"I'm laying my cards on the table. I am Furina, the Water God, one of the Seven Archons, and the sole successor to the current seat of the Water God. This is the Seal of the Water God Trial. Given your experience, you should be able to distinguish its authenticity."
The moment that divine seal fully manifested, the air within the entire ice cave seemed to freeze. The mental fluctuations of the Ice Empress and the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm, these two Overlords of the Far North who had lived for countless ages, fell into an unprecedented standstill.
"A divine seal... This is a genuine First-Class God Legacy mark?!" The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's voice was so sharp it nearly changed pitch, filled with unbelievable horror. "You... you are actually... a God's Chosen?!"
Though the Ice Empress did not speak, her emerald-like body trembled imperceptibly. In her crystal-yellow compound eyes, her former arrogance and coldness were replaced by immense shock. Having lived for nearly four hundred thousand years, she had remotely felt similar auras dissipated by those beings during their Ascension or descent ten thousand years ago. That was a level of power that transcended Soul Beasts, transcended Mortals, and reigned over the very rules of the world! The Origin fluctuations emitted by the mark on the back of Furina's hand were pure and sublime, without a hint of falsehood!
Even Huo Yuhao was completely stunned. He stared blankly at the mark on the back of Sister Furina's hand, which radiated a soft blue light yet contained endless majesty. His mind went blank.
He had always thought "Water God" was just a special title or a lofty ideal of Sister Furina's. He never imagined it was a status so close to the truth, one that she had already embarked upon! Seeing the nearly undignified reactions of Brother Tianmeng and the Ice Empress, the authenticity of this divine mark was self-evident.
Furina's fingertips twitched slightly, and the radiance of the divine seal on the back of her hand receded, slowly fading away, yet that invisible sense of majesty did not fully dissipate. She turned her gaze back to the trapped Ice Empress, her tone regaining some of its previous liveliness but with an added, unquestionable confidence: "So, Ice Empress, can we now continue this conversation regarding the future in a calm and peaceful manner?"
She looked peacefully at the trapped Ice Empress. "The method Tianmeng wants to use to keep you alive is the 'God-Making Plan.' He voluntarily became Huo Yuhao's Wisdom Spirit Ring because he wants to help Huo Yuhao become a god, and you are also a part of his plan—you are the Second Martial Soul he found for Huo Yuhao."
"You want to survive your next Great Limit and seek the possibility of eternal life. This youth before you, Huo Yuhao, is the future we have chosen. He possesses talent and potential that even I cannot see through, and he has the support of myself, Tianmeng, and another future guide. If you join and grant him the Martial Soul of Ultimate Ice, we will gather the strength of four parties to jointly create an unprecedented deity. Moreover, if he truly achieves godhood, we might even be able to bring your good sister, the Snow Empress, along with us."
She paused, her voice carrying an indisputable certainty, as if stating an impending fact: "I, in the name of the Water God Furina, swear that if you are willing to become his Second Martial Soul, Huo Yuhao will surely become a god. Furthermore, I assert that he will become one of the most powerful deities in the history of this Douluo Continent!"
A deathly silence fell over the ice cave, with only the wailing of the wind coming from the depths of the icy abyss. For the first time, the Ice Empress's crystal-yellow gem-like eyes truly and seriously gazed at the seemingly ordinary human youth, Huo Yuhao, as if trying to see through him completely from Soul to flesh.
The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's plan, Furina's oath, and that seemingly absurd yet vaguely plausible "God-Making" blueprint—all this information clashed and swirled wildly within the wisdom she had accumulated over nearly four hundred thousand years. Survival or destruction? To hold onto the pride of the King of the Far North until she vanished with the snow, or to gamble everything on this human youth's ethereal path to godhood?
The long silence solidified in the cold air, as if even time itself was frozen by this extreme cold. Finally, the Ice Empress's cold and crisp voice, carrying a trace of an imperceptible, fate-deciding tremor, slowly rang out: "God-making... specifically, how is it done?"
This question was like the first crack appearing on the wall of pride she had defended for hundreds of thousands of years. The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's mental fluctuations instantly erupted in uncontrollable ecstasy, while a mysterious smile, as if everything was under control, curled at the corner of Furina's mouth. Huo Yuhao held his breath; he knew that a decision capable of changing the entire landscape of the Douluo Continent was about to be made personally by this trapped Heavenly King of the Far North in this deserted arctic ice cave.