Chapter 51: Simp Tianmeng
Several more days passed, and Huo Yuhao's party finally reached the core region of the Far North as indicated by the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm.
The wind and snow here seemed to carry a certain sentience, the gales laden with bone-piercing cold and pure, refined heaven-and-earth energy. An ordinary soul master would likely struggle even to breathe in this place. Gazing out in every direction, there was only the eternal, unchanging world of ice—vast, desolate, and deathly still, yet concealing unspeakable dangers and opportunities.
"Alright, this spot will do," the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's voice echoed in Huo Yuhao's spiritual sea, tinged with a barely perceptible mix of tension and anticipation. "Next, we simply wait for the rabbit to come to us. Yuhao, Furina—you can rest for a bit. Best to build an ice house. It'll shield you from the wind and cold, and serve as a temporary shelter."
Huo Yuhao nodded in response. "Understood, Brother Tianmeng." He turned to Furina beside him, his voice carrying trust and reliance. "Sister Furina, let's build an ice house."
Furina smiled beautifully, her expression relaxed and at ease. "That's simple." Before the words had fully left her lips, she gave an elegant snap of her fingers. Her soul power stirred faintly, and the three members of her second martial soul, the "Salon Solitaire"—Lord Usher, Madame Hevmayer, and Mademoiselle Chevaleyda—materialized in answer to her call. Composed of pure water elements, elegant and enigmatic in form, they hovered silently at Furina's side.
"You three—if you would be so kind—build us a sturdy and aesthetically pleasing ice house," Furina instructed softly.
Lord Usher and the others immediately obeyed. Without the need for spoken communication, they released gentle radiance of the water element in perfect unison. They didn't draw upon their core source power, instead manipulating the abundant moisture permeating the surrounding air.
Streams of water wove and shaped themselves as though possessing life, and in the blink of an eye, the framework of an exquisitely structured, crystalline house of water had taken shape. The bitter, cutting winds of the Far North's core region served as nature's most effective flash-freezer. The moment the water house was formed, the bone-piercing cold surged in, almost instantaneously solidifying the flowing water into a perfectly sturdy, subtly luminous ice house—the entire process so effortless and graceful it resembled an act of artistic creation.
Huo Yuhao stared, somewhat dumbfounded. His original plan had been to painstakingly dig into snowdrifts or burrow beneath the ice with his White Tiger Dagger—time-consuming, exhausting, and inevitably crude in result. Furina's method was not only supremely efficient, but the finished product was nothing short of a work of art. He couldn't help but praise her with heartfelt admiration: "Sister Furina, that method of yours is incredible!"
Furina, however, demurely shook her head, her gaze sweeping warmly over her three quiet creations. "This is all thanks to Lord Usher, Madame Hevmayer, and Mademoiselle Chevaleyda. If you wish to praise anyone, praise them." At these words, the three water-element beings seemed to transmit waves of pleased emotion. Lord Usher straightened his posture with even greater dignity; a soft, radiant shimmer flowed across Madame Hevmayer; and Mademoiselle Chevaleyda's tendrils gave a few gentle, contented flicks.
Even the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm in the spiritual sea clicked its tongue in private amazement. This young lady—her control and imaginative application of martial souls and elements is truly ingenious. Her origins must be even more extraordinary than I imagined.
After a brief respite, Tianmeng's tone grew solemn once more. "Alright. Now comes the most critical preparation. Yuhao, we are about to face two major hurdles. The first is luck—whether I can successfully draw the target out and suppress her. The second is your willpower. The fusion process will inevitably be excruciating. If your resolve wavers for even a moment, not only will all our efforts be in vain, but all of us will likely perish here."
At that moment, an ancient yet powerful voice interjected, carrying an air of transcendence and confidence. "Perish? This old man thinks not." Electrolux, who had been deep in slumber, had awoken once more. His power—a strange fusion of deathly aura and sacred presence—rippled outward gently. "In these past days, absorbing the energy of that immortal herb, I have recovered a measure of strength. While it is not yet enough to confront the existence you speak of head-on, should things go awry, protecting you all in a swift retreat—that, I am fairly confident I can manage."
The aura Electrolux exuded was as deep and fathomless as an abyss, making the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm inwardly shudder. Only now did it truly realize that this old man residing within Huo Yuhao had depths that far exceeded its initial estimations. He was no mere bluffer.
Electrolux paused, his spiritual awareness sweeping across Furina in the outside world, and continued: "Furthermore—is that young lady not here? She can casually produce all manner of rare treasures and wondrous artifacts. This old man refuses to believe she lacks a trump card to preserve her life. Young Yuhao, you would do well to have greater faith."
Hearing this, Huo Yuhao nodded heavily, a steadfast light flashing through his eyes. "Mm! I believe in Sister Furina. I believe in Old Electrolux. And I believe in your plan, Brother Tianmeng! We will definitely succeed!"
Furina, standing off to the side, did not interrupt Huo Yuhao's internal communion. She merely watched in silence as the expressions shifted across his face, understanding full well what was unfolding. She already knew, with perfect clarity, what was about to happen and how it would ultimately end. After joining the Church of the Water God, Huo Yuhao's diet, daily regimen, and cultivation resources were beyond anything his original counterpart could have dreamed of. He'd undergone medicinal body-tempering, practiced the complete Mysterious Heaven Technique to fortify his foundation, and trained in the Taiyi Spirit-Refining Art to nourish his soul. Both his physical resilience and spiritual fortitude far surpassed those of the young man who, in the original trajectory of fate, had come to the Far North at this time. The fusion with the Ice Emperor's martial soul—while still a challenge—now had a vastly increased chance of success.
Just then, Huo Yuhao drew a deep breath and, following the method Tianmeng had previously taught him, slowly released his first soul ring. The originally jade-white halo materialized quietly, and then its color began to undergo a wondrous transformation—from white to pale gold, and from pale gold to a brilliant, steady, luminous gold, as though condensed from the purest sunlight, radiating a gentle yet undeniable majesty. This was the true, liberated form of a million-year soul ring!
As the color of the soul ring stabilized, an illusory figure coalesced before Huo Yuhao. Yet, when the light and shadow solidified into tangible form, what appeared before Huo Yuhao and Furina was not the chubby silkworm grub they had imagined. Instead, it was a youth clad in a peculiar, striking outfit of white with gold patterns (resembling silkworm motifs). The youth had a head of brilliant golden hair, and his gray-brown eyes held a glint of cunning and excitement. And his face—it bore an eighty to ninety percent resemblance to Huo Yuhao!
Huo Yuhao's jaw dropped. He pointed at Tianmeng, then touched his own face, momentarily struck speechless. "Brother Tianmeng... you... you're..."
The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm, in his youthful form, stroked his own face with a touch of smugness and chuckled. "How about it, Yuhao? Handsome, right? I used your handsome face as a reference and made a few tweaks and optimizations. After all, your big bro's going to be showing himself in public from now on—image matters, you know!"
Furina looked Tianmeng up and down, a faint, ambiguous smile curving her lips. In a tone laced with playful warning, she remarked: "The image is quite good. But Tianmeng, let me warn you in advance—do your best, but hear me: being a hopeless simp never ends well. Be a real man among soul beasts and stand tall! The strong belong with the strong—that's an eternal truth. A simp who simps to the very end will walk away with nothing at all." Her words were pointed, hinting unmistakably at Tianmeng's ten-thousand-year obsessive pursuit of the Ice Emperor.
Huo Yuhao listened, utterly lost, having no idea what deeper meaning Furina was driving at. But the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm felt his heart seize, as if his most guarded secret had been laid bare. He was secretly horrified: How does she know about me and the Ice Emperor?! I haven't even told Yuhao the full details! Could she truly possess the power of foresight? Or... could it be that what she's claimed all along—that she's connected to the Water God—is actually true?! The more he thought about it, the more unfathomable Furina seemed, shrouded in an aura of deep mystery.
Tianmeng shook his head forcefully, pushing the distracting thoughts aside. Capturing the Ice Emperor was the paramount task at hand. His expression turned grave, and he said to Huo Yuhao and Furina: "Prepare yourselves. I'm about to begin."
With that, the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's youthful form suddenly blazed with razor-sharp intensity. He no longer deliberately concealed the vast, ocean-like aura of his spiritual source. An immense, pure wave of energy—brimming with the seductive promise of life itself—erupted outward, like a colossal lighthouse beacon ignited upon the dark, frozen tundra. Centered upon him, it radiated out unreservedly in every direction, surging with particular ferocity toward the heart of the Ice Emperor's domain!
At the same time, a fierce, domineering spiritual consciousness—thick with tangled, complex emotion—exploded across the skies of the Far North like a thunderclap, its intent unmistakable: "Ice Emperor! I know you feel my presence! Ten thousand years of grievance—today, we settle it! I, Tianmeng, have returned for vengeance! Do you dare show yourself?!"
This consciousness struck like a boulder hurled into a placid lake, instantly shattering the deathly stillness of the Far North's core region. After a brief, breath-held silence—from the distant northern horizon, a sudden upheaval erupted!
A dense, pure, vibrant green light—seething with life yet carrying an aura of ultimate, lethal danger—came surging forward like a tidal wave, its speed beyond imagination. The sky, which had been dark and brooding beneath heavy clouds, was swept over by this green radiance in an instant, as if an invisible giant hand had splashed the most vivid paint across it. It transformed in the blink of an eye into an immense, flawless, translucent emerald. The suffocating, oppressive weight in the air was scoured clean in a heartbeat, replaced by an even more heart-stopping terror—the crushing presence of a force of nature, as if the very heavens and earth had locked onto its target!
"She's here!" The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's heart surged with wild joy, but outwardly, he forced himself into rigid calm, his vigilance sharpening even further.
Huo Yuhao felt that vast, world-altering, color-shifting power, and though he had long been mentally prepared, he couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath. A primal shudder rose from the depths of his soul. So this was the true power of one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North—the Ice Emperor? Terrifying indeed!
"Tianmeng! You're still alive! How very fitting—truly the longest-lived creature our Far North has ever known!" A crisp, icy female voice—yet carrying a strange, bewitching magnetism that seemed to pierce straight through the soul—rang out from every direction at once. The emergence of this voice was accompanied by a tangible, terrifying shockwave of sound. The snow blanketing the ground surged upward as if struck by an invisible tidal wave, roaring several meters into the air! Only within the hundred-meter radius that Tianmeng protected with his immense spiritual power did it remain as calm as before.
"Ice Emperor..." The youth Tianmeng had transformed into lifted his head toward the sky, gazing into that boundless expanse of emerald green. The vengeful edge in his voice abruptly dissolved, replaced by a flood of emotion—complex feelings, steeped over ten thousand years, that clashed starkly with his youthful appearance. His voice became uncharacteristically tender, even saccharine. "It's been so long... If you haven't yet passed from this world, how could I bear to leave before you? Do you remember what I said to you ten thousand years ago? If I survived this time, then one day—I would make you my mate!"
At these words, Huo Yuhao instantly felt a wave of goosebumps erupt across his entire body. And at the same moment, he understood, with sudden and perfect clarity, exactly what Sister Furina's earlier warning about "simps" had truly meant. He stole a furtive glance at Furina. She wore an expression of utter vindication—just as I thought—and shook her head gently.
As for Furina, she simply adjusted the angle of the ice house with unhurried ease, as if settling in for a more comfortable viewing posture to properly enjoy this reunion that had been ten thousand years in the making.