Chapter 241: Do You Have a Way to Make the Ice Empress Leave Huo Yuhao?
The Ice Empress's voice echoed faintly, a fragile ripple brushing against the Snow Empress's perception.
By the edge of the biting cold spring, the Snow Empress sat in serene silence. Her bare, porcelain-white feet were submerged in the freezing water, sending faint wisps of frost curling around her ankles. Her eyes were closed, her breathing steady and rhythmic.
At the sound of that familiar voice, her delicate eyebrows twitched. Slowly, her eyelashes fluttered open, her icy blue gaze piercing through the thick, churning mist to lock onto Huo Yuhao.
More accurately, her gaze pierced through the boy's flesh, focusing entirely on the faint, emerald-green phantom flickering deep within his Sea of Consciousness.
"Ice Empress?" The Snow Empress's voice carried a rare ripple of genuine surprise. "How can you possibly be inside a human's body?"
Within the boy's spiritual realm, the Ice Empress's phantom trembled, the ethereal projection blurring at the edges. When she finally spoke, her tone was low, weighed down by an indescribable, suffocating complexity.
"It... is a long story. Xue'er, tell me about yourself first. How did you recover?" The phantom's voice cracked slightly. "The last time I sensed you, you were trapped inside that god-sealing platform, reduced to that state... I truly thought you wouldn't last much longer."
A complicated glint flashed in the Snow Empress's eyes. "You knew I was in the god-sealing platform? When did our paths cross?"
Without waiting for an answer, she smoothly transitioned to a secure mental transmission, her tone steadying. "Liu Yuan saved me. He shattered the god-sealing platform and released me. Afterward, a senior named Electrolux stepped in. He used his deep death magic to nourish my fractured Soul and completely reshape my physical body."
She paused, letting the chill of the spring wash over her skin. "In exchange, I became his Dao Protector."
The emerald phantom within Huo Yuhao shuddered violently, the spiritual waves nearly destabilizing. "A Dao Protector? You, the ruler of the Far North, agreed to be a human's Dao Protector?"
"Yes." The Snow Empress's response was flat, devoid of any shame. "He pulled me from the brink of true death and gave me a new life. In return, I will ensure his safety for a hundred years. It is a perfectly fair trade."
The Ice Empress fell into a long, heavy silence.
Through their spiritual link, she observed the Snow Empress's face. The once-fading spirit now possessed a radiant, lifelike luster. Pure, white cold qi circulated naturally around her elegant form, and her posture by the freezing spring was one of absolute composure and power.
She wasn't lying. Her miraculous recovery was entirely due to that young man.
That Spirit Emperor, barely in his sixties regarding soul power, possessed methods that defied the heavens—methods even the rulers of the Far North couldn't fathom.
"What about you?" The Snow Empress's voice cut through the silence, pulling the Ice Empress back to reality. "How did you end up trapped inside a human? Your current state... it looks fundamentally wrong."
The Ice Empress's phantom flinched as if struck.
She truly didn't know where to begin. The agonizing journey from the Far North to the Star Dou Great Forest, the desperate gamble incited by the Skydream Iceworm, the final, irreversible choice to bind herself to Huo Yuhao—every single step had been a desperate wager. And every single step had been a catastrophic loss.
"It's that stinky bug," the Ice Empress hissed, her voice dripping with venomous hatred. "The Skydream Iceworm. It tracked me down and spun a web of lies, claiming it had found a host with heaven-defying potential. It urged me to take a grand gamble with it. And I... I was foolish enough to believe it."
The Snow Empress's brow furrowed, a dangerous chill radiating from her. "The Skydream Iceworm? That useless million-year silkworm?"
"That's the one." The Ice Empress's voice dropped to a miserable whisper. "It promised that following him would grant us a chance to ascend, to become gods and enjoy eternal life. At the time... my heavenly tribulation was approaching. I was terrified, muddled by desperation. So, I agreed."
The Snow Empress slowly shifted her icy gaze away from Huo Yuhao, looking across the bubbling, dual-colored pool of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
There, bathed in the contrasting crimson and azure light, stood Liu Yuan. The young man was currently bending over a jagged rock formation, carefully extracting a glowing Immortal Herb. The deep purple-gold light within his Double Pupils flickered with calm, calculating precision.
"That boy... Huo Yuhao?" the Snow Empress asked, her tone dropping several degrees.
She fell silent for a fleeting second before her aura spiked, freezing the mist around her into tiny, jagged diamonds. "That stinky bug. I am going to crush it."
A bitter, hollow laugh echoed in her mind.
"It is far too late to crush it now, Xue'er. Just like me, it has already undergone complete Fusion with Huo Yuhao. We are both bound to his soul. We cannot leave."
The Snow Empress's frown deepened into a sharp scowl. She turned her gaze back to Huo Yuhao.
The boy was currently crouched behind a boulder, clumsily applying medicine to a nasty gash on his chest. His face was a sickly, pale white, his movements uncoordinated, and a thick, ugly scab marred his forehead. He looked pathetic.
The Snow Empress naturally compared him to Liu Yuan.
Both were human youths, yet the chasm between them was wider than the ocean.
"This Huo Yuhao is vastly inferior to Liu Yuan."
Her assessment was blunt, completely devoid of any polite embellishment.
"At his current age, Liu Yuan has already condensed his First Soul Core and successfully integrated a hundred-thousand-year Soul Spirit. And him?" Her eyes narrowed in disdain. "He can barely even take care of his own wounds."
"I dare say that in a fair, one-on-one fight, the current Liu Yuan could slaughter ten Huo Yuhaos without breaking a sweat."
The Ice Empress did not argue.
She couldn't. The brutal truth was right in front of her.
"Indeed." The Ice Empress's voice was hollow, carrying the weight of a thousand years of exhaustion. "He is nowhere near Liu Yuan's level."
"Talent, Heart-Nature, ruthlessness, decisiveness—he falls agonizingly short in every single aspect. If I had only met Liu Yuan back then... I would never have made this cursed decision."
The Snow Empress stared at the flickering emerald phantom for a long moment. The mist swirled between them before she asked a blunt, piercing question.
"Can you still leave his body now?"
The phantom trembled violently, the spiritual projection distorting.
"Leave?" A miserable, self-deprecating smile bled into her voice. "I have completely undergone Fusion with him. My Spirit, my Spirit Bone, my very Origin—they are all permanently woven into his flesh and soul. I cannot leave. Ever."
The Snow Empress pinched the bridge of her nose, a rare gesture of frustration.
"To gamble your entire existence on such a mediocre person..." She didn't finish the sentence, letting the heavy implication hang in the air.
"I know," the Ice Empress whispered, her voice breaking. "I know."
The biting cold qi radiating from the spring continued to permeate the cavern. The Snow Empress's pure white aura smoothly merged with the natural chill of the water, becoming completely indistinguishable.
She sat there, offering no further reprimands, and the Ice Empress retreated into a suffocating silence.
Across the bubbling pool, Liu Yuan remained entirely focused on his harvest.
His movements were swift, yet carefully careful. His Double Pupils scanned every crevice, instantly assessing the age, medicinal purity, and elemental affinity of each glowing plant. Only after confirming its flawless quality would he cleanly sever the root and seal it within his storage spirit tool.
Wherever he walked, the vibrant glow of Immortal Herbs hidden within the rocky fissures noticeably dimmed as he cleared them out.
Du Busi followed casually behind him, his hands clasped behind his broad back. The imposing sect master had long since stopped harvesting. He simply watched his disciple work, occasionally nodding in approval or muttering, "That one's not bad," but otherwise remaining silent, letting the boy take the lead.
Long Aotian brought up the rear, his hands entirely empty. He had little interest in the glowing weeds; his focus was entirely on the surrounding environment. His sharp gaze constantly swept the cavern shadows, maintaining absolute vigilance against any hidden threats.
Liu Yuan's storage spirit tool was rapidly filling up with priceless treasures.
The Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, the Infernal Delicate Apricot, the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, the Narcissus Jade Flesh Bone, the Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid, the Cockscomb Phoenix Sunflower, the Gazing Autumn Water Dew. Each and every stalk was a heaven-defying treasure that would cause rivers of blood to flow in the outside world, and each pulsed with dense, intoxicating spirit power.
He didn't slow down.
The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was a treasure trove of unimaginable wealth, and he refused to waste a single second of this opportunity.
Half an hour later, Liu Yuan finally straightened up, rolling his shoulders and stretching his slightly stiff neck.
His purple-gold eyes swept across the perimeter of the dual-colored pool. Every mature, high-quality Immortal Herb in sight had been cleanly harvested. His storage spirit tool was packed to the absolute brim; the primary objective for invading this sanctuary had been massively exceeded.
Satisfied, he turned his attention back toward the cold spring.
The Snow Empress was still seated on the rocky edge, her pale feet submerged in the freezing water, her eyes peacefully closed.
The white cold qi surrounding her had grown significantly denser. It gushed from her pores, intertwining with the extreme chill of the spring before slowly dissipating into the cavern air. Her complexion was radiant, the sickly pallor of her lips replaced by a healthy, icy pink, and her skin practically glowed with restored vitality.
Noticeably, the ambient cold qi of the spring itself was weakening.
It hadn't vanished, but the Snow Empress was aggressively absorbing its core essence. The thick layers of ancient frost that had coated the surrounding boulders were actually beginning to melt, exposing the damp, grayish-white stone beneath. Even the temperature of the freezing water had risen slightly, though it remained deadly to ordinary humans.
Liu Yuan walked over to the edge of the spring, crouching down to observe her progress.
"Are you about done?" he asked, his tone casual.
The Snow Empress didn't open her eyes, but she gave a small, graceful nod.
The mist above the central pool continued to churn violently as the extreme hot and cold springs clashed.
Slowly, the Snow Empress stood up. As her bare feet left the surface of the water, the clinging droplets instantly froze into pristine ice crystals. A second later, they shattered into fine, sparkling powder that drifted away on the cavern breeze.
Her recovery was obvious. The dense cold qi circulated around her elegant figure one final time before she smoothly withdrew it all into her core.
She finally opened her icy blue eyes, locking her gaze onto Liu Yuan.
He stood just a few paces away, casually holding a freshly picked, frost-tipped herb, preparing to seal it away.
Suddenly, a crisp, regal voice echoed directly within Liu Yuan's Sea of Consciousness.
It wasn't the ancient, echoing tone of Electrolux. It was the Snow Empress.
"Liu Yuan, I have something I need to ask you."
Liu Yuan's hand paused mid-air. He calmly deposited the herb into his storage ring, his expression unchanging as he responded through their mental link.
"What is it?"
The Snow Empress hesitated. Her spiritual voice paused for a long moment, as if she were carefully weighing the gravity of her next words.
Finally, she spoke.
"Do you have a way to make the Ice Empress leave Huo Yuhao?"
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