The Ice Empress Awakens

East Sea City’s prime real estate held a five-story building covering about one hundred square meters. Its appearance was unremarkable, but to build in a place where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold showed that the owner’s identity was no ordinary matter. On the third floor of the small building, Huo Yuhao sat in the spacious room, looking at the surroundings, and let out a quiet sigh to himself. Two days had passed since Awakening Day. He had received the highest level of attention from the East Sea City Spirit Pagoda. Hua Yichen kept his promise, assigning him this building, and books about soul beasts and soul spirits were delivered. A laboratory was specially set up on the second floor, as if they were going all out to meet his requirements. Even Hua Yichen had wanted to send tutors and housekeepers in to look after him, but Huo Yuhao found excuses to turn them away. With outsiders present, there would be too many inconveniences. “The situation is better than I imagined.” Huo Yuhao picked up a book about soul spirits and flipped through several pages, looking thoughtful. Beside Huo Yuhao was a huge bookshelf filled with books about soul masters, soul beasts, and soul power, along with some manuscripts and notes recording the history of the Spirit Pagoda and some secrets known only to insiders. Through these books, Huo Yuhao gained a more comprehensive understanding of the current Spirit Pagoda, and therefore breathed a sigh of relief. Compared to the worst-case scenario he had anticipated, the current situation was dozens of times better. The Spirit Pagoda had been unable to crack Elder Yi’s “security protocols,” and still respected the wishes of soul beasts—only soul beasts that voluntarily became soul spirits would be made into soul spirits. However, the appearance of Heirloom Soul Spirits did surprise Huo Yuhao somewhat, but after thinking about it, he felt it was normal. For those who had descendants, who wouldn’t want to use the Contract-Release Method to pass down their powerful soul spirits to them? A Thousand-Year Soul Spirit could still resist temptation, let alone ten-thousand-year, hundred-thousand-year, or Fierce Beast-level soul spirits? One had to know that although the Spirit Pagoda had launched the Ascension Platform to increase a soul spirit’s age, it wasn’t something ordinary people were qualified to use. But Heirloom Soul Spirits—as long as the descendants were ambitious, the Heirloom Soul Spirit would eventually grow to a higher age! For example, the book Huo Yuhao was reading now had such an example. A father’s martial soul was mediocre; his first soul spirit was only ten years old, but as he cultivated, the soul spirit received feedback and eventually grew to a hundred years. After passing it down, the next generation had a higher starting point, and their soul power eventually surpassed the father’s by fifteen levels. It didn’t seem like much, but to soul masters of commoner birth, it was their hope of turning their lives around. As for Heirloom Soul Spirits in soul master families… “Able to be inherited, able to fight, long-lived—no matter how you look at it, they’re like the guardian beasts of sects in xianxia novels.” Huo Yuhao smiled and shook his head, then turned to learn about the situation at Spirit Pagoda headquarters. The rulers of the Spirit Pagoda were still the Qian Gu clan, but it was no longer the situation where one family dominated everything. After all, Huo Yuhao knew there was a trap ahead—how could he not fill it in? Looking at the photograph in the book, Huo Yuhao revealed a slight smile. “Di Tian is doing pretty well for himself.” Looking at the photograph of the man in the book along with Huo Yuhao, Tianmeng Iceworm felt some resentment instead. It was a photograph of Di Tian in a black robe, taken during an interview. One could see the expression on his face that he had grown accustomed to, as if he had already gotten used to this sort of thing. That was only right, after all. Di Tian was one of the three Deputy Pagoda Masters of the Spirit Pagoda and a lifetime member of the Spirit Pagoda Council. It would be strange if he weren’t used to it after so many years… The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this guy had really gotten off easy. Back then, he should have let Yuhao really finish Di Tian off in one stroke. “How is it, Brother Tianmeng? Thinking about past grievances again?” Huo Yuhao noticed Tianmeng’s small movements and asked. Tianmeng: “Hmph, that little Di Tian. If it weren’t for my momentary carelessness back then, how would he have had a chance to control this Emperor? If I could do it again, I would definitely suppress him!” Huo Yuhao: “…” What are you talking about? Right now, in the Sea of Spirit, there’s only me, Elder Yi, and you. Who are you showing off to… Oh, and there’s that Little Ice Silkworm. Because Tianmeng had occupied the Soul Spirit slot, the Little Ice Silkworm was temporarily stranded in Huo Yuhao’s Sea of Spirit. Thinking about the new resident in the Sea of Spirit, Huo Yuhao roughly understood Tianmeng’s intentions. He speechlessly closed a book, put it back on the bookshelf, then pulled out another book about soul tools, activated Spiritual Detection, and rapidly read through it. Reading through Spiritual Detection allowed him to imprint the content in his mind the fastest. For books where he didn’t seek deep understanding, this saved a lot of time. Speaking of Spiritual Detection, one had to mention Huo Yuhao’s current soul skills. He and Tianmeng had also signed an improved Soul Spirit Contract, and similarly could choose their own soul skills. The Tianmeng Iceworm provided the Spirit Eyes’ first Spirit Ring, which had four soul skills in total: Spiritual Interference Domain, Spiritual Detection, Spiritual Sharing, and… Simulation! Among them, Huo Yuhao knew that the essence of Spiritual Interference Domain was obtained by combining Simulation and Spiritual Interference, two soul skills—which had likewise been researched ten thousand years ago, and had not been affected by re-cultivation. However, there was no Spiritual Shock among the four soul skills; Simulation had taken Spiritual Shock’s place. That was also why his spirit ring had been yellow back at the Spirit Pagoda. If Spiritual Shock ten thousand years ago had been his only means of defeating the enemy and winning in the early days, it had been very useful. But now things were different. A prestigious Ultimate Douluo with a spiritual attribute who had re-cultivated didn’t even have a means of attacking others with spiritual power, and needed a spirit ring to assist… What was the point of him being alive? Wasn’t that even worse than the re-cultivated Godking Tang? Ten thousand years had passed. Although Huo Yuhao didn’t think of himself as a genius, he wasn’t as outrageous as a certain Godking—when he was human it was Profound Heaven Technique, after becoming a god it was Profound Heaven Technique, and after reincarnating to re-cultivate it was still Profound Heaven Technique… Huo Yuhao gathered intelligence about this era outside, while Tianmeng conned the Little Ice Silkworm inside the Sea of Spirit. Because Tianmeng had taken the Soul Spirit slot, the Little Ice Silkworm was actually quite angry. But after seeing Tianmeng Iceworm’s appearance, it was shocked. Such a majestic appearance… Could it be… the old ancestor of their Ice Silkworm clan? “Who are you?” The Tianmeng Iceworm, surrounded by ten golden rings, looked majestically at the Little Ice Silkworm. “I am the strongest of the Extreme North, the leader of the Four Heavenly Kings, the only Million-Year Soul Beast in the world, the supreme ruler of the Ice Silkworm clan, Tianmeng the Great Emperor!” Feeling Tianmeng’s surging spiritual pressure, the Little Ice Silkworm followed instinct and kowtowed in submission. “I pay my respects, Great Emperor!” But it still felt strange in its heart. Wasn’t the Extreme North supposed to have only the Three Great Kings? And one of them had already disappeared for a long time. As if seeing through its doubt, Tianmeng snorted coldly. “Hmph, there are four of the Three Great Kings—this is common knowledge. If not for the sake of our shared clan, you wouldn’t be worthy of me appearing before you.” “Please forgive me, Great Emperor!” Tianmeng nodded in satisfaction. “Although this Emperor is a Million-Year Soul Beast of high status, the Heavenly Tribulation looms above, leaving me unable to continue advancing. I can only cooperate with humans and plan the path to godhood. Your power is too weak; you have no ability to participate. One day we will send you out of the Sea of Spirit. Do not resist then…” A Hundred-Year Soul Spirit’s intelligence wasn’t high. Tianmeng Iceworm, in just a few words, conned the Little Ice Silkworm into total confusion and successfully raised his own status among the group in the Sea of Spirit. Well, from second to last up to third to last… There was no helping it. Although his cultivation was the highest, Tianmeng was not skilled at combat. Among Huo Yuhao’s four great soul spirits, aside from that Mermaid Princess, none were weaker than it, and Electrolux was certainly not someone it could try to bluff. Still, ranking fourth among the six tenants wasn’t bad… even if only temporary. Tianmeng was in a good mood, and for a moment couldn’t help but feel pleased with himself. “Do you know how the Snow Empress has been recently? Back when I taught her…” In the Little Ice Silkworm’s eyes, a girl with twin tails suddenly appeared behind Tianmeng, looking over faintly. This instantly scared the Little Ice Silkworm out of its wits, and it had no attention left to listen to Tianmeng. That aura—the Little Ice Silkworm would never mistake it. It was the natural enemy of their Ice Silkworm clan—the Ice Jade Scorpion! …“Presumably as my disciple, the Snow Empress is still guarding the Extreme North? What a pity for her.” Tianmeng sighed, looked up at the frozen Ice Silkworm, and suddenly felt something was off. Was the air a bit cold? Was the atmosphere too quiet? “Oh, haven’t seen you for a while. Xue’er has become your disciple, then what am I?” A faint female voice echoed in Tianmeng’s ears, making him freeze in place, his hairs standing on end. Yuhao, you set me up!!! The Ice Empress awakened and he didn’t even warn me! The Tianmeng Iceworm stiffly turned his head and looked at the “future Hatsune Miku” version Ice Empress, smiling awkwardly: “Bingbing, we can talk this out… Ah! Don’t hit my face. In front of the junior, give me some face!” That day, the Sea of Spirit echoed with Tianmeng’s familiar screams.