The Xue Di's sacrifice temporarily awakened the fox hidden within Ye Nanxiao's body.
The fox, watching the Xue Di in her soul form and sensing the gradually dissipating soul fluctuations emanating from her, fixed its fox eyes on her, its nine tails extending and wrapping around her.
A continuous stream of power rose from the fox, seeping into the Xue Di's soul. A point of light appeared on the Xue Di's forehead, and strange characters floated on the fox, landing on the point of light on the Xue Di's forehead.
"Your soul belongs to me, your power belongs to me. By my soul contract, we shall coexist, an eternal soul contract, complete." The fox uttered Ye Nanxiao's voice, speaking slowly and powerfully, each word distinct.
With the last word, the fox dissipated into points of light.
In a daze, Ye Nanxiao felt as if something broken within his body had been mended.
This occurred within Ye Nanxiao's sea of consciousness.
Ye Nanxiao, arms crossed, watched as the Xue Di transformed his spiritual sea into her own little haven. Initially, Ye Nanxiao was delighted to have found a powerful patron. However,
upon seeing the Xue Di's exquisite face and hearing her self-proclaimed title of "Ice and Snow Maiden," Ye Nanxiao immediately realized who this stunning woman was, and a dark cloud of disbelief settled over him.
The Snow Ancestor—first hunted by the Mingde Hall, then blacklisted by Haotian Fortress, and most importantly, capable of self-destruction!
Ye Nanxiao suddenly felt his life was nearing its end and began to reflect on his life.
Gradually understanding what had happened to him and sensing the immense power hidden within him, Ye Nanxiao wasn't excited. Instead, he was thinking about how to serve this ancestor before him.
For Ye Nanxiao, he didn't like strategizing and planning across the continent from the very beginning; he preferred to act on his thoughts as they came to him.
Seeing Ye Nanxiao staring at her speechlessly, the Xue Di said, "Human, I am the Ice and Snow Maiden, a 700,000-year-old soul beast. I offer myself to you today, and from now on, our relationship will be symbiotic."
Ye Nanxiao snapped out of his daze and asked in confusion, "As a soul beast whose cultivation is about to reach 700,000 years, why do you want to sacrifice yourself to me?"
The Xue Di had anticipated this question and said, "I took a gamble. Cultivation for soul beasts is not easy, and I am not confident that I can survive the next tribulation. However, I can sense a very powerful force within you, a force I have never seen before..." "I have a premonition that you might reach a realm that all creatures on the continent dream of."
Ye Nanxiao was speechless. This Xue Di was a bit different. After thinking about it carefully, he realized that the Xue Di hadn't yet experienced being sealed into a special soul tool by the Mingde Hall, and she didn't harbor extreme resentment towards humans. Thinking of this, Ye Nanxiao asked, "Xue Di, have you ever been to the human world?"
The Xue Di frowned slightly, not expecting Ye Nanxiao to ask this question, and replied, "No, I've only had contact with humans a few times, and I repelled them all."
This
statement made Ye Nanxiao a little embarrassed. He continued, "Well, I am human. We just met today, didn't we?"
"Haven't you figured out your physical condition yet?" the Xue Di asked back.
After the Xue Di finished speaking, Ye Nanxiao remembered his new body and quickly withdrew from his spiritual sea.
Ye Nanxiao examined himself and suddenly discovered that his soul power was very unstable. He looked down and used a clear piece of ice as a mirror, finding that his eyes were constantly shifting between beastly and human pupils, his ears wouldn't retract, and neither would his nine tails.
Ye Nanxiao immediately asked the Xue Di in his spiritual sea, "What's wrong with me?"
"It should be that your martial soul resonated with my power, causing you to lose control of your own martial soul. And according to human terms, you just awakened your martial soul, right?" the Xue Di asked.
Ye Nanxiao flew to the sky above his spiritual sea to investigate. A large portion of his pale blue spiritual sea contained a dark blue ball of light, almost completely occupying it. This must be the power sealed by the Xue Di, Ye Nanxiao thought.
Seeing that Ye Nanxiao didn't react, the Xue Di asked, "Boy, what's your name?"
"Ye Nanxiao."
"These next few days, you should digest and adapt to my power. In this far north, no soul beast will be polite to you."
"Isn't that why I have you?"
"You can't even use one-thousandth of my power; you'll have trouble protecting yourself."
"..."
"A martial soul? How do you use it?" Ye Nanxiao looked down at his right hand, and with a thought, his martial soul manifested.
A surge of power erupted within him. Ye Nanxiao seemed to feel an inexhaustible flow of power within him. He clenched his fist, pulled it to his waist, gathered his strength, and unleashed a powerful punch!
A small wave of air blasted from Ye Nanxiao's fist, scattering the snowdrift in front of him.
After the punch, Ye Nanxiao maintained his posture, carefully sensing the flowing power within his body, feeling the trajectory of the power, like a train moving along the tracks.
"Is this how I circulate power?" Ye Nanxiao thought, his mind silently immersing itself in the process, slowly pushing his soul power to circulate.
Cultivation seemed to be an instinct for his body; after a while, Ye Nanxiao naturally entered a meditative state.
"So many 'paths'... Which one should I push my power along? Or should I push them all along the same path?" Ye Nanxiao pondered.
"Opening my eyes reveals another world. I wonder how A-Yu and the others are doing. Regardless, this is a rebirth, and I must live well! With a new identity," Ye Nanxiao resolved silently.
Ye Nanxiao guided his own power, initially moving it around like a headless fly. He didn't know how long he circulated his power, but he felt no fatigue; instead, he grew increasingly excited.
Only after completing several "paths" and feeling his power grow stronger did Ye Nanxiao allocate most of his power to those "paths."
Immersed in the circulation of his own power, Ye Nanxiao didn't immediately touch the power brought by the Xue Di. Purely out of curiosity about himself, and knowing what kind of world this was, Ye Nanxiao, to be on the safe side, focused on strengthening his own power.
Seeing that Ye Nanxiao wasn't using his soul power for cultivation, the Xue Di couldn't help but glance at him a few more times. Over hundreds of thousands of years, she had witnessed far too many people resorting to any means to gain power.
"This kid has a unique understanding of power; he's a promising talent. Perhaps Tianmeng's Ice Silkworm's idea can really come true."
"It's just a pity that the Far North will no longer have a Xue Di, and I am no longer the Xue Di who rules the Far North," the Xue Di sighed softly.
As the saying goes, time flies in the mountains, and cultivation knows no years.
Ye Nanxiao's first attempt at cultivation took three months. After his Martial Soul awakened, Ye Nanxiao's innate soul power reached the perfect tenth level. After receiving the Xue Di's symbiotic sacrifice, his internal power surged. This required Ye Nanxiao to spend a considerable amount of time organizing his internal power. Once he found a promising path to cultivation, he began to cultivate frantically.
Ye Nanxiao was unaware that while he was cultivating, the Xue Di was constantly guiding his soul power, compressing and refining its quality.
Sensing the surging soul power within Ye Nanxiao's body, the Xue Di was somewhat puzzled.
"How can this kid's soul power circulate so quickly? Is this human talent? Or is it Ye Nanxiao's talent? Too fast doesn't seem like a good thing; it's better to compress the soul power a bit," the Xue Di thought to herself.
Under the Xue Di's intervention, the surging river of soul power was continuously compressed and overlapped.
After satisfying his curiosity about his first cultivation session, Ye Nanxiao slowed down and gradually withdrew from his cultivation state.
"How much did I improve? About ten levels of soul power. How long have I been cultivating?" Although Ye Nanxiao didn't know how long he had been cultivating, it was definitely not short.
"There are still many 'paths' in my body that are blocked or even impassable, and many more that are not yet circulating. It seems that there is a method to cultivation. I'm quite lucky." Ye Nanxiao was somewhat moved, having encountered good fortune and discovered a few correct cultivation paths.
"Seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune? Why did that phrase suddenly pop into my head?" Ye Nanxiao asked, somewhat puzzled.
Then, with a thought, two red soul rings rose from beneath his feet. Looking at the soul rings before him, Ye Nanxiao felt as if he were dreaming, muttering as if in a dream, "Isn't this the treatment of a protagonist?"
Sensing the skills brought by the Xue Di's red soul rings, Ye Nanxiao unsurprisingly discovered two. The Ice Empress had given Huo Gua two skills. Ye Nanxiao didn't know if the Xue Di, as a 700,000-year-old soul beast, would have one more skill, but she definitely had two.
He mentally communicated with the spirit rings floating around him, examining and understanding the information contained within them.
"The first one is an attack skill, controlling ice blocks to move and impact? Wide-range? Like a downpour? Let's call it 'Birds of Ice Pillars,' after all, I'm a die-hard fan of Toshiro. The second is an ice cage? Okay, control-type skills are all good. What's the third one? Wait, I can't find it?"
Ye Nanxiao suddenly opened his eyes, then closed them again as if remembering something.
"No extra spirit skills, so do I have other big gifts, like Soul Bones?"
Opening his eyes, he saw a vast white world, and Ye Nanxiao was also bewildered.
Soul Bones? I'm such a big Xue Di, where are my Soul Bones?
Ye Nanxiao carefully sensed for a while, but still found nothing, and couldn't help but feel a little frustrated. However, he quickly recovered, realizing he had already received enough opportunities; he was an optimistic person by nature.
Throughout, the Xue Di silently sensed Ye Nanxiao's changing mindset. Seeing his optimism, a hint of satisfaction appeared in her eyes. She naturally possessed a soul bone, which she would absorb after Ye Nanxiao's strength increased.
"It's too early now," the Xue Di murmured, gazing into the depths of Ye Nanxiao's spiritual sea.
Deep within, she could feel herself being watched, as if by a powerful being.
Earlier, during the initial fusion, she had sensed a powerful force within Ye Nanxiao, though it vanished in an instant.
She couldn't fully grasp its exact strength, but this current sensation far surpassed the pressure Di Tian had previously exerted. This led her to only slightly modify Ye Nanxiao's spiritual sea, sealing away all remaining power except for the condensation of the soul ring, preventing any energy leakage. Before
fully understanding the situation, the Xue Di dared not act rashly, not even in condensing a soul bone.
The Xue Di withdrew her gaze and sighed softly, "Let's nurture another one later."
Ye Nanxiao entered a deep meditation on his first attempt. When he awoke, the Xue Di had already completed the transformation of his spiritual sea. Ye Nanxiao looked at it and saw that his spiritual sea was now truly a vast ocean.
After Ye Nanxiao completely accepted the Xue Di, she could clearly feel his growing affection for her. After all, they had a symbiotic relationship, and the Xue Di did not resist Ye Nanxiao. Ye Nanxiao completely surrendered control of his body to her.
"Xiao'er, I didn't expect your spiritual power to be so naturally strong. No wonder my soul power could be sealed so smoothly," the Xue Di said to Ye Nanxiao's spiritual body, hovering above the spiritual sea.
Xiao'er felt a little annoyed. Strong spiritual power? A cheat code? Then I'm not sleepy anymore!
Thinking of cheat codes, several applications of spiritual power flashed through Ye Nanxiao's mind. He grasped one idea.
After trying to control it, Ye Nanxiao discovered that he could freely control the movement of his spiritual power, and even project it outwards.
"As expected, you're related to European royalty! This is a golden finger, even more golden than gold!" Ye Nanxiao was extremely excited, controlling his mental power in countless ways, as if molding clay.
Having had his fill of playing, Ye
Nanxiao said to Xue Di, "I've discovered that too, so I have an idea. What do you think of its feasibility?" Ye Nanxiao was referring to controlling his outward mental power to achieve a kind of energy feedback perception, allowing him to sense anything carrying energy.
Xue Di listened and nodded, her eyes filled with immense surprise. She hadn't expected Ye Nanxiao's talent to be so high, already able to release mental power at will. For the first time, Xue Di felt that the idea of becoming a god through symbiosis was achievable.
With Xue Di's approval, Ye Nanxiao immediately began cultivating. He attempted to continuously project his mental power outward, forming a coverable circular area to receive feedback. He gradually expanded his field of vision, starting with easy observation, while maintaining the range and duration, simultaneously cultivating both conditions. Fortunately, Ye Nanxiao had lived two lives and possessed powerful mental strength; otherwise, the excruciating pain of his torn mind would have left him unconscious for months.
-
A
dense aura of death permeated the entire hall. The figure seated on the throne in the center of the hall suddenly unleashed a terrifying deathly aura. The palpable death intent caused dark clouds to gather above the hall, and the hall was filled with the screams of agonizing souls. A gigantic soul-guiding device sat in the center of the hall, frantically absorbing the screaming souls around it.
"Mother, you're awake." A man with effeminate features entered the hall, and the death intent and souls within the hall all parted to make way for him.
The dark figure on the throne opened his eyes. In an instant, the screams of the souls in the hall ceased, and the death intent stopped spreading. The man quickly lowered his head, kneeling on one knee, not daring to meet the dark figure's gaze.
"I sensed an astonishing evil intent, very pure, captivating, but still very weak. It won't be of much help to the plan yet. Arrange for people to keep an eye on it, and nurture it for now. Now, focus all your efforts on advancing the 'Grim Reaper' project." The dark figure's voice was clear and crisp, like a young girl's, but the aura it exuded was like that of a demon from the abyss.
The man was surprised, wanting to look up but not daring to, he raised his hands above his head, knelt before the shadowy figure, and loudly replied, "I obey Mother."
(End of Chapter)