The Ice Empress said, “It’s a lot easier for us to absorb the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence. We are all your Spirits, and our origin will absorb some of it, while more of it will be sealed into our bodies. These energies will be useful when you attempt to form your second soul core.”

“Alright, I’ll listen to you,” Huo Yuhao quickly acknowledged.

The Ice Empress continued, “Okay, then I shall begin, and the Snow Empress will go next, then Skydream, and the Star Anise goes last. You will take your turn when we finish.”

Huo Yuhao nodded that he understood.

The Skydream Iceworm stared anxiously at the Ice Empress beside her and said, “Do you need help, Ice Empress?”

“Scram,” the Ice Empress pushed him away as she floated before a single pillar. Intense green light lit up every corner of this tiny cavern. Every single pillar of ice essence seemed to come alive under the green luster.

The Ice Empress shifted as an enormous green scorpion tail glimmered into view behind her. The shiny hook stabbed ferociously into the pillar in front of her.

Tch!

 A soft sound shook the cold air within the cavern. Huo Yuhao could clearly feel even stronger waves of cold permeate around him, and the energy undulations were also becoming stronger within all those chilly waves.

However, it happened for only an instant. Huo Yuhao could see in the next moment that waves of dark blue liquid swiftly flowed into the Ice Empress’ body through the sharp hook on her tail, and she absorbed the liquid within.

The Ice Empress was Huo Yuhao’s martial soul, after all, and Huo Yuhao could sense something changing once she began to absorb it. The rigid soul power within his body began to circulate once more. Furthermore, his soul power began to strengthen as the pure elements of ice flowed into his body.

The Ice Empress stretched out her arms to both sides, and transformed into two enormous pincers that waved rhythmically in the air as they flowed with bluish-green hues.

The green lights intertwined and curved through one another in midair as strange bluish-green runes and glyphs took shape one after another behind her before imprinting on her body.

Huo Yuhao’s soul power was increasing at a slow rate. However, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s pattern was vividly shining on his back. That wasn’t all; the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s skeleton shone lustrously.

The Ice Empress’ origin resided within those bones. The Ice Empress was starting to fuse with and seal away the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence, and that essence was naturally sealed into her skeleton.

The process was very quick. Fifteen minutes passed as the first pillar dimmed, and the liquid that was so lively and full of vitality completely disappeared.

The pillar of ice essence shattered with a light pop and transformed into a mass of icy dust.

The Ice Empress’ body became much more material after fusing with the essence of the pillar. Even though it still couldn’t compare to her real body, Huo Yuhao could tell that she was a lot more lively than before.

Two pincers stretched out from her sides, and each clamped down on a pillar as she continued to absorb more!

The Skydream Iceworm flew quietly behind the Ice Empress. Nobody was as experienced as he was in absorbing the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence, and back when he had first absorbed it, he went into a deep slumber for a long time because there was too much energy inside the ice essence, even after absorbing but a little bit. He could absorb more as he became stronger over time, and he managed to accumulate his tremendous ice-type origin energy after a million years. Unfortunately, those energies were “gifted” to someone else when he arrived at the Great Star Dou Forest. He wasn’t adept in battle, and so he became a source of great nutrition to the Beast God, Di Tian, and a bunch of the Great Star Dou Forest’s Savage Beasts.

Just as the Ice Empress had said, if she was the one who had absorbed all that Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence back then, it was hard to say who the number-one soul beast in the world would be.

The Skydream Iceworm protected the Ice Empress from behind, so that if she absorbed too much, he could help her by drawing some away.

However, the Ice Empress was very powerful. She already had four hundred thousand years of cultivation before fusing with Huo Yuhao. Even though the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence was very potent, her origin power was much stronger than the Skydream Iceworm’s back then.

She absorbed one pillar after another. Her body became increasingly material, as if she were a real human. Huo Yuhao could feel that the Ice Empress’ consciousness and the tremendous power contained within the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence gradually allowed her to take a form that was completely formed of ice energy. Just as the Ice Empress had said, she could be some distance from Huo Yuhao for a period of time in such a state without running into any problems. This was an improvement in her intrinsic qualities. She would possess her own fighting strength even without relying on Huo Yuhao. Of course, she was still quite far from how she was in her prime.

The Ice Empress only began to slow down after she had absorbed seven pillars of ice essence. Some of those energies integrated with her origin, while she began to seal the others into her origin. She was starting to exert a lot of effort after the seventh one.

She could still absorb the eighth one on her own, but she couldn’t absorb two at the same time, while the cavern became a little warmer after those pillars disappeared. The Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence wasn’t so unbearable anymore.

The ninth one!

Thick icy bluish-green mist began to appear around the Ice Empress after she absorbed her ninth one. The icy mist would transform into drops of liquid in the air and plop to the ground. Her body was starting to tremble, and it was clear that she was reaching her limit.

It was quite difficult to digest the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence. She could only store that much with her origin power.

The Ice Empress struggled to finish absorbing her ninth pillar. She took a deep breath as she glided away. Green light flickered on her body, and flourishing ice-type origin energy undulations gave everyone the feeling that she had restored herself to her peak strength.

“I’m good. Yuhao, let the Snow Empress absorb some.” The Ice Empress heaved a long exhalation as she floated next to Huo Yuhao. She had to absorb some ice essence to fuse with her consciousness, otherwise, she might explode at any moment, because she had absorbed too much energy.

Huo Yuhao communicated with the Snow Lady, and she flew into the air and came before the ice essence.

The Snow Lady was a lot more direct than the Snow Empress. She opened her palms and grabbed a pillar with each one, and everyone could see her pulling circles of blue light into her body before they merged with her.

The Snow Empress was in a different state than the Ice Empress. The Ice Empress was Huo Yuhao’s martial soul, but she had only retained her consciousness. The Snow Empress was possibly the strongest Spirit in the continent. Even though she didn’t have soul bones to rely on, her consciousness and soul power had merged to become a Spirit so that she could survive. She was much more material than the Ice Empress’ pure consciousness, and she began to display strength superior to the Ice Empress once she started to absorb the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence.

The Snow Empress finished absorbing two pillars in less than five minutes. What was even more surprising was that her body, which was already relatively material, seemed to be growing.

She had looked like a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old teenager before this, but she seemed to grow a year older after absorbing the two pillars. She grew a little taller, and her frame seemed to become more developed.

Dense ice elements spiraled around her, as if they had found an owner that they loved, and were radiating excitement.

Two pillars, and then another two.

The Snow Empress was absorbing the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence at a speed that was twice as fast as the Ice Empress, and was growing continuously amidst it all.

Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen – she gradually grew up from a teenager. Her body became long and slender as her chest grew larger, while her long legs could be faintly seen within her white dress. The Snow Empress’ stunning features became increasingly crisp and cold.

She slowly left her look as the Snow Lady behind, and transformed continuously into the Snow Empress.

A confused look gradually appeared in her clear dark-blue eyes, before that confusion turned into bewilderment, and her eyes slowly cleared once more. The pillars of Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence disappeared continuously amid her transformation.

Thirteen pillars… she finally paused after she absorbed her thirteenth pillar. She stopped growing when she reached the state of a twenty-year-old woman, but the aura of Ultimate Ice emanating from her body was extremely strong. Her white dress now had snow-white ribbons on it – six of them – and every ribbon wrapped around her in different ways that complemented her slender and exceedingly beautiful body.

Huo Yuhao could clearly feel that she was different, but as for how different she had become, there seemed to be something else besides her increased strength.

The Snow Empress raised her hands once more.

Does she still want to absorb more?

Huo Yuhao stared at her in astonishment. However, the Snow Empress didn’t grab any pillars with her hands this time. Instead, she waved her hands in front of her. She first made the shape of an arch before her ten slender fingers began to waltz in midair.

Dark blue patterns rippled in the air, and transformed continuously as they congregated to form strange runes that resembled snowflakes.

The Ice Empress had her eyes closed while she absorbed the origin energy of heaven and earth, but her eyes suddenly burst open because of those glyphs. She stared in shock at the Snow Empress in front of her, and when she saw the glyphs that resembled snowflakes appear one after another in front of her, her eyes widened in excitement as tears welled up in her eyes.

The Snow Empress took a good fifteen minutes to draw and create those frosty runes, and in the end, a total of seven snowflakes hovered in front of her.

“Go!” the Snow Empress growled, and  the seven snowflakes floated forward and each landed on a single pillar of ice essence.

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